Frontline Dispatches – May 2020 Vol. II, No. 5

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World

“Managing Wildlife Trade in the Context of COVID-19 and Future Zoonotic Pandemics”—by the Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science—questions the views of conservation and animal-rights groups calling for bans on wildlife trade and consumption. Instead, the authors advocate for a more nuanced and evidence-based approach that could better serve both people and wildlife. The authors also write, in The Conversation on April 8, that a blanket ban on wildlife trade would not be the right response.

“Despite COVID-19, using wild species may still be the best way to save them,” writes Dilys Roe, of the International Institute of Environment and Development, in her blog, adding that “it is important to remember that sustainable use and wildlife protection can be two sides of the same coin, not either/or choices.”

Animal-rights groups are using the pandemic to call for a ban on all wildlife trade. This is an “unjustified” attack on rural communities in wildlife-rich African states, writes Emmanuel Koro in an April 1 article in Zimbabwe’s The Chronicle: “Without sustainable and legal trade in wildlife and its products, African countries will remain incapable of generating enough income for conservation and development. With most of their budgets being unexpectedly diverted towards fighting the . . . pandemic, wildlife-rich African countries . . . desperately need to be allowed to generate . . . income through trade in their wildlife and its products.” The RSPCA, the Born Free Foundation, Humane Society International, Peta, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Animal Protection and Four Paws International are part the trade-ban chorus, as The Independent outlined on April 7.

Nature’s comeback? No, the pandemic threatens the world’s wildlife, says Charlie Gardner, lecturer in Conservation Science at the University of Kent in an article in The Conversation on April 14. The shutdown of global tourism has left thousands of protected areas without funds for anti-poaching work. Gardner points out that “[e]xploiting natural resources is often the only option for the destitute. Wild animals, fish and forest trees are rarely owned by anyone, and they are found in rural areas where policing is difficult. What’s more, there are often few technical barriers to exploiting them—you don’t need a degree to be able to wield an axe. So, when people are left with nothing, they can always find something to eat or sell in the forest.”

Communities must be at the heart of conserving wildlife, plants and ecosystems, per this March 30 article in The Conversation. The authors, from the Universities of Waterloo and Cape Town, identify five ways that governments and partners can support community-centered conservation. At stake are the global goals agreed to in 2010 by the 194 countries that signed the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Now that the 2020 deadline has almost passed, “a global population of 7.8 billion people is demanding innovative conservation strategies.” [Ed. note: These actions are even more important in the context of COVID-19.]

Anti-hunting laws can undermine conservation initiatives, according to a March 2020 paper (“Impacts of hunting prohibitions on multidimensional well-being”) in Vol. 243 of Biological Conservation. Hunting bans also often impoverish rural households and reinforce motives for poaching. As well, such legislation does not take into account “the values rural communities ascribe to hunting nor consider the broader outcomes [of] hunting bans.”

TRAFFIC offers most comprehensive source of wildlife seizure data. The new open-access Wildlife Trade Portal allows users to access TRAFFIC’s wildlife-trade seizure database. Seizure data can be viewed as a list or within a dashboard of interactive charts and maps. Users can gather in-depth information about species, products seized or the location of specific incidents, and export the results for further use. TRAFFIC, the global wildlife-trade monitoring network, notes the possible link between the illegal trade in wildlife and the creation and spread of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.

The IUCN Sustainable Use & Livelihoods Specialist Group has a new website. This global volunteer network, formed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a joint initiative of the Species Survival Commission and the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, answers questions such as “What is sustainable use?” and “What are livelihoods?”

Pulling water out of the air. Harvesting water from fog with nets, vertical panels of mesh that capture fog droplets that then flow down into a trough, has been done for centuries. An improvement called the fog harp, developed at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, can pull water from even very thin fog. “Billions of people face water scarcity worldwide,” said one of the engineers; “the fog harp is a great example of a relatively simple, low-tech invention that leverages insight from nature to help communities meet their most basic needs.” In the coastal Namib Desert, oryx can survive by licking fog droplets from their own coats.

