WCS 3-Sentence Science: Trade of bushmeat and other wildlife for human consumption presents a unique set of challenges to policymakers who are confronted with multiple trade-offs between conservation, food security, food safety, culture, and tradition.
WCS 3-Sentence Science: Biodiversity conservation is often considered to be a co-benefit of protecting carbon sinks such as intact forests to help mitigate climate change.
WCS 3-Sentence Science: Scientists looked at how fragmentation is affecting critically endangered Dahl’s toad headed turtle (Mesoclemmys dahli) a forest-stream specialist found only in Colombia.
A team of scientists and veterinarians gave a health evaluation of turtles living in the Bronx River, one of the most urbanized rivers in the U.S. and the only remaining freshwater river that flows through New York City.
An international study published today in the journal Science argues that the current international target for the protected area estate, accepted by over 190 nations, is failing. They propose a new measurable target based on the best scientific evidence that they say will galvanize greater and more effective conservation efforts.
The government of Belize has approved “The Expansion of Fisheries Replenishment (No-Take) Zones,” which will increase the total area of Belize’s protected waters from 4.5 percent to 11.6 percent, according to WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). In this expansion, Belize also establishes its first protected area within its Exclusive Economic Zone, known as the Corona Reef due to its extensive coral reef complex.
A sweeping new census published in the journal Environmental Research Letters estimates 52,800 western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) live in eight countries in western Africa, with most of them found outside of protected areas, some of which are threatened by intense development pressures.
A new study maps the last vestiges of wild places where the world’s threatened species can take refuge from the ravages of unregulated hunting, land clearing, and other industrial activities.
A sweeping new study published in the journal Science says that chimpanzee’s complex cultures – including the use of tools and other behaviors – are being lost as human disturbance expands into previously wild areas.
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its partners has announced 45 sites identified to meet Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) status, global priority areas for conservation of biodiversity in Uganda.
Through its Climate Adaptation Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is soliciting proposals from nonprofit conservation organizations implementing new methods that help wildlife adapt to the rapidly-shifting environmental conditions brought about by climate change.
Marine scientists from the University of Queensland, WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other groups have developed a methodology to assess fish stocks that combines new data with archeological and historical records – some dating back to the 8th Century AD.
WCS scientists in our Global Conservation Program and in our zoos and aquarium issued a list of nine iconic wildlife species that are recovering in 2019 due to conservation action.
WCS has announced 13 new grants to nonprofit organizations implementing on-the-ground, science-driven projects that will help wildlife and ecosystems adapt to climate change.
The Nassau grouper—a fish known for its spectacular spawning aggregations in and around the Caribbean Sea—is now a “Critically Endangered” species, according to a new assessment by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).
A new study by WCS looks at the job satisfaction of front line conservation rangers working in challenging conditions at a national park in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and identifies ways to improve motivation to make them more effective at enforcing the law.
A new WCS-led study published in the journal Biological Conservation says the future of tigers in Asia is linked the path of demographic transition—for humans.
Singing humpback whales from different ocean basins seem to be picking up musical ideas from afar, and incorporating these new phrases and themes into the latest song, according to a newly published study in Royal Society Open Science that’s helping scientists better understand how whales learn and change their musical compositions.
A new study by WCS, El Colegio de Frontera Sur, Washington State University and other key regional partners has found that the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), one of the last large herding mammals of the Americas, has been eliminated from 87 percent of its historical range in Mesoamerica.
The Government of Argentina has created two massive offshore marine parks in the southwest Atlantic that will help protect the diverse marine life of the Patagonian Sea, according to WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and a host of other partners who have worked for years to protect these biodiverse seascapes.
A study by an international team of conservation scientists found that a dam built in Thailand 31 years ago has caused the local bird population to collapse.
Alejandro Santo Domingo, a Colombian-American financier and philanthropist, is the new Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández and the minister of the Institute of Forest Conservation (ICF) Director Arnaldo Bueso announced the government’s commitment to protecting the Moskitia and its people with an initiative called SOS Honduras: Stop the Destruction of the Forest.
Producing the first comprehensive fine-scale map of the world’s remaining marine and terrestrial wild places, conservation scientists writing in the journal Nature say that just 23 percent of the world’s landmass can now be considered wilderness.
WCS President and CEO Dr. Cristián Samper issued the following statement on the announcement of more than $185 million in new support from Michael Bloomberg and Ray Dalio’s OceanX to increase ocean exploration and protection at the Our Ocean Conference.
