Poaching Declines in South Africa for 5th Straight Year
Rhino deaths recorded from poaching have decreased yet again in South Africa, making it five consecutive years of decline. Elephant lives lost to poachers are also down from 2018 numbers. But, the government is not letting up. As the country looks ahead to 2020, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries plans to proceed with […]
Translocation: One Technique, Many Applications
Kentucky Lighting Way for Elk What started as a reintroduction of over 1,500 wild eastern elk twenty years ago is now a thriving Kentucky population of over 13,000 individuals. The population has been brought to light as a new study led by Jordan Youngmann confirms unprecedented strong genetic diversity within the current population. The original […]
Wildlife Departments Working for Change
Cougar Quota Upped in Utah An emergency quota increase added 117 additional cougar harvests to the 2019-2020 cougar season in Utah. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) issued the change on Jan. 16 to manage specific areas with high mule deer population decline. The 11 different units showed a population decline greater than 15 […]
Podcast Release: Evolution of Calls
Episode 12 of DSC’s Untamed Heritage Podcast is out now! Larry and Ken sit down with Gary Robertson, owner of Burnham Brothers Calls. The guys discuss the evolution of calls, and how they can be used to pull in predator or prey. You can listen or download here: https://untamedheritage.blubrry.net/
Junior Duck Stamp Winner Named
Nicole Jeon’s acrylic painting of a harlequin duck took first place in the 2019 National Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest. This 16-year-old’s work will don the 2019-2020 Junior Duck Stamp, which raises funds to support educational programs and activities that nurture our next generation of sportsmen and women and conservationists. Jasmine Kang’s wood duck […]
Old Wild Dog Research Disproved
For 25 years, researchers have been blamed for the disappearance of wild dogs in the Serengeti National Park (SNP). Called “Burrows’ Hypothesis,” a 1991 study attributed a common research technique of handling wildlife to the demise of the dog population. Since all the dogs were gone, there was not enough data to prove or disprove […]
No More Delays: Rhino Poachers Sentenced
After almost a decade of delays in court, three rhino poachers were officially sentenced by a court in South Africa this March. In August 2009, several park game rangers set up a roadblock after hearing gunshots. Shortly after, three men were stopped, and promptly arrested, after the rangers and Anti-Poaching Unit found a rifle, two […]
The Courts Talk Elk
Wildlife Officials Take Back Management The legal red tape has been lifted for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to dictate elk hunting permits and restrictions as they see fit. The current regulations called for a specific population count and permit number, which the officials believe is not the only threshold required to properly […]
Two Years Later: Mongolian Antelope Still Struggling
In 2017, the goat plague rattled the already endangered Mongolian subspecies of the saiga antelope. In the wake of the virus, initial numbers were estimated at 7,500 remaining antelopes after the deaths of 2,500 individuals. You might remember this DSC News Center Article or reading it in a spring 2017 DSC Publication. But after all […]
Trends in Wildlife Web Searches
Any other data lovers out there? Out of almost 40,000 different animal and plant pages on Wikipedia representing 52 taxonomic classes and 1,611 families, about 10,000 of them show repeating patterns in page searches every year. The data confirms that human interest in different species follows the species’ seasonality, especially in insects and flowering plants. […]