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MEPs have been accused of whipping up “a culture war against nature” after the fisheries and agriculture committees voted against the EU’s biodiversity restoration law.

Last June, the European Commission revealed proposals for legally binding targets to restore wildlife on land, rivers and the sea for member states. The nature restoration law was announced alongside separate legislation proposing a crackdown on chemical pesticides with the aim of reversing the catastrophic loss of wildlife on the continent.

But there is growing concern that the laws could be abandoned entirely amid opposition from agricultural, fishing and forestry lobbying groups, and some member states. On Tuesday, the European parliament’s agriculture committee voted to reject the nature restoration legislation, followed by another vote against the proposals by the fisheries committee on Wednesday.

The nature restoration law is a key part of the European green deal that is crucial to meeting international climate and biodiversity commitments. On Monday before both votes, the commission vice-president Frans Timmermans said there would not be another proposal.

The law aims to reverse the decline of pollinating insects while restoring forests, marine ares and other ecosystems key to food production to improve Europe’s resilience to climatic shocks as the planet warms. It was a key part of the EU’s negotiating position at Cop15 in Montreal last year, where the world agreed to protect 30% of the planet for nature.

The centre-right European People’s party (EPP) has called for the nature restoration and pesticide proposals to be scrapped entirely, with liberal MEPs also divided on the issue. MEPs from both groups voted against the nature proposals this week, provoking anger from NGOs.

Sabien Leemans, a senior biodiversity policy officer at WWF Europe, said: “With this rejection, the majority of MEPs in the agri committee are failing all citizens, including farmers. At times when Italy is devastated by flooding and Spain is experiencing severe droughts, this denial of what is happening in Europe is unacceptable.

“The science is clear that nature restoration will increase our resilience to such extreme weather events and support long-term food security. Meanwhile, the agri committee is rejecting the legal proposal to restore nature. It is a totally irresponsible attitude that puts everyone’s livelihoods at risk, first and foremost the ones of farmers.”

In an interview with the Guardian last week, the EU’s environment commissioner warned rejecting the law would send a dangerous signal to the world and undermine climate and biodiversity targets.

Ariel Brunner, a regional director at BirdLife Europe, said: “Politicians are whipping up a culture war against nature, instead of facing up to reality. Without an urgent and massive nature restoration effort, we will simply not survive the climate and biodiversity crisis.

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“Floods, drought and floods will wipe out lives and livelihoods, with farmers and rural communities in the frontline. Without urban greening, many cities will become unliveable. The attempt to kill the restoration law is immoral and irresponsible.”

Next month, EU environment ministers will meet in Brussels to agree a common position on the proposals.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

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By the end of the year, Victoria’s trouble-plagued native forest industry will end – six years ahead of schedule. The state’s mountain ash forests and endangered wildlife will at last be safe from chainsaws. And there will be no shortage of wood – there’s more than enough plantation timber to fill the gap.

Yesterday’s announcement by the premier, Daniel Andrews, is excellent news for forests, the state’s economy and its threatened species. We congratulate the Victorian government for this decision.

Ending native forest logging is long overdue. For decades, we’ve known of how much damage it does to wildlife. Logging vast areas of Victoria’s native forests over the past several decades has pushed many once-common animals, such as the greater glider, to become endangered.

Even now, the last remaining logging areas proposed under the state’s timber release plan overlap directly with the areas of highest conservation value for biodiversity.

Our research has catalogued the damage done to produce low-value products such as woodchips and paper pulp. The industry never made economic sense. The state-owned logging company, VicForests, has been running at a loss for many years. The industry can switch to our abundant plantations of eucalyptus and pine.

What damage did native forest logging do?

The vast majority of areas slated for logging provide habitat for more than 50 threatened and rare species. We know that the more forests that are logged, the less likely we are to find species such as the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum. Logging pushes species into decline. Common species become threatened and threatened species move closer to extinction.

The lead author of this article has been part of a team conducting ecological monitoring and research in Victoria’s forests for almost 40 years.

We have seen the damage first-hand. We’ve watched old forests of high conservation value be clearfelled when they should not have been. We’ve watched essential habitat such as large old trees, with their all-important nesting hollows, become rarer and rarer.

We have seen extraordinary animals such as the southern greater glider go from the most common species identified in night surveys, to so scarce they’re now endangered.

We have seen once-intact landscapes become dominated by highly flammable young forest at risk of extremely severe wildfires.

And we watched in dismay as logging fragmented the landscape. Now up to 70% of Victoria’s critically endangered mountain ash forests are either severely disturbed by wildfire and logging or within 200 metres of such areas.

Native forest logging never made sense

Almost all – 86% – of felled native forests in Victoria are turned into low-value products such as woodchips, paper pulp and box liners.

In 2018 we estimated sawn timber equates to just 14% of the volume of logs cut from native forests.

By contrast, more than 80% of all sawn timber in Victoria comes from plantations. Native forest timber does not help build houses.

