Male elephants wander. As they mature and prepare to breed, they roam great distances in search of estrous females. These movements are key to elephant population dynamics: by breeding with…
When Colleen Kamoroff and her graduate advisor Caren Goldberg collected water samples to look for the DNA of non-native fish species, they could not have guessed the potential importance of…
The arduous task of assessing animal populations in the wild takes plenty of sweat and tears. Now a group of scientists is adding blood to that mix, in an innovative…
Researchers have identified a genetic analysis technique that pinpoints the harvest location of trees—a breakthrough that could help officials detect illegally traded timber. The multi-national research team tested the potential…
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…
The United States, a major ivory market The sale of ivory across international boundaries has been banned since 1990, when the African elephant was listed among species prohibited for commercial…
Is Australia’s Great Barrier Reef losing its male sea turtles? A new study has found that green sea turtle hatchlings in one of the world’s largest colonies are increasingly female,…
Technology is changing how we investigate and protect planet Earth. The increased portability and reduced cost of data collection and synthesis tools, for instance — from visual and acoustic sensors…
Each year, trafficking in wildlife parts earns international crime syndicates some $8 billion to $10 billion. A portable DNA analysis tool can now rapidly identify the species of plant and animal samples found on suspected smugglers.
Ecologists on Santa Cruz island off California had a big problem with small creatures. Argentine ants, an invasive species that disturb native bees, ants, and other insects critical to the…
The legend of the Yeti, a mysterious, ape-like, bipedal creature rumored to live in the Himalayas, has persisted for centuries. Tales of the mythical beast first made their way to…
Large forest carnivores rely on expanses of natural vegetation and enough prey to survive. Misiones province of northeastern Argentina has some of the larger remaining tracts of Atlantic Forest, but…
The USAID Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge announced three winners of an Acceleration Prize worth US $100,000 for demonstrating rapid progress in developing a wildlife crime solution system. The Challenge previously…
Scientists can now rapidly read the DNA of an organism—even a plant—anywhere. Researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have recently reported on their use of a handheld real-time DNA…
Markets around the world sell products made from the processed parts of wild animals and plants, which are sometimes illegal and mislabeled. A research team using DNA barcoding technology to…
The first DNA analysis of ancient straight-tusked elephant fossils may be changing what we know about elephant evolution. Scientists have presumed that a species of giant elephant called Palaeoloxodon antiquus,…
Many dozens of major infrastructure projects — including highways, dams and mines — have been given the green light in the Brazilian Amazon in recent years, and hundreds more are…
There are now three species of flying squirrel in North America, and it turns out that the newest member of the family has actually been gliding amongst the treetops of…
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,…
An international team of researchers journeyed into the jungles of the seldom-traveled Kabobo Massif in March 2017 along the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)…
