Bringing you the latest articles, opinion and analysis in the conservation world
Scientists have used innovative ways to track female loggerhead turtles. The data reveals that return to the same nesting beaches to lay eggs year after year, therefore, these key locations should be a focus for conservation efforts.
In 2017, Hurricane Irma offered scientists the chance to study the impact of a severe weather event on white-tailed deer. They discovered that the deer changed their movement rate and their habitat selection, thus are able to alter their behaviour in order to survive.
Using the most comprehensive dataset on the ‘human footprint,’ which maps the accumulated impact of human activities on the land’s surface, researchers have documented intense human pressures across the range of a staggering 20,529 terrestrial vertebrate species.
Australia’s devastating drought is having a critical impact on the iconic platypus. With increasing reports of rivers drying up and platypuses becoming stranded, it is feared that local populations are declining rapidly.
A species previously believed to be lost to science has been re-discovered. The silver-backed chevrotain was seen for the first time in 25 years on camera trap footage in Vietnam. Scientists will now study the population to determine its size and the threats to its survival.
A study of local attitudes towards snow leopard conservation in Nepal has revealed that local people value the cat for the personal benefits they get from it, as well as its intrinsic value.
Researchers in California have discovered an interplay between 3 species – due to invasive mice on the Farallon Islands are causing migrating burrowing owls to remain on the islands to eat them. But when the mice population crashes, they switch to preying upon the endangered ashy storm-petrel.
The largest botanical dataset ever has been created by scientists, who discovered that nearly 40% of land plant species are classified as ‘exceedingly rare’. And these species are found in areas that will be impacted by climate change.
Placing LED lights along the top of floating gillnets (fishing nets that have notoriously high levels of bycatch) reduces the chances of dolphins and turtles being caught accidentally. And, they do not reduce the catch for fishermen.
New research shows that the greatest boost to the survival of killer whale calves is their grandmothers who are no longer breeding, because they are free to focus their time and resources on them. As salmon populations decline, the grandmothers will play an increasingly important role in killer whale population.