Weekly round-up: January 31

Longline fishery fleets in Namibia have reduced seabird bycatch by 98 per cent following the introduction of mandatory mitigation measures, saving the lives of an estimated 22,000 birds per year. Accidental death resulting from fishing activity is one of the biggest threats to seabirds, including petrels and albatrosses. Namibia’s hake trawl and longline fisheries were

Weekly round-up: January 24

President Biden officially returned the United States to the Paris Climate Agreement on his first day in office, also signing an executive order to reverse Trump-era laws that threatened the environment. The US formally withdrew from the international treaty in June 2017, but the action was only completed on November 4 last year, a day

Weekly round-up: January 17

Rewards have been offered for information leading to conviction over the discovery of a manatee in Florida with ‘Trump’ scratched into the algae on its back. It is a federal criminal offence to harass the animals, which are listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Threatened by the US

Weekly round-up: January 10

The use of charismatic umbrella species as the focal point in conservation planning does not always benefit their neighbours according to a study by Michigan State University, which revealed efforts to protect the giant panda has not prevented habitat loss for other species. Efforts to save the giant panda from extinction have been one of

Weekly round-up: January 3

The 12th horizon scan has identified 15 emerging global biodiversity conservation issues, including deoxygenation and coral health, increased logging in response to fires and the use of seabirds to locate fishing boats operating illegally. Published annually, the horizon scan searches for early signs of hazards and opportunities across the natural world, focusing on those that

20 good news stories from 2020

1. Tasmanian devils returned to mainland Australian for the first time in 3,000 years as part of a rewilding project between Global Wildlife Conservation, Aussie Ark and WildArk to help restore natural ecosystems – 26 of the marsupials were released into a 400-hectare wildlife sanctuary on Barrington Tops in New South Wales, with the hope

Weekly round-up: December 20

Scottish mountain hares could be at increased risk of predation due to longer periods of ‘camouflage mismatch’ – the period between their white winter coat coming in and snowfall – according to a new study. Like many species, mountain hares moult their dark summer coat for better protection in winter conditions, with shortening daylight hours

Weekly round-up: December 13

European bison are no longer classified as Vulnerable following long-term conservation efforts according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – but the organisation’s latest update also reclassifies 31 species as Extinct, including three species of South American tree frog and 17 freshwater fish species in the Philippines. It also revealed every

Weekly round-up: December 6

Loggerhead sea turtle eggs incubated in warmer temperatures have a lower chance of hatching, while hatchlings are also less likely to survive their journey from nest to sea. Researchers investigating the effects of sand temperature on loggerhead nests in Cabo Verde, the only rookery of the species in the eastern Atlantic, found nests buried in

Weekly round-up: November 29

UK bird populations declined 11 per cent between 1970 and 2018 according to a new government report. Farmland bird numbers fell 57 per cent over the same period, with seabirds showing a 28 per cent decline. The study, which assessed 130 species, found numbers of some native birds had increased significantly over the period, including