Conservation News ~ 31 December 2021

• Early humans hunted the largest available animals to extinction for 1.5 million years
• Kew Gardens botanists battle global perils to preserve endangered plants from extinction
• Kenya: The commercial farm keeping Pancake tortoises to help prevent extinction
• Tom Lovejoy, prominent conservation biologist, dies at 80
• Four California Frog Populations Proposed for Endangered Species Act
• Sunflower Sea Star One Step Closer to Endangered Species Act Protection
• Foothill yellow-legged frog populations proposed for endangered species protection
• December Snow In Sierra Already Breaking Records, UC Researchers Say
• Tiger farms doing little to end wild poaching, Vietnam consumer study shows
• Mongabay’s top Amazon stories from 2021
• Indonesia’s new epicenter of forest fires shifts away from Sumatra and Borneo
• ‘Rampant forest destruction’ wracks reserve as cattle ranching advances in Brazilian Amazon
• The year in rainforests 2021
• Madagascar’s small fishers cheer new trawl-free zone, but do trawlers obey it?
• Mongabay’s 10 most watched videos of 2021
• ‘Land mafia’ makes its mark in a Sumatran village’s fight against oil palm firm
• 2021’s top ocean news stories (commentary)
• Kenya court orders return of $13m in seized rosewood to suspected traffickers
• Visions of a post-supply chain society (commentary)
• Edward O. Wilson, prominent biologist and author, has died at 92
• Mongabay’s coverage of palm oil in 2021
• The Congo Basin’s 10 most consequential stories from 2021
• As its glaciers melt, Nepal is forced into an adaptation not of its choosing
• Myanmar teak is tainted. Time to jettison it, some yacht-making insiders say
• Indonesia’s three most consequential forestry stories of 2021
• Sierra Nevada in California sees record December snow
• New Possum Species Named After UW-Oshkosh Professor
• Thousands of cranes killed by bird flu in northern Israel
• Changes to Madagascar’s trawling sector raise questions and hopes
• Small coffee farmers lay their chips on smart agriculture to overcome climate crisis in the Cerrado biome
• Mongabay’s 10 hardest-hitting investigations of 2021
• Joy as incredibly rare tiger from critically endangered species born at London Zoo
• San Antonio Zoo releases 5,000 critically endangered toad tadpoles in native Puerto Rico
• Sunflower sea stars being considered for Endangered Species Act protections
• Louisiana COVID deaths near 15k; 3 of 6 zoo lions infected
• A Mexican fish has been brought back from extinction
• Penguins in crisis as sardine populations plummet
• Officials declare OC oil spill cleanup complete
• Meat industry pollution linked to 90k premature deaths in China
• Endangered orangutan in New Orleans has 1 healthy baby
• At 67 degrees, Alaska smashes record for highest recorded temperature in December
• National Park Service proposing expanded backcountry access at Wupatki National Monument
• World’s largest wind farm has officially started producing power
• Wisconsin Republicans introduce Bill authorizing Sandhill Crane hunt
• Court orders Shell to halt Wild Coast seismic blasting
• Record blankets Sierra Nevada
• Four California frog populations proposed for Endangered Species Act protection
• BLM moves forward with relocating headquarters back to DC
• Taiwan to impose restrictions on cane toad owners
• Scientists got an animal to breathe without oxygen using photosynthesis
• Norway wealth fund divests from China’s Yunnan Baiyao over pangolins
• Newly discovered fish songs demonstrate reef restoration success
• Scientists identify a previously unknown type of storm, called an ‘atmospheric lake’
• 130 wildlife species in danger of extinction in Iran
• Crows are capable of conscious thought
• Development and conservation clash at Komodo National Park
• French Zoo closes after pack of nine wolves escape