The establishment of protected areas for wildlife conservation in Africa was motivated by a number of different reasons (including hunting, recreation and wildlife conservation). The current reserve network provides good coverage of the distributions of the 194 species of larger mammals (>3 kg) and 51 species of threatened larger mammals. However, it is less effective in covering the distribution of all 197 of Africa's threatened mammal species, which includes >140 smaller bodied species (<3 kg) often restricted to habitat patches. A fully comprehensive network of areas for the conservation of African mammals, especially those facing extinction, is not yet in place, and further reserves may be needed in the Horn of Africa (Somalia in particular), the Cameroon Highlands, parts of the eastern African coastal forests and Eastern Arc Mountains, and parts of the Albertine Rift Mountains. More and larger reserve areas are also required to adequately cover all the species of South Africa. Parts of these gaps are already covered by government forest reserves, and the importance of this reserve category for the conservation of African mammals, especially threatened species, needs to be better recognized. As many of the gaps in reserve coverage are in areas of high human population and good agricultural potential, conservation goals may be difficult to achieve unless we supplement traditional reserves with novel approaches to maintain natural habitats and wildlife outside reserves.

The number of free ranging African lions Panthera leo has never been comprehensively assessed. We present an inventory of available information, covering most protected areas and ranging in quality from educated guesses to individually known populations. This gives a conservative estimate of 16,500–30,000 free ranging lions in Africa. The inventory shows that populations are small and fragmented in West and Central Africa, whereas the species still occurs widely in East and Southern Africa. The results concur with the current IUCN Red List categorization of the lion as Vulnerable.

In 1997 a pack of African wild dogs Lycaon pictus was reintroduced to Matusadona National Park in north-western Zimbabwe. Here we use this case study to consider anthropogenic factors likely to affect the success of wild dog reintroductions in southern Africa. Potential wild dog–human conflict was investigated using a questionnaire, administered to communal farmers near the Park, that recorded the incidence of livestock predation, snaring, traditional uses and attitudes of local people towards wild dogs. Predation on livestock was negligible, with wild dogs being responsible for <2% of goat losses to wild predators. Twenty-four different traditional uses for wild dogs and their body parts were described by 54% of survey respondents. Less than 25% of survey respondents were aware of the reintroduction, and only 20% felt positive about it. Recommendations for future wild dog reintroductions include before-and-after public relations and education programmes in neighbouring communities, monitoring to determine actual causes and rates of post-release wild dog mortality and vaccination against canid diseases.

This paper describes results of a Sino-American field survey seeking evidence of South China tigers Panthera tigris amoyensis in the wild. In 2001 and 2002 field surveys were conducted in eight reserves in five provinces identified by government authorities as habitat most likely to contain tigers. The surveys evaluated and documented evidence for the presence of tigers, tiger prey and habitat disturbance. Approximately 290 km of mountain trails were evaluated. Infrared remote cameras set up in two reserves captured 400 trap days of data. Thirty formal and numerous informal interviews were conducted with villagers to document wildlife knowledge, livestock management practices, and local land and resource use. We found no evidence of wild South China tigers, few prey species, and no livestock depredation by tigers reported in the last 10 years. Forest areas designated as tiger reserves, averaging about 100 km2 in size, are too small to support even a few tigers because commercial tree farms and other habitat conversion is common, and people and their livestock dominate these fragments. While our survey may not have been exhaustive, and there may be a single tiger or a few isolated tigers still remaining at sites we missed, our results strongly indicate that no remaining viable populations of South China tigers occur within its historical range. We conclude that continued field efforts are needed to ascertain whether any wild tigers may yet persist, concurrent with the need to consider options for the eventual recovery and restoration of wild tiger populations from existing captive populations.

Between July 2000 and June 2001 we undertook a survey of François' langur Trachypithecus francoisi and its habitat in the Fusui Nature Reserve in south-west Guangxi, China, where 86 individual langurs were recorded in 1995. In our first survey period we located 45 individuals in 10 groups, but c. 12 months later, despite expending more effort, we were only able to locate three of the 10 groups, totalling 23 individuals. In all, in three separate surveys, we recorded densities that were 26–52% of the 1995 figures. Within the Reserve almost all of the valley bottoms and most flat areas in the hills have been cultivated and there is steady encroachment into the hills and forests. The majority of local families depend on the forest for firewood. It appears that habitat loss and illegal hunting are responsible for the decline of François' langur. We recommend that alternative income generating activities and energy sources should be explored to reduce human pressure on these langurs and their habitat. More funding should also be made available to the Reserve to enable staff to adequately tackle issues of hunting and habitat destruction.

