• Bears rescued from bile farms in Vietnam face eviction, group says

    Animals Asia

    Rescued bears play inside the compound operated by Animals Asia in Vietnam.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Dozens of bears rescued from farms that harvest their bile face eviction, according to a wildlife group that operates the rescue center in Vietnam. The group suspects a national park director and his daughter are behind the effort, reportedly in order to turn the land into an eco-tourism area.

    "Should we be asked to relocate, it would take at least two years to construct a new sanctuary," Animals Asia founder and CEO Jill Robinson told NBC News.

    The biggest concern is what happens to the 104 bears if they're evicted before a new site is built -- especially if it means returning them to cages like the ones they were kept in to milk their bile for traditional medicines sought in Vietnam and China.

    "Moving our bears from their established groups in outdoor enclosures back into cages and away to a new location will have unimaginable negative effects on their behavior and psychological well-being," said Animals Asia veterinarian Kirsty Officer. "It will undo much of the work that has been put into making them feel safe and relaxed at our sanctuary."

    "One example is a young sun bear called Sassy," added Annemarie Weegenaar, who manages the group's bear team. "Whenever there are loud noises or changes to her environment, such as new bears moving into her den, she gets very upset. She paces rapidly for long periods of time and often has a reduction in appetite. Our bear managers have been training her for over two years to desensitize her. Loading her into a cage and transporting her would cause her unimaginable stress."

    Related: Two bear cubs at Vietnam center become poster children

    The eviction order came from the Agriculture Ministry, which in turn said the Defense Ministry had issued the directive, Animals Asia said when it launched a letter-writing campaign Tuesday.

    Animals Asia

    A rescued bear hangs out at Animal Asia's compound in Vietnam.

    Vietnam's earlier support for the rescue center "is being undermined by a park director and his undue influence over the Ministry of Defense," Tuan Bendixsen, the group's Vietnam director, alleged in a statement to the media. "This is not a defense issue; it's an issue of profit."

    The group said Do Dinh Tien, the director of Tam Dao National Park, had earlier lobbied the ministry to declare the area of "national defense significance." The rescue center is inside the national park.

    "It is believed that he intends to hand the land over to the Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock Company, in which his daughter has an investment," Animals Asia alleged. "The company has submitted an application for development of an 'eco-tourism park' and hotels."

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

    Animals Asia estimates that more than 10,000 bears are kept on bile farms in China, sometimes for 30 years while their bile is extracted with catheters. In Vietnam, the estimate is 2,400 bears.

    Bear bile has an acid that traditional Chinese medicine values as a remedy for various ailments, including fever, and to protect the liver. 

    "We are desperate to ensure that the rescue center is not closed down and relocated," said Robinson. "The welfare of 104 bears, who have already suffered enough, would be seriously compromised, and the rescue center and $2 million in donations would be lost."

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  • Rescued bear cubs now poster children to end harvesting bile from bears

    Animals Asia

    Two bear cubs recovered from suspected poachers play at Animals Asia's bear rescue center in Tam Dao, Vietnam.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Two brother bear cubs rescued from suspected smugglers in Vietnam have become poster children for a campaign against the use of capturing and harvesting bears for their bile. 

    The two men arrested said "they bought the cubs for $1,500" and were "going to sell them for a much higher price," most likely to a farm that harvests bear bile, Tuan Bendixsen, the Vietnam director for the nonprofit charity Animals Asia, told NBC News.

    "To get the cubs they would have to kill the mother," Bendixsen added, "and the mother's body parts would be sold" for the trade in purported medicinal cures from bear parts. The body parts most in demand are gallbladders and paws.

    The bears were found by police inspecting a basket in a town near the northern border with China. Across that border are multiple bile farms, Animals Asia said.

    The Asiatic black bears, also known as moon bears, were given the nicknames Ricky and Joey.

    Releasing the bears back into the wild is not an option, Bendixsen said, "because we don't know where they came from and since they were taken from their mother at such a young age they can't look after themselves in the wild."

    Animals Asia estimates that more than 10,000 bears are kept on bile farms in China, and around 2,400 in Vietnam.

    "They’re 'milked' regularly for their bile, which is stored in the gall bladder," Animals Asia said in a statement about the rescued cubs. "The bile is used as a form of medicine, even though many herbal and synthetic alternatives are available."

