Fish-Killing Parasite Shuts Down Montana’s Iconic Yellowstone River

Fish in Montana’s Yellowstone River are dying off at an unprecedented rate, leading state wildlife officials to close 183 miles along the iconic waterway to fishing and recreational activities starting Aug. 19.

The cause of the die-off appears to be a microscopic invasive parasite, most likely brought in through recreational anglers’ contaminated fishing gear and boats. Tens of thousands of whitefish are already dead, and there are concerns the disease is spreading to rainbow and Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

“This action is necessary to protect the fishery and the economy it sustains,” Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in a statement. “The closure will also help limit the spread of the parasite to adjacent rivers through boats, tubes, waders and other human contact and minimize further mortality in all fish species.”

The parasites lead to kidney disease in the fish, and their proliferation has been boosted by recent conditions in the river such as low water flow, consistent high temperatures, and the impact of recreational activities.

The Billings Gazette reported that no similar closure based on a disease outbreak has ever occurred in Montana.

(Photo: Tom Murphy/Getty Images)

Birds Sing a Special Song to Their Eggs

Want to hear an interesting way that wildlife is adapting to climate change? Listen to the song of the zebra finch.

Scientist have discovered that the songbirds sing to their unhatched eggs, and when temperatures get hot—over 79 degrees Fahrenheit—the birds sing a special song to their babies.

Apparently the growing embryos hear the tune through the shell, because researchers found that when recordings of the specific “heat” calls were played, eggs hatched sooner, and the baby birds weighed less than those that had not been exposed to the calls; that in turn allowed them to keep cool in the hotter temperatures.

“With a smaller body size, they’re better at losing heat,” said Mylene Mariette, a behavioral ecologist at Deakin University in Waurn Ponds, Australia. Mariette coauthored the study, which was published Aug. 19 in Science. 

With climate change increasing temperatures across much of the Australian bird’s range, the ability to warn its young to stay cool could be integral to its survival. 

“This remarkable paper helps us understand how animals could adapt to changing climate by showing that parental care alters nestling growth,” said Sonia Kleindorfer, a behavioral ecologist at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, who was not involved in the study. “It also shows that…embryos can learn much more than we ever imagined.”

 (Photo: Getty Images)

Florida Officials to Public: Stop Painting Animals

Florida wildlife officials are asking the public to follow a pretty simple rule: Don’t paint the animals.

Rangers rescued a white ibis that had been painted orange this week, just days after officials discovered multiple gopher tortoises in unnatural shades of blue and red.

“Please keep your paint on the canvas and off of wildlife,” the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wrote on its Facebook page. “White ibis are protected in Florida. Not only is it illegal to paint them, but it is cruel to paint any wildlife.”

For gopher tortoises, the prank can lead to nasty health issues. A painted shell can hinder the threatened species’ ability to absorb vitamins they need from the sun, cause respiratory problems, and allow toxic chemicals to enter into the reptile’s bloodstream, officials said.

(Photos: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

Rare Deer Species Survives Decades of Turmoil in Afghanistan

Bactrian deer are native to Afghanistan, but researchers hadn’t seen the species in the country in more than 40 years. Then, in a 2013 field study, wildlife ecologist Zalmai Moheb and a team of conservationists found tracks, and caught a glimpse of a young female.

“It was a great feeling,” Moheb, a Ph.D. student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told Smithsonian.com. “Wow, we’re going to confirm the species here for the first time after 45 years. That will be a big thing for the wildlife in Afghanistan.”

The team’s findings were published in May in a deer specialist newsletter by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Before the discovery, the deer were last recorded in 1973 in Afghanistan’s Takhar province—a region fraught with four decades of political unrest that has persisted through the Soviet-Afghan War and ongoing conflicts between the government and the Taliban.

The global population of Bactrian deer has recovered somewhat in recent decades, growing from an estimated 350 to 400 in 1960 to around 1,900 today in countries including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers Bactrian deer endangered wherever they’re found.

