News from the Wild Archive 2006

A Second Chance for Sea Turtles in Nicaragua William McCoy’s career as a conservationist began when he was a young man, working as a diesel mechanic in Nicaragua’s fishing industry. Watching boats dump their oil into the Caribbean Sea and coastal residents collect every last sea turtle egg from the beaches, he knew that the local marine life faced a perilous future. Thanks to his efforts, Nicaragua’s four species of sea turtles have been granted a second chance.

Coming Soon! African Wild Dogs Love dogs? Not only is 2006 the Year of the Dog according to the Chinese lunar calendar, it is also the Year of the Dog-Lover. Coming in June, following on the paws of this winter's 130th annual Westminster Dog Show, the Bronx Zoo will open a dynamic new exhibit of African wild dogs in June.

Going for the Gold…with Paws, Flippers, and Wings The challenge is on in Torino, Italy, where some of the world’s best athletes are competing in the XX Olympic Winter Games to prove themselves the strongest or the fastest, the most daring or the most precise. But how do the skills of the rest of the animal kingdom measure up?

A Murky Forecast for the Land of Fire and Ice It is bear country to some, salmon country to others. But to scientist Gleb Raygorodetsky, who was born in this rugged land, the Kamchatka of today is a threatened treasure in the catalogue of the world’s remaining wildernesses. Politically, culturally, and socially, the nature of this remote place has changed.

Zambians Trade Guns for Honey on Road to Sustainability In the heart of eastern Zambia, where herds of elephant and antelope share their turf with communities of farmers and hunters, local residents have initiated a revolutionary change in lifestyle. In a symbolic gesture towards conservation and sustainability, they have collectively handed over hundreds of guns in exchange for improved opportunities in food security and markets.

Predator Control Not Solution to Sheep Decline The bad rep of Western carnivores like wolves and coyotes is causing their rapid decline at the hands of federal agents claiming to protect the nation’s floundering sheep industry.

A New School in the Bronx—Pupils Have Fins and Scales After an historic ceremony on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo, alewife herring are back home—and alive—where they belong. The adjustment appeared easy for the 201 fish released into the Bronx River, a testament to the efforts of the Wildlife Conservation Society and other organizations to restore this long-neglected waterway.

Red Tide Causes Sea Turtle Die-Off in El Salvador The culprit is microscopic in size, but its effects are monstrous. Deadly algal blooms— known as “red tide” for the reddish pigments contained in these single-celled organisms at the base of the ocean’s food web—have caused the deaths of some 200 sea turtles.

New Film Highlights Battle To Save Tibetan Antelope Its luxurious wool—also known as shahtoosh—is famous in high fashion circles around the world. But few know that the source of this fine fabric is the gravely endangered Tibetan antelope, or chiru.

A Home for Herbie When Herbie the Harbor Seal was found stranded on a dock as a tiny pup, rescuers knew he’d need a nurturing home to grow big and strong. Today he’s giving kisses to his keepers and eating hearty fish dinners at the Central Park Zoo. Find out how Herbie and other wild animals at risk have found sanctuary at WCS zoos.

Bug Bytes: The Role of Creepy-Crawlies in Your Garden Does a wriggly earthworm give you a chill? Do you run from the buzz of honeybees? The presence of insects in your garden is often an indicator of a healthy yard. So put down that fly swatter, and make room for bugs!

How Hootie Got His Groove Back After an unexpected bump in the night, Hootie, a long-eared owl with a fractured wing, is on the mend at the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Health Center. The model patient followed vet’s orders for rest, physical therapy, and a healthy diet, and should soon return to New York skies.

Better than a Mousetrap: Save the Forest The Pacific paradise of Fiji is home to dolphins and whales, parrots and iguanas, fruit bats and seabirds. Travel brochures rarely mention its less spectacular but more numerous wild residents: invasive mongooses and rats. A recent study by WCS has hit upon a fine solution for keeping these island-wreckers away.

Beloved Sea Lion Dies at Record Age of 35 Central Park’s most famous sunbather passed away on April 26. Breezy, the 35-year-old sea lion, was beloved by zookeepers and visitors alike. She is believed to have been one of the oldest California sea lions at any zoo or aquarium in North America.

The Bronx Zoo Children’s Zoo Grows Up Since the Bronx Zoo’s Children’s Zoo opened in 1981, generations of young zoo-goers have learned an important lesson: Never criticize a turtle until you’ve walked a mile in its shell. Learn about how this haven for young explorers came to be as we mark its 25th year.