Records of the Vulnerable Chinese mountain cat Felis bieti are known from the eastern border of the Tibetan Plateau, mostly from Qinghai province, but also from other areas further north, east and north-west. Disagreement regarding the reliability of some records has led to uncertainty about the species' distribution. In order to obtain information about its current distribution and status we conducted surveys in various Chinese provinces and evaluated former records and specimens. Forty-five specimens and living individuals were examined, and 189 records were gathered from local sources. Our data confirm that this cat is endemic to China, and occurs in montane forest edge, alpine shrubland and meadow habitats. At present it is confined to the provinces of eastern Qinghai and northern Sichuan. Its wild populations are facing a number of threats and environmental pressures such as poaching, use of chemical rodenticides, and environmental changes. We recommend moving this species to Category I of Chinese law, enforcement of its protection in reserves, and the establishment of new reserves, specifically for this species, in areas in which it is currently unprotected.

From 1998 to 2002 we monitored changes in the relative abundance of Asian houbara bustard Chlamydotis macqueenii across the greater part of its range in Kazakhstan. The areas most frequented by houbara bustard were the Kyzylkum region, with 35% of total sightings, and the Betpak-Dala/Muyunkum region with 25%. For all survey areas combined, mean relative abundance ranged from 0.004 to 0.017 individuals seen per km driven. Density estimates ranged from 0.025 to 0.086 houbara bustard per km2. Between 1999 and 2002 spring relative abundance and density decreased by 65 and 51% respectively. Likewise, autumn relative abundance decreased by 56% from 1998 to 2001 and density decreased by 35% between 1999 and 2001. Kyzylkum had the greatest declines in relative abundance during both spring (78%) and autumn (61%). It is highly probable that this observed decline in houbara bustard populations is linked to hunting and poaching pressure, both in Kazakhstan and on the wintering grounds of these Central Asian breeding populations.

Human-tiger conflict occurs in Indonesia but there is little recent information about the scope of the problem, and adequate policies are not in place to address the conflict. Published and unpublished reports of conflict between Sumatran tigers Panthera tigris sumatrae, people and their livestock were collected and analysed to characterize the extent, distribution and impact of human-tiger conflict on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Reportedly, between 1978 and 1997, tigers killed 146 people and injured 30, and killed at least 870 livestock. Conflict was less common in protected areas and more common in intermediate disturbance areas such as multiple-use forests where tigers and people coexist. In Indonesia there is a need to develop a definition of problem tigers, a database to track conflicts, and a process to respond immediately to conflicts when they occur. Without a better understanding of human-tiger conflict and a concerted effort to proactively address the problem, future landscape-level tiger conservation and management efforts may be jeopardized.

Determining habitat requirements for threatened primates is critical to implementing conservation strategies, and plans incorporating metapopulation structure require understanding the potential of available habitats to serve as corridors. We examined how three groups of golden-headed lion tamarins Leontopithecus chrysomelas in Southern Bahia, Brazil, used mature, swamp, secondary and shade cocoa (cabruca) forests. Unlike callitrichids that show affinities for degraded forest, Leontopithecus species are presumed to depend on primary or mature forests for sleeping sites in tree holes and epiphytic bromeliads for animal prey. In this study we quantified resource availability within each habitat, compared the proportion of time spent in each habitat to that based on availability, investigated preferences for sleeping site selection, and determined how golden-headed lion tamarins allocated time to foraging behaviour in different habitats. Each group preferred to range in certain habitats during the day, yet patterns were not consistent across groups. In contrast, all groups preferred to sleep in mature or cabruca forest. Golden-headed lion tamarins spent a greater proportion of time foraging and eating fruits, flowers and nectar in cabruca than in mature or secondary forests. Although the extent to which secondary and cabruca forests can completely sustain breeding groups is unresolved, we conclude that both habitats would make suitable corridors for the movement of tamarins between forest fragments, and that the large trees remaining in cabruca are important sources of food and sleeping sites. We suggest that management plans for golden-headed lion tamarins should focus on protecting areas that include access to tall forest, either as mature or cabruca, for the long-term conservation of the species.

