The giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca, endemic to China, is perhaps the most powerful and well-known global icon of biodiversity conservation, having been the symbol of WWF since it was formed in 1961. It is categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Although there have been conservation successes for the giant panda in the last 2 decades, with 59 reserves established for the species, many conservation challenges remain and the species' status on the IUCN Red List has not changed since 1990, when it was first categorized as Endangered. Habitat fragmentation, synchronous bamboo flowering and die-off, and mismanagement of reserves are continuing challenges.

Bat populations in China appear to have decreased considerably in the last 30 years. Four reasons may have been responsible: (1) Cave exploitation for tourism has changed the atmosphere and temperature in caves, disturbing bats directly. (2) Extensive pesticide use has resulted in bioaccumulation in bats, reducing their survival. (3) Many old buildings were demolished during urbanization, reducing the availability of suitable roost sites. (4) People often include bats in their diet, and bats are served in restaurants. We make recommendations for improving bat conservation in China. Education programmes about bat conservation should be provided for adults and schoolchildren, and laws for protecting bats need to be enacted and enforced. The roosting sites of bats should be protected comprehensively, and pesticide use should be regulated.

The north-west Tibetan Plateau in China is currently undergoing development-related changes in land use that illustrate a significant mismatch between national/international conservation objectives and national livestock and other rangeland development goals for the region. Areas designated as nature reserves are being subjected to the same livestock development policies as elsewhere on the Plateau, including interventions that are detrimental to the supposedly protected wildlife populations. Unintended effects of some livestock development activities, such as the fencing of winter grazing areas and resultant enhancement of illegal hunting, have been little considered in overall development actions inside the nature reserves. We address these issues within the 300,000 km2 Chang Tang Nature Reserve, covering much of the north-west Plateau, and concentrate on Gertse County in the western part of the Reserve. There are still tens of thousands of Tibetan antelope Pantholops hodgsonii, Tibetan gazelle Procapra picticaudata, kiang Equus kiang and other species in the north-west Chang Tang, and long-distance antelope calving migrations are still relatively intact. However, increasing human and livestock populations, new rangeland management initiatives, effects of mining activity and continued hunting have the potential to counter conservation initiatives even in the most critical areas for wildlife in the region. Within the nature reserves livestock carrying capacity determinations that allow for wildlife needs and recognize the variable climate are essential. Livestock fencing amenable to wildlife movement, a ban on fencing in areas critical to wildlife, and other actions that mitigate negative effects on wildlife are needed in nature reserves where antelope and other species are still abundant.

Females in most populations of chiru or Tibetan antelope Pantholops hodgsonii migrate each year up to 350 km to summer calving grounds, and these migrations characterize the Tibet/Qinghai Plateau. We studied the migratory chiru population at the Ullughusu calving grounds south-west of the Arjinshan Nature Reserve in Xinjiang, China. The 750–1,000 km2 of suitable habitat at Ullughusu is at 4,500–5,000 m with sparse vegetation. We used direct methods (block counts, vehicle and walking transects and radial point sampling) and an indirect method (pellet counts) during six summers to assess population density. We also witnessed and stopped two major poaching events, in 1998 and 1999 (103 and 909 carcasses, respectively). Surveys suggested a drop in population density from 1999 to 2000. Poaching was not seen during summer monitoring after 1999, and surveys in 2001 and 2006 suggest that the population density is stable or recovering. We compare the Ullughusu calving grounds with those in the western Kunlun and discuss possible routes for migrating females.

