The Conservation Corner with the Watering Hole
The Ili pika might be the cutest animal in the world. The teensy mammal, which looks something like a cross between a hamster, a bunny and a teddy bear, was first discovered in China’s Tianshan Mountains in the early 1980s. A scientist named Li Weidong found the first Ili pika in 1983 while studying infectious diseases […] More
Predators will start becoming even fiercer as global temperatures rise, says a study that looked at how warmer conditions could affect diversity and competition between species. According to a paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, warmer temperatures could cause ravenous animals to wipe out smaller prey, upsetting the delicate ecological balance of […] More
In 2016, World Animal Protection came out with a list of the 10 cruelest wildlife attractions. It came as a shock to those of us that weren’t aware of what was going on behind the scenes; after all, we visit wildlife attractions because we love animals so much. The problem is, it’s hard to tell […] More
Image: Wikimedia Commons There are big, bad things happening on our ice shelves. Emphasis on the big. In 2012, documentarians in Greenland filming the award-winning film “Chasing Ice” witnessed a 75-minute long record-breaking calving event. “Calving” is the term for a huge chunk of ice breaking off an ice sheet. The piece that broke off […] More
Sonograms are just adorable, right? Scientists have upped the cuteness (or maybe creepiness) by capturing the first-ever shark sonogram. Researchers Neil Hammerschlag of the University of Miami and James Sulikowski of the University of New England teamed up to perform an ultrasound on “Emily,” a 12-foot tiger shark who was pregnant with 20 tiny, squirmy, […] More
As if you needed a new reason to love elephants, they may soon be saving human lives. Scientists have replicated a protein found in the blood of elephants that may have cancer-curing properties. At the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah, oncologist Doctor Joshua Schiffman has been working with the protein for years. “Elephants almost never […] More
An elephant calf lost half her leg after getting snared in a hunter’s game trap — and amazingly learned to walk again. A six-month-old elephant named Fah Jam, meaning “Clear Sky”, got her leg caught in a hunting trap out laid outside of a small village in Thailand. Locals found her starving and in critical […] More
These creatures may be living on borrowed time: they’re some of the rarest animals on earth. It may not be long before these species are just a memory. How many have you ever heard of? Sumatran Rhinoceros The smallest living rhino has more in common with extinct wooly rhinoceroses than our modern rhino species. Poached […] More
The Chinese government has taken steps to ensure the New Year will bring new hope to species being poached to extinction for the ivory trade. On December 30, the Asian nation, which represents the largest ivory market in the world, released a detailed timetable for ending its legal ivory trade. By the end of 2017, […] More
5,000 to 7,500 pangolins must have been killed to produce the amount of scales seized this month in Shanghai. https://t.co/T98XCqnEnP — NPR (@NPR) December 28, 2016 Chinese customs just discovered a colossal illegal shipment of pangolin scales. Three people were caught in the bust, which consisted of 101 bags of scales weighing in at an […] More
A recent report just revealed that there are only 7,100 cheetahs left on the planet. The study, which was published in PNAS, states that world’s fastest mammal is headed towards in extinction mainly due to human conflict and the fact that their range extends well outside protected areas. In fact, 77% of the cheetah’s habitat falls […] More
Wild animals are getting sicker and humans are to blame. The World Organization for Animal Health has long been studying the human-animal health connection, publicly sparked in 2011 by a Global Conference on Wildlife held in collaboration with the World Health Organization. The relationship between increasing human activity and wildlife disease is inevitable, drastically affecting […] More