Economic growth is incompatible with biodiversity. The increase in resource consumption and pollution as a result of economic growth is not compatible with conservation—yet most biodiversity and sustainability policies advocate economic growth. These are the main conclusions of a study published in mid-April in Conservation Letters. So far, planners are seeking policy options that minimize biodiversity loss without compromising economic growth. Instead, the article recommends beginning with conservation and social-welfare objectives and building economic trajectories to meet them.

Climate change could result in the abrupt collapse of many species starting in the next decade if greenhouse-gas emissions are not reduced, according to an April study in Nature. A New York Times article (“Wildlife Collapse From Climate Change Is Predicted to Hit Suddenly and Sooner”) posits that scientists found a “cliff edge” instead of the slippery slope they expected: “The study predicted that large swaths of ecosystems would falter in waves, creating sudden die-offs that would be catastrophic not only for wildlife, but for the humans who depend on it.”

 

North & South America

Photographer, artist, naturalist Peter Beard was found dead on April 19, almost three weeks after he disappeared from his home on Montauk, Long Island, NY, according to his New York Times obituary. He was 82. Beard’s best-known work was The End of the Game, published in 1965. It documented not only the vanishing allure of Africa but also the tragedy of its imperiled wildlife, in particular the elephant, and people. The Peter Beard Studio maintains an archive of published and unpublished material relating to the artist’s life, work, projects, travels, exhibitions and relationships. More on Peter Beard to come in the July issue of Conservation Frontlines.

51 US associations and NGOs ask state & local officials to keep facilities such as boat launches and hunting, fishing and wildlife-viewing areas open to the public during the fight against COVID-19. The open request—as published on April 8 in American Hunter—noted that outdoor activities can provide social distancing while “contributing to a feeling of normalcy.” The letter also offered the support of the groups’ websites and social media channels in distributing information.

For answers about chronic wasting disease: The National Deer Alliance has released a video of America’s most frequently asked questions regarding chronic wasting disease as well as a CWD Resource Center to provide accurate information about the disease, which is ravaging farmed and free-range ungulates across North America and now northern Europe.

Last year was Alaska’s warmest on record, reported the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with all-time temperature records set across the state. But 2019 only continued a long warming trend that has led to faster melting of the state’s thousands of glaciers, thawing of permafrost and failure of sea-ice coverage. Satellite images taken in late March showed largely open water at a time when the Bering Sea is normally completely covered in ice. This and much more was in a New York Times report titled “2019 Was the Second-Hottest Year Ever, Closing Out the Warmest Decade.”

Interior Sec’y David Bernhardt seeks to expand hunting & fishing on more than 2.3 million acres of US Fish and Wildlife Service land. The proposal announced on April 8 would provide new or expanded recreational opportunities on 97 national wildlife refuges in almost every state, including Bamforth National Wildlife Refuge near Laramie, Wyoming, the Everglades Headwaters NWR in Florida, Fallon NWR in Nevada and Leslie Canyon NWR in southeastern Arizona.

A federal court ruled that expediting elephant-trophy import permits amid the pandemic would be “unwise” and “not in the public interest,” Bloomberg Law reported on April 9. Dallas Safari Club and Namibia’s Ministry of the Environment and Tourism and its Association of Community Based Natural Resource Management Support Organizations said the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s delay in processing import applications would decrease the popularity of hunting in Africa and shrink funding for conservation efforts. The court disagreed.

On the same day, Bloomberg News published an article titled “Safari Guides Become Unlikely Stars as Conservation Turns to Instagram” and another headlined “Want to Stop the Next Pandemic? Start Protecting Wildlife Habitats.”

