Australia News

Researchers are using diver-towed GPS buoys and underwater cameras to estimate the populations of rare fish in Tanzanian estuaries.

Drones will now hover above Australian coastal waters in a bid to reduce shark attacks, Australian government announced this week. The first drone trial began at Coffs Harbor in the…

Susan Laurance and colleagues at James Cook University in Australia wanted to study how different groups of plants in tropical forests are affected by drought. So a few months ago,…

Visitors to the tropics remember the bright colors. Take the blue-and-yellow macaw with its egg-yolk breast and turquoise back – “the usual gaudy colouring of the intertropical productions,” as Charles…

he sea is not our natural environment, but we’ve learned to enjoy it, seeking pleasure from the waves and cooling waters. Spending time in this environment, humans inevitably come into…

Scientists with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency, have caught and tagged two adult speartooth sharks (Glyphis glyphis) in a remote corner of Australia…

round one third of amphibian species are considered globally threatened by the IUCN, due primarily to habitat loss, overexploitation for the wildlife and pet trades, climate change, and disease. Adding…

On September 26, scientists released 19 Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) — immunized against the deadly devil facial tumor disease — into the Narawntapu National Park in northern Tasmania. This is the…

Ocean acidification is troubling for most marine creatures. But some corals may have built-in protection mechanisms that could help them cope with changing ocean chemistry, a new study published this…

Amazing but overlooked bettongs: the case for Australia’s small hopper

There’s an echidna baby boom in Australia. In the last five years, an echidna captive breeding partnership between the University of Queensland and Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in Australia has produced 14…

hrough years of effort, scientists have assessed the conservation status of some 77,000 species of plants and animals via the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species. Scientific records on the…

t's like the plot of a science-fiction film: scientists develop killer robots to take out their targets with lethal injections. Only the targets in this case aren’t government enemies or…

One degree of warming would drastically reduce the habitat of nearly all of the region's endemic vertebrates, according to a recent study.

The Crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) is responsible for depletion of 40 percent of the coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef over the last 30 years, and currently can only…

The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of northeastern Australia – considered the largest living organism on earth – is currently under threat from a floating layer of microplastic particles,…

Coral reefs, teeming with life, are home to vibrant fish communities — which makes them extremely attractive places to go fishing. However, fishing in reefs may injure corals, which in…

Young swift parrots (Lathamus discolour). Photo courtesy of Dejan Stojanovic. In the forests of Tasmania lives the swift parrot (Lathamus discolour), a highly threatened bird that breeds nowhere else in…

Renowned biologist E.O Wilson, assessing Earth's sixth great extinction now underway, described the future as a shrinking keyhole through which all species must pass as humanity responds to, and hopefully…

Young lion in Kruger National Park in South Africa. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Last month, Australia became the world's first country to ban the import or export of lion…

The male ruby seadragon (Phyllopteryx dewysea) that was collected in 2007. Photo by: Western Australian Museum. For 150 years, scientists have known of just two so-called seadragons: the leafy seadragon…

Manu National Park in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Last year, more than 6,000 people gathered for the World Parks Congress 2014, an event held around every…

Mongabay.org offers journalists opportunity to report on government muzzling of environmental activists Mongabay.org recently announced a new Special Reporting Opportunity for journalists to focus on governmental shutdown of environmental groups…

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is suddenly looking very lively after two announcements over the weekend. The U.S. has announced an initial pledge of $3 billion to the fund, while…

On the eve of the World Parks Congress in Sydney, the Australian government has just hosted the 'Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit', a two-day event that brought together political leaders, academics, environmental…

Ariel view of the Great Barrier Reff. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A consortium of companies—North Queensland Bulk Ports, GVK Hancock and Adani Group—have announced they are giving up on…

Scientists say both rich and developing countries must recognize primary forests as a conservation priority. Primary rainforest in Imbak Canyon in the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The forest is…

Fan palms in the Daintree rainforest in Far North Queensland. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Last week, the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), the world's largest organization devoted…

Introduction of non-native species, de-extinction may work better than traditional conservation practices Today, in the midst of what has been termed the “Sixth Great Extinction” by many in the scientific…

This nadir true-color image was acquired by the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) instrument on August 26, 2000, and shows part of the southern portion of the reef adjacent to the…