Month: June 2015

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2015. All Rights Reserved

I’m getting kind of tired of hearing people talk about endangered species, as though they’re the only non-human animals they care about: ‘How dare some species do well or even begin to recover—it must be their fault that my favorite species is endangered.’

And if the endangered are a species people like to eat (such as salmon), then forget that humans sent them down the road to extinction by building dams along the rivers and heating up the planet so the spawning streams dry up or are too warm for fish eggs: ‘If some other non-human occasionally eats said endangered species, let’s wipe them out too.’

Scapegoating is happening to sea lions, to cormorants and to barred owls. Most people understand so little about the workings of nature that they forget they (all 7.3 billion of them) are a part…

Loss of forest habitat through pulp and paper logging and palm oil plantations has pushed endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger, rhinoceros, elephants and the orangutan closer to extinction. PHOTO: Greenpeace

Indonesia has the third largest tropical rainforest in the world. The country is also the world’s largest producer of palm oil, fifth largest of coal, and tenth largest producer of pulp and paper. To say these industries are tied to resources of the land is to state the obvious. But to say that the activities are fast eating into forest cover is a matter of concern. Which is precisely why when a company like Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) – the country’s second largest paper and pulp company – announces that it will completely eliminate deforestation in its operations, the world takes notice.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific said the “good news” came after more than 40,000 Australians emailed Australian paper…

This video says about itself:

Siberian tigress Ilona captured on camera a year after release – Part II

28 May 2015

Raw footage taken by a camera trap inside Khingan Nature Reserve in Far East Russia that shows Ilona the Siberian tigress marking her territory. Ilona is one of five orphan tigers that IFAW helped rehabilitate and release back to the wild in May of 2014. A drop-off satellite collar fitted on Ilona provides scientists with critical data to better protect the species. There are less than 400 wild Siberian (aka Amur) tigers left in the wild. To find out more, visit: www.ifaw.org.

From Wildlife Extra:

12 month’s after release ‘Putin’s tigers’ are reported as thriving

One year after five orphaned Siberian tigers were released in the Russian Far East the signs are four out of the five are doing well and have adapted successfully to life in…