For the first time in more than a century, Vermont is losing forestland to development—at almost 1,500 acres per year. Vermont is a small state in New England, where private ownership and small land parcels are the norm. A new study by the University of Vermont found that the state has conserved 33%, 1.3 million acres (530,000 ha), of the land needed to protect and connect wildlife habitats and corridors, but not enough waterways and riparian areas. To ensure that Vermont “remains a good place for all forms of life in the future,” the study asks, “where do we go from here?”

No surprise: Woodland caribou are threatened by logging. “Cutting down forests means we’re also cutting down woodland caribou,” say University of Guelph (Ontario) ecologists. The first comprehensive study of woodland caribou across the province found that habitat and food-web changes caused by human activity, in particular logging, are encouraging more wolf packs to prey on caribou. One of the authors of the new paper, in the Journal of Wildlife Management, called the caribou “a canary in the coal mine for the long-term sustainability and quality of the boreal forest to protect other wildlife.”

Washington State is losing its lynx even as officials are taking steps to remove the lynx from the Endangered Species Act “threatened” list. Washington State University researchers have found the cats on only about 20% of their potential habitat. The recent study, in the Journal of Wildlife Management, paints an alarming picture not only for the persistence of lynx but many other cold-adapted species. The study notes that lynx, which need very cold, snowy environments, “are an early-warning system for what’s going to happen to other climate-sensitive species.”

Two Florida panthers were seen fighting on video. The two cats are in a vicious grapple as a wild boar approaches. A turkey hunter filmed the encounter and posted the video on YouTube. On April 13, National Geographic reported that David Shindle, panther coordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said that the battle “unfolded on well-managed private lands that provide ideal habitat for the panther” and that the footage “not only provides a rare glimpse into the nature of Florida’s iconic beast, but it exemplifies the awe and respect that many of Florida’s hunters have for their fellow predator and part-time competitor.”

Montana should have a public bison herd, according to Jim Bailey, retired prof. of wildlife biology and management at Colorado State University, in a Mountain Journal article on April 15: “There is a compelling, but neglected, need to enhance public awareness and active support for bison restoration.” Bailey is the author of the 2013 book American Plains Bison: Rewilding an Icon.

Meanwhile, bison held in Yellowstone Park are “too much of a good thing” and have become a barrier to ecosystem recovery in the park’s Lamar Valley, according to a recent Oregon State University study in Food Webs. In the valley, bison exert 10 times the environmental pressure of elk, the historically dominant ruminant. The restoration of bison to their native habitat outside the park has been a challenge for decades, as described in this report in the July 2019 issue of Conservation Frontlines.

Caribbean iguanas, new to science, already need help. A newly discovered species of black iguanas on Saba and Montserrat islands (in the Lesser Antilles of the eastern Caribbean) appears to be threatened by unsustainable harvesting and competition and hybridization with iguanas from South and Central America. Calls for urgent conservation measures are in a recent article in the journal ZooKeys.

Boone and Crockett’s North American Wildlife Policy and Law textbook is now available on the club’s website. Individual chapters cost $10 each; complete sections range from $10 to $30. Each PDF includes text, images and citations. (Chapter 35, Section VII, “International Conservation,” was written by CFL editor-in-chief Gerhard Damm.)

 

Europe

EU votes down proposed wildlife-use ban. The European United Left/Nordic Green Left proposal to ban the trade and consumption of wildlife—with enormous consequences for conservation, hunting, land management and wild foods—was voted down by the European Parliament on April 16, according to a FACE press release. The proposed ban, in the form of a constitutional amendment and ostensibly a response to COVID-19, posited that “the trading and farming of wild animals amplifies risks for public health, combining critical factors for the occurrence of zoonosis; calls on the Commission and on the EU Member States to advocate a global ban on wildlife markets and on the use of wildlife in traditional medicine; urges the Commission to present legal proposals to ban the import, the trade and the keeping and consumption of wildlife in the EU, in order to reduce the risk of future zoonosis outbreaks.” The vote—449 against and only 186 in favor, with 53 abstentions—was a significant setback to animal-rights groups that are using any means possible to ban hunting and other sustainable uses of wildlife in Europe.

