A global effort to prevent all future species extinctions would cost about $80 billion a year, or $11.42 annually from every person on the planet, according to a study published last week in Science .The study, released in conjunction with eleventh meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) currently underway in Hyderabad, India, is intended to support goals and commitments to halting extinctions and preserving nature by the year 2020 that the world's governments have agreed to under the convention.More specifically, the study finds that lowering the extinction risk for all of the species that are currently known to be threatened would cost the first $4 billion per year.
The body of the last wild Siamese crocodile ( Crocodylus siamensis ) in Vietnam was found floating in Ea Lam Lake on September 29. The 3.2-meter-long, 100-kilogram female had been strangled by two steel wires, possibly by hunters.
A primitive, venomous mammal endemic to Cuba and once listed as extinct has been rediscovered after a decadelong quest. The shrewlike Cuban solenodon (Solenodon cubanus)—a “living fossil” that has not changed much in millions of years—was all but wiped out in the 19th century by deforestation and introduced species.
Squirrels: So bushy-tailed, so ubiquitous—so deadly.We don't normally think of squirrels as killers, but North America's eastern gray squirrels ( Sciurus carolinensis ) have actually been called one of the worst invasive species on the planet.
A fossilized sample of thousand-year-old parrot dung has revealed a previously unknown ecological relationship that could help save a threatened parasitic plant from extinction.Yup, conservation science is sometimes weird.The plant in question is called Dactylanthus taylorii (aka wood rose or Hades flower).
How does dressing up in a really bad gorilla costume help to save endangered mountain gorillas? Well, it's not actually the costume itself that's important; it's what the man inside the costume is also carrying.Take a look at the photo to the left.
First the good news: The world's only population of the critically endangered Moapa dace ( Moapa coriacea ), a tiny fish endemic to the hot springs along a small stretch of Nevada's Muddy River, has boomed this year.
The Brazilian three-banded armadillo ( Tolypeutes tricinctus ) can roll itself into a ball so tight that only a puma's claws can penetrate its protective shell.
We have heard a lot about Cayman Islands banking during this election season, but what about Cayman Islands endangered species? The three tiny islands that make up the Caymans—Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac—are home to a handful of endangered species that aren't found anywhere else in the world.
