Head to the jungles of Liberia, and you’ll find the absolutely adorable pygmy hippopotamus.
They enjoy spending their time bobbing along rivers, plodding up the riverbank and searching for tasty leaves.
Enter a group of illegal miners. They’ve hacked and hammered their way deep into the ancient forest, hunting for rare metals. They brought about rampant deforestation and poaching all around them and the hippos have nowhere to run to.
All but 3,000 are dead. They are heading towards extinction.
But there’s a chance to enable local rangers to protect the hippos’ home - and making it impossible for the mining to ever return in the future.
They are working with local people who want to protect the ancient forests as much as Fauna and Flora International do.
Please help the pygmy hippos and keep them free to romp and stomp around their home in peace.
Will you donate £3 to help Fauna and Flora International and keep the forests free from illegal mining and care for the pygmy hippos and keep them safe
All I can say about this petition is PLEASE READ IT, SIGN IT AND SHARE, SHARE, SHARE.
How can anyone shoot animals for SPORT for goodness sake? The organisers of the petition have asked people to share the text below this banner.
I signed a petition on Action Network telling Donald Trump, President of the United States to STOP Shooting Endangered Black Rhinos.
BACKGROUND The US government has issued a permit to US trophy hunter Chris D. Peyerk of Shelby Township, Michigan to shoot a Namibian black rhino for ‘sport’ and bring back its skin, skull and horn into the US.
Black rhinos are critically endangered. Just 5,000 remain in the wild.
It follows a case brought by trophy hunting lawyer John J Jackson, who runs an organisation called ‘Conservation Force’. Jackson is a former President of Safari Club International, the world’s largest trophy hunting group.
‘Conservation Force’ campaigns for hunters to bring home trophies of threatened species. It also lobbies for changes in the law to make it easier to hunt vulnerable species - including lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants and polar bears, as well as rhinos.
It sued Delta airlines when they previously refused to carry a black rhino trophy. It also sued the state of New Jersey when it tried to stop hunting trophies of threatened species coming in through its air and sea ports.
Jackson has been on at least 38 elephant hunts alone. His trophy room includes the heads and bodies of giraffes, zebras, bears, buffaloes, cougars, leopards, rhinos, lions, wolves, and numerous species of deer and antelope. Several large elephant tusks form the centrepiece of his collection.
He has written the following about trophy hunting:
“Nothing has been so consistently fulfilling to me as my hunting.
“It has stirred an insatiable appetite for more. Without it I would somehow be incomplete.
“I can plainly see the African lion that has leaped into the air the moment its head snaps backward and explodes with smoke from my bullet.”
‘Conservation Force’ has made a number of donations to IUCN and has secured positions on key IUCN committees. Despite not being a scientist, Jackson has been a member of IUCN’s Lions specialist group.
IUCN, through it’s ‘Traffic’ initiative, lobbied CITES delegates to vote AGAINST the proposal to protect giraffes at the recent Geneva wildlife trade conference – as did Safari Club International. The Species Survival Network, an alliance of 80 conservation groups around the world, strongly supported the measure which was proposed by a number of African nations.
The conference also voted to double the number of black rhinos that can be shot by trophy hunters for so-called 'sport'. John Jackson and other ‘Conservation Force’ lobbyists were present at the CITES conference.
Basking sharks love Scotland (and who can blame them – it’s stunning).
They head to the rich waters off the west coast every summer and they take a long journey to take there, coming from as far away as the Canary Islands.
There’s an opportunity to really make a difference to basking sharks.
The Scottish Government has launched a consultation on Marine Protected Areas – including one specifically for Basking Sharks.
They are now considered vulnerable. Although they have been a protected species I Scotland since 1998, they face threats in Scottish seas from fishing gear, boat traffic and micro-plastics.
Back in the 19th and 20th centuries, 100,000 basking sharks were hunted in the North Atlantic…… so there aren’t as many of them left as there used to be.
The proposed Sea of the Hebrides Marine Protected Area will give extra protections to basking sharks and other species such as minke whales.
Currently, it is proposed that 4 new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) be added to Scotland’s exiting MPA areas. These areas will protect important habitats and large mobile species such as Risso dolphins, Minke Whales and Basking Sharks.
