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April 29, 2014
How to Fight Poachers With Drones and Big Data “ “Drones Fight Poachers" has an undeniable sexiness to it as a news narrative. Who doesn’t want to read about flying killer robots battling machete-wielding criminals chasing innocent animals on the...

How to Fight Poachers With Drones and Big Data

“Drones Fight Poachers" has an undeniable sexiness to it as a news narrative. Who doesn’t want to read about flying killer robots battling machete-wielding criminals chasing innocent animals on the wild African plains? The instant appeal of a high-tech solution to a pervasive low-tech problem is also why Silicon Valley giant Google has given the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) $5 million for drones to stop poaching. But to actually stop poachers, WWF should focus less on drones and more on math—and some lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan.

University of Maryland computer scientist Thomas Snitch is applying a mathematical forecasting model he developed for use by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan to Africa. Snitch is trying to overcome poaching networks’ advantages in money, opportunity, and manpower using his military model to put park rangers in the right places to intercept rhinoceros killers.

Read more. [Image: Edward Echwalu/Reuters]

3:55pm  |   URL: http://theatlantic.tumblr.com/post/84248879097/how-to-fight-poachers-with-drones-and-big-data
(Notes: 70)
  
Filed under: Poaching Drones World Wildlife Fund Africa Rhino poachers Conservation Big Data 
March 14, 2014
A Caretaker and a Killer: How Hunters Can Save the Wilderness “ Stereotypes of gun-toting brutes and tree-hugging hippies miss the basic facts about who is protecting nature—and why. Read more. [Image: kkirugi/Flickr] ”

A Caretaker and a Killer: How Hunters Can Save the Wilderness

Stereotypes of gun-toting brutes and tree-hugging hippies miss the basic facts about who is protecting nature—and why.

Read more. [Image: kkirugi/Flickr]

12:55pm  |   URL: http://theatlantic.tumblr.com/post/79564872092/a-caretaker-and-a-killer-how-hunters-can-save-the
(Notes: 86)
  
Filed under: Nature Environmentalism Hunting Hunters Conservation Environmental conservation 
March 6, 2014
How the Famous Marshmallow Study Explains Environmental Conservation “ In the Stanford marshmallow experiment, arguably the most famous study ever conducted on the concept of delayed gratification, children were offered a choice between receiving one...

How the Famous Marshmallow Study Explains Environmental Conservation

In the Stanford marshmallow experiment, arguably the most famous study ever conducted on the concept of delayed gratification, children were offered a choice between receiving one small treat (like a marshmallow) immediately or receiving two treats later (like, 15 minutes later). In the years since, the ability to choose deferred rewards over smaller immediate rewards has been associated with numerous positives such as enhanced self-esteem, academic excellence, and physical fitness. 

Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson speculates that this trait may also have something to do with being better at environmental stewardship.

Johnson thinks a lot about how humans interact with ocean resources (like fish), and what drives us to exploit or conserve these resources. One question she returns to, over and over, is: How can we enable people to take a long-term view when it comes to the wealth of the oceans—"to save some for later, to use the ocean without using it up?“

The answer to that question has more to do with people and the psychology of human decision-making than it does with fish and ecology. So, while doing field work in Curacao and Bonaire for her marine biology Ph.D., Johnson ended up designing a behavioral economics study.

Read more. [Image: Ayana Johnson]

1:25pm  |   URL: http://theatlantic.tumblr.com/post/78764342450/how-the-famous-marshmallow-study-explains
(Notes: 112)
  
Filed under: Environmentalism Behavior Marshmallow Study Conservation Fisheries Environmental conservation Psychology Delayed gratification 
February 21, 2014
On the Presence of Snow Leopards in Sochi “ Every Olympics since 1972 has had an official mascot. There’s your standard animal variety (Roni the raccoon in Lake Placid, Misha the bear in Moscow), and then there are outliers—everything from cartoon...

On the Presence of Snow Leopards in Sochi

Every Olympics since 1972 has had an official mascot. There’s your standard animal variety (Roni the raccoon in Lake Placid, Misha the bear in Moscow), and then there are outliers—everything from cartoon characters (Håkon and Kristin in Lillehammer) to droplets of steel (Wenlocke and Mandeville in London).

For the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia selected a trio of mascots: the hare, the polar bear, and the snow leopard. The polar bear seems to be the only one with a name (it’s Bely Mishka, by the way), but the leopardis definitely Vladimir Putin’s favorite. It’s a symbol, the Russian president contends, of a modern Russia interested in reviving the species and the country’s natural resources.

Now, being the object of Putin’s affection has its pluses and minuses. The Russian leader, it turns out, has a long and complicated history with wild cats—one explored recently by Bill Donahue in the the Natural Resources Defense Council’s OnEarth Magazine. 

The central question in Donahue’s article is whether Russia’s “declared commitment to wildlife conservation … has any basis in reality,” and the snow leopard’s symbolic presence in Sochi offers a perfect lens through which to investigate.

Read more. [Image: Markus Schreiber/AP]

4:25pm  |   URL: http://theatlantic.tumblr.com/post/77410922487/on-the-presence-of-snow-leopards-in-sochi-every
(Notes: 708)
  
Filed under: Russia Sochi Winter Olympics Snow Leopard Putin conservation Olympics Wildlife conservation 
January 28, 2014
Crush and Burn: A History of the Global Crackdown on Ivory “ It’s an unlikely and ambitious government project: Over the next two years, Hong Kong will embark on the world’s largest ivory burn, setting 28 tons of illegally harvested tusks aflame to...

