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All tagged IUCN
A monkey born in the Oklahoma City Zoo is getting lots of attention because of his brilliant orange fur, but it’s perfectly natural for a François langur, an endangered species that starts life with color, then darkens up as it ages.
This week the Missouri Department of Conservation hosted a birthday party for its beloved turtle Peanut. The old girl’s defining characteristic is her unusual figure-eight shaped shell, the result of getting stuck in a plastic six-pack ring when she was very young.
A man discovers purpose when he helps rescue a baby pangolin in South Africa. Their story, told in the Netflix documentary Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey, is both soothing and difficult as the volunteer conservationist grows a deep emotional attachment to his vulnerable friend.
The Philadelphia Zoo welcomed nine more Galápagos tortoises this week, the latest output of Mommy and Abrazzo, the zoo’s oldest residents. The parents are estimated to be about 100 years old; Mommy has lived at the zoo almost as long, since 1932.
The Brookfield Zoo in Chicago announced the July 14 birth of a pair of extremely rare Amur leopards, the first litter born to a six-year-old female named Mina. Any addition to the population is crucial, as there are fewer than 100 of these big cats left in the wild.
Conservationists in southeastern Australia have figured out a non-intrusive way to monitor platypus in the wild. To navigate the waterways where the aquatic mammals live, they’ve trained paddleboard-riding dogs to sniff out the critters without disturbing them.
Each spring, billions of brown moths fly more than 600 miles in southeastern Australia to escape summer heat, to a small clutch of cool caves located in the Australian Alps. They find their way by using the stars, then return to their breeding grounds in the autumn to reproduce, then they die.
A pair of Galapagos tortoises, the two oldest residents at the Philadelphia Zoo, have become first-time parents to at least four healthy hatchlings. The female, named Mommy, and her mate Abrazzo are both estimated to be about 100 years old.
In January, birder and photographer Bill Diller photographed an odd sight: a brilliant orange-red snowy owl, a creature that is normally snow-white with a few flecks of brown. The colorful bird, seen in Huron County, Michigan, has since been dubbed Creamsicle or Rusty by other owl enthusiasts – but no one knows what caused the unusual plumage.
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington announced the birth this week of a rare, endangered Malayan tapir calf. The new arrival is only the second tapir born at the zoo in its 120-year history.
This week the Los Angeles Zoo announced the birth of two baby perentie lizards, the first of the species to be bred there.
A pygmy hippo calf entered the world in Scotland a couple weeks ago, far from its natural stomping grounds of the forests and swamps of West Africa. Born at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland's Edinburgh Zoo, the baby girl has been named after the national dish, Haggis.
The world’s largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, is known as a voracious hunter with razor-sharp teeth. Now we know what makes those choppers so sharp: they’re laced with iron.
And the winner is … the hoiho, also known as the yellow-eyed penguin. The plucky (and somewhat smelly) bird is the world’s rarest penguin, according to Forest & Bird, the group behind New Zealand’s Bird of the Year competition.
The northern bald ibis had been extinct in Central Europe for four centuries, but a dedicated conservation and research group has reintroduced a small population into the wild. The only problem: the birds have no clue how or where to migrate when seasons change, so the humans are teaching them.
On the day before her 19th birthday, Ying Ying the panda delivered two cubs, making her the oldest giant panda ever to give birth for the first time. The new arrivals, tiny and pink and as yet unnamed, are also the first pandas born in Hong Kong.
When should we announce the birth of a kangaroo? Technically a baby roo – the Matschie's tree kangaroo – was born in the Bronx Zoo last December, but it would be inaccurate to say the joey had “entered the world,” since she would spend the following several months tucked safely inside mama’s pouch.
The Paignton Zoo in Devon has announced the births of a number of Chilean flamingo chicks, including one tended to by two dads, Curtis and Arthur. The zoo doesn’t know exactly how this happened.
The Cheshire zoo has announced the birth of an onager, or Asiatic wild ass, the world’s rarest equid. The foal, a male named Jasper, was born to Azita following a year-long pregnancy. Mother and son are healthy and thriving.
It may not sound like much to go from “endangered” to “vulnerable,” but for the Iberian lynx, the change augurs very good news for the species. Though still among the rarest cats in the world, the lynx’s rebound from near-extinction just two decades ago is evidence that conservation works, especially when all stakeholders are included in the effort.
