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Conservationists are celebrating the arrival of the first rhino calf to be born in Bardia National Park, Nepal, since poaching was halted almost two years ago, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said today.

The greater one-horned rhino calf was spotted with its mother by conservationists on a recent elephant-back patrol, ZSL said in a news release accompanying this photo.

Photo of the new greater one-horned rhino calf in Nepal courtesy of Zoological Society of London.

ZSL is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity. It runs two zoos, including London Zoo, carries out scientific research at the Institute of Zoology, and is involved in field conservation internationally.

Supported by experts from ZSL and a grant from the Darwin Initiative, systematic anti-poaching and monitoring patrols are carried out by Nepal's Department for National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) and the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) to protect the country's vulnerable rhinos, ZSL said.

Intensive poaching

"Nepal's rhino population has been subjected to intensive poaching over the past decade as the country was gripped by civil war. Now less than 450 rhino remain in three populations in Bardia and Chitwan National Parks, and Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve.

"The birth of calves is a strong indicator that the patrols are bringing much-needed stability to the country's rhino population."

Rajan Amin, senior field conservation biologist at ZSL, said: "With so few rhino left in Nepal, every new calf is crucial to securing the long-term survival of the species. The rhino also act as an umbrella species for the grassland ecosystem; by conserving them, we're protecting the whole ecosystem which services other species--including ourselves."

Elephant-back patrols

Elephant-back patrol teams have also seen success in Chitwan National Park, where a female calf was recently rescued after being separated from its mother during the monsoon, ZSL added.

"The female calf was found marooned on a dead tree in the middle of the Narayani River with a broken leg. Staff from DNPWC transported the two-foot-high calf back to the Park headquarters in Kasara where she is being treated by a combined veterinary team from the Park and NTNC."

"The future of the greater one-horned rhino is of critical importance to the Government of Nepal. As a flagship species it is serving as a rallying point for conservation, capturing the attention of our people and helping to generate much needed funds," said Gopal Updhayay, the director general of DNPWC.

In addition to poaching, Nepal's rhino population is facing pressure from habitat degradation, invasive alien plant species and human-wildlife conflict, ZSL said.

"There is no quick solution for the greater one-horned rhino, but we're committed to their long-term protection."

"There is no quick solution for the greater one-horned rhino, but we're committed to their long-term protection," said Naresh Subedi of NTNC. "The elephant-back patrols, combined with improved habitat management, raising awareness of the threats facing them through community art projects, and providing local people with alternative livelihoods are all helping to ease the pressure on these iconic animals."

ZSL collaborates with the following partners on its greater one-horned rhino, grassland, and community engagement project: Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Nepal Army, National Trust for Nature Conservation Nepal, WWF Nepal, CABI, Elephant Care International and Tufts University on Health, South African National Parks, IUCN African and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups, Theatre for Africa, Earthbeat Nepal, AWELY and Defra.

Sometimes called the Indian rhinoceros, the species, Rhinoceros unicornis, is listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as Vulnerable. According to the IUCN assessment of Rhinoceros unicornis (2008), populations are increasing overall due to strict protection, especially in India.

Continuing decline in habitat a threat

"However, some populations are decreasing, especially in Nepal and parts of northeastern India," IUCN's assessment states. "The species is currently confined to fewer than ten sites. There is a continuing decline in the quality of habitat, projected to continue into the future, which, if not addressed, will affect the long-term survival of some of the smaller populations, and could jeopardize the further recovery of the species.

"Its populations are also severely fragmented, and with over 70 percent of the population in Kaziranga National Park [in India], a catastrophic event there could have a devastating impact on the status of the species."

Posted by David Braun from media materials submitted by ZSL and from information on the IUCN page for Rhinoceros unicornis and the National Geographic profile page for Indian rhinoceros.

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Earlier this week we were asked to toot our horns for rhinos. Today we are encouraged to roar for tigers. Tomorrow, will we be tweeting for birds?

"To save the world's remaining wild tigers, WWF is not asking people to stand-up and be heard--but asking them for a roar of support," the conservation organization said in a news release today.

NGS stock photo by Michael Nichols

"With tigers in the wild numbering fewer than 3,200, WWF has launched a first-time campaign where web users can literally roar their support for tigers," said the charity, which is based in Switzerland but is deeply engaged with conservation in tiger range countries.

A few days ago WWF South Africa said September would be a month of support for rhinos, which are currently being poached in the country for their horns at the rate of about 20 per month. September 22 is to be Make a Noise for Rhino Day, when supporters of the pachyderm everywhere are asked to blow their vuvuzelas or other musical instruments--or toot their car horns--to express opposition to rhino poaching. It's a kind of blowing a global raspberry against the poachers. (Blow your horn for rhinos.)

The Tiger Roar Campaign, www.panda.org/roar, is an online application where the public can add their own roars in many different ways, whether solo or in a group of friends, family, or with their colleagues, WWF said.

NGS stock photo by Michael Nichols. If you want tigers to remain in the wild, WWF wants you to roar your support for ther big cvats.

"Users can upload pictures of themselves getting all "roary," shoot video of their roars, and upload them to YouTube or Vimeo, and then link them in. For a simpler approach, users can even text message their roars.

"Once uploaded, participants can then search through other entries and vote for their favorite roars, including casting their votes for the funniest or most frightening roars from around the world.

"Everyone who submits a roar will be counted in a special WWF petition to be presented to heads of government, including prime ministers, from the 13 tiger range countries that are attending the Tiger Summit, scheduled for November in St. Petersburg, Russia," WWF said.

"This is a crucial meeting that will determine the fate of wild tigers, and we need everyone's help to get world leaders to the meeting," said Michael Baltzer, head of WWF's tiger programme.

"To encourage these powerful people to make the right decisions, and keep to their stated goal of transforming tiger conservation and doubling the number of wild tigers by 2022, we need you to stand up and roar--any which way you can."

The Tiger Roar Campaign is part of WWF's Year of the Tiger campaign, which runs through February 2011.

WWF launched the TX2 campaign early this year, which seeks to double the number of wild tigers by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.

A first-time tiger conservation declaration from the 13 countries that still have wild tiger populations was prepared in Bali, Indonesia in July this year, and is due to be signed before the close of Year of the Tiger at the Tiger Summit, WWF added.

"The Declaration seeks to create a tiger recovery program that is global in scope while also promoting transboundary cooperation amongst the 13 tiger range countries."

"WWF also will display some of the best roars at the Summit to create awareness of the plight of wild tigers among world leaders and their delegations.

Posted by David Braun from media materials submitted by WWF.

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Invisible shrimp could very well be living in every drop of water you drink--but that's OK, they're nothing to worry about.

By Jeremy A. Kaplan (FOXNews.com)

A photo posted to the online sharing site Reddit has the Internet abuzz. It shows a tiny animal--a shrimp-like crustacean called a copepod--and announces that the reader found it in his New York City tap water.

"You swallow these invisible shrimp with every gulp of NYC tap water," trumpeted online blog Gizmodo about the discovery. Time magazine's website also announced the find breathlessly, exhorting New Yorkers to "drink up"--but noting that the critters may pose a problem for many of the city's Jewish residents.

"Besides a serious 'ick' factor, the copepods are technically crustaceans, which means they aren't kosher for the city's large Orthodox, observant Jewish population," the site warned.

Copepods like this one are among the zooplankton that live in freshwater--and that's nothing to worry about.

Photo of copepod Eudiaptomus vulgaris from Wikimedia Commons 

It's all true. There are, indeed, copepods in New York's drinking water--and the reason they're there is that the city's water is superb for drinking. In fact, people across the country with excellent natural water supplies swallow invisible bugs like these every day.

Most copepods are so small--barely 1 to 2 millimeters long--that they're more or less transparent. And they can be found in most freshwater habitats, including the reservoirs that supply public drinking water to cities like New York.

A drawing by Giesbrecht (1892) of the Copepoda, Sapphirina auronitens Claus, 1863

"It's one of those interesting facts you learn about local drinking water--but it's in no way dangerous," Farrell Sklerov, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), told FoxNews.com.

He explained that many cities filter their water, but if the water quality exceeds federal standards--which New York City tap water does--it doesn't require filtering, a process that would remove the copepods. Among other cities that don't filter their water are Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Sklerov said.

He said the copepods "pose no risk to human health. It's not something that's regulated because there's no harmful effects from them."

A representative of NOAA's Fisheries Services explained that copepods are a form of plankton, the miniscule creatures that form the majority of the biomass in the ocean and feed many animals, notably whales.

"There are areas that have blooms of copepods at certain times of year, such as Cape Cod bay in the spring," said NOAA's Teri Frady. "Right whales eat them, and that's why you see right whales near Cape Cod at that time of year."

They're also harmless for humans, though if you're disturbed, simply pass your water through an ordinary, over-the-counter filter.

Many people do have allergies to crustaceans, the large group of shellfish that includes lobsters, shrimp and copepods, raising the specter of allergic reactions to tap water. That's probably not a concern, said Clifford W. Bassett, medical director of Allergy and Asthma Care of NY and faculty, NYU School of Medicine and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine Long Island College Hospital.

"Shellfish allergy has risen to be one of the most common food allergens in the U.S., in adults. Although not studied formally to my knowledge, in general, there needs to be exposure to an allergen, and be significant enough to cause an immune response in an allergic individual, for symptoms to occur," he told FoxNews.com.

In any event, I suspect the "dilutional" effects of drinking water most likely would reduce the risk," Bassett said.

"Any individual who suspects they may have a food allergy should be seen by an allergist for proper evaluation and management of this condition," he added.

And don't worry. The bugs are kosher.

In a 2004 article in The Jewish Press, Rabbi David Berger, a professor of history at the City University Graduate Center, said, "The notion that God would have forbidden something that no one could know about for thousands of years, thus causing wholesale, unavoidable violation of the Torah, offends our deepest instincts about the character of both the Law and its Author."