The German Hunting Association (DJV) YouTube channel frequently adds informative videos in German. The group’s Academy for Wildlife, Hunting & Nature now offers “Children explain nature” (a student takes a discovery tour in the forest) and “Further training as a nature educator.” The DJV (Deutscher Jagdverband) YouTube channel has just passed the 10,000-subscriber mark.

 

Asia

A draft list of permitted farmed wildlife species was published on April 8 by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), following a general ban on wildlife farming for purposes of human consumption as one of the immediate responses of the Chinese Government to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under this draft proposal, certain formerly wild animals—among them exotics not native to China—which have been bred intensively over a long period of time for a variety of purposes, would be transferred from nationally protected wildlife (under the jurisdiction of State Forestry and Grasslands Administration) to a separate category in the national inventory of livestock (under the jurisdiction of MARA). The draft list is open for public comment for a period of one month. These native and exotic species are included in the draft list: Sika deer (Cervus nippon), red deer (Cervus elaphus), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), alpaca (Vicugna paco), guinea fowl (Numida meleagris), ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), Chinese francolin (Francolinus pintadeanus), common quail (Coturnix coturnix), mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), ostrich (Struthio camelus australis), greater rhea, aka nandu (Rhea americana) and emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae). And for fur production (the meat will not be allowed for human consumption): mink (most likely breeders use a hybrid of Eurasian and American mink, Mustela lutreola and Neovison vison), arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus—blue fox in Chinese, refers to true arctic fox and the Chinese symbol for silver-tipped black fox refers to a color phase of V. lagopus) as well as raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides).

Pakistan’s Forest, Parks & Wildlife Dept. imposed a hunting moratorium in Gilgit-Baltistan Province for the remainder of the 2020 hunting season owing to the coronavirus outbreak. According to an April 13 article in Pakistan Today, the moratorium applies to both local and visiting hunters. Fees for unused hunting permits will be refunded rather than transferred to next season.

Malaysia seized a record 6+ tons of African pangolin scales, reported Mongabay.com on April 7. The origin of the shipment, found hidden under sacks of cashew nuts in Port Klang, is unknown. Pangolins are the most trafficked animal in the world, with more than 1 million taken from the wild and traded since 2000. Like rhino horn, pangolin scales are used in “traditional” medicine.

 

Africa

In memoriam: Garth Owen-Smith fought at the front lines of conservation. A mentor for many working with communities in Namibia and other southern African countries, he led by example. Garth died on April 11 and will be missed. A full obituary will appear in the July issue of Conservation Frontlines.

The hugely controversial Chinese energy/industrial complex in northern South Africa is “founded on quicksand,” says an April 7 Daily Maverick article. The proposed “coal-burning, water-guzzling, capital-soaking heavy industrial zone” on the Limpopo River carries unexamined environmental, social and economic risks. To pave the way, control over a large patch of South African soil for 90 years has been handed to an obscure Hong Kong businessman named Yat Hoi Ning, who has been accused of fraud. Read also Kevin Bloom’s story “Killing the Holy Ghost: Inside the R145bn plan that would destroy the Limpopo River,” published on April 1 in the Daily Maverick.

Botswana asserts its right to restore elephant hunting. in a March 13 post in Africa Sustainable Conservation News, Dr. Oduetse O. Koboto, Botswana’s Acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, wrote: “Our wildlife policy emphasises the need to safeguard the continued sustenance of our wildlife resources while ensuring that those who coexist with those resources benefit meaningfully. We have set aside 40% of the country (one of the highest percentages in the world) to conserve wildlife and Botswana has a long standing track record in conserving her wildlife heritage for prosperity. We also have a long standing record for managing our wildlife through sustainable utilisation as espoused in our wildlife conservation policy.” Dr. Koboto was responding to an article attacking Botswana’s new hunting policy on the website of the Conservation Action Trust.

Cameroon wants its people to cook with gas. In response to concerns about deforestation, the environment and health, the Cameroon Government has said that by 2030 it wants 58% of the people who currently cook with wood or coal to instead be using LPG, liquified petroleum gas. A study in the April issue of Environmental Health Perspectives says that this household energy strategy could avert 28,000 premature deaths and reduce global temperatures.

“Conservation cannot be done with chainsaws,” writes Sylvie Djacbou of Greenpeace Africa. On February 4, Cameroon’s Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife permitted two logging concessions on nearly 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) of the pristine Ebo Forest—which Cameroon proposed as a national park in 2006. A biodiversity hotspot, the area is home to chimpanzees, drills, forest elephants, grey parrots and many other species. In addition, more than 40 communities rely on the forest for food, medicine and cultural activities.

SA’s captive lion breeding puts conservation and public health at risk, asserts an April 2 Daily Maverick op-ed. South Africa’s Dept. of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries ignored a resolution to shut down the practice and decided to “review” it instead. Lions are susceptible to bovine tuberculosis, and captive infected lions can theoretically transmit the disease to wild populations, just as chronic wasting disease is now spreading from farmed animals across the globe’s wild deer and elk. The article adds that “South Africa is replicating China’s policies that resulted in the COVID-19 outbreak, including mandates promoting domesticating and breeding wild species.”

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife has listed the aardwolf, bat-eared fox, cheetah, gemsbok, pangolin, rhino, roan, wild dogs and Lichtenstein’s hartebeest as “specially protected” in order to strengthen existing laws in the fight against poaching and the trafficking of endangered animals. The story appeared in the Zimbabwe Herald on April 29.

Africa’s most elusive carnivore has been camera-trapped in South Sudan. Trail cameras set by researchers from Bucknell University and Fauna & Flora International have filmed endangered African wild dogs—also known as painted dogs, for their markings—in the vast, largely unexplored wilderness of the Southern National Park. The cameras have already revealed the presence of leopard and spotted hyena, roan, hartebeest and a number of primates.

Elephants can have a great and positive impact on soil fertility. A study in central Kenya suggests that cattle and wildlife can coexist—if elephants remain to help distribute nutrients into the soil, via their manure and their habit of knocking over trees. Soil in grazing areas that included elephants was found to have nearly twice as much carbon and nitrogen as soils where elephants are not present. The research emphasizes the key role of elephants in the functioning of an African ecosystem; one scientist called their impact “pretty surprising and striking.” [Ed. note: Balance and diversity are key. The impact of too many elephants is discussed in this article in the April issue of Conservation Frontlines.]

Extreme heat exacerbates southern Africa’s worst drought in decades. Millions of people are suffering food shortages as production of maize and other grains declines. Electricity supply is also at risk, as water levels behind the Zambezi River hydro dam are exceptionally low. This from the same NY Times report referenced earlier.

The most dangerous place on Earth . . . was the Sahara Desert. Or what is now the Sahara, but during the Cretaceous Period, when it was teeming with ferocious predators. This is according to a team of scientists who have published (in ZooKeys) the biggest review in a century of fossil beds in southeastern Morocco. About 100 million years ago, the region was a vast river system filled with aquatic and terrestrial animals, including three of the largest predatory dinosaurs ever known as well as several predatory flying reptiles (pterosaurs) and crocodile-like hunters. The authors called this “arguably the most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth, a place where a human time-traveller would not last very long.” Many of the predators relied on an abundant supply of “absolutely enormous fish, including giant coelacanths and lungfish. The coelacanth, for example, is probably four or even five times large than today’s coelacanth. There is an enormous freshwater saw shark called Onchopristis with the most fearsome of rostral teeth, like barbed daggers but beautifully shiny.”

