Tag Archives: wildlife

Global News reports: The federal government has passed legislation that bans whale and dolphin captivity in Canada. The bill will phase out the practice of keeping captive whales, dolphins and porpoises, but grandfathers in those that are already being held at two facilities in the country. Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ont., and the Vancouver Aquarium in B.C. are the only …

The Hill reports: The Interior Department on Wednesday announced a plan to expand hunting and fishing opportunities in several federal wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries. The plan would increase hunting and fishing access across 1.4 million acres of public land spanning on 74 national wildlife refuges and 15 national fish hatcheries. “President Trump is committed to expanding public access on …

Courthouse News reports: Warning the bison that once roamed the continental U.S. in the millions are at risk of extinction, three conservation organizations brought a federal complaint Wednesday requesting the animal be listed as a threatened or endangered species. Buffalo Field Campaign, Friends of Animals and Western Watershed Project filed the claim against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) …

Complex reports: A rhino poacher was trampled to death by an elephant and his remains were devoured by a pride of lions, Kruger National Park officials said Thursday. The man was hunting with a group in the preserve in South Africa on Tuesday when he was trampled by the elephant, the Letaba Herald reported. Four other hunters were arrested Wednesday. …

Anchorage’s NBC News affiliate reports: In April of 2018, Alaskan father and son Andrew Renner, 41, and Owen Renner, 18, both of Wasilla, illegally killed a black bear sow and her two cubs on Esther Island in Prince William Sound. Video of that incident has now been made public, nearly a year later. The sow and cubs that the Renners …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: In a bid to raise money to promote hunting rights and the removal of protection for predator species, a new group co-founded by Utahn Don Peay is selling $10 tickets for a chance to spend five days with Donald Trump Jr. on a guided elk hunt in Utah. Hunter Nation recently posted the foray with …

The Texas Observer reports: Late Monday evening, attorneys for the National Butterfly Center asked a federal judge to block the Trump administration from building a border wall at the refuge or using the center’s property as a pass-through to build elsewhere. The motion alleges that federal agents and contractors have been driving without permission through the Rio Grande Valley refuge’s …

The Guardian reports: Japan is facing international condemnation after confirming it will resuming commercial whaling for the first time in more than 30 years The country’s fleet will resume commercial operations in July next 2019, the government’s chief spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said of the decision to defy the 1986 global ban on commercial whaling. Suga told reporters the country’s fleet …

Courthouse News reports: A leaked memo from what conservationists say is the Justice Department advises the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to withhold or delay releasing records sought in Freedom of Information Act requests regarding implementation of the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity said the memo, dated Sept. 6, 2018, asks Fish and Wildlife to limit public …

Do not scroll down if the photos will upset you. The Idaho Statesman reports: Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner Blake Fischer shared photos of his guided hunting trip in Africa with friends and colleagues when he returned last month, expecting they’d appreciate his success. Instead, several former Fish and Game commissioners are pushing for his resignation — with a photo …

Bloomberg reports: First lady Melania Trump played with orphaned elephants in Kenya on Friday, providing a contrast with her stepson, Donald Trump Jr., who was photographed holding a severed elephant tail in one hand and a knife in the other during a big game hunting trip in Africa. Her visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an elephant orphanage in …

The Guardian reports: Japan has launched a controversial bid to end the ban on commercial whaling, claiming that populations of certain types of whale have recovered sufficiently to allow the resumption of “sustainable” hunting. Representatives of Japan’s 70-strong delegation at this week’s International Whaling Commission [IWC] meeting in Florianópolis, Brazil, argued that the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling was intended …

The Associated Press reports: After more than a century behind bars, the beasts on boxes of animal crackers are roaming free. Mondelez International, the parent company of Nabisco, has redesigned the packaging of its Barnum’s Animals crackers in response to pressure from PETA, which has been protesting the use of animals in circuses for more than 30 years. Mondelez agreed …

CNBC reports: A polar bear that injured a cruise ship guard on an Arctic archipelago was shot dead by another of the ship’s workers, Norwegian authorities said. The incident Saturday sparked criticism that tourists intruded in the wilderness and then killed one of the reasons they were there. The attack occurred when tourists from the MS Bremen cruise ship landed …

The Huffington Post reports: The federal government has issued more than three dozen permits allowing hunters to import lion trophies from two African nations since 2016, according to copies of the applications obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.  Thirty-three Americans were issued permits to import 38 lion trophies between 2016 and 2018, at least half of whom have …

Bloomberg reports: A decades-old environmental law credited with saving the American bald eagle from extinction would be reworked under a proposal the Trump administration announced Thursday. Enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, which seeks to prevent plans and animals from becoming extinct, would be changed to make it is easier to remove species from the list of protected ones. The …

The Telegraph reports: At least three suspected poachers who were apparently hunting for rhinos have been mauled to death and eaten by lions on a game reserve in South Africa, the owner said on Thursday. The men entered the Sibuya Game Reserve on the southeast coast armed with a high-powered rifle and an axe in the early hours of Monday …

Courthouse News reports: The Republican chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee introduced a draft bill this week that has conservationists worried. The legislation proposed by Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso will significantly revamp the Endangered Species Act, but critics of the move say it will essentially gut the law. Jason Rylander, a senior attorney with Defenders of Wildlife, …

USA Today reports: Photos of an American hunter posing with the dead body of a “rare” black giraffe she had just killed during a hunt in South Africa have sparked outrage. The pictures emerged after they were posted on Twitter by the South Africa-based AfricLand Post website. Accompanying the post, which shows two pictures of Tess Thompson Talley of Kentucky, …

NPR reports: “The Gorilla Foundation is sad to announce the passing of our beloved Koko,” the research center says, informing the world about the death of a gorilla who fascinated and elated millions of people with her facility for language. Koko, who was 46, died in her sleep Tuesday morning, the Gorilla Foundation said. At birth, she was named Hanabi-ko …