(Photo: Ted Jackson/Flickr)

Manatees Take 34-Hour Flight to New Home

Manatees have returned to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe for the first time in nearly a century—via Singapore. Two manatees born in captivity in the Southeast Asian nation were flown to Guadeloupe last week as part of a program to repopulate the island with the marine mammals, which were hunted to extinction in the 20th century. The manatees, named Kai and Junior, are getting used to their new home after a 34-hour flight.

(Photo: Helene Valenzuela/AFP/Getty Images)

On World Elephant Day, Seven Tech Giants Unite Against Online Wildlife Trafficking

On Aug. 12—World Elephant Day—a coalition of tech giants and conservation groups have united to fight online trade in illegal wildlife products. Black market demand for ivory is driving the slaughter of 30,000 to 50,0000 wild elephants a year, putting pachyderms on a fast track to extinction in the wild.
 
Referencing national and international animal protections, Yahoo, Tencent, Pinterest, Microsoft, Gumtree, Etsy, and eBay have adopted a new, uniform policy for online wildlife commerce that clearly defines what’s allowed and banned.
 
The more firms adopt and enforce the guidelines, the better they’ll be able to bring an end to “the ‘whack-a-mole effect,’ where one online company hits back hard by tightening up its policy and efforts to close loopholes, then traffickers pop up on other sites to trade unimpeded,” said Crawford Allan, the senior director for wildlife crime at TRAFFIC, in a statement.
 
While a list of rules won’t stop the poaching crisis, “this is a crucial first step in removing the internet as a channel for wildlife traffickers,” Ginette Hemley, senior vice president for conservation at the World Wildlife Fund, said in the statement.
 
A camera trap snapped this image of a mother elephant with her baby in India’s Kaziranga National Park.

(Photo: Steve Winter/Getty Images)

sea toad

A Sea Toad Keeps Watch for Its Next Meal

Scientists aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel Okeanos Explorer caught sight of this chubby sea toad at Wake Atoll, in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, on Aug. 6. The critter was “hanging out, waiting for its next meal to swim by,” in their expert opinion.

Okeanos Explorer is on an expedition to explore and map the atoll’s largely uncharted deep-sea ecosystems. The results of the voyage—which the public can join on most days via a live video feed—will help the agency establish a baseline of information for continuing to study and manage Wake Atoll.

(Photo: Courtesy NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research)

The Toucan With the 3-D-Printed Beak Is Thriving

Grecia, a Costa Rican toucan, lost his upper beak in December 2015 after being beaten by a group of teenagers. As images of the disfigured bird went viral around the world, four local companies offered to create a 3-D-printed prosthesis for the toucan, and a crowdfunding campaign raised more than $10,000 to fund the work.

Today a national movement for stronger laws against animal cruelty is still trying to change the law in Costa Rica, according to The Tico Times, while Grecia is thriving at Zoo Ave, the animal refuge in Alajuela, Costa Rica, that has cared for him since the attack. The intertwined stories are recounted in Toucan Nation, a Discovery Networks documentary that will air Aug. 24 on Animal Planet.

(Photo: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters)

A Capybara Plays It Cool in Rio de Janeiro

This capybara was ready for its close-up with the international press when it was spotted near the Olympic Golf Course in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 8. The capybara is the largest rodent in the world and native to South America.

(Photo: Andrew Boyers/Reuters)

Celebrate Lynx on International Cat Day

On Aug. 9—International Cat Day—two Eurasian lynx were introduced into a wildlife park on the Isle of Man, between Ireland and Great Britain.

The two cats are sisters, ages one and two, and could be introduced to a breeding male at a later date, the park manager told BBC News.

Lynx were once plentiful throughout the United Kingdom, but the systematic extermination of the species (mainly for their fur) has left the island nations overpopulated by deer—1.5 million of them.

