Environmental News Network

China to Let Tourists Hunt Endangered Species
China is to auction licences to foreigners to hunt wild animals, including endangered species, a newspaper said on Wednesday. Hunting of animals is popular with Chinese who like to eat exotic meats or use animal parts in medicines for their perceived aphrodisiac or medicinal properties. >> Read the Full Article
Gray Birds Cover 40,000 Miles Annually
Sooty shearwaters may not look like much, but when it comes to travel they put marathoners, cyclists and pretty much everyone else to shame. >> Read the Full Article
Giant Panda Gives Birth to Giant Cub
A giant panda has broken two records in China by giving birth to the heaviest cub born in captivity after the longest period in labour, an exhausting 34 hours, Xinhua news agency said. >> Read the Full Article
Florida Manatee Takes Rare New York Tour
Marine preservationists said a manatee had swam up the Hudson River past Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood and then 100 miles upstate. It was the first confirmed sighting of the mammal in New York in 10 years. >> Read the Full Article
New Shrimp Nets Help Save Troubled Fish Stocks
Fishing nets with "exit holes" being introduced under a project to salvage depleted world fisheries are helping shrimp trawlers reduce unwanted extra catches by up to 70 percent, a U.N. study showed on Sunday. >> Read the Full Article
Sea Urchins Dying Off California Coast
Hundreds of dead or dying purple sea urchins have washed up into tide pools at a Southern California marine refuge center in recent days, but no one is certain what is killing them. >> Read the Full Article
Experts Think DNA Technique May Save Whales
Australian researchers said Thursday that analyzing the skin flakes of some whales could help determine their age, a development that could invalidate one argument for killing them. >> Read the Full Article
NASA Joins Search for Elusive Woodpecker
NASA used a laser-equipped research aircraft to fly over the Big Woods area of the Mississippi Delta to learn more about the ivory-billed woodpecker's potential habitat, the U.S. space agency said Thursday. >> Read the Full Article
Israelis Work to Save Pets Abandoned Because of Hezbollah Attacks
A government official says up to a few thousand pets may need to be fed or rescued, in part because hundreds of thousands of Israelis have fled northern Israel over the past three weeks. >> Read the Full Article
South Africa Whale Burning Draws Crowds of Spectators
South African officials set fire to a 34-tonne whale carcass on Wednesday, sending white smoke into the air near Cape Town as spectators clambered over blubber-strewn rocks for a closer look. >> Read the Full Article