Bringing forward the end of native forest logging from 2030 will be a major boost for climate action – equal to removing 730,000 petrol or diesel cars from our roads every year. This single decision gives Victoria – and Australia – a far greater chance of meeting emissions reductions targets.

In its last annual report VicForests announced a loss of $54m and a loan of $80m. It’s now propped up only by the Victorian Treasury.

Even before these losses the Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office showed the state would be $190m better off without it.

How can we help forests recover?

Ending logging will take pressure off our forests but we can’t simply walk away from heavily damaged areas. Many areas have never properly regenerated after logging or repeated fire.

In north-eastern Victoria years of logging have warped the composition of tree species in the forest; many areas are dominated by trees that are largely unsuitable as food sources for koalas and greater gliders.

The urgent task is to restore forests across Victoria while managing fire and invasive species such as deer.

That’s not all. We will still need wood and paper. Ending native forest logging requires getting things right in Australia’s plantations.

At present we export up to 95% of all plantation eucalypt logs we grow for processing overseas. That’s a missed opportunity for local jobs.

Even now the plantation sector is crying out for more workers in haulage and processing. This sector offers comparable jobs for workers leaving the native forest sector. But there will be other jobs: forest restoration, firefighting, feral animal control, carbon stock management and more. Getting the transition right is important.

The exit from native forest logging must now be coupled with the declaration of a Great Forest national park in the central highlands region. The region has been a hotspot for native forest logging.

It’s almost 10 years since the state’s then-environment minister, Lisa Neville, promised this park would be declared. Once established the new park should be co-managed with First Nations peoples to ensure Aboriginal self-determination, as well as good opportunities to work on country.

Today is a day for celebrating. At last Victoria’s government has acted for the future. Preserving our native forests is worth much more in carbon storage, water production and tourism than they ever were as woodchips.

Victoria’s move is a clarion call for other Australian states still doggedly logging their precious forests.

• This article was originally published by the Conversation. David Lindenmayer is a professor at the Fenner school of environment and society, Australian National University. Chris Taylor is a research fellow at the Fenner school

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The dog is moving through the grasses of the open meadow, closely followed by bear biologist Carrie Hunt, who is observing his reactions as he sees the grizzly bear carcass for the first time. “Find it,” says Hunt, encouraging the two-month-old puppy. The puppy’s ears and tail are up as he approaches the bear cautiously, but with the confidence that Hunt is looking for in a bear conflict dog.

This is a Karelian bear dog, a hardy breed from Finland known to be fearless and capable of standing up to large mammals such as brown bears and moose. People once used the dogs to hunt big game in regions that now are part of Russia and Finland. Today, in Montana, Hunt is using the dogs to keep bears alive.

Carrie Hunt, founder of the Wind River Bear Institute in Montana, with two bear conflict dogs. Photograph: Isabelle Groc

Hunt founded the Wind River Bear Institute in 1996, where she trains Karelian bear dogs to scare away bears that get too close to human settlements and that would otherwise be killed. “I wanted to make things safer for bears and people,” she says.

Karelian puppies undergo a series of tests in which trainers teach them the right behaviours and evaluate their personality and how they react in situations that involve stuffed bears and cougars placed in the field. Just 20% of a litter will make the cut as bear conflict dogs, where a wrong move or slightest hesitation can lead to serious injury. “We are looking to figure out which ones have the right stuff. It is important for the safety of the people we are placing the dogs with,” says Nils Pedersen, director of the institute. “What we want to see is a dog that has an intrinsic motivation to hunt and find anything new and scary.”

Hunt during a training session with a Karelian bear dog puppy and bear carcass. Photograph: Isabelle Groc

When they are ready, the dogs are deployed across North America – for example, working with the Alaska fire service to keep firefighters safe on callouts and at the same time reduce the number of bears that are killed each year.

Between 2020 and 2022, dog handler Greg Colligan worked with one puppy on its first assignment helping to resolve conflicts between people and grizzly bears in Alaska’s Denali national park and preserve. “He was integrated into almost every facet of what we do as a wildlife management crew,” says Colligan, former lead wildlife technician for the park. “He helped us detect bears and push them out of an area if we needed to. He was key to everything we did.”

Karelian bear dogs are increasingly being used by wildlife and land managers not just in the US, but in Canada and even Japan to encourage social distancing between humans and wildlife.

In North America, bears live in landscapes where the human footprint is expanding. As a result, people and predators are forced to share space, setting the stage for increased human-wildlife conflicts. Bears may be tempted to visit human-dominated areas with easy to access food sources such as rubbish bins, chicken coops, bird feeders or fruit trees, especially in the summer and autumn, when they need to store energy for hibernation. With warmer temperatures resulting from the climate crisis and more human foods readily available, bears may even delay hibernation.

A grizzly bear. They are increasingly coming into conflict with humans. Photograph: Isabelle Groc

In Nevada, an increase in the black bear population is colliding with a growth in urban development. Game biologist Heather Reich reports that between 1987 and 1991, the Nevada Department of Wildlife received an average of 14 calls reporting conflicts with bears a year. Between 2007 and 2011, that number grew to more than 500, and in 2022, 1,450 calls were received. Reich attributes the latest surge to a late spring frost that killed the bears’ natural resources such as berries. “This drove bears down into urban areas searching desperately for food,” Reich says.

