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An investigation carried out in Madagascar by Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Global Witness (GW), which monitors illegal exploitation and trade of natural resources, found that in the months following the coup, rosewood, palissander and ebony - all exotic tropical hardwoods - worth between US$88,000 and $460,000 was being harvested daily from national parks and protected areas. The scene is bad. A IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) report.

The Tana River Delta in Kenya's north coast is under unprecedented threat as corporations and foreign agencies scramble to exploit its riches for export crops, biofuels and minerals. The Tana Delta is a vast patchwork of palm savanna, seasonally flooded grassland, forest fragments, lakes, woodland, mangroves, beaches, sand dunes, coral reefs, seagrass beds and the river itself. A number of worrying development projects are currently proposed in the delta. A Wildlifewatch report.

Primates are intelligent, but their intelligence is overestimated. The social behaviour of primates is explained on the basis of cognitive considerations by primates that are too sophisticated, a researcher has found. Primates are assumed to use their intelligence continually and to be very calculating. They're supposed to reconcile fights and to do so preferably with partners that could mean a lot to them. A Wildlifewatch report about the findings that have been published recently.

A new study of chimpanzees living in the wild adds to evidence that our closest primate relatives have cultural differences, too. The study, reported online in Current Biology, shows that neighbouring chimpanzee populations in Uganda use different tools to solve a novel problem: extracting honey trapped within a fallen log. Behavioral differences among animal populations have been taken as evidence of culture, the researchers said, but it's a notion that has remained controversial. Some think that other explanations seem more likely. A Wildlifewatch report.

Tourism is a 'boom industry' in Antarctica. While tourism has many advantages to offer the South Pole, the increasing influx causes horrendous pollution: the long trips made by many of the tourists produce shocking amounts of CO2 emission. Machiel Lamers visited the South Pole and discussed the fragile future of the continent with other interested parties. Dutch researcher Machiel Lamers has investigated the impacts of increased tourism on Antarctica and how this impact could be curbed. A Wildlifewatch report.

Skull fragments of prehistoric koalas from the Riversleigh rainforests of millions of year ago suggest they shared the modern koala's "lazy" lifestyle and ability to produce loud "bellowing" calls to attract mates and provide warnings about predators. However, the new findings suggest that the two species of koalas from the Miocene did not share the uniquely specialised eucalyptus leaf diet of the modern koala. A Wildlifewatch report.

Birds' alarm calls serve both to alert other birds to danger and to warn off predators. And some birds can pull a ventriloquist's trick, singing from the side of their mouths, says a new UC Davis study. Overall, the birds' alarm calls were relatively omnidirectional, suggesting that they were given to warn other birds in the vicinity. However, the main species tested — juncos, warblers and finches — all showed an ability to focus their calls in the direction of the owl, so these calls could also function to warn off a predator. A Wildlifewatch report.

Founded in 1986 shortly after the death of Dian Fossey, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project provides veterinary care to the approximately 750 mountain gorillas living in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It monitors the health of wild mountain gorillas, treats trauma and illness, researches significant issues in gorilla health, and develops protocols and partnerships to support the Mountain Gorilla One Health Program in the Virungas and environs. It works in close partnership with the governments of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other gorilla conservation organizations to achieve mutual goals, and its work is shared to strengthen wildlife conservation efforts around the world. A Wildlifewatch report on a recent recovery project.

This week, the world's governments are meeting at the United Nation's Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark to attempt to agree action to tackle climate change. The outcomes of this will have resounding consequences for biodiversity. Climate change is already having multiple impacts on birds and their habitats, and is exacerbating many of the factors which have put one in eight of the world's birds at risk of extinction. Many species may have to shift their ranges to survive, and considerably more losers than winners are expected. A Wildlifewatch report on BirdLife International's concerns.

Feeding birds in winter is a most innocent human activity, but it can nonetheless have profound effects on the evolutionary future of a species, and those changes can be seen in the very near term. That's the conclusion of a report showing that what was once a single population of birds known as blackcaps has been split into two reproductively isolated groups in fewer than 30 generations, despite the fact that they continue to breed side by side in the very same forests. A Wildlifewatch report.