Stories by John R. Platt

A critically endangered tree is suffering from a genetic bottleneck, but it hasn’t given up the fight

One of the world’s largest freshwater fish is in need of sanctuary, not to mention protection

The southern damselfy is disappearing in northern Africa as freshwater resources disappear. Is this a harbinger of things to come?

Two important sets of numbers about large mammals have emerged in the past few days. One tells a story of conservation success whereas the other tale is far from that.

Are pet collectors about to drive another species into extinction? This time around it's the prehistoric-looking Chinese crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus).

It's almost barbeque season, which means that for many of us it's just about time to break out the mesquite. But mesquite isn't all that popular when it isn't providing a nice, smoky flavor to our burgers and chicken.

Is there any hope of saving the Bornean rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni) from extinction? Sadly, the chances of that happening seem to grow slimmer and slimmer.

Have decades of protection allowed the endangered humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) to recover? That's the question asked this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

It's a sad fact that as members of a species become rarer they tend to suffer from inbreeding. This lack of genetic diversity can lead to birth defects and other problems, making a species even more endangered as time progresses.

The evolutionarily unique frogs of Cameroon's Lake Oku have no tongues, claw-tipped toes and 12 full sets of chromosomes. What the Lake Oku clawed frogs (Xenopus longipes) don't have, however, is a lot of habitat in which to live.

A funny thing happened on the way to the endangered species list. Five years ago the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) petitioned to protect an Appalachian crayfish species under the U.S.

Higashijima Island doesn't look like much from the sky. This tiny, uninhabited scrap of land 1,000 kilometers south of the coast of Japan is only a few hectares in size.

Ten years ago the forests of Ivory Coast were full of the hoots and howls of more than a dozen primate species. No more. Today the west African nation is much quieter.

How do you transport two young orangutans to a zoo thousands of kilometers away from their native lands? Here's the simple answer: FedEx. Here's the less simple answer: It's a lot of work.

The beautiful bird known as the swift parrot may be on the fast track to extinction. Species name: Swift parrot (Lathamus discolor) Description: A small bird, just 25 centimeters long, with bright features and a particularly showy attitude.

The delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) may be all but extinct in the wild, but it turns out that hope is not quite lost for this controversial California fish.

A hungry polar bear (Ursus maritimus) will eat just about anything. Oh sure, they prefer to dine on nice fatty seals (I mean, what Arctic creature wouldn't?), but when push comes to shove they'll eat caribou, walruses, nuts, birds, and even stinky, rotten whale carcasses.

Are we about to witness the extinction of the controversial delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus)? The most recent survey for the tiny fish, over which decades of battles over water rights have been fought, counted just four females and two males.

Bonobo poop matters. Well, maybe not the poop itself, but what's in it. You see, bonobos eat a lot of fruit, and fruit contains seeds. Those seeds travel through a bonobo's digestive system while the bonobo itself travels through the landscape.

It may have hidden in the ocean for millions of years, but life today poses numerous challenges for the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), the "living fossil" fish that was famously rediscovered off the coast of South Africa in 1938.

Here's the crazy thing about living in Hawaii: Even though the islands are home to more than 18,000 unique species that live nowhere else on Earth, the people of Hawaii rarely see those native plants and animals.

The world's rarest big cats have become ever-so-slightly less rare over the past decade. According to a census released this week, there are now at least 57 Amur leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis) in Russia.

Today is World Pangolin Day, an occasion to recognize the rapidly impending extinction of the eight species of scaly anteaters from Africa and Asia.

As if rampant deforestation and poaching weren't bad enough, climate change will have a devastating effect on the majority of Madagascar's lemur species, most of them already imperiled, according to a paper published this week in Ecology and Evolution.