Search

We examined an online sold product "Hatha Jodi" synonym of "paired arm" for the confirmation of its biological source. It was declared as a plant root. The morphological features of these samples were matched with the "intromittent organs" or "hemi penis" of the monitor lizard. For further confirmation, we used sequencing of a partial fragment of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene. Sequence comparison indicated that these claimed plant products were actually biological samples of a common monitor lizard, Varanus bengalensis. Hence, it exhibited the ongoing illegal trade of the intromittent organ of a prohibited species with a misleading name using low risk and widely adopted modern trading method that imposes a severe challenge for combating against the wildlife crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rhino-poaching crisis in South Africa, according to many concerned citizens, conservation organisations and governments, is ‘out of control’. With over 1000 rhinos poached in each of 2013, 2014 and 2015, the crisis has triggered a massive response, much of which heavily depends on online tools to raise funds and awareness. The paper analyses emotive discourses and imaginaries as part of dominant online responses to the rhino-poaching crisis and found that these are predominantly espoused by whites and show a worrying penchant towards (extreme) violence. Building on a theorisation of the links between race, nature, affect and control, the paper hypothesises that these responses reflect a ‘politics of hysteria’. This politics captures the employment of affective and emotive expressions as a way to demand control over a situation ‘out of control’ in the context of historical and contemporary South African political economies of racial inequality. And as these expressions often tend towards exaggerated or extreme violence, they become potent forms of political mobilisation and intervention. New media are a crucial ingredient of this potency, and the paper concludes that this opens up important new questions about the relations between race, nature and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybridization with domestic or alien species poses a threat to many species of wild fauna. However, hybridization is not explicitly addressed in the provisions of the principal international legal instruments on nature conservation. This article reviews the relevance, scope and substance of wildlife protection obligations under the Bern Convention on European Wildlife and Natural Habitats and the European Union's Habitats Directive with respect to this issue. The problem of wolf-dog hybridization is singled out as a case study. The article concludes that addressing hybridization through preventive and mitigation measures is in conformity with the obligations of States under the Convention and the Directive, and may indeed be essential in order to comply with these obligations. In the wolf-dog context, this includes dealing with feral and stray dogs and captive hybrids, and removing hybrid animals from the wild. At the same time, it appears that the national prohibitions on the killing and capturing of wolves and other strictly protected species, as prescribed by the Convention and the Directive, also cover free-ranging wolf-dog hybrids and similar hybrids living in the wild. This entails that the removal of such hybrid animals from the wild is subject to the rules concerning derogations from strict protection. These rules, however, do not appear to stand in the way of such removal. The article's central recommendation is for the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention and the European Commission to adopt express guidance concerning hybridization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public trust doctrine, derived from ancient property principles, is thought to mostly apply to navigable waters and related land resources. The doctrine supplies a mediating force to claims of both private ownership and unfettered government discretion over these resources, vesting the state with trust responsibility to ensure that the use of these resources promotes long-term sustainability. A related doctrine--sovereign ownership of wildlife--is also an ancient public property doctrine inherited from England. State ownership of wildlife has long defeated private ownership claims and enabled states to enact and implement wildlife conservation regulations. This Article claims that these two doctrines should be merged and that state sovereign ownership of wildlife means that wildlife--like navigable waters--is held in trust for the public and must be managed for long-term sustainable use by future generations. Merging the doctrines would mean that state ownership would not only give states the authority to manage their wildlife populations, but also the duty to do so, and would equip members of the public with standing to enforce the states' trust duties in court. This Article shows that the public trust in wildlife has already been employed in California and several other states and suggests that it deserves more widespread judicial recognition, particularly since--as the Authors demonstrate--no fewer than forty-eight states have used trust or trust-like language in describing state authority to manage wildlife. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We develop a new reserve design approach that accounts for habitat mapping accuracy. [•] Location and number of priority conservation areas change once mapping accuracy is considered. [•] Bigger reserve networks may be required to account for uncertainty in mapped habitat classes. [•] Ignoring habitat mapping accuracy risks under-representing low accuracy habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although intensive forestry practices have greatly reduced the biodiversity of native woodland, sympathetic management offers much potential to reverse these negative trends. We tested, using a species-rich group, whether woodland conservation management practices could be of overall benefit, for threatened generalists and specialists alike. Our landscape-scale light-trap experiment compared presence/absence, abundance and species richness of macro-moths at 36 repeatedly sampled sites from six experimental ‘woodland management’ treatments. We recorded 11,670 individuals from 265 species. Our results show that the sheltered, dark, humid, late-successional, high deciduous forest biotope is characterised by high numbers of both individuals and species of moth, and is especially important for some scarce and specialist species of conservation concern. Coppicing and ride widening, which open up dense forest structures, are also valuable woodland conservation tools for macro-moths. Specifically, we show that the mechanism behind the pattern of increased species richness at the woodland-scale involved an increased structural and hence increased micro-climatic and resource diversity for species with an affinity for more open biotopes. This benefits generalist species of conservation concern. Additionally, we show that woodland area is an important factor affecting both moth abundance and species richness in coppiced plots, especially so for nationally declining and severely declining species, suggesting that larger woodlands offer the best opportunities to increase biodiversity through active coppice management. Based on these complementary findings we recommend zoning woodland conservation management practices to take into account the differential value of successional stages for different ecological groups of Lepidoptera. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Nile crocodile ( Crocodylus niloticus) is an ancient icon of both cultural and scientific interest. The species is emblematic of the great civilizations of the Nile River valley and serves as a model for international wildlife conservation. Despite its familiarity, a centuries-long dispute over the taxonomic status of the Nile crocodile remains unresolved. This dispute not only confounds our understanding of the origins and biogeography of the 'true crocodiles' of the crown genus Crocodylus, but also complicates conservation and management of this commercially valuable species. We have taken a total evidence approach involving phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear markers, as well as karyotype analysis of chromosome number and structure, to assess the monophyletic status of the Nile crocodile. Samples were collected from throughout Africa, covering all major bioregions. We also utilized specimens from museum collections, including mummified crocodiles from the ancient Egyptian temples at Thebes and the Grottes de Samoun, to reconstruct the genetic profiles of extirpated populations. Our analyses reveal a cryptic evolutionary lineage within the Nile crocodile that elucidates the biogeographic history of the genus and clarifies long-standing arguments over the species' taxonomic identity and conservation status. An examination of crocodile mummy haplotypes indicates that the cryptic lineage corresponds to an earlier description of C. suchus and suggests that both African Crocodylus lineages historically inhabited the Nile River. Recent survey efforts indicate that C. suchus is declining or extirpated throughout much of its distribution. Without proper recognition of this cryptic species, current sustainable use-based management policies for the Nile crocodile may do more harm than good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) populations have suffered a dramatic reduction over the last 30 years in Spain. Rabbit decline has been recurrently associated with several epizootics and habitat changes. The role of interspecific competition has been usually neglected. This study analyzes the effects of habitat suitability and wild boar (Sus scrofa) occurrence, a hypothetical predator and competitor species, on a small and isolated population of rabbits. To test this effect we used a GLM with the abundance of rabbits as response variable and wild boar occurrence as predictor. To avoid habitat confounding effects we included vegetation structure variables and elevation summarized in PCA factors. Rabbits showed a very restricted and aggregated distribution and a very low abundance across the study area. In contrast, wild boar was present in all sampled plots but one and showed moderatehigh abundance. The three best models included both wild boar occurrence and principal component factor 2. Rabbits were located in opened Mediterranean areas where trees were small and scarce, rock cover was low and wild boar occurrence was also low. Nowadays wild boar populations are not directly controlled in private lands and its hunting is forbidden in National Parks in Spain. Waiting for further research to evaluate the threshold of rabbit densities below which competitors and/or predators may prevent the recovery of rabbit populations, control of wild boars may be useful as a short-term strategy to recover small rabbit populations whenever it is linked to habitat improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endangered giant panda is the flagship species of wildlife conservation, a status that results in heightened attention to their well-being. However, one factor that hinders the ability to monitor this species in the wild is the difficulty to measure relevant physiological parameters which quantify the survival status in conservation research. In this study, we employed a non-invasive sampling method and immunochemical assays to determine if measurement of fecal steroid hormones is a viable option in monitoring the sex ratios and stress levels of a giant panda population. The results indicate that 1) the yearly concentration of fecal testosterone is a possible biomarker for distinguishing gender, and 2) invasive methods of artificial insemination and semen collection as well as parturition, cause an increase in fecal cortisol concentration. This study suggests that the noninvasive sampling of feces can be a practical tool to monitor physiological stress in free-ranging and fenced giant panda populations, and could be useful in the forthcoming giant panda census in determining sex ratios in the wild. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the development of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the North East Atlantic under the Oslo/Paris (OSPAR) Convention. It provides an overview on the global legal framework concerning the creation of MPAs in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It also explores the rules and policies established by the OSPAR Commission in relation to the management of MPAs in ABNJ as well as the challenges and questions it encounters. It concludes that cooperation between regional and global oragnizations plays essential role in the development of international law governing MPAs outside the national jurisdiction.

