The human race is setting itself some formidable problems by both increasing at an unprecedented rate and raising its living standards at an even faster rate. Have we the resources to feed, house, clothe, let alone provide leisure and culture, for all? What, for example, are the untapped food resources of the sea, of rivers and lakes, of wildlife? Nobody knows. The task of the International Biological Programme is to find the answers. Dr. Worthington, deputy director of the Nature Conservancy, and scientific director designate of the IBP, explains the task, and outlines the methods.

The cheetah Acinonyx jubatus has suffered considerable range contractions in recent decades. Despite the importance of up-to-date information on distribution to guide conservation, such information is lacking for large areas within the species’ remaining potential range. In Tanzania, the largest tract of potential cheetah habitat without such data is the Selous–Nyerere ecosystem. Although the cheetah is considered possibly extant in this landscape, the last confirmed sighting was in the late 1990s. During 2020–2022, we carried out sign-based (spoor) and camera-trap surveys across Selous Game Reserve and Nyerere National Park. We did not record any evidence of cheetah presence, and opportunistic enquiries with tourism operators and protected area management staff did not provide any evidence of current or recent presence. Our findings suggest that current cheetah presence is unlikely, and that Selous–Nyerere should not be treated as potential contemporary cheetah range. We discuss the possibility that Selous–Nyerere may have never hosted a resident cheetah population, and was either occasionally occupied by dispersers from other populations or represented the edge of populations that spanned areas now treated as corridors.

We studied the sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus in the Colombian Caribbean by combining data from our offshore surveys of behaviour, encounter rate, group structure and density with data from the literature. We describe for the first time the potential distribution of sperm whales in the Colombian Caribbean, using sighting and acoustic data obtained during our surveys, published information, and opportunistic encounters during 1988–2020. We conducted surveys on seismic vessels over 703 days during 2011–2016, covering an area of 68,904 km2. We recorded 98 individuals in a total of 50 groups, a density of 1.42 individuals per 1,000 km2. To determine the potential distribution of the species, we built Maxent models with uncorrelated environmental variables at five depths (from the surface to c. 2,000 m). The model for 1,000 m depth had the best performance, with areas of high probability of occurrence of sperm whales in the south and north-east Colombian Caribbean over the shelf break to waters up to c. 3,000 m deep, at a median distance of 107 km from the coast, and near the Archipelago of San Andrés, Old Providence and Saint Catherine in the north-west. This area may be an important tropical habitat for sperm whales, in which they socialize, rest, breed and feed. Our study underlines the importance of monitoring marine mammals offshore and describes the potential distribution of sperm whales in the Colombian Caribbean, supporting conservation actions for this Vulnerable species, which is currently facing several threats in this region.

Assessments of extinction risk are required to inform conservation action, but the usefulness of assessments is undermined if they are not current. Ameerega planipaleae, a poison frog endemic to the cloud forests of central Peru, was last assessed in 2004. We therefore sought to provide updated data to inform the reassessment of this species. Based on our findings, we recommend that this frog remain categorized as Critically Endangered, but under modified criteria, and that conservation actions are taken to reduce the pressures of local threats, especially the overuse of agrochemicals.

In Colombia, in South America, the biggest drain on some wildlife species is the international pet trade. For every quetzal or cock-of-the-rock that reaches its destination alive, fifty die, and whole populations are being exterminated, says Dr. Lehmann, who is Director General of the Valle State Museum of Natural History. The skin trade, urged on by the need for foreign exchange, is another serious drain. National Parks are the only hope in Colombia as elsewhere, but the importing countries, such as the USA and these of western Europe, could do much to reduce the trade in both pets and skins.

Russian settlement of the Far East inevitably reduced numbers of Siberian tigers and leopards, whose magnificent skins were a major lure for the settlers. But in the 1880s tigers were numerous, and tracks often seen in the streets of Vladivostok; many were shot. Today there may be 200 or so, which is probably as many as at any time since 1914. Now fully protected, they appear to have adjusted to the timber mills and the secondary forest, and are often seen on roads and near gardens. Their main strongholds are two reserves, both likely to be enlarged. The leopard, however, is seriously endangered, and depends for survival on two reserves in the Ussuri region which are being combined to create one huge reserve 200 miles long.

So much of Borneo is still uninhabited by man—it must be the leaśt densely populated part of tropical Asia—that it is difficult to imagine its wild fauna being endangered. Much the larger part of the island is still jungle, visited only (if at all) by nomadic groups. But a few species, conspicuous and attractive to humanity for size, food, medicine or beauty, are to-day in danger in all the four territories (Indonesian Borneo, and the British western section comprising North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei).