The spectacular partulid tree snail fauna of the Society Islands has been almost completely extirpated in recent decades following the deliberate introduction of the alien carnivorous snail Euglandina rosea. The greatest loss has occurred on the island of Raiatea, French Polynesia, home to an estimated 34 species (including 33 single-island endemics), all of which have been deemed extirpated in the wild. However, we report here the February 2006 discovery of two surviving Raiatean partulid lineages on the upper slopes of Mount Tefatua, the highest peak on the island. They have been identified using morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses, the latter approach employing available museum and captive reference samples. One population, at 750 m elevation, consisted of Samoana attenuata. It has a multi-island distribution within the archipelago and surviving populations persist also on Tahiti and Moorea. A second population, present just below the summit at 950 m, consisted of a previously unstudied morphospecies and it has been formally described as Partula meyeri. It is unclear if a stable altitudinal refuge from E. rosea predation exists on Mount Tefatua but the unexpected discovery of these two surviving montane populations raises the possibility of preserving some fraction of Raiatea's endemic tree snail diversity in the wild.

The genus Atelopus (Anura: Bufonidae) has suffered one of the most drastic declines recorded in the Neotropics. Nine of 10 Venezuelan species are categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. None of these species had been observed since the mid 1980s until recently, when an adult female of Atelopus mucubajiensis and several adults of A. cruciger were rediscovered. To assess the current distribution and status of A. cruciger we explored 15 locations where it was formerly known. Two populations were detected. Historical and current distribution maps were constructed based on these field explorations and data from museum collections. Using PCR assays we detected infection with Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in one morbid and three live specimens. Our surveys suggest A. cruciger populations from lower altitudes on the northern slope of the Cordillera de La Costa are recovering, although the presence of B. dendrobatidis could jeopardize their long-term survival unless active conservation strategies are adopted.

One of the main threats to the survival of Asian turtles is the demand in China for turtles for use as food and medicine products. As the demand for turtle products escalated over the past 20 years entrepreneurs initiated commercial breeding facilities for profit. To gain a better understanding of the scale of the captive turtle trade we conducted a survey of the 1,499 large turtle farms known by branch offices of the Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office and the Provincial Forestry Bureaus. The results from the 684 respondent farms (46%) indicated that a total of >300 million turtles are sold per year and are worth c. USD 750 million. Although the bulk of these figures comprise the common Chinese softshell turtle Pelodiscus sinensis many other species are also farmed, including Critically Endangered species and even species native to North America. As 54% of known farms did not respond to our survey we suggest that the trade in captive turtles is probably a multi-billion dollar industry. This is likely considering that many Chinese turtle farms operate covertly and are thus impossible to survey. The large scale of turtle farming in China raises questions about the impact of so many threatened turtles being bred and sold for profit. Because the commercial breeding of these species is so well developed and large in scale, the deleterious impact is serious and difficult to control.

The elusive snow leopard Panthera unica is a rare and little studied species in China. Over 1 March–15 May 2006 we conducted a survey for the snow leopard in the Gouli Region, East Burhanbuda Mountain, Kunlun Mountains, Qinghai Province, China, in an area of c. 300 km2 at altitudes of 4,000–4,700 m. We surveyed 29 linear transects with a total length of c. 440 km, and located a total of 72 traces (pug marks, scrapes and urine marks) of snow leopard along four of the transects. We obtained eight photographs of snow leopard from four of six camera traps. We also recorded 1,369 blue sheep, 156 Tibetan gazelles, 47 argali, 37 red deer and one male white-lipped deer. We evaluated human attitudes towards snow leopard by interviewing the heads of 27 of the 30 Tibetan households living in the study area. These local people did not consider that snow leopard is the main predator of their livestock, and thus there is little retaliatory killing. Prospects for the conservation of snow leopard in this area therefore appear to be good. We analysed the potential threats to the species and propose the establishment of a protected area for managing snow leopard and the fragile alpine ecosystem of this region.

Effective conservation requires that arguments for identifying units for preservation and management are based on scientifically sound information. There is a strong conservation concern for the harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena of the Baltic Sea. This concern rests on the assumption that these porpoises represent a genetically distinct population reproductively separated from adjacent populations to the west. We argue that current scientific support for this claim is weak and to a large degree speculative. Current management of Baltic harbour porpoises as a genetically separate conservation unit is premature and we urge that high priority be given towards resolving this issue.

The breeding success of Cory's shearwaters Calonectris diomedea borealis at its important Atlantic colony on Selvagem Grande has been monitored periodically at two study plots since 1982. A successful eradication programme was implemented to remove two alien invasive mammals, rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus and house mice Mus musculus, from the island during 2002. The availability of long-term breeding data for Cory's shearwaters on Selvagem Grande provided a unique opportunity to study the effects of the removal of rabbits and mice on seabird breeding. Annual observation of approximately 400 Cory's nests showed that significantly more birds fledged from both study sites in the five breeding seasons after the eradication than in the 13 seasons prior to it for which reliable breeding data were available. The numbers of young birds present at the time of fledging were an average of 47 and 23% greater than pre-eradication numbers at the two study sites. The eradication of rabbits and mice was simultaneous and, therefore, it was impossible to attribute the increased breeding success of Cory's shearwaters to the removal of one or other species. However, both are known to have adverse impacts on the breeding of nesting seabirds. These observations provide important justification for the implementation of further programmes for the removal of alien invasive mammals from oceanic islands.