 

Pacific

The longest creature in the sea? A swirling siphonophore, spotted 2,000 feet down in the waters off Western Australia by a deep-sea robot, was estimated by scientists to be some 150 feet (46 m) long, the New York Times reported on April 14. (A mature blue whale may reach 100 feet.) A siphonophore is a colony of zooids, clusters of cells that clone themselves thousands of times to produce an extended, string-like body. Like living, organized silly string, researchers say.

 

New Additions to the Conservation Frontlines Library May 2020

Author	Year	Title	Library Category
Adams Bill	2020	COVID-19 and Conservation	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Armitage Derek & et al.	2020	Why communities must be at the heart of conserving wildlife, plants and ecosystems	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management
Armitage Derek & et al.	2020	Governance principles for community‐centered conservation in the post‐2020 global biodiversity framework	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife
Bales Jaden (Modern Huntsman)	2020	Keeping a Ghost: Mule Deer Management in the West	Hunting in the 21st Century; Hunting Ethics and Fair Chase; Hunting in Society,Evolutionary Consequences of Hunting, Biometric Assessment & Monitoring
Barth Brian (Mother Jones)	2020	The Surprising History of the Wildlife Trade That May Have Sparked the Coronavirus	Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Beer Christian et al.	2020	Protection of Permafrost Soils from Thawing by Increasing Herbivore Density	Conservation & Wildlife Management
Booth Hollie (ICCS)	2020	On COVID-19, and rebalancing our relationship with nature	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Brittain Stephanie (ICCS)	2020	The Covid-19 response and wild meat: a call for local context	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Carrington Damian (The Guardian)	2020	Coronavirus: ‘Nature is sending us a message’, says UN environment chief	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Challender Dan, Hinsley Amy, Veríssimo Diogo & ‘t Sas-Rolfes Michael (ICCS)	2020	Coronavirus: why a blanket ban on wildlife trade would not be the right response	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Earl Andrew (TRCP)	2020	$49M Will Expand Recreational Access on Private Land	Hunting in the 21st Century; Hunting Ethics and Fair Chase; Hunting in Society, Conservation & Wildlife Management
Fa John E et al.	2020	Importance of Indigenous Peoples’ lands for the conservation of Intact Forest Landscapes	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management
Fair James (Mongabay)	2020	Coronavirus is a crisis for South Africa’s captive lions, campaigners warn	Wildlife Diseases
Fine Maron Dina (National Geographic)	2020	Poaching threats loom as wildlife safaris put on hold due to COVID-19	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Fine Maron Dina (National Geographic)	2020	Wet markets’ likely launched the coronavirus. Here’s what you need to know	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Wildlife Diseases
Fitzpatrick Brad	2020	Namibian PH Says Hunting Is the Game Changer for Conservation	Hunting in the 21st Century; Hunting Ethics and Fair Chase; Hunting in Society, History of Hunting; Hunting in Culture & Arts
Gonçalves F M P  Luís J C,  Tchamba J J, Cachissapa M J & Chisingui A W	2020	A rapid assessment of hunting and bushmeat trade along the roadside between five Angolan major towns	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management
Guarino B, Tierney L & Fox J (The Washington Post)	2020	Safe Passages: Rocky Mountain animals will move as the climate warms. These corridors could give them an easier path.	Conservation & Wildlife Management
Gunn-Wright Rhiana (The New York Times)	2020	Think This Pandemic Is Bad? We Have Another Crisis Coming	Wildlife Diseases, Conservation & Wildlife Management
Harris Nyeema C et al.	2019	First camera survey in Burkina Faso and Niger reveals human pressures on mammal communities within the largest protected area complex in West Africa	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management
Hu B, Zeng L-P et al.	2020	Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARSrelated coronaviruses provides new insights into the origin of SARS coronavirus	Wildlife Diseases