Now, a conservation group wants to reintroduce the lynx, starting with small experimental populations to see how the 50- to 60-pound predators fare in today’s British countryside.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Teaching Old Koalas a New Trick

Koala bears in southeast Queensland, Australia, have a propensity for getting hit by cars, so researchers are trying to figure out how to keep the marsupials off the road.

Scientists at Griffith University studied a few of the roadkill hot spots and constructed culverts and tunnels at those locations. They placed camera traps at the sites and put wireless ID tags on koalas to see if the endangered animals chose the tunnels or the roads on their transit journeys.

“We expected the animals to take a while to get used to them,” lead researcher Darryl Jones said in a statement. “To our great surprise they were using them three weeks into it. Can you teach koalas new tricks? You can, that’s the point. I was the first skeptical person to say they’re not that smart.”

The crossings studied in Brisbane were within the jurisdictions of Brisbane City, Redland City, and the Moreton Bay Region.

“Although we don’t want the koalas to be disturbed, all over the place on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane there are special koala-specific tunnels and ledges that are allowing them to cross,” Jones said. “Those animals are not going to be hit anymore, so that’s good news.”

(Photo: Nigel Killeen/Getty Images)

Bear Takes a 5-Mile Ride on the Back of a Garbage Truck

A Dumpster-diving bear in Los Alamos, New Mexico, got the ride of its life July 21 when a garbage truck driver accidentally loaded it onboard.

“The driver didn’t know the bear was in there, and he unknowingly dumped the bear into the truck along with the Dumpster’s contents,” Julie Anne Overton with the Santa Fe National Forest told ABC. “He said he heard a squeal.”

The bear reportedly climbed on top of the truck and rode along for at least five miles, according to an Associated Press report. Then, a video captured by Caleb Johnson of La Cueva Fire District in Sandoval County showed what happened next: U.S. Forest Service and national park workers guided the driver to back the truck up to a tree so the bear could climb off. The bear stayed in the tree for about an hour before fleeing back to the forest.

(Photo: Facebook)

Increasingly Frequent Megafires Threaten Spotted Owls

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires in America’s forests, and that could spell disaster for spotted owls, which rely on fire-prone old-growth forests.

The threat is leaving forest managers in a quandary: Is it better for owls to endure the short-term harm of forest thinning and prescribed burns, which are intended to prevent large fires from breaking out, or leave forests intact and hope for the best?

A new study out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison may have the answer.

The research group documented an exodus of owls following the devastating 99,000-acre King Fire in California in 2014. The fire, considered one of the largest and most severe in California’s recorded history, burned at the site of a 23-year owl population study. Colored bands on the owls’ legs allowed researchers to identify individual animals from a distance.

About half the study area burned, so it was the perfect test case to see how the owls in the burned region would respond. A year after the fire came through, researchers checked all 30 known owl sites on the burned side, and found all of them owl-free.

“Almost all the owl territories within the megafire went from occupied to unoccupied,” said Zach Peery, principal investigator of the new study, which is published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology. “We can now say that megafires have a significant impact on the spotted owl, and so we think that forest restoration through fuel reduction benefits both the forest ecosystem and the spotted owl.”

(Photo: Getty Images)

Hawk in Search of Air Time

A red-tailed hawk dropped in on a Nebraska television station’s weather camera July 25, and it seemingly enjoyed its 50 seconds of fame.

“Nobody probably thought they would see something like this,” the 1011 News weather team of Lincoln, Nebraska, wrote on its Facebook page. “Our friend, Mr. Hawk, is VERY interested in the camera atop our tower at 40th and Vine in Lincoln, NE today!”

Jason St. Sauver, the National Audubon Society’s Nebraska bird expert, identified the camera-loving bird as a red-tailed hawk, noting it was most likely a juvenile.

“It looks as if it may have seen its reflection,” he said in a statement. “Many young or male birds do this thinking they see a rival for territory or mates."

The station posted a video of the bird’s cameo on YouTube.

