The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) commemorates the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day today with a series of messages showing resilience, hope, and steadfastness against the three crises facing our planet today: climate change, biodiversity extinction, and global pandemics.

The global trade in wild animals has produced the conditions for disastrous and deadly pandemics, including COVID-19. To prevent the next pandemic, the Coalition to End the Trade is calling for the permanent end to the commercial trade and sale in markets of terrestrial animals for consumption, particularly birds and mammals. 

A team of scientists combined fine-resolution data of highly threatened habitat with intact natural systems, revealing a first-of-its-kind global map of the world’s remaining high-value biodiversity habitat areas. 

Marine protected areas are one of the main tools to prevent the sharp decline in coral reefs being observed across the world. However, a recent scientific evaluation indicates some reefs in protected areas or far from human populations can still thrive, but only a small percentage can achieve the multiple goals of plentiful fish stocks, high fish biodiversity, high fish grazing, and well-preserved ecosystem functions.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.  Although COVID-positive people can infect tigers and lions in zoos by close contact involved with caring for them, cats are not easily infected, and SARS-CoV-2 is not known to occur in any population of any wild cat species in nature. It is extremely unlikely that wild cats can transmit the virus that causes COVID-19 to humans.

An excerpt from testimony by Dr. Christian Walzer, Executive Director of WCS’s Health Programs, who is speaking today before the bipartisan leadership of the International Conservation Caucus.

In a single deliberate poisoning event, three Giant Ibis, equivalent to 1-2 percent of the global population, have been killed – part of a disturbing global trend where conservationists are noticing increases in hunting of protected species since the spread of coronavirus began to disrupt traditional economic and social systems in rural areas.

The bipartisan leadership of the International Conservation Caucus will convene a Virtual Briefing on Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at 3:00 PM EDT to examine links between the commercial trade and consumption of wildlife and disease outbreaks such as COVID-19, SARS, HIV, and Ebola, and to consider steps the United States can take to prevent future pandemics.

On April 5, the Bronx Zoo and USDA announced that three veterinary labs confirmed that Nadia, a four-year-old Malayan tiger, tested positive for COVID-19. Nadia, who was first introduced to Animal Planet audiences as a cub on THE ZOO in 2017, had a cough and a mild loss of appetite and is expected to make a full recovery. In a special episode of THE ZOO on Saturday, Apr. 11 at 9PM ET/PT, audiences will get an update on Nadia and six other big cats showing similar symptoms at the zoo, by Bro...

New York, April 10, 2020 – The following update was issued by the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo: We are pleased to report that since the USDA and Bronx Zoo made the announcement on Sunday that one of our female Malayan tigers tested positive for COVID-19, her condition continues to improve, along with the other three tigers and three African lions that exhibited similar symptoms. Nadia and the other cats are behaving normally, eating well, and their coughing is greatly re...