Nature & Wildlife
When UCLA Medical Center cardiologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz was asked one day to perform echocardiography on the failing heart of a Los Angeles Zoo emperor tamarin, a small monkey that evolved in the treetops of the Central and South American rain forests, she couldn’t have predicted how profoundly that act would change her thinking on…
Conservation
Dozens of customs officials bust through the door of a remote and quaint-looking farmhouse. The first thing Crawford Allan sees when he enters following the raid? A preserved chimpanzee head on a table in the living room, a macabre trinket on display like a family heirloom.
Nature & Wildlife
Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pulverized nearly six tons of illegal African and Asian elephant ivory. A conservative estimate of this ivory, which was seized at our nation’s ports of entry from the late 1980s to the present, is that it represents 2,000 animals.
Nature & Wildlife
Q: Why do birds often perch on rhinos backs? a. Predators can’t attack them b. They get lonely c. Their wings get tired d. They feed on…
Conservation
Despite antipoaching patrols, increased arrests, relocation and unmanned security drones, it seems we’re losing the battle against wildlife poachers. Already in the first six months of 2013, for example, in South Africa alone, 428 rhinos have died at the hands of poachers.
Conservation
On the flood plains of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, India, lies Kaziranga National Park, one of the last areas in the eastern part of the country to be undisturbed by human presence.
Conservation
Just two weeks ago, on March 14 and 15, 2013, in southern Chad near the country’s border with Cameroon, poachers killed at least 86 elephants—maybe more. The victims included 33 pregnant females and 15n calves. The motive was ivory, for illegal trade. Elephants, of course, aren’t the only animals being massacred today for their body parts.
Conservation
A recent article in the South African newspaper Times Live reported that two poachers were sentenced to 29 years each in prison for killing a rhino and its calf in Kruger National Park.
Conservation
On June 12, 2012, World Wildlife Fund Nepal successfully tested two drones designed to monitor animals and keep a lookout for poachers in Chitwan National Park. With a two-meter wingspan and a 25-km range, the drones can stay in the air for 45 minutes.
Travel Tales
By Rick Guthke General Manager, Natural Habitat Adventures Sitting on the roof-mounted seat atop our Land Rover, we found the first rhino in less than five minutes. Within a few hours, we’d found at least 30 individuals during our game drive across the Solio Conservancy, a private sanctuary for endangered rhinos in Kenya’s Rift Valley.
Conservation
By any measure, Bhutan is a spiritual place, known for how it assesses the quality of life of its citizens, phrased as “gross national happiness (GNH).” The term, in fact, was coined in 1972 by Bhutan’s then King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who used it to signify his commitment to social progress.
Videos
Watch as a critically endangered black rhino is moved to a safer, more spacious location—farther away from poachers.
