Animals

Wildlife Trafficking 101: Everything You Need to Know

Wildlife Trafficking 101: Everything You Need to Know

 Quick Key Facts  Wildlife trafficking is the second biggest direct threat to species, following habitat destruction.  It’s a huge business with smuggled goods valued at $10 billion a year, and involves tens of thousands of species and millions of wild plants and animals.  The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found that 958 species […]

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    Plastics Increase Acidity of the World’s Oceans, Study Finds

    Plastics Increase Acidity of the World’s Oceans, Study Finds

    The trillions of pieces of plastic that end up in Earth’s oceans each year are wreaking havoc on the hundreds of thousands of marine organisms who live there. Mammals like whales and smaller organisms like fish ingest plastic particles, which contain toxins that stay in the animals’ bodies and are passed along to the organisms […]

    Australia Aims to End Species Extinctions — Can Its New Plan Succeed?

    Australia Aims to End Species Extinctions — Can Its New Plan Succeed?

    Australia has one of the highest rates of species extinctions in the world, but it has just announced an initiative to preserve 30% of the country’s land mass by 2030 in order to bring species extinctions down entirely to zero. Australia is home to many unique plants and animals, but increasing extreme weather events, including […]