In 1985 the Worldlife Fund's Gold Medal, its highest honour, was awarded to George Archibald, Director and co-founder with Ron Sauey of the International Crane Foundation at Baraboo, Wisconsin, which has achieved so much for the world's endangered cranes. Their most remarkable success story—and an outstanding example of international conservation efforts across political boundaries—is surely that of the beautiful Siberian white crane Grus leucogeranus. It is a story, too, of astonishingly recent discovery, as they told this writer on a recent visit to Baraboo.

In 1985 many African elephant populations, which had been monitored for a decade or more, were either in rapid decline or down to a fraction of their former size. The author examines regional trends and information on key populations with reference to the critical factors affecting the survival of the African elephant, most significantly poaching and the illegal trade in ivory

Amazon river turtles have a long history of over-exploitation, firstly for oil production, and lately as a luxury food for the expanding human population. In many areas, the populations of the two main commercial species Podocnemis expansa and P. unifilis are now so low that extinction is in sight. In 1985 a WWF-US project aimed at investigating interactions between economic development and wildlife populations conducted a case-study of the exploitation of turtles on the River Tefé in western Brazilian Amazonia.

Over the years Oryx has published several papers on the wildlife of Mauritius and its neighbouring islands and islets, and the Oryx 100% Fund has contributed towards some of the conservation work being done there. The author, who first visited Mauritius with the British Ornithologists' Union Expedition in 1973 and has played an active role in conservation plans since, brings us up to date with conservation in the area and highlights the steps that are essential if the wildlife that remains is to be saved.

The author conducted a survey in 1985 that revealed dismal prospects for two endangered Philippine mammals. Habitat destruction and hunting pressure have caused local extinction of the spotted deer and the warty pig in the Visayan Islands, and the remaining populations are not expected to survive very much longer if current practices continue. The country's Bureau of Forest Development wants to establish a sanctuary for the deer and has started a captive breeding project, but the depressed state of the economy and political unrest make their work extremely difficult.

In 1981 the FFPS helped fund the Southampton University Expedition to the Ankarana Caves in northern Madagascar. This was the first attempt at any systematic biological work there. Within the longest cave, la Grotte d'Andrafiabé, a striking variety of fauna was found, including several arthropod species that were new to science. This preliminary report, by one of the expedition's members, describes some of the findings. A new 10-man team returned to Ankarana in August 1986 to extend the work.