(Photo: YouTube)

India Flooding Leaves Baby Rhinos Stranded

Recent monsoon floods have inundated nearly 90 percent of India’s Kaziranga National Park, leaving many of the region’s endangered rhinos stranded in search of higher ground.

So far, conservation group International Fund for Animal Welfare has rescued six rhino calves from the worst-affected regions in the park. The rhinos have been moved to wildlife rescue centers to receive treatment and food.

The Assam Forest Department found a three-month-old calf separated from its mother, struggling to swim across a flooded paddy field in the park’s Central Forest Range. Workers brought the calf by boat to a nearby residential backyard on July 26. IFAW veterinarians were called in and transferred the male calf to a wildlife rescue center.

“After two unsuccessful attempts, it [the calf] is now responding to oral rehydration and milk formula,” Panjit Basumatary, lead veterinarian at the rescue center, said in a statement. The rhinos will be released back into the wild once the floodwaters recede.

The torrential rains in India’s northeastern state of Assam have displaced more than 1.6 million people, and they are forecast to continue for the next 48 hours.

(Photo: IFAW/Getty Images)

Little Penguin Chick Makes Debut at Bronx Zoo

The colony of little penguins at Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo has a new member, as the first chick ever hatched at the facility is now on public display.

The chick hatched May 10, and its soft, downy plumage has already been replaced with a coat of blue-tinted waterproof feathers.

Little penguins are the smallest penguin species in the world, reaching just over a foot tall and weighing around two to three pounds when fully grown.

Wildlife Conservation Society opened its little penguin exhibit at the Bronx Zoo in 2015—bringing over birds from Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, as part of a captive-breeding program.

(Photo: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS)

weddell seal

Crowdsourcing a Count of Antarctica’s Weddell Seals

Ecologist Michelle LaRue has tweeted a call for the public’s help in getting the first-ever comprehensive count of Weddell seals in Antarctica—and you can do it from anywhere on Earth, as long as you have an internet connection. 

The “Satellites Over Seals” project is inviting citizen scientists to view high-resolution satellite images taken along 300 miles of Antarctica’s Ross Sea coastline and tag the dark spots and blobs that are likely to be seals. The data will be used to determine whether increased commercial harvesting of Antarctic toothfish—the “Chilean seabass” found on restaurant menus around the world—is affecting the seals, which prey on the fish.

“By counting seals on satellite imagery, we hope to learn how the Ross Sea is functioning as fishing continues,” said LaRue, who works at the University of Minnesota, in a statement. “Using the satellite imagery, we’ve already seen that in a couple of local areas, seal numbers have drastically changed, but we need a broader perspective to better understand what might be going on.”

There are so many images that “it would take years for us to count them all,” said LaRue. “By surveying the sea ice habitat frequented by the seals, the public will not only assist in the pursuit of science but will help us better protect and conserve the most pristine piece of ocean on the planet—the Ross Sea.”

(Photo: Silversea Cruises/Flickr)

baby loggerhead sea turtle

Georgia’s Endangered Sea Turtles Nesting in Record Numbers

Georgia’s endangered loggerhead sea turtles have laid more than 3,000 clutches of eggs on the state’s sandy beaches this spring and summer and are likely to lay a few hundred more.

That’s almost 10 times as many as the all-time low of 358 nests the turtles made in 2004, according to SavannahNow.

Experts didn’t expect to see this many nests—the number surpasses the state’s turtle recovery goal of 2,800—for another eight to 10 years, according to The Wildlife Society. “This is an important milestone and suggests that all our management has paid off, and we’re moving in the right direction,” Mark Dodd, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, told The Wildlife Society.

But Dodd said conservation efforts, which include curbing artificial light and predator populations on the beaches, as well as use of turtle-friendly nets by commercial shrimp harvesters, must continue. “They’re not going to breed until they’re 30 or 35 years of age,” he said. “So it takes a long time and a lot of work.”