Prime-ate Discovery WCS researchers knew it was an unusual find, but they had no idea how unusual. Their discovery: a long-haired monkey with a whiskery face, shy temperament, and unique “honk bark” living high in the trees of Tanzania’s Mt. Rungwe. A genetic study has revealed this find to represent a new primate genus.

Bronx Zoo Sends Gators Home Endangered Chinese Alligator Population Gets a Boost A dozen rare Chinese alligators hatched and raised in the U.S. are trading in the Yankees for the Yangtze as WCS conservationists oversee their reintroduction into a Chinese wetlands reserve.

WCS Is “Paving” the Way for Jaguars A thoroughfare that’s healthy for wildlife? For a change, a conduit through the forests of Central America won’t trigger new development or increase greenhouse gases. Instead, WCS conservationists hope, the only thing it will pave the way for is more pawprints.

Bring Your Pack to Meet Ours New African Wild Dog Exhibit Now Open! Plan a safari to the Bronx Zoo’s African Plains this summer to meet our African Wild Dogs. Your up-close encounters with these charismatic canids will top any dog show you’ve ever seen!

Meet Cesar Millan at the Bronx Zoo on June 17 Cesar Millan, host of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer, has worked for years with yippy Chihuahuas and bad-mannered bulls. Now he’s ready to greet a pack of truly wild dogs at the Bronx Zoo.

WCS Leads Initiative To Track Avian Influenza Overseas Two U.S. government agencies have collectively awarded $6 million to the Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance, a WCS-led initiative to monitor the health of wild bird populations around the globe.

In War-Torn Congo, Elephants Beat the Odds A recent wildlife census by WCS and a Congolese environmental agency found promising results that elephants and other large mammals are still hanging on in the DRC’s Virunga National Park, despite a decade of civil war and rampant poaching.

Tiny Toad, Big Mission In a troubled pocket of the Tanzanian wilderness, it seemed that luck had run out for the penny-size Kihansi spray toad. Then they found their way to the Bronx Zoo’s Reptile House.

Preserving a Wild West, for Posterity and for Pronghorn What will it take to conserve the Path of the Pronghorn, a trail that our continent’s fastest land animal has used since the end of the last Ice Age? In a landscape as famous for its mountains as for its oil fields, WCS scientist Dr. Joel Berger is determined to find out.

Mapping out a Trail toward Peace—and Parks—in Afghanistan Snow leopards and Marco Polo sheep receive some rare good news in the war-torn nation of Afghanistan, where WCS is helping to establish the country’s first official system of protected areas.

Tigers Get a Business Plan WCS conservationists are seeing stripes—black and orange ones—thanks to an ambitious new business plan for boosting the numbers of tigers that reside in a dozen key reserves by 50 percent over the next ten years.

Hot Stuff Coming Through! Hankering for heat? Savoring something spicy? When you purchase Elephant Pepper chili products through a new online shop, you’ll be adding zest to your supper as well as supporting elephant conservation and farmers in Africa.

Looking for a Good Catch? Ask the Irrawaddy Dolphin With WCS aid, the government of Myanmar is helping to safeguard a novel partnership between fishermen of the Ayeyarwady River and an endangered river dolphin.

Bronx River Diary Expedition 1: The Launch An intrepid team of Bronx River explorers begin their fish surveys in hopes of bearing witness to the first Bronx-born and -bred alewife herring generation in three and a half centuries.

To Combat Climate Change, Save the Canopy Save a tree, save the planet. It’s an old adage, but WCS is raising the bar on its mission to protect threatened forests by joining the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance to combat global climate change.

Snow Leopard Orphan Gets a Fresh Start at the Bronx Zoo The Bronx Zoo is giving refuge to a young snow leopard orphan abandoned in Pakistan. The transfer of this endangered cat united the Pakistani government, the U.S. State Department, and WCS in a remarkable conservation effort.

WCS Receives Gift from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation A generous grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation will enable WCS to help stem the tide of habitat loss, the single greatest threat to wildlife in the United States.

Bronx River Diary Expedition 2: Was that a Swimming Shoe? Our Bronx River diarist takes her survey expedition from the River to the Library when she decides to investigate a peculiar creature found swimming along the banks of her survey territory.

