endangered species

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Chesapeake 'Dead Zone' Could Be Largest Ever

Marine life threatened in oxygen-starved portion of bay

(Newser) - High nutrient pollution levels have caused the Chesapeake Bay's underwater "dead zone" to expand unusually quickly this year: It covers a third of the bay and will likely become the bay's largest-ever area of oxygen-starved water. The dead zone, which sucks oxygen from deep waters and kills...

Snake-Free Hawaii Fears Slithery Invasion

Authorities see more illegal pets, worry about ecosystem

(Newser) - Leave it to a snake to ruin paradise. Hawaiian officials are worried that a steady increase in illegal snake ownership—a 9-foot boa and a 7-foot python were captured this month after escaping—will threaten the islands' fragile ecosystem and kill off birds and flowers, reports the Associated Press . Environmental...

Calif. Judge Steps Up Protection for 40 Species

Feds not doing enough for wildlife in national forests, judge rules

(Newser) - Endangered birds, fish, frogs, butterflies, and even a species of sea lion are set to benefit from a judge's ruling that federal authorities need to do more to protect some 40 species in southern California's national forests. The judge ordered three federal agencies to "take all necessary...

Oil Giants Battle Over 5-Inch Lizard

Dune sagebrush lizard may be listed as endangered in New Mexico

(Newser) - To hear some politicians and lobbyists tell it, the fate of New Mexico’s oil industry rests on the fate of a five-inch lizard. The federal government is considering listing the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species, the Wall Street Journal reports, and that spooks the industry, because Sceloporous ...

Tree Rat Reappears After 113 Years
 Tree Rat 
 Reappears 
 After 113 Years  
in case you missed it
May 22, 2011 6:45 AM CDT

Tree Rat Reappears After 113 Years

Red-crested tree-rat walks up to biologists

(Newser) - A rare South American rodent not seen since the Spanish-American War has turned up at the doorstep of a nature reserve in Colombia. The red-crested tree rat ambled up to a pair of amazed volunteers at the El Dorado Reserve in the Sierra Nevada, Wired reports. The last recorded sighting...

Rare Right Whales Flock to Cape Cod

Plankton is especially plentiful this year

(Newser) - There are only 473 North Atlantic right whales on the planet, but almost half of them have been spotted gorging themselves on an unusual feast off the coast of Cape Cod this year. "The current must be piling the plankton up," a scientist with the Center for Coastal...

Richard Branson Creating Lemur Island

Billionaire giving Caribbean island to endangered primates

(Newser) - Mogul Richard Branson has a spare Caribbean island that he's planning to turn over to some of the world's most endangered species. The billionaire plans to create a colony of lemurs on the undeveloped island in the British Virgin Islands. The primates are rapidly disappearing from their native...

Budget-Deal Casualty: Gray Wolf

In a first, Congress removes an animal from the Endangered Species List

(Newser) - It looks like the gray wolf may be a literal casualty of the budget deal. Congress has removed the animal from the Endangered Species List—the first time it's ever done so—and critics are, predictably, howling. A rider to the budget deal states that wolves in Montana and Idaho...

Aussies Warm to Snarling, Vanishing Tasmanian Devil

Once-reviled creature in trouble

(Newser) - The Tasmanian devil is nobody’s idea of lovable. The combative screeching marsupial was once the most reviled animal in Australia. But now that the creature is on the brink of extinction , Australians have found a well of sympathy for the little devil, the LA Times reports. The devil’s...

Penguins Plucked From Oil Spill in Massive Rescue

With 300 birds dead, thousands more in danger, rescuers ask for help

(Newser) - An isolated island chain halfway between Africa and Argentina, home to 140,000 penguins, is now in the midst of a massive rescue operation, after a shipwreck sent thousands of gallons of oil and soya bean into the waters there. More than 300 penguins have already died since the ship...

Royal Wedding: In Lieu of Gifts, Please Donate to...

...help save endangered Asian elephants

(Newser) - Prince William and Kate Middleton are saying no-thank-you to fondue sets and the like: In lieu of wedding gifts, one of the charities the pair would like you to donate to is to save Thai elephants. They're asking that charitable gifts be made to the London Zoological Society, which works...

Vietnam Scrambles to Save Sacred Turtle

Hundred-year-old, giant turtle endangered by pollution

(Newser) - Hanoi residents crowded around a lake today to witness the military's rescue attempt of a sacred animal: a giant freshwater turtle thought to be up to 100 years old. The Rafeteus swinhoej in Hoan Kiem Lake is one of only four specimens known to be alive, and its 6-foot-long body...

Eastern Cougar Is Extinct
 Eastern Cougar Is Extinct 
Mar 2, 2011 4:55 PM CST

Eastern Cougar Is Extinct

Federal agency makes it official

(Newser) - The eastern cougar is coming off the endangered species list, but for the worst possible reason: It's extinct. The big cat, also called the eastern puma, has likely been gone since the 1930s, but the official confirmation came today from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. It used to roam...

Montana Gov OKs Shooting Endangered Wolves

Brian Schweitzer says gray wolf population has fully recovered

(Newser) - Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer has all but declared open season on gray wolves, ordering wildlife officers not to investigate or prosecute ranchers who shoot the endangered animals to protect their livestock, CNN reports. He’s also directed them to kill entire packs if they endanger the state’s elk or...

Butterflies Return to Mexico
 Butterflies Return to Mexico 
Feb 14, 2011 6:30 PM CST

Butterflies Return to Mexico

Population doubles last year's devastated numbers

(Newser) - Monarch butterflies are back in Mexico this year, after an alarming 75% drop in their numbers last year. A survey released today found that butterfly colonies encompassed 9.9 acres—a significant increase from the 4.7 acres that alarmed experts last year, reports the AP. The figures are "...

Thais Bust Man With 'Suitcase Zoo'

Smuggler tried to board plane with hundreds of creatures in luggage

(Newser) - Bangkok authorities have busted a man who attempted to board a plane carrying enough creatures to start a small zoo. The Indonesian smuggler's three suitcases contained dozens of snakes—including two boa constrictors and 34 ball pythons—26 lizards of assorted kinds, six Argentine horned frogs, 18 baboon spiders, 22...

Walruses Short-Changed on Fed Protection

Endangered tuskers 'low on the totem pole'

(Newser) - The Interior Department has decided that walruses are endangered enough to warrant protection—but it's not going to give it to them. The threat to the Pacific walrus from global warming reducing Arctic sea ice is very real, officials say, but limited government resources mean protection will have to wait...

Polar Bears Won't Get 'Endangered' Label

Environmentalists angry that they're merely 'threatened'

(Newser) - Not everybody's heaping praise on the Obama administration this week: Environmentalists are fuming that the Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to ramp up protection of polar bears by changing their status from "threatened" to "endangered." In response to a court deadline, the agency said yesterday that...

Imperiled African Gorilla Population Surges 26%

Efforts to decrease poaching and disease have helped

(Newser) - Finally, some good news for an endangered species: The mountain gorilla population in central Africa has swelled since 2003. The Virunga Massif, made up of three national parks, had only 380 gorillas seven years ago and is now up to 480. "This is a spectacular upsurge," says a...

US Sets Aside Land in Alaska for Polar Bears

187K square miles to be preserve for endangered species

(Newser) - The Obama administration is setting aside 187,000 square miles in Alaska as a "critical habitat" for polar bears, which could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas. Nearly 95% of the designated habitat is sea ice in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off Alaska's northern...

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