Selective logging has long been considered the lesser evil compared to clear-cutting when it comes to habitat preservation. But a new study adds to a growing chorus of concern that…
JAKARTA — The sale of some of the most threatened tortoise and turtle species from around the world continues to flourish at stores and exhibitions across Jakarta, highlighting longstanding concerns…
DENPASAR, Indonesia — Tilapia is a mainstay of Balinese cuisine, but hundreds of thousands of the freshwater fish choke to death regularly in the resort island’s largest lake, for reasons…
Madagascar is known as an ark for biodiversity that's found nowhere else on the planet. Unfortunately, it's also known for the bevy of threats that those distinctive species that live…
BENI DEPARTMENT, Bolivia — The sound of hundreds of excited children drowns out the gentle hum of nature. Those closest to the shoreline hold in their hands, some for the…
An Australian mining company aims to begin searching for minerals, as well as oil and gas, next to part of the Mekong River in Cambodia where the endangered Irrawaddy river…
Trump’s 2018 budget, if adopted, threatens to kill already precarious Northwest salmon fisheries — crippling the local economies of US and Canadian communities and tribal nations.
During the wet season, manatees swim Amazon basin floodplains; in dry times they migrate to lakes. Hundreds of planned dams could disrupt that cycle.
SAMARINDA, Indonesia — Activists in eastern Borneo suspect that an Irrawaddy dolphin found dead on a local beach last month had probably been snagged in a fishing net. This is…
The sweet-tasting tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) is a popular staple on grills and dinner tables in Manaus, Brazil. But as the human population of the Amazonian city has soared, the effects…
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…
Animal pet markets, filled with assorted species, can sometimes yield species previously unknown to science. In 2012, for example, researchers found a new species of giant flying squirrel in a…
ish kills, mercury contamination, the extinction of known aquatic species (along with others still not known to science), plus the physical and economic ruin of indigenous and traditional river communities.…
magine a fish isolated in an Amazonian lake — part of the vast freshwater ecosystem of the Amazon basin, an ever-changing network of rivers, lakes and floodplains that extends to…
Palm oil plantations often wreak havoc on biodiversity. But researchers may now have hit upon a win-win solution that allows freshwater fish to thrive in streams within palm oil plantations. Retaining…
palm oil company remains at the heart of conflict in northern Guatemala, months after a mass fish die-off. A day after company operations were suspended pending further investigation into the…
A male Cherax pulcher. Photo by: Christian Lukhaup. An independent researcher has described a spectacular red, white, and blue crayfish just in time for the fourth of July. The new…
Releasing the giant mamma freshwater stingray. Photo courtesy of Ocean Mysteries and Jeff Corwin. Conservationists and scientists have managed to catch-and-release what could be the world's biggest freshwater fish ever…
Pregnant mothers, children, and even adults could face health problems from gold mining pollution in Amazonian Peru An aerial view of artisinal open pit gold mining in the Amazon. Photo…
Reduced river flows below irrigation dams decimate freshwater dolphins Rare photo showing two Indus River dolphins in the wild. Photo credit: Albert Reichert, CC-BY.N The Indus River dolphin (Platanista gangetica…
On the morning of July 14, 2002 Qi Qi ate breakfast as he always did. As the world’s only captive baiji – or Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) – Qi…
A giant river otter with a fish in its mouth. Photo by: Frank Hajek. Lobo de río, or river wolf, is the very evocative Spanish name for one of the…
An image of the new species showing the lack of eyes. This specimen had its flesh cleared and researchers stained the bones to show the skeleton. Photo courtesy of: Chakrabarty…
Among the largest and most endangered crocodilians in the world, the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is on the verge of extinction today. This harmless fish-eating crocodile has fewer than 200 adult…
An alligator snapping turtle. Photo by: Garry Tucker/USFWS. So, you're a fish swimming in a river in Louisiana. Hungry, you see a little worm wiggling out from the river bed.…
This is an expanded version of an article that ran on Yale e360 on October 29th, 2013: A Key Mangrove Forest Faces Major Threat from a Coal Plant. Bengal tiger…
A biological survey of forests slated for destruction for a palm oil project in Cameroon has uncovered 23 species of large mammals, including the world's most endangered chimpanzee subspecies, the…
Thirty percent of the fish exported from India in the past seven years were from dozens of threatened species including the endangered red-lined torpedo barb (Puntius denisonii) and the miss…
Everyone knows the tiger, the panda, the blue whale, but what about the other five to thirty million species estimated to inhabit our Earth? Many of these marvelous, stunning, and…
In another sign of the global biodiversity crisis, the IUCN Red List has added 715 species to its threatened categories of Vulnerable, Endangered, and Critically Endangered in this year's update.…
