Environment
10 Years of Extinction Countdown: A Lot of Good in the Face of Mass Losses
Ten years. Nearly 1,200 articles. I have no idea how many species. I have no idea how many tears.
Stories by John R. Platt
Environment
Vaquita Porpoise about to Go Extinct, Only 97 Remain
Millions of dollars and two decades of conservation efforts have failed to protect the Gulf of California's critically endangered vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus).
Environment
Nearly Extinct Mussel Gets One Last Chance at Survival
Freshwater mussels have a particularly unusual system of reproduction. Males release their sperm into the water with the hope that a nearby female will siphon them up to fertilize her eggs...
Environment
All 8 Pangolin Species Being Eaten into Extinction
A few days ago customs officials in Vietnam raided a cargo ship from Sierra Leone and seized an astonishing 1.4 tons of dried pangolin scales.
Evolution
Somali Ostrich and 360 Other Newly Discovered Birds Added to List of Threatened Species
Did you know there are two species of ostrich? Don’t worry if this is news to you—scientists didn’t know that for sure either until this year, when the Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes) of Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya was declared a separate species from the common ostrich (S...
Environment
Wild Births are Big Steps for Rare California Condors and Mexican Wolves
Two species that couldn’t be more different have had similarly good news this week. First we go to Utah’s Zion National Park, where a pair of California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) successfully hatched a chick in a nest more than 300 meters off the ground...
The Sciences
Baby Mountain Gorillas Celebrated by 40,000 People in Rwanda
Well I just found something to add to my bucket list. Earlier this month 40,000 people gathered in Rwanda for the 10th Kwita Izina, the annual ceremony that celebrates and names all of the known mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) born during the previous year in the Virunga National Park Transboundary Collaboration, which stretches across [...]..
The Sciences
Tiger Skins Are Like Fingerprints; Could That Help Stop Smugglers and Poachers?
Last month forest rangers in India arrested a 21-year-old engineering student and his friend who had been caught carrying a tiger skin that they intended to sell for nearly $25,000.
Environment
Why Is Namibia Killing Its Rare Desert Elephants?
On Saturday, June 21 one of the Republic of Namibia’s rare desert elephants was felled by a hunter’s rifle. Unlike most of the other elephants that die on any given day in Africa, this particular elephant was slain legally...
Environment
Endangered Manatees Face a New Threat: Lawsuits
What do manatees and bureaucracy have in common? They both have a tendency to move slowly—sometimes painfully slowly. In Florida manatees’ own lethargy puts the animals at risk of being killed or injured by the speedboats that zip through the state’s waterways...
Environment
Japan Could Lose 561 Plant Species by the Next Century
A massive new study of Japan’s native plants reveals an extinction crisis in the making. The study examined 1,618 threatened Japanese vascular plant species, most of which can be only be found in extremely limited ranges and many of which already face shrinking populations...
Environment
Tricolored Blackbird Population Crashes
Populations of California’s already endangered tricolored blackbirds (Agelaius tricolor) have fallen by 44 percent since 2011 and 64 percent since 2008, according to a survey coordinated by the University of California, Davis...
The Sciences
After Near-Extinction, Recovery Declared for Two Island Foxes
Most efforts to rescue threatened species from the risk of extinction involve decades of hard work. Even our country’s national symbol, the iconic bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), required more than 40 years before it had recovered enough to leave the protection of the Endangered Species Act...
Evolution
Pygmy Sloths Could Gain Much-Needed Endangered Species Protection
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) last week announced that the world’s rarest and smallest sloth could deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act (pdf).
Environment
Should We Stop Selling Nautilus Shells?
Nautilus shells are big business. The U.S. imports more than 100,000 of the iconic mollusk shells every year, according to a recent study by the U.S.
Evolution
Island Sanctuary Could Save Sex-Crazed Northern Quoll
Life is tough if you’re a northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus). These rare, cat-sized Australian marsupials don’t have very long life spans—especially males, which tend to die after their first mating experience when less than a year old...
Evolution
3 New Species of Weird, Endangered Fish Discovered in India, U.S and Colombia
“It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.”—Warren Ellis You can find some pretty weird things when you go poking around in holes in remote parts of the globe...
Evolution
Big-Eared Bat, Once Feared Extinct, Rediscovered after 120 Years
Sometimes research into one question reveals the answer to another. In July 2012 Catherine Hughes and Julie Broken-Brow, students at the University of Queensland in Australia, were in Papua New Guinea studying how the region’s tiny microbats responded to sustainable logging of their forest homes...
Environment
Genetic Tests Reveal 10 Previously Unknown African Terrapin Species
Imagine living underground for six years waiting for water. That might seem like a challenge, but it’s just a normal part of the life cycle for the African helmeted terrapin.
Evolution
Found: A Snake Species No One Believed Existed
Eleven hundred kilometers off the coast of Mexico, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, sits a tiny hunk of rock and sand known as Clarion Island.