WCS President and CEO Dr. Cristián Samper issued the following statement on the announcement of more than $185 million in new support from Michael Bloomberg and Ray Dalio’s OceanX to increase ocean exploration and protection at the Our Ocean Conference.
WCS will have marine conservation experts on the ground at OOC18, taking place in Bali, Indonesia on October 29th and 30th, to join with other conservation organizations, government delegates, and businesses in pledging new commitments for ocean conservation and discussing progress on previously made commitments. For more information on the event, click here.
A new study by WCS, American Museum of Natural History, and other partners uses long term data on bear mortality to map high-probability hot-spots for human-bear conflicts
WCS marine scientists surveying the waters of New York Bight for marine mammals and other species are enjoying a banner year, encountering a wide array of marine life in the waters just beyond—and sometimes in sight of—New York City.
Conservationists released an incredible video today showing the successful re-introduction of 24 zebras into Tanzania’s Kitulo National Park in the Southern Highlands region last week – part of a bold effort to re-wild this once pristine landscape.
Working in collaboration with Myanmar’s Department of Fisheries (DoF), WCS has announced the creation of a new protected area for a population of critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) living in the Ayeyawady River of central Myanmar.
A team of conservationists from the Royal Veterinary College, WCS, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna published a letter in this week’s edition of the journal Science on the threat of the virus peste des petits ruminants (PPR) to conservation.
The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William visited Tanzania’s College of African Wildlife Management (CAWM), Mweka, as part of his current visit to Africa as President of United for Wildlife. While there, the Duke took part in an exercise as part of SMART training at the college being supported by United for Wildlife and implemented by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
NEW YORK (September 21, 2018)—In anticipation of World Gorilla Day (Monday, September 24th), WCS is releasing a list of 10 facts on the world’s largest primates and one of humankind’s closest relatives. WCS scientists conduct research to inform conservation of the species and manage on-the-ground conservation projects across Africa to protect these great apes and their habitats. In New York City, WCS plays a vital role in giving millions of people the opportunity to see gorillas at its Bronx Zoo Congo Gorilla Forest, home to one of North America’s largest breeding groups of western lowland gorillas.
Indigenous Peoples have ownership, use and management rights over at least a quarter of the world’s land surface according to a new study published this week in the journal Nature Sustainability.
Scientists estimate there are only 84 remaining highly endangered Amur leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis) remaining in the wild across its current range along the southernmost border of Primorskii Province in Russia and Jilin Province of China.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Yale University have created a plan to preserve one of the last intact forest strongholds for the jaguar and other iconic species in Central America: the Moskitia Forest Corridor.
He’s a father of 20 from nine different mothers. He’s a fierce defender of his family and helped nurse two of his offspring back from leopard attacks. He likes to nap with his feet in the air, and he hums while he eats. Meet Kingo, a wild silverback gorilla who is celebrating his 40th birthday.
NEW YORK (June 13, 2018)— An age-old challenge of determining the right amount of fish to harvest from the sea has finally been overcome with the creation of a new biomass-yield model that captures all the necessary factors for accuracy, according to a new WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) study.
This week, the House Appropriations Committee marked up and passed the Fiscal Year 2019 Interior Appropriations bill, which controls U.S. government investment in supporting international conservation and stopping wildlife crime.
A massive decade-long study of Western Equatorial Africa’s gorillas and chimpanzees has revealed that there are one third more western lowland gorillas and one tenth more central chimpanzees than previously thought. The bad news: the vast majority of these great apes (80 percent) exist outside of protected areas, and gorilla populations are declining by 2.7 percent annually.
A new WCS paper published in the journal BioScience finds that the enormous trends toward population stabilization, poverty alleviation, and urbanization are rewriting the future of biodiversity conservation in the 21st century, offering new hope for the world’s wildlife and wild places.
Six Indonesians pleaded guilty yesterday to charges for trespassing into the Lanjak-Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary, a hotspot for wildlife crime including the illegal extraction of internationally protected agarwood.
Researchers have found that increasing land clearing for logging in Solomon Islands–even with best management strategies in place – will lead to unsustainable levels of soil erosion and significant impacts to downstream water quality.
WCS announced today that a group of the world’s leading coffee companies has committed to addressing deforestation from illegal coffee production inside Indonesia’s Bukit Barisan Selatan (BBS) National Park – a key protected area for Sumatran tigers, rhinos, and elephants.
Conservationists working in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park have not one but two good reasons to be hopeful for the park’s savanna elephant population: a pair of rare twin calves who have recently joined their mother’s herd.