The Sino-Mongolian beaver Castor fiber birulai lives in the Ulungur watershed in China and Mongolia, an area little known to the people outside this region. We recorded the number of families, adults, subadults and juveniles at each of three beaver lodges in the Bulgan Beaver Nature Reserve in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Along the whole Ulungur watershed in China in each of the 3 years we conducted surveys for the beaver and estimated the total population based on the area of food caches. We recorded 135, 167 and 145 Sino-Mongolian beaver colonies and estimated a population 472–599, 543–700 and 508–645 beavers in 2003, 2006 and 2007, respectively. From 1989 to 2007 the number of human households in the Bulgan Nature Reserve increased by 112% and the population by 71%. Consequently human activities in the river valley, including collection of wood for fuel, increased. We also surveyed the site of a relocation of C. f. birulai from the Bulgan River to the Ertix River in 1992 but found no sign of living beavers. The population of the Sino-Mongolian beaver in China is small and restricted geographically. Threats, such as habitat modification and deterioration and competition with people for wood, continue. We recommend that the Bulgan Beaver Nature Reserve be expanded by a transfrontier agreement with the appropriate authorities in Mongolia, and that a plan for sustainable wetland management and restoration is required.

The Critically Endangered black crested gibbon Nomascus concolor of China, Laos and Vietnam is threatened by deforestation and habitat destruction but there have been no studies of how it uses its forest habitat, probably because of the typically rugged topography and the species' shyness of humans. We studied the forest use of one habituated group between March 2005 and April 2006 on the border of Wuliangshan Nature Reserve, Wuliang Mountain, Yunnan, southern China. The group spent most of its time in the primary forest but preferred secondary forest in February when Leucosceptrum canum blossomed. They used dwarf forest occasionally but never used Eupatorium adenophorum grassland. Primary forest provided sleeping and singing trees, most food resources, safe cover and suitable locomotion supports. This forest is crucial for their survival but regenerates slowly. Even though secondary forest in the area has been regenerating for >50 years it provides only limited food resources for the gibbons. It may, however, comprise a good corridor for their dispersal. Dwarf forest provides a potential corridor for the group to disperse to a population on the other side of the mountain. Selective logging and agriculture encroachment should be forbidden in the primary forest on Wuliang Mountain. We recommend Alnus nepalensis, Myrica esculenta, L. canum and Betula alnoides as the pioneer species to recover the E. adenophorum grassland and for dispersal corridors.

The Critically Endangered Chinese crested tern Sterna bernsteini is a poorly known species. From June 2003 to August 2007 we therefore surveyed the Zhejiang and Shandong coasts of eastern China for breeding colonies and to document any threats. Our results indicated that (1) the colonies at Matzu and Jiushan are the only two in the species' potential breeding range, (2) the total population is no more than 50, (3) numbers in the two extant breeding colonies fluctuate annually, and (4) threats to the breeding populations include habitat degradation, egg poaching, disturbance, overfishing and typhoons. Egg poaching is the greatest threat to the Chinese crested tern population and other breeding seabird populations along the coast of China. We make recommendations for the conservation of this species.

China is the largest consumer of turtles in the world and international trade has been cited as the greatest threat to Asian turtles. Two main types of trade in live turtles occur in China: for food and traditional Chinese medicine, and for pets, including those for release by Buddhists. The food trade involves the largest quantities of turtles. In recent years, however, the international pet turtle trade has increased dramatically. Yuehe Pet Market in Guangzhou is the largest pet market in China. selling live chelonians and other animals. To understand the potential impacts of the pet trade on chelonians we conducted seven surveys in Yuehe Pet Market from August 2006 to March 2008. Over 39,000 individual chelonians of 61 species were recorded (19.1% of the global total of 319 species). Fifteen (24.6%) of these species are native to China and 46 (75.4%) are native to other countries. Two are designated as grade II key state-protected species in China. Thirty-eight (62.3%) are CITES listed species (four in CITES Appendix I, 26 in CITES II and eight in CITES III). Four are categorized on the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered, 16 as Endangered and 19 as Vulnerable. Our surveys indicate that increasing demand and the illegal international pet trade could be having a severe impact on chelonian conservation, and we make recommendations for law enforcement and conservation.

