The 3rd World Conference on Breeding Endangered Species in Captivity, covering both self-sustaining captive populations and re-introductions into the wild, was held in San Diego, California, from November 12 to 16,1979. It was co-sponsored by the Fauna Preservation Society, which initiated the conferences and had co-sponsored the earlier ones at Jersey Zoo in 1972 and London Zoo in 1976, and by the Zoological Society of San Diego, which made all the very efficient local arrangements.

In 1979 the Nature Conservancy Council revealed that the large blue butterfly Maculinea arion was probably extinct in Britain, despite much research and valiant efforts to save it. The author, a member of the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, who since 1972 has been engaged full time on the research and conservation work for the butterfly, tells the story as it is now known.

‘Gorillas destroy our crops and they are vicious animals’, the authors were told last December in Gabon, where, along with Professor Roger Short and Dr Richard Wrangham, they were investigating the status of gorillas and chimpanzees. Gorillas can be shot on sight, and both animals are killed for meat. Gabon people are predominantly rural, and because they are so dependent on the forests for food, it may be that the Government will preserve these, and with them the wildlife, despite impending large-scale development.

In 1977 the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland announced a six-year plan to reduce the Scottish grey seal population to the mid-1960s level, a reduction in numbers of up to a third; 900 breeding females and their pups and 4000 moulted pups in Orkney and North Rona were to be killed in the first year, 1978. But protests from the public and from conservation and animal welfare groups were such that the kill was called off.

Man's efforts to manage marine resources have so far proved conspicuously unsuccessful. The prime cause is human greed, which we rationalise as a scientific concept and call achieving ‘maximum sustainable yield’, in the arrogant belief that we know how to achieve it. But, says the author, we do not know; we do not even know how to manage ourselves. He believes that one path man should explore is the scientific study of communication between individuals of a species – he suggests dolphins or whales – as a pointer to the possibility of communication between animals and humans. Such studies might, he thinks, help humans to shed their present arrogance and save us from the consequences of our destructive behaviour.

Very few reserves exist to protect the arid-lands fauna of West Africa, particularly in the sub-desert zone, and the large mammals, such as addax, scimitar-horned oryx and dama gazelle are disappearing. New reserves are planned but they could be too late. Many permanent waterholes have been dug, and the nomads (and their livestock) tend to stay near them, depriving the wild animals of their traditional dry-season haunts. Firearms have made hunting easier, and the slow-running desert animals cannot compete with motor vehicles – many die of heat exhaustion, calves are abandoned in the chase and unborn young aborted. Rational utilisation of wildlife could be of immense benefit to the people, but protection is the first priority. To achieve this FPS and PTES have launched an appeal for the scimitarhorned oryx.

Pampas deer, which are on the verge of extinction in Argentina, have declined in Uruguay to an estimated 1000 animals. Mostly they occur in small scattered herds, which have survived because of their remoteness and the absence of sheep, and because a small number of landowners have protected them. Sheep, however, are likely to spread because rising oil prices have made synthetic fibres more expensive and wool more competitive. The authors recommend the measures that should be taken quickly, including action against poaching, a study to find out the deer's needs, and steps to set up both reserves and captive breeding units.

Are we too careless about the dangers of accidental introductions? Were the first Colorado beetles taken seriously? What about insect introductions in the waterweeds that come with tropical fish?

Every year the killing of harp and hooded seals off Newfoundland and in the St Lawrence Gulf raises a public outcry, especially over the clubbing of the whitecoat pups. In 1979 IUCN scientists suggested to the Canadian Government that the quotas were too high and could be imperilling the stocks. Little was known about the trade in seal products that resulted from the hunts, and in 1978 FPS commissioned Jon Barzdo to make a study of this aspect. This article is a summary of his report, a 30,000-word document with detailed figures, obtainable from the FPS office for £3, including p&p.

How to protect 950 bat species worldwide is the problem of the Chiroptera Specialist Group of the IUCN's Survival Service Commission (SSC), which was set up in 1976. The Group's Chairman, Dr R.E. Stebbings, has highlighted the sort of problems they face by three examples: the endemic fruit bat Pteropus rodricencis on Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean; the small insectivorous grey bat Myotis grisescens in the USA, and the common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus of Latin America.

Cuba is making a big effort to protect endangered vertebrate species. By Resolution No. 21–79, the Government has forbidden all hunting throughout the year in certain areas that are important for wildlife; outside these areas hunting of the commonest species is permitted from July to February. Time will show whether the law can be enforced.

One of the few conservation success stories in West Africa is Yankari Game Reserve in Nigeria, where, thanks to effective management, animal populations have increased to a level at which environmental factors (not human ones) have started to control numbers. Yankari offers the rare spectacle of an effective and efficiently managed reserve with an abundance of animals, which attracts increasing interest from Nigerians.

Few marine fishes are endangered. But exotic introductions can be a serious threat to native species, especially around isolated islands such as the Hawaii group, where 30 per cent of the world's reef and shore fishes are endemic. Overfishing, pollution, destruction such as dynamiting coral reefs, and collecting for the enormous and expanding trade in aquarium fishes are the other factors. Marine sanctuaries, says the author, who is Chairman of the SSC Marine Fishes Group, are vitally important as both refuges and breeding grounds.

Little is known about the wildlife of the People's Republic of the Congo – Congo Brazzaville. Because the land was once entirely forest almost the only large mammals are those of forest habitat. The author, who went on a two-week mission for FAO/UNDP in 1978, describes the few protected areas, which include one national park, and also the area proposed for a new national park where manatees are thought to be ‘not uncommon’.