No. 1327, December 11, 2025 |
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Tell Petco, PetSmart: Don’t Sell Exotic Animals |
Every year about 90 million amphibians, arachnids, birds, aquarium fish, mammals, and reptiles are imported and funneled into the U.S. pet trade, according to a new Center for Biological Diversity report.
About a third of them are taken directly from their wild habitats — and many are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
To buy these animals, you don’t even need to browse the black market. It can be as easy as walking into a nearby pet store.
Wildlife exploitation, including the trade in pets, is a major driver of the global extinction crisis. The United States is one of the world’s largest exotic pet markets and the largest consumer in the multibillion-dollar aquarium trade, snatching fish like guppies and bettas from their home waters.
Fighting the U.S. exotic pet trade is imperative for saving biodiversity, and big companies can have a big impact.
Tell Petco and PetSmart to adopt a simple policy that would make a world of difference for wildlife: Don’t sell wild-caught animals or species threatened with extinction. |
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Suit Aims to Take Trump Face off National Park Pass |
The Center filed suit on Wednesday to strike President Donald Trump’s face off the new America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass, which for $80 allows entry to every national park and special-fee areas on national forests, wildlife refuges, and other federal lands.
The Trump administration has replaced a beautiful picture of Glacier National Park, which won this year’s contest to be on the card, with a closeup of his face.
“The national parks are not a personal branding opportunity,” said Kierán Suckling, our executive director. “They’re the pride and joy of the American people. ‘America the Beautiful’ means wild rivers and majestic mountains — not a headshot of a bloated, fragile, attention-seeking ego.”
Support our fight with a gift to the Future for the Wild Fund (doubled if you donate now). |
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7 Species Threatened by Trump’s Extinction Plan |
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Mexican Wolf ‘Taylor’ Comes Back Home |
After two captures and relocations by the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, a Mexican gray wolf named Taylor has once again returned to his namesake mountain west of Albuquerque.
Taylor made his home on Mount Taylor before being trapped and moved to the Gila National Forest in May (because Mount Taylor lies north of the arbitrary Interstate 40 boundary established for these endangered wolves). In July he made his way back to the mountain. Then, a month ago, the department darted him from the air, removed him again, and released him at the same spot in the Gila where they’d attempted his first relocation. He immediately started running back home, arriving on Nov. 22.
“Wolves like Taylor can’t read the maps politicians draw,” said the Center’s Michael Robinson. “Government officials disregarded science when they drew this invisible boundary. Wildlife agencies need to let Taylor roam free.” |
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New Video: Border Wall Blasts |
Even as images streamed in from remote cameras of a previously unknown jaguar just spotted in southern Arizona, border-wall construction crews detonated large explosions last week on the edge of Coronado National Memorial — in jaguars’ federally protected critical habitat. The explosions blasted holes in a beautiful wild area that’s also habitat for threatened Mexican spotted owls and a delicate little endangered flower called the beardless chinchweed.
“This wall is being ripped through a living landscape. It’ll fracture jaguar migration routes, choke genetic diversity, and wipe out the natural connections that have shaped the Sky Islands for millennia,” said Russ McSpadden, the Center staffer who filmed the destruction. “In their effort to cage in the entire Southwest with massive walls, the Trump administration is setting the stage for long-term ecological collapse.” The administration waived dozens of environmental laws to accelerate the new wall and quarrying work.
Check out our video. |
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Shirleen’s Epic Ocean Journey |
Meet Shirleen, a 900-pound leatherback sea turtle — and a very experienced traveler.
Thanks to satellite tracking by the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, we now know more about where she and other sea turtles roam. Endangered leatherbacks are threatened by vessel strikes, loss of nesting-beach habitat, changing ocean conditions, and deadly fishing gear. But that didn’t stop Shirleen from swimming almost 58,000 miles in 907 days.
Watch our amazing animation tracking her recent travels on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. |
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Revelator: Conservation’s Hot Topics in 2026 |
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That’s Wild: A Great Horned Bee |
Looking for pollinators of a rare wildflower in Australia, a researcher recently spied an odd-looking female bee — with horns on her face. The bee belongs to a species that had never before been described. A few other Australian bees have horns, but none as prominent as these. The researcher named the new species Megachile lucifer. After all, she said, the name Lucifer has a double meaning: light-bringer, as well as devil. |
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Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States
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