Officials have confiscated 37 lions and tigers in Saudi Arabia, according to Arab News. The paper said that the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development will be transferring the wild cats that had been illegally smuggled into the Kingdom over the last two years into facilities that comply with the Convention on International Trade in […]
Read more
When he first began his career as a young biologist, Allan Savory basically ordered the culling of 40,000 elephants. He and other scientists in Zimbabwe observed that former grasslands set aside as national parks were turning to desert and decided, after considerable research, that elephants were responsible. But it didn’t help to kill them. In […]
Read more
Israel has set up a special task force to prepare for the possibility that a locust swarm may migrate from Egypt and destroy precious crops. Already some sources are saying that a small swarm of locusts has been spotted in the southern Gaza strip after millions of locusts descended upon various Cairo neighborhoods over the […]
Read more
Only 177 countries behind the times, Lebanon has finally joined the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), The Daily Star reports. One of the last Middle Eastern countries to get on board, Lebanon has not done well to protect the 100 or so species in the country that are […]
Read more
At 7am on Tuesday, a frightful explosion rocked Luxor, where ancient Egyptian antiquities draw scores of tourists each year. The blast that engulfed a hot air balloon in mid air was heard and felt several kilometers away. One Egyptian and 18 foreign tourists are said to have died and the Civil Aviation Minister told Reuters […]
Read more
New underwater photos from five different locations around the Gulf of Izmir confirm that life is returning to the once-blighted water. The gulf was used as an open sewer system from the 1960s until 2000, when the city of Izmir initiated the Big Gulf Project to clean it up. Those efforts are paying off, according […]
Read more
Even though, perversely for a landscape photographer, I tend to seek out uglier-than-average places, this possibly wins the prize for one of the least glamorous locations I’ve photographed. It’s a very sizable field of human excrement on the road from Sharjah to Dhaid in the United Arab Emirates. It’s part of the excellent work being […]
Read more
A surge of round-the-world cyclists have emerged in the last few years as touring gear has improved and borders have become more fluid (for certain passport holders.) Two South African men cycled to Mecca, and a pair of American women traveled the Silk Road to support trans-boundary conservation efforts. But these adventures are not without […]
Read more
An old Persian leopard has been captured on camera in Iran, but this is not the first time. The cat was first photographed by a camera trap in 2004, according to wildlife conservationists in the area, and has since been spotted by both game wardens and visitors on numerous occasions. In 2007, the Conservation of […]
Read more
Vernon Hugh Bowman, farmer vs Monsanto, billion dollar seed and biotech company. It sounds like something from a book about the perils of the future, a future that is strangely today reality: The seed-engineering company Monsanto genetically engineers seeds to have desirable traits that make them hearty or the plants resistant to the effects of herbicides […]
Read more
When I lived on a roof in Tel Aviv with my boyfriend Elad more than a decade ago, I would spend some evenings watching the Cypress trees sway and pray in the wind, and above them flocks of starlings painting the sky with their moves like tea leaves in a cup. Without a television it […]
Read more
Coral in most parts of the world bleach when water temperatures surpass 28-32°C except in the Arabian/Persian Gulf, a new study finds. Curious to know why coral in the waters surrounding Abu Dhabi and other Gulf countries are able to withstand water temperatures as high as 36 °C before bleaching (not to mention the onslaught of […]
Read more
If you’ve traveled throughout the Sinai Peninsula, you will understand how wonderful it is to have a service like Bedouin Bus. A non profit public transportation service founded and sponsored by community members to ensure that travelers have affordable and stress-free access to the more remote parts of this magical part of Egypt, the bus fills […]
Read more
Deep sea mining for minerals is the next frontier for the extractive industry, and the Red Sea risks becoming a victim Sudan and Saudi Arabia are targeting to start deep-water mining of a Red Sea basin, rich in zinc, copper, silver and gold, by 2014. This decision revives from a mutual agreement signed in 1974 […]
Read more
This is how the camel looked back in February, 2012. Cold, wet and miserable Our stories on animal abuse have included severe abuse of circus animals in Lebanon, neglect and abuse of zoo animals in Egypt, and even rampant abuse of pigs in (supposedly) kosher Israel. Always considered as “silent victims” these animals have suffered severe […]
Read more