Hawaiian monk seals, one of the few tropical seal species, have been considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 1982. While their numbers are still falling, there is a sign of hope. The National Oceanic and…
Red wolf and Mexican gray wolf populations in the wild have risen from zero in the 1970s to around 100 today, but 100 is still very few. And conservation efforts may be facing drastic change. Conservationists are worried because neither wolf…
With the monarch butterfly population is in rapid decline, enthusiasts are either petitioning to move monarchs to the endangered species list or emphasizing the importance of restoring habitat—namely milkweed, where monarchs feed as caterpillars and lay their eggs as adults. Farmers…
Birdland is celebrating a birth. For the first time in five years, a King penguin chick has finally hatched from the United Kingdom’s only breeding King penguins. Right now the featherless baby is not flashy. Soon, though, it will grow…
People aren’t the only ones saving New Mexico’s Sacramento salamanders. Dogs are helping, too. While road work threatens to interfere with a section of mountain where many of these salamanders live, volunteers are recruiting dogs like Samson, a Labrador retriever,…
The most endangered group of lizards in the world, Caribbean island rock iguanas, have new hope for survival. Governments, academics, nongovernment organizations and private stakeholders are collaborating on more than 20 projects focused on alleviating threats to iguanas, changing public…
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has started an investigation of whether manatees should be removed from the endangered list, and reclassified as threatened. The 90-day substantial finding announced by the FWS requires additional in-depth research. The agency will also be opening…
As we keep dumping greenhouse gases into the air, the oceans keep sucking them up, making the waters deadly to their inhabitants. The acidification – which some scientists believe is the fastest change in the ocean's chemistry in 300 million years –…
Scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute and Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research have shown for the first time how the complexity of a life form can limit its ability to adapt to a warming climate. The new sutdy,…
The pygmy sloth’s fates have been up and down over the past 18 months. This summer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the world’s rarest and smallest sloth could deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act. Read more here.