Amazon river dolphins are under threat from fishing and proposed new dams and dredging, research shows. Scientists used satellite tags to track eight dolphins in the Peruvian Amazon, to discover where they went in relation to fishing areas and proposed dams and dredging sites.
Tag: conservation ecology
Biological invasions as costly as natural disasters
By invading new environments, some alien species have caused disastrous consequences for local species and ecosystems, as well as for human activities – damage to infrastructure, crops, forest plantations, fishing yields, health and tourism. The areas affected are multiple and the damage is costly.
Illegal trade and poor regulation threaten pangolins in China
Pangolins, unique scale-covered mammals, are drastically declining in numbers across Asia and Africa, largely due to illegal trade. Part of the trade, both legal and illegal, supports the traditional Chinese medicine market, which has attracted conservation attention.
DiCaprio and Sheth name new species of tree-dwelling snakes, threatened by mining
Five new drop-dead-gorgeous tree-dwelling snake species were discovered in the jungles of Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama. Conservationists Leonardo DiCaprio, Brian Sheth, Re:wild, and Nature and Culture International chose the names for three of them in honor of loved ones while raising awareness about the issue of rainforest destruction at the hands of open-pit mining operations.
Alaskan island wolves caused a deer population to plummet
Wolves on an Alaskan island caused a deer population to plumet and switched to primarily eating sea otters in just a few years, a finding scientists at Oregon State University and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game believe is the first case of sea otters becoming the primary food source for a land-based predator.
15 ways to reforest the planet
Scientists are calling for a ‘decade of global action’ to reforest the planet, following the overnight publication of a themed international journal led by researchers from Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast.