It’s no secret that Africa’s elephants are in danger. Widespread poaching, fueled by demand for ivory in China and ineffective regulation, have led to alarming population losses, from 1.2 million in 1980 to only 500,000 this year. Today, approximately 96 African elephants are killed by poachers every 24 hours.
Read More"TIGERS and human beings cannot occupy the same space," says Prashanth Kumar Sen, former director of Project Tiger. Human-wildlife conflict arises whenever people and predators share terrain. It is acute in India, where large carnivores like tigers and leopards coexist with dense human populations. Although only 5% of Indian land is classified as protected, India's population of 1.24 billion means that 5m people dwell inside the country’s natural havens.
Read MoreDEMAND for wildlife parts is pushing many species to the brink of extinction. In China, where a rising middle class flaunts wealth by displaying ivory at home, traders call elephant tusks "white gold". But elephants, tigers, rhinos and other "charismatic megafauna" are not the only animals in trouble.
Read MoreIn Manuel Antonio, travelers do more than observe nature: they engage it. Along the Pacific coast of Central America, adventure-lovers encounter some of the planet’s most prolific wildlife.
The journey begins outside of San José, where winding roads lead travelers to a bridge above the Tárcoles River. Along its muddied banks are gargantuan crocodiles fattened by daily ranger feedings, seemingly immobilized. After snapping photographs of these behemoth beasts, you’ll continue towards the Pacific Ocean, but little time will pass before wildlife summons you again.
Read MoreWe are crouched low to the ground, hovering like flies.
Caesar rolls onto his back, exposing his belly as he scratches his brow. At this distance, I can see the individual lashes, so like ours, surrounding his coffee-colored eyes. For a while, he watches us; poses for us; seems to want to communicate with us.
Read MoreOver the past 48 hours, nearly fifty wild animals have been killed in Ohio after being released by their owner, Terry Thompson, who subsequently took his own life.
Through harrowing tales by Ohio residents and police officers, the online community has been seized with terror, imagining panic at encountering a lion, tiger or bear within a residential community.
Read MoreA goat has gone missing, the fifth in a month's time. A farmer locates its half-eaten carcass several days later and blames the wild cheetah he's seen darting across his property during early sun-drenched mornings. He can't afford to lose another of his livestock, so he gathers his workers and the live-trap from the barn, careful to arrange it in front of a low-leaning acacia tree, one bearing a series of jagged claw marks. He places a slab of goat meat in the trap.
Read MoreFor the first time in three weeks I am alone, driving from Windhoek toward the Namib Desert beneath a ubiquitous blue sky, its presence above the savannah creating the illusion of a flat, wide Earth. Traffic quiets as the landscape shifts, from dramatic rock piles that converge incongruously to the Naukluft Mountains, a sort of highway toward the dunes.
Read MoreTravel and nature programs transport us to the places we long to visit. The best capture sights and sounds that elude even the best traveled: a young leopard exiting its den for the first time; hunts that fatigue the cheetah's lanky limbs; and lion roars sounding at dusk, sending terror across the savannah.
Read MoreIt was pitch-black as I walked to my cabin after my first day of volunteering at a big cat sanctuary in Namibia. Reflecting on my day as I navigated the contours of the dirt path, I recalled grueling work in the bush. Morning devoted to cutting raw horsemeat in preparation for afternoon feedings, outings to which I was not invited, relegated to cleaning a vast aviary where I shoveled dirt and bird feces for several hours, their stains imprinted on my clothes for days to come.
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