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All tagged conservation
This month the National Zoo in Washington announced the birth of a painted river terrapin, the first time this critically endangered species has been successfully bred at the zoo. In fact, the little guy is already five months old. The zookeepers had found it on August 26, still sporting its egg tooth, a tiny built‑in tool it used to crack out of the shell, meaning it was only a day or two old when they found it.
ZooTampa’s manatee rehab center announced it had released 26 manatees in 2025, the highest number of rehabbed manatees returned to the wild in any single year since the facility opened in 1991.
The endangered Siberian tiger, also known as the Amur tiger, is rarely seen in the wild, but this year the world’s largest big cat is making unwelcome appearances in Russia’s far east. The tigers are preying on dogs, livestock, and in a few cases, humans.
Cougars once roamed freely throughout much of North America but were exterminated in many states by the 20th century, including Michigan, which killed off its last wild specimen in 1906. In recent years the predator has been seen again on the Upper Peninsula and wildlife experts wonder if the species can re-establish a breeding population here.
Plans to kill most of the foxes living on Dauphin Island, Alabama have been put on hold this week, when a Mobile County circuit judge issued a temporary restraining order on the project.
September 11 coincides with the fall bird migration, as birds summering in Canada and New England begin flying south for the winter. Unfortunately they can be disoriented on their journey by the powerful lights emanating from the 9/11 Tribute in Light, causing collisions and avian death.
Orcas are attacking sailboats off the Iberian Peninsula again, destroying rudders and stranding crews. In August, killer whales tore the rudder off a German boat in the Vigo estuary in Galicia, Spanish newspaper Faro de Vigo reported.
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.
China’s surveillance state has arrived at the remote Hoh Xil area plateau of Tibet, although it’s not citizens being watched. Here conservationists are using a robot dressed up like an antelope to spy on the local herds.
Conservationists in South Africa this week ramped up their fight to stop poachers with a new tactic: injecting rhino horns with radioactive isotopes. The implants do not harm the rhinos, but they will trigger alarms at airports if the horn is ever smuggled through security.
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.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service had big plans to cull hundreds of thousands of barred owls in an effort to keep them away from the habitats of an endangered species, the northern spotted owl. Now those plans face bipartisan pushback in Congress.
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.
After months of rehabilitation, 17 sea turtles were released this week into the waters off Cape Cod. The loggerhead, green, and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles – all victims of hypothermia and its attendant ailments – had been convalescing at the New England Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital in Quincy, MA.
Cheetahs, the fastest land animal on the planet, are up against multiple existential threats: dwindling habitat, poachers, lethal competition with farmers. This week the Cheetah Conservation Fund founder and executive director, Laurie Marker, sat down with PBS to talk about the big cat's fight for survival.
A biotech company in Dallas says it has brought back an extinct animal that last walked the Earth nearly 13,000 years ago. Colossal Biosciences, the startup that’s also trying to resurrect the extinct wooly mammoth and the dodo, announced this week that they’ve brought three dire wolves into the world.
Last week conservationists in the Pacific Whale Watch Association spotted an orca calf with its mom and more than a dozen other killer whales in the Salish Sea, the waters between Seattle and Vancouver. The mother, known to the whale watchers as “Sedna,” comes from a historic line of orcas rescued from SeaWorld.
The lowly blobfish, long recognized as the world’s ugliest animal, has resurfaced this week to win a comelier title: Fish of the Year. New Zealand environmental group Mountain to Sea Conservation Trust holds the annual contest to raise awareness for freshwater and marine life.
A pair of young bison bulls in a UK sanctuary have been taught to self medicate, specifically by vaccinating themselves. The staff at Wildwood Trust in Kent say the animals have been trained to lean into needles, which is less stressful than the typical procedure: shooting darts into them.
