endangered species

Butterflies overall are struggling in the UK, but one particularly endangered species is thriving.  After being driven to extinction in the UK in 1979, the large blue butterfly had its best year in 2022 since record keeping began 150 years ago, the Royal Entomological Society announced Wednesday. The success is thanks to reintroduction efforts that […]

Currently in the U.S., only eight tree species have federal protections and are officially considered threatened or endangered. But a new study from researchers at the Morton Arboretum shows that far more tree species are vulnerable, with 11% to 16% of trees in the contiguous U.S. under threat of extinction. According to the researchers, the […]

The human imagination once transformed dugongs into mermaids. But now, human activity is pushing the gentle marine mammals into the realm of the imagination in a more sinister way.  A new study published in Royal Society Open Science Wednesday found that the dugong (dugong dugon) is “functionally extinct” in Chinese waters.  “The likely disappearance of […]

Endangered sea turtles have hatched on a chain of barrier islands off Louisiana for the first time in 75 years.  The Louisiana government announced August 17 that the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) found evidence that endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles had hatched in the […]

By Liz Kimbrough In the mountains of Colombia, an experienced bird-watcher saw an iridescent flash of blue and green. “A hummingbird caught my attention. I got out my binoculars and was shocked to see that it was a Santa Marta sabrewing,” Yurgen Vega said. “This sighting was a complete surprise, but a very welcome one.” […]

At less than five feet long, the vaquita porpoise is the smallest living cetacean and the rarest marine mammal in the world. It also has the smallest geographical range. The little porpoise with the smiling expression and dark rings around its eyes can be found only in the northern part of Mexico’s Gulf of California, […]

Humans share 98.7 percent of their DNA with two species of endangered great apes: bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Bonobos — which can only be found in forested regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), south of the Congo River — differ from chimpanzees in appearance and behavior. They are usually smaller, and their societal groups are led by females and are generally more peaceful.

The news came in an update announced last Thursday to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. While tigers (Panthera tigris) are still considered Endangered, there are 40 percent more of them than was indicated by the last population assessment in 2015.