    Bears are kept in small cages for up to 30 years while their bile is extracted with catheters, the group said. 

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  • After 7 rhinos slaughtered, India races to protect one from death

    A rare rhinoceros was left fighting for its life in Kaziranga, India, after poachers shot the animal and cut off its horn. NBC's Richard Lui reports.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Had it not been for the slaughter of seven rhinos in India's Assam state last week, a rhino swept out of a wildlife reserve by floodwaters might now be the eighth. Instead, dozens of elite park rangers on Tuesday surrounded a river area where the one-horned rhino was hiding, as experts weighed whether to try airlifting the massive animal to a safer area.

    The killings made headlines in Assam since some took place inside Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At least two of the rhinos were alive when their horns were hacked off, The Times of India reported.

    Each horn can fetch thousands of dollars. The horns are used in parts of Asia, either carved into bowls or cups as a status of wealth, or ground up as a powder used to treat hangovers or even as a purported cancer cure.

    Assam's rhino population has improved in recent years, and the species is no longer listed as endangered in Assam. Nearly 2,300 are inside the national park, the last stronghold for rhinos in India.

    AP

    A dead rhino is removed from inside India's Kaziranga National Park last Friday. It was shot dead and its horn removed.

    But officials are worried that rising prices for horns will counter that effort.

    Eleven rhinos have been killed by poachers so far this year in Assam, while recent flooding has killed 28 rhinos.

    PhotoBlog: Searching high and low for rhino 
    PhotoBlog: Rhino gets upside down helicopter ride

    Three suspected poachers have been killed and 14 arrested so far this year, the government says.

    Biju Boro / AFP - Getty Images

    An Indian forest official on Thursday shows the shells from bullets used by poachers to shoot a one-horned horn rhino just outside Kaziranga National Park. The dead rhino is seen in the background with its horn cut off.

    Local conservation groups on Monday staged a protest in Guwahati, a city near the national park, issuing a statement that park officials had not "learned lessons" from several rhino killings in June. "The Forest Department has miserably failed to elicit support" from local residents "towards conservation efforts," they said in a statement, according to the Assam Tribune.

    A spike in rhino killings has also been reported in South Africa this year. And Vietnam lost its last Javan rhino last year to poachers.

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  • Four leopards a week being killed in India for skins, experts estimate

    TRAFFIC

    These leopard and tiger skins, with fake mouths, were photographed for sale in Myanmar, which neighbors India.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    While India has struggled to protect its declining tiger population, its leopards have been getting even less protection, or attention for that matter. A study released Friday recognized that flaw, estimating that at least four leopards are being killed each week, double the official reports, with their skins then smuggled to parts of Asia.

    "Even though reports of illegal trade in leopard body parts are disturbingly frequent, the level of threat to leopards in the country has previously been unrecognized, and has fallen into our collective 'blind spot'," study co-author Rashid Raza, the India coordinator for the TRAFFIC wildlife trade monitoring network, said in a statement with the study.

    At least 2,300 leopards were killed and then their body parts trafficked between 2001 and 2010, the study estimates.

    Official reports of seizures account for nearly half that number, with the rest an estimate based on statistical analysis of "undetected trade" patterns by TRAFFIC, which is funded by the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

    The WWF said it was time to focus more efforts on leopards. They have been "overshadowed by the trade in another of the country’s national icons, the tiger," noted WWF-India President Divyabhanusinh Chavda.

    Mks Pasha / TRAFFIC

    Leopards are widespread across India but not abundant, with experts agreeing that their population is in serious decline.

    The report cited numerous cases of leopard skins from India that were for sale in nearby Myanmar, Laos and Tibetan regions of China.

    Much of the illegal trade is thought to go through the "porous" border with Nepal, the experts said.

    The report noted that while no reliable estimates of leopard numbers in India exist, they are considered widespread but not abundant.

    "There has been a long standing anxiety among biologists and conservationists that the leopard in India is in serious decline," the experts stated.

    TRAFFIC

    This leopard skin was used to make a rug.

    Leopards, like tigers, do have protected status in India, but many Indians consider both animals a threat. Some rural villagers have lost livestock, or even their lives, to leopards and tigers. 

    The report's authors said that conflict isn't a reason to turn a blind eye to a potential extinction.

