Goats gotten, South African National Park Service scopes in on feral cats CAPE TOWN, South Africa––Have feral cats succeeded feral Himalayan mountain goats, called tahrs, as the purported greatest threat to native South African wildlife at Table Mountain National Park? The few remaining Table Mountain tahrs, a cause celebré from 2001 to 2004, are descended […]
Three recent deaths of people who cared about animals in very different ways
Conservation theorist Michael E. Soulé, 84; activist Linda Ann DeStefano, 76; Bill Jenkins, 53 Michael E. Soulé, 84, widely identified as the “father of conservation biology,” but an enthusiastic advocate of “compassionate conservation” by the end of his life and career, died on June 17, 2020. “Conservation is engaged in the protection of the integrity […]
Who killed 2.9 billion birds since 1970? Not cats, says a look through the glass!
Who killed cock robin? Clues are transparent. CORNELL, N.Y.––The Southern Tier city of Corning, New York, noted for glassmaking since 1868, may hold one of the key clues to the loss of 2.9 billion birds from U.S. and Canadian habitat in just under 50 years. Corning lies at one end of the Finger Lakes, […]
Feral cats poop where someone feeds them––& that’s the big problem
Two studies confirm skepticism of waiting for studies to confirm the obvious LOS ANGELES––The unacknowledged takeaway lesson from two new studies of neuter/return feral cat control, published respectively by the City of Los Angeles and the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science, may be that by the time academia, the courts, and public policymakers […]
Neuter/return requires impact study, says Los Angeles judge
City support of feral cat population control program stopped by lawsuit brought by American Bird Conservancy LOS ANGELES––California municipal governments may not assist or promote neuter/return of feral cats without first completing an environmental impact report, ruled Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas McKnew on December 4, 2009. McKnew ruled on behalf of five organizations […]
How killing cats helped to keep Aussie Liberal Party in power
Cat purge masks otherwise weak record on endangered species CANBERRA, Australia––Cats were nowhere on the May 18, 2019 Australian federal election ballot, and were not among the official campaign issues for any of the contestants, either. Yet the Liberal Party scheme to kill two million cats by 2020 lurked just behind the polling results […]
An Easter bunny, cat, & mongoose story from a Japanese island
Predators wrongly blamed for losses, ancient Amami rabbits make a comeback AMAMI, Amami-Oshima, Japan––The Easter 2019 bunny story of the year, and island ecology story, too, with even an angle involving egg hunts by ornithologists, is underway on Amami-Oshima and Tokunoshima islands, between Japan and Okinawa. Much to the evident embarrassment of the Japanese Environment […]
Why killing cats on remote islands will not help biodiversity
And why killing dogs, rats, pigs, goats, mice & mongooses too would be mainly make-work for exterminators SANTA CRUZ, California––Appealing for funding to kill cats, dogs, rats, pigs, goats, and mongooses on at least 107 islands belonging to 34 nations, in the name of promoting biodiversity, the previously obscure 25-year-old organization Island Conservation scored […]
How to count feral cats & street dogs in the 21st century
Spay/neuter success makes old projection methods obsolete––& makes doing new surveys essential Counting feral cats and street dogs in the early 21st century is not what it was in your grandparents’ time, or your own time any more, either, if you have lived much longer than the oldest cat or dog of your acquaintance. For […]
Secrets of Marion Island: what NatGeo didn’t tell you
Seabird recovery project haunted by ghosts of cats, in the form of voracious mice CAPE TOWN––National Geographic writer Leslie Nemo omitted two of the most ecologically significant facts about the Marion Island Special Nature Reserve from her December 14, 2018 online feature “Saving a remote island’s birds—by getting rid of its mice.” Lauding […]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next Page »