The dogs allow me to keep bears in the landscape as long as I possibly can, rather than having to kill and remove them

Heather Reich

Clayton Lamb of the University of British Columbia studied demographic data for more than 2,500 brown bears in British Columbia over 40 years and found that in human-dominated landscapes, for every bear that lived to 14 years, 29 did not. By contrast, only four died during the same period in a wilderness area with no people to contend with. The animals that were able to survive in human-dominated areas had adopted a nocturnal lifestyle to avoid people. “If a bear can learn to live near people, they can survive, but very few bears make it to adulthood and figure out how to live in that landscape,” Lamb says.

In Nevada, wildlife managers first tried to scare human-habituated black bears away with noise makers and rubber bullets, but that did not always work. “The bears very quickly learned that was not that scary and that nothing bad happened,” Reich says.

Puppies are tested with a number of exercises, including exposure to stuffed predators. Photograph: Isabelle Groc

In 2001, the wildlife department started employing Karelian bear dogs. Now, when a problem bear ventures too close, Reich and her colleagues catch the animal. Then, when the bear is released, the dogs chase it away in a brief pursuit. “For the bear, it is a really bad experience,” Reich says. Bears are naturally wary of canids as coyotes and wolves can kill their cubs. “The dogs have a body language, an animal-to-animal conversation that speaks much stronger to the bear than I can,” Reich says.

The lesson taught by the dogs is one that the bears seem to remember. A study of black bears in the Tahoe Basin led by Mario Klip, environmental scientist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, found that bears that had encounters with Karelian bear dogs became more nocturnal, were less active in winter, and spent less time in urban areas.

“The dogs make me a better biologist because they allow me to keep bears in the landscape as long as I possibly can, rather than having to kill and remove them,” Reich says.

With their keen sense of smell, bear dogs can also detect the presence of a bear early, allowing wildlife managers to take preventive measures while staying safe. “They allow me to do things with bears that I couldn’t do as a single human,” Reich says. “We have bears that den under homes. It feels a lot better crawling under these buildings with the dogs to help flush that bear out than me alone.”

Ultimately, while the dogs can help save a bear’s life, humans must also do their part by securing garbage in bear-resistant containers or installing electric fences.

The dogs’ sense of smell means they can detect bears before humans are aware they are nearby. Photograph: Isabelle Groc

At the Wind River Bear Institute, Hunt places an emphasis on “bear shepherding”. “It is about teaching bears and people the correct behaviours so they can live in the same area,” she says, but that will only work if people remove the lure of garbage and other temptations.

As Karelian bear dogs are generally people-friendly, they can help educate people about the need to adopt behaviours that will reduce conflict. “People want to talk to you when you show up with the dogs,” Colligan says. “The dogs are a way for us to connect with bears in a human-bear conflict situation, but they also allow us as humans to connect to each other.”

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

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Two hundred and ninety plants, 20 fishes, 24 amphibians, 46 reptiles and one mammal were among newly discovered in one of Asia’s biodiversity hotspots in 2021 and 2022. Many are already under threat of extinction from habitat loss, deforestation and the illegal wildlife trade. WWF is calling on governments to increase protection for these rare species and to commit to halting and reversing nature loss

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Every night, somewhere unseen across the vast, semidesert and dry savanna habitat of Southern Africa, the continent’s deadliest cat emerges to hunt. Black-footed cats (Felis nigripes) are ideally suited for nocturnal stalking: They are evolutionarily older than jungle cats and domestic cats, boast exceptional night vision and hearing, and are believed to kill more prey than iconic big cats like lions, leopards and tigers.

However, their most notable characteristic may have contributed to their decline. They are tiny, so receive little notice from conservationists. Full grown, they tip the scale at just 1-2 kilograms (2.2-4.4 pounds). As Africa’s smallest feline, they’re too tiny to even trigger a conventional camera trap. While the species was first described by science in 1824 (but only from skins, not a live specimen), it went largely unstudied for more than 150 years.

“Black-footed cats fly below the radar,” says zoologist Beryl Wilson, project manager for the Black-footed Cat Working Group, an NGO. Shy, secretive and very hard to find, F. nigripes remained one of the continent’s least-studied nocturnal mammals until the 1990s.

And without detailed data, determining a species’ conservation status and, more importantly, understanding how best to protect them, is near impossible. And that’s the fate that befell the black-footed cat until a sole researcher came to its rescue.

It took a die-hard researcher to study a species this small, enigmatic and mistakenly thought to be insignificant, Wilson says. You need someone, she adds, who can stick to it with “German tenacity.” For F. nigripes, that scientist is Alex Sliwa, a curator at Cologne Zoo in western Germany.

“My research on black-footed cats has guided my life for 31 years,” he says. That passion has led to the uncovering of much of what we know about the species today.

A 6-week-old captive black-footed cat kitten honing its stalking skills. Image by Alex Sliwa.

