The authors visited Yemen on behalf of WWF International in April 1992 to find out what had been happening to the rhino horn trade since their last visit to the country during the Gulf Crisis in November 1990. From 1985 to 1990, Yemen's rhino horn imports had decreased very sharply compared with the 1970s and early 1980s. From August 1990 to March 1992, however, a considerable increase in imports occurred, with just over 750 kg of rhino horn being brought into Yemen. The reason for the increase was not a rise in the wholesale price of rhino horn – this is still half that paid in Taiwan. The main reason for the increase is that new and easier trade routes have opened up, primarily from Tanzania by air to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates and then overland to Yemen.

From earliest times man has taken an interest in animals, but our ancestors were mainly concerned with hunting them. The oldest documents dealing with hunting laws date from the eleventh century. In Russia hunting was never a privilege, the prerogative of princes or state, but the state was always concerned with the products of the chase. One of the first reserves was made in the seventeenth century to protect the eyries of the gyr falcon, much in demand for falconry. An early government monopoly in fur trading guaranteed some measure of protection for fur-bearing animals.

In 1972 the Tayrona National Park, on Colombia's Caribbean coast, was suddenly threatened with a multi-million-dollar tourist complex to be built within the park boundaries. But Colombians in thousands objected to the plan–over 50,000 signed a petition to the Government. Eventually, in 1976, a presidential decree permanently excluded the proposed tourist development from Tayrona, a victory for conservation that the author believes could have resounding effects in Latin America.

On 26th June, 1689, an English youth, named Henry Kelsey, and an Indian boy set out northwards on a month-long journey from a newly-founded trading post at the mouth of the Churchill River in Hudson Bay. Their object was to find Indians who might bring furs to the new post, but they hiked an estimated 200 miles out and back over the Barrens without meeting a single human being. If, however, their trip was commercially a fruitless, as well as an arduous enterprise, they still made one discovery of some scientific interest. On Sunday, 9th July, Kelsey recorded in his diary: “in ye Evening spyed two Buffillo left our things & pursued ym Kill'd one they are ill shapen beast their Body being bigger than an ox leg & foot like ye same but not half so long a [long] neck & head a hog their Horns not growing like other Beast but joyn together upon their forehead & so come down ye side of their head & turn up till ye points be Even wth ye Buts their Hair is near a foot long” (Doughty and Martin, 1929, pp. 27–8).

When the white man came to Nyasaland—now Malawi—the country teemed with wildlife. The next hundred years saw a fivefold increase in the human population and an immense depletion of the wild animals. Today, although protected only in the five national parks and three game sanctuaries, the wildlife is again increasing, and the main tasks are to develop the reserves and educate the young especially to value them.

The red-billed curassow, or mutum, Crax blumbachii formerly occurred from southern Bahia to Rio de Janeiro in south-east Brazil, although only a few specimens were ever obtained. Europeans settled this region early, and it was feared that hunting pressure and, later, habitat destruction had brought the species to the verge of extinction when in 1970 Sick discovered a population about 60 km north of Linhares, Espirito Santo, in and near what is now the Reserva de Sooretama. This forest reserve is now the only place where the bird is known. A few may survive in relict forest tracts in southern Bahia, although the last record, a specimen, was collected in 1944. The specimen from eastern Bolivia which Gyldenstolpe assigned to this species was certainly a variant of C. globulosa. On a recent trip to Brazil we found that almost all the forest in north-east Espirito Santo, where this curassow formerly occurred, had been cleared, much of it within the year. Dr Augusto Ruschi (pers. comm.) confirms that the rate of forest destruction, mainly for charcoal, has accelerated markedly in the past decade. The main sources for information on the species are Prince Maximilian of Wied and Sick.

Giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca exhibits are popular attractions for zoos and wildlife parks. However, it remains to be investigated whether such exhibits enhance visitor knowledge about pandas and broader conservation issues. We conducted questionnaire surveys at giant panda exhibits at three city zoos and five wildlife parks in China. Although visitors were generally interested in the giant panda, this was not reflected in their post-exhibit knowledge of giant panda biology. Socio-demographically, men were more knowledgeable of giant panda biology than women. Knowledge correlated positively with respondent level of education. Younger respondents (< 45 years) knew most about giant pandas and expressed an interest in learning more about them using social media. The most informed respondents had visited other giant panda exhibits previously. Respondents were generally satisfied with the giant panda exhibits (mean score 4.44/5). Wildlife parks delivered a better educational outcome than city zoos. We recommend approaches to improve the visitor experience further and to leverage public interest in broader conservation engagement and action in China.

The green turtle Chelonia mydas is one of two marine turtle species to nest in Turkey. Its three main nesting beaches are in eastern Turkey, with possibly the densest congregation of nesting turtles in the Mediterranean being found at Kazanli. However, beach erosion, hatchling predation, agricultural encroachment and chemical pollution mean that the future of the Kazanli nest site is uncertain. The Turkish Society for the Protection of Nature (Dogal Hayati Koruma Dernegi) is making valiant efforts to protect all the turtle nesting beaches in Turkey but lacks detailed information on the numbers of nesting turtles on many beaches. This paper describes a short study of nesting turtles at Kazanli during 1990 and makes recommendations for the conservation of the nesting beach.

Mount Oku, in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, is known for its rodent diversity. It is located in an area with a high human population density (up to 400/km2), resulting in intense pressure on natural resources. Threats to biodiversity include overgrazing by cattle and goats in grassland areas and montane forests, firewood harvesting, agriculture, bee keeping, debarking of Prunus trees for medicinal uses, and bushmeat hunting. We used data from interviews with 106 local hunters to provide insights into rodent trapping in Oku village. Trapping took place primarily in closed canopy forest. The majority of hunters (88.8%) set at least 100 traps per week, with a mean of 38 rodents trapped per hunter per week. The two most captured species were the Vulnerable Hartwig's praomys Praomys hartwigi and the Endangered Mount Oku rat Lamottemys okuensis, both of which have declining populations. Rodents were harvested mainly for household consumption and/or local trade, but 65.1% of interviewees also used P. hartwigi for traditional medicine. Our findings suggest that rodent trapping in Oku village requires conservation attention, and that further quantitative studies are needed to assess its sustainability.