(Photo: USFWS/Flickr)

Three Persian Leopards Released Back Into Russia’s Wild

Conservationists released three Persian leopards into Russia’s Western Caucasus last week, reintroducing the endangered species to the region after a nearly century-long absence.

The species was once common across the mountain areas in the Caucasus region, but hunting and other human activities starting in the 1950s led to drastic population declines. According to the World Wildlife Fund, fewer than 1,000 Persian leopards are left in the wild today, the majority in Iran.

“The release of these Persian leopards into the wild is an important milestone in our efforts to reestablish the population, but this is only the beginning,” Igor Chestin, chief executive of WWF-Russia, said in a statement. “As the three leopards take their first steps into the wild, they are forging a future where the Persian leopard can thrive once again in the Western Caucasus.”

The leopards were captive-bred at a center in Sochi National Park, run as part of the reintroduction program that started in 2009. Since then, 14 leopard kittens have been born in the center.

(Photo: Frank Perry/Getty Images)

Sloths Are Slow for a Reason

Tree sloths are one of the few vertebrates in the animal kingdom that spend nearly their entire lives in forest canopies, surviving solely on a diet of leaves.

But what they’re best known for is their namesake-like behavior—slow and minimal movement. Now, new research out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison claims the species’ unique pace is actually a direct result of the animal’s adaptation to its tree-dwelling, leaf-eating life.

“Among vertebrates, this is the rarest of lifestyles,” said Jonathan Pauli, wildlife ecologist and lead author of the study to appear in the August edition of American Naturalist. “When you picture animals that live off plant leaves, they are almost all big—things like moose, elk, and deer. What’s super interesting about arboreal folivores [leaf-eating specialists] is that they can’t be big.”

Pauli and fellow researchers examined wild two- and three-toed sloths in Costa Rica and studied the ecological adaptations the endangered species have made to survive, including specialized limb adaptation, reduced body mass, a slow metabolic rate, and claws that act like hooks—allowing the animals to hang on limbs with minimal energy use.

“The food sucks,” Pauli said in a statement. “It’s only plant leaves. You have to exploit a very constrained niche.”

The limited nutrition of a diet consisting of leaves appears to be an evolutionary driver in limiting the number of animals that can survive solely in the forest canopy.

“This study explains why eating leaves in the canopies of trees leads to life in the slow lane, why fast-moving animals like birds tend not to eat leaves, and why animals like deer that eat a lot of leaves tend to be big and live on the ground,” Doug Levey, program director at the National Science Foundation, said in a statement.

(Photo: Getty Images)

South Africa’s Great White Sharks Are Facing Extinction

South Africa’s great white sharks are in dangerous waters, as new research shows a rapid drop in numbers has put the population at risk of extinction.

The six-year study found that only 350 to 500 great white sharks remain in the country’s coastal waters, about half the total previously thought. The researchers said trophy hunting, shark nets, and pollution were the leading causes for the decline.

“If the situation stays the same, South Africa’s great white sharks are heading for possible extinction,” said Sara Andreotti, lead study author and Stellenbosch University researcher in South Africa. “The chances for their survival are even worse than what we previously thought.”

(Photo: Chris Brunskill/Getty Images)

Buying a Shark Fishing License to Save Sharks

Why is conservation group World Wildlife Fund–Australia buying a shark-fishing license? So it can keep somebody else from using it, the group said.

The commercial license is one of five issued by the government of Queensland, Australia, that permits shark fishing along the Great Barrier Reef by dragging a half-mile-long net along the ocean floor. When it went up for sale at a cost $100,000, WWF-Australia jumped at the chance to purchase it, raising more than $130,000 in under a week.

The plan now is to retire the license and use the excess funds to purchase other licenses that come on the market.

“It’s a new approach to conservation,” Gilly Llewellyn, WWF-Australia’s conservation director, said in a statement. “This is an opportunity for people to help stop a massive 1.2-kilometer-long net from sitting in reef waters and indiscriminately killing almost everything that swims into it. These enormous nets kill tens of thousands of juvenile sharks each year.”