So drink up. The shrimp's on the house.

Jeremy A. Kaplan is science and technology editor at FoxNews.com. A "frequent author and a technology nut," Jeremy worked previously at Ziff Davis Media, where he was executive editor of PC Magazine, launched several magazines, and co-hosted the Fastest Geek competition. He founded the GoodCleanTech blog, which was nominated for a 2007 Weblog award, a MIN Best of the Web award, and a finalist for a Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award.

Read more of Jeremy's work on FOXNews/SciTech.

New solar-powered, efficient irrigation in drought-prone Africa could help bring food to millions in need, according to experts.

By Tasha Eichenseher

This post is a part of a special news series on the global water crisis.

Local vegetable markets in Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Senegal, could be flush with produce, despite drought conditions, thanks to a new agricultural system that combines efficient irrigation with new varieties of plants, according to scientists speaking today at the African Green Revolution Forum in Accra, Ghana. (News via press release.)

Photograph of boys harvesting lettuce in the village of Yelou in Niger by Dov Pasternak.

Drought has plagued Africa's Sahel region for decades, threatening nearly half of Niger's population, estimated at seven million, with starvation this year. The majority of food grown in the Sahel is from subsistence farms that rely on rain.

Several agricultural nonprofits announced today they will work with locals to implement the new system, called the African Market Garden, on more than 7,000 small farms in 100 locations in the Sahel.

The effort comes after more than eight years of research and the successful management of African Market Gardens on 3,000 farms, according to scientists from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC).

Dov Pasternak, with the Niger branch of ICRISAT explains that farmers and local markets aren't able to keep pace with rapid population growth and urbanization, in part because of inefficient water use.

In traditional small-scale agriculture in the Sahel, irrigation can take up to eight hours a day as water is hauled from local sources, such as the Niger, Senegal, and Chari Rivers. The new system replaces manual irrigation with a solar-powered pump that delivers water to drip irrigation systems from the rivers.

Funding comes from various international NGOs and foundations, as well as through the development of farm cooperatives in the region.

Photograph of women harvesting leafy greens in Kalale-Benin by Dov Pasternak.

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Good news for a change for frogs: A consortium of conservation agencies and organizations recently celebrated the release into the Arizona wilderness of the 10,000th Chiricahua leopard frog reared at the Phoenix Zoo's Conservation Center. The milestone was reached after many years of many people working hard to restore the native frog to habitat where it has been declining and disappearing.

By Jordan Schaul

Threatened by habitat loss and the insidious chytrid fungus, the Chiricahua leopard frog, Rana (Lithobates) chiricahuensis, a member of the family of "true frogs (Ranidae,)" which includes the better known bullfrog and Northern leopard frog, is literally leaping back into the riparian habitat and freshwater ecosystems, such as springs and ponds.

The animals are being restored to a region of the Southwestern U.S. thanks to some help from wildlife biologists, zoo biologists and a number of passionate conservationists. In Arizona, where these amphibians were released last week, these frogs are found at higher altitudes in both mountainous areas and within high valleys. As part of the USFWS Chiricahua Leopard Frog (CLF) Recovery Program, staff from the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Phoenix Zoo's Conservation Center CLF Breeding program, released 1,707 threatened ranids of various age cohorts into Arizona's Tonto National Forest in August.

This release included the 10,000th Chiricahua leopard frog reared at the Phoenix Zoo's Conservation Center, a significant milestone for the zoo's captive breeding program for this rare and once vanishing species.

Photo of Chiricahua leopard frog courtesy of FWS.

Also this year, the Phoenix Zoo's Anuran Conservation Center produced an additional 100 frogs that were reintroduced near Arizona's Camp Verde in the Coconino National Forest as part of a nearly decade-long reintroduction and translocation project.

Similar to many translocation and reintroduction programs for herpetiles (reptiles and amphibians), this breeding/rearing program was initiated through cooperative efforts among a number of agencies to collect egg masses and wild-caught specimens from healthy populations of frogs.

"Thanks in part to Game and Fish's Heritage Fund, we are making great strides in reestablishing Chiricahua leopard frogs to their native habitat in Arizona, and this release marks a significant accomplishment and milestone for the recovery effort," says Michael Sredl, ranid frog project coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. "Our goal is to work through partnerships to preclude the need to list species on the federal Endangered Species list, or in cases where they are already listed, to recover them to a point where they can be removed from the list."

Photo of Chiricahua leopard frog egg mass courtesy of FWS.

Arizona may be known for its dry heat and desert eco-regions, but it is home to a relatively rich herpetofauna, particularly among species of true frogs.

Plains leopard frogs, relict leopard frogs, Northern leopard frogs, Tarahumara frogs, lowland leopard frog, and two introduced ranids--the American bull frogs and Rio Grande leopard frogs--range through parts of the state.

The Chiricahua leopard frog is distinguished from the other leopard frogs in the region by a combination of character traits listed on the USFWS species description page. Included is a "distinctive salt and pepper pattern on the rear of the thigh of adults and some juveniles, [along with] dorsolateral folds that are interrupted and inset towards the rear, stocky body proportions, eyes that are relatively high and upturned on the head; and relatively rough skin on the back and sides."

The Chiricahua leopard frog grows to be about four inches, and inhabits a range of open freshwater bodies from excavations to large ponds. Until the 1970s, Chiricahua leopard frogs lived in ponds and creeks across central and southeastern Arizona, but populations have declined significantly since then due to drought, disease, habitat loss and threats from non-native species.

"Recovering a species threatened with extinction is never an easy task," said Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, southwest regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Because of the expertise our partners bring to the table, along with their dedication and innovative work, we are beginning to see progress toward recovery of the Chiricahua leopard frog. It is through collaborative efforts such as this one that that we hope to preserve our natural environment for future generations."

The Phoenix Zoo has long been committed to repatriation programs for locally extinct or otherwise imperiled species, including Mexican wolves and thick-billed parrots. They also have an exemplary record for commitments to international recovery efforts.

My colleague, Dan Subaitis, director of animal management for the Phoenix Zoo, is working in Jordan with wild stock related to Arabian oryx now managed at the Phoenix Zoo. This project is a contemporary extension of the work of Operation Oryx, a recovery program that was initiated in the 1960s. At that time, the last remaining wild oryx were sent to the zoo to serve as founder stock for a captive breeding and recovery program.

"The Phoenix Zoo has a legacy of conservation and works locally, regionally and internationally to support conservation efforts like this one for the Chiricahua leopard frog," says Ruth Allard, executive vice president of conservation and experiences at the Phoenix Zoo. "This particular release is exciting for the Phoenix Zoo as it marks the 10,000th frog that was cared for by our staff, and released into the wild."

Zoos continue to play a critical role in species restoration programs which often also require corresponding habitat restoration. As amphibian decline continues at an alarming rate as a result of climate change and other stressors, wildlife rearing facilities will become increasingly important. Rearing and breeding chytrid-free populations of anurans (frogs and toads) is a huge contribution these facilities make to wildlife conservation at this time.

Jordan Schaul is a conservation biologist and a collection curator with the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. He received his PhD in conservation/veterinary preventive medicine from Ohio State University and a master's degree in zoology. He is a fellow of the Conservation Science Institute, an affiliate of the Pew Fellowship Program in Marine Science. He is a council member (ex officio) of the International Association for Bear Research and Management (IBA), a member and coordinator for education and outreach for the Bear Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, an advisor to the Bear Taxon Advisory Group of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, correspondent editor and captive bear news correspondent for International Bear News, and member of the advisory council of the National Wildlife Humane Society, which promotes high standards for wild carnivore care and welfare among private sanctuaries in North America. He is the creator of the Zoo Peeps brand which hosts a blog for the global zoo and aquarium community and two wildlife conservation oriented radio programs. He enrolled in clinical degree programs in veterinary medicine and has been on leave to pursue interests in animal management/husbandry science and conservation education.

The views expressed in this article are those of Jordan Schaul or the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and not necessarily those of the National Geographic Society. Read more blog posts by Jordan Schaul.

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A white rhino was found dead with both horns removed in a wildlife sanctuary on the South African side of the Mozambique border today, according to South African media reports.

"The rhino had been caught in a cable snare that seemed to have been deliberately set for big game, such as hippo, buffalo or rhino, all of which frequent the area," Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife spokesman Jeff Gaisford was quoted saying by The Times website. "Both horns had been removed,"

It was believed the rhino was snared yesterday (Tuesday), but was only found today (Wednesday) by game rangers, the website added.

"This brings the total number of rhinos killed by poachers in KwaZulu-Natal this year to 15," Gaisford said.

The sex of the adult rhino, which was found in the Ndumo Game Reserve, was unknown and no arrests had been made.

According to WWF South Africa, more than 600 rhinos have been killed in Africa over the past five years, most of them by poachers looking for their horns, which are highly prized as traditional medicine in some Asian countries.

Posted by David Braun from media reports.

Related reports from the rhino war zone:

International park becomes frontier in Southern Africa's rhino war

South Africa vows to fight rhino poachers to "last man standing"

Elle Macpherson a voice for rhino conservation?

"Conservationists" behind rhino poaching spree, newspaper reports

South Africa battles to save rhinos from high-tech poachers

South Africa, Zimbabwe epicenter of rhino poaching

NGS stock photo of South African poster by Steve Raymer

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The international conservation charity, WWF, is asking people everywhere to make September an action month to stand with the world's embattled rhinos and the "rhino warriors," the men and women who struggle to protect the pachyderms from poachers.

