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☆ Global wildlife populations have sunk 69% since 1970 - WWF report
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report, which used 2018 data from ZSL on the status of 32,000 wildlife populations covering more than 5,000 species, found that population sizes had declined by 69% on average. One population of pink river dolphins in the Brazilian Amazon plummeted by 65% between 1994 and 2016, the report said. Its findings were broadly similar to those in WWF's last assessment in 2020, with wildlife population sizes continuing to decline at a rate of about 2.5% per year, Terry said. "Nature was in dire straits and it is still in dire straits," said Mark Wright, director of science at WWF-UK. Still, the wide-ranging declines have prompted desperate pleas for increased support for nature.

☆ The best wildlife photos of 2022 include a ball of bees, a snake eating a bat, and polar bears raiding an abandoned town
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The London Natural History Museum announced the 2022 winners of its Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. The winning photos include a frenzied ball of bees, a dancing sea star, and the brushy mouth of a whale. The cactus bees, like most other bees, are endangered by habitat loss, pesticides, and the changing climate. The resulting photo, above, won the Grand Title in this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, which is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London each year. As clouds of sea-star sperm and eggs filled the water, photographer Tony Wu captured this otherwordly invertebrate in the throes of its dance.

☆ Uganda has confirmed seven Ebola cases so far, one death
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Elias Biryabarema | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/James AkenaKAMPALA, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Uganda has confirmed seven cases of Ebola including in a man who died this week, and seven other deaths are being investigated as suspected cases of a strain for which the authorities do not yet have a vaccine, officials said on Thursday. "As of today, we have seven confirmed cases, of whom we have one confirmed death," Kyobe Henry Bbosa, Ebola incident commander at the Ugandan Ministry of Health, told a briefing. However, Otim said the Sudan strain posed a greater threat because the world did not yet have a vaccine for it like it has with the Zaire strain. In 2019, Uganda experienced an outbreak of Ebola Zaire. In August, a new case of Ebola virus was confirmed in the city of Beni in eastern Congo.

☆ Uganda declares Ebola outbreak after Sudan strain found
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Elias Biryabarema | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/James Akena/FilesKAMPALA, Sept 20 (Reuters) - An outbreak of Ebola has been declared in Uganda after health authorities confirmed a case of the relatively rare Sudan strain, the health ministry and World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. "Uganda is no stranger to effective Ebola control. The WHO said there had been seven previous outbreaks of the Ebola Sudan strain, four in Uganda and three in Sudan. It said Uganda last reported an outbreak of Ebola Sudan strain in 2012 and an outbreak of the Ebola Zaire strain in 2019. Another vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) may be effective but has yet to be specifically tested against the Sudan strain, it added.

CNN —Uganda declared an outbreak of Ebola after a case of the relatively rare Sudan strain was confirmed in the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. “This is the first time in more than a decade that Uganda is recording the Ebola Sudan strain,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa said. “We are working closely with the national health authorities to investigate the source of this outbreak.”Uganda last reported an outbreak of Ebola Sudan in 2012, the WHO said. Uganda’s last outbreak was in 2019 when it confirmed the Zaire Ebola strain, which led to the death a of 9-year-old Congolese girl near the border with the DRC. According to the WHO, vaccination has been approved against the Zaire strain but inoculation against the Sudan strain hasn’t been tested.

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