(Photo: Jeff Hunter/Getty Images)

Jane Goodall Visits Kenya’s Rescued Chimps

Famed British primatologist Jane Goodall visited Kenya’s Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary on July 14.

Goodall’s trip was her first to the facility, which opened in 1993 after an agreement between the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the Kenya Wildlife Service, and the Jane Goodall Institute to open a site that could receive and provide refuge for orphaned and abused chimpanzees rescued from populations in West and Central Africa.

Today, about 50 chimpanzees are housed at the center, the only such facility for great apes in the country.

(Photo: Tony Karumba/Getty Images)

India’s Rhinos Face a Growing Poaching Threat

A decade ago, conservation work and tightening security had nearly wiped out illegal poaching efforts in India’s Kaziranga National Park—a 166-square-mile protected forest home to around 2,500 rhinos.

But new reports show an alarming uptick in the slaughter of the endangered rhinos, whose horns are prized in neighboring China and in Vietnam. 

At least 12 rhinos have been poached in Kaziranga in the first six months of this year, more than twice the number killed in the whole of 2006, according to World Wildlife Fund India.

Amit Sharma, senior coordinator for rhino conservation at WWF India, told Agence France-Presse that she blames a surge in demand on rising rhino horn prices, which have reached up to $100,000 per kilogram for the final product.

“The poaching network has become more systematic, stronger, more efficient," Sharma said, noting wildlife rangers are ill-equipped to deal with the modern sophisticated weapons of poachers, who are armed with AK-47 rifles and night-vision goggles. “The value of a horn has shot up like anything, that is why people are ready to risk their lives.”

(Photo: Yelena Mena/Getty Images)

Can M&M-Spitting Drones Save Black-Footed Ferrets?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a plan to save the endangered black-footed ferret, and it involves shooting vaccine-laced M&Ms out of drones.

The plan, listed in a recent Environmental Assessment, actually aims to vaccinate prairie dogs—a favorite prey of ferrets—over 1,200 acres of grassland habitat in Montana.

Both ferrets and prairie dogs are susceptible to the sylvatic plague, a flea-borne disease that’s been decimating both species since its introduction to the U.S. in the 1800s. The two-pound masked critters rely on prairie dogs as a food source and also use their tunnel dwellings for shelter. 

Black-footed ferrets were once thought to be extinct in the U.S, but reintroduction efforts across eight states have established a population of about 300 ferrets in the wild today. Still, the species is struggling to gain footholds in many regions due to the lack of prairie dogs as prey. After a number of failed attempts to kill plague-spreading fleas with pesticides, wildlife officials are hoping the aerial deployment of the peanut butter–smothered vaccine pellets via drone will turn the tide in the fight to restore the species.

“It is the fastest, cheapest way to distribute the vaccine,” Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Randy Matchett told The Guardian. “We are hopeful this oral vaccine will be used to mitigate plague sites and treat tens of thousands of acres each year.”

The plan still requires public comment, but wildlife officials think it could be approved by Sept. 1 for a trial run at Montana’s UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge. 

(Photo: Rick Wilking/Reuters)

Two New Litters of Mountain Lions Found in California

Two litters of tiny, blue-eyed mountain lion kittens were discovered in the eastern Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles last month.

The kittens—three males and two females—were ear-tagged and returned to their dens by National Park Service researchers, who have for the past 14 years been studying how mountain lions living in and around Los Angeles cope with the fragmented habitat.

“Despite the challenges mountain lions in this area face, the animals we’ve studied appear to be reproducing successfully,” Jeff Sikich, a biologist with Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in a statement about the kittens.

Officials said the two litters are suspected to have the same father but different mothers.

