39% of worlds primates found to be at risk of extinction Aug 6, 2008
He added: Tropical forest destruction has always been the main cause, but now it appears that hunting is just as serious a threat in some areas, even where the habitat is still quite intact. In many places, primates are literally being eaten to extinction. (Hindu)
Deforestation May Make Humans More Vulnerable To Infection Feb 12, 2008
8, 2006) Deforestation and habitat loss are expected to lead to an extinction crisis among tropical forest species. Humans in rural settings contribute most to deforestation of extant tropical forests. (Science Daily)
Ant Parasite Turns Host Into Ripe Red Berry, Biologists Discover Jan 22, 2008
This bizarre lifecycle of a parasitic nematode, or roundworm, plays out in the high canopy of tropical forests ranging from Central America to the lowland Amazon, according to Robert Dudley, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley ... Dudley chanced upon the infected ants while he, Yanoviak and ant ecologist Michael E. Kaspari of the University of Oklahoma in Norman were studying the gliding ability of a species of ant, Cephalotes atratus, common in the... (Science Daily)
Indonesia's 'Lost World' Reveals More Surprises Dec 18, 2007
The Foja Wilderness is part of the great Mamberamo Basin, the largest unroaded tropical forest in the Asia Pacific region ... The cutting and burning of tropical forests worldwide emits at least 20 percent of total global greenhouse gases. (Science Daily)
Photo in the News: New Boarlike Animal Found in Amazon Nov 6, 2007
"[It] therefore reinforces the need to protect as much ... biodiversity-rich tropical forest as possible.". Christine Dell'Amore. (National Geographic)
Primates in Trouble, Says Report on 25 Rarest Oct 27, 2007
"The situation is worst in where tropical forest destruction and the hunting and trading of monkeys puts many species at terrible risk," said Mittermeier, who is also chairman of the IUCN's Primate Specialist Group ... Habitat loss due to the clearing of tropical forests for agriculture, logging and fuel wood continues to be the major factor in the declining number of primates, according to the report. (National Geographic)
Amazon Rainforest At Risk From Initiative To Connect South American Economies Oct 6, 2007
It would also wipe out some of Earth's richest storehouses of terrestrial and freshwater life and would exacerbate global warming by releasing into the atmosphere the huge quantities of carbon stored in the biomass of the tropical forest -- estimated at about twenty times the world's total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Killeen argues it doesn't have to be this way. (Science Daily)
Tropical Insects 'Go The Distance' To Inform Rainforest Conservation Aug 15, 2007
The long-held belief that plant-eating insects in tropical forests are picky eaters that stay "close to home" -- dining only on locale-specific vegetation -- is being challenged by new research findings that suggest these insects feast on a broader menu of foliage and can be consistently found across hundreds of miles of tropical forestland ... "We are excited to be part of the ongoing, international effort to add to the extensive data necessary for the understanding, analysis and conservation... (Science Daily)
Filmmaker thanks Hale pupils for aid Jun 25, 2007
Roughly 90 percent of Madagascar has been denuded of tropical forests so desperately people can grow food ... Ambodiletra sits in the last remaining enclave of tropical forest in Madagascar. (New Haven Register, CT)
Earliest panda skull reveals bamboo-eating "pygmy Jun 19, 2007
The moist tropical forest favored by the pygmy giant panda was also home to other early relatives of creatures alive today. The diminutive panda lived side-by-side with the stegodon, a 13-foot-tall (4-meter-tall) ancestor of mammoths and elephants, Kazinform quotes National Geographic News. (Kazinform)
Some Forest Birds Can Survive In Agricultural Countryside With Limited Habitat Conservation May 30, 2007
Some tropical forest birds can survive alongside humans if given a helping hand, according to a recent study by Cagan H. Sekercioglu, senior scientist at the Stanford University Center for Conservation Biology ... After eight months of tracking over two seasons, the team concluded that many tropical forest birds tend to avoid coffee plantations, even though they were frequently observed there by researchers in previous studies ... Furthermore, the research demonstrated the ability of some... (Science Daily)
Theories of ancient Amazon rainforest populations may be all wet Feb 26, 2007
"The Brazilian Amazon contains roughly 40% of the world's remaining tropical forest. It is also among the most threatened with rapid degradation due to agro-pastoral expansion and other development," Heckenberger notes, in a related paper in the same journal. "Comparing pre-Columbian population scales or technologies with contemporary agribusiness and frontier development is like comparing a 17th Century grist mill with a modern hydrodam.". (USA Today -- Tech)
Orangutan Habitat May Be Gone in 15 Years, UN Report Says Feb 8, 2007
may lose nearly all their tropical forest habitat within 15 years unless urgent action is taken now to end rampant illegal logging, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) warned in a report yesterday. About 60,000 orangutans which are native to the Southeast Asian islands of Sumatra and Borneo remain in the wild, conservationists believe (). (National Geographic)
Free Podcast: National Geographic News (January 5, 2007) Jan 6, 2007
News InterviewGustavo Fonseca of the nonprofit Conservation International talks about Brazil's recent announcement to set aside 37 million acres (15 million hectares) of tropical forest spanning seven new protected areas. Photos on the RadioEndangered right whale killed by ship (). (National Geographic)
