Word: habitat
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...number one driver of extinction is habitat loss and degradation, which affects 40% of the world's mammals. That can be seen clearly in the deforestation afflicting much of the tropical world, including Madagascar, where 90% of the country's original forest cover has been lost. Vast stretches of the once verdant island, where I traveled with Mittermeier last month, are eroded wastelands, capable of supporting few animals or people. Though the rate of deforestation has been reduced sharply in recent years, thanks in part to a greener government, Madagascar's protected areas are still threatened by new mining projects...
...white and black sifaka has springlike legs that propel it through the forest like a cat, in quiet, arcing leaps. Watching them move is a mesmerizing experience; it's easy to see how well lemurs have adapted to their native forest, and how helpless they must be when that habitat is lost...
...sifaka putting on a show before a crowd of onlookers, swinging back and forth - it's so toe-curlingly kawaii, as our Japanese traveling companions put it, you could die. Though cuteness alone isn't likely to save the lemurs from the forces that threaten them - hunting, deforestation and habitat destruction - it certainly puts them in a better position than their homelier endangered peers...
...study published in Science on Sept. 19. Scientists and fishermen have known for years that global fish populations are in bad shape. According to one bleak 2006 study, all of the world's major commercial fisheries could collapse by 2048 because of overfishing and loss of habitat. Now a team of economists and biologists say they know one way to prevent the loss of this crucial resource in global waters: more quotas...
...that did not. "The idea is that by securing access for individuals or select groups for a long period of time, they have an incentive to steward the resources," explains the study's lead author, Christopher Costello, a resource economist at U.C. Santa Barbara. "If they overharvest or destroy habitat today, they will have a less vibrant stock in the future, and thus lower future profits...