Should the location of newly discovered species be hidden?

Discovering a new species can be the defining moment of a biologist's career, but for some it can also mean exposing rare and vulnerable animals to the dark world of the wildlife pet trade, with catastrophic results. It's a scientific dilemma that has led some conservationists to question whether it would be better to hide their findings from the world. In 1999, herpetologist Bryan Stuart was working in Northern Laos when he stumbled across an eye-catching newt he had never seen before. The creature was prehistoric in its appearance with thick, warty skin and bright, yellow dots all the way down its back. He spotted it in a bottle of alcohol that a Lao colleague had brought back from a wedding in a remote part of the country - the poison from the newt's skin had been used to make a drink with special medicinal properties for a toast to the newlyweds. Stuart went in search of the newt in the wild and three years later he published an article in the Journal of Herpetology, announcing the discovery of the new species, Laotriton laoensis.

Rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga park have a new weapon in their fight against poachers. National Park authorities have trained five bloodhound dogs to track elephant poachers after a spate of incidents. The first investigation using the dogs was carried out last week and led to the discovery of illegal weapons. Poaching is one of the key threats to the animals in Virunga, a Unesco World Heritage Site in the war-torn eastern region of DR Congo. The park is also home to gorillas, chimpanzees, okapi, forest elephants and buffalo, among other wildlife. Some 300 rangers protect the park from poachers, rebel groups and illegal miners. 'Effective weapon' Park authorities now hope the bloodhound programme, which was implemented with help from a specialised Swiss centre and volunteers from the German police, will help to protect the vulnerable elephant population from ivory poachers. The dogs and their handlers got the chance to put their training into action on 1 March, when rangers spotted a dead elephant with its tusks cut off on the edge of Virunga.

     The Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland coast is home to a wealth of marine life

A UN team has arrived in Australia to investigate possible damage to the Great Barrier Reef by the mining industry.

South Africa troops tackle rhino poachers

Justice Minister Jeff Radebe said four military companies would be sent to the borders with Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho. Syndicates export the horns from Africa to parts of Asia and the Middle East. In 2011, a record 450 rhinos were killed by poachers in South Africa, the Department of Environment Affairs says. Mr Radebe said about 600 soldiers would join the fight against rhino poaching. "The deployment includes army engineers who are conducting repairs and maintenance on the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border fence, which is approximately 140 kilometres (85 miles)," Mr Radebe said. Last year troops were deployed along the Mozambican border, many of them inside the world-famous Kruger National Park where more than 200 rhinos were killed last year.