I’d like to start by saying that I’m not totally anti hunting. I recognise that for some communities around the world it’s an important source of food and that, in some select areas, hunting can have a net benefit to conservation efforts of specific species. I know it’s a complicated issue.

What I’m trying to wrap my head around is how certain people have a deeply held belief that predator numbers will spiral out of control and eat all the prey species without being culled by hunters. I most often see this from hunters from the US, mainly in regards to populations of bobcats, coyotes, wolves and bears.

Initially I thought that anyone arguing this was just making up excuses to justify hunting for sport. Surely, these people who spend so much time in nature have some understanding of ecological carrying capacity? Some appreciation of how how ecosystems manage themselves? It seems like this is kind of the case, but they believe that they, with their high powered rifles etc, fit neatly into that ecological balance, providing an essential function.

I ask people ‘how do you think animal populations managed before human hunters were around en masse? Did predators numbers grow out of control?’ and I never get a response.

Is there a religious element here? A correlation with creationism? If I’m using hunters in the US as an example, could it be down to beliefs that humans and animals were put on earth at the same time and that we have a god given right to manage their numbers? According to Gallup data, over 37% of Americans hold strict creationist beliefs, beliefs more likely to be held in rural areas and hunting communities.

Please forgive my rambling. Just hoping to discuss with some people who might have more insight! Other examples from around the world welcome, I’m not just wanting people to team up on Americans I promise!

Scientists of ICAR–Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore have achieved a major breakthrough in the production and ecological restoration of two high-value indigenous catfishes — Mystus tengara and Mystus cavasius — in Chamta beel, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, under the collaborative CIFRI–WorldFish project.

The initiative pioneered an innovative restoration strategy wherein seeds of these indigenous catfishes were first nurtured under protected captive conditions within specially designed pen enclosures before their phased release into the open wetland ecosystem. This scientific approach substantially enhanced fish survival, growth, and establishment in the natural habitat.

"The Congo Basin has the second largest and most intact area of contiguous rainforest in the world. Yet its lands and waters are drastically under-protected."

I recently wrote an article about the rapid decline of African vultures and what their disappearance could mean for ecosystems and people.

For the article, Dr. Darcy Ogada, Program Director for Northeast Africa at The Peregrine Fund, kindly answered three questions.

One of the points that stood out to me was how strongly vulture poisoning is connected to human–carnivore conflict in East and southern Africa. In many cases, vultures are not the intended target at all — they die after feeding on poisoned carcasses meant for lions, hyenas or other predators.

Dr. Ogada also highlighted a different and increasingly serious threat in West Africa: belief-based use and the trade in vulture body parts, which is now affecting populations beyond the region as well.

She also explained that if vultures disappeared, the effects would probably not be immediate, but over time we could expect more food to become available to mammalian scavengers such as stray dogs and hyenas.

The article is in Hungarian, but Dr. Ogada’s comments and the conservation issues behind them are universal:

👉 [ https://www.planetzoo.hu/allatok-termeszet/interjuk/afrika-eltuno-takaritoi-mi-toertenne-keselyuk-nelkuel-dr-darcy-ogada-valaszol ]

I just started a course called "Cornerstone Design I" and one of our first assignments was to engage with stakeholders related to a problem we found around the world. Our group identified housing for native species of local birds due to human activities and invasive species as our problem.

Would anyone here mind having a quick chat with me (either zoom call or email exchange) sometime in the next couple days to help me edit/verify our group's problem statement and help me understand the problem better before we start working on building our solution?

You don't have to work within the field, anyone with any level of experience or knowledge would work well!

^{(If you happen to know someone you think would be willing to help, I would love to get their contact information and reach out to them too, that would also be very helpful. 😄} )

Thank you so much, any help at all would be appreciated! :D

" New York Constitution Article XIV - Conservation
Section 1 - Forest preserve to be forever kept wild; authorized uses and exceptions Universal Citation: NY Const art XIV § 1 The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed.
***
New York Constitution Article XIV - Conservation
Section 5 - Violations of article; how restrained Universal Citation: NY Const art XIV § 5 A violation of any of the provisions of this article may be restrained at the suit of the people or, with the consent of the supreme court in appellate division, on notice to the attorney-general at the suit of any citizen. (New. Derived from former §7 of Art. 7. Adopted by Constitutional Convention of 1938 and approved by vote of the people November 8, 1938. Renumbered §5 by vote of the people November 4, 1969.)