    "There is still a disproportionate emphasis on the problem that the leopard causes in comparison to the crisis that the leopard is facing," the report stated.

    The plight of India's tigers is probably even worse: just 1,700 are estimated to be left in the wild, nearly half the number from a decade ago and a fraction of the 100,000 estimated a century ago. Worldwide, only 4,000 tigers are thought to be left in the wild.

    But other data suggests more leopards are being killed than tigers. The nonprofit Project Tiger reports cases of leopards killed for skins far exceeded tiger poachings in each year between 1998 and 2003.

    TRAFFIC and the WWF, after listing ways for India to crack down on trafficking, said a lack of action could lead leopards down that same path.

    "Without an effective strategy to assess and tackle the threats posed by illegal trade," said Chavda, "the danger is that leopard numbers may decline rapidly as happened previously to the tiger."

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  • Kill sharks before they attack humans? Australian state will do just that

    ABC News Australia via Reuters

    Rescuers respond to a fatal shark attack about 90 miles north of Perth, Australia, on July 14. A surfer was killed by a shark, bringing to five the number of fatal attacks in Western Australia in the past year.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Following a record number of attacks this year, and retracting his earlier stand, the leader of a state on Australia's west coast announced Thursday that any great white sharks seen near beachgoers would be killed in order to prevent attacks on humans.

    "We will always put the lives and safety of beachgoers ahead of the shark," Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett told ABC Radio Australia. "This is, after all, a fish — let's keep it in perspective."

    Previously, sharks could only be hunted if there had already been an attack on a swimmer and, even after a fatal attack last March, Barnett had ruled out changing that strategy, saying "the ocean is the domain of the shark and we go there with a risk always."

    But the state has now seen five deaths this year — out of a total of just 12 recorded over the last 100 years.

    The new strategy includes more watercraft and helicopter patrols as well, but it was not welcomed by everyone.

    The Conservation Council of Western Australia called it a "guilty until proven innocent" approach, The Australian reported.

    Authorities are searching for the large shark after it killed a surfer on Saturday off the Australia coast. The shark was believed to be at least 13 feet long. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.

    "This may be the most reactionary and archaic response I have seen in my lifetime of shark study," added George Burgess, curator of the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File.

    "Such methods run totally in contrast to modern scientific thinking," he told NBC News, noting that "no evidence" from the 5,000 attacks on file suggest that sharks have become more aggressive toward humans. In fact, only two or maybe three of those attacks can even be attributed to one shark involved in multiple strikes.

    Western Australia's strategy, he added, "is particularly ill-founded in that it involves a protected species — an animal already acknowledged to be in trouble not only in Australia but in most areas of its biological range.

    "We're supposed to be smarter than the average shark," he said, adding that scientists know general shark migratory patterns and that can be used to better warn beachgoers and even close beaches ahead of time when needed.

    Great white sharks have been a protected species in Australian waters for more than a decade, but Barnett's fisheries minister last July suggested it might be time to review that.

    A great white shark attacked and killed a 33-year-old diver in Australia, the fourth such attack in seven months. NBC's Annabelle Roberts reports.

    "I wonder if research might tell us that there are now much greater number of  great whites than ever before, and maybe we should look at whether they should remain a protected species," Norman Moore told reporters.

    Burgess said any culling would further threaten the species. "It's sad they're going after one of the animals that can least take that fishing pressure" since it is relatively scarce in the ocean.

    More than 100 species of shark are found in Australian waters but most are not aggressive. The great white, tiger and bull sharks are considered the most dangerous. 

    Great whites prefer the colder and temperate waters of Australia's south, while tiger and bull sharks are more common in northern tropical waters.

    Burgess said there is no evidence showing that sharks "hang around" beaches and instead they tend to follow migratory patterns in search of food like whales.

    Still, France last month authorized a cull of around 20 sharks off its Indian Ocean island of Reunion after a series of attacks in the surfing hot spot.

    A man has suffered serious injuries after being bitten by a shark on the east coast of Australia. Msnbc.com's Alex Witt reports.

    In the U.S., "preventive hunting of white sharks" is not allowed, Monica Allen, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told NBC News. "White sharks are an important part of the ocean ecosystem," she said, and instead "coastal communities and states use public education to help reduce the risk of shark attacks, which are rare."

