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  • Bringing wild bison and an endangered ecosystem back

    Research suggests that in the 1500s there were 30 million to 60 million bison, 400 years later roughly 1,000 remained. Today, their ecosystem, the Great Plains, is one of the most endangered in the world. However, there is a growing movement trying to change that. Across the U.S. indigenous communities are trying to return bison to parts of their historic range. This article looks at various ways indigenous communities are unfolding different methods to do just that, not only to grow the population, but to return them to their culture.

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  • The long shot that saved Belize's coral

    After a hurricane hit the coast of Belize in 2001, it essentially destroyed the coral reefs in Laughing Bird Caye National Park. Lisa Carne wanted to start transplanting coral to regrow the reefs, but it took five years to secure funding to start her project. Restoring coral reefs is a lot of effort, so she founded a nonprofit called Fragments of Hope that hired local residents to help. Because of her efforts, over 85,000 corals have been planted and 89 percent of them survived after 14 years, The techniques used are being applied in other countries like Colombia, Jamaica, and St. Barts.

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  • The detection dogs tracking poachers and Covid-19

    Detection dogs and their handlers can be trained to sniff out any number of problems. In eastern Africa, the Canines for Conservation project has deployed dogs to search for poachers and illegally harvested wildlife products. By tracking poachers from the scenes of illegal kills and finding ivory and rhino horns stashed in warehouses and shipping containers far more efficiently than X-ray methods, the project has contributed to nearly 400 product seizures, higher conviction rates, and elimination of elephant poaching in parts of Kenya. The next frontier being tested: detecting COVID-19 infections.

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  • How Kenya turned the tide against ivory poachers

    More and more park rangers, judges, prosecutors, and wildlife investigators are working together to stop poaching in Kenya. Through training and a new app that allows all parties to track wild animals in a protected conservation area, the number of poaching cases has decreased from 449 creatures killed illegally in 2021 to 93 in 2018. The number of court cases have also decreased in recent years.

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  • How Scientists Are Pivoting In Their Quest To Save Hawaii's Crows

    After a five-year effort to reintroduce the alala bird on Hawaii’s Big Island failed, conservationists are looking into releasing the nearly extinct Hawaiian crow on a different island. Of the 30 birds released in 2016, only five survived. Another predator known as the Hawaiian hawk killed off some of the birds. Releasing the crows on Maui is a temporary solution, but could allow them to learn skills to survive with other predators.

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  • The Return of the Polish Wolf

    Scientists, NGOs, conservationists, and the government worked together to bring the Polish wolf back from the brink of extinction. Methods like GPS tracking and genetic sampling have helped politicians made decisions about how to reduce human-animal conflict and ensure human development didn’t interfere with their habitats. As a result, over the last 50 years the wolf population in Poland has increased 50-fold.

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  • Helping animals cross the road and other obstacles

    As human infrastructure continues to threaten animal habitats, researchers are coming up with ways to use artificial structures as bridges for these creatures to get where they need to go. In Indonesia, irrigation pipes help farmers water their crops, but they’re also used by slow lorises to cross over the farmlands. In Brazil, a bridge crossing a major highway will be used by golden lion tamarins to avoid the busy traffic.

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  • 'Virtual rangers' help South African reserve keep poachers away

    Over 55,000 people have become “virtual rangers,” helping to protect South Africa’s Balule Nature Reserve from poachers. Officials at the reserve teamed up with Samsung and Africam to increase the ability to keep watch over the park, which is home to some of the most vulnerable animals to poaching, including rhinoceros, leopards, and elephants. Camera phones, held in protective cases, are mounted around the reserve and stream images to “virtual rangers” worldwide who have already reported hearing gunshots, which could indicate the possibility of poachers, and seeing trapped animals needing rescue.

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  • Meet the Black Mambas, South Africa's all-female anti-poaching unit

    The Black Mambas are an all-female anti-poaching and ranger unit based in South Africa’s Balule Nature Reserve. They patrol on foot and by vehicle to remove bushmeat snares and look for evidence of illegal poaching activities. They also run the Bush Babies Environmental Education Programme, which teaches local school children about wildlife and conservation. The group combines anti-poaching enforcement with efforts to ensure local communities have food security and understand the economic and employment benefits of tourism as a way to protect wildlife. The Mambas are seen as role models within the community.

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  • Pig in clover: how the world's smallest wild hog was saved from extinction

    The greyish brown pygmy hog is an endangered species, but a captive breeding program aims to reintroduce more of the animals into the wild in India. The Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme introduces about 12 hogs a year after raising them in captivity for a few months. “The purpose of my life has been bringing back this one species from the brink of extinction,” says one of the project advisers.

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