Search AWI Online

Bats in the eastern US are now facing what could be their biggest challenge, with hundreds of thousands reported dead by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and many species heading toward extinction.

In late May, a mysterious illness began killing songbirds in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

The opposite is true – there are too few wild horses and burros on our public lands, and unless their numbers grow, the survival of these special animals is in jeopardy. During the 1800’s, it is estimated that there were more than two million wild horses and burros roaming the West.

It all happened so suddenly. I had just opened a fresh bale of alfalfa hay and was inspecting it carefully before putting it out for the unicorns. Alfalfa hay has excellent nutrition; rich in protein, calcium, and many vitamins. And since nutrition is closely linked to good health and reproductive success, it was very important to ensure that the unicorns had the best hay available. Alfalfa hay also has a marvelous aroma, which briefly distracted my attention.

If you ask the average American what they know of Australia, they might mention the Sydney Opera House, didgeridoos, boomerangs, the Great Barrier Reef, the Outback, and, of course, Australia’s iconic wildlife, including crocodiles, koalas, and ka

The Namibian government has granted an export permit allowing a game farm in the country to take five young elephants away from their families and sell them to a safari park in Dubai.

On March 5, the lives of 22 African elephants—mothers, juveniles, and young calves—changed forever.

A scientific committee assembled by the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) National Research Council has completed a two-year study on the Wild Horse and Burro Program of the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) recently announced the provisional composition of an ad hoc committee that will examine the need, both current and future, for the use of nonhuman primates (NHPs) in research fu

The Horse Protection Act (HPA) was enacted in 1970 to clamp down on the scourge of “soring”—the term for a host of abusive practices inflicted upon Tennessee walking horses and related breeds to produce an exaggerated high-stepping gait known as t

In an appropriations bill passed in March, Congress directed the USFWS to obtain an independent assessment on the taxonomic status of the red wolf and the Mexican gray wolf—both of which are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore may be the first facility in the United States to close its dolphin exhibit as part of proactive and forward-thinking strategic planning, rather than external pressures.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore announced in June that it plans to move its colony of eight dolphins from its indoor amphitheater pool to a seaside dolphin sanctuary—the nation’s first. The aquarium publicly stated two years prior that it was considering such a move. (See AWI Quarterly, summer 2014.)

Congress tasked the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with implementing the country’s National Organic Program (NOP). For more than a decade now, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the advisory committee of the NOP, has recommended that the NOP raise animal welfare standards.