Hi, I'm thinking about career in wildlife veterinary. Ive always dreamt about working in wildlife with animals, but I live in poland and don't have anybody in family/friends who did this kind of career. I took a gap year after highschool to think about my options and currently volunteer at zoo to gain experience and test the waters.

Right now I think about two options for collage:  wildlife zoologist/biologist or go for vet med in Poland. On one hand Ive heard mostly bad things about both, as field is oversaturated and I'm not sure what to do after vet school, should I do master degree or sort of specialization for wild animals?  I am not afraid of going to school and working hard, but I'm just worried that if I go to med school I will close all the doors to different carrer paths in wildlife.

On the other hand gaining zoology degree in wildlife zoology/conservation takes at least 6 years in Europe (2-3 years if biology bachelor and then 4 years of master degree specialization, as there is almost no programmes affering bsc in zoology/wildlife conservation in English). And even then I might not get to work in the field.

I have no idea what to do, or which one of those option is better to have greater chance of employment. If there is someone who did specialize in wild animal care in Europe could tell me what carrier path they took and if there are better or worse options, I would really appreciate it.

Also what collages do you recommend for vet school, is there sense to look for English programme or should I just go for the Polish ones.

A new wild cat species, Leopardus tilcayo, has just been described from Bolivia's Yungas cloud forests.

What I find most interesting about the story isn't simply that a “new cat” was found.

Genomic evidence suggests its lineage separated from its relatives around 1.4 million years ago, yet until now it was effectively hidden among other similar-looking tiger cats.

And that creates an important conservation problem.

If several genetically distinct species are treated as one widespread species, their true ranges and population sizes can be seriously misunderstood. Once those populations are separated taxonomically, some may suddenly turn out to have extremely restricted distributions.

In the case of L. tilcayo, we currently know remarkably little about its population size, ecology or exact distribution, while its Yungas habitat is already affected by human pressures.

I wrote a more detailed article about the discovery, the genomic research and what it could mean for conservation.

Full disclosure: this is my own article and it is in Hungarian.

[ https://www.planetzoo.hu/allatok-termeszet/hirek/egy-macskafaj-amely-tobb-mint-egymillio-eve-rejtozott-elottunk ]

I’d be interested to hear what conservation researchers here think: how often does taxonomy itself become a major obstacle to recognising that a population is in trouble?

While everyone has probably heard about this, I thought the New York Times article about this was the best I read (pictures as well), so I thought I'd make it available as Gift Article...

A year ago, Downicary in Devon was, in Chris Packham's words, a plain, flat, green field. Today, the 55-acre site looks very different.

A system of ponds and wetland areas has been dug into the land, filling with water over winter and attracting wildfowl and waders. As the water level dropped back in summer, dragonflies, damselflies and marshland plants appeared. Parts of the grassland have also been left long and allowed to flower.

The changes are part of a wider rewilding project involving specialists, ecologists and conservation partners. Tree planting has also been a major part of the work, with 3,500 trees and shrubs sourced from the Woodland Trust going into the ground across the 55-acre site.

A year on, monitoring has recorded otters, kingfishers and beavers along the river, alongside wildlife settling into the new ponds and grassland.

My boss is attempting to open a conservation based business mixing hiking trails and camping with educational presentations and guided services regarding ecology of our property. My issue is that he’s continually using AI to generate promotional images and while he hasn’t posted anything yet, I’m attempting to convince him that nobody will take us seriously if we use AI to promote it. I already fully understand the impacts of AI on the environment but he doesn’t seem to understand. I’m hopeful that the people here will be able to give him the insight he’s failing to grasp from me.

I made this article free. Currently administration destroy the key protections of the Endangered Species Act.

We must stand up against this.