September solidarity with rhinos is to culminate with "Make Noise for Rhinos Day," during which people are asked to blow their vuvuzelas, the plastic replicas (like the one in the photo above) of the traditional African noise-maker made notorious by the recent World Football Cup tournament. Vuvuzelas were also used outside BP world headquarters in July by demonstrators wanting to express their displeasure at the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

If you don't have a vuvuzela to express support for rhinos, no worries--you can toot a car horn or make a noise with any other kind of instrument, the organizers say.

WWF launched the campaign today "to raise support and funding for those rangers who put their lives on the line to protect Africa's rhinos," the organization said in a news release prepared by WWF South Africa.

"Rhino poaching has increased dramatically over the last year-and-a half, fueled by demand for horn in Asia for use in traditional medicines. South Africa, proud stronghold of the African black and white rhino with more than 80 percent of Africa's rhino populations, has been losing at least 20 of the animals per month. In the last five years, more than 600 rhinos were poached across the African continent," WWF explained.

Rhino horn: All myth, no medicine

"We're asking people to take action during the month of September to help us protect our remaining rhino populations and also support our rhino warriors--the men and women at the frontline who risk their lives daily against the sophisticated, ruthless and heavily armed international criminal gangs who run the illegal rhino horn trade," said Joseph Okori, Head of WWF's African Rhino Programme.

In the last five years, more than 600 rhinos were poached across the African continent, according to WWF.

National Geographic photo of rhinoceros in Laikipia, Kenya, by Michael Nichols

"During the month-long campaign WWF will be stepping up its support to security efforts in dangerous areas with high rates of poaching and will be seeking public support through awareness-raising events," WWF elaborated in its news statement.

The WWF campaign is also to raise support and funding for those rangers who put their lives on the line to protect Africa's rhinos.

National Geographic photo of baby rhino in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya, by Michael Nichols. 

September 22: Make Noise for Rhinos Day 

"The month will culminate with a 'Make Noise for Rhinos Day,' during which WWF will ask people to dust off their vuvuzelas at 1 pm CET [Central European Time, one hour ahead of Universal Coordinated Time], on Wednesday September 22 and make noise with the horns (or toot their horns or blow their didgeridoos or their alpine horns or any other kind of horn) in support of African rhinos in a symbolic call for effective international action against rhino poaching.

"This action will tell governments around the world to take this issue seriously, strengthen law enforcement, and impose strict legal penalties as successful deterrents to these crimes," WWF said.

National Geographic photo of rhino in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, by Chris Johns

"People can show their support by going to wwf.panda.org/rhino/donate where they can offer donations for rhino conservation, learn more about issues pertaining to saving rhinos and also share this information with others", Okori said. "Together we can stop the criminal elements that are plundering our national heritage and a global asset."

Donations to WWF will buy much-needed anti-poaching equipment for guards including binoculars, radios, night-vision gear, body armour, and rhino-tracking and camping equipment. Donations also will provide training for anti-poaching units and be used for emergency veterinary treatments for injured rhino, WWF said.

A 1997 photo of a ranger guarding a black rhino in Matusadona National Park, Zimbabwe.

National Geographic photo by Chris Johns 

"The poaching trend is extremely worrying," Okori said. "If it is not stopped, the rhino conservation wins of the last decade will be in jeopardy, which will greatly affect biodiversity as well as the tourism industry and the communities that benefit from it.

"It's gratifying that a number of organizations have stepped up to act on this issue, and WWF and Lead SA are partnering in their efforts.

WWF believes our international presence in more than 100 countries, including those where much of the horn is shipped to, will help make this campaign effective.

"WWF also works with and supports local conservation organisations such as Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, South African National Parks, North West Parks and others in other rhino range states to respond to this increasing threat and secure Africa's rhino populations."

Posted by David Braun from media material provided by WWF

Related reports from the rhino war zone:

International park becomes frontier in Southern Africa's rhino war

South Africa vows to fight rhino poachers to "last man standing"

Elle Macpherson a voice for rhino conservation?

"Conservationists" behind rhino poaching spree, newspaper reports

South Africa battles to save rhinos from high-tech poachers

South Africa, Zimbabwe epicenter of rhino poaching

NGS stock photo of South African poster by Steve Raymer

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If cats really do have nine lives, the big wild cats of Africa are probably down to their last one or two.

But help may be on the way, in the form of an ambitious new program to explore, test, and develop successful strategies to restore and safeguard the continent's lions, cheetahs, and leopards.

The brainchild of Dereck and Beverly Joubert, veteran wildlife filmmakers and photographers, the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative has seeded eight field projects in recent months in an effort to stop and reverse the precipitous decline of Africa's lions.

Once perhaps half a million in number, fewer than 20,000 lions may be surviving in the wild--and unless something is done urgently to address the situation they may disappear from the wild completely within the current generation.

At stake is much more than magnificent big cats. Our own long-term health and survival could also be at risk if we do not help them.

Click on the image to find out more about the Big Cats Intiative. Photo compilation courtesy of Beverly and Dereck Joubert

For the most part the lions are disappearing because of rising human-predator conflict over competition for the same resources, food and water. Observing and understanding this connectivity during decades of working in the African wilderness, the Jouberts came to realize that the solution for both cats and people lies in creating a symbiotic existence. Protecting big cats means protecting their range and habitat. Caring for their habitat means assuring healthy ecosystems that provide services humans depend on to survive.

This in mind, the Jouberts approached National Geographic to launch the Big Cats Initiative (BCI). Already the BCI has raised funding from donors, appointed a panel of experts, and awarded eight grants to conservationists and researchers trying to find ways to help Africa's wild lions. Additional rounds to support projects for cheetahs and leopards are in the works, and eventually the BCI will also fund work to save tigers, jaguars and big cats across the world.

National Geographic photo of Dereck and Beverly Joubert by Mark Thiessen

The first eight grants of the BCI support work in Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. The projects range from building barriers around traditional livestock enclosures to studying how increasingly widespread use of agricultural pesticides to poison predators can be stopped through government controls and education.

The National Geographic video below focuses on the growing problem of poisoning of lions and other wildlife in East Africa with the commercial pesticide Furudan. The issue is one of the focuses of the Big Cats Initiative.

In some places the first round of funding is being used to establish baselines and databases--big cat restoration and protection cannot be done effectively if little is known about the health and status of their populations in the most critical survival hotspots.

I interviewed Dereck Joubert, co-founder of the Big Cats Initiative, about the BCI. Scroll down the page after the interview to watch a video interview with Terry Garcia, Executive vice President of National Geographic Mission Programs, about the National Geographic perspective of the Big Cats Initiative.

Interview with Dereck Joubert

How did you come up with the idea of the Big Cats Initiative? What had you and Beverly witnessed and what led you to believe that such an initiative could work?

We had a chance when we became National geographic Explorers in Residence to look back at our lives, spent doing films and books inspiring people to care about big cats, to see how effective we and others like us had been.

The most dramatic number milestones started coming in. For half of our lives we have been actively promoting big cats, but since we were born 50 years ago lions numbered 450,000 and today there may be as few as 20,000!

We found this out by researching and assembling all known records and plotting them on a graph. This curve also showed us that if we extended that line, we could expect extinctions by 2020.

Forming some kind of emergency plan was clearly urgent. We approached Nat Geo with this idea and started gathering support from the big cat world.

In the National Geographic video below Beverly and Dereck Joubert talk about a project to mitigate conflict between Masaai herders and lions in Kenya's Maasai Mara.

Who are the main supporters of the Big Cats Initiative?

We have support from most NGOs, conservationists, and leaders in conservation for the concept of an emergency effort around the world. Financially, we find support wherever we can, from large donors and small contributors alike. We have a hugely successful web presence with millions of interested 'hits' a month and the message is going out far and wide.

We also count support by a number of key African leaders as important.

Who else would you like to include in the partnership?

This has to be a joint effort across all concerned people, politicians, conservationists, even hunters, or we will lose lions within ten years.

Eight grants have been made so far, all for African lions.

Yes, these are seed programs to see if any will be scalable to other places and to test the viability as models.

What are the intentions for supporting the world's other big cats?

We have a cheetah program in place, we have a leopard project. I think tigers are in a much worse place than everything else, at 3,000 individuals in the wild, so that we must get involved there if we can, without it becoming political and if we can help.

What kind of applications for funding and testing are you looking for?

I'm after groundbreaking ideas more than science projects that have been tried (and failed or worked to a degree) before. We need remember that this is an emergency so we need an ideas factory more than PhD grants.

What's your reaction to the first two rounds of grants, in terms of the range of projects?

There is a good spread with competent people. Some satisfy the need of ours to pilot a project and see if it works, maybe modify it and take it further. Some are innovative or extensions of new ideas. Some we must get behind simply because we have to help save the last pockets of lions in an area.

You have said you are confident that the big cats can be restored and conserved in the African wild. Can you flesh out that statement a bit?

My confidence never falters...it takes a few body blows from time to time, but...cats are fast breeders, and if we relieve the pressure they are under I am convinced they will bounce back. Cheetah, for example, bounced back from what is thought to be 200 individuals to the 12,000 they have now, and while we clearly don't want to leave this too long, there is that potential to breed back.

I am most concerned about how and when we can alleviate that pressure though. My research shows that every time we add a billion people to the world all predators halve in number for a whole range of reasons: We use up their land, we kill them to eliminate them as competition for food, or we use them up as ritualized symbols of our greatness (hunting, skins, and so on). So as we grow the potential to eventually recover the big cats will diminish, unless we can start a major worldwide mindset change right now.

"That starts with a campaign like the Big Cats Initiative to highlight to everyone that we have a problem. Once that is acknowledged, then at least we will have taken that first step."

That starts with a campaign like the Big Cats Initiative to highlight to everyone that we have a problem. Once that is acknowledged, then at least we will have taken that first step.

Up until recently some scientists were questioning what we were saying, and that we actually had a lion problem at all. We're over that now, and we all agree this is serious. It's like an Alcoholics Anonymous tactic...its starts, I guess, with admitting we have a problem, and in this case we now know that we are addicted to consuming and killing big cats.

