Large mammals living between about 7,000 and 25,000 years ago faced a massive upheaval in their environments on multiple fronts. As the Late Pleistocene was ending, humans were having a big…
A species has just three options in the face of environmental change: move, adapt or die. As global temperatures rise many species are shifting their ranges, particularly towards the cooler…
Evolution can be an exquisite hammer, tapping out finely honed strategies for the survival of life on Earth against the blunt force of the environment. But mess with those surroundings too…
Sometimes for a scientist, the disconnected pieces of years of research come together in a single, “really awesome” point in time. For ecologist Greg Asner, where it happened was about…
Gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans -- our great ape cousins teeter on the precipice of extinction. And it’s not much of a secret that we humans have had a lot to do…
MARRAKESH, Morocco — The 22nd United Nations climate summit began as a wonky, low-profile affair. Nearly 200 nations, finally agreeing to keep the world from burning up, began writing the…
ver the past million years of Earth’s history, the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide has been generally low, fluctuating within a range of 200 to 300 parts-per-million (ppm). But this…
he Paris Agreement marked the biggest political milestone to combat climate change since scientists first introduced us in the late 1980s to perhaps humanity’s greatest existential crisis. Last December, 178…
Rising sea temperatures are destroying corals in Australia’s famous Great Barrier Reef. But warmer-than-normal waters are also damaging the Barrier Reef’s lesser known cousin, the Great Southern Reef, a new study…
Researchers in Australia say they’ve discovered the first mammal to go extinct due to human-induced climate change: the Bramble Cay melomys, also known as the Bramble Cay Mosaic-tailed rat, a…
One degree of warming would drastically reduce the habitat of nearly all of the region's endemic vertebrates, according to a recent study.
According to a comprehensive new study published in the journal Science, bumblebees are particularly vulnerable to climate change disruptions. Historical bumblebee ranges have shrunk on their extreme southern edge, while…
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…
Steven Amstrup will be speaking at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on October 11th, 2014. In 1773, an expedition headed by Constantine John Phipps, the Second Baron…
The destruction of rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia for palm oil, paper, and timber has put the world's orangutans at risk of extinction, it also compounds global warming and mass…
It's not just melting glaciers and bizarrely-early Springs anymore; climate change is impacting every facet of human civilization from our ability to grow enough crops to our ability to get…
Human-caused climate change is altering the habitat of Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae). In an article recently published in PLOS ONE, a team of researchers led by Amélie Lescroël from the…
As temperatures increase worldwide due to anthropogenic climate change, scientists are scrambling to figure out if species will be able to survive rapidly warming ecosystems. A new study in Global…
One of the world's least-known flying foxes could face extinction by rising seas and changing precipitation patterns due to global warming, according to a new study in Zookeys. The research,…
Tropical tree communities are moving up mountainsides to cooler habitats as temperatures rise, a new study in Global Change Biology has found. By examining the tree species present in ten…
Climate change may push canopy-dwelling plants and animals out of the tree-tops due to rising temperatures and drier conditions, argues a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society…
As sea ice levels continue to decline in the northern hemisphere, scientists are observing an unsettling trend in harp seal young mortalities regardless of juvenile fitness. While a recent study…
Even as concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in human history last week, a new study in Nature Climate…
The Hawaiian silversword (Argyroxyphium sandwicense), a beautiful, spiny plant from the volcanic Hawaiian highlands may not survive the ravages of climate change, according to a new study in Global Change…
Leatherback sea turtle laying eggs on the coast of Suriname. Photo by: Tiffany Roufs. The world's largest sea turtle, the leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), is vanishing from its most important nesting…
Insect nymph in Manu National Park, Peru. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Deforestation could increase the risk of biodiversity loss in the Amazon by forcing species to migrate further in…
Wolverine in the snow. Photo by: Bigstock. Arguably one of the toughest animals on Earth, the wolverine (Gulo gulo) may soon find itself protected under the U.S.'s Endangered Species Act…
New species of agama lizard discovered in remote rainforest in Vietnam: Calotes bachae. Photo by Peter Geissler. A bold new paper in Science argues that the world's species could be…
The 3rd Annual New York Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (WFCC.org) runs from January 30 – February 2, 2013. Ahead of the event, Mongabay.com is running a series of Q&As with…
View of Bighorn Basin in Wyoming, showing the sediments which scientists drill through. Photo courtesy of Phillip Jardine. Sandy, Irene, Katrina... Hurricanes are fast becoming household names and have many…