Big-leaf mahogany Swietenia macrophylla King (Meliaceae) is the premier timber species of Latin America. A lack of law enforcement allows widespread illegal logging, and its unsustainable harvest depletes local stocks, necessitating a shift in sources of supply. To better control this exploitation, parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) recently elected to list mahogany on Appendix II. This listing requires exporting countries to verify that each shipment was legally acquired and its harvest was non-detrimental to the survival of mahogany. The CITES listing poses considerable challenges: 1) there is no precedent, as mahogany is the first commonly traded timber species listed on Appendix II, and 2) given current, unsustainable logging practices, CITES regulations will be difficult to implement. This paper synthesizes information on the conservation and management of mahogany that informed the listing decision, and provides recommendations for implementation, including timber tracking to ensure legality.

Concentrations of large numbers of endemic species have been singled out in prioritization exercises as significant areas for global biodiversity conservation. This paper describes bird and mammal endemicity in Indo-Pacific ecoregions. An ecoregion is a relatively large unit of land or water that contains a distinct assemblage of natural communities. We prioritize 133 ecoregions according to their levels of endemicity, and explain how variables such as biome type, whether the ecoregion is on an island or continental mass, montane or non-montane, correlate with the proportion of the total species assemblage that are endemic. Following an exploratory principal components analysis we classify all ecoregions according to the relationship between numbers of endemics and overall species richness. Endemicity is negatively correlated with species richness. We show that plotting the logit transformation of the endemicity of birds and mammals against log of species richness is a more effective and useful way of identifying important ecoregions than simply ordering ecoregions by the proportion of endemic species, or any other single measure. The plot, divided into 16 regions corresponding to the quartiles of the two variables, was used to identify ecoregions of high conservation value. These are the ecoregions with the highest endemicity and lowest species richness. Further analysis shows that island and montane ecoregions, regardless of their biome type, are by far the most important for endemic species.

Prior to the last two decades of conflict, Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor was considered an important area for conservation of the wildlife of high altitudes. We conducted an assessment of the status of large mammals in Wakhan after 22 years of conflict, and also made a preliminary assessment of wildlife trade in the markets of Kabul, Faizabad and Ishkashem. The survey confirmed the continued occurrence of at least eight species of large mammals in Wakhan, of which the snow leopard Uncia uncia and Marco Polo sheep Ovis ammon are globally threatened. We found evidence of human-wildlife conflict in Wakhan due to livestock depredation by snow leopard and wolf Canis lupus. Large mammals are hunted for meat, sport, fur, and in retaliation against livestock depredation. The fur trade in Kabul is a threat to the snow leopard, wolf, lynx Lynx lynx and common leopard Panthera pardus.

The eastern population of the northern bald ibis Geronticus eremita had been presumed extinct following the loss of the colony in Birecik, Turkey, in 1989. However, occasional sightings of birds in Yemen, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Israel during the 1980s and 1990s suggested that there was still a colony somewhere in the Middle East. Intensive field surveys in spring 2002, based on the knowledge of Bedouin nomads and local hunters, revealed that the species has never become completely extinct on the Syrian desertic steppe. Following systematic searches 15 old nesting sites were found, one of them still hosting an active breeding colony of seven individuals. The species appears to have been relatively common in the area until 20 years ago, when a combination of overexploitation of rangelands and increasing hunting pressure initiated a dramatic decline.

The spotted seal Phoca largha, which is found in the Okhotsk, Bering, Chukchi, Beaufort and Yellow seas, is Critically Endangered in the Yellow Sea of China and Korea because of habitat destruction and human harassment in the region. Shipboard surveys were conducted in the inshore waters of Bak-ryoung Island off western South Korea from March 2000 to October 2002 to investigate the distribution, abundance and seasonal haul-out patterns of spotted seals and thereby to lay a foundation for developing conservation measures. Seals were seen on every survey during the study period, hauled out on offshore rocks rather than on beaches. The highest concentration of spotted seals occurred on Mul-Beum Rock, probably because of the relatively lower exposure of this site to waves and spray. There was a seasonal pattern in the total number of seals hauled out, with the highest numbers seen from late spring to late summer. Spotted seals arrived as early as 15 March and left the area by late December. We suggest that spotted seals spend the spring, summer and autumn feeding along the coast of Bak-ryoung Island and return to their breeding grounds in Liaodong Bay, China, in October. Because the spotted seal populations of China and South Korea are small and seasonally dispersed, the establishment of an international protected areas network and research cooperation between China and South Korea is urgently required.