Conservation News ~ 10 April 2020

• Florida dairy farmers forced to dump excess milk
• Gold mining threatens indigenous forests in the Brazilian Amazon
• China just upgraded the status of dogs from ‘livestock’ to ‘pets’
• Amid pandemic, whales enjoy human absence in Mediterranean
• Poachers kill more rhinos as coronavirus halts tourism to Africa
• 70,000 sea turtles nested on beaches emptied by COVID-19
• SeaWorld offered $250,000 to release marine animals to sanctuaries
• 17 months’ jail for man caught at Changi Airport with 11 pieces of rhinoceros horns
• 66 US lawmakers demand global wet market ban to stop pandemics
• New Jersey confers strict water protections on 600 miles of waterways
• Savannah, Goergia, commits to 100% green energy by 2050
• Race to save rare California frog beats coronavirus lockdown
• African swine fever outbreak reported in western Poland
• Lobster digestion of microplastics could further foul the food chain
• Sceintists spot giant ocean creature that looks like silly string hunting in galaxy-like spiral
• Lawsuit targets grazing damage to Arizona’s San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area
• New fossil from Brazil hints at the origins of the mysterious tansystropheid reptiles
• Scientists create mutant enzyme that recycles plastic bottles in hours
• Monarch butterfly gets protection in ‘historic’ deal
• 84 percent of Americans unaware COVID-19 came from wet animal markets
• New Harvard study links COVID deaths and air pollution
• Eastern Tiger Salamanders, once nearly gone from Maryland, make a comeback
• Blue Macaws help grow the forest around them
• Wildlife Services killed four endangered Mexican Gray Wolves in late March
• New EPA rules will increase air pollution as the world suffers a respiratory pandemic
• Gold mining threatens indigenous forests in the Brazilian Amazon
• In Sri Lanka, gillnets targeting tuna claim dolphin lives
• A wave-powered ferry aims to forge a new path for shipping in the Philippines
• Report links top tuna company to forced labor
• Canada’s Belo Sun hits legal hurdles in bid to mine indigenous land in Brazil
• White House finalizes car rule as handout to fossil fuel industry
• Beyond Meat ton donate more than one million vegan burgers to COVID frontline workers
• Doctor Fauci demands global shutdown of wet markets
• Malaysian authorities seize record 6 tons of African pangolin scales
• 225 doctors fight to shut down live animal markets
• New jumping spider species discovered in Chennai’s MCC
• Two new sea star species discovered in Philippines
• After 5 months on the job, SeaWorld CEO resigns
• Indigenous group wins unprecedented right of reply to government’s racist invective
• With zoo closed to visitors, pandas finally bang after 10 years
• Oregon forests remain open for logging and timber sales during COVID
• On a mega reserve in Laos, rescued Moon Bears find a new home
• Climate crisis may have pushed world’s tropical coral reefs to tipping point of near annual bleaching
• Standoff over Philippine’s Didipio mines escalates despite COVID
• Court reinstates limits on potent climate-polluting refrigerants
• The world’s largest sea turtle emerges from ocean and leaves everyone open mouthed
• Nigerian National Park boss says we must have behavioural change towards wildlife
• Hundreds of conservation experts join forces to pressure WHO to force live animal markets to close
• US to let nuclear plants defer repairs, schedule longer shifts
• UN biodiversity chief argues for a permanent ban on wildlife markets
• Oil companies are collapsing but wind and solar energy keep growing
• Fossil teeth yield oldest genetic material from extinct human species
• New species of Pterosaur discovered in Morocco
• Lawsuit launched against White House for failing to protect Nassau Grouper habitat
• Bomb tests reveal true age of world’s largest fish
• Amazon land activitst shot dead in Brazil
• Bronx Tiger tests positive for COVID
• Commodity markets rumble as COVID spreads
• University of Hawaii botanist who died of coronavirus will be sorely missed
• Under cover of pandemic, fossil fuel interests unleash lobbying frenzy
• Newfound fish species floats like a butterfly, looks like a panda
• IUCN welcomes Cambodia as a state member
• Prickly pears are suddenly a hot crop in South Africa
• Botswana kills five suspected poachers in effort to save rhinos
• Endangered wild dogs snapped in South Sudan
• 10 years to save world’s most threatened sea turtle
• COVID disrupts a major year of biodiversity planning and policy
• Palm oil gains ground in Chiapas, Mexico
• Nigeria declares new conservation zone for most threatened chimpanzee
• Right Whale calving season ends of Florida with 10 births
• The ocean can be restored to former glory within 30 years
• Monkey teeth fossils hint several extinct species crossed the Atlantic
• New fossil names after Lord of the Rings character is related to mysterious reptile
• In major ruling for Right Whales, federal judge rules that regulators violated Endangered Species Act