Jail Time for Manta Ray Trader
Wildlife Conservation SocietyAn Indonesian court has sentenced an illegal trader in manta ray parts to one year and four months in prison and a USD $5,000 fine.
An Indonesian court has sentenced an illegal trader in manta ray parts to one year and four months in prison and a USD $5,000 fine.
Human beings are not the only great ape species likely to be severely impacted by climate change in the future. According to a new study by the Drexel University, Wildlife Conservation Society, and other groups, the Nigerian-Cameroon chimpanzee—the most endangered of all chimpanzee subspecies—may lose much of its habitat within the next five years and fully half of it in the next century.
The Russian Far East is the setting for a Cinderella story. In this case, Cinderella is a tiger. An orphaned, starved, frost-bitten cub was rescued in the winter of 2012, rehabilitated, released, and now is possibly mating and re-colonizing former tiger territory, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
WCS and partners in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru have published four significant contributions towards the conservation of the real Paddington Bear – the Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus).
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Governments of Tanzania and the United States, including USAID, announced the launch of a new joint program to save East Africa’s largest elephant population in the Ruaha-Katavi Landscape.
Guanacos are back – and getting into trouble – says a team of scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) tracking these iconic hoofed mammals across a variety of landscapes on the Chilean side of the island of Tierra del Fuego.
A new study from the Wildlife Conservation Society shows that habitat alteration may be less important than other factors– such as human behavior– in driving the effects of “exurban” development on bird communities. These unexpected results are fueling more questions that may ultimately lead to informed landowners lessening their impacts on local wildlife.
A member of a cooperative of small-scale farmers, many of whom are former poachers, played a key role in the recent arrests by the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) of two wildlife traffickers attempting to trade ivory as part of a major syndicate involved in the illegal wildlife trade.
WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) released today ten favorite camera trap images of 2014 taken by its scientists from around the world.
The Board of Directors of the Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas (MCFA) has approved $1 million in support to be granted over the next 5 years to WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) for its Amazon Waters initiative.
A WCS team in Nicaragua reported today a dramatic increase in nesting of critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles including the highest nest counts since a conservation project began there in 2000.
News and images from South Sudan where WCS continues conservation work under extremely challenging conditions.
Scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), the Environment Society of Oman, and other organizations have made a fascinating discovery in the northern Indian Ocean: humpback whales inhabiting the Arabian Sea are the most genetically distinct humpback whales in the world and may be the most isolated whale population on earth. The results suggest they have remained separate from other humpback whale populations for perhaps 70,000 years, extremely unusual in a species famed for long distance migrations.
In the first-ever GPS-based study of leopards in India, led by WCS and partners has delved into the secret lives of these big cats, and recorded their strategies to thrive in human-dominated areas.
Participation of non-scientists as volunteers in conservation can play a significant role in saving wildlife, finds a new scientific research led by Duke University, USA, in collaboration with Wildlife Conservation Society and Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru.
Researchers with WCS and other partners in India are using high-tech solutions to zero in on individual tigers in conflict and relocate them out of harm’s way for the benefit of both tigers and people.
Ten years after Goldman Sachs and the Wildlife Conservation Society announced one of the largest gifts of private lands ever given for conservation, Chile’s Karukinka Natural Park is celebrating a decade of accomplishments, from top-notch conservation science, to wildlife and habitat protection, to public education and engagement.
Scientists from WCS, NASA, and other organizations have partnered to focus global attention on the contribution of satellites to biodiversity conservation in a recently released study entitled “Ten Ways Remote Sensing Can Contribute to Conservation,” in the latest edition of the scientific journal Conservation Biology.
For the first time, scientists working in the waters of Patagonia are using satellite tags to remotely track southern right whales from their breeding/calving grounds in the sheltered bays of Península Valdés, Argentina, to unknown feeding grounds somewhere in the western South Atlantic.
The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia and the WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society’s) Wildlife Crimes Unit announced the largest confiscation of illegal manta ray parts as part of a major enforcement action against illegal trade of sharks and rays in Indonesia
The Government of Gabon has announced the decision to create a new marine protected area network of ten marine parks covering more than 18,000 square miles (over 46,000 square kilometres) that will safeguard whales, sea turtles, and other marine species inhabiting the country’s coastal and offshore ecosystems -- a network of marine parks covering about 23% of Gabon's territorial waters and EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone).
WCS scientists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have discovered a new species of plant living in a remote rift valley escarpment that’s supposed to be inside of a protected area. But an administrative mapping error puts the reserve’s borders some 50 kilometers west of the actual location.
Stopping Wildlife Crime? There’s an APP for that. According to a new article from the Wildlife Conservation Society that appears in Biological Conservation, innovative mobile and web-based applications can provide authorities with speedy access to information on hundreds of protected species, convenient outreach to experts, and other resources used to identify and prosecute wildlife crime.
Conservationists are rejoicing at the listing of 21 species of sharks and rays under the Appendices of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), made official today in the final plenary session of the Conference of Parties (CoP).
The Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), at their 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Quito, Ecuador, agreed today to adopt a Central Asia Migratory Mammal Initiative to protect wildlife in the region from increasing development threats, WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) reports.
WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) announced that the Nam Nern Night Safari, an ecotour based in Laos’ Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area in Houaphan Province, won the prestigious World Responsible Tourism People's Choice Award at the World Travel Mart in London, England.
Along with the pressures of habitat loss, poaching and depletion of prey species, a new threat to tiger populations in the wild has surfaced in the form of disease, specifically, canine distemper virus (CDV). According to a new study from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its partners, CDV has the potential to be a significant driver in pushing the animals toward extinction.
A fundamental step-change involving an increase in funding and political commitment is urgently needed to ensure that protected areas deliver their full conservation, social and economic potential, according to an article published today in Nature by experts from Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Queensland, and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).
The Government of Bangladesh has created the country’s first marine protected area that will now safeguard whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, and other oceanic species, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
A new multi-sensory e-book based on the real-life experiences of author, explorer, and filmmaker Carol J. Amore’s as she documented tigers Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve will benefit the Wildlife Conservation Society’s tiger work in India.
The Vote Bison Coalition is joining bison-friendly businesses, groups and individuals around the country today to celebrate the third annual National Bison Day on Saturday, November 1. More than 19 events are occurring in at least 15 states to celebrate National Bison Day, with many more people weighing in on social media, to commemorate the historical, economic, ecological and cultural contributions of bison across the American landscape.
More than 60 years after its last confirmed sighting, a strange deer with vampire-like fangs still persists in the rugged forested slopes of northeast Afghanistan according to a research team led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which confirmed the species presence during recent surveys.
The West Java Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) of the Ministry of Forestry, the Indonesian Police (Lampung office), and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Wildlife Crimes Unit announced today enforcement action against two wildlife traffickers trading tiger parts online.
A new study has found that implementing stricter fisheries management overcame the expected detrimental effects of climate change disturbances in coral reef fisheries badly impacted by the 1997/98 El Niño, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
A new paper from the Wildlife Conservation Society, Montana State University, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and the U.S. Geological Survey looks at the feasibility of electrofishing to selectively remove invasive trout species from Montana streams as an alternative to using fish toxicants known as piscicides that effect all gill-breathing organisms.
The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), Government of Indonesia, and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)’s Wildlife Crimes Unit announced today the first-ever series of enforcement actions against a trader of sharks and rays in Indonesia.
Two known ivory poachers were arrested and five illegal firearms seized on Monday, September 22nd near Niassa National Reserve by a joint force including Niassa Reserve scouts from WCS and the Ministry of Tourism, supported by the new branch of the Mozambican police in charge of environmental crimes, and other scouts from the Luwire tourism concession.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has presented Dr. Cristián Samper, president and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, with the prestigious Order of San Carlos.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (http://www.wcs.org/) is partnering with the government of Mozambique, Paul G. Allen, and USAID (http://www.usaid.gov/) to conduct a national elephant survey to collect data essential to protecting Mozambique's highly threatened and diminishing savannah elephant population.
A group of international scientists have developed a new method to study Ebola virus in wildlife.
Wildlife Conservation Society President and CEO Cristian Samper highlighted in the keynote speech at the AZA 2014 Annual Conference the vital role zoos and aquariums are playing in conservation.
The following statement was issued today by Wildlife Conservation Society President and CEO Cristián Samper from the 2014 AZA Annual Conference.
Guatemala’s President Otto Perez Molina recently congratulated the community members of Uaxactún, a village in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, for their contributions in conserving the country’s natural and cultural heritage.
A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society reveals that in India’s human dominated agricultural landscapes, where leopards prowl at night, it’s not livestock that’s primarily on the menu – it is man’s best friend.
Biodiversity Research Institute’s (BRI’s) Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS’s) Adirondack Program announced today that three new articles summarizing research on Adirondack loons have been published in a special issue of the journal Waterbirds that is dedicated to loon research and conservation in North America.
A significant arrest of six suspected poachers took place here on Sept. 7 in a joint operation conducted by the Mecula District police, Luwire scouts and Niassa National Reserve WCS scouts.
A WCS co-authored study and editorial says that more published conservation science needs to be freely downloadable and shareable.
A recently published paper provides a history of scientific research on mountain ecosystems, looks at the issues threatening wildlife in these systems, and sets an agenda for biodiversity conservation throughout the world’s mountain regions.
The Wildlife Conservation Society announced today the successful release of 17 juvenile critically endangered Siamese crocodiles into a protected wetland in Lao PDR.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) today announced Cycle Adirondacks, a week-long, road bike tour through the Adirondack Park featuring daily routes that will allow riders to be immersed in the forests, lakes, streams and abundant wildlife habitat of the famed Adirondack region. Local WCS wildlife experts will be on hand all week to provide information on wildlife and other natural history. Registration is now open for the ride, which will take place August 23-29, 2015.