endangered species

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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...

Wild Tigers Could Be Extinct in 12 Years

Population has dwindled to just 3,200

(Newser) - Tigers could vanish from the 13 countries where they still roam wild unless urgent action is taken to safeguard habitats and deter poaching, experts warned at a "tiger summit" in St. Petersburg today. In only 100 years, the tiger population has dwindled from an estimated 100,000 to about...

20% of Species Risk Extinction

Amphibians in special danger

(Newser) - A whopping 20% of the world’s species are on the brink of extinction, according to a new study unveiled at the UN Biodiversity Summit in Japan. The Red List of Threatened Species now includes a staggering 41% of amphibians, with the heaviest losses coming from Southeast Asia, where habitats...

Endangered Species: Rare Saola, or 'Asian Unicorn,' Dies After Being Captured in Laos

 Rare 'Asian 
 Unicorn' 
 Captured 
 in Laos 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Sep 19, 2010 2:30 PM CDT

Rare 'Asian Unicorn' Captured in Laos

Sadly, it died shortly after capture

(Newser) - Laos villagers caught a rare animal known as the “Asian unicorn,” only to have it die while in their care. No biologist has reported seeing a Saola, which actually has two horns, in the wild; all existing pictures have been taken by villagers or automatic cameras, the BBC...

Mob Burns Croc Sanctuary— on Psychic's Advice

American-owned refuge in Belize torched

(Newser) - An American-owned crocodile sanctuary in Belize was turned into a smoking ruin by an angry mob of indigenous Mayans. Truckloads of villagers armed with shotguns and machetes torched all the buildings on the 36-acre sanctuary after a local psychic told them that the Americans had fed two missing children to...

Drunk Baboons Ravage Suburbia

Marauders plague South Africa vineyards

(Newser) - The vineyards and houses of one of South Africa's poshest suburbs are under siege—by groups of marauding Cape Baboons, who feast on sauvignon blanc grapes fermenting in the sun and terrorize locals. One troop of baboons recently broke into a family home in the Cape Town suburb and traumatized...

Tiger Cub Found in Luggage
 Tiger Cub Stuffed in Luggage 
Aug 27, 2010 2:01 AM CDT

Tiger Cub Stuffed in Luggage

Drugged cub packed with stuffed animals

(Newser) - Thai authorities have seized a 2-month-old tiger cub from a woman who tried to smuggle it out of the country in a suitcase. The drugged cub was found in a checked bag full of stuffed-tiger toys, MSNBC reports. Bangkok authorities became suspicious after seeing the woman struggling with a large...

Gray Wolf to Be Protected Again

Angry Montana, Idaho blame Wyoming

(Newser) - A federal judge has put the gray wolf back on the protected list, and angry ranchers in Montana and Idaho are blaming Wyoming for the move. While Montana and Idaho have agreed to management plans with controlled wolf hunts, Wyoming allows unregulated hunting of wolves if they're not on the...

Despite Oil, Sea Turtles Released in Gulf

Dangers of captivity greater than danger of getting oiled

(Newser) - Federal biologists are releasing thousands of endangered Kemp's ridley baby sea turtles into the western Gulf of Mexico, betting that by the time the silver dollar-sized swimmers make it to the oil-fouled waters of the eastern Gulf, BP will have cleaned up its goopy mess. Texas has not been significantly...

Man Caught Smuggling Monkeys Under Clothes

Rare titi monkeys were held around his waist

(Newser) - In what may be one of the weirdest airport security busts of all time, Mexican police have arrested a man caught trying to smuggle 18 rare titi monkeys through customs in a girdle around his waist. The tiny animals were each kept inside a sock. The man said the monkeys...

Massive Gulf Turtle Rescue Launched

Tens of thousands of eggs being moved

(Newser) - Wildlife experts scrambling to save hatchlings from the Gulf oil spill have hatched the biggest turtle rescue effort in history. Tens of thousands of sea turtle eggs will be dug up from beaches along the Gulf coast and trucked to Florida's Atlantic coast, where they will be hatched in temperature-controlled...

Oil Spill May Wipe Out Just Discovered Species

Little pancake batfish could be first victim

(Newser) - Just months after scientists celebrated the discovery of a bizarre new ocean species it's already facing being obliterated by the BP oil spill. The Louisiana pancake batfish, or halieutichthys aculeatus, could be the first victim of the Gulf catastrophe. The tiny blob of a fish, with bulbous eyes and foot-like...

World Cup 'Vulture Smoking' Theatens Rare Birds

Gamblers smoke birds' brains; bird lovers sqawk

(Newser) - As the World Cup gets underway in South Africa, scientists are betting that one of the biggest losers in the soccer championship will be the endangered vulture. In South African traditional medicine called muti, vulture brains are dried, ground up, and smoked as cigarettes to give users what they believe...

'Charity App' Helps Gorillas
 'Charity App' Helps Gorillas 
May 18, 2010 2:06 AM CDT

'Charity App' Helps Gorillas

iGorilla lets users track Congo animals

(Newser) - A new application for iPhones and iPads lets users use their gadgets to help save Congo's critically endangered population of mountain gorillas. The iGorilla app makes it possible for users to follow gorilla families around remote areas of the war-torn country with updates from the rangers at Virunga National Park,...

Regulators Let BP Blow Off Wildlife Permits

Endangered species protections simply ignored

(Newser) - The Minerals Management Service appears to have blatantly ignored a law requiring new oil drilling operations to get permits from the agency that assesses risk to endangered species. The MMS gave the okay to the Deepwater Horizon rig and dozens of others without getting the permits, the New York Times ...

Pregnant Siberian Tiger Drowns at Zoo

Tiger's mate not a suspect

(Newser) - The drowning death of a Siberian tiger at a British zoo has puzzled zookeepers and dealt a serious blow to the breeding program for the rare species. Malyshka, a 5-year-old tigress who was mother to two cubs and was pregnant with more, was found drowned in a natural pool in...

Thailand Seizes $2M in Elephant Tusks

Smuggled ivory found in boxes marked computer printers

(Newser) - Thai authorities repeated a warning for tourists not to buy ivory products of any kind in the country after finding a massive haul of tusks at Bangkok's airport Saturday. Officials, acting on a tipoff from authorities in Qatar, uncovered 296 African elephant tusks worth an estimated $2 million in boxes...

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