Some of us like doing this for thrills, some because we have generations of instilled fear of large cats prowling the night nearby, and others, the pushers, are in this to make money from skins and bones.

But it has started and more and more kids are coming up to us after lectures and say: "How can we help? This is insane, what are your generation thinking?" Indeed, what are we thinking? When 95 percent of natural resources like great redwood trees, tuna stocks or lions have been killed in 50 years, you have to know that we are drunk on our omnipotence as users of the planet.

Both of you have played an enormous role in bringing photos and video to the global audience about the big cats in Africa. It's a profound contribution to awareness and education...

Thanks, but it is a whisper in the storm.

How else are you personally involved in big cat restoration and conservation?

Well we started the Big Cats Initiative, we have been fighting the senseless killing of animals in Africa for 20 years, we have invested in a company called Great Plains Conservation that has as its main mission to find and purchase or run vast tracts of land in Africa (for now) in iconic places that would otherwise be threatened.

We enhance the natural habitat and secure these pieces, build up the wildlife and turn them back into safe land for wildlife. Much of that work is focused on big cats and today we have just over 1.2 million acres of wild land.

Recently I got a call from a friend about two lions that were caught and about to be shot. We flew in a plane, arranged permits in 36 hours, darted, loaded and released those lions in our reserve in Botswana.

Last month we moved two cheetah cubs into the reserve, rehabilitated them and just released them. They are doing well.

I am active in fighting FMC and other poison makers that are distributing Furadan into Africa, a poison that kills lions en masse. We're involved in rhino conservation and a range of other initiatives in Africa.

What are the biggest hurdles that must be overcome if we can be sure the big cats will survive in Africa?

I believe it's habitat destruction, the consequent isolation of breeding populations, hunting, poisoning and other persecution that are a consequence of increasing collision between cats and humans.

The problem is human-predator conflict indeed, but habitat destruction is not necessarily the main cause. Some 84 percent of Africa is uninhabited as a result of the urban migration of people. But what is left is poached to shreds. We kill big cats for everything, because we love them (safari hunting takes 600 lions a year, hundreds come into the U.S. [as trophies] each year!) Poachers use poison to [kill] them for bone trade. Cattle herders poison them so they don't kill their cattle. The real problem: seven billion people.

Interview with Terry Garcia

Watch the video interview with Terry Garcia, head of National Geographic Mission Programs, on why the National Geographic Society is supporting the Big Cats Initiative:

Anne Kent Taylor is one of the first grantees to receive funding from the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative. Read her blog posts from the field in Kenya's Maasai Mara region, where she is helping mitigate conflict between herders and predators by providing chain-link fencing to secure livestock eclosures.

For regular updates about the Big Cats Initiative, grantees and scientists and blogging from the field and more, click on Nat Geo News Watch: Big Cats Initiative.

Posted by David Braun

The National Geographic video below focuses on a Nat Geo project that uses a Crittercam, a camera worn by a lion, to study how thebig cats hunt and raid African cattle ranches at night:

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Lions may be under pressure in the wild in Africa, but in the capital of the United States their population just expanded.

The Smithsonian's National Zoo welcomed this year's second litter of African lion (Panthera leo) cubs, the zoo said today.

The Smithsonian's National Zoo's 5-year-old lion Shera gave birth to a litter of 4 cubs between 10:30 p.m. August 30 and 2:30 a.m. August 31.

Photo courtesy of National Zoo

Photo of Shera, the mother lion, by Mehgan Murphy, Smithsonian's National Zoo

"On August 31, Shera gave birth to four cubs--the first litter for 5-year-old Shera and the first surviving litter for 4-year-old male Luke," the zoo said in a statement with the release of photos.

"The National Zoo is thrilled that our captive management program for African lions is growing," said Dennis Kelly, director of the Zoo. "After the sad loss of our other female lion's cub in May, these cubs symbolize hope for the Zoo and for conservation programs. They will help build healthy, genetically diverse populations and contribute greatly to their species' survival."

The cubs were born between 10:30 p.m. yesterday and 2:30 a.m. today and since then have been mobile and appear to have nursed, the zoo added.

"Because it is not uncommon for intervals between births to be several hours long, keepers will continue to monitor Shera for additional cubs," the zoo said.

Watch this short video clip of the cubs:

Although the Zoo has managed lions in the past, it has been many years since it had the right combination of animals by age and gender to develop a pride, the zoo said in its statement. "Doing so successfully has required extensive planning, knowledge of the species' natural history and an understanding of the individual animals involved."

From the zoo:

Introductions among Shera, Luke and Nababiep (Shera's 6-year-old sister) began almost two years ago in an effort to build a pride. Six months ago, all three lions spent time in the yard together as a group for the first time. The introduction was a positive one, and Shera and Luke bred the second week of May. Over the past few weeks, keepers have gradually separated the three again to give Shera privacy and emulate the natural process. In the wild, lions may wait up to six weeks before introducing their cubs to the rest of the pride. Keepers predict the cubs will not be out in the yard, however, until late fall, which will give the Zoo's animal keepers and veterinary team time to examine them and monitor Shera as she adjusts to being a first-time mother. She has privacy in her own cubbing den but also has the option of visiting Nababiep through a mesh door.

The birth of lion cubs marks the next step in building a pride, and keepers will slowly introduce the cubs to their aunt with the aim of eventually bringing all seven lions together. Keepers had a similar plan for Nababiep, who gave birth to a single male cub May 18. Unfortunately, a straw seed became lodged in the cub's lung, and it died of pneumonia.

"Since the unfortunate death of Naba's cub, we've investigated various alternative bedding options," said Rebecca Stites, a lion and tiger keeper. "The use of bedding is imperative as it protects the cubs from trauma during the first fragile weeks of their lives. We've provided Shera and her cubs with shavings and soft hay with as few seed as possible."

Nearly two weeks after Nababiep was reintroduced to the pride, she bred with Luke again. Keepers suspect that Nababiep is pregnant again and will monitor her behavior in the coming weeks.

The formation of prides makes lions unique among the great cats, many of which are solitary animals. Hunting, disease and habitat loss have contributed to a decline in the population of African lions, which are considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"Our hope is that her maternal instincts will kick in quickly, but we are keeping in mind that this whole experience is new to her," said Kristen Clark, a lion and tiger keeper. "We will be closely monitoring how she reacts to her cubs, since there is a possibility that she could reject them. Naba was an excellent mother to her first cub, and we have every indication that Shera will be the same."

For more photos and information of the lion introductions, visit the National Zoo's website.

Posted by David Braun from media materials provided by the Smithsonian's National Zoo.

Read more zoo news.

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Millions of Canada's migratory birds, representing more than a hundred species, could be at risk when they return this fall to areas in the Gulf of Mexico affected by the oil spill, the Boreal Songbird Initiative (BSI), a conservation charity, said today.

"The Gulf Coast serves as important habitat for hundreds of Canada's bird species which use the region for wintering grounds and migratory stopover habitat," said the non-profit organization, which is dedicated to outreach and education about the importance of Canada's boreal forest to North America's birds.

"The world's largest migration occurs every year when billions of birds fly from Canada to areas south, including the Gulf Coast," said Jeff Wells, senior scientist at the Boreal Songbird Initiative. "We're not sure what these birds will face when they return to areas hit by the oil spill, but certainly a large number of birds could be vulnerable to illness or even death."

The migratory birds of Canada's boreal forest represent a significant percentage of the birds that winter in the Gulf Coast region or stop during their travels further south, BSI explained in a news release. "Canada's boreal forest is the world's largest intact forest and is home to more than 300 bird species, including 80 percent of North American waterfowl species, 63 percent of finches and 53 percent of warblers."

Graphic courtesy of the Boreal Songbird Initiative. Click the image to enlarge the graphic.

"There's been a lot of attention to oil spill effects on local resident species," Wells said. "But there's a lurking time bomb for many waterfowl and shorebirds that breed in Canada's boreal forest and winter or stop in the Gulf."

Nearly five billion of Canada's migratory birds fly south every fall, Wells added. He and other experts worry these birds could face both long- and short-term adverse effects to shoreline habitat, necessary winter food sources and health.

"The Gulf Coast is vitally important for many wetland bird species. The marshes, beaches and tidal flats provide ideal nesting areas and habitat for millions of waterfowl, seabirds, shorebirds and other water birds. These habitats also house fish, mollusks and other marine life that provide the food supply for many of these birds. The impact on smaller food sources like plankton could have a ripple effect on the entire food chain. There may also be longer-term effects stemming from physiological impacts of ingested oil that could lead to lower breeding success rates.

"Currently, nesting birds such as terns, gulls and pelicans are hit hardest by the oil spill. Louisiana's coast supports an estimated 77 percent of the U.S. breeding population of Sandwich Tern, 52 percent of Forster's Tern and 44 percent of black skimmer. Many of North America's most at-risk species also live in the region during a portion of the year, including Yellow Rail, Black Rail, Snowy Plover, Piping Plover, and Short-billed Dowitcher. The oil spill could pose long-term implications for the health of their total populations," BSI said.

"We've really only seen the tip of the iceberg so far," Wells said. "Species from the boreal and other areas may encounter habitats and food sources contaminated with oil on their journey south that may cause illness or even mortality. These birds, and the generations to come after them, are endangered by the oil spill's impact to critical marsh and beach habitat.

"While there isn't much that can be done to mitigate effects of the oil spill on wildlife," Wells added, "there are ways to protect bird populations in the future through prevention of habitat loss and fragmentation--one of the leading causes of declining bird populations worldwide.

"By protecting intact ecosystems such as the 1.4 billion acres of Canada's Boreal Forest," said Wells, "we can give these critical populations of migratory birds a fighting chance of recovering from devastating occurrences such as the Gulf oil spill."

