Conservation biology in the news

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This page simply lists recent news articles relating to conservation biology. It is not exhaustive - simply those articles that I come across during my reading of the media. It started as a section of the web page for EEB 2208 (Introduction to Conservation Biology), but students seemed to find it useful enough for me to keep it going for the time being. If others in the EEBedia community want to add to the list, please feel free to do so. I only ask that you keep to the existing format, limit any commentary about articles to brief descriptive statements so as to not clog up space, that you focus on articles in the news media that relate to conservation science (broader environmental science issues should find their own home), and that you don't clog the page up with multiple articles on the same piece of news. If you have questions, please email me. Chris Elphick

1 July. New York Times. A New Twist in Penguins’ Already Uncertain Future. (Effects of climate on penguins.)

1 July. New York Times. Can Weeds Help Solve the Climate Crisis? (Studying climate change in Baltimore .. something they missed on The Wire.)

28 June. BBC News. Warming world sends plants uphill. (More ecological effects of climate change.)

24 June. BBC News. Whaling body agrees path to peace. (Update on the International Whaling Commission meeting.)

24 June. New York Times. Florida to Buy Sugar Maker in Bid to Restore Everglades.

24 June. New York Times. Justices Take Case on Navy Use of Sonar. (Executive authority vs. conservation policy in the Supreme Court.)

24 June. New York Times. Follow the Silt. (New research on stream restoration.)

24 June. BBC News. Sun-loving frogs aid fungus fight. (More news on the causes of amphibian declines.)

23 June. New York Times. Sea of Trash. (A longish article on litter in the oceans.)

23 June. BBC News. Peace pledges as whale meet opens. (The International Whaling Commission meets.)

23 June. BBC News. Space cameras to monitor forests. (Estimating forest destruction in the Congo.)

17 June. New York Times. Tiny, Clingy and Destructive, Mussel Makes Its Way West. (Consequences of invasive quagga mussel spread.)

11 June. BBC News. Natural lab shows sea's acid path. (Shedding light on a less well known consequence of climate change.)

11 June. BBC News. Fast fall of Mediterranean sharks. (More on shark declines.)

10 June. The Economist. Just let them get on with it. (More on the economics of wildlife trade and how they relate to conservation.)

10 June. BBC News. Chinese parks 'sell tiger wine'. (A threat that I hadn't heard much about.)

6 June. BBC News. Bacteria could stop frog killer. (The latest on global amphibian declines.)

5 June. New York Times. 7 Condors Poisoned by Lead; One Dies. (The latest on condor recovery efforts.)

4 June. BBC News. Elephants caught in Sri Lanka war. (Conservation consequences of war.)

3 June. BBC News. Images reveal 'rapid forest loss'. More at New York Times. (Habitat change in Papua New Guinea.)

2 June. BBC News. Progress at UN biodiversity forum. (The latest from Bonn on the Convention on Biological Diversity.)

29 May. BBC News. Nature loss 'to hurt global poor'. (A new assessment of ecosystem services.)

29 May. New York Times. Massachusetts Law to Manage and Protect Ocean Waters. (Marine conservation in New England.)

28 May. BBC News. Rarest rhinoceros wrecks camera.

16 May. BBC News. Alien threat to truffle delicacy. (The effects of invasive species reach a new low.)

16 May. New York Times. A Pest Without a Name, Becoming Known to Ever More. (A new invasive ant.)

16 May. BBC News. Wildlife populations 'plummeting'. (A new global assessment of biodiversity losses.)

14 May. BBC News. Charles urges forest logging halt. (Royalty on ecosystem services.)

14 May. New York Times. Polar Bear to Be a Protected Species.

14 May. BBC News. Natural changes pinned to warming. (A new study on global effects of climate change.)

2 May. BBC News. Fears over Congo elephant killing. (Yet more on elephants.)

1 May. BBC News. SA elephants can be culled again. (More on elephants.)

1 May. BBC News. 'Decade to save Asian vultures'. (The latest on vulture conservation.)

1 May. BBC News. US ordered to act on polar bear. (The latest on polar bear listing.)

1 May. New York Times. An Unlikely Way to Save a Species: Serve It for Dinner. (More on the commercialization of nature in the cause of conservation.)

