Animals that live in trees in the tropics are likely to be better at crossing mountains and dealing with climate change compared to ground-dwelling animals, a new study published in…
Polish researchers have rediscovered a moth in Malaysia that was previously known only from a 130-year-old museum specimen collected in Indonesia. The Oriental blue clearwing (Heterosphecia tawonoides) was rediscovered in…
Over the past 10 years many areas of once-forested land degraded by cattle in the Amazon have been converted to oil palm. To measure how the oil palm plantations may…
Populations of bees, bats, butterflies and other pollinators have been declining for decades due to habitat loss, disease, pesticides and climate change. Now, scientists have documented yet another threat to…
Germany’s flying insect biomass has dropped 76 percent in the past 27 years, according to a study published last week in PLOS ONE. The findings have stunned biologists around the…
The changes wrought by climate change on the conditions that support life on Earth force some plants and animals into different ranges. To address this issue, certain conservation strategies aim…
The latest update to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, released today, finds that even species once considered so abundant as to…
For a few minutes on Monday, August 21, the moon will blot out the sun completely, causing a total solar eclipse. The skies along a narrow 70-mile-wide band across the…
A 2015 study found that humans activities are driving species loss at a rate 100 times faster than historical baseline levels — which the researchers behind the study characterized as…
Indonesian New Guinea holds some of the largest remnants of old-growth tropical forest on the planet. Yet the region faces increasing pressure to share its riches with the rest of…
Dr. Christoph von Beeren of Germany’s Technical University Darmstadt was collecting “ant guests” during the nightly emigration of an army ant colony at La Selva Biological Station, a lowland Atlantic…
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 saki, or "flying monkey," a mid-sized South American primate, gets its nickname from its ability to quietly skim through the tops of trees. These rainforest inhabitants use their sharp…
The disappearance of birds may hamper tropical forests as they struggle to recover from the shock of intensive logging, agriculture and ranching, a team of ecologists reports. Birds play a vital…
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we’re featuring highlights from a conversation with author and biologist E.O. Wilson, one of the greatest scientists of the last 100 years. Wilson…
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…
Discovering a new species is always exciting -- it shows that much of our world remains to be explored and described. This year, too, scientists discovered and described several thousand new…
It’s no secret that many mammals face a dire future, as we humans hunt them to satisfy our desire for protein, medicines and animal parts. But until now, scientists have…
Two beetle species found only in the U.S — the Stephan’s riffle beetle and the Tatum Cave beetle — are now officially extinct, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced…
In a positive move for bees, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has added seven species of yellow-faced bees in Hawaii to the U.S. Endangered Species List. These are the…
With climate change driving species in the Northern Hemisphere ever further up the latitudinal ladder, a recent study released in the journal Science finds that Canada’s eastern boreal forests may act…
The dark bordered beauty moth is heading towards extinction at its last known site in England, a new study has found. The rare moth (Epione vespertaria) is found in just…
Exotic species can wreak havoc on a country’s ecosystem and economy. The extensive damage that invasive species cause to crops and forests in the United States alone, for example, is…
Marine biologist Carl Safina is a noted author and research professor at Stony Brook University, where he focuses on ocean sciences and is co-chair of the Alan Alda Center for…
The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden released 110 pairs of endangered American burying beetles at the nearby Fernald Nature Preserve last week as part of ongoing efforts to restore the…
Scientists have discovered what they’re calling an “unintended and ironic” consequence of building roads to aid agricultural expansion in Brazil: those same roads are providing the perfect habitat for insects…
Ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) are the second most abundant trees in Europe. But these commonly-found trees could soon become extinct, a new study warns. Threats from an invasive and “potentially devastating”…
This butterfly was hiding in plain sight. In 2010, butterfly expert Andrew Warren was organizing specimens at the Florida Museum of Natural History, when he encountered a series of butterfly…
Scientists on a multi-year expedition in Bolivia's Madidi National Park have recorded nearly a thousand species of butterflies – with many more expected to come. Madidi National Park sits along…
Beetles are everywhere. Of the roughly 1.5 million species described so far, beetles account for around 400,000 species, making them the most species-rich group known in the world. In contrast,…
