It is a thoughtful moment looking into the eye of a bird that nearly went extinct. As I crouched and observed an Alagoas curassow my first thought was a sense of deep gratitude to Pedro Mario Nardelli who in the late 1970s acted to rescue the last wild specimens and establish a captive population in
In December 1978 the famous Brazilian ornithologist Helmut Sick made one of the ornithological discoveries of the 20th century. He located a breeding population of the fabulous Lear’s macaw – a species that had been known in collections for 150 years but whose whereabouts in the wild was a mystery. Lear’s macaw is one
The WWF’s new Living Planet report highlights a 58% decline in the abundance of 3,706 animal species since 1970, reinforcing the fear that humanity is bringing about a sixth mass extinction. The roots of this fear stretch back more than a century, when a series of well-publicised extinctions provided incontrovertible evidence that human actions could
By Paul Jepson, Richard J. Ladle and Susanne F. Schmitt. Photo; Richard J. Ladle When we were started out in conservation in the 1980s the Golden Lion Tamarin (hereafter GLT) was the poster child for species conservation. The species is restricted to the Atlantic rainforests of southeast Brazil (Rio de Janeiro State) and in
I was a founding member of the OBC, its first joint conservation officer and second chairman. I have resigned my membership and this is why. For me the founding of OBC in 1985 was a manifestation of a new birding movement: a coming together of action-minded birders who wanted to make something happen. I recall
As part of the UK Green Film Festival last Saturday I was invited to be a discussant at the Oxford showing of Louie Psihoyos' documentary 'Racing Extinction'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwxyrLUdcss The film is a visually engaging and emotive smorgasbord of environmental issues brought together under the narratives of extinction and the slaughter of sea-life, in particular sharks