    Burgess said great whites along both U.S. coasts probably number in the low thousands, and Allen said the species appears to be seeing pressure.

    "In the Atlantic, white sharks are prohibited from being landed by fishermen because of the status of the stock," she said. "NOAA is also reviewing a petition to consider listing the Pacific white shark under the Endangered Species Act."

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Two baby gorillas rescued in Congo; escalation of smuggling feared

    Luanne Cadd / Virunga National Park

    A rescued 9-month-old gorilla is fed at Virunga National Park's Gorilla Orphan Sactuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Two orphaned baby gorillas rescued in Congo were being cared for Tuesday by national park staff who fear their plight might signal a new escalation of wildlife smuggling by rebel groups fighting each other and Congo's army.


    "In the areas where rebel activity has escalated, poaching has also escalated," LuAnne Cadd, a spokeswoman for Virunga National Park, told NBC News.

    It's not just gorillas, either. "Elephant poaching has increased in Virunga's central sector," Cadd said.

    The rescued infants — 4- and 9-month-old females — are Grauer's gorillas, a species also known as eastern lowland gorillas and closely related to the more famous mountain gorillas.

    "Baby gorilla trafficking is terribly damaging for endangered gorilla populations because many members of the gorilla's family will probably have been killed to obtain the infant," Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park, said in a statement.

    As for Virunga's mountain gorillas, Cadd said it is not known how they're faring. "We haven't been able to monitor this area yet," she said.

    Luanne Cadd / Virunga National Park

    The 4-month-old gorilla rescued in the Democratic Republic of Congo opens wide for feeding time at Virunga National Park's Gorilla Orphan Sactuary.

    The new rescues raises to 10 the number of Grauer's gorilla orphans confiscated in Congo over the last four years, Virunga National Park said.

    The 9-month-old was turned over to Virunga on Sept. 13 by a local conservation group, which said it got the infant from an armed group.

    The 4-month-old was rescued on Sept. 20 during a sting operation that led to the arrest of two men, who said they acquired the gorilla in an area where armed groups are vying for control over mines. Those men face trial and, possibly, a life sentence if convicted. 

    NBC News reported last year how baby gorillas can demand tens of thousands of dollars on the international black market,. 

    Aug. 8, 2011: A baby mountain gorilla is safe with Rwandan authorities after they rescued the endangered animal from poachers. TODAY.com's Dara Brown reports.

    The total population of Grauer's gorillas, which exist only in eastern Congo, is estimated at fewer than 4,000 — down from an estimated 17,000 in 1995.

    Protecting Virunga's wildlife has been deadly: 11  rangers were killed last year in armed confrontations, while so far this year one has been killed and several wounded.

    Related: Baby gorilla on black market for $40,000 is rescued

    For now, the infants will remain at Virunga's orphan gorilla sanctuary during a three-month quarantine period.

    "The two gorillas showed some interest in each other when they first met," Cadd wrote in a Virunga blogpost, "but for the older gorilla, it seems as if she considers the younger one a competition for food and milk, often trying to grab the milk bottle or banana from the younger gorilla, and even throwing a tantrum once when she didn’t get a bottle too.

    "The most likely plan" will be to move them to a Congo sanctuary that already has 13 Grauer's gorillas, Cadd said.

    "There has been talk about releasing those gorillas into the wild eventually," she said, but added that "it's a bit controversial" due to the uncertainty of their fate back in the wild.

    Oil a blessing or curse?
    The rescues come as Congo announced that the British firm SOCO has been authorized to explore for oil in Virunga National Park.

    Declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in the 1970s, the park is the only place on Earth that boasts all three African great apes in addition to elephants, buffalo, hippos, antelopes, lions, leopards and smaller animals and birds.

    The area includes Lake Edward, one of the Central African great lakes used by some 40,000 fishermen. 

    Hydrocarbons Minister Crispin Atama Tabe told The Associated Press that oil exploitation could help bring security to volatile east Congo.

    Mining of the region's massive mineral riches, however, has had the opposite effect with armed groups vying for control.

    Moreover, Congo's environment ministry last year suspended oil exploration in an area of Virunga where more than 200 gorillas live. Environment Minister Bavo Nsamputu said he was unable to comment on Monday's news as he had been abroad.

    Park officials say Congo's Nature Conservation law protects national parks from any kind of exploitation. That persuaded the French oil group Total to promise last year that it would not exploit the one-third of its concession that falls in Virunga.

    SOCO, with 58 percent of its concession in Virunga, argues the law allows "geological research for scientific purposes" and cites 
    exemptions for "research work, such as sampling materials, digging, excavations, surveying, and all other work that may change the look of the land or vegetation."

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Christian, Muslim and Hindu religious leaders unite to help stop slaughter of elephants, rhinos


    Watch a National Geographic video on the connection between religions and ivory.
    By NBC News and wire services

    Religious leaders are the latest recruits in the war by conservationists against those slaughtering thousands of elephants and rhinos across Africa each year. The World Wildlife Fund on Friday announced a partnership with various religious groups — some of which are themselves fueling the crisis by allowing religious artifacts to be made from ivory.

    "Halting wildlife trade is a moral issue," Dekila Chungyalpa, WWF’s Sacred Earth program director, said in a statement announcing the partnership with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation.

    The partnership was sealed Thursday night inside Kenya's Nairobi National Park, where three dozen religious leaders from nine African countries gathered amid rhinos, zebras, buffalo and ostriches all within site of the skyline of Kenya's capital.

     Standing before a pile of charred elephant ivory as dusk covered the surrounding savannah, Christian, Muslim and Hindu religious leaders grasped hands and prayed. The remains were from a 1989 burn of confiscated ivory that Kenya set on fire to draw attention to the slaughter.  

    "We are the ones who are driving God's creatures to extinction," said Martin Palmer, secretary-general of the Britain-based alliance. "We are the ones who can change the way Africa works."

    Poachers are escalating their assault on Africa's elephants and rhinos, and conservationists warn that the animals cannot survive Asia's high-dollar demand for ivory tusks and rhino horn powder. Some wildlife agents, customs officials and government leaders are being paid off by what is viewed as a well-organized mafia moving animal parts from Africa to Asia, charge the conservationists. 

    Ben Curtis / AP

    Religious leaders of different faiths pray around a pile of charred elephant ivory at Kenya's Nairobi National Park on Thursday.

    Moreover, poachers can earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a rhino horn or elephant tusk. That money represents far more than they could earn after years of labor in the typical village job. 

    "Faith leaders are the heart and backbone of local communities," Chungyalpa noted. "They guide and direct the way we think, behave and live our lives," she said, adding later: "I think this is the missing piece in conservation strategies... WWF can yell us much as we want and no one will listen to us, but a religious leader can say 'This is not a part of our values. This is immoral.'"

    Ben Curtis / AP

    Elephants gather at dusk on March 25 to drink at a watering hole in Kenya's Tsavo East National Park.

    It's not known what kind of impact religious leaders may be able to make, but Mike Watson, the chief executive of Kenya's Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, said he and other conservationists will take any help they can get.

    National Geographic

    Lewa saw one of its rhinos killed by poachers last week. The park had never suffered a rhino poaching death before 2009; it's had five of its rhinos killed since then. 

    "We know for a fact that one of the demands for ivory is religious icons in the Far East, and if pressure can be brought to bear to reduce that demand both locally here in Kenya through assistance by religious leaders, and overseas, it can only be a good step," he said. "It might take generations. If religious leaders can some way speed that process up, all well and good, but all efforts need to be on the table." 

    The significance of religious icons was underscored by National Geographic magazine, which in its October issue traced how Catholics in the Philippines and Buddhists in Thailand make up part of the demand for ivory.

    Chungyalpa said WWF is working with Buddhists to try to educate Asian consumers about ivory and rhino horn powder. Yao Ming, the oversized basketball star from China, visited Kenya last month to raise awareness and make a film called "The End of the Wild," she noted.

    Brent Stirton / National Geographic

    A master ivory carver works on the head of a Madonna in his studio outside Manila, Philippines. He prefers carving wood but says that ivory has a special quality he finds irresistible — "much high prices."

    The poaching numbers are grim. The number of rhinos killed by poachers in South Africa has risen from 13 in 2007 to 448 last year, WWF says. Last year saw more large-scale ivory seizures than any year in the last two decades, it added. Tens of thousands of elephants are being killed by poachers each year.