A lifetime of dedication

Sliwa’s interest in black-footed cats started young. On a trip to Berlin Zoo at age 11, he peeked into an enclosure at a small cat. It looked cartoon-like: cute, with a broad head and short legs, tiny nose and large, rounded ears. The stocky body was covered with bold, black spots and stripes — good camouflage in the dappled nocturnal shadows the species roams.

Young Sliwa was intrigued and motivated to learn more, but remembers not finding much reading material on the cats beyond a basic description like the one he could gain himself from just observing that single caged animal.

Years later, in January 1991, Sliwa — now training as an ecologist — headed to a little-known nature reserve called Benfontein, just outside Kimberley in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. He headed there to do his Ph.D. fieldwork on aardwolves (Proteles cristatus), a species of hyena. But Benfontein was also rumored to be an enclave for the elusive black-footed cat.

Sliwa’s nocturnal fieldwork placed him ideally to spot the tiny felids, and over the roughly 600 nights he spent there, he caught erratic glimpses of Africa’s smallest cat. The young researcher tried to habituate the animals to his vehicle until eventually they allowed him to follow them to their dens — mostly disused springhare burrows or hollowed-out termite mounds. These dens had earned the cats the descriptive Afrikaans nickname miershooptier — “the anthill tiger.” In 1992, he managed to take his first F. nigripes photo.

Bolstered and fascinated, Sliwa returned to Berlin to secure funding for a formal research project from cat-loving donors connected with the zoo community. Almost no research had been done on the species, and even basic facts such as its home range, territory, habitat and reproductive habits were unknown.

He knew he had to start with the very basics, he remembers, and his first big question was what did this diminutive cat eat?

Alex Sliwa conducting fieldwork on a black-footed cat. Image by Sebastian Kennerknecht. A female aardwolf (Proteles cristatus), photographed in South Africa’s Benfontein Nature Reserve. Sliwa first headed here in 1991 to do fieldwork on this species of hyena, then became fascinated by the black-footed cat. Image by Alex Sliwa.

‘Driving … from sunset to sunrise through a ditch’

Sliwa got his funding and went back to South Africa in 1993. He planned to fit two cats at Benfontein with radio collars. But to gather the first radio telemetry data ever on the species, he needed help, so got in touch with Wilson, then a knowledgeable zoologist at McGregor Museum in Kimberley, not far from Benfontein.

At the time, neither of them knew what such a task would entail, and it turned out to be a real baptism by fire. Following a black-footed cat in the field with a pickup truck is “like driving in first and second gear from sunset to sunrise through a ditch,” Wilson says.

The small cats can travel between 8 and 30 kilometers (5 and 19 miles) a night, zigzagging fast ahead of a research vehicle. Reputed to be harder than tracking a tiger in dense rainforest, black-footed cat fieldwork is “very intense,” Sliwa explains. You have to be focused, know what you’re doing, wear gloves and long sleeves, and expect to be bitten and scratched.

Undaunted, he did the job. In 1994, he published a paper on the diet and feeding behaviors of the black-footed cat and its extraordinary nocturnal hunting activities. He had observed the felid killing a vertebrate every 50 minutes, mostly rodents and small birds. They could devour a lark in minutes, leaving only feathers and legs behind.

The cats, the researcher learned, were able to spot birds in total darkness, and jump up to 2 meters (6 feet) to catch and kill their prey mid-air with their powerful jaws. Their sharp night vision is perfectly adapted — enhanced by a mirror-like layer behind the retina (the tapetum lucidum) that makes double use of minimal available light, a trait common to all cat species. “In relation to their body size, the black-footed cat must have one of the largest-sized eyes of all cats,” Sliwa says.

The researcher also observed the cats hunting, and repeatedly failing to catch, springbok calves (Antidorcas marsupialis). They failed every time when the calves stood up, suddenly becoming taller than the tiny cat stalking them. “It has a hell of an ego,” Sliwa says in admiration of the species’ tenacity.

The Benfontein Nature Reserve in the Northern Cape of South Africa, home to the black-footed cat and the site of much of Alexander Sliwa’s work. Image by Alex Sliwa. A female black-footed cat killing a struggling white-quilled bustard. Image by Alex Sliwa.

Achieving conservation status

Sliwa continued publishing often and widely about F. nigripes, tremendously growing the literature and building on awareness and interest among his peers, while securing funding.

His attempts at convincing people of the work’s importance paid off. In 1995, he was approached by the Cat Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, to become the organization’s reference person for the species.

Thanks to the growing body of data (Sliwa himself is lead author on nearly 50 studies surveying the species), the black-footed cat went from being listed as a species of least concern (since there was no scientific backing for any other assessment result) to vulnerable on the IUCN Red List — based on its rarity and relatively restricted and patchy distribution at low densities across Southern Africa. Today, the IUCN Red List puts its estimated population at fewer than 10,000 adult individuals.

Sliwa continued traveling to South Africa and gathering data until, in 1999, now a husband and father, he decided to focus on life back in Germany. There he became the curator at Wuppertal Zoo, taking over the international studbook for black-footed cats and the European breeding program in the process.