29 Apr. BBC News. Tourism crash threatens big cats. (More on ecotourism's role in conservation.)

26 Apr. BBC News. Polar bears 'at risk' in Canada. (A Canadian view on polar bear endangerment.)

24 Apr. BBC News. Species loss 'bad for our health'. (An article on the benefits of biodiversity.)

20 Apr. BBC News. Captive tigers 'may save species'. (The role of conservation genetics and captive breeding in tiger conservation.)

18 Apr. The Economist. Rumble in the jungle. (Another article on the economics of ecotourism.)

17 Apr. New York Times. At Indian Preserves, Tigers Remain King as People Are Coaxed Out. (An article on the human consequences of conservation.) - see also related article in Guernica magazine here.

13 Apr. New York Times. In the West, a Fierce Battle Over Wolves. (More on the wolf de-listing in the Rockies.)

12 Apr. BBC News. Map reveals key wildlife hotspots. (An article on hotspots and reserve design in Madagascar.)

9 Apr. New York Times. As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation Program. (An article about changes in the largest program to provide conservation benefits on agricultural lands in North America.)

8 Apr. New York Times. Hermaphrodite Frogs Found in Suburban Ponds. (Results from a study conducted in Connecticut and presented on campus last week.)

4 Apr. New York Times. Bug-Eating Bats Help Plants, Studies Say. (New research on ecosystem services, with relevance to agriculture.)

4 Apr. BBC News. Global warming 'dips this year'. (A good article on data interpretation and uncertainty - points out how small changes due to normal variation should be interpreted carefully in light of long-term larger-scale trends.)

4 Apr. BBC News. Why do people steal birds' eggs? (Sent in by a student - a different form of overkill.)

1 Apr. BirdLife International (press release). Global swarming – flight of the Penguins. (One species' response to climate change.)

1 Apr. The New York Times. As Fight for Water Heats Up, Prized Fish Suffer. (More on how warming temperatures exacerbate the conflict between farmers and endangered fish due to water scarcity.)

1 Apr. BBC News. Hope over Tasmanian Devil cancer. (Another example of disease affecting a rare species.)

31 Mar. The New York Times. Did Your Shopping List Kill a Songbird? (An opinion piece by an ornithologist ... and the first person to hire me to study birds!)

30 Mar. The Economist. Racing to hug those trees. (Forest protection moves into the private sector.)

30 Mar. The Economist. Shellshock. (An article on the some of the unexpected repercussions of ecotourism in the Galapagos.)

30 Mar. The Economist. Fair game now. (More on the removal of Rocky Mountain wolves from the U.S. Endangered Species Act list.)

26 Mar. BBC News. New 'battle of Midway' over plastic. (Want to know where a lot of the world's plastic garbage ends up?)

25 Mar. New York Times. Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why. (A story about bat die-offs in New England.)

24 Mar. New York Times. Link to Global Warming in Frogs’ Disappearance Is Challenged. (New information in the debate over causes of amphibian declines.)

23 Mar. New York Times. Anger Over Culling of Yellowstone’s Bison. (An example of the limitations of reserves - relevant for next week's lectures.)

19 Mar. New York Times. A Bid to Lure Wolves With a Digital Call of the Wild. (Using behaviour to monitor wolves.)

19 Mar. New York Times. In a Warmer Yellowstone Park, a Shifting Environmental Balance. (Climate change, invasive species, endangered species, national parks, all in one article!)

19 Mar. BBC News. Leakey backing for elephant cull. (A highly controversial topic, that we'll return to for the last discussion paper.)