    Chungyalpa compared the effort to enlist religious leaders in the anti-poaching fight to how religious pressure helped end the era of apartheid in South Africa.

    "There has to be a rising up of moral outrage," she said. "This is the spirit we're after." 

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Ancient land of 'Beringia' gets protection from US, Russia

    Chukot-TINRO

    Tens of thousands of walruses make their home in Beringia, including these seen last fall at Cape Serdtse-Kamen in Chukotka, Russia.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    You might have missed it, but the ancient land of Beringia has gotten some extra protection from superpowers Russia and the United States. 

    That's right, Beringia -- 2,800 miles stretching from Siberia, across the Bering and Chukchi seas, through Alaska and into Canada's British Columbia. For thousands of years, Beringia even had a 1,000-mile-long land bridge that emerged when sea level dropped.


    OK, so it's not an actual nation, but Beringia does have its own heritage of people divided by borders but united culturally -- and a natural kingdom of whales, polar bears, walruses and seals.

     "From the diversity of its Arctic wildlife, both on land and within its waters, to the bounty it provides that sustains cultures on both sides of the U.S.-Russian border, Beringia is home to a kingdom of wildlife and cultural riches, deserving of protection in perpetuity," Cristian Samper, president of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, told NBC News.

    "This announcement," he added, "brings us one step closer to that reality."

    Samper was talking about a meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Russian peer earlier this month, where both nations agreed to work toward "a transboundary area of shared Beringian heritage" by 2013. 

    National Park Service

    That designation would create closer ties between two U.S. national parks -- the Bering Land Bridge Natural Preserve and the Cape Krusenstern National Monument -- with Russia's soon-to-be-designated Beringia National Park.

    "Park managers and researchers from both countries will be able to increase their efforts to conserve this unique ecosystem as well as the cultural traditions and languages of the indigenous people on both sides of the (Bering) strait," Clinton said at the meeting on Sept. 8.

    Even before the announcement, the U.S. National Park Service has had a program since the 1990s to promote Beringia, a term first coined in 1937.

    Bob Gerhard / National Park Service

    Anadyr, the capital of Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Region, is part of Beringia and faces the Bering Sea.

    "As one of the world's great ancient crossroads, Beringia may hold solutions to puzzles about who were the first people to populate North America, how and when they traveled, and how they survived under such harsh climatic conditions," a website dedicated to Beringia reads.


    Watch a video on Beringian petroglyphs.

    The park service program stems from a 1990 announcement by then President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhael Gorbachev to establish an international park spanning the Bering Strait. 

    A full-fledged international park never came about, in part because of suspicions by native groups. But the new, smaller approach is aimed at easing those concerns.

    Vic Knox / National Park Service

    Native festivals like this one are typical in Anadyr, a city in Russia's autonomous region of Chukotka that is part of the wider region known as Beringia.

    The Wildlife Conservation Society is among the environmental groups excited about stronger cross-border ties. It already has a "Beringia Program" that looks at:

    • How shipping in formerly ice-covered seas will affect marine life and indigenous people who rely on that for food.
    • The threat walruses face from shrinking sea ice, which they rely on to rest while at sea. Less sea ice has led to overcrowding and even walruses crushed to death as they "haul out" by the thousands to rest on beaches.
    • The impacts of human development on birds from around the world that nest and breed in the Arctic tundra.

    Chukot-TINRO

    Scientists are seeing more of these massive "haul outs" by walruses. These were seen last fall on Russia's Cape Serdtse-Kamen, part of the larger Beringia region.

    The organization's "Beringia Program" manager sees the U.S.-Russia effort as keeping recent momentum moving forward. Both native peoples and wildlife, Martin Robards told NBC News, face living "in a region warming at twice the global average, while at the same time, adjusting to a rapid influx of new development interests."

    As for the variety of wildlife, "it's phenomenal," Robards said. "In the fall and spring animals come through the Bering Strait -- whales, polar bears, walruses and seals."

    That wealth makes it easy for Robards to spend his time on Beringia. But getting its importance across to others can be problematic, so having two superpowers raise Beringia's profile is a big plus.

    "It does need explaining at times," he admits.

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  • 100 most endangered species listed with this question: Are they worth saving?

