Dec 4
NBC News (Miguel Llanos)
Africa’s lions are running out of habitat and some populations, especially those in West Africa, are running toward extinction, according to a study published Tuesday.
Using new satellite data, a research team at Duke University found that about 75 percent of Africa’s savannahs were fragmented by farmers and other development in the last 50 years.
National Geographic (David Braun)
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called today for a global strategy to protect wildlife in their environments and begin to dry up the demand for trafficked wildlife goods. “I’m calling for the creation of a global system of regional wildlife enforcement networks to take advantage of those networks that already are operating and the lessons we have learned from them. The sooner we get this off the ground, the better, and to that end, the State Department is pledging $100,000 to help get this new global system up and running,” she said at a Partnership Meeting on Wildlife Trafficking, attended by conservation groups and representatives of several countries at the Department of State in Washington, D.C.
National Geographic News (Christine Dell’Amore)
The snow leopard in Pakistan is an endangered species. The population of the rarely seen big cat has likely fallen to fewer than 450 in the country, mainly due to hunting. Now an expert has come up with an unconventional—and controversial—proposal to save the snow leopard: Classify it as a domesticated animal.
TED Talks
Beverly + Dereck Joubert live in the bush, filming and photographing lions and leopards in their natural habitat. With stunning footage (some never before seen), they discuss their personal relationships with these majestic animals — and their quest to save the big cats from human threats.
Documentary filmmakers Beverly and Dereck Joubert have worked to conserve wildlife for more than 25 years. As National Geographic Explorers in Residence, the couple influences public policy and perceptions.
May 22
National Geographic (Bryan Christy)
Last week, Anson Wong, the world’s most notorious international wildlife dealer, walked out of a Malaysian prison a free man after a Malaysian Appeals Court reduced his sentence for trafficking wildlife from five years to time served—17 months. Wong, who featured prominently in the National Geographic story “The Kingpin” (January 2010), was also the target of a major U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service investigation in the 1990s. He has made a career of offering for sale many of the world’s most iconic and endangered species and their parts—snow leopards, pandas, rhinoceroses, tigers, rare birds, and endangered reptiles.
But the mistake that got him arrested by Malaysian authorities in 2010 was relatively minor: He was passing through Kuala Lumpur International Airport on his way to Jakarta, Indonesia, when a lock on his suitcase broke, revealing 95 boa constrictors, a couple of African vipers, and a South American turtle.
REAWR | Big-Cat Conservation 