In the last four decades, dugong (Dugong dugon) aggregations have been rarely reported from the geographically isolated, vast seascape of the Andaman Islands, India. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, hunting, coastal development, and habitat loss are the major causes of this change in the social system of dugongs in …
Federal wildlife managers have determined that grizzly bear numbers in and around Yellowstone National Park have rebounded sufficiently to propose stripping the animals of U.S. Endangered Species Act protections in the months ahead, a spokesman told Reuters. The latest count of grizzlies in the Yellowstone region puts the estimated population …
The objective of the study was to identify mechanisms for cancer resistance in elephants and compare cellular response to DNA damage among elephants, healthy human controls, and cancer-prone patients with Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS).
The past was a world of giants, with abundant whales in the sea and large animals roaming the land. However, that world came to an end following massive late-Quaternary megafauna extinctions on land and widespread population reductions in great whale populations over the past few centuries. These losses are likely …
Endangered orangutans and other rare species are suffering due to companies that extract palm oil tearing through their natural habitats on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Thousands of small forest fires have been intentionally set ablaze as a part of the companies' use of slash-and-burn agriculture clearing techniques. …
If you've never thought about how a whale's poo affects you, the time is now. Why? Because the faecal matter of whales, oversized land mammals, seabirds and migrating fish plays a critical role in fertilising the planet. But a new study shows species decline and extinction is threatening the planet's …
Metrics that synthesize the complex effects of climate change are essential tools for mapping future threats to biodiversity and predicting which species are likely to adapt in place to new climatic conditions, disperse and establish in areas with newly suitable climate, or face the prospect of extirpation. The most commonly …
THIMPU: A snub-nosed mon key that sneezes when it ra ins, a walking fish and a jewel like snake are among more than 200 new species discove red in the fragile eastern Hi malayas, according to a new report by WWF. A report on wildlife in Nepal, Bhutan, the far …
Following the 1986 Chernobyl accident, 116,000 people were permanently evacuated from the 4,200 km Chernobyl exclusion zone. There is continuing scientific and public debate surrounding the fate of wildlife that remained in the abandoned area. Several previous studies of the Chernobyl exclusion zone indicated major radiation effects and pronounced reductions …
Many captive populations of birds and mammals are not likely to reach sustainability due mostly to breeding problems. Identifying the conditions under which breeding problems and poor population growth are likely to occur and establishing more appropriate conditions, therefore, will be a necessary prerequisite for future successful conservation breeding and …
As fanciful as it sounds, imagine an Aadhaar card-type unique identification system for elephants. The expected scenario is this: An elephant strolls in the forest, and the tracker – or a camera trap – quickly sees the identification marks. This is correlated with a catalogue of elephants and their identification …
Dr Niall Moore, head of the invasive species secretariat for Defra, said there was a real threat that raccoons could become a pest in this country There are thought to be a handful of raccoons on the loose in the UK – but the danger is that they will breed …
Present study consists the survey conducted in coastal villages from Dhanushkodi to Kannyakumari in the Gulf of Mannar and from Dhanushkodi to Kodikkarai in the Palk Bay for understanding status of dugong. Survey provided sighting, distribution and population status of dugong in the GoM and the Palk Bay. Original Source
Two of Australia’s three native wombat species are under threat from a disease which can leave the animal blind and deaf, and eventually kill them. A project launched by the University of Western Sydney is calling on the wider community to help track wombat health, and hopefully stop the spread …
Efforts to control poaching in the Littoral Region in the last year are said to have been successful. The poaching of small mammals in forest reserves between August 2014 and August 2015 has reduced. While evaluating the 2014 recommendations of the Committee for the Fight Against Poaching in the region …
PUNE: India ranks among the top ten species rich nations in the world and is known for its rich biological diversity and high endemism. Botanical Survey of India (BSI) and Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) under the ministry of environment carry out surveys and documentation of biological resources including threatened …
Reintroducing Tasmanian devils to the Australian mainland after a 3,000-year absence would drastically improve the fortunes of native wildlife by curbing the spread of feral cats and foxes, research has found. Ecologists from the University of New South Wales assessed the likely impact of reintroducing Tasmanian devils to forests in …
The mighty megafauna of the last Ice Age, including the woolly mammoths, largely became extinct because of rapid climate-warming events, a study says. During the unstable climate of the Late Pleistocene (about 60,000 to 12,000 years ago) abrupt climate spikes called interstadials increased temperatures between four and 16 degrees Celsius …
New findings published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography examine a worldwide study on animals and the seeds they eat, including a long-held assumption that still holds true: larger animals mainly stick to larger seeds. But just what does this mean for the environment? Researchers at UNSW Australia noted …
Climate change is known to affect ecosystems globally, but our knowledge of its impact on large and widespread mammals, and possibly population-specific responses is still sparse. We investigated large-scale and long-term effects of climate change on local population dynamics using the wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) as a model species. …
A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday against U.S. wildlife officials arguing that the government's management plan for the endangered Mexican gray wolf, one of the most imperiled mammals in North America, does not go far enough. The Western Environmental Law Center filed the suit on behalf …
