Thanks to the vigilant eye of camera traps stationed high in Afghanistan's remote northeast mountains, researchers have uncovered exciting news: A population of endangered snow leopards, one of the most elusive big cats on the planet, is thriving in the region.

The big cats live among the dramatic peaks of the desolate Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of land 220 miles (354 kilometers) long, and sandwiched between Tajikistan to the north, Pakistan to the south, and a tiny border with China to the east.

Poachers have killed a mountain gorilla at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.

The area conservation manager, Mr Pontius Ezuma, said the 12-year-old black-back gorilla died last week of injuries it sustained after it was speared on the chest by unknown poachers at Biyumba in Kanyonza Sub-county, Kanungu District.

September 22nd is Elephant Appreciation Day, celebrated since 1996. The official website has many suggestions for ways to celebrate the holiday, but you can use your imagination to honor elephants in your own way. Tell elephant jokes, send an ecard, watch elephant videos on YouTube, or make a donation to one of the many organizations dedicated to the care and protection of the world’s largest land mammal.

Time may be running out for orangutans living in the rainforests of Sumatra, it has been warned.

According to the Jakarta Post, the "auburn haired" creatures may be facing extinction as they can now only be found in the north of Sumatra and Aceh, areas which are both being hit by deforestation.

By SINDYA N. BHANOO

The Center for Biological Diversity is spreading the word about the impact of population growth on the environment by distributing condoms with cheeky slogans.

The name “orangutan” literally translates into English as “man of the forest”. It comes from Malay and Bahasa Indonesian orang (man) and hutan (forest).

Orangutans are extremely intelligent creatures who clearly have the ability to reason and think. Their similarity to us is uncanny. Baby orangutans cry when they’re hungry, whimper when they’re hurt and smile at their mothers. They express emotions just like we do: joy, fear, anger, surprise…. it’s all there. If you take a few minutes and watch an orangutan, you’ll swear they’re just like us. And they kind of are….

This month, conservationists in the Czech Republic and Kenya launchedan audacious bid to save one of the world's rarest animals: thenorthern white rhinoceros. Four of the last eight known northern whitesin the world, two male and two female, were packed into wooden cratesand sent from a Czech zoo to Kenya, where scientists hope they will getdown to the business of breeding.

The rhinos arrived at Nairobi's main airport at 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 19. Hamish Currie prowled the tarmac directing trucks, tractors and a giant crane as the animals came off the 747.

The sluggish recovery of the southern sea otter of California, a threatened population on the Endangered Species list, appears to have stalled once again.

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists say the latest 3-year running average (2,813 sea otters) was 0.5-percent lower than last year, the first time the trend has been negative since the late 1990s. A leveling off of population growth has occurred over the past 3 years.

Friday 22nd January, 06:40 AM JST, TOKYO — Levels of mercury in hair samples of residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, which is known for customarily eating small whales caught by coastal whaling, are about 10 times the average in Japan, possibly due to consumption of whale meat with high concentration of mercury, one of researchers who conducted the survey said Thursday.

Hair samples were collected from 30 men and 20 women living in the whaling town with a population of about 3,400 through local collaborators between December 2007 and July 2008 for testing, Tetsuya Endo, an associate professor at Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, said.

No-kill researchers sail to study Antarctic whales

Researchers set sail from New Zealand on Tuesday to study whales off Antarctica without killing them - an open challenge to Japan's killing of up to 1,000 whales a year in the name of science.