Sudan is gone. We should mourn his loss as ours and feel great sadness that we allowed this to happen. How is it that we allowed a species to dwindle because of disregard to the huge threats these magnificent animals faced. That he was the last of his kind the Northern White Rhino should be a sobering thought and a wake up that we need to do more for other species facing the same fate, too many to count. That these giants and their ancestors walked the earth for more than 5 million years and that we have seen them decimated by exploitation and greed should be a source of great shame to us. 

 There seems to be no end to the dismantling of valuable conservation efforts of endangered species by the Trump administration. Now this dreadful excuse of a human and the worst president I have ever seen elected in America is moving to remove the North American lynx from the endangered list effectively removing protection for this beautiful cat. Without protection in place these animals  become targets of hunters killing them indiscriminately. It's a tragedy for the civilised world that America is being 'led' by such a vile person who clearly has no interest in conservation wildlife or the beauty of the natural world. How much more damage will this egocentric pathetic excuse of a man do in the years of his presidential reign I dread to imagine. 

 The Major Mitchell cockatoo is one of Australia's remarkable birds but it is in serious decline in Victoria. The slender cypress pine trees these birds depend on have all but vanished from the Victorian landscape taking with them valuable nesting hollows. How has this happened ? With only 20 breeding pairs their future looks pretty bleak. Early settlers used slender cypress trees for building houses and fencing and overgrazing has led to a serious loss impacting on the lives of the distinctive Major Mitchell who has to compete with other birds such as galahs for space to nest. Millions of trees have been planted to re vegetate devastated areas so maybe there is hope that this amazing bird will survive.

When there are no words to describe the horror. What are we doing to this planet ?

Leopards are adaptable animals and new studies are showing they are exploiting urban life in India. There is evidence that the leopards are feeding on populations of rabid stray dogs in the crowded cities.
Interestingly thousands of people die each year from rabies after being bitten by infected dogs so the study has shown that the leopards preying on dogs is actually helping to reduce the numbers of people being bitten in the first place. Of course the leopards take a huge risk going into urban environments where people naturally fear them but it's an intriguing that they could actually be doing the human population a favour. Most of the dogs are starving and unhealthy and a real risk to health. It must be noted that leopards are opportunistic so dogs may not be the only animals on the menu.