19 Mar. BBC News. High hopes for EU shark proposals. (More on big fish.)

12 Mar. BBC News. Tiger numbers 'halve in 25 years'

9 Mar. The Economist. Use them or lose them. (A potentially controversial editorial linked to the article listed below.)

9 Mar. The Economist. Call of the wild. (The interplay between conservation, trade in wildlife, regulations and economics are all discussed here - real world conservation at its most complicated.)

9 Mar. BBC News. Tentative steps to whaling peace. (The latest on the whaling debate.

9 Mar. BBC News. Gorilla rangers' execution threat. (More on the effects of civil strife on the conservation of endangered species.)

9 Mar. The New Yorker. Big Foot. (This article barely touches on conservation biology, but is relevant to climate change.)

9 Mar. MSNBC. Elusive bird spotted near Papua New Guinea. Species thought extinct rediscovered; Beck’s petrel not seen for 80 years (An encouraging article, again, thanks to the student who pointed it out.)

4 Mar. Newsweek. Extinction Trade. Endangered animals are the new blood diamonds as militias and warlords use poaching to fund death. (This depressing article, sent in by a student, describes the connections between war, genocide, and endangered species protection. Note, especially, that the US is considered to be the world's 2nd largest market for illegal wildlife trade.)

1 Mar. New York Times. In Tennessee, 2 Endangered Groups Meet by Chance. (I'll talk about whooping cranes in the lecture on captive breeding in a couple of weeks.)

29 Feb. New York Times. Logging in Congo River Basin Imperils Sea Turtles Very Far Downstream. (Another example of terrestrial habitat loss affecting species found far away.)

27 Feb. BBC News. Small signs of a whaling compromise. (Since we talked about whaling and by-catch today, here's an article that mentions both.)

26 Feb. New York Times. Coral Reefs and What Ruins Them (An article about coral reefs, the loss of which I discussed in the last lecture.)

26 Feb. New York Times. Human Shadows on the Seas. (Another article on the world's oceans.)

26 Feb. BBC News. Grey wolf 'no longer endangered' (We'll talk about wolves as an example of a reintroduction program later in the course.)

26 Feb. BBC News. S Africa to allow elephant cull. (We'll also talk about elephants later on in the course.)

24th Feb. The Economist. A poison Pill (New research on pollution of lakes that is linked to the release of oestrogen from birth control pills.)

24th Feb. The Economist. Sour times (Recent research on the acidification of the world's oceans, which is linked to carbon emissions.)

19 Feb. The Economist. The unkindest cut. (An interesting article on the interactions among conservation, economics and politics in west Africa, that relates both to the last lecture and to several topics covered later in the course.)

18 Feb. BBC News. Hammerhead in need of protection. (A good example of endangerment due to overkill.)

15 Feb. BBC News. Map shows toll on world's oceans. (Information on a new study on human impacts on the world's oceans.)

15 Feb. BBC News. 'Record year' for butterfly site. (This article is about the specialist butterfly I mentioned in class this week, with more details on the "ant adoption" story.)

13 Feb. Current Biology. Biodiversity: Climate Change or Habitat Loss — Which Will Kill More Species? (A short paper on a topic that came up in our climate change discussion.)

13 Feb. Atlantic Monthly. Among the pandas. (This article and the follow-up letters it provoked - which I can't find on-line - relate to the lecture on captive breeding.)

8 Feb. BBC News. 'Ocean thermostat can save coral'. (An article on new research on coral deaths, which we'll talk about later in the course.)

1 Feb. BBC News. 'Bizarre' new mammal discovered. (An example of the ongoing discovery of new species.)

31 Jan. BBC News. Climate 'could devastate crops'. (This article is not really about conservation biology but it relates to the last lecture.)

31 Jan. BBC News. 'Doomsday' seeds arrive in Norway (Again, not really about conservation biology, but we will talk about the use of seed banks for conservation later in the semester.)

29 Jan. New York Times. The Preservation Predicament. (This article relates to reserve networks.)