conservation

By Marlene Cimons Most Europeans know the great tit as an adorable, likeable yellow-and-black songbird that shows up to their feeders in the winter. But there may be one thing they don’t know. That cute, fluffy bird can be a relentless killer. The great tit’s aggression can emerge in gruesome ways when it feels threatened […]

By now you might have seen Ocean Ramsey’s rare and jaw-dropping encounter with a great white shark in waters near Oahu, Hawaii. Ramsey, a marine biologist, said on the TODAY Show that it was “absolutely breathtaking and heart-melting” to be approached by the massive fish. The conservationist noted that “moments like this are increasingly rare […]

The Endangered Species Act works. That’s the conclusion of a peer-reviewed study undertaken by scientists at the Center for Biological Diversity and published in PLOS ONE Wednesday. The study looked at 31 populations of 19 species of marine mammals and sea turtles in the U.S. that had been granted endangered species protections and found that […]

The environmental organization Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says its crew was attacked Wednesday by roughly 35 fishing boats inside a vaquita refuge in Mexico’s Gulf of California. Sea Shepherd released a video showing fishermen shouting, hurling objects and trying to foul the propellors of the M/V Farley Mowat, a Sea Shepherd vessel used in campaigns […]

Joshua Tree National Park will not shut its gates after all as it works to recover from the effects of the ongoing government shutdown, the park announced Wednesday. “By immediately utilizing revenue generated by recreation fees, National Park Service officials have been able to avert a temporary closure of Joshua Tree National Park that had […]

Bluefin tuna made the news this week when a 612-pound specimen of the fascinating but vulnerable fish sold for a record $3.1 million at a New Year’s auction at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market Saturday. The purchaser was Japanese sushi chain owner and self-proclaimed “Tuna King” Kiyoshi Kimura. “The tuna looks so tasty because it’s fat […]

The Justice Department is looking into whether former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lied to investigators at the Department of Interior, The Washington Post reports. Anonymous sources tell the Post that investigators at the Interior’s inspector general’s office raised the issue with the DOJ after suspecting Zinke may have lied during questioning over his real estate […]

Scientists published the first major assessment of the health of Australian plant species in two decades, and the results are urgent, The Guardian reported Tuesday. More than 50 of Australian plant species could go extinct within the next decade, but only 12 of them are listed as “critically endangered” under the nation’s Environment Protection and […]