Elephant Trophy Imports Are Soaring Under Trump

A new Center for Biological Diversity case study shows the Trump administration allowed the import of more than 300 elephant trophies last year, based on federal records we obtained via the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. The first Trump administration, for comparison, reported importing 114 elephant trophies in 2018, following the president’s 2017 tweet calling elephant trophy hunting “a horror show.”

“Why is a president who once decried elephant-hunting rolling out the red carpet for the elitist practice of killing these beloved animals for decor?” said Tanya Sanerib, the Center’s international legal director. “With so many trophy hunters coming from the United States, our government should be helping to police the trophy trade, but instead Trump officials are rubberstamping imports of tusks and heads.”

Help our work to defend elephants and other animals from the trophy trade with a gift to the Center’s Future for the Wild Fund.

Endangered Wolf Crosses the Border Into Mexico

For the first time in decades, a radio-collared wolf has relocated from the United States to Mexico. Dubbed “Cedar,” he crossed through the last stretch of southern New Mexico without a border wall in the remote Bootheel region.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun extending the wall where Cedar crossed, which would block wildlife in the future.

“Cedar could be the last lobo to truly roam freely if Trump completes his destructive border wall,” said the Center’s Michael Robinson. “Since time immemorial wolves effortlessly loped through these borderless grasslands with their eyes open for jackrabbits and their snouts sniffing for other wolves. We’ll keep fighting to preserve Mexican wolves’ freedom to roam.”

The Struggle for Oak Flat Goes On

Conservation organizations and Tribal advocates have filed a new petition to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asking a larger panel of judges to reconsider a March ruling that cleared the way for the transfer of Oak Flat — a holy land to the Apache and other Tribes in Arizona — to the mining company Resolution Copper.

“We strongly believe that the judges should reconsider this deeply contentious decision,” said Russ McSpadden, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center. “Oak Flat is a sacred place and an ecological treasure that has long been public land belonging to all of us. Allowing its destruction would be a profound and entirely avoidable mistake.”

On a parallel track, we’re urging Gov. Katie Hobbs to halt plans to turn thousands of acres of state trust land into a dumping ground for 1.4 billion tons of waste from the future mine.

Trump Sued Over Northeast Marine Monument

The Center and allies are suing the Trump administration over its destructive move to open the precious Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing.

The Atlantic Ocean’s first and only marine national monument, Canyons and Seamounts is a biodiversity hotspot sheltering endangered whales, undiscovered deep-sea creatures, and cold-water corals that can take centuries to grow. Allowing commercial fishing within its boundaries would cause irreparable damage.

“Atlantic whales and corals have so few refuges off our coast, they can’t afford to battle it out with commercial fishing operations,” said Kristen Monsell, our oceans legal director. “We won’t accept this abuse of power and threat to imperiled marine life.”

Pandering to Pesticide Makers: AOC v. Zeldin

At a congressional hearing last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) grilled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin on his dealings with Roundup herbicide manufacturer Bayer. Roundup is the subject of tens of thousands of cancer lawsuits.

Citing emails penned by a senior Zeldin advisor, obtained by the Center through the Freedom of Information Act, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez exposed backroom dealings that led to the EPA writing a letter saying it wouldn’t OK California’s move to label glyphosate pesticide products with cancer warnings — a letter then used by Bayer to press its case before the U.S. Supreme Court that it should be shielded from liability against cancer claims from its product users. Bayer promised to “provide a small thanks” to Zeldin for his help.

Revelator: The Tortoise Guardians of Nagaland

In northern India’s Nagaland, once-abundant Asian giant tortoises have become critically endangered — and now Zeliang youth near their community reserve are helping bring them back.

With only about 250 mature individuals still surviving in the wild, these two-foot-long tortoises need all the help they can get (especially since they were traditionally hunted for food).

Read more in The Revelator.

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That's Wild: Hedgehogs Hear Ultrasound

European hedgehogs are suffering calamitous declines due to vehicle traffic, which they didn’t evolve to avoid — like all animals.

Now scientists have discovered an aspect of their physiology that could help save them. A new report in Biology Letters reveals that hedgehogs can hear high-frequency ultrasound — even higher than cats and dogs — which suggests that devices emitting frequencies above the ranges of these common pets might be used to keep the prickly little creatures away from dangers like roads.

“This could be a game changer for hedgehog conservation,” wrote lead author Sophie Lund Rasmussen of the University of Oxford.

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Photo credits: African elephant by Brett Hartl/Center for Biological Diversity; Mexican gray wolf courtesy USFWS; zebrafish by Lynn Ketchum/Oregon State University; Oak Flat by Russ McSpadden/Center for Biological Diversity; North Atlantic right whale by Allison Henry/NOAA; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez courtesy U. S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin courtesy USDA; Asian giant tortoise courtesy Biont Creations; European hedgehog by Michael Gäbler/Wikimedia Commons.

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