Rarest Kiwi Species Gets Breeding Boost
Fifty birds flew home last month. Now, 50 may not seem like much and flight might not sound all that unusual for birds, but we’re talking about the critically endangered rowi (Apteryx rowi), New Zealand’s scarcest kiwi species and one of the world’s rarest flightless birds.
29 Bullet Points Tell All About Climate Challenge
The results are in. Yesterday the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released it final report crystallizing 13 months of work by more than 800 scientists.
Halloween Horrors: The Ghost Bat (aka the False Vampire Bat)
Something ghostly and hungry flies the skies of northern Australia. Its massive white wings stand out against the darkness as it circles, searching for prey.
Fern Frozen in Time by Volcanic Flow Reveals Stunning Detail
It defies belief, but a 180 million year old fern fossil unearthed in Sweden is so exquisitely preserved that it is possible to see its cells dividing.
New Material Could Mimic Octopuses' Camouflage [Video]
It’s no doubt that, with a repertoire of everything from colorful coral to a poisonous sea snake, the octopus could win any costume contest handily.
African Lions Face Extinction by 2050, Could Gain Endangered Species Act Protection
The African lion (Panthera leo leo) faces the threat of extinction by the year 2050, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe warned today.
Conservation Concerns for South America's Remarkable Endemic Dogs
Last year the Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia volume titled Extinct Life appeared in print. I was asked to cover South American mammals, perhaps because they wanted me to write about borhyaenoids, toxodonts, litopterns, astrapotheres and so on (some of which have been covered on Tet Zoo in the past - I really need to get back [...]
Is Smell the Key To an Octopus's Heart?
We know that octopuses have awesome visual systems and super-sensitive suckers. We have even learned that they can hear. But little scientific attention has been paid to their sense of smell.
Whistleblower Who Exposed White House Tampering with Climate Science Dies
Rick Piltz passed away last Saturday. He spent decades working in the federal government and state government in Texas, and was a prominent whistleblower during the Bush administration.
The "Shanklin Croc" and the Dawn of the Tethysuchian Radiation
Hey, Darren, how's it going with that plan to discuss all the fossil crocodylomorph groups? Huh? Well, ha ha, it ain't going so well… goddam life getting in the way of my blogging.
Oceans Could Lose $1 Trillion in Value Due to Acidification
A very young field of research is trying to measure the costs of oceans growing more acidic
Island Nation Sets Up World’s First Crowdfunded Marine Protected Area
Palau raises over $50,000 to support the creation and enforcement of a Pacific Ocean no-fishing zone the size of France