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Not easy eating green: Herbivores most at extinction risk
Read full article: Not easy eating green: Herbivores most at extinction riskAlthough scientists have long focused on the worlds predators, a massive new study finds that herbivores, critters that eat plants, are the animals most at risk of extinction. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)Although scientists often worry most about the loss of the worlds predators, a comprehensive new study finds that plant-eating herbivores are the animals most at risk of extinction. Scientists even examined the presumed diets of more than 2,000 species no longer alive and found that herbivores again had the highest extinction proportion. Extinction causes invasive species, climate change and habitat loss hit herbivores harder than animals with other diets, Atwood said. Size may be part of the reason herbivores are more at risk, the ecologist said.
Virus stalls work to keep alive a rare rhino subspecies
Read full article: Virus stalls work to keep alive a rare rhino subspeciesGroundbreaking work to keep alive the nearly extinct northern white rhino - population, two - by in-vitro fertilization has been hampered by travel restrictions caused by the new coronavirus. Groundbreaking work to keep alive the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies population, two by in-vitro fertilization has been stalled by travel restrictions. The two northern white rhinos are female. Fatu and her mother, Najin, roam and graze within sight of rangers in the company of one intended surrogate mother, a southern white rhino named Tewa. This effort to keep the northern white rhino subspecies alive has been a good way to draw the worlds attention to the issue of extinction, Vigne said.
Africa's endangered wildlife at risk as tourism dries up
Read full article: Africa's endangered wildlife at risk as tourism dries upWith tourists gone and their money, too, protecting endangered wildlife like black rhinos has become that much more challenging. We are more alert because maybe more poachers will use this time to come in to poach," Tekeles said. The number of black rhinos in Africa has been slowly increasing though the species remains critically endangered, according to a report in March by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN. Ol Pejeta is home to more than 130 black rhinos, the single largest population in East and Central Africa, said Richard Vigne, the conservancys managing director. And the population of black rhinos had been growing by an annual rate of 2.5% between 2012 and 2018 to more than 5,600.
Eggs extracted from last 2 northern white rhinos may save species
Read full article: Eggs extracted from last 2 northern white rhinos may save speciesNajin (left) and Fatu are the last two northern white rhinos on the planet. (CNN) - Only beeps from medical monitoring equipment broke the silence as veterinarians harvested eggs from the last two northern white rhinos on the planet. The stakes are immense, with the future of the northern white rhino on the line. The egg extraction is just the one part of a long journey to keep the northern white rhino from becoming extinct. Researchers will attempt to artificially inseminate their eggs with frozen sperm from a northern white rhino.