A questionnaire survey and literature review revealed the extent of hunting of bats for bushmeat in the Old World tropics. High levels of offtake were reported throughout Asia, the Pacific islands and some Western Indian Ocean islands, where fruit bats of the genus Pteropus are eaten extensively. Most hunting in Africa was reported in western states and the largest fruit bat Eidolon helvum was preferred. Insectivorous bats are also eaten, particularly Tadarida in Asia. Hunting is both for local consumption and commercial, sometimes involving cross-border transactions. The high levels of hunting reported and the low reproductive rate of bats indicate there are likely to be severe negative effects on bat populations, and declines of several species are documented. Although there has been only one reported attempt to manage offtake, this indicates that it is possible and apparently successful. Furthermore, voluntary controls on hunting have halted declines in bat numbers. There have been several initiatives to reduce hunting pressure and conserve threatened bat species, mainly on islands that, when sustained, have been successful. More education projects and community-based conservation initiatives should be encouraged together with further attempts at sustainable harvesting in situations where disease risk has been evaluated.

The Vulnerable Antillean manatee Trichechus manatus manatus (Mammalia, Sirenia) is threatened by hunting, entanglement in fishing nets and habitat degradation but most knowledge of the species comes from coastal and estuarine populations. We therefore studied an Antillean manatee population located >1,100 km from the Caribbean coast, in the Orinoco River of Colombia, during 2001–2005. To verify the occurrence of the manatee and to investigate its habitat use throughout the annual hydrological cycle, we carried out surveys for manatees and manatee feeding signs over c. 40 km of the Orinoco River, between El Burro and Bachaco. We made 870 sightings in 1,003 hours of observation, and found 69 feeding areas in 776 hours of surveys. From 82 interviews in a total of 28 locations in Venezuela and Colombia we compiled 90 reports of manatees injured or killed in the Orinoco during 1980–2004. Both habitat use by the manatee and anthropogenic impacts on the species vary with the annual hydrological cycle. Reproduction appears to occur during the low water period in restricted areas that retain deep water. Improved knowledge of the dynamics of manatee migration and regulation of human activities, especially those related to use of nets and boat traffic, are required for conservation of the Antillean manatee in this freshwater habitat.

The estimated number of olive ridley marine turtles Lepidochelys olivacea nesting annually in 2002–2007 in French Guiana was 1,716–3,257, the highest ever recorded in the country and similar to nesting numbers recorded in neighbouring Suriname c. 40 years ago, where the species has now severely declined. A shift of nesting females from Suriname to French Guiana beaches and improvement of nationwide marine turtle monitoring appear to be the most plausible explanations for the current high level of nesting recorded in French Guiana. The species' nesting status in French Guiana therefore appears less critical than previously documented but ongoing threats suggest the need to reinforce regional conservation efforts in the West Atlantic.

The bush dog Speothos venaticus remains one of the lesser-known Neotropical canids. To understand better the species' natural history and conservation requirements an assessment was made of its distribution and habitat use, and relevant conservation issues, in northern Brazil, using museum collections, field observations and published literature. The Parnaíba River and the Cerrado biome comprised the eastern limit of an apparently patchy distribution in northern Brazil. In addition to making use of lowland and pre-montane rainforests and savannahs, bush dogs were found in highly disturbed areas. The latter finding is unexpected and contrary to previous assumptions. Habitat loss, prey depletion and disease transmission from domestic animals appear to pose the main threats to the bush dog's long-term conservation. Although there are considerable tracts of protected areas in the region, their efficacy for bush dog conservation remains questionable.

Muriquis are endemic primates of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, with two recognized species: Brachyteles hypoxanthus and Brachyteles arachnoides. Although the state of Rio de Janeiro is the type locality for B. arachnoides the muriqui population of this region was, until recently, poorly known. We report our surveys for muriquis in seven localities in the state. Our objectives were to estimate the number of muriquis remaining and to identify local threats. We recorded muriquis in Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos, Parque Nacional do Itatiaia and Guapiaçu Private Reserve. Based on our sightings and information from local people we estimate that the remaining muriquis in Rio de Janeiro total c. 160, with 110 B. arachnoides and 50 B. hypoxanthus. The most severe threat to muriquis in these areas is hunting, followed by small population sizes, habitat fragmentation, forest disturbance and ecotourism. Central Rio de Janeiro state still harbours large tracts of intact forests potentially available to muriquis. Thus, if conservation actions could be targeted to mitigate the main threat of hunting there is potential for the recovery of muriquis in the state of Rio de Janeiro, at least in the short-term.

