The Conservation Corner with the Watering Hole
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
Meet Kabu, an elephant in Thailand who was rescued in 2017 after years of abuse and poor conditions. For more than 20 years, Kabu worked in a mountain village, hauling logs along steep roads. Forced to continue working with an injured leg, she eventually developed a debilitating limp as the injury failed to heal properly. […] 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
Invasive lionfish have taken over the world’s oceans, damaging ecosystems and leaving researchers scrambling to find ways to wipe them out. The problem began when lionfish were released from the aquarium trade in U.S. waters near Florida more than 30 years ago. Since then, the aggressive eaters have found their way all over the Atlantic […] More
The gharial, also known as the gavial, is an extremely rare fish-eating crocodile—only about 200 individuals remain in the wild. This unique crocodilian is native to the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. While they once thrived in all major river systems, this species is now limited to only 2% of their historical range. Gharials are […] More
Image: Evgeniy Volkov via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Tens of thousands of reindeer have starved to death in Russia over the last decade, due to retreating sea ice caused by global warming. Researchers from the University of Lapland in Finland estimate that 61,000 deer died in 2013 because of unseasonable weather. That’s almost a quarter of the […] More
Recent research estimates that fewer than 20 individuals of a rare species of porpoise are left in the world, in part because of the high demand for swim bladder in China. The totoaba—a large fish found only in the Gulf of California in Mexico—is prized for its swim bladder, which is used in Chinese soups […] 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
Earth is losing precious wildlife at a horrifying rate. The 2016 Living Planet Report, published this past October by the World Wildlife Fund, declared that global wildlife populations declined by 58% between 1970 and 2012. This is a shocking revelation, and it means that if this trend continues, it will have declined by two-thirds by […] More
Ocelet. Image: Tambako “We will build a wall,” newly elected American president, Donald Trump, announced on his campaign website. “It will be a great wall. It will do what it is supposed to do: keep illegal immigrants out.” However, if constructed, the wall would not only affect human populations in the region, it would also have […] More
