National Geographic: Test drilling for oil and gas begins in Namibia’s Okavango region

This month, ReconAfrica’s multimillion-dollar drilling rig pierced a riverbed in elephant habitat some 160 miles from the wildlife-rich Okavango Delta. BY JEFFREY BARBEE AND LAUREL NEME PUBLISHED JANUARY 28, 2021 – National Geographic WALVIS BAY, NAMIBIAThe search for oil and gas in the watershed of the world-famous, wildlife-rich Okavango Delta moved one step closer to reality when a…

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National Geographic: Oil Drilling, Possible Fracking Planned for Okavango Region—Elephants’ Last Stronghold

Hundreds of oil wells could come to cover a huge expanse in Namibia and Botswana, in what has been called possibly the “largest oil play of the decade. BY JEFFREY BARBEE AND LAUREL NEME PUBLISHED OCTOBER 28, 2020 – National Geographic JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Conservationists and community leaders in the spectacular Okavango wilderness region of Namibia and Botswana…

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Bats Magazine: Backyard “BATIVISTS”

BCI Intern Sophia Seufert inspires young bat lovers with video series   By Laurel Neme, Published in BATS Magazine “Anyone can be a backyard ‘bativist’,” says Sophia Seufert, BCI intern and Brandeis University junior. Seufert spent her summer creating a series of videos for BCI to help young people connect with bats and create “bativists”—that…

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Bats Magazine: Boosting Bats by Restoring Mexico’s Agaves

Boosting Bats by Restoring Mexico’s Agaves By Kristen Pope and Laurel Neme The endangered Mexican long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris nivalis) hovered beside the 20-foot-tall stalk of an agave and probed the deep flowers with its long snout. Lapping at the nectar, flakes of pollen blanketed its muzzle, ready to drop into the next flower. With light-colored…

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