UK’s Biodiversity in Crisis

 Plentymag
1,149 British plant and animal species need special protection, according to the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, which this week released its updated list of priority species and habitats.
The revised list — now containing twice as many species as it did ten years ago — contains such iconic British creatures as the hedgehog, house sparrow and [...]

An environmental group plans the largest ever legal action in the history of the Endangered Species Act.

Mongabay
An environmental group plans the largest ever legal action in the history of the Endangered Species Act.
Wednesday the Center for Biological Diversity said it would sue the Department of the Interior over 55 endangered species in 28 states and seek restoration of 8.7 million acres of protected habitat stripped by government actions.
“This is the biggest [...]

Signs indicate life on earth is facing a new mass extinction

 From Weird News.
 Carboniferous-Permian geological history is the most critical period
Carboniferous and Permian is the final two Paleozoic century, representatives from 354 million years ago to 252 million years ago the historical stage. Carboniferous-Permian the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere evolution are in a very crucial stage of evolution. Geological history of north-south pole of the [...]

Rare Japanese Wildcat Edging Closer to Extinction

Tony McNicol in Tokyo
for National Geographic News
August 29, 2007
Cars, hotel development, and the threat of a deadly frog fungus are pushing one of the world’s rarest wildcats closer to extinction, conservationists warn.
This month Japan’s Ministry of the Environment reclassified the Iriomote cat as “critically endangered” on the government’s Red List of threatened species.

This change [...]

Red kite found shot dead in Wicklow

The Irish Times
Efforts to revive Ireland’s once extinct red kite population have been dealt a blow after a bird released in the Wicklow mountains was found shot dead, it was revealed today.
The bird, set free six weeks ago with 29 other kites, had been hit with shotgun pellets and was found on farmland north of [...]

Yet Another Noah’s Ark to Save 500 Frog Species from Extinction

Green Diary 
Be it directly connected to global warming or sexual reproduction, the alarmingly spreading deadly fungal disease, killing amphibians across the world is getting worrisome for scientists.
Do you know, between one-third and one-half of the world’s nearly 6,000 species of amphibians could eventually go extinct within the next just 50 years? Grim figures postulated by [...]

Experts mull fate of Indonesia’s elephants, tigers

Radio Australia 
More than 100 experts and officials are meeting in Indonesia to draft a plan to save Sumatran elephants and tigers from extinction.
Satellite images show large areas of their habitat, lowland tropical forests have been destroyed by farming and logging.
This has led to conflicts with humans, resulting in the deaths of 42 people and 100 [...]

World’s tigers on “catastrophic” path to extinction

Reuters (older story)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The world’s wild tigers are on a “catastrophic” path to extinction as numbers continue to decline because of increased poaching, habitat destruction and poor conservation efforts by governments, a new report has said.
In less than a century, Asia’s largest predator has been relegated to isolated populations residing in only [...]

Brown bears almost extinct in Alps: wildlife group

Reuters (older story)
VIENNA (Reuters) – Brown bears face extinction in Europe’s Alps with only 38 known to remain in the mountain region, environmentalists said on Wednesday, a year after the shooting of a wayward bear shocked animal lovers.
“The population is too small to ensure its survival,” the World Wildlife Fund’s [...]

Conservation in a conflict zone: Mystery of the murdered gorillas

The Independent

They are the latest victims of the chaos in Congo: nine mountain gorillas slaughtered in an apparently motiveless crime. Now the UN is trying to uncover the truth behind the massacre. Michael McCarthy and David Lewis report
Published: 22 August 2007
 
 
Here it comes again, in an acute [...]