An adult Puffin watches from the cliff tops on Skomer Island on July 20, 2010 in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The island which has the biggest Puffin colony in Southern Britain plays host to over 10,000 Puffins, who come from April to the end of July to breed. The small island, off the coast of southwest Wales and managed by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, is one of the most important and accessible seabird breeding sites in Europe and has become a Mecca for wildlife and bird lovers. As well as the Puffins the island is also home to a large breeding seabird population, including Manx Shearwaters, Guillemots, and Razorbills as well as birds of prey including Owls, Kestrels and Falcons. As a result Skomer is a National Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area. Much of Skomer has also been designated an Ancient Monument and it is also surrounded by a Marine Nature Reserve.
Photo courtesy: Getty Images / Daylife
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Restoration model set to transform Indonesia's forest sector
Date published: June 20, 2010
Indonesia's forests have received a boost as the government has doubled the size of the country's first forest for 'ecosystem restoration'. The Forest Minister has announced that he will expand the 52,000 hectare concession held by Burung Indonesia (BirdLife Partner), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and BirdLife International in central Sumatra to a total area of 98,000 hectares. The restoration area now equals two-thirds the size of greater London and is greater than the size of Singapore. A Wildlifewatch report.
Wildlife documentaries infringe animals' privacy, says report
Date published: May 12, 2010
While wildlife TV programmes can play a vital role in engaging citizens in environmental debates, in order to 'do good' they must inevitably deny many species the right to privacy, particularly in situations which in human terms would be considered private such as giving birth and dying. By exploring what wildlife documentaries do, and how they do it, a researcher hopes to contribute to environmental debates at a time when the global effects of human behaviour are rightly under scrutiny. A Wildlifewatch report.
Bald eagle diet shift enhances conservation, study finds
Date published: May 11, 2010
An unprecedented study of bald eagle diet, from about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago to the present, will provide wildlife managers with unique information for reintroducing Bald Eagles to the Channel Islands off California. The scientists found that eagles fed mainly on seabirds from about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago to the 1840s and 50s, when humans introduced sheep. The seabirds provided an abundant source of carrion for the local eagle population until the pesticide DDT wiped out the eagles in the 1960s. A Wildlifewatch report on the fascinating study.
Organic farming shows limited benefit to wildlife
Date published: May 11, 2010
Organic farms may be seen as wildlife friendly, but the benefits to birds, bees and butterflies don’t compensate for the lower yields produced. In the most detailed, like-for-like comparisons of organic and conventional farming to date, researchers have found that the benefits to wildlife and increases in biodiversity from organic farming are much lower than previously thought - averaging just over 12 per cent more than conventional farming. A Wildlifewatch report.
A ruddy way to fly
Date published: May 10, 2010
Four birds fitted with ultra-light geolocators took just six days to fly from Australia to Taiwan before continuing on to northern Siberia. One bird then completed its return trip back to Australia via the Central Pacific - a total round-trip of 27,000 km. A Wildlifewatch report.
Brazil's mightiest biomes get mapped the IBA way
Date published: March 23, 2010
Of a total of 237 Brazilian IBAs now identified, only 21 per cent are protected; 39 per cent are partially protected, and the remaining 40 per cent have no official protection at all. As Dr Jaqueline Goerck, SAVE Brasil’s Director President and co-author of the publication says, "There is still a long way to go to ensure the long-term survival of Brazil’s bird diversity." One of the first tasks was to identify IBAs for Brazil. Not an easy task by any means. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world at over 8.5 million square kilometres and also has the fifth largest population, mainly concentrated around the coastal strip. A Wildlifewatch report on the ambitious project.
Large mammals need protected areas, forest cover in India
Date published: March 23, 2010
To identify factors critical to the species' survival and estimate their extinction probabilities, a researcher and her team collected 30,000 records, including hunting, taxidermy and museum records dating back to 1850. They divided India's geographical area into a grid with 1,326 individual local "cells" and entered the historical data into each cell. A Wildlifewatch report.
Customs uncover $500,000 tiger bones in Guwahati
Date published: June 20, 2010
Author: Wildlifewatch Editorial
Customs officers have seized two shipments of tiger bones and other animal parts worth $500,000 destined for use in traditional medicine in China, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The rare success against the smugglers yielded a tiger skeleton along with 320kg of scales from pangolins, rare scaly mammals that are distant relatives of the anteater and a protected species in India.
Customs officials, acting on a tip-off, seized two shipments at the international airport in Guwahati on Wednesday and on Thursday, a customs official said.
"They were meant to be air transported to Imphal in the state capital of Manipur by an Air India flight,'' he said, adding that from Manipur they were destined for neighbouring Burma and then China.
Spotlight on tigers makes poachers shift to leopards
Date published: June 12, 2010
Author: Wildlifewatch Editorial
With the dwindling tiger population, poachers are increasingly on the prowl for the country’s other big cat. And if figures are anything to go by, the leopard will soon beat the tiger in the extinction race, Hindustan Times has reported.
More than 70 leopards were killed across the country in the first three months of this year. And as many as 290 leopards were killed last year, nearly twice as many as the 157 in 2008 according to records available with the Wildlife Protection Society of India.
The details: [Link]
Solar lamps in buffer villages to reduce man-animal conflict
Date published: June 7, 2010
Author: Wildlifewatch Editorial
The increasing incidence of man-animal conflicts in the inhabited areas of tiger buffer zones and corridor areas may now be brought under control with solar lanterns lighting up the crucial villages. It is also expected to deter poaching, besides ushering in sustainable livelihood options for primitive tribal groups and other clannish population residing there, the Pioneer has reported.
The details: [Link]
Siberian tiger threatened by mystery disease
Date published: June 20, 2010
Author: Wildlifewatch Editorial
A mystery disease is driving the Siberian tiger to the edge of extinction and has led to the last animal tagged by conservationists being shot dead in the far east of Russia because of the danger it posed to people, says a report in the Guardian.
The 10-year-old tigress, known to researchers as Galya, is the fourth animal that has had a radio collar attached to it for tracking to die in the past 10 months. All had been in contact with a male tiger suspected of carrying an unidentified disease that impaired the ability to hunt. "We may be witnessing an epidemic in the Amur tiger population," said Dr Dale Miquelle, the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Russia director.
Whalers armed and ready. . .
Date published: June 20, 2010
Author: Wildlifewatch Editorial
There's probably no more popular environmental measure than the official worldwide ban on whaling. But next week it may be brought to an end – and even some normally obdurate green groups believe that this might well be for the best, says a report in the Telegraph.
Governments from some 80 countries, meeting in the Moroccan coastal city of Agadir, will be presented with a plan by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that would effectively lift the moratorium on commercial whaling. It would legitimise Japan's controversial annual slaughter in the southern ocean around Antarctica and give official blessing to the hunts of the other two whaling nations, Iceland and Norway.
New web-tool shows critical migratory waterbird sites need urgent protection
Date published: June 18, 2010
Author: Wildlifewatch Editorial
A new website launched earlier this week by Wetlands International, BirdLife International and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) reveals major gaps in the protection of many critical sites used by migratory waterbirds across Africa the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia.
A staggering one-third of the critical sites (representing over 1,000 individual sites within the network) are entirely unprotected, putting the future of many migratory waterbirds at risk.
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