(Photo: National Park Service)

Ghostlike Fish Seen Alive for the First Time

An eellike, translucent fish in the little-known family Aphyonidae was spotted alive for the first time as researchers aboard the NOAA expedition ship Okeanos Explorer captured footage from ROVs deployed to the depths of the Mariana Trench.

“Some of us working with fish have had wish lists, bucket lists, for what we might want to see,” says Bruce Mundy, a NOAA fisheries biologist with the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, in a video. “A fish in this family is probably first on those lists for a lot of us.”

Scientists say the fish’s skin has no scales, is transparent, and is most likely gelatinous. The ROV was inspecting a ridge feature about 8,200 feet deep in the Mariana Trench when it came across the fish.

There has been debate, Mundy said, on whether these fish are pelagic—swimming mostly in the water column—or whether they spend their time on the ocean floor.

“You’ve got the first evidence to not necessarily solve that debate, but you can make a strong argument that yes, the family is a bottom-living family,” he said.

(Photo: NOAA Ocean Explorer)

‘World’s Saddest Polar Bear’ Dies at 30

Thirty-year-old polar bear Arturo, who spent more than two decades at the Mendoza Zoo in Argentina, where temperatures can regularly exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit, died on July 3.

The “world’s saddest bear” made headlines in 2014 when environmental groups including Greenpeace argued it was “risky” to keep Arctic Circle–inhabiting animals such as polar bears in such a climate and garnered more than 1 million signatures urging zoo officials to relocate Arturo to a Canadian zoo.

A polar bear named Winner died of heat exposure at the Buenos Aires Zoo in 2012.

Following Arturo’s death, Greenpeace Argentina released a statement saying zoos like Mendoza are prioritizing the exhibition of animals for commercial and recreational purposes over conservation animal welfare.

“Arturo was a test case,” Soledad Sede, an Greenpeace Argentina campaigner, said in a release. “We hope [Arturo will] be the last polar bear trapped in a zoo of our country and if necessary, compel the authorities to review the situation of other exotic species that survive in the same situation.”

(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

The Birds That Can Spend Two Months in the Air

Great frigatebirds, which live in and around the Pacific and Indian oceans, are known for their long-distance flight abilities, traveling thousands of miles across the water on their annual migration routes.

Now, scientists have recorded just how impressive these transoceanic journeys are. A new study published in the journal Science reveals the birds can stay airborne for as long as 56 days, without ever touching the ground or water.

Even more astounding was how little energy the birds used to achieve these long-distance flights. A team at the National Center for Scientific Research in France attached GPS trackers, heart rate monitors, and accelerometers to the birds to study their migration paths.

According to the study, the species’ light frame and long, wide wings give the birds an advantage in using atmospheric conditions and cloud updraft to gain more than 2,000 feet in elevation with just a single flap of their wings.

“They use favorable winds (trade winds) to effortlessly make immense circles in the Indian Ocean,” the authors wrote. “The juveniles in particular, who leave their birthplace for the first time, travel thousands of kilometers and, even more surprisingly, can remain airborne for over two months without touching ground.”

(Photo: Getty Images)

Sea Turtle Released After Months of Laser Treatment

A sea turtle named Cisco Kid got a hero’s send-off this month when wildlife rescue workers were able to release the juvenile green sea turtle past a throng of more than 200 onlookers and back into the Atlantic Ocean.

The release came six months after the turtle was stranded on Hammock Beach in Palm Coast, Florida. Cisco Kid was found near death, riddled with tumors, fighting a blood infection, and too weak to swim or eat. Luckily, the turtle washed up right next to the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory Sea Turtle Hospital in St. Augustine.

There, teams of scientists are working to better understand and treat the fibropapilloma virus—the ailment that had hit Cisco Kid and is spreading through sea turtle populations.

Laser treatments successfully removed the tumors, and Cisco Kid made a full recovery, becoming the first turtle to be released from the lab after succumbing to the virus.

(Photo: University of Florida)

Keeping an ‘Ear’ on New York’s Whales

Scientists are now eavesdropping on New York’s whale population.

