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Cover: Recreational fishers can be instrumental in successful fisheries conservation projects, thereby reducing fisheries declines. In Mongolia's Eg‐Ur watershed, recreational anglers, local citizens, and scientists have teamed up to protect the world's largest salmonid, Hucho taimen. Photo by Sudeep Chandra. See pages 1125–1134.     

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Cover: A poster of the Ivory‐billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) decorates the wall of a restaurant in Brinkley, Arkansas (U.S.A.). The town is located near where the bird was reportedly sighted in 2004, 60 years after its presumed extinction. Th ree papers in this issue present new methods to estimate whether species are extinct. On pages 47‐56, Gotelli et al. introduce a statistical method for estimating the probability of species persistence from the temporal sequence of collection dates of museum specimens. Application of the method to a case study of the Ivory‐billed Woodpecker suggests there is virtually no chance the species is currently extant within its historical range in the southeastern United States. On pages 180‐184, Solow et al. describe a Bayesian method that formally accounts for species records of uncertain validity. They used a recently published record of sightings of the Ivory‐billed Woodpecker to illustrate their method. Their results were consistent with the conclusion that the species is extinct, but did not provide a clear estimate of the time of extinction. On pages 57‐67, Fisher and Blomberg outline how to estimate the probability that species with few records or recent last‐sighting dates are extinct. Cover image © 2012 Joel Sartore. Photographer: During more than 20 years with the National Geographic Society, Joel Sartore ( http://www.joelsartore.com ) has covered topics from the Amazon rainforest to beer‐drinking, mountain‐racing. firefighters in the United Kingdom. His work focuses on endangered species, natural history, and land use. Joel's books include Photographing Your Family, Face to Face with Grizzlies, Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky, RARE: Portraits of America's Endangered Species, and, most recently, Let's Be Reasonable. In addition to his work for National Geographic, Joel has completed assignments for Audubon Magazine, Time, Life, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated and has contributed to numerous book projects. Joel and his work have been the subject of several national broadcasts in the United States, including National Geographic's Explorer, NBC Nightly News, NPR's Weekend Edition, and an hour‐long PBS documentary. He is a regular contributor to the CBS Sunday Morning Show.     

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Cover: Hunting of endangered species, especially large primates, by Matsigenka indigenous people living in Manu National Park, Peru, has prompted debate over whether indigenous populations living in tropical parks have the potential to be conservation partners or should be treated as threats to biodiversity conservation. Participatory monitoring of hunting in the park showed that even after decades of subsistence hunting and localized depletion, large primates and other vulnerable species continue to be hunted at high rates, indicating source-sink dynamics and suggesting that there is time to devise a co-management plan. See pages 1174–1185. Photos by Glenn Shepard Jr. (top) and Julia Ohl (bottom).     

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Cover : A local boy spearfishing in Wakatobi Marine National Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia, 2004. Octopus, grouper, fusilier, and scorpionfish commonly are fished in the area. Customary management systems that limit fishing can increase the biomass of fishes targeted by local fishers. Feary et al. (pp. 341‐349) found that customary closures affect the distance at which a fish begins to flee an approaching threat. This flight distance, in turn, can influence local fishing success. However, the accuracy of conventional techniques used by scientists for censusing reef fishes do not appear to be affected by changes in flight behavior associated with fishing.     

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Cover: Climate-change models project warmer air temperatures worldwide (upper left) and decreased summertime precipitation in many regions (upper right), which could result in warmer streams and lower water levels. Such conditions may facilitate the expansion of invasive species, such as this signal crayfish ( Pacifastacus leniusculis ) (photo by Jeremy Monroe, Freshwaters Illustrated). See Special Section, pages 518–592.     

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Cover : Our Lord's candle (Yucca whipplei) occurs in southern California (U.S.A.) and the southwestern Mojave Desert. Several subspecies are restricted to particular geographic locations or floristic provinces. On pages 672‐679, Ferreira and Boldrini review the history of the concept of endemism as it applies to plants. They emphasize that lack of standardization of the geographic extent of endemism complicates classification of species as endemic. On pages 708‐715, Geyer et al. present a method of classifying stresses from climate change that affect different levels of biological organization. Probabilities of persistence of endemic taxa are expected to be highly affected by climate change. Cover image © 2011 Tim Laman. Photographer : Tim Laman ( http://www.TimLaman.com ) is a field biologist and wildlife photojournalist with a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Since 1987, the focus of his scientific research and photography has been the rainforests of Borneo and the Asia‐Pacific region. He is a regular contributor to National Geographic and has published 18 articles in that magazine on topics ranging from endangered species to regions of high species richness under intense pressure from human activities. Tim has also published more than a dozen scientific articles related to rainforest ecology and ornithology. He has a reputation for successfully capturing elusive and critically endangered species in his photographs.     

