Legal petitions have been filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by environmental groups and oil and gas interests challenging the Biden administration’s plan to offer additional Gulf of Mexico drilling leases. The congressionally mandated five-year plan includes three sales — the least number being offered since 1980, reported […]
A first-of-its-kind study by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) has found that older elephants will have less chance of survival as the climate warms, and this will reverberate throughout the surrounding landscape. The research team has developed models for potential mitigation scenarios, which have already […]
A new study by a team of scientists with the Conservation Ecology Research Unit at South Africa’s University of Pretoria has found that the best way to keep elephant numbers stable is to let them roam freely in protected areas connected to buffer zones, rather than in “fortress” conservation areas where they have less space. […]
A new study using model predictions has uncovered a likely rapid accumulation of microplastics around Santa Cruz Island, an island in the Galápagos National Park of Ecuador. The model predictions point to an accumulation of plastics sized from 1 micron to less than 5 millimeters in waters around the human-populated island. The researchers behind the […]
In a major breakthrough, the first successful southern white rhino in vitro fertilization has been carried out by scientists. It could mean hope in the quest to save the northern white rhino, whose last remaining members — cousins of the southern rhino — are both female. Neither of the two northern white rhinos, Najin and […]
Bumble bees are synonymous with summer, buzzing about pollinating flowers and crops. Now, one common North American bee may be joining the more than 70 pollinator species listed as endangered. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has found that petitions for nine new animal species may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act, including […]
The first large-scale study of mountain lion numbers in California has been completed by scientists from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW); the nonprofits Audubon Canyon Ranch and the Institute for Wildlife Studies; University of California, Santa Cruz; and University of California, Davis. The population estimate of between 3,200 and 4,500 cougars is […]
Despite a recent report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that highlighted that 25% of freshwater fish were threatened with extinction, scientists in Turkey have recently come across a rare species sighting that gives some hope to the situation. Ichthyologists in Turkey recently spotted the leopard barbel (Luciobarbus subquincunciatus), a rare freshwater […]
Birds of prey in Africa are currently experiencing an extinction crisis, with more than two-thirds potentially threatened, according to a new study by an international research team led by The Peregrine Fund and researchers from the University of St. Andrews. Of the 42 species profiled in the report, 88 percent have declined over a 20- […]