25th annual World Turtle Day was a much bigger success than Donald Trump’s military parade MALIBU, California––The 25th annual World Turtle Day was “shellebrated,” in founder Susan Tellem’s idiom, back on May 23, 2025, but turtle and tortoise news tends to crawl along much like turtles and tortoises themselves, much more slowly and calmly most […]
$20,000 fine for fatal dog attack on endangered Hawaiian monk seal
But what exactly happened & why, & who tried to cover it up, remain undisclosed HONOLULU, Hawaii––Why is the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement understating the risk of dog attack to highly endangered Hawaiian monk seals? What information is the Hawaii Department of Land & Natural Resources withholding about a […]
Richard Ellis, 86, & Wallace J. Nichols, 56, sought to save marine life
Surfers, divers, authors & scientists Marine biologist, author, and illustrator Richard Ellis, 86, an almost lifelong resident of New York City, died of cardiac arrest on May 21, 2024 at an assisted living facility in Norwood, New Jersey. Sea turtle researcher, Wildcoast conservation group cofounder, and author of the 2014 book Blue Mind Wallace […]
Which animals, where, lost habitat to the Sackett vs. EPA verdict?
U.S. Supreme Court decision on Clean Water Act may not jeopardize much actual wetland habitat, but may clarify definitions of what is what WASHINGTON D.C.––With actions on behalf of wetland and shoreline creatures including octopi, salmon, sea turtles, and horseshoe crabs underway elsewhere around the world and the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court on […]
Shooting cats to save lizards, or to please billionaire birders?
The Cayman Islands may have more billionaires’ mansions than rock iguanas, but cats are not to blame GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands––If free-roaming cats were really a significant threat to iguanas––of any subspecies––one might expect most of Florida to be devoid of iguanas. Florida, after all, has reputedly the most optimal habitat for feral cats […]
Reptile diversity study findings are less scary than a snake in your boot
Mainstream reportage focused on the bad news, but reptiles remain likely to outlive us WASHINGTON D.C.––All dinosaurs except birds, all ichthyosaurs, and all pterosaurs are confirmed extinct. Dragons, griffins, and Godzilla are alive and well in human imagination, the only habitat they ever actually occupied. Among the other 10,196 reptile species for whom population and […]
Seaspiracy: seas, piracy, & Cowspiracy meet fishy business
Fishing industry screams bloody murder Reviewed by Merritt & Beth Clifton Seaspiracy, whose title is a fusion of “seas” and “piracy,” and a play on Cowspiracy, the 2014 independent blockbluster documentary also produced by Kip Anderson, on March 24, 2021 premiered worldwide on Netflix. Within 10 days Seaspiracy had become a runaway hit, seen by […]
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 […]
Noted in passing: “Turtle God” & rhino, elephant, & lion advocates
Victims of cancer, assassins, & two killed by the species they loved “Turtle God” Peter Pritchard, 76, died in hospice care on February 26, 2020. Known as “the Turtle God,” recalled longtime Tampa Times environmental reporter Craig Pittman, Pritchard at his home in Oviedo, Florida kept what Pittman believed to be “the largest private collection […]
Hurricane Harvey hits hunters & fishers harder than wildlife
Shrimp, sea turtles, “sport fish,” teal & doves all get a break HOUSTON, Texas––As hard as Hurricane Harvey hit humans, pets, livestock, and some of the most vulnerable wildlife along the Gulf Coast of Texas and adjacent part of Louisiana, especially big birds who could not escape from the wind, early damage assessments indicate that […]