Archive for the "Saving Species" Category

  • Florida Panther Fights for Survival Again–This Time in Washington D.C.

    The Florida panther has made a dramatic recovery. Whether it will continue to survive now depends on whether we protect its shrinking habitat. Photo by Stuart L. Pimm By Stuart L. Pimm Special Contributor to NatGeo News Watch There's a small plane circling me a thousand feet up and its annoying noise makes it difficult for me to hear the Cape Sable sparrows I'm trying to census for my research. On these April mornings at sunrise, there's usually nothing

  • Biologists Call on Obama Administration to Overturn Bush Rules That Cut Science Out of Endangered Species Decisions

    WASHINGTON - April 27 - More than 1,300 federal and independent scientists with biological expertise and three leading scientific societies today called on the Interior and Commerce departments to overturn rule changes made in January that weaken the scientific foundation of the Endangered Species Act. In a letter, the scientists urged the department secretaries to rescind changes to Endangered Species Act regulations that allow federal agencies to decide for themselves if their own projects -- such as roads, dams and mines -- would threaten imperiled species. Previously, federal agencies were required to consult with biologists at the U.S. Fish and

  • An interview with small cat specialist Dr. Jim Sanderson

      Jim Sanderson with a live Andean cat in Bolivia. Photo by Lillian Villalba. Dr Jim Sanderson, a scientist with the Small Cat Conservation Alliance and Conservation International, is working to save some of the world's rarest cats, including the Andean cat and Guigna of South America and the bay, flat-headed, and marbled cats of Southeast Asia. In the process Sanderson has captured on film some of the planet's least seen animals, including some species that have never before been photographed. He has also found that despite widespread

  • Cape Sable seaside sparrow’s fate tied to its Everglades habitat

    For such a drab looking creature, the Cape Sable seaside sparrow has sure had a colorful history. Its name seems bigger than its bulk. It has survived fire, flood and human meddling, yet its numbers have dwindled drastically in recent years. Now, the fate of this scruffy little puff of feathers depends on the restoration of the Everglades, the only place on the planet it can be found. More....

  • Farewell, Fellow Travellers

    By Tom Turner June 17, 1987, is not a date most people will remember for long. On that day, the last dusky seaside sparrow in the world was found dead of old age in its cage in Florida. His species had fallen victim to the space program, a mosquito-abatement project, fire and Walt Disney World. It is the latest species to be declared

  • Sea Shepherd defends ‘rotten butter’ attack

    The environmental group Sea Shepherd says it doubts its attack on a Japanese whaling ship off Antarctica yesterday injured anyone. The group threw 24 litres of rotten butter onto the Nisshin Maru whaling ship. Obviously an act of terrorism on the high seas. Lucky Paul didn't ram them. "We live in a media culture and this means that actors and musicians have more credibility to speak on a wide range of issues than the experts in

  • Study of ocean life shows a “chaotic” balance of nature

    An eight-year study of ocean life shows a "chaotic" balance of nature, and Dutch scientists say this chaos makes it impossible to predict the rise and fall of wild species - anywhere, ever.  More here

  • Scientists Take Complaints About Interference to Hill

    Two dozen scientists swarmed over this week mad as vespinae ( hornets) at what they say is Bush administration meddling in environmental science. Organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Endangered Species Coalition, the rumpled researchers won time in the offices of more than 20 lawmakers. They are protesting what Francesca Grifo, director of the Scientific Integrity Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, calls "the systematic dismantling of the Endangered Species Act through the manipulation and suppression of science." More

  • Logging Road Punched Through Sumatra Threatens Tigers, Tribes

    JAKARTA, Indonesia, January 8, 2007 (ENS) - Cut timber, bulldozers, excavators and clearcuts in the natural forest for road reconstruction are common sights today in one of the last large forests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, field and remote sensing investigations by WWF Indonesia and other scientific and conservation groups have found. Read more

  • Conservation success in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!!

    It's one of those rare days. One where you can read conservation news and NOT hear something depressing. A hugely important and strategic piece of land has been purchased in Rio de Janeiro, purely for the environment. It will reconnect one of the most important protected areas on the planet, União Biological Reserve, to nearby tropical rainforest, ending a decades long isolation. This is hugely exciting for me! I identified this piece of land early in my research career (I think in 2000) as probably THE most important place for bird conservation in all of the Americas. Luckily there were many

  • This Holiday Season….

    Give Her Jungles!

  • Climate Change Will Significantly Increase Impending Bird Extinctions

    Stephen Schneider, the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute and a major contributor to the IPCC reports, also was a co-author, along with John Fay and Scott Loarie of Duke University. By 2100, climate change could cause up to 30 percent of land-bird species to go extinct worldwide. In Costa Rica, toucans normally confined to lower elevations are colonizing mountain forests, where they compete with resident species for food and nesting holes, and prey on the eggs and

  • 57 New Freshwater Fish Species Found in Europe

    James Owen for National Geographic News Europe's rivers and lakes boast at least 57 more freshwater fish species than previously thought, scientists have announced. The new species were discovered during a seven-year assessment of the conservation status of freshwater fish in Europe that was conducted in collaboration with the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Read more

  • New Saving Species Ads

    60-Second PSA 20-Second PSA

  • Moving up

    Mariana Vale of the Pimm Group is now Dr. Mariana Vale having just received her Ph.D. from Duke University in recognition of her work in infrastructure development and bird conservation in the Brazilian Amazon. Amazing work. Watch a clip here

  • The Search for the Grey-winged Cotinga

    All adventures end at precisely the same point. Thirty seconds into the hot shower, a stream of dirty water runs down the drain. It takes with it the mud, changing skin color from blotchy grey to pink, uncovers the until-now forgotten scrapes and cuts, and exterminates the thriving ecosystem of bacteria and fungi, each with its own distinct and pungent smell, to which one's skin had been playing host. This is exactly when one has the first dangerous notion that the last days or weeks might have been fun. Most adventures start the same way - packing one's gear and heading to the airport.

  • Tackling the Biodiversity Crisis – BBC 4 Interview with Stuart Pimm & Georgiana Mace

    The Earth is losing its biodiversity at an alarming rate. Species are becoming extinct between 100 and 1,000 times faster than normal, as a direct result of human activity. In 2005, the UN-commissioned Millennium Ecosystem Assessment highlighted the damaging effect that declining biodiversity is having on human well-being, by for example threatening food supplies and the provision of clean air and water that we all depend on to survive. Listen to it here

  • Defining conservation priorities in a global biodiversity hotspot

    A contribution from Stuart and me toward one of the first Brazilian conservation biology textbooks. This is the English version but our colleagues graciously translated it into Portuguese for the published book. Jenkins, C.N and S.L. Pimm. (2006). Defining conservation priorities in a global biodiversity hotspot. Chapter in Biologia da Conservação. (in English & Portuguese) (PDF - Read it

  • Refining biodiversity conservation priorities

    Harris, G.M., C.N. Jenkins & S.L. Pimm. 2005. Refining biodiversity conservation priorities. Conservation Biology 19:1957-1968. (PDF - Download it

  • Global Warming: A Threat to Biodiversity: Sustaining the Variety of Life

    Lectures on Global warming from a series with Stuart Pimm Watch it

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