Hughes Courtney et al.	2020	Problem Perspectives and Grizzly Bears: A Case Study of Alberta’s Grizzly Bear Recovery Policy	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management
IPBES (Díaz Sandra, Settele Josef & Brondízio Eduardo)	2019	Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services	Conservation & Wildlife Management
IUCN	2020	Conservation efforts bring cautious hope for African rhinos – IUCN Red List	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management
IUCN	2020	IUCN statement on the COVID-19 pandemic	Wildlife Diseases, Conservation & Wildlife Management
Janke Adam	2020	Rise of the Hunter Athlete	Hunting in the 21st Century; Hunting Ethics and Fair Chase; Hunting in Society
Knupp Jeremiah	2020	A Sheep Hunter’s Rifle Comes Home	History of Hunting; Hunting in Culture & Arts
Kukura Jared (Daily Maverick)	2020	The captive lion breeding industry puts conservation and public health at risk	Hunting in the 21st Century; Hunting Ethics and Fair Chase; Hunting in Society, Wildlife Diseases
Mallon D, Banfield L, Senn H & Al Qahtani H (Eds & Comp)	2020	Dama Gazelle (Nanger dama) Conservation Strategy 2019-2028	Conservation & Wildlife Management
Millgate Kris	2020	5 Things Researchers Learn From GPS Collars: Here’s how hunter-funded GPS collaring affects big game management in the West	Hunting in the 21st Century; Hunting Ethics and Fair Chase; Hunting in Society, Conservation & Wildlife Management
Mysterud Atle et al.	2020	The unique spatial ecology of human hunters	Hunting in the 21st Century; Hunting Ethics and Fair Chase; Hunting in Society
Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade & ICCS	2020	Position Stement: Managing wildlife trade in the context of Covid-19 and future zoonotic pandemics	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Robbins Jim (New York Times)	2019	Feral Pigs Roam the South. Now Even Northern States Aren’t Safe.	Hunting in the 21st Century; Hunting Ethics and Fair Chase; Hunting in Society
Robinson Doreen (UNEP)	2020	Coronaviruses: are they here to stay?	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Roe Dilys (IIED)	2020	Despite COVID-19, using wild species may still be the best way to save them	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Roth Annie (The New York Times)	2020	Poachers Kill More Rhinos as Coronavirus Halts Tourism to Africa	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Schneck Marcus	2019	Misinformation widespread about chronic wasting disease in deer management	Wildlife Diseases
Schneck Marcus	2020	Disease-sniffing dogs among chronic wasting disease research funded by Pennsylvania	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife
Semcer Catherine (PERC)	2020	Coronavirus Pandemic Highlights the Vulnerability of African Wildlife Conservation	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Somerville Keith	2019	Angola: Demining key to conservation plans	Conservation & Wildlife Management
Spinney Laura (The Guardian)	2020	Is factory farming to blame for coronavirus?	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Stoye Emma	2020	China coronavirus: how many papers have been published?	Wildlife Diseases
Strong M & Silva J A	2020	Impacts of hunting prohibitions on multidimensional well-being	Hunting in the 21st Century; Hunting Ethics and Fair Chase; Hunting in Society, Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife
Tauli-Corpuz Vicky et al.	2020	Cornered by PAs: Adopting rights-based approaches to enable cost-effective conservation and climate action	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Wildlife Diseases
Van Houtan K S et al.	2020	Sentiment Analysis of Conservation Studies Captures Successes of Species Reintroductions	Conservation & Wildlife Management
Vyawahare Malavika (Mongabay.com)	2020	How to prevent the next COVID-19? Conservationists weigh in	Rural Communities, the Hereditary Custodians of Land and Wildlife, Conservation & Wildlife Management, Wildlife Diseases
Wilkinson Todd (Mountain Journal)	2020	Chronic Wasting Disease: America’s Homegrown Contagion That Lumbers On Four Hooves	Wildlife Diseases
Zhuang Pinghui (South China Morning Post)	2020	Chinese laboratory that first shared coronavirus genome with world ordered to close for ‘rectification’, hindering its Covid-19 research	Wildlife Diseases