Posted by David Braun from media materials supplied by the Boreal Songbird Initiative.

In the video above, Ducks Unlimited (DU) conservation staff discuss the characteristics of the boreal forest in Canada. The boreal forest is critical breeding territory for more than ten species of ducks--100 percent of their breeding happens there. DU is focused on protecting pristine boreal habitat. Learn more: http://www.ducks.org

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Up to 80 percent of toxic coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal, is dumped into landfills. But arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals from the ash are leaching into more groundwater sources than first reported.

By Tasha Eichenseher

This post is a part of a special news series on the global water crisis.

Public hearings started today for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed rule on how to dispose of coal ash--the toxic byproduct of burning coal.

In December, a billion gallons of coal ash spilled from the Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee, poisoning a river and burying neighboring homes. The disaster, which occurred four months before the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, was also compared to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

According to EPA, nearly 172,000 pounds of coal ash are produced annually.

Photograph of New Johnsonville, Tennessee, by Emory Kristof

Up to 80 percent of this residue--containing arsenic, cadmium, and other contaminants associated with cancer--is dumped into landfills. These toxins have been known to leach into groundwater supplies near dumpsites.

The rest is reused to make concrete, cement, asphalt, paints, PVC pipes, bowling balls, floor coverings, shower stalls, and in construction. These types of "beneficial" uses are not regulated by EPA and are not on the table for regulation.

Instead, post-Tennessee spill, EPA is focusing on how to line landfills and monitor groundwater. The agency has two versions of its rule up for discussion; one leaves regulation up to the states, the other incorporates federal enforcement.

Advocates of tighter regulation have suggested the states are not doing enough. They have asked EPA to designate coal ash as a hazardous waste.

A report released last week by environmental nonprofits indicates that coal ash is a serious health concern.

The Environmental Integrity Project, Sierra Club, and Earthjustice have identified more than three dozen sites in more than 20 states where they say coal ash is contaminating drinking and surface water.

Those sites are in addition to the 67 EPA has already identified. At every site with groundwater that the report authors visited, concentrations of arsenic and lead exceeded federal health standards for drinking water.

The findings "illustrate very real and dangerous harms that are going on in a largely unchecked fashion," said Jeff Stant, director of the Environmental Integrity Project's Coal Combustion Waste Initiative.

EPA's first public hearing is in Arlington, Virginia, with six more across the country before November 19.

Ancestors of dinosaurs and other animals from the Haţeg Basin in Transylvania may have arrived from what was once a continent of Asiamerica by "island hopping," suggests a fossil discovery published today.

By Hans-Dieter Sues

Islands are wonderful natural laboratories for the study of evolutionary change and for that reason have long attracted the attention of biologists. Their peculiar ecological conditions often led to the evolution of species that greatly differ in body size and/or form from their closest relatives on the mainland.

Large animals often become smaller on islands (due to limited food resources) and small ones become larger (often due to the absence of predators). This phenomenon is known as the "island rule."

One of the best-known examples from the fossil record are the pony-sized elephants that lived on Crete and other Mediterranean islands during the Pleistocene and Holocene.

Other striking examples include the 'koala lemur' Megaladapis from Madagascar, which attained a weight of up to 100 kg (220 pounds) and vanished only in the 16th century, and the ground-dwelling owl Ornimegalonyx from the Pleistocene of Cuba, which may have stood an impressive 1.1 m (3.6 feet) tall.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Austro-Hungarian paleontologist Franz Baron Nopcsa reported dinosaur fossils from sedimentary rocks of latest Cretaceous age in the Haţeg Basin of Transylvania (which became part of Romania after World War I). His sister had discovered dinosaur bones on one of the family's estates, which excited the young nobleman's interest and led him to a distinguished career in paleontology. Additional collecting by Nopcsa and others led to the recovery of bones belonging to several new species of dinosaurs.

What is most intriguing about these fossils is the fact that they represent animals of much smaller body size than related species elsewhere. Based on this size difference, Nopcsa inferred that the Haţeg dinosaurs represented an island community. However, his work was largely ignored until there was a resurgence of interest in the Late Cretaceous dinosaurs from Transylvania in the late 1970s.

Evolutionary decrease in body size

Recent studies on the microscopic structure of the bones in the duck-billed dinosaur Telmatosaurus and the titanosaurian sauropod Magyarosaurus from the Haţeg Basin support Nopcsa's hypothesis that both dinosaurs had undergone an evolutionary decrease in body size.

Since the 1970s, many new finds of vertebrate fossils have further demonstrated the peculiar nature of the biota from the Late Cretaceous of the Haţeg Basin. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a team of Romanian and American paleontologists has just announced the most remarkable discovery to date--an unusual new predatory dinosaur.

During Late Cretaceous times (about 100 to 65 million years before present), a warm, shallow sea sprinkled with islands of various sizes covered much of present-day Europe. Motions of the African continental plate led to volcanic activity and formation of islands along the northern margin of the western portion of the Tethys Sea (which would later become the Mediterranean Sea).

The Haţeg Basin of Romania was located on an island in an archipelago that extended from the region now occupied by the European Alps eastward to present-day southwest Asia.

Closest dinosaurian relatives of birds

The new species of predatory dinosaur from Romania has been named Balaur bondoc. (Baldaur is derived from an ancient Romanian word for 'dragon' and bondoc means 'stocky.') It belongs to the Dromaeosauridae, which include the (misnamed) "raptors" of the blockbuster movie Jurassic Park and are now considered the closest dinosaurian relatives of birds.

One of the specimens assigned to this new species preserves articulated bones of the limbs and girdles (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Reconstructed body silhouette of Baldaur bondac with known bones shown.

Courtesy and copyright of M. Ellison (American Museum of Natural History).

The sturdily built skeleton of Baldaur bondoc is unlike that of other known dromaeosaurs in a number of features.

The hand shows extensive fusion of bones in the wrist and hand. There are only two functional fingers, unlike the three-fingered grasping hand in related species.

The foot retains an enlarged, functional first toe, unlike the greatly reduced digit in most predatory dinosaurs. This toe is very similar in size and shape to the second one, which, as in other dromaeosaurs, carries a much enlarged, sickle-shaped claw that had a large arc of motion.

Each foot of Baldaur sported a double set of these claws, which were probably used in seizing prey (Figure 2). The robust hind leg shows extensive fusion of bones in its shin and foot. Apparently Baldaur could deliver powerful strikes with its deadly feet.

Figure 2. Left lower leg and foot of Baldaur bondoc with two greatly enlarged claws (marked by white arrow heads).

Courtesy and copyright of M. Ellison (American Museum of Natural History).

Baldaur is most closely related to the Late Cretaceous Velociraptor from Mongolia and China. This is an important finding because one of the unresolved issues concerning the Haţeg dinosaurs had concerned their origin: Did they represent ancient lineages that had only survived on an island or did at least some of the species have faunal connections with neighboring continents late into the Cretaceous?

The duck-billed dinosaur Telmatosaurus suggested connections to Asia. The discovery of Baldaur now provides further support for this hypothesis.

The researchers argue that the peculiar skeleton of this predator represents an example of the "island effect." The precursors of the dinosaurs and other animals from the Haţeg Basin may have arrived from Asiamerica (a vast ancient landmass that included what are now East Asia and western North America) by "island hopping," especially during intervals of lower sea levels.

Hans-Dieter (Hans) Sues is a vertebrate paleontologist based in Washington, D.C. He is interested in the evolutionary history and paleobiology of vertebrates, especially dinosaurs and their relatives, and the history of ecosystems through time.

A former member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, Hans has traveled widely in his quest for fossils and loves to share his passion for ancient life through lectures, writings, and blogging.

Blog entries by Hans-Dieter Sues >>

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Jilin province of China and neighboring Primorsky province in Russia have agreed to collaborate formally in working towards the first transboundary Amur tiger protected area, WWF, the international conservation organization, said in a news release yesterday.

"The signed agreement, facilitated by WWF, the global conservation organization, will help wildlife authorities eventually establish a transboundary protected area--acooperative conservation network that crosses country borders--in the provinces that are home to the world's largest big cat," WWF said.

The population of the highly endangered Amur tiger, also known as the Siberian tiger, is currently estimated at 500.

In the agreement signed by Jilin Provincial Forestry Department of China and two Russia agencies--the Wildlife and Hunting Department of Primorsky Province and Special Inspection "TIGER" of Russia (official name of the Bureau on Protection of Rare and Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna)--the two sides will work together in establishing a tiger conservation protected area in both provinces, as well as partner to restore the endangered species, WWF explained.

National Geographic photo of Siberian tiger and her cubs in the snow by Michael Nichols.

"A new transboundary protected area would provide a wider and healthier habitat for Amur tigers and other endangered species, such as the Far East leopard, musk deer and goral," said Yu Changchun, Director of Conservation Department of Jilin Forestry Department.

"While tigers--the species at the top of the eco-system--are better conserved through the agreement, other species, the forest habitat and all the bio-diversity resources will also benefit from this protected area," said Zhu Chunquan, WWF-China's Conservation Director.

As part of the agreement, WWF said, Jilin and Primorsky provinces will increase information sharing on Amur tiger and Far East leopard protection, work to adopt identical monitoring systems for tigers and their prey, and conduct joint ecological surveys and develop plans to launch an anti-poaching campaign along the China-Russia boarder.

"Destruction and fragmentation of habitat, poaching and lack of prey have reduced the number of wild Amur tigers," WWF said. "One of six remaining subspecies of tigers...the Amur tiger is primarily found in eastern Russia, with a small number in northeastern China. Among that population, 20 tigers have been periodically spotted within the borders of China's Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces."

