Pups @ 12 Weeks Old - 4 June 2012 (2) - Explored by *Arctic Fox* on Flickr.
Asian Short Clawed Otter pups at The Scottish Deer Centre.
A.Dewar @ www.tsdc.co.uk
Posts tagged conservation.
Archaeological News: Study Reveals Looting of Archaeological Sites as Massive Global Problem ›
Infuriating. What can be done? I’m quite curious of the techniques on how to protect newly discovered cultural and historic resources. Key passage: “Looting of archaeological sites is significant not so much for the loss of the artifacts themselves, but for the loss of information about the civilizations or human settlements they represent, as the real value of the looted items actually rests with what they say about the context, or ancient site, in which they were found.”
Based on the results of a recently conducted global survey, pervasive looting at archaeological sites is broad based and frequent. The numbers suggest serious implications for the preservation of the world’s cultural heritage and in understanding or rediscovering human history.
The survey, conducted by Blythe Bowman Proulx, assistant professor of criminal justice in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, collected information through a structured questionnaire sent electronically to more than 14,400 field archaeologists throughout the world. The survey was designed to collect information about their personal experiences with looting at archaeological sites, with the objective of developing a picture of the nature, geographic scope, and frequency of looting and site destruction within local and global contexts. Read more.
It’s Official: Vietnam’s Javan Rhino Is Extinct.
Which Species Is Next? Poachers and lack of territory have killed off these amazing rhinos in Vietnam. Can we save the 35 left in Indonesia?
by Rachel Nuwer
On April 29, 2010, the Gia Vien ranger station received a disturbing call. Local people foraging in Vietnam’s Cat Tien National Park had stumbled upon the weathered body of a large beast.
To investigate, the rangers headed into the forest, where they found the skeleton lying on a pile of crumpled bamboo at the bottom of a steep ravine. It’s severed skull rested a few meters away, a jagged hollow carved out where a horn once stood. They had found the remains of Vietnam’s last Javan rhino.
“The Javan rhino is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Sarah Brook, a flagship species officer for Flora and Fauna International Cambodia, and lead author of a recently published Biological Conservation paper describing the rhino’s fate. “Many other species are declining rapidly in Vietnam and remain in only fragments of their former ranges with very small populations,” she said…
(read more: TakePart) (photo: Cat Tien National Park/WWF)
A rare dog may finally be having its day: The New Guinea singing dog, an elusive canine related to the Australian dingo, has been possibly spotted in New Guinea. Feared extinct in its highlands habitat, the singing dog—whose name comes from its coyote-like howls—was last photographed in the wild 23 years ago. Photo by Tom Hewitt.
Various circumstances surrounding Hewitt’s experience support a singing dog sighting, some experts say. For one, the dog showed no fear—typical of a shy animal that has lived isolated from humans or predators for centuries, said James McIntyre, a Florida-based independent zoologist.
What’s more, the dog was seen exactly where it’s known to exist—an extremely secluded, high elevation that’s “a four-day walk from nowhere,” noted McIntyre. Read more
Are these animals too ‘ugly’ to be saved?
by Victoria Gill
People are used to being asked to help save photogenic pandas, but are there animals whose strange appearance hinders conservation?
Creatures that achieve world fame for being under threat - the panda, the mountain gorilla, the tiger - tend to be conventionally aesthetically pleasing, even cute.
But the scientists who study the planet’s rarest beasts say that many of the most precious and threatened creatures have physical characteristics that, although perhaps not adorable in the most orthodox sense, make them truly unique.
A project run by the Zoological Society for London (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered) is trying to raise awareness of these less appreciated creatures.
“I love all the species on the Edge list,” says Carly Waterman, director of Edge.
“But I think some do need a little extra help to get them a place in hearts of the general public.”
Here are a few of the less doe-eyed and fluffy and more spiky, scaly, big-nosed and slimy animals that might be conservation icons…
(read more: BBC Nature)
NOOOO PEOPLE WAKE UP! Conservation is serious and you can help all the animals, plants and fungi we are almost single handedly wiping off of this Earth
Conservation of Slow Lorises
via Wikipedia
Slow lorises are nocturnal strepsirrhine primates in the genus Nycticebus that live in the rainforests of South and Southeast Asia. They are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation from deforestation, selective logging, and slash and burn agriculture, as well as by collection and hunting for the wildlife trade, including the exotic pet trade, and for use in traditional medicine and as bushmeat.
Because of these and other threats, all five species of slow loris are listed as either “Vulnerable” or “Endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Their conservation status was originally listed as “Least Concern” in 2000 because of imprecise population surveys and the frequency in which these primates were found in animal markets.
Because of their rapidly declining populations and local extinctions, their status was updated and in 2007 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) elevated them to Appendix I, which prohibits international commercial trade. Local laws also protect slow lorises from hunting and trade, but enforcement is lacking in most areas…
(photo: Lionel Mauritson, Helena Snyder, ProFauna, Desmanthus4food)
(via lorisidae)
The Saiga (Saiga tatarica) is a critically endangered, unbelievably fabulous species of antelope originally inhabiting a vast area of the Eurasian steppe zone from the foothills of theCarpathians and Caucasus into Dzungaria and Mongolia.
Today, the populations have again shrunk enormously, as much as 95% in 15 years, and the saiga is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN. An estimated total number of 50,000 saigas survive today in Kalmykia, three areas of Kazakhstan and in two isolated areas of Mongolia.
These photos are from the facebook page of the Saiga Conservation Alliance - which you, naturally, should like and support.
Because I will be extremely upset if these stop existing. I’ll cry. I’ll throw things. I need these. Do it for me.
(via mothernaturenetwork)
Boner Dust.
Suzanna.
Lost on my way to life.
I collect postcards and would love to do a postcard exchange with each and every one of my followers.
Also, I love ducks.
Lost on my way to life.
I collect postcards and would love to do a postcard exchange with each and every one of my followers.
Also, I love ducks.