    Jessica Bryant / Zoological Society of London

    The Hainan gibbon, a native of China's Hainan Island, was among the 100 most endangered species cited in a new report. Fewer than 50 of the apes are left.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Priceless or worthless? That's the question posed in a report released Tuesday that lists the 100 most endangered animals, plants and fungi around the globe, as chosen by 8,000 experts for the Zoological Society of London and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

    The question was raised because the species closest to extinction don't have an obvious economic value to mankind and yet some, especially the experts, would argue for their protection.

    "The donor community and conservation movement are leaning increasingly towards a 'what can nature do for us' approach, where species and wild habitats are valued and prioritized according to the services they provide for people," Jonathan Bailie, conservation director at the Zoological Society of London, said in a statement issued with the report.

    "This has made it increasingly difficult for conservationists to protect the most threatened species on the planet," he added. "We have an important moral and ethical decision to make: Do these species have a right to survive or do we have a right to drive them to extinction?"

    Craig Turner / Zoological Society of London

    The pgymy three-toed sloth is native to an island off Panama. Fewer than 500 are thought to be left.

    The species are native to 48 countries, but their names don't always shout out "Save me" -- among them the pygmy three-toed sloth (found only on an island off Panama and fewer than 500 are left); the Hainan gibbon (fewer than 20 are left on China's Hainan Island); and the willow blister (a fungi found in Wales).

    The report doesn't estimate the cost of saving the 100 species, nor does it rank them, instead listing them alphabetically by their scientific name -- starting with Astrochelys yniphora, or ploughshare tortoise.

    "Having narrowly survived hunting pressure and habitat destruction by fire in the past, this species’ good looks may be its ultimate downfall as illegal collection for the international pet trade is likely to push it to extinction in the wild in the near future," the report states.

    The Japanese otter was declared extinct today by the Japanese government after not being spotted for over 30 years. NBCNews.com's Richard Lui reports.

    Fewer than 770 ploughshare tortoise are thought to survive in the wild of their native Madagascar.

    The experts noted that the 100 species chosen are just a fraction of the thousands of species that also face extinction, just perhaps not as soon.

    "The future of many species is going to depend on reconciling the needs of people and nature, and ensuring economic development and conservation do not undermine each other," Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN's species survival commission, said in a foreword to the report.

    "If we ignore the question" about priceless or worthless, he added, "we shall be inadvertently accepting the ethical position that human-caused mass extinction is acceptable."

    The World Wildlife Fund framed the issue slightly differently.

    "Ideally, we would try and save every species on the planet because everything in nature is connected and so are the solutions to environmental problems," Sybille Klenzendorf, WWF's species conservation director, told NBC News. "However, since saving every single species would be an enormous undertaking, we must focus our efforts on conserving nature as a whole.

    "For WWF, that means working on what we call umbrella species like tigers, elephants and rhinos," she added. "By focusing on conservation of those species, we’re also aiming to protect other species that share their habitat -- or are vulnerable to the same threats."

    Cristian Samper, head of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, agreed on that approach.

    "We won't be able to save every species, but if we are smart we can save many of them," Samper said. "We focus on places where you have many species and big threats."

    "In extreme cases," Samper said, "we will save species in zoos and aquariums and then reintroduce them, like we did at the WCS Bronx Zoo with the American bison a hundred years ago and we are doing that now with turtles and frogs today."

    Galapagos tortoise Lonesome George has died. The only remaining Pinta Island giant tortoise-believed to be the last of his species- was believed to be about 100 years old. ITV's Annabel Roberts reports. 

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  • Illegal logging report gets Liberia's attention -- forestry chief suspended

    Global Witness

    The advocacy group Global Witness says this photo was taken last July and shows timber logged with "private use permits" in Liberia.

    By NBC News and wire reports

    Even before a report came out Tuesday alleging that illicit deals gave a quarter of all of Liberia to foreign logging companies, Liberia’s president suspended her forestry chief and promised to investigate.

    President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf tried to get ahead of the report, which alleges that the country's "private use permits" have been usurped over the last two years to allow commercial logging. 