Bronx River Diary Expedition 3: Eureka! Vehicles: 13. Tires: 1,050. Tons of garbage: 77. The Bronx River Conservation Crew has pulled all sorts of junk out of the river. Just in time to clear the way for a large school of silvery fish…

Pioneer Visions A Legacy of Bison Conservation, 1896–2006 Can our continent’s largest land mammal still make a home on the range? A century ago, WCS saved the American bison from extinction; today our mission is saving the prairie itself.

Bronx River Diary Expedition 4 Climbing Ladders without Feet The river runs wild again. Fish are swimming, the cattails are high…but how will the alewives find passage to their upstream spawning grounds with a trio of dams blocking the way?

Western Arctic Alaska: Opportunity for Conservation WCS Arctic conservationists Steve Zack and Joe Liebezeit reveal the stunning variety of wildlife drawn to Alaska’s Lake Teshekpuk, now threatened by expanding oil development. View their slideshow for a glimpse of this remote wilderness haven.

Bronx River Diary Expedition 5: We Have Poppage! Alewives are busting out all over! Now that our fish surveyors have discovered where the action is, they are regular witnesses to dramatic herring activity on the seemingly serene Bronx River.

A New Tool to Fight Avian Flu Researchers from WCS and other agencies have attached satellite transmitters to whooper swans in Mongolia in an effort to monitor the movement of the avian influenza pathogen around the world.

Ace News for Apes: Congo Creates Two New Parks Two new protected areas will safeguard forests that are home to chimps, gorillas, elephants, and other rare and endangered wildlife in the Republic of Congo.

Bronx River Diary Expedition 6 Holy Herons Above! Ten egrets and a great blue heron recently invaded a surveyor group, appearing out of thin air. Who knew the Bronx River was such a hotspot for wildlife on the wing?

Big Welcome for a Big Cat An endangered cub from Pakistan is making his debut in the Bronx Zoo's Himalayan Highlands, following an historic ceremony that united the Pakistani and U.S. governments.

Dixie Chicks Sing Out for Conservation They may electrify concert halls, but off-stage, the Dixie Chicks tread gently on the planet. In their 2006 World Tour, the band is calling for their fans to help them protect Madagascar’s threatened rain forests.

Bronx River Diary Final Expedition Good Night and Good Luck The end of the fish popping surveys is only the beginning of a great journey for the alewives, as they move on down the river and out toward oceanic waters.

WCS Breaks Ground on Center for Global Conservation WCS has broken ground on the José E. Serrano Center for Global Conservation at its Bronx Zoo headquarters. The new infrastructure supports our mission to conserve wildlife and wild lands on a global scale.

Run for a Cause Join the Tigerteam! Running, or supporting a runner, in the 2006 ING New York City Marathon? Tiger Run provides an opportunity to turn this exciting event into a race for wild tiger survival, through a sponsorship program for WCS’s Tigers Forever.

Taking Conservation from the Fields to the Forest To save the rain forest of his native state, WCS Bolivian conservationist Ebelio Romay is forging an unlikely partnership among farmers, loggers, national leaders, local communities, and a team of 24 intrepid park guards.

Where Will the Buffalo Roam? Find Out in Our New Podcast Legends of the Wild West would be incomplete without herds of bison thundering across the Plains. Learn the truth behind the tales, and what it will take to bring back the bison. Click here to listen

Bears Will Be Bears Caught on camera! These two bear cubs were discovered trapped inside a dumpster on a Nevada campsite. Can we keep the youngsters from following a path of laziness and gluttony?

WCS Tracks Asia’s Odd-Ball Antelope In Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, scientists determined to save the endangered saiga antelope have fitted a group with GPS collars to track their movements across the windswept landscape.

Cambodia Gives Florican Room to Flourish WCS scientists in Cambodia are hopeful that the country’s newly declared protected area, created near Tonle Sap Lake, will help the region’s population of endangered Bengal floricans recover.

WCS Honored for “Service to Life” WCS is a proud recipient of a “Service to Life” leadership award from the scientific research and advisory firm Bio-era, for its role in fighting the global threat posed by avian influenza.

Scientists Capture World’s Rarest Big Cat A team of biologists led by WCS captured and released an extremely rare leopard in a remote Russian forest. Only 30 Far Eastern leopards are believed to remain in the wild.

Bronx Zoo Ignites SPARKS Across America The Zoo’s successful SPARKS education program, which creates parent advocates for children’s science learning outside the classroom, has expanded to cultural institutions across the U.S.

NYPA Gives Bronx Zoo a Clean Energy Boost The Bronx Zoo is giving its historic Lion House a major makeover. Learn about the latest “green” development in the future of this landmark building, slated to reopen in 2008.