Crush and Burn: A History of the Global Crackdown on Ivory

It’s an unlikely and ambitious government project: Over the next two years, Hong Kong will embark on the world’s largest ivory burn, setting 28 tons of illegally harvested tusks aflame to signal a shift in its valuation of elephants. As National Geographic reports, this is actually the latest in a string of public ivory disposals around the world. China crushed six tons of tusks and ivory ornaments on January 6; the United States smashed six tons in November 2013; and the Philippines burned five tons in June 2013, making history as the first “ivory-consuming nation” to destroy almost all of its national stock. Gabon burned its stockpile in June 2012.

All this comes after elephant poaching and ivory smuggling reached unprecedented levelsin 2011,  a year in which at least 25,000 African elephants were killed for their tusks, according to a statistician involved in monitoring illegal elephant killings. By early 2013, terms like  “blood ivory” and “African Elephant Crisis” were on the lips of conservationists and politicians alike.

That’s about when the U.S. embarked on a period of frenzied activity to combat the ivory trade.

Read more. [Image: James Morgan/World Wildlife Foundation/Associated Press]

10:25am  |   URL: http://theatlantic.tumblr.com/post/74835800981/crush-and-burn-a-history-of-the-global-crackdown
(Notes: 126)
  
Filed under: Environmentalism Ivory Blood Ivory Conservation Ivory Burn Ivory trade Poaching 
September 6, 2013
Yemeni Tribesmen are Capturing this Endangered Leopard for Money “ Murad Mohamed, a scrawny 27 year-old biology graduate, peers through a pair of dusty binoculars, searching for something few even know exists in Yemen: the Arabian leopard, one of the...

Yemeni Tribesmen are Capturing this Endangered Leopard for Money

Murad Mohamed, a scrawny 27 year-old biology graduate, peers through a pair of dusty binoculars, searching for something few even know exists in Yemen: the Arabian leopard, one of the Middle East’s most iconic species—and one of the world’s most endangered animals.

A field researcher for the Foundation for the Protection of the Arabian Leopard in Yemen (FPALY), Mohamed is leading the first leopard survey of its kind in Raymah, a fertile region in the craggy Haraz Mountains located about 60 miles southwest of Yemen’s capital, Sana’a. FPALY’s Raymah survey – one of only a handful of concerted efforts in history to locate the Arabian leopard in Yemen – is just one of the half-dozen the foundation has already undertaken during its four years as an organization. With their research, they aim to reverse the animal’s rapidly declining presence—not just in Yemen but in its entire, decimated former habitat.

Roughly one-third the size of most other leopards, the 50-pound Arabian subspecies is by far the smallest—perfect for maneuvering around the rocky South Arabian landscape. It features an unusually pale coat and an almost comically sized tail that can reach three and a half feet long. Six years ago, the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated that less than 250 remain in the world.

Read more. [Image: Kamran Jebreili/AP]

10:55am  |   URL: http://theatlantic.tumblr.com/post/60452558610/yemeni-tribesmen-are-capturing-this-endangered
(Notes: 116)
  
Filed under: Yemen Arabian Leopard Leopard Endangered species Conservation 
July 11, 2013
Have You Ever Tried to Eat a Feral Pig? “ […]many environmental organizations have embraced the idea of promoting the consumption of these invaders–from rogue seaweed to bristly, 200-pound feral hogs–as a way to raise public consciousness and get...

Have You Ever Tried to Eat a Feral Pig?

[…]many environmental organizations have embraced the idea of promoting the consumption of these invaders–from rogue seaweed to bristly, 200-pound feral hogs–as a way to raise public consciousness and get people involved in combatting a severe threat to biodiversity. “Conservation can get so serious and dire, we want to put a little fun back in,” says Laura Huffman, state director of the Texas Nature Conservancy.

Most invasives won’t be eradicted through human consumption alone, but Huffman and other environmentalists are okay with that. “What’s important,” she says, “is that we re-popularize and infuse some joy into the conversation over protection of resources.”

But that begs the question: Do invasives taste good enough to earn a permanent spot on home and restaurant menus?

Read more. [Image: Jody Horton]

10:55am  |   URL: http://theatlantic.tumblr.com/post/55175179901/have-you-ever-tried-to-eat-a-feral-pig-many
(Notes: 83)
  
Filed under: Food Conservation 
October 19, 2012

theatlanticvideo:

A Heart-Melting Baby Elephant Rescue

When an eight-month-old baby elephant fell into a well, it was up to a team of conservationists at Amboseli Trust for Elephants to figure out a way to get her out. They captured the rescue operation on video and the story has gone viral, thanks to a beautifully happy ending and rather hilarious commentary from off camera: “So this is Zombe’s calf, who we’re all delighted is so big and fat and healthy until we have to pull her out of a hole!” The nonprofit works to protect and study elephants in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park and they have a fantastic YouTube channel documenting their work. 

(Source: The Atlantic)

12:23pm  |   URL: http://theatlantic.tumblr.com/post/33898025444/theatlanticvideo-a-heart-melting-baby-elephant
(Notes: 178)
  
Filed under: Animal Video Conservation Africa Elephant 
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