Animal Conservation - Page 13

Research has shown that 85% of species are effected by forest fragmentation. While some benefit from the breaking up of forests into small isolated patches, many species lose out – often those that are most endangered.

The most endangered marine mammal in the world, the vaquita, is facing an uncertain future as a rescue plan involving taking some animals into captivity has been abandoned after the death of a captured individual.

As the climate changes and Madagascar’s dry season gets longer, endangered greater bamboo lemurs may be forced to eat less nutritious food, and could slowly starve.

Genetic rescue, the process where inbred populations receive genes from another, healthy population, has for the first time been used to increase the population and help the future survival of the endangered mountain pygmy possum.

Scientists studying the decline of the New Zealand sea lion have linked it to commercial fisheries bycatch around their breeding colonies on the Auckland Islands, which has previously been assumed to be only a minor threat.

With less than 100 individuals remaining, the saola is in imminent danger of extinction caused by commercial snaring to supply the wild meat trade. Experts say that their only remaining chance of survival is the establishment of a captive breeding programme.

By producing detailed maps on the distribution of the world’s reptiles, an international team of scientists has completed the ‘atlas of life’, the first global review and map of every vertebrate species on Earth.

Scientists have discovered that Southeast Asia’s large fruit bats, known as flying foxes, play a crucial role in the survival of the durian tree, and their decline could have serious economic repercussions.

Marine biologists have released estimates of sea turtle nests lost to storm surges caused by Hurricane Irma. Within the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, 56% of green turtle nests and 24% of loggerhead turtle nests were lost.