“For a couple of years, I essentially stopped working with black-footed cats in the wild,” he says.

Members of the Black-Footed Cat Working Group busy with the IUCN Red List Assessment. They include Project Leader Alex Sliwa (left), Project Manager Beryl Wilson (center), and Martina Küsters, the Namibian Project Leader. Image courtesy of Alex Sliwa.

The captive cats presented different, unique challenges. They’re notoriously hard to breed and prone to AA amyloidosis, a disorder that leads to catastrophic kidney failure. Healthy black-footed cats don’t drink water, Wilson explains. Their kidneys are highly effective at recycling fluid in semiarid climes, but the moment even something minor goes wrong with that specialized organ, health problems cascade, she says.

In 2004, two researchers on the lookout for a solution to the captivity problem contacted Sliwa for help collecting health and epidemiological data and sperm samples from wild cats, to find out if they were disease free, and if their genes could be introduced to captive cats.

The next year, he was back in Benfontein and fitting radio collars with Wilson as part of the team. The collaboration led to the formal establishment of the Black-footed Cat Working Group in 2008. The BFCWG’s aim is to conserve the rare species by furthering awareness and conducting multidisciplinary research on its biology.

Alex Sliwa checking for radiotelemetry signal during fieldwork on collared black-footed cats. Image by Sebastian Kennerknecht.

Taking the work forward

With the establishment of the BFCWG “we could keep the work going,” says project leader Sliwa. Aside from the ongoing, long-term research at Benfontein, annual captures were also conducted at two additional locations in the Upper Karoo region of Northern Cape province from 2009 to 2018, and on farmland in Grünau, Namibia (a location thought to be at the lower rainfall range of where the small cat can survive). Taken altogether, the team’s research on the black-footed cat is now the longest-running small cat project in the world — quite a distinction for an animal once almost unknown to researchers.

But today, Sliwa says he would still be more surprised to hear someone had seen a black-footed cat, rather than they hadn’t, even though the veil over their secretive lives has been largely lifted; today, an informative YouTube video details the cat’s once obscure life cycle.

Now, scientists know that the black-footed cat roams more widely than most other small cats, possibly due to the low availability of prey in their semiarid home range, combined with the large amounts they need to eat to stay warm at night. They’re solitary, only keeping company to mate or to mother kittens. These behaviors may also explain why they do badly, paired and in small enclosures, at zoos, says BFCWG program manager Wilson.

In the wild, birthing coincides with the rainy season when prey is abundant. Mothers can have two litters annually, with one to four kittens, each weighing just 60 to 88 grams (between 2 and 3 ounces) at birth.

A male black-footed cat inside a den. The black-footed cat lives in semi-desert and semi-arid savanna habitat primarily in the country of South Africa, but also in Namibia and Botswana. Image by Alex Sliwa.

Adult animals hunt about 70% of the night — like a cat on steroids, Wilson says. Males kill larger prey, while the smaller, more agile females are more successful in catching small birds. Overall, they mostly eat large-eared mice. In turn, they are mostly killed by predators such as black-backed jackals (Lupulella mesomelas) and caracals (Caracal caracal) or, even in the wild, die due to AA amyloidosis.

The species still keeps some secrets: Sliwa notes that the population total of 10,000 mature individuals displayed on the IUCN website is nothing more than a modeled estimate: The numbers “probably fluctuate between a couple of thousand and more,” as populations rise and fall with rainfall patterns and human impacts, he says.

A lack of connective wildlife corridors linking isolated patches of habitat can result in pockets of black-footed cats dying out after torrential rain or extreme drought. The failure of those cutoff pockets to exchange genetic material is also a serious problem, Wilson adds.

Attempts to impregnate a captive cat with “wild” sperm remain unsuccessful, but researchers are building up a collection of frozen sperm samples to protect against loss of the species’ genetic diversity.

“Contrary to the situation for most small cat species, mortalities of [wild] black-footed cats in our study areas were mostly attributed to natural causes rather than human-related causes,” Sliwa says. They mostly die because they are killed by predators or complications due to AA amyloidosis. But conserving the species in the wild is integral, he says, because creating a long-term sustainable population in captivity has so far not been possible. Zoos are frustrated with black-footed cats, Sliwa says, because they have no handle on the disease issue. A pair might breed once or twice, then die with their offspring due to it.

It is impossible to provide a prognosis for the species’ survival: “Nobody knows,” Sliwa says. Global warming, new diseases or more intensive use or other impacts on their rangelands are only some of the factors that can cause the species to “slip quietly into extinction.” Despite more media attention, including a feature by the BBC, people are still not very aware of the small cat, he says, and funding to continue the research is a constant battle — as is the case with most small wildcat species.

Members of the Black-footed Cat Research Group checking on, caring for, and recording data about an anaesthetized black-footed cat. Image by Sebastian Kennerknecht.

Would it make a difference if black-footed cats disappeared overnight? Economically and even ecologically, probably not, Wilson says. “Except, their presence indicates a healthy environment, for which we as humans are the custodians.”

