Data from the Field Signals More Species Facing Extinction; Congressional Action Could Ensure Animals Are Not Lost Forever WASHINGTON, July 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Fading Call of the Wild, a report released today by the world's leading wildlife conservation organizations, details the increasing threats and plunging populations of big cats and rare canids living in the wild.

After studying the interactions of human and animal populations in Africa, Kathleen Alexander, associate professor of wildlife science in Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources, found powerful evidence of how human behavior can influence the emergence of infectious disease in humans and animals.

Packs of hunting dogs, troops of baboons, herds of antelope: when people observe social animals, they are often struck by how intelligent they seem, and recent studies suggest that sociality has played a key role in the evolution of larger brain size among several orders of mammals.

By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A new study of Africa's most endangered carnivores has called for urgent action to save beasts such as the lion, cheetah and Ethiopian wolf from major threats to survival such as hunting and conflict with humans.