On January 27, 2025, the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) gazetted (that is, opened for formal public comment) a new report on the management of elephants in the country entitled the National Elephant Heritage Strategy. According to the preamble, this draft...
In a 1973 article in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Carl Djerassi, often referred to as the "father" of the birth control pill, and his colleagues argued that an effective method of animal birth control (the article was titled "Planned Parenthood for Pets") was necessary...
The tiger, a creature of almost mystical, magical, and majestic allure and the subject of Blake's famous 1794 poem Tyger, is battling for survival in its final refuges in Thailand and Myanmar in Southeast Asia. The populations of tigers in the neighboring countries of Cambodia,...
In 1995, Anthrozoos (vol 8(4):199-205) included an editorial by Gary Patronek (then completing his Ph.D. on companion animal demographics at Purdue Veterinary School) and A. Rowan that discussed estimates of the pet dog and cat populations in the United States. G. Patronek reviewed the various...
WellBeing News has carried several articles describing specific fisheries' rise and fall. Perhaps the most notorious overfishing example of a once-abundant fishery is cod's collapse and prolonged, slow recovery in the northwest Atlantic. But there are many other examples of the impact of over-fishing. Fisheries...
To the surprise of many animal advocates, discussions are taking place this year on whether there may be too few dogs to support demand in the US. The campaign that began in the 1970s to reduce dog over-supply has been very successful. In 1973, approximately...
Estimating the total number of wild animals in a particular location or country has always been challenging. Still, better data on wild animal numbers are needed to recognize changes, identify the causes, and what might be done to address such changes. The Living Planet Report...
There is minimal careful analysis of gross companion animal demographics and of the trends in animal shelter intake and outcome. The best current estimate of the USA dog and cat population is 135 million from a survey conducted every five years. Several other national surveys...
An earlier issue of WellBeing News explored the shifting historical baselines phenomenon. This phenomenon illustrates the tendency of ecologists to use recent wildlife population numbers as the baseline for their studies, even though the recent wildlife population may be much lower than the population 50...
As we continue to struggle with the current Covid-19 pandemic, it appears that there has been an uptick across the world in the demand for companion animals. In the early phases of the pandemic, there was some concern that our companion animals might be a...
