Yellowstone’s Grizzly bears are facing multiple threats, writes Anna Taylor – from proposals to remove their protection under the US Endangered Species Act, and shortages of key foods caused by climate change. Grizzly bear trophy hunting in Yellowstone National Park may resume in 2014 if the proposal to remove the bears from the protection of the Endangered Species Act is approved later this year.

Anna Taylor takes a closer look at the worrying findings of a recently published study which, unusually, chose to assess potential climate change mitigation scenarios on the more widespread and common species found on our planet…

Reptiles have inhabited our planet for more than 250 million years, and are adapted to almost every part of it. Yet when it comes to conservation action, reptiles all over the world have been overlooked in favour of more charismatic animals. With only 35% of described reptile species evaluated for the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species, no one knew to what extent reptiles were being affected by our current extinction crisis.

Last month in Cambridge, volunteers from the community group Fin Free Cambridge delivered a petition with over three and a half thousand signatures to the Guildhall. The group, and all the signatories, are hoping to make Cambridge the first UK city to ban the use of shark fins. Currently four businesses in Cambridge use shark fins and the UK is ranked 19th in the world for shark fin exports. Shark finning is a cruel and wasteful activity, with around 73 million sharks being killed each year for their fins alone. The number of threatened shark species in the world has grown to more than 180 from a total of just 15 in 1996.