The article is an opinion on the illegal trade of flowers and plants in the international market, espicially orchids. The author highlights the measures taken by organizations like Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a UN convention; in curbing this illegal trade.

This article presents information about structure and content of graduate wildlife management and conservation biology programs of various universities across the world. To get this information, researchers have examined, in year 2002 and 2003, Web sites of 195 universities in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and Ireland, Australia, and South Africa. They obtained information about 1- or 2-year graduate programs in wildlife/ conservation biology from 38 universities in the United States, 9 in the United Kingdom, 7 in Australia, 2 in Canada, and 1 in South Africa. Ninety-one topics were identified from course descriptions as being available to students undertaking 2- year graduate programs in wildlife/ conservation biology. The five topics most common in programs taught in all three countries were biostatistics, conservation biology, habitat issues, conservation genetics, and GIS or remote sensing.

Explores the international management of elephants under the 1989 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Description of the international legal mechanism controlling the trade in ivory; Overview of the history of CITES; Review of contrasting management of wildlife and elephants in Kenya and Zimbabwe.

The article focuses on Species Survival Plans (SSP) of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), for population preservation of the endangered species. SSP is conceptualized for wildlife conservation as a whole and it manages the population of animal species and prevents them from being extinct. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) director, Dan Wharton, without the proper management of the SSP,the population of animals will diminish. SSP has made a successful population management in two endangered species including snow leopards and gorillas.

The article presents information in various issues international. A new railway project has been proposed to pass from Denver, Colorado through Oklahoma and Indian Territory to Texarkana, Arkansas which is to cost around $20,000,000. A dispute resulting to war may possibly arise as Brazil determines to claim a portion of territory owned by Peru. Great Britain, Russia, Japan, and U.S. are under negotiation on how to better protect the fur seals of the north Pacific region