Rarest dog: Ethiopian wolves are genetically vulnerable

Populations of the world's rarest dog, the Ethiopian wolf, are genetically fragmenting, scientists say.

Fewer than 500 of Africa's only wolf species are thought to survive. Now a 12-year study of Ethiopian wolves living in the Ethiopian highlands has found there is little gene flow between the small remaining populations. That places the wolves at greater risk of extinction from disease, or habitat degradation. In a study published in the journal , Dada Gottelli of the Zoological Society of London and colleagues in Oxford, UK and Berlin, Germany, quantified the genetic diversity, population structure and patterns of gene flow among 72 wild-living Ethiopian wolves.

 
Red dog

A conservation project to help

protect the rare Burmese snub-nosed monkey is one of 33 to get a share of UK Government funding. The species was photographed for the first time last year. The project, led by Fauna and Flora International (FFI), will try to establish how many of the monkeys are left and how best to protect them. The money comes from a long-term scheme called the Darwin Initiative. The Burmese snub-nosed monkey was described scientifically for the first time in 2010 from a dead specimen collected by a local hunter. In May 2011 researchers working in northern Burma captured the first pictures of the species in its natural habitat. A team from FFI, Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (Banca), and People Resources and Conservation Foundation (PRCF) took the images using camera traps.

Up to 900 tropical bird species could 'go extinct'

          The wire-tailed manakin faces an uncertain future

Up to 900 species of tropical land birds around the world could become extinct by 2100, researchers say.

The finding is modelled on the effects of a 3.5C Earth surface temperature rise, a Biological Conservation Journal paper shows. Species may struggle to adapt to habitat loss and extreme weather events, author Cagan Sekercioglu says. Mountain, coastal, restricted-range, and species unable to get to higher elevations could be the worst affected.

Of the nearly forty feline, or cat, species, only one—the domestic cat—is believed to be secure. As undeveloped land becomes harder to find, large cats, such as lions, panthers, tigers, jaguars, and cheetahs, are left with less and less natural habitat in which to live.