Word: vast
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...cats, by nature, are territorial, live in low densities and hunt their prey over vast stretches of land (a tiger in the Russian Far East roams over 400 sq. mi., and a cheetah in Namibia will traverse 600 sq. mi.). A wildlife reserve has to be huge to support such animals, and even large parks can contain just so many of the fiercely territorial creatures. Big cats that roam or live outside reserves increasingly find themselves on turf staked out by farmers, herders and loggers, especially in parts of Africa and Asia where the human population is booming. Wild prey...
...grasslands and forests along the India-Nepal border at the foot of the Himalayas. The area used to be sparsely populated, but after malaria was eradicated in the 1950s, farmers and loggers moved in. Today it is South Asia's Rice Bowl: there are 3.6 million people, vast paddies and 3.3 million head of livestock in the 19,000-sq.-mi. area. As land was cleared, tiger turf disappeared. Because the animals won't cross what they consider hostile terrain, they became separated into three isolated populations...
...access, covered with dense scrub and lacking in the spectacular vistas found in the Serengeti to the north, it draws fewer than 5,000 visitors annually--less than 1% of tourists who visit Tanzania. To pay for the upkeep of the Selous and for antipoaching patrols over its vast area, the reserve's managers rely on another source of funding: big-game hunters. In Tanzania, hunters will pay up to $80,000 to shoot a lion. In 2002, 226 trophy lions were shot in Tanzania, many in the Selous reserve...
...controlled hunts when they generate revenue for locals who might otherwise kill off the predators. "It seems counterintuitive that killing animals can be good for conservation," says Frank. "But trophy hunting is extremely lucrative, and in order to produce a few trophy males, it is a necessity to preserve vast ecosystems...
...world karaoke championship in Finland, singing the 1980s classic Fame." Oh, this is the one: "Gabon's President, as you know, is Omar Bongo, now in his 37th year as head of state. And yet again, he has promised any Gabonian medal winner a new house and vast sums of cash. But the wily Bongo is hedging his bets, insofar as they have never won an Olympic medal...