AFP

Critter News Roundup Vol.3: (Bad) Conservation News…

This was almost a special edition, but then I decided that it would be much better labeled a Critter news roundup because the whole thing DOES have a critter theme. It also, however, has a depressing conservation theme.

  • Switzerland’s Only Bear Killed Amid Threat Fears – FEB 25, 2013 08:30 AM ET // BY AFP
    The bear was “culled” in accordance with the management plan for bears in Switzerland (which i’m going to assume is “No bears aloud”). The bear was going to be a potential danger, but what I don’t understand is why death was the option they decided to try when relocation hadn’t even been experimented with. This was an irresponsible management of a rare animal.
  • Africa ‘Hemmorhaging Elephants’ at Record Rate – MAR 4, 2013 05:00 PM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS
    In the past decade 62% of elephants have been killed for Ivory. The article goes over why the African Forest Elephant might be extinct within the next decade. This important umbrella species needs to be protected to protect other species!
  • 100 Million Sharks Killed Each Year – MAR 5, 2013 05:45 AM ET // BY MEGAN GANNON, LIVE SCIENCE
    Research indicates that 1 in 15 sharks is killed each year by fisheries. As economic prosperity in eastern countries grow the demand for these shark body parts grows. As apex predators sharks are slow breeders and continued fishing at this rate could be disastrous.

News Roundup Special Edition: Underwater Awesome

Another day, another roundup of interesting news. Because I apparently have nothing better to do with my life than read the news.

  • High Tech Helps Protect Whales – FEB 25, 2013 09:40 AM ET // BY AFP
    In an effort to improve human understanding of whales, new tracking devices are being deployed to help us learn what they’re up to and where they go in the ocean.
  • James Cameron Deep-Sea Dive Reveals New Species – FEB 25, 2013 11:00 AM ET // BY DOUGLAS MAIN, OURAMAZINGPLANET
    Last year Cameron and his crew acquired hours of video footage at the bottom of the Pacific ocean.  A student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography UC San Diego suspects there is at least one new species: a Sea Cucumber. Other new finds are coming to light in addition to this one.
  • Lost Continent Discovered Beneath Indian Ocean – FEB 25, 2013 01:15 PM ET // BY TIM WALL
    A sliver of lost land that was once geographically pinned between Madagascar and India (prior to the complete breakup of the continents long ago) was recently discovered by science due to a volcano’s eruption brining bits of the land mass to the surface.
  • Shark Relative Had Buzz Saw Mouth – FEB 26, 2013 07:00 PM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS
    Do I even have to say anything? How about a picture:

shark-relative-had-buzzsaw-mouth-130226-660x433-picture

News Dump Vol.5

Well… I’m ending up way behind because there have been tons of exciting things to talk about of late. So there’s a series of articles from the last week or so that I really wanted to talk about due to them being interesting, but didn’t find time. At the very least I’m going to share them so that you could read whatever catches your fancy, too.