wildlife

The British government has announced the creation of a new National Nature Reserve — the 3,148-acre Bradford Pennine Gateway — to protect the wildlife and the sweeping landscapes that inspired the Brontë sisters. Authors of such classics as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë grew up in Haworth Parsonage on the […]

In a new study, researchers determined that 2%, or 104 amphibian species out of 5,203 species studied, are already experiencing overheating events in their natural habitats.  The researchers considered different microhabitats of amphibians, including terrestrial, arboreal and aquatic and compared heat tolerance limits of the animals to the actual daily temperature patterns from the past […]

A new study has found that roughly 8,500 tons of antibiotics — almost a third of what is consumed by humans each year — ends up in the world’s rivers, even after much have passed through wastewater systems. The researchers warned that river systems globally have been contaminated with levels of antibiotic pollution high enough […]

At the time of the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, grizzly bears numbered as many as 10,000. In the following years, the iconic carnivores were entirely eradicated, with the last one seen wandering alone in Sequoia National Park in 1924. Now, a new feasibility study by the California Grizzly Alliance has said grizzlies could […]

North American bird populations are plummeting, especially in drylands, grasslands and the Arctic where they have historically been most abundant, new research has found. The analysis of almost 500 species of North American birds indicates that three out of four species are suffering declines across their ranges, with two in three shrinking significantly. “We’re not […]

University of Albany researchers have presented the first recorded evidence that surface waters in the Adirondack Mountains have made an almost complete recovery — 90 percent — from metal pollution since enactment of the Clean Air Act. Amended in the decades since it first passed in 1963, the Clean Air Act was one of the […]

Crows are widely known to be one of the most intelligent animals on the planet, along with elephants, chimpanzees, orangutans and dolphins. A new study has revealed that at least one crow species can recognize regularity in geometric shapes — the ability to pick out a shape that differs from others — a skill previously […]

The Trump administration has proposed a rule that would eliminate endangered species’ habitat protections in the United States. The rule change would “rescind” the regulatory definition of “harm” to no longer include habitat modification for endangered and threatened wildlife under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Environmentalists said the move would cause critically endangered species to […]