Bats have not historically been a focus of much conservation effort, but starting around 1985, conservationists in Canada and the United States began working to limit human access to bat…
What lurks in the soil beneath your feet? In the soil beneath us live billions of organisms, ranging in size from one-celled bacteria to gophers. These critters aerate the soil,…
Beneath their prehistoric-looking shells, turtles conceal an extraordinary ability to hold their breath underwater, going without oxygen for hours, even months, at a time. This cellular-level capacity to survive underwater…
Great apes should be humanity’s best bet for conservation — charismatic, intelligent, strikingly familiar, with big emoting eyes. It’s hard to think of creatures with whom the public empathizes more…
The deadly yellow fever -- an infectious disease caused by a mosquito-borne virus -- has spread rapidly throughout Brazil, wiping out populations of the brown howler monkey (Alouatta guariba). Thousands of…
A type of transmissible cancer has decimated Tasmanian devil populations. First detected in 1996, the devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) has spread across most of the Tasmanian devil's range and has…
Koalas, the eucalyptus-loving cuddly marsupials found only in Australia, are declining rapidly. In some areas, their numbers have plummeted by more than 80 percent, with koala populations in the state of…
The beauty of the saiga belies first impressions. It may be hard to look beyond the big nose — a bulbous schnozz that looks like a chunk of an elephant’s…
The legal commercial exotic animal trade is a booming enterprise that ships ornamental fish, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians around the world. These pets, livestock and other animals can carry…
Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) declared that it was placing the rusty patched bumblebee on the U.S. endangered species list. The listing would have taken effect…
The rusty patched bumblebee became the first-ever bumblebee species to be protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act this week, and the first wild bee of any kind in the…
There’s already ample evidence of the ways environmental degradation can contribute to the spread of infectious diseases, and now a recent study provides an example of how the disruptions to…
In the rugged mountain forests of Kaua’i, colorful birds called honeycreepers are dying out. Usually protected by the cooler temperatures found at higher altitudes, the birds are now victims of…
A new study examines the impacts of invasive feral pigs, a favorite prey of vampire bats, on ecosystems in rural Brazil. The distribution of feral pigs — which are also…
Global average temperatures have risen by about 1°C since 1880. But just one degree of human-induced warming has impacted nearly all aspects of life on our planet, concludes a new…
A transmissible cancer -- the devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) -- has decimated Tasmanian devil populations. The contagious cancer, first recorded in 1996, has wiped out over 90 percent of…
aria Josefa de Oliveira stands in the doorway of her home in the Imbiribeira neighborhood of Recife — a city of 3.7 million in northeast Brazil. The bars on the…
hen Rio de Janeiro won the bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games — set to begin on August 5th — the Brazilian government committed itself to cleaning up…
"The evolution of science [occurs] by means of questions that are made — not by the answers." So said Pedro Vasconcelos in an interview with Mongabay. He is director of…
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…