For zoo curator Sliwa — sitting amid photos of lemurs and lions, and surrounded by towering piles of paperwork awaiting attention — there’s much more to do: Data, he says, are needed on the survival of black-footed cat kittens, on subadults and their dispersal, on scent marking, and there are also theses projects to supervise.

For him, the black-footed cat is a lifelong commitment. “I will continue,” he says, “until I can’t do it any longer.”

This article by Petro Kotzé was first published by Mongabay.com on 18 May 2023. Lead Image: Despite more research attention, the rare black-footed cat’s future remains uncertain. Image by Alex Sliwa.

What you can do

Support ‘Fighting for Wildlife’ by donating as little as $1 – It only takes a minute. Thank you.

Fighting for Wildlife supports approved wildlife conservation organizations, which spend at least 80 percent of the money they raise on actual fieldwork, rather than administration and fundraising. When making a donation you can designate for which type of initiative it should be used – wildlife, oceans, forests or climate.

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GlassesUSA.com, the largest online eyewear retailer, announces the launch of its limited edition Save the Tortoise Collection in honor of World Turtle Day 2023 on May 23rd.

This new collection features 13 unique tortoiseshell frames, each one directly inspired by a specific tortoise facing extinction.

With over 1 million pairs of tortoiseshell frames sold at GlassesUSA.com, they are committed to helping protect, preserve and raise awareness for the beloved animals inspiring this popular style.

The Save The Tortoise Collection comes forth in partnership with The American Tortoise Rescue in Malibu with up to 10% of proceeds being donated to the foundation.

Each pair of glasses in the collection pays artistic homage to a specific tortoise, sharing the same name and taking inspiration from the most intricate details and translating them through the frames.

All frames are made from 100% plant-based acetate and are available as prescription eyeglasses or sunglasses with fully customizable lens options.

Join GlassesUSA.com to support a truly worthy cause and make a stylish statement with the limited edition Save The Tortoise Collection.

Grab a pair today! Save the Tortoise Glasses – Inspired by Endangered Tortoises (glassesusa.com)

The Leopard frame conveys the attractively marked pattern in this tortoise’s uniform yellow and brown colors. The oval ridges of this unique frame shape perfectly model the shape of the tortoise shell.

Frame Descriptions:

• The Western Pond frame, just as the shell of the tortoise itself, is lower and broader in shape, with extending end pieces that represent the tortoise’s prominent head and tail.
• The Mata Mata frame, like its turtle counterpart, has a very striking look. In addition to its standout color, the noticeable laminated edges depict its triangular, flattened head.
• The African Sideneck is a round frame with a smooth, block color finish, illustrating the tortoise’s same characteristics and body shape. The transparent arms are a nod to the light color of its distinctive face.
• The Volcan Darwin Giant has a specific character of its own. Its dark green top and brown patterned bottom shares a wonderful likeness to the tortoise with its dark green shell and patterned under body.
• The Egyption is a delicate, half frame, representing this famously small tortoise. While the arms are brightly patterned, the frame itself has black upper rims, to honor the dark, clearly marked chevrons on its scales.
• The Bolson frame is one of the more unique in the collection. More oval and flat, akin to this giant tortoise, with the same ashy, matte finish as the tortoise’s shell.
• The Greek frame is green in color, and similar to the tortoise’s shell and lower body, the upper half is domed where the lower half is more square.
• The Box, as its name suggests, is an oversized square frame. These sunglasses lenses are red tinted to illustrate the tortoises signature red eyes.
• The Geometric boasts a sleek, angular shape, and a strong black and yellow appearance like the distinguished tortoise shell. This particular frame has the collection’s signature engraving on the outer temple, highlighting the eye-catching scales on the tortoise’s legs.
• The Angonoka frame, when turned upside down, mimics the highly domed, oval shape of this impressive tortoise.
• The Santiago Giant, another oversized frame doing justice to this large tortoise, and displays the beautifully chic gray tones that ensure the same stand-out look of its tortoise doppelganger.

The Parrot Beaked frame has what can only be described as adorable red nose pads that perfectly celebrate the noses of the dominant males that become bright red or orange during breeding season.

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Federal officials have launched a probe after a huge grizzly bear was found dead and bloodied at Yellowstone National Park, sparking fears it had been illegally shot.

Local wildlife photographer Amy Gerber found and captured images of the large bear, which was left near a highway in Wyoming on Monday.

She believes the animal may have been shot and killed, because there were no signs of any impact with a car. Gerber says a bear as big as the one she found would have damaged any car that struck it, and left debris across the road.

Hunting grizzlies is illegal in Yellowstone because of ongoing conservation efforts to boost the bears’ population.

Speaking to Cowboy State Daily, Gerber said: ‘That bear can’t die in vain.

‘The very few people who are so vehemently hateful toward grizzlies, that doesn’t represent us. That’s not Cody, Wyoming.

‘It seems like there’s this perception that people here hate wildlife, and particularly predators, and that’s not true. The outcry over this bear being killed is strong.’