"This agreement is a great boost for Amur tiger habitats in Russia and China. Since both countries play a crucial role in terms of global tiger recovery, a future transboundary network would represent a big step in WWF's global tiger conservation effort," said Sergey Aramilev, the Biodiversity Coordinator for Amur Branch of WWF-Russia, which is also involved in promoting the agreement. "There's a lot of work to be done to implement this agreement, such as making sure it receives proper government funding, but this is a major step forward nonetheless."

"The agreement marks another milestone during the Chinese Year of the Tiger in 2010," WWF added. "WWF launched the TX2 campaign early this year, which seeks to double the number of wild tigers by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022. A groundbreaking tiger conservation declaration from the 13 countries that still have wild tiger populations was prepared in Bali, Indonesia in July this year, and is due to be signed before the close of Year of the Tiger at a tiger conservation summit hosted by Russia. The Declaration seeks to create a tiger recovery program that is global in scope while also promoting transboundary cooperation amongst the 13 tiger range countries."

Posted by David Braun from media materials provided by WWF.

Read more about big cats.

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A hidden factor in many "natural" disasters is the loss or degradation of "ecological infrastructure."

By Sandra L. Postel
National Geographic Freshwater Fellow

This post is part of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative.

It's getting harder and harder to blame Mother Nature for the disasters that befall humanity. While hurricanes, floods, droughts and storm surges are natural events, to be sure, the degree of disaster that unfolds when such events strike is often now heavily influenced by human activities.

When Hurricane Katrina smacked the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the protection from powerful storm surges provided by coastal wetlands and barrier islands had gradually been whittled away. Since the 1930s, Louisiana had lost 1.2 million acres of coastal wetlands. More than two dozen dams and thousands of miles of levees on the Mississippi River had trapped sediment that otherwise would have replenished them. At the same time, wetlands were drained and filled to enable oil and commercial development in the Gulf region. Even as the Army Corps of Engineers failed to adequately maintain levees to keep the floodwaters at bay, this loss of natural protection worsened the catastrophe.

The disintegration of the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana

Similarly, there is a human hand in the devastating floods now ravaging villages and farmlands in Pakistan's Indus River valley. Torrential monsoon rains are of course the proximate cause of this disaster, but river engineering plays into its severity and extent. The Indus emerges from the Himalayas carrying millions of tons of sediment from the young, eroding mountain chain. Under natural conditions, the river would carry most of that nutrient-rich load across a gently sloping sandy plain to its delta adjoining the Arabian Sea, helping sustain mangrove forests and fisheries there.

(See pictures of the floods in Pakistan.)

But today the vast majority of the river's water is diverted into irrigation canals, leaving too little flow in the main channel to transport the sediment. As the silt settles out, the capacity of the channel to contain flood flows decreases. With little active floodplain left to absorb flows overtopping the banks, the result is catastrophic flooding - in this case covering one-fifth of the country and forcing 20 million people from their homes.

And on December 26, 2004, the tsunami that struck coastal Asian nations and claimed some 273,000 lives cast a spotlight on another valuable service performed by intact ecosystems--the storm and wave protection provided by mangroves and coral reefs. The tangled roots and dense vegetation of mangroves, which thrive where salt water meets fresh water, act like a shock absorber against storm and wave energy. Vast areas of these natural protective barriers had been cleared for hotels, shrimp farms, and other commercial developments, including half the coastal mangroves in Thailand.

These are extreme, but hardly isolated cases. Floods, droughts, storms and other weather-related natural disasters displaced 20 million people worldwide in 2008. According to Munich Re, the large German re-insurance company, some 850 weather-related disasters occurred in 2009, compared with an annual average of 770 over the previous decade. Economic losses from natural catastrophes in the ten years prior to Katrina exceeded the combined losses from 1950 through 1989.

With climate scientists warning of more extreme floods and droughts in the decades to come, the human and economic losses are bound to increase.

Certainly more people now live in harm's way-along coastlines, on floodplains, and in deltas. But the hidden factor in many "natural" disasters is the loss or degradation of "ecological infrastructure." Healthy rivers, floodplains, wetlands and forested watersheds provide services of enormous value to society just as roads, bridges and treatment plants do. They help mitigate floods and droughts, buffer storms, transport sediment, filter pollutants, purify drinking water, and deliver nutrients to coastal zones. In 2005 scientists participating in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment estimated that wetlands alone provide services worth $200-940 billion per year.

Around the world, however, these services are rapidly disappearing. Some 25-55 percent of the world's wetlands have been drained, 35 percent of global river flows are now intercepted by large dams and reservoirs, and more than 100 billion tons of nutrient-rich sediment that would otherwise have replenished floodplains, deltas, and coastal zones instead accumulates in reservoirs. Post-Katrina, the Gulf coast continues to lose a football field's worth of wetlands every 38 minutes.

Just as we buy home insurance and life insurance to protect ourselves and our families from catastrophic losses, so society now needs to "buy" disaster insurance to reduce the damage caused by floods and other weather-related events. By strategically investing in the protection and restoration of ecological infrastructure, we can begin to re-gain the benefits of nature's services.

Some nascent efforts in this direction have at least been floated. Within a month of the Asian tsunami, officials in Indonesia--where more than 126,000 of the tsunami deaths had occurred and where some 1.6 million acres of coastal mangroves had been lost in the preceding few decades--announced a large-scale effort to restore the nation's mangrove defenses. In the aftermath of Katrina, U.S. scientists have been studying the idea of diverting Mississippi River water back toward Louisiana's disappearing coastal swamps, to supply the nutrients and sediments needed to rebuild them.

Overall, however, the story is one of inertia, neglect and missed opportunity. After the Great Midwest Flood of 1993, U.S. researchers estimated that restoration of 13 million acres of wetlands in the upper portion of the Mississippi-Missouri watershed, at a cost of $2-3 billion, would have absorbed enough floodwater to have substantially reduced the $16 billion in flood damages from that event. But instead of calling floodplains and wetlands back into active duty, officials in the region permitted even more floodplain development. Nicholas Pinter of Southern Illinois University estimates that 28,000 new homes and 6,630 acres of commercial and industrial development have since sprung up on land that was under water in 1993.

Climatic change and its anticipated effects on the hydrological cycle will make the protective resilience of ecological infrastructure all that more critical and valuable. With the pace of "natural" disasters picking up, an international effort to shore up the planet's natural defenses cannot begin too soon.

Sandra Postel directs the independent Global Water Policy Project and lectures, writes, and consults on international water issues. She is also Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society, and serves as lead water expert for the Society's freshwater initiative.

Sandra is the author of several acclaimed books, including Last Oasis, which appears in eight languages and was the basis for a 1997 PBS documentary, and is co-author, with Brian Richter, of Rivers for Life. Her essay "Troubled Waters" was selected for Best American Science and Nature Writing. She is a 1995 Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment.

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San Diego Zoo scientists often come back from the field with wonderful tales of their adventures and interesting findings. One of the zoo's newer programs is about Andean (spectacled) bears in the cloud forests of southeastern Peru, near the route of the Interoceanic Highway that is under construction.

Russ Van Horn works with biologists in Peru and local villagers to help study the Andean bear. He has set up camera traps to capture wildlife, especially the bear. Not a lot of research has been done on this species, so Van Horn's study is gaining valuable information, including documentation of a bear following a giant anteater.

By Russ Van Horn

Andes Mountains, Peru--The longer we have remote cameras deployed in the forests on the eastern slope of the Andes in southern Perú, the more questions I have about what is going on in those forests. Each camera has been programmed to take 10 photos in rapid sequence as soon as it detects motion, and one of the cameras took a sequence that I find simply amazing.

The first few photos show a giant anteater walking up the trail, which is not uncommon at that camera station, 2.1 kilometers [1.3 miles] off the Interoceanic Highway at 1273 meters [4,200 feet] elevation in primary forest. As the anteater, known in Spanish as an oso hormiguero, walked out of sight below the camera, the shine of two eyes became visible in the distance.

When I first saw those eyes in the photo, I assumed that they were the eyes of another anteater. However, in fact they were the eyes of another oso, an oso andino, or Andean (spectacled) bear. This bear was walking up the trail, 3-5 meters [10-16 feet] behind the giant anteater.

Both animals are partially visible in one photo, so it was not a case of the camera failing to record the correct time for the photos of the Andean bear; the two animals actually were in the same place at the same time.

A remote camera photo taken on 21 July 2010, showing a giant anteater walking up a trail.

A remote camera photo taken on 21 July 2010, showing the tail of a giant anteater and the eyes of an Andean bear.

A remote camera photo taken on 21 July 2010, showing an Andean bear following behind the giant anteater.

A remote camera photo taken on 21 July 2010, showing an Andean bear following behind the giant anteater.

Photos courtesy of San Diego Zoo

I could calculate the probability that this would happen simply by chance, but I don't think I need to--the probability would be so small that I'm confident it's not a coincidence. So, what was the Andean bear doing there, and then?

Other than coincidence, I can think of two hypotheses to explain why the animals were together.

First, there is the possibility that the Andean bear was hunting the giant anteater. However, I think this is unlikely, for three reasons.

• Based on the analysis of their feces, and the evidence they leave in the forest, Andean bears are thought to be primarily vegetarian.
• The posture of the giant anteater was not obviously any different than in any other photos, so although it had to be aware that it was being followed, there wasn't any visual evidence that it was alarmed by the bear.
• Giant anteaters have strong forelimbs and claws, and I don't think they would be easy prey for a bear.

"So, if the Andean bear wasn't hunting the giant anteater, what was going on?"

So, if the Andean bear wasn't hunting the giant anteater, what was going on?

I think my second hypothesis is plausible; I think the Andean bear may have been following the giant anteater to benefit from the anteater's superior ability to find and excavate colonies of social insects, such as ants. In other words, the bear may have been acting as a type of parasite, waiting for the anteater to find food that it could pilfer.