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Cover: Tanzania contains one of Africa's "hottest" biodiversity hotspots and some of its oldest, largest, and best-protected national parks. It also has a long tradition of wildlife research."The Value of Long-Term Research: Conservation Science and Practice in Tanzania," a special section, explores the contribution of conservation science to conservation practice. Photos by Felix Borner, Sarah Durant, and Karyl Whitman. See pages 576-667.     

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Cover: During winter in the interior of Yellowstone National Park most elk migrate from deep snow while many bison do not, existing near thermal areas and on wind-blown ridges. Wolves still attempt to kill these bison and often spend hours making a kill. Wolf-bison systems used to dominate in North America prior to European settlement but now only Yellowstone and Wood Buffalo National Parks have intact wolf-bison systems. See pp. 1105-1116. Photo by Doug Smith, National Park Service.     

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Cover: Tropical pastures present multiple barriers to tree regeneration, but canopies of relict trees can serve as repositories of viable seeds deposited when the forest was intact. When mats of arboreal soil fall to the pasture floor, their seedbank can contribute to forest regeneration, their seeds serving as time capsules from the primary forest. The lush epiphytic ferns ( Polypodium spp. ) and accompanying arboreal soil on this mature live oak are viewed from above in a subtropical landscape of Florida. Photo by John T. Longino. See pages 1117–1126.     

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Cover: Three species of introduced rats (middle, left to right), Rattus exulans, R. rattus, and R. norvegicus , surrounded by images of their effects on nesting seabirds. Rats prey on seabirds of all sizes and life stages, from an adult of one of the largest seabirds (Laysan Albatross, top left) to the eggs, chicks, and adults of one of the smallest seabirds (Least Auklet, top middle, bottom left, and bottom right). Photos of rats by (left to right) Dick Veitch, Rex Williams, Elisabeth Bell. Other photos (clockwise from top left) by Mark Rauzon, Island Conservation, Elizabeth Bell, Ian Jones, Island Conservation, Ian Jones. See pages 16-26.     

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Cover: A Tibetan sacred landscape (Mt. Kawagebo), with Tibetan prayer flags in the foreground. Public protected areas in China can conflict with traditional land uses and disenfranchise local people, who have long-term experience in land management. Development of cooperative relationships between the state and local communities is needed for community-driven conservation strategies. Photo by Xu Jianchu. See pages 318–328.     

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Cover: Lappet‐faced (Torgos tracheliotus), Rüppell's (Gyps rueppellii), and White‐backed (Gyps africanus) Vultures feeding on the carcass of a Grant's gazelle (Gazella granti) recently killed by a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Laikipia, Kenya (October 2010). Vultures (Accipitridae and Cathartidae) are the only known obligate scavengers. On pages 453‐460, Ogada et al. present evidence that effects of decreases in abundances of vultures may include longer persistence of carcasses and increasing abundance of and contact among facultative scavengers at these carcasses. Such changes could increase rates of transmission of infectious diseases among mammalian carnivores, with carcasses serving as hubs of infection. Cover image © 2012 Tui De Roy. Photographer: Tui De Roy ( http://www.tuideroy.com ) is a founding fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers. Her work has been published in over 30 countries. She has authored 14 large‐format natural history books on the Galápagos Islands, Andes, Antarctica, New Zealand, and the world's albatrosses and is producing a volume on penguins. Tui founded Th e Roving Tortoise Nature Photography ( http://www.rovingtortoise.co.nz ) in partnership with Mark Jones. She has spent most of her life in the Galápagos Islands, is a former member of the board of directors of the Charles Darwin Foundation, and works in close association with Galápagos National Park to document the islands' landscapes and their rare species. Tui currently lives in New Zealand, where she is patron of the New Zealand chapter of Friends of Galapagos.     

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Cover : Decisions about production of petroleum are based on economic, social, ecological, and political criteria and frequently are highly contentious. In this issue, Czúcz et al. (pp. 948‐956) discuss the anticipated peak and subsequent decline in production of petroleum, a phenomenon sometimes called peak oil. Few assessments of scenarios of environmental change incorporate limited supplies of resources. Czúcz et al. emphasize that using such scenarios to inform decision making may minimize undesirable effects of petroleum production on ecological systems and human communities.