Illegal bushmeat hunting has become a serious problem for wildlife managers in many African countries. We investigated the spatial and temporal pattern in meat and fish consumption by people surrounding the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, to understand better the links between hunting and consumption. We studied 150 households in five villages during March–December 2006 along a gradient from the Park boundary to 80 km away. In addition, two parallel 10 km transects were monitored monthly in areas within the National Park immediately adjoining three village areas to investigate the relationship between household meat consumption and the influx of migratory herbivores. We found that the number of meat meals was higher in the villages closest to the Park boundary and the weekly number of meat meals per household in all villages within 30 km of the Park boundary increased with the seasonal influx of migratory herbivores. Meat consumption was unrelated to household income except in the most distant village where there was a positive correlation. The number of fish meals in the villages closest to the Park decreased with the influx of migratory herbivores. We recommend a coordinated management of fish harvesting from Lake Victoria and wildlife conservation around the Serengeti National Park to implement sustainable management of these two ecologically different sources of animal protein.

The southern patas monkey Erythrocebus patas baumstarki is a subspecies thought to be endemic to central north Tanzania but its distribution and abundance is not well documented. We therefore review what is known about the historical and current distribution of the southern patas. It appears that, at present, the southern patas occurs in three populations, in the Serengeti, Mt Kilimanjaro and Arusha. Since 1995 the gaps among these three populations have become larger, thereby increasing their isolation. The available data suggest that, at present, southern patas occur over c. 20,700 km2 (c. 2.3% of Tanzania's land surface area). In 1995 this was c. 30,800 km2 (c. 3.5% of the land surface area). As such, the geographical range of the southern patas has declined by c. 33% since 1995. There are unlikely to be > 900 southern patas today, and there could be < 150. Our recommendations are to (1) maintain an internet accessed database (PatasBase) into which sightings of the southern patas can be entered, (2) interview members of local communities to assess past and current distribution and abundance of the southern patas, (3) conduct field studies to obtain more detailed information on the distribution, abundance, and conservation status of patas in Tanzania, (4) undertake ecological and behavioural research on selected groups of southern patas, and (5) prepare and implement a conservation action plan for the southern patas.

Western Madagascar's dry forests have suffered greater levels of deforestation than the island's humid eastern forests, and many of the largest remaining contiguous tracts of dry forest are conserved in Kirindy Mite National Park. To assist Kirindy Mite's management plan, we assessed land cover change in and around the Park, remotely sensing forest cover within the Park and an arbitrary 5-km buffer from Landsat images taken in 1990, 2000 and 2006. We then quantified forest cover and change and compared the values between the Park and buffer, interpreting the results through expert knowledge of the area. Kirindy Mite had lower rates of deforestation, higher rates of reforestation, and less net change than the unprotected zone in both 1990–2000 and 2000–2006. Park deforestation rates were approximately one third to one fourth those of the buffer, and Park reforestation rates were approximately double those of the buffer. Net change in the Park fluctuated between the two periods, with deforestation during 2000–2006 slightly exceeding reforestation during 1990–2000. All land cover changes accelerated over the study period, and disturbances in the Park were most frequent near its boundary. To maintain the forest as differences in forest cover across the Park boundary increase, we suggest including or intensifying measures to: (1) expand the Park boundary, simplifying its shape, (2) cooperate with the local people in managing a buffer zone, and (3) increase monitoring to minimize anthropogenic disturbances crossing the Park boundary.