@gettleman update on #rhino slaughter driven by South Asia & China demand. Dehorning an uncertain option.
New @gettleman @tylerhicksphoto @nytimes piece on African elephanticide- focus on Gabon. Aided by oil wealth, the country tries to stem ivory poaching tide, but elephants are still falling.
![Yellowstone wolf 832F, a famed alpha female, shot dead outside the national park - via @nytimes (wolf at left). The lede:
Yellowstone National Park’s best-known wolf, beloved by many tourists and valued by scientists who tracked its movements, was shot and killed on Thursday outside the park’s boundaries, Wyoming wildlife officials reported.
The wolf, known as 832F to researchers, was the alpha female of the park’s highly visible Lamar Canyon pack and had become so well known that some wildlife watchers referred to her as a “rock star.” The animal had been a tourist favorite for most of the past six years. [Read the rest.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/eb45af034f6430692556a80e378fc576/tumblr_mer1ioobIS1qalacuo1_500.jpg)
Yellowstone wolf 832F, a famed alpha female, shot dead outside the national park - via @nytimes (wolf at left). The lede:
Yellowstone National Park’s best-known wolf, beloved by many tourists and valued by scientists who tracked its movements, was shot and killed on Thursday outside the park’s boundaries, Wyoming wildlife officials reported.
The wolf, known as 832F to researchers, was the alpha female of the park’s highly visible Lamar Canyon pack and had become so well known that some wildlife watchers referred to her as a “rock star.” The animal had been a tourist favorite for most of the past six years. [Read the rest.]
BBC prizes given for great photographs taken by camera traps, including this stunner of an Oncilla in Bolivian Amazon. via @WCSorg News release:
A photograph taken by Wildlife Conservation Society scientists of a little known Bolivian cat species called an oncilla has won a BBC Wildlife camera-trap photo competition.
The photo, which won the New Discoveries category, documents the first-known occurrence of this extremely rare spotted cat in Madidi National Park.
The Oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus) occurs across the Amazon and along the tropical Andes. About the size of a house cat, they are the smallest cat species of South America’s lowlands. Very little is known about their life history.
WCS researchers Guido Ayala, Maria Viscarra, and Robert Wallace submitted the photo taken last July during camera trap surveys of jaguars and other wildlife living in Madidi – considered to be among the most biodiverse protected areas on the planet.
More than 1,300 entries were submitted from around the world. The winning entry received £1,000 (approximately $1,500), courtesy of Paramo Directional Clothing Systems and the World Land Trust. The photo is featured in the December issue ofBBC Wildlife and on the website www.discoverwildlife.com
The new record for oncilla in Madidi pushes the number of confirmed cat species in the park to six with at least two more waiting to be confirmed. Madidi National Park contains 11 percent of the world’s birds, more than 200 species of mammals, almost 300 types of fish, and 12,000 plant varieties. The 19,000 square-kilometer (7,335 square mile) park is known for its array of altitudinal gradients and habitats from lowland tropical forests of the Amazon to snow-capped peaks of the High Andes.
The Greater Madidi-Tambopata Landscape Conservation Program aims to develop local capacity to conserve the landscape and mitigate a variety of threats, including road construction, logging, and agricultural expansion.
WCS’s work in the Madidi-Tambopata Landscape has been made possible by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the blue moon fund, the Beneficia Foundation, the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, and other generous supporters.
The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild places worldwide. We do so through science, global conservation, education and the management of the world’s largest system of urban wildlife parks, led by the flagship Bronx Zoo. Together these activities change attitudes towards nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in harmony. WCS is committed to this mission because it is essential to the integrity of life on Earth. Visitwww.wcs.org.
Orphaned walrus bound from Alaska to Big Apple. @nytimes Lisa Foderaro story:
How do you transport a 234-pound baby to New York City? If he’s a 15-week-old walrus rescued from the open ocean off Alaska, the answer is a jumbo-size crate aboard a FedEx cargo jet, accompanied by a veterinarian and a handler.
Something strange on New York Times blogs today. Find out more on Dot Earth.
Stunning image, context: Elephant Drinking, Amboseli, 2007. Killed by Poachers, 2009. @biglifeafrica @safaritalk (© Nick Brandt 2011)