    "The private use permits have been considered in the past to assist communities in terms of job creation, in terms of support and benefit, but the truth is, we are finding out also, that it has been abused and it is unacceptable," Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown said in comments reported by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

    Moreover, the head of Liberia's Forestry Authority, Moses Wogbeh, is under investigation into an allegation that he violated a moratorium on land permits for commercial logging, presidential spokesman Jerolinmek Piah told The Associated Press on Monday.  

    Wogbeh was suspended from his post over the weekend and Liberia said it would bar illegally-logged timber from being exported. 

    The advocacy groups Global Witness, Save My Future Foundation and Sustainable Development Institute produced the report.

    "A quarter of Liberia's total landmass has been granted to logging companies in just two years, following an explosion in the use of secretive and often illegal logging permits," the groups said in a statement.

    Corruption is seen as a big obstacle to development in Liberia, which remains one of the world's least developed countries nearly a decade after the end of a 14-year civil war.

    The government has been struggling to clarify land ownership issues across its vast forested zones, traditionally divided along ethnic lines.

    Global Witness said about 26,000 square kilometers of land had been granted to timber companies through at least 66 private use permits -- lightly regulated deals between timber companies and private land owners.

    It said many of the deals made with individuals said to own the land were backed by land deeds held in the collective name of people of a district or clan who had little knowledge of the accords and would reap little benefit from the timber exported.

    The advocacy group added that some of the deals appeared to have been backed by forged documents. "When presented with a letter written in his name submitting his people's deed to the government, a Paramount Chief (clan chief) from the Dugbeh River Private Use Permit area in Sinoe County told us that the letter was forged," Global Witness said.

    Land deeds in Liberia require a presidential signature.

    In another deal, Global Witness said, the deed bore the signature of former President Edwin Barclay, but was dated six years before he came to power.

    Johnson Sirleaf, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her work for women's rights, has been facing growing criticism for failing to root out government-level corruption as the country begins potentially lucrative iron ore exports and explores for oil offshore.

    Last month she suspended her son from his position as Deputy Central Bank Governor as well as 45 other government officials for failing to declare their assets to anti-corruption authorities, a move observers said was intended to show she is serious about fighting graft.

    The president has been criticized for nominating three sons to high level posts in her administration - the one at the central bank, one at the national oil company, and one at the head of the country's national security agency.

    Logging has been a controversial issue in Liberia since the civil war, when rebels used proceeds from timber to purchase weapons, triggering a U.N. ban. The ban was lifted after Liberia's foreign partners, particularly the United States and the World Bank, helped it reform its forestry laws. 

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Stranded whales rescued after dozens beached in Scotland

    Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

    Volunteers and animal welfare workers attempt to rescue a large number of pilot whales beached near St Andrews in Scotland, Sunday.

    By NBC News staff

    Ten pilot whales were rescued and refloated Monday after they became stranded on a Scottish beach, according to reports.

    The 20-foot whales were kept alive by vets and led out to deeper waters but 16 others could not be saved and died on the beach in Fife, on the east coast just south of St Andrews, Fife, The Scotsman newspaper reported.

    It said volunteers joined the local coastguard, Fire Brigade, British Divers Marine Life Rescue, animal welfare charities and local vets during the rescue attempt.

    21 whales beach selves in Florida, at least two die


    Coastguard officials were alerted to the beaching, between Anstruther and Pittenweem, at 7 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) on Sunday, the BBC reported.  It said three of the whales that died were calves.

    David Galloway, a fish filleter from Anstruther, told The Scotsman: “I went down to the beach at about 12 p.m. and I could see all the whales. It was horrible. I have never seen anything like it in my life.

    “We were told we couldn’t go down on to the beach, but we could see rescuers beside the whales, they were trying to take care of them, trying to keep them moist. They were waiting for the tide to come in. It was just horrible.”

    A coastguard spokeswoman said: “It is a very rare occurrence in Scotland and very sad.

    “The usual scenario would be that the whale that is leading the group has become ill, or has lost its way, and gets beached and the rest will follow on. Although we do not know for sure if that is what has happened.”

    Witnesses posted pictures of the rescue scene via social media, including Twitter.

    It came after 21 short-finned pilot whales beached themselves along Florida's Atlantic coast on Saturday, leaving at least two whales dead.

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  • Step aside hippos! Wildebeests are on the move

    Thousands of wildebeests in Kenya cross the rushing rapids of a river during their yearly migration. TODAY.com's Richard Lui reports.

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