Bronx, NY, Dec. 31, 2017 — WCS President and CEO Cristian Samper released the following statement today as China honors its 2017 New Year's resolution to make the sale and processing of ivory illegal.

NEW YORK - December 27, 2017 – Tundra, the Bronx Zoo’s 26 -year-old polar bear, was euthanized on Saturday due to medical conditions associated with old age. A necropsy showed Tundra to have chronic kidney disease causing acute kidney failure and progressive arthritis that worsened despite treatment. (Read Statement)

NEW YORK - December 27, 2017 – WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) released today its favorite images of 2017. Ten of the images come from WCS’s Bronx Zoo, and ten images are from WCS’s Global Conservation Programs taken by WCS scientists working around the world. 

December 21, 2017 — A group of scientists now considers a little-known dolphin that only lives along the Atlantic coasts of Western Africa to be among the continent’s most endangered mammals, a list that includes widely recognized species such as gorillas, African wild dogs, and black rhinos, according to WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and the IUCN’s (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Cetacean Specialist Group.

Kratie (19 December 2017) - A nest of the globally Endangered Asian Giant Softshell Turtle was found on a sandbar on the Mekong between Kratie and Stung Treng by conservationists of Fisheries Administration (FiA), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and local communities. This is the only remaining area in the country where these huge turtles still breed. This nest is now being protected by local communities until all eggs are hatched and the hatchlings are released into the river.

December 19, 2017 -- The following statement is by WCS Senior Conservation Scientist George Schaller on allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is part of the tax bill expected to pass Congress and be signed into law this week. Schaller was part of the original scientific expedition in 1956 that led to the Refuge’s creation:

December 15, 2017 – A local court sentenced a notorious elephant poacher and ivory trafficker to five years in prison and a fine of 1,200,000 XAF (~2100 US$). 

STONE TOWN, Zanzibar, Tanzania (December 14, 2017) – A team of WCS scientists recently completed the first-ever range-wide population census of the Zanzibar red colobus monkey (Piliocolobus kirkii) an endangered primate found only on the Zanzibar archipelago off the coast of East Africa.

(BENGALURU, 12 December 2017) – Conservationists and partners with the Bengaluru-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) -India received multiple awards at the Sanctuary Wildlife Awards event held in Mumbai yesterday. The awardees included Mr. Jayachandran S, Mr. Shashank Dalvi, Mr. Nikit Surve and Ms. Vaishali Rawat.

December 12, 2017 –  Maps of the world’s most important wilderness areas are now freely available online following a University of Queensland and Wildlife Conservation Society-led study published today.