New York City keeps 1989 ferret ban NEW YORK CITY––The New York City Board of Health on March 10, 2015 voted 3-2 with three abstentions to retain a 25-year-old ban on possession of ferrets. The vote left New York City and Washington D.C. as the two largest cities to prohibit ferrets, […]
Is this the most mismanaged U.S. National Wildlife Refuge?
Not so much as glimmering eyes to indicate the presence of the Columbian whitetailed deer for whom refuge was created by Merritt Clifton CATHLAMET, Washington––Traversing the Steamboat Slough dike at the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge with headlights and a jacklight on the night of January 29, 2015, Beth and I spotted a large Roosevelt […]
Theo Colborn, 87, identified chemical effects on animal & human health
by Elizabeth Grossman Theo Colborn, 87, died on December 14, 2014. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Theodora Emily Decker Colborn was a life-long bird-watcher who began her fascination with the natural world early. I spent several days interviewing her in December 2013 at her home in Paonia, Colorado. As we talked on a sub-zero morning, with huge […]
Want to know how many birds & bats are killed by wind turbines? Developer says “Blow me.”
Nature Conservancy loses bid to stop project TULSA, SALT LAKE CITY, WASHINGTON D.C.––Calling concerns about wildlife voiced by The Nature Conservancy “speculative,” District Judge Robert Haney, of Ottawa County, Oklahoma, on November 12, 2014 ordered Osage County to grant a conditional use permit to TradeWind Energy Inc. for the construction of 68 wind turbines on […]
Field Mortalities in Wildlife Research: It’s Time for a Conversation
Preface by Merritt Clifton Jon Geller, DVM, whose guest column “Field Mortalities in Wildlife Research: It’s Time for a Conversation” appears below, is scarcely the first to call into question the ethics of wildlife captures for research purposes. While Geller’s critique focuses on capture techniques, why animals are captured and what happens to them afterward […]
Allowed to hunt rare bustards in Pakistan, Saudi prince kills 20 times the bag limit
Saudi Arabian Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and his retinue in January 2014 killed 2,100 rare houbara bustards in just three weeks CHAGAI, Balochistan, Pakistan––Saudi Arabian Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and his retinue in January 2014 killed 2,100 rare houbara bustards during […]
Protecting latrine owls from the consequences of crazy behavior
Contributing to the well-being of some of the best-known owls in folklore DENVER––Working to conserve the western screech owl, boreal owl, northern pygmy owl, and northern saw-whet owl, the Teton Raptor Center was honored on March 12, 2014 by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for contributions toward the well-being of some of the most […]
Alleged rhino poaching gang served trophy hunters as well as Asian medicinal demand
Rhino industry insiders in the dock JOHANNESBURG––Startling photos of the September 22, 2010 arraignment of 11 alleged members of an international rhino poaching syndicate reached the world despite the officially unexplained efforts of police to keep photographers out. News photographers Werner Beukes of the South African Press Agency, Herman Verwey of Beeld, and Lewellyn Carstens […]
Telemetry testimony, 1998 & 1999
November 8, 1999 Nehemiah K. Rotich Director Kenya Wildlife Service Fax 011-254-501752 Dear Dr. Rotich: As promised during our meeting on November 2, 1999, accompanying are case accounts and other information pertaining to the use of telemetry and radio collaring by poachers to locate prey. There are two basic techniques involved, both of which have […]