I don't have any data to test the predictions of this hypothesis, I haven't found any records of this behavior in the scientific literature, and none of the bear biologists I've asked has seen this type of behavior before. For now, it's still a mystery as to why there were two types of bears in one photo.

Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus) are considered vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN, due to rapid loss of habitat and corresponding decline in bear populations. It has been estimated that 50 percent of the remaining habitat for the bears exists in Perú and Bolivia, but this estimate was generated decades ago based on assumptions that have not been thoroughly tested.

In reality, most of the accepted knowledge about Andean bears is based on limited data that may not apply across the bears' distribution from Venezuela to Bolivia. The goal of the San Diego Zoo's Andean bear conservation research program is to address the gaps in our scientific knowledge relating to conservation questions in Perú, while providing opportunities for Peruvian students and biologists.

We're investigating the bear not only for its own sake, and because of its impact on plants through consumption and seed dispersal, but also because of its role in indigenous and post colonial human cultures. People care about the bear, and are essential for its conservation, so it acts as a flagship species for the mountainous forests in which it lives.

Because it is difficult to use more traditional methods of investigation to collect data on bears living in the closed montane forests, we're collecting much of our data through a system of remote cameras (a.k.a., camera traps).

Because the bears have individually distinct facial markings, we should be able to estimate the number of bears photographed, and collect preliminary data on bear behavior and demography.

In addition, we're using remote cameras to collect data on the mammalian diversity in these poorly studied forests, in an area that is undergoing rapid increases in human population and diversification in human economic interests due to the construction of the Interoceanic Highway from the Atlantic coast of Brazil to the Pacific coast of Perú.

Dr. Russ Van Horn serves the San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Research as senior researcher with the Applied Animal Ecology Division. He is primarily engaged in developing and implementing a conservation science program aimed at conserving Andean (spectacled) bears and their forested habitats in Peru. With degrees from the University of Minnesota, Montana State University, and Michigan State University, Van Horn has authored or co-authored 20 scientific articles and has given over 25 scientific and public presentations. He is a member of the American Society of Mammalogists, the Animal Behavior Society, the International Association for Bear Research and Management, the International Society for Behavioral Ecology, and the Society for Conservation Biology.

By Tasha Eichenseher in New Orleans

Huge abandoned swaths of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward feel like post-apocalyptic wilderness, overgrown grass littered with vacant homes and lonely concrete foundations. But springing up in a few sections are homes of Caribbean blue and Easter egg green--capped with solar panels, secured with energy-efficient windows, and equipped with systems to catch rainwater.

Photograph of a Make It Right home by Tasha Eichenseher

This two-square-mile area--where 4,000 homes were lost to Hurricane Katrina floodwaters in 2005--now has the largest collection of the greenest homes in the world, according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which sets nationwide standards for sustainable construction.

While the tragic disaster damaged nearly 50,000 homes in New Orleans, including those in the Ninth Ward, it also left a clean slate for architects and developers looking for an incubator for sustainable building projects and ideas. Many focused on redevelopment in traditionally African-American lower-to-middle-income Lower Ninth Ward neighborhoods--areas that were hit hardest, both by the storm and its economic fallout.

(According to the American Red Cross, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, both in 2005, destroyed approximately 350,000 homes in the 90,000-square-mile area from southeastern Texas to the Florida Keys.)

(Look at before-and-after photos of the region damaged by Katrina, including the Lower Ninth Ward.)

As you traverse Lower Ninth Ward neighborhoods today, it is clear that rebuilding progress is slow. Fewer than 200 homes have been rebuilt. But the new dwellings display a fervent effort to do things differently. As we detail in our story about the New Orleans rebuilding for our Great Energy Challenge series, "For Hurricane Katrina Victims, A Solar Restart," rooftop solar electric panels and solar water heaters are standard. Energy efficiency is as woven into the design as flood resilience. There also has been a remarkable effort to integrate innovative water re-use systems in the new green homes, but as we explain in our story, "Post-Katrina Green Homeowners Barred From Recycling Water," for our special series of stories on freshwater, old regulatory barriers have slowed progress on those green building aims.

Photograph of a Make It Right home by Tasha Eichenseher

The Make It Right development, spearheaded by actor Brad Pitt, and adjacent to the Industrial Canal levee that failed during Katrina, is now home to the largest concentration of USGBC platinum-certified--the highest ranking--residential structures in the world. Fifty Make It Right homes have been completed since December 2008, with 100 more planned.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's Global Green project just a few miles south in the Lower Ninth Ward's Holy Cross neighborhood has helped lead the charge, finishing its first platinum home in May 2008. It now has five very energy efficient800-1,300-square-foot homes that sit just past the Mississippi River levee.

Rachel Neill might be Global Green's first buyer. She's made an offer on a $135,000 two-bedroom, one-bath, bright pink home. But she didn't live here before the storm. A New Orleans resident for 20 years, she moved to the neighborhood in 2007 because she could afford to buy there. What is most appealing to her about a Global Green home? She actually was drawn to its location next to the river, despite the tragedy endured by her predecessors here. Neill, an addiction counselor, trusts the long-term durability of the homes that are being built. And the size and lower utility bills also are appealing. "It won't be a drain financially," she explains. "I could spend my whole life there."

Photograph of Global Green housing by Tasha Eichenseher

Folks are already settled into Make It Right homes. Robert Green, who talked to National Geographic News about life near the levee, has called the Lower Ninth Ward home for 42 years. He lost his mother and three-year-old granddaughter when the Industrial Canal levee broke on August 29, 2005, unleashing floodwaters as high as 20 feet.

Listen to his take on the neighborhood, redevelopment, and other green features of his new home here:

Two leading conservation organizations have appealed to the Government of Tanzania to reconsider the proposed construction of a commercial road through the world's best known wildlife sanctuary--Serengeti National Park.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) are recommending that alternative routes be used that can meet the transportation needs of the region without disrupting the greatest remaining migration of large land animals in the world.

"At issue is the proposed Arusha-Musoma highway, slated for construction in 2012. According to the proposed route, the highway would bisect the northern portion of the park and jeopardize the annual migration of wildebeest and zebra, a spectacle comprising nearly two million animals. The Serengeti is a World Heritage Site and is universally regarded as one of world's great natural wonders," WCS and ZSL said in a news statement yesterday.

Related National Geographic News and Commentary:

New Public Road to Split the Serengeti?

The Serengeti road to disaster

The planned commercial road would disrupt the world's greatest migration.

Photo of wildebeest by Felix Borner/Courtesy of ZSL

Serengeti video trailer courtesy of National Geographic Channel

"The Serengeti is the site of one of the last great ungulate migrations left on Earth, the pre-eminent symbol of wild nature for millions of visitors and TV viewers, and a hugely important source of income for the people of Tanzania through ecotourism," said James Deutsch, executive director of the WCS's Africa Program. "To threaten this natural marvel with a road would be a tragedy. We implore the Tanzanian government--known around the world for its commitment to conservation--to reconsider this proposal and explore other options."

"A commercial road would not only result in wildlife collisions and human injuries, but would serve to fragment the landscape and undermine the ecosystem in a variety of ways," said Jonathan Baillie, director of Conservation Programmes for ZSL, which partners with WCS in the long-term monitoring and conservation of Serengeti's cheetahs. "To diminish this natural wonder would be a terrible loss for Tanzania and all future generations."

ZSL photo of wildebeest and  zebra by Sarah Durant

WCS and ZSL are two of numerous organizations--including the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS)--in growing opposition to the proposed road, the charities added.

"Supporters of the proposed road point to the need for linkage between the districts of Serengeti and Loliondo and the national road system, as well as a need for increased transport infrastructure between the coast and the hinterland. However it is possible to achieve these objectives without bisecting the Serengeti," WCS and ZSL said.
"Conservationists predict that building the road through Serengeti National Park would not only result in a catastrophic decrease in numbers of wildebeest, zebra, and other species as a result of the interruption of the migration. It could also potentially cut Kenya's Masaai Mara National Reserve off from the migration, jeopardizing that country's most important tourism destination."

Alternative southern route

WCS and ZSL said they and other conservation groups acknowledged and supported Tanzania's need for infrastructure development, specifically to benefit the country's industries and agricultural markets. But an alternative southern route, they said, would better meet these objectives, and provide more benefits for more people while maintaining the integrity of Tanzania's foremost wildlife attraction and the tourism dollars it generates.

"We recognize that there is an obvious need for infrastructure development in Tanzania," said Markus Borner, Africa Program director for FZS which has worked in the Serengeti since the 1950s. "A far better option than the current proposal is placing a road to the south of the park. Such a road would be both cheaper to construct and would serve a much larger number of people without interrupting the migration and jeopardizing the iconic status of the Serengeti National Park."

ZSL photo of wildbebeest at sunset by Sarah Durant

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National Geographic Big Cats Initiative (BCI) scientist Stuart Pimm ventures into East Africa to study bomas, the traditional shelters constructed to corral livestock. He visits two BCI grantees working with local herders to fortify bomas with wire and spiny plants in so-called "living fences." The hope is that if farm animals can be protected their owners will have no incentive to poison or otherwise persecute lions and leopards that prowl through cattle ranches near wildlife preserves at night.

This is only one way that the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative is trying to reduce the growing conflict between humans and big cats in Africa.

By Stuart Pimm

East of Tarangire National Park, Tanzania--Anne Kent Taylor is unmistakeable. It's not the hat, the red blouse and scarf, and Maasai jewellery, but the way she greets everyone in the Mara. First comes a vigorous wave and then enthusiastic Swahili. To me, she talks in English with an accent that identifies her heritage (her father was a colonel in the British Army)--and upbringing (she was born in Ethiopia, grew up in Kenya).

