Three large wildfires in Idaho. Image courtesy of NASA. Click to enlarge. NASA is now able to capture satellite images of wildfires—at night. Using the The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership…
Spiny lobster. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Three men who illegally harvested lobster from South African waters and smuggled them to the U.S. for 14 years have been ordered to…
Latin American countries lose 4% of dry forests in 9 years Click image to enlarge Countries across Latin America lost 78,000 square kilometers of subtropical and tropical dry broadleaf forests…
Bagan temple, Myanmar. As a 'road junky', I know what you're thinking: 'Burma is reforming so quickly, let's rush off to Burma before tourists snatch up all its unspoiled beauty!'…
Annual deforestation in Brazil based on Brazilian government data. Independent analysis has confirmed a drop in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon for the year ended July 31, 2012. The assessment,…
Approximate site of preliminarily approved drilling by Shell in the Chukchi Sea. Pink outline is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Image made with Google Earth. The clock is running…
View from Varandha Pass in the Western Ghats. A massive expert panel report on the conservation of the Western Ghats has caused a political stir in India. The report, headed…
Named Afangui this gorilla toddler now resides in a gorilla sanctuary in Cameroon. Photo courtesy of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). A two-year-old western lowland gorilla female was recently…
Africa's Wildest Stories is a new initiative in Kenya to capture personal stories about the relationship of people to nature. Elephant Keeper Mishak Nzimbi (above) has been working at the…
July 2012 temperatures as compared to 1981-2010 baseline. Graph courtesy of NOAA. Click to enlarge. Last month was the fourth warmest July in the record books going back to 1880…
Change in vegetation cover by biome across Latin America, 2001-2010. Click image to enlarge. Latin America lost nearly 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 square miles) of forest — an area larger…
Dry forest and canyons along the Cauca River. The forests in these photos will soon be submerged by the Pescadero-Ituango dam. Photo by: Carlos Esteban Lara. In a little-known dry…
Two new owl species have been described in the Philippines, reports Inquirer News. The species were discovered after years of research by ornithologists who analyzed the calls of what was…
Mining has often been associated with conflict in Colombia, which is one of the world's most diverse countries in terms of wildlife, plants, and cultures. Photo by Rhett A. Butler…
Leaf-tailed gecko in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Madagascar officially designated its largest protected area in a region renowned for its tropical rainforests and rich diversity of wildlife, including…
Close-up of the remarkable, raptor-like claws of Trogloraptor. Photo by: Griswold CE, Audisio T, Ledford JM. Scouring the caves of Southwest Oregon, scientists have made the incredible discovery of a…
A company attempting a new approach to in-vitro meat production received up to $350,000 from The Thiel Foundation, a philanthropy started by Internet billionaire Peter Thiel, reports CNET. Modern Meadow,…
A supraglacial lake over the Greenland ice sheet in the Kangerlussuaq area at 1500 m elevation photographed on July 21, 2012. The lake feeds a stream that will deliver meltwater…
Greenpeace highlights community model for palm oil production Farmer Dahlan plants a symbolic first palm oil tree on previously degraded land. © Greenpeace / John Novis Palm oil production need…
Conflict minerals in DRC. Courtesy of the Enough Project Gaming giant Nintendo is the worst company for ensuring that materials used in its electronics are not linked to bloodshed in…
New research shows that the lowland tapir is nearly extinct in the Atlantic Forest. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. When the Portuguese first arrived on the shores of what is now…
Brazil's Supreme Court overruled the Federal Appeals Court's decision on August 28, 2012. Construction resumed the same day. Belo Monte location. Courtesy of Google Earth. A high federal court in…
Popular for a time, General Motor's Hummer brand was criticized for its lack of efficiency. The brand has now been dropped. Last month, the American Council for an Energy Efficient…
A satellite image released by NASA last week shows a key channel that forms part of the Northwest Passage is partially free of ice. The image, acquired by the Moderate…
Since 1898 North America has lost at least 39 species of freshwater fish, according to a new study in Bioscience, and an additional 18 subspecies. Moreover, the loss of freshwater…
Orange-tailed skink hatchlings meet their match in a matchstick. Photo courtesy of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT). Three female orange-tailed skinks skinks have produced 16 skink babies in just…
View Larger Map Evidence of indigenous people living in "voluntary isolation" in a remote part of the Amazon has been found where an Italian Catholic priest is campaigning for Peru’s…
On Aug. 10, 2012, researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida campus examine the internal anatomy of the largest Burmese python found in Florida…
Over 68,000 birds listed on CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) were exported from the Solomon Islands during 2000-2010 according to a recent…
Female lion peers through the thick foliage of a montane rainforest in Ethiopia. Photo by: Bruno D'Amicis/NABU. Calling the African lion (Panthera leo) the 'king of the jungle' is usually…
