In India, few animals carry the kind of cultural symbolism that elephants do. Human-elephant interaction boasts a rich history dating back centuries. Nevertheless, such a long association has also included…
Devices worn by wild animals that record their location, and in some cases their behavior and environmental conditions, are known as biologgers. They have vastly increased our knowledge of animal…
Research on soft-bodied marine invertebrates such as squid and jellyfish has been slow in coming. Squid are keystone taxa and important food sources for myriad larger species, said T. Aran…
You can now speak into your mobile phone and have it produce written text. Then have Google translate your words into Japanese, or Hindi. In two seconds. These examples of…
Animal tracking has revolutionized our study of animal movements and behavior. Radio transmitter tags, followed by GPS and other satellite-based tags, placed on animals via a collar, harness, glue, or…
Of gaps and limitations Our knowledge about sea animals is riddled with holes. We may study and record sea lion colonies or sea turtle nesting and hatching events as they…
Small animals form the majority of animal diversity on Earth, but there are fundamental gaps in our knowledge of how animals too small to wear GPS or satellite tracking tags…
In mid-2017, Ed Warner visited Zimbabwe, which has the world’s largest black rhino population after South Africa, Namibia and Kenya, to volunteer for the International Rhino Foundation (IRF)’s Zimbabwe Lowveld…
As technology for data analysis and visualization improves, online gaming could turn out to be a valuable tool for conservation education, advocacy, and funding. Its role in promoting positive change…
To understand the resource needs of a species, you need to know where individual animals go and what they do there. You can follow some animals around on foot or…
The calls of howler monkeys, once wiped out in a Central American forest known as the Cockscomb Basin, now ring out in the canopy, and the scientists responsible couldn’t be…
What have we accomplished since the very first Earth Day? [National Geographic] This week people from all around the world celebrated the 46th Earth Day. An estimated 20 million people…
Sex is getting complicated. Especially fish sex in New England. Scientists have recently discovered that fish in the northeastern U.S. are changing gender – and it’s not due to an…
It is difficult to protect endangered species without understanding how many individuals exist or where they're located. However, learning this can be a daunting task when the species in question…
Out of the 100 million sharks caught each year, scientists estimate that up to 73 million have their fins sliced off (often while still alive) to make shark fin soup…
The dense undergrowth of tropical forests presents a mysterious prospect to wildlife researchers. Often what is easily spotted does not represent the whole, and scientists in the past could spend…
Warning: Some images below may contain graphic content. At best numbering roughly 2,800 individuals, the Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) is critically endangered. Yet population data has been notoriously difficult…
A recent article published in the journal Biological Conservation details a research study led by University of Wisconsin physical anthropologist Dr. Stephanie Spehar which utilized game camera traps to identify…
Leopards occur in two forms: spotted and black — the black-coated version being the result of the presence of the dark-colored pigment melanin, a condition known as melanism and the…
The Wilmers Lab, based out of University of California Santa Cruz, has published a pair of papers in Science and Movement Ecology detailing the instantaneous energetics of wild pumas as they hunt and kill prey. The findings give insight into how their hunting techniques may have evolved over time.