Anne is a new National Geographic grantee. [Read her recent field reports from the Maasai Mara about how she is using her National Geographic Big Cats Initiative grant.] She received her money from the BCI a few weeks ago, so I'm in the Mara, in southwestern Kenya, to learn from her.

Photo of Anne Kent Taylor with an unidentified assistant (left) by Stuart Pimm

Anne protests: "I'm not a scientist. I have no training..." I interrupt these protestations--and continue to do so with ever more vigor over our next few days together. Scientific credentials be damned, Anne is a very effective conservation professional with a deep and effective understanding of what it takes to save nature. When I write my conservation textbook, she'll be in it.

Photo of wire fencing delivery by Stuart Pimm

Photo of a better boma by Stuart Pimm 

Anne's solution is to build a better boma. A boma? The Oxford English Dictionary attributes the first English use of the word to Henry Stanley--he of "Dr. Livingstone, I presume," fame. One gathers thorny bushes to create a circle around one's camp. That way the lions don't eat you. In this part of Africa, that is a distinct possibility if you sleep out at night.

(Tents seem to work, too. But listening to heavy breathing a few feet away on the other side of flimsy nylon fabric always has me worried. One night, a lion with a high IQ may change the balance of terror forever.)

Certainly, lions are not stupid. One strategy is to terrify the cattle inside a boma until they stampede out of it--to where your sister lions are waiting for an easy snack. Well, at least until the males come along and push them off the kill.

Photo by Stuart Pimm

For the Maasai, cattle are wealth and they don't like the idea of losing it. Cattle are an essential requirement for getting a bride. So if I had just lost most of my wealth and any chance of marrying, I'd probably take it out on the lions too.

  Spears will do the trick, if you have sufficient pluck, but given the carcass of a dead cow and readily available and very deadly insecticides, sprinkling lethal powder on the remains will also do the job.

And it will kill anything else that comes to the kill too.

Stopping the misuse of very nasty poisons in East Africa is what Big Cats grantee Paula Kahumbu is trying to do. But that's a story I will tell later.

Anne's point is simple: "If there are no dead cattle, there's nothing onto which to put poison." Anne wants to make sure that lions, leopards, hyenas, and other predators can't get into the bomas.

So with her team, Anne buys and delivers chain link fence. She charges the boma owners for half the fencing and they have to install it.

Click on the image to find out more about the Big Cats Intiative. Photo compilation courtesy of Beverly and Dereck Joubert

Three hundred and fifty kilometres (225 miles) to the southeast, Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld is also building better bomas. She, too, is a new Big Cats Initiative grantee. She's trying a different technology, but the basic ideas are very similar.

Laly, husband Charles Trout, and the rest of her team also use chain link fence. Like Anne, they work closely with local communities, driving around working out where to deliver more chain link.

Laly has added a traditional twist. Commiphora africana--and I know no common name for it --has impressive thorns. In the dry season, when it looks simply like a dead twig, Laly's team cuts them and sticks them in the ground in neat rows around the boma.

She's the first to admit they look really silly. A line of thin dead sticks wouldn't keep anything out. Although they look dead, when it rains, they spring to life. Trellised into the chain link fence, there will soon be a living wall of very spiny bush to make an impenetrable boma.

There's something in all this that makes me pause. Why is important to protect lions outside of national parks? One answer is that lions move around a lot.

Each lion takes up an average of about ten square kilometres, so a pride of two males, four females, and their cubs, may occupy ten times that--about 40 square miles. That's a rough guess, based on average densities in South Africa, but it gives a good idea of how much space a pride needs.

Lions wander and, when they do, they can get into trouble.

The more complicated answer is that Africa's national parks may be large, but they aren't large enough. Were it not for Anne and Laly's efforts to save lions outside of protected areas, the lion populations inside might be too small to survive.

Video of Laly Lichtenfeld and Anne Kent Taylor in the field by Stuart Pimm 

What Anne and Laly are both doing is to make up for the inadequate design of parks that were designed to the surrounding areas in order to be ecologically viable. That's a tall order. Their success--so dependent on support from the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative--is why this work is so very important to conserving lions and, very generally, how to manage biodiversity.

And that point will be the subject of my next blog, for Anne and Laly do very much more than build bomas. Why they do so much--and why it's important for conservation, needs more words than I have here.

Incidentally, Anne and Laly have never met. I promised them both that I'll help set up the first meeting of the Better Boma Builders.

Professor Stuart L. Pimm is a conservation biologist at Duke University, North Carolina. A former member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, Pimm is the author of dozens of books and research papers, including the book "The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth."

 Earlier blog posts by Stuart Pimm>>

  Anne Kent Taylor's July/August 2010 field report:

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Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) has announced the appointment of Mohamed Al Hammadi as editor in chief of National Geographic Al Arabiya, a new monthly publication, which is set to launch October 1, 2010. The magazine will be published in 15 countries across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Mohamed Al Hammadi

A statement from the National Geographic Society:

Mohamed Al Hammadi's first challenge is to coordinate editorial efforts among these countries in order to develop exclusive content for 20 percent of the magazine and to showcase the extensive range of flora, fauna and landscapes in the MENA region. The appointment of Al Hammadi is the latest demonstration of ADMC's commitment to providing the best content to consumers in the Arab world.

"National Geographic Al Arabiya is all about passion for the natural environment, its biodiversity and indigenous culture. With Mohamed's extensive interests in photography and travel, coupled with his journalistic expertise, he is in many ways a natural choice for editor in chief. We are confident that in him, National Geographic Al Arabiya has the ideal custodian to help take the title to a potentially vast audience across the MENA region," said Gavin Dickinson, executive director of publishing, ADMC.

Commenting on his appointment, Al Hammadi spoke of the challenges of bringing the region's immense natural beauty to a wider audience through greater media exposure.

"It's a great honour to lead a team that will pioneer high-quality content on these subjects via an internationally renowned medium that is also well-known among fellow Arabs."

"People are simply becoming more interested in the natural world. Couple this with increasing environmental and scientific awareness in the region, and you have a ready consumer market for media in this highly specialized sector. It's a great honour to lead a team that will pioneer high-quality content on these subjects via an internationally renowned medium that is also well-known among fellow Arabs."

The new publication will be available in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Al Hammadi's first task is to coordinate and generate content through the vast network of freelance photographers, journalists and translators available to National Geographic Al Arabiya.

National Geographic Al Arabiya will provide readers in the region with greater access to National Geographic magazine's award-winning features on geography, archaeology and natural science, as well as its iconic imagery of natural beauty from around the world.

National Geographic Channels International and ADMC also broadcast the National Geographic Channel in Arabic across the Middle East. The new Arabic-language edition of National Geographic magazine will bring to 33 the number of local-language editions of the magazine.

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An association of 1,500 private landowners with an interest in wildlife in South Africa today called for controlled legal trade in rhino horns as a way to help address the country's rhino poaching crisis.

The notion of legalizing trade in rhino horn is likely to be as controversial as calls to legalize and control the trade in elephant ivory. Proponents of opening formal trade argue that it allows for more transparency and profits that can be used for conservation. Opponents say that legalizing trade serves only to stimulate the market for such products.

Wildlife Ranching South Africa (WRSA) "as sole representative of private landowners with an interest in wildlife, condemns in the strongest possible terms the barbaric and ruthless killing of rhinos in order to promote the illegal trade in rhino horn," the organization said in a news statement.

According to the news release:

"Over 180 rhino have been killed in the past 8 months alone in South Africa. This not only threatens the conservation of the species but also our African heritage and the safety and livelihood of many thousands of game farmers.

"[WRSA] believes the situation is now out of control and that urgent new initiatives will need to be taken to deal with the escalating crisis."

WRSA opposed to poisoning rhino horns

Commenting on the recently reported incident in Thailand in the "Bangkok Star "on August 18,  in which a man was allegedly poisoned by contaminated rhino horn as a result of a plan by a small group of farmers in Southern Africa to combat the problem, WRSA said: "While there is a huge empathy for the game farmers [WRSA] does not support this unilateral action.

"The means do not justify the end" (Read the related blog post: Poisoning horns is not a solution to the rhino poaching crisis.)

While the matter of rhino poaching has been given top priority by the authorities, steps to date, have not been totally effective, WRSA added.

"WRSA is committed to urgently facilitate a rethink with all key stakeholders, including the authorities, to devise initiatives that result in a concerted, bold and speedy breakthrough.

"WRSA believes the re-introduction of legal trade in rhino horn via the strictest controls and standards, overseen by the South African authorities, is key to the solution."

"WRSA believes the re-introduction of legal trade in rhino horn via the strictest controls and standards, overseen by the South African authorities, is key to the solution."

WRSA was established in 2005, "from the neccessity of governments desire to deal directly with a national body and no longer with provincial bodies representing the South African game or wildlife rancher," according to the WRSA website.

"WRSA as it currently stands is a relatively new organisation, however most of its policies have been carried over from the Northern Wildlife Organisation (NWO) and South African Game Ranchers Organization (SAGRO) before that, which had been running for almost 30 years," the organization adds.

"WRSA is a nonprofit organization currently representing 1,500 members of the registered 9,000 game ranches. WRSA's main function is to liaise closely between the game ranchers, non-governmental and governmental authorities to ensure a healthy working relationship, assisting govenmental authorities with the setting up of policies, regulations and norms and standards applicable to the wildlife industry."

Related reports from the rhino war zone:

International park becomes frontier in Southern Africa's rhino war

South Africa vows to fight rhino poachers to "last man standing"

Elle Macpherson a voice for rhino conservation?

"Conservationists" behind rhino poaching spree, newspaper reports

South Africa battles to save rhinos from high-tech poachers

South Africa, Zimbabwe epicenter of rhino poaching

NGS stock photo of South African poster by Steve Raymer

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