According to Amy, she had heard rumors that on Monday a grizzly had been struck by a car but said there was ‘zero evidence’ of road kill.

Representatives for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service confirmed that they are now investigating the incident.

Anyone with information is also urged to contact the Wyoming Game and Fish Department .

Wyoming Wildlife Advocates shared an appeal on their social media pages, saying: ‘Sometime late last night or early this morning in Wyoming just outside the eastern border of Yellowstone National park, this grizzly bear was illegally killed.

‘Just a bear looking for food doing what bears do.

‘If you have any information on this illegal killing, please call the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in Cody at 307-527-2175.’

Pictured: A grizzly near Beaver Lake in Yellowstone The bear had been found in Yellowstone National Park.

Since September 2018, grizzly bears within the Yellowstone ecosystem have been protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Killing a grizzly bear illegally or without a justifiable cause can carry a maximum penalty of a $50,000 fine or a year in prison.

In April of last year, father and son Jared and Rex Baum of Ashton, Idaho, were sentenced for killing a radio collared grizzly bear .

Rex pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 180 days in jail, plus fines including $1,000 and court costs, as well as a $400 civil penalty.

His hunting license was also revoked for ten years while his son Jared served 30 days and was landed with fines including a $10,000 civil penalty and a lifetime hunting revocation.

The two shot a grizzly sow twelve times on the Little Warm River in Fremont County, Idaho, the year previously.

The population of grizzly bears inside Yellowstone was threatened with extinction in the 1970s but their population has grown from 136 in 1975 to around 1,063 in 2021, according to the National Park Service.

The park service advises any visitors to the area carry bear spray just incase they come across aggressive bears.

This article by Joe Hutchison was first published by The Daily Mail on 5 May 2023. Lead Image: Wildlife photographer Amy Gerber captured images of the grizzly inside the national park.

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Today, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources voted in favor of six bills and resolutions that threaten to remove protections from grizzly bears and gray wolves and weaken the Endangered Species Act. This “grab bag” of danger includes:

• The Trust the Science Act, H.R. 764, would remove Endangered Species Act protection for gray wolves in the lower 48 states.
• The Grizzly Bear State Management Act, H.R. 1245, would remove Endangered Species Act protection for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population.
• The Comprehensive Grizzly Bear Management Act, H.R. 1419, would remove Endangered Species Act protection for grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem population.
• House Joint Resolution 29 would nullify a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision last year to protect the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act.
• House Joint Resolution 46 would nullify last year’s joint decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to expand the habitat that the Endangered Species Act can protect for the benefit of species facing extinction.
• House Joint Resolution 49 would nullify last year’s tentative decision by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the northern long-eared bat under the Endangered Species Act.

House Joint Resolutions 29, 46, and 49 would significantly harm the Endangered Species Act by using the Congressional Review Act to overturn recent protections for imperiled animals. Using the Congressional Review Act in this way sets a dangerous precedent by essentially voiding previous rules issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and by prohibiting the agencies from issuing any similar rule without a future act from Congress.

This kind of public policy doesn’t simply weaken our democratic processes; it puts these vulnerable species under terrible pressure. We’ve already seen the harm that comes when Congress removes a population from the Endangered Species Act’s list of threatened and endangered species: Since Congress directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist wolves in Montana and Idaho in 2011, thousands of wolves—including pups—have been slaughtered, and those states continue to pursue new and crueler ways to kill wolves. If H.R. 764 is passed, other states may move to adopt the same trophy hunting, trapping and population reduction schemes plaguing the wolves of the Northern Rockies.

Gray wolves face a new threat from the Trust the Science Act, which would remove Endangered Species Act protection for wolves in the lower 48 states. Alamy Stock Photo
Keywords: stock, wolf, wildlife,
Confirmed wild by Alamy

Grizzly bears face peril once again if H.R. 1245 and H.R. 1419 go through. In the early 1800s this iconic species ranged from northern Mexico to Alaska and in the lower 48 states numbered as many as 50,000 individuals. But by the 1930s, grizzly bears had been nearly wiped out. Only about 135 bears remained when the species was granted Endangered Species Act protections in 1975. With these protections, grizzly bear numbers have slowly begun to recover, and they now live in small, isolated subpopulations. However, there are still fewer than 2,000 individuals in the lower 48 states, so it’s critical that grizzly bears retain their protections if they are to survive. Should those protections disappear, it’s likely that some states will rush to allow trophy hunting that targets them.

Not only would House Resolutions 764, 1245 and 1419 open the door to trophy hunting of imperiled species, but they would also bar these measures from judicial review, effectively removing the rights of citizens to challenge them in court, an essential feature of the checks-and-balances structure of our system of government.

We expect the House of Representatives to vote on these measures in the coming months, so there’s time to take action to protect wolves, grizzlies and the Endangered Species Act, one of the few laws that remains immensely popular with the American public. The Endangered Species Act has saved approximately 99% of its listed species from extinction, and it is thanks to this landmark law that iconic species such as the bald eagle, whose numbers had plummeted by the 1970s, still grace our national landscape.

