Conservation News ~ 7 February 2020

• White House finalizes plans for drilling, mining in shrunken Utah national monuments
• Morocco will no longer kill stray dogs
• Arctic permafrost that plays greater role in climate change than previously estimated
• Global warming is speeding up Earth’s massive ocean currents
• A sea ice declines, polar bears are spending an extra month on land
• Penguin calls found to conform to human linguistic laws
• Women are the single largest exclusion in India’s farmer suicide data
• Dead Sea dates frown from 2000-year-old seeds
• Congressman Lowenthal introduces bill to protect Federal lands in Utah as wilderness
• RCMP are raiding Wet’suwet’en Land Defender Camps
• Famous Gray Wolf (Or-54) found dead in Calfornia
• Bumblebees’ decline points to mass extinctions
• New York City just announced intent to ban new fossil fuel projects
• White House is blowing up a National Monument in Arizona to make way for the Border Wall
• Endangered Corroborre frogs survive bushfires
• Ten US refineries emit cancer-causing chemical above EPA limits
• First squid MRI study shows brain completely similar to dogs
• Rare Glass Frogs with transparent stomachs have been found in Bolivia  for the first time in 18 years
• Peruvian indigenous group wins suit to block oil exploration in Amazonian region
• Latin America’s new leftist leaders are backtracking on the environment
• EarthJustice is suing the USFWS to keep Florida Panthers on the road to recovery
• Conservation groups join California in legal dispute over protecting bumblebees
• Adani to plead guilty for giving false or misleading documents and may be fined up to $3m
• Bjork and Microsoft use AI to create music that changes with the weather
• Wildlife cam shows coyote playfully leading badger into tunnel near Santa Cruz mountains
• Indonesia’s traveling dolphin circus shut down
• Tim, Kenya’s iconic Big Tusker, passed away
• New species are added to Texas’s threatened list
• New thalattosaur species discovered in southeast Alaska
• Population growth is damaging the environment in Oregon
• Fireflies are under threat from habitat loss, pesticides, and light pollution
• White House credits economic progress to environmental rollbacks
• California Gov. Newsom proposes water management plan to protect endangered species
• Carbon emissions from Peruvian gold mining alarming
• Forever chemical found in half of all cosmetics could kill seals and dolphins
• Harvard faculty votes for divestment
• Traditional forest product knowledge strengthens the forest economy in Brazil
• Indigenous forest defenders around the world are dying anonymous deaths
• Switzerland may soon ban all factory farms
• Millions of birds killed by nighttime harvesting in Mediterranean
• Black-footed ferrets can teach us about conservation successes
• Fiji values conservation of wetlands for preservation of biodiversity
• New orb-weaver spider names after French mathematician and spider aficionado
• Mercury in dental fillings could be getting into water supply
• US House panel Oks bill to undo White House changes to Endangered Species Act
• Hunting is slowly dying off and that has created a crisis for the nation’s many endangered species
• Indonesia-WWF split puts rhino breeding project in Borneo in limbo
• Australians boo climate change sceptic senator
• Restoration of a San Mateo County creek reopens a gateway for Endangered Salmon
• Greta Thunberg is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize again
• 1,400 pounds of shark fins found by wildlife inspectors in Miami
• EPA re-approves key Roundup chemical
• Galapagos tortoise subspecies thought extinct lives on
• Colombia struggles to rein in Amazon deforestation, despite foreign aid
• Australian Defence Force flies in experts to assess corroboree frogs
• Borneo locals win a court battle to bar a coal miner from their land
• Profound evolution – wasps learn to recognize faces
• Graeme Worboys, conservationist, receives the Order of Australia, on of the country’s highest honours
• Red Fox study uncovers new species in Central Oregon
• Judge orders feds to reconsider decision to not classify bat species found in WV as endangered
• Crocodile spotted on the Great Barrier Reef
• European crew wraps up mock moon mission on volcano in Hawaii
• Every year, 50 million cleaner fish die in Norwegian fish farms
• At famed Mexican butterfly reserve, second worker found dead
• The Gingko Biloba tree achieves near immortality, more than 3000 years
• Massacre leaves six indigenous people dead at Nicaraguan nature reserve
• A rescued Green Sea Turtle pooped out plastic trash for weeks
• Scientists found a 268-year-old whale
• Man who stole lemur from zoo gets 12 years for Newport Beach burglaries
• Endangered Florida Panther kittens find forever home at wildlife conservation
• Gharials haven’t been seen in this Nepal park for 37 years but they’re back with babies
• Man caught a JFK with smuggled birds from Guyana
• New species of sea slugs found close to Maha, Gujarat shores
• France moves to ban mass live-shredding of male chicks
• Arizona quietly sells 16,810 acres to Freeport-McMoRan for mining waste
• Sanders introduces bill to ban fracking