New model more accurately describes migratory animals’ extinction risk

Link: New model more accurately describes migratory animals’ extinction risk

Athens, Ga. - Predicting the risk of extinction is a complicated task, especially for species that migrate between breeding and wintering sites. Researchers at the University of Georgia and Tulane University have developed a mathematical model that may make such predictions more accurate. Their work appears in the early online edition of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

Entire Mammal Genus on Brink of Extinction, Critically endangered African antelope is last species of its kind.

Link: Entire Mammal Genus on Brink of Extinction, Critically endangered African antelope is last species of its kind.

For the first time in 75 years, an entire genus of mammal may go the way of the dodo—unless a new conservation effort shepherded by Somalian herders succeeds.

Is it time to let some species go extinct?

Link: Is it time to let some species go extinct?

IS IT time to let some threatened species go extinct? The heretical notion is worthy of consideration, says a majority of conservationists contacted in a poll.

Of 583 questioned, 60 per cent agreed that criteria should be established for deciding which species to abandon in order to focus on saving others (Conservation Biology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01772.x). Murray Rudd of the University of York, UK, who ran the survey, says the subject has been somewhat taboo until recently. Most large conservation organisations, he adds, already have checklists for prioritising their efforts.

Western black rhino declared extinct

Link: Western black rhino declared extinct

First the Java rhinos the other day, now these poor bastards…