Rare Cheetah Gets a Close Up

Learning about endangered species is no easy task. The Saharan cheetah falls into this category and is rarely seen - until now. A team from the Zoological Society of London has captured several images of the endangered animal. The images help identify individual animals and provide information about the allusive species, which little is know about. 

With fewer than 250 mature individuals in the wild, the Saharan cheetah faces extinction. By gathering images of the animals that roam just six countries (Algeria, Togo, Niger, Mali, Benin, and Burkina Faso), zoologists hope to understand the animals' movement and ecology. This information may help save the species. 

If nothing else, the images provide another face to a problem humans love to ignore - endangered species. 

Originally reported by the BBC. Photo by Farid Belbachir of the Zoological Society of London. 

 

Saving Pygmy Hippos

Pygmy hippos are rare. There are estimated 200 pygmy hippos in the world, making them an endangered species - a really cute one at that. Recently, a pygmy hippo, named Monifa, was born at the zoo in Sydney, Australia.  Her birth is incredibility important to the servile of the spices. 

Check out the video below (originally posted by the Assoicated Press). 

eBay to Ban Ivory Sales

Elephants have a reason to rejoice. eBay, the online auction powerhouse, announced it would ban ivory commerce. The announcement coincides with the release of a report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare that documents how online auction sites have facilitated the sale of products derived from endangered species. According to the report, the majority of online auction sales of endangered species products were conducted on eBay. Most of the auctioned items were elephant products. 

Feeling pressure from international law enforcement agencies and conservation groups, eBay decided to enact the ban on ivory trade, which will go into effect January 1, 2009.  The ban may take some time to go into effect, especially considering endangered species products drew sales values of $457,000 during the six week period in which the International Fund for Animal Welfare conducted its research. 

Despite the report's dire outlook on products made from endangered species, it's encouraging that eBay would take the group's findings seriously and enact a solution. Many corperations aren't willing to make policies based on what's the right thing to do. 

Originally reported by the New York Times. 

Good News for Gorillas

Gorillas have had difficult times. Their numbers dwindled as the were hunted by humans, or suffered from diseases like ebola. The last gorilla census, conducted in the 80s, estimated there were only 100,000 gorillas left in the world. However, researchers in equatorial Africa estimate there are 125,000 gorillas living in just that area. The researchers say this is the highest density of gorillas ever found. 

The discovery is not enough to take gorillas off the endangered species list, but it is good news the gorilla population has rebounded. 

(Originally reported by CNN.)