Mako sharks, also known as the ‘cheetahs of the sharks,’ are the fastest of all shark species, but they cannot outswim the threat of overfishing in the world’s oceans, say conservation experts from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other groups who applaud plans by government delegates to increase protection for makos and other sharks and rays fishes at CITES, convening this week in Switzerland.

The fate of the saiga, a prehistoric antelope species, found on the windswept steppes of Central Asia, will be decided as CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) gathers for its 18th Conference of the Parties (CoP18) August 17-28 in Geneva. The saiga is on the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered and is vital to the ecosystem of Mongolia’s steppe.

The last known female Giant Yangtze Soft Shell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) died on Saturday, April 13, 2019, during recovery from anesthesia after an artificial insemination procedure in Suzhou, China.

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service announced new proposed regulations weakening the Endangered Species Act’s ability to protect threatened and endangered species from extinction.

This week, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee marked up a bill that would reauthorize the Multinational Species Conservation Funds (MSCF), a key program in the fight to save the world’s endangered species.

February 13, 2017 – A team of scientists reporting in the journal Nature Climate Change say that negative impacts of climate change on threatened and endangered wildlife have been massively underreported.  

January 11, 2017 – WCS has issued the following video statement today by Dr. Timothy Tear, WCS Executive Director of Africa Programs, on the newly published study in Nature on the discovery of the world’s largest peatland in the Republic of Congo.

May 12, 2016—Scientists working for the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Stirling, and the Amboseli Trust for Elephants say that the high levels of poaching forest elephants will result in a loss of the oldest, wisest matriarchs, who are living libraries of their vast rainforest domain. Without these mothers, forest elephant social lives and their understanding of their ecosystem will be lost. This exacerbates the ongoing loss of ecosystem function already underway by the loss of these most effective seed dispersers and forest gardeners.

April 14, 2016—A series of seismic surveys for oil and gas planned for the mid- and southeastern Atlantic coastal areas of the United States pose a substantial threat to one of the world’s most endangered whale species, according to a group of renowned marine mammal scientists urging a halt to the surveys in a statement released today.

 February 24, 2016 - Adult male gorillas in the wild ‘sing’ and ‘hum’ more during feeding than their younger or female counterparts, according to a study published today in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Eva Maria Luef and Simone Pika at the Humboldt Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany, and their colleague Thomas Breuer from the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York.