Contact your House representatives to urge them to oppose these measures and any others that reverse progress for grizzly bears, wolves and other imperiled wildlife who depend on endangered species protections for their survival.

This article by Kitty Block and Sara Amundson was first published by A Humane World on 28 April 2023. Lead Image: Only about 135 grizzly bears remained when the species was granted Endangered Species Act protections in 1975. iStock.com.

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It was one morning, while walking on the beach in Gujarat, that wildlife expert Meena Venkataraman spotted a pair of paw prints. But this was no dog or fox that had visited. The footprints belonged to an Asiatic lion, the king of the jungle – and, increasingly, the beach.

Once found throughout Mesopotamia, Persia and the Indian subcontinent, the Asiatic lion was almost driven to extinction by the early 1900s due to hunting and habitat loss, before a nawab in the western Indian state of Gujarat intervened. Today, the state is the only home of the Asiatic lion.

While most of the nearly 700 animals counted in 2020 are found in the dry, deciduous terrain of the Gir forest and its surrounding protected areas, many have been moving to seaside locales.

Between 2010 and 2020, the number of lions living along Gujarat’s coast rose from 20 to 104, and forest officials in Gujarat say coastal habitats are now the most significant of all satellite habitats that the lions occupy.

Lions on the sandy beach, walking at the edge of the sea, is an incredible sight

Meena Venkataraman, wildlife expert

Finding lions in coastal areas is not unprecedented – in Namibia, lions have adapted to the beach, where they hunt seals – but in India it is unusual, says Venkataraman, principal consultant at Carnivore Conservation and Research.

“Lions using the sandy beach and walking at the edge of the sea is an incredible sight. I have had the good luck to see that a few times,” she says.

In November 2022, researchers from Gujarat’s forest department released findings from the first study of coastal Asiatic lions. Between 2019 and 2021, they monitored 10 lions fitted with GPS radio collars. One question they set out to answer was what kind of habitats the coastal lions were using, says Mohan Ram, deputy conservator of forests in Gir, and lead author of the study.

Lions spotted in grasslands in between the Gir forest and coastal areas. Photograph: Courtesy of Mohan Ram

The answers were surprising, says Venkataraman, who was also part of the study. “They shelter in the prosopis plantations in the western coasts [of Gujarat]. These are very thick and very thorny habitats,” she says, adding that it’s unusual because the lion is believed to be a more “open area” animal. Meanwhile, “in the eastern coasts, lions are actually making use of salt pan areas and mangroves”.

The researchers also compared the characteristics of the dispersing lions to those in Gir. “Interestingly, we found the home ranges to be different,” says Venkataraman. Lions living in coastal habitats had larger home ranges – the area where an animal usually roams – than those living in the Gir protected areas. Those living between the forest and coastal areas – the “link lions” – were found to have even larger home ranges, she says.

A lion walking near the beach in Gujarat. Photograph: Batuk Bhil

Unlike Namibia’s coastal lions, those in Gujarat do not prey on marine animals but, says Venkataraman: “With time, they may develop a taste for scavenging dead fish.”

They mostly feed on wild boar, nilgai (a type of antelope) and stray cattle, but in 2020 there were reports of a lion preying on a turtle. Ram says forest officials are studying the coastal lions’ food habits and hunting patterns.

The movement of lions to Gujarat’s coast is not new but more of a “recolonisation of their lost territories”, says Kausik Banerjee, a wildlife researcher who was not part of the study. But the predators’ presence on the beach is also indicative of a larger problem of limited space as their numbers grow. “The protected area of Gir [approximately 1,880 sq km] reached its biological carrying capacity for lions long ago,” Banerjee says.

Gujarat officials recently announced plans for a second home for Asiatic lions in the state’s Barda wildlife sanctuary, about 60 miles (100km) from Gir. The Indian government is also reassessing a proposal to relocate some of the lions to the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh. In 2013, India’s supreme court ordered the relocation but it never happened, some experts say, because of Gujarat’s reluctance to part with the lions it is so proud of.

However, as lions move outside protected areas, there is growing concern about human-lion conflict, says Banerjee, amid sporadic reports of lions attacking humans. They also sometimes kill livestock, but farmers receive compensation when that happens.

Local communities revere the lions, and that has made coexistence possible, says Banerjee. But, Venkataraman says, “as populations increase, [conflict with humans] is definitely a problem, not just with lions but with all wild animals the world over”.

A child poses with cutouts of the last Asiatic lions at Gir. As the population of lions has grown, encounters with local people are becoming more common. Photograph: Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty

Developers need to be increasingly mindful of the coastal lions’ migration routes, say the researchers. “Development is necessary for humans, but there needs to be proactive mitigation measures,” says Ram. “For example, if a new highway is being constructed, there should be an underpass so as to not disrupt the movement of wildlife.”

While lions may not be going to the beach for the view, it doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy it. Ram has often observed them sitting on the shore in the evenings, enjoying the sea breeze. It is a sight that may become increasingly common in years to come.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

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