Stories by John R. Platt

30 Percent of Sharks, Rays and Related Species at Risk of Extinction

The first worldwide analysis of the extinction threat of all sharks and related species has just been published, and the news is sobering.

Sunday Species Snapshot: Gulf Coast Jaguarundi

These endangered wild cats, with their distinctively short ears and long tails, aren’t much bigger than your average housecat. Although they have been protected under the U.S.

From Saved to Stolen: Thief Absconds with Extinct-in-the-Wild Water Lily

This is why we can’t have nice species: Last week one of the world’s rarest plants was stolen from public display in London at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Typhoid Monkey: Can Social Networks Predict the Apes Most Likely to Transmit Disease?

A few months ago I had a conversation with someone who had just canceled a long-planned trip to see mountain gorillas in Uganda. It wasn’t an easy decision, but she had just gotten over a bad case of the flu...

Shocking Study Finds Lions are Nearly Extinct in West Africa

Physically and emotionally demanding. That’s how Philipp Henschel, Lion Program Survey Coordinator for the big-cat conservation organization Panthera, describes the six years he and other researchers spent combing the wilds of 17 nations looking for the elusive and rarely studied West African lion...

New Population of Critically Endangered Rabbits Found in (of All Places) a Nature Reserve

With a wild population estimated at fewer than 400 individuals, South Africa’s riverine rabbit (Bunolagus monticularis) is just a hare’s breath away from extinction.

Sunday Species Snapshot: Forest Owlet

Scientific fraud almost led to this tiny owl’s extinction. Species name: Forest owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti). Known locally as dongar dudaa.

Sunday Species Snapshot: Visayan Warty Pig

This delightfully ugly, hairy, toothy pig has disappeared from most of its original range. But a few zoos are helping to save it from extinction.

Frog from Dwindling Haitian Forest Thriving in U.S. Zoo

Fish Found: The Greatest Conservation Success Story of 2013?

Seven months ago things looked pretty bleak for the Mangarahara cichlid (Ptychochromis insolitus). The only habitat for this rare Madagascar fish species had been destroyed and the cichlid was down to its last three known individuals, all of which were males...

Sunday Species Snapshot: Alaotran Gentle Lemur

A primate that lives only in wetlands? That alone makes the Alaotran gentle lemur unique. But this tiny lemur lives in incredibly limited constrained habitat, which continues to shrink around it...

Parasites that Cause Chagas Disease in Humans May Also Be Killing Tiny Australian Marsupials

Why are the woylies all dying? Since 2001 the populations of these tiny Australian marsupials have mysteriously crashed by as much as 90 percent.

Good News for One of the World’s Rarest Monkeys

You know that a species is in rough shape when a population increase of just 20 animals is cause for celebration. But that’s the case in northern Vietnam this month, where one of the few remaining groups of critically endangered Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus avunculus) has grown from just 90 individuals in 2006 to between [...]..

Sunday Species Snapshot: Cuban Crocodile

These small, aggressive crocodiles once dominated their habitats. That is no longer the case. Species name: Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) Where found: The Cuban crocodile once existed on quite a few Caribbean islands...

Lawsuit to Remove Plant from Endangered Species List Completely Backfires

Oh what a difference a few years makes. Just four years ago, the rare California shrub known as the Indian Knob mountain balm (Eriodictyon altissimum) was poised to drop off the endangered species list after the threats to its existence had mostly been abated...

Tourists are Giving Endangered Iguanas Diarrhea and High Cholesterol

Hop on over to the photo-sharing site Flickr and you’ll find dozens of photos and videos of people eagerly feeding grapes to hungry iguanas on the beaches of the Bahamas.

Sunday Species Snapshot: Fijian Monkey-Faced Bat

This rare bat is only known from a handful of collected animals on a single mountain on a single Polynesian island. Species name: Fijian monkey-faced bat (Mirimiri acrodonta), the only member of its genus and the only mammal endemic to the Republic of Fiji...

Can You Guess Which Country Has the Most Endangered Species?

We’re number two! The United States is home to 1,278 species at risk of extinction the second-highest count worldwide according to the latest update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species...

Tiny Ohio Catfish Species, Last Seen in 1957, Declared Extinct

Here’s the thing about extinctions: They are very rarely witnessed. The last members of a species in the wild tend to go quietly into the night with no one to witness their deaths...

Sunday Species Snapshot: Daggernose Shark

These small sharks pose no threats to humans. The opposite, however, cannot be said. Species name: Daggernose shark (Isogomphodon oxyrhynchus).