A team from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has deployed an acoustic monitoring buoy in New York waters, allowing researchers to listen in on some of the world’s largest animals.

“This technology allows us to monitor the presence of several species of baleen whales in near real time, and to use that knowledge to better study and protect these endangered species in the extremely busy waters of the New York Bight,” Mark Baumgartner, a marine ecologist and coleader of the project, said in a statement.

The buoy is located between two major shipping lanes that lead to New York Harbor.

“The acoustic buoy data will help us to better understand when and where whales are present in New York’s waters, particularly in those places where we have little information on how whales are affected by ship traffic and ocean noise,” said Howard Rosenbaum, director of the ocean grants program at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Similar buoys were deployed off the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine earlier this year, and scientists hope the data over a large area will give details on how, where, and when whales move.

(Photo: Artie Raslich/Getty Images)

Four Tons of Seized “Plastic” Turns Out to be Pangolins

Hong Kong officials seized more than four tons of African pangolin scales hidden in cargo bins labeled “sliced plastics” from Cameroon, according to a government press release.

The seizure of scales is one of the largest documented pangolin trafficking incidents, estimated to be worth more than $1.25 million, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

There are eight species of pangolins—also called scaly anteaters—and all are listed as endangered by the IUCN. More than 1 million pangolins have been snatched from the wild in the past decade, and the species is considered the most trafficked animal on the planet. Demand is high for the animals’ meat and scales, both of which are used in traditional medicine and considered a delicacy.

(Photo: Christopher Scott/Getty Images)

Four Owlets Saved by a Taxi Driver

A taxi driver in Zhengzhou, China, rescued four pygmy owlets he spotted on his drive home on June 22. A storm had blown their nest into the middle of a busy road, and the owlets appeared stranded. According to a report from China Huanqiu news, the taxi driver picked up the nest and took the birds to his home in a cardboard box.

He took the four baby owls to a local rescue center run by Zhengzhou Municipal Bureau of Forestry Wildlife, which said the birds are in good health.

(Photo: Getty Images) 

Buenos Aires Turns Zoo Into Eco Park

Officials in Buenos Aires, Argentina, announced Thursday that most of the 2,500 animals kept at its 140-year-old zoo will be moved to sanctuaries in other parts of the country, where they can be housed in better conditions.

A spate of scandals centered on the handling of zoo animals led the city’s mayor, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, to announce that the zoo will now operate as an eco park to rehabilitate injured and trafficked animals, and it will promote environmental conservation.

“This situation of captivity is degrading for the animals. It’s not the way to take care of them,” Rodríguez Larreta said in a statement.

Around 50 animals deemed too fragile to transport will remain at the zoo, including Sandra, a 30-year-old orangutan who made headlines in 2014 when a Buenos Aires court declared her a “nonhuman person” who deserves rights.

Buenos Aires’ modernization minister said the zoo’s new path of education and rehabilitation could be an example for other zoos to follow and make similar changes.

“I think there is a change coming for which we are already prepared because kids nowadays consider it obvious that it's wrong for animals to be caged,” Argentine animal rights lawyer Gerardo Biglia told The Guardian.

(Photo: Juan Mabromata/Getty Images)

Florida’s Black Bears Can Rest Easy in 2016

Wildlife officials nixed black bear hunting in Florida for the 2016 season, giving the species a reprieve for at least one year.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 4–3 Wednesday to postpone the season’s hunt, which would have been similar in scope to the 2015 hunt, where more than 300 bears were killed in just two days.

Commission Chairman Brian Yablonski said the delay would allow nonlethal efforts to be implemented, including expanding the availability of bear-proof trash containers in communities with high incidence of bear-human interactions.

Florida’s black bears were once endangered. By the 1970s, only a few hundred bears were left in the wild, and hunting was banned statewide by the mid-1990s. Since then, the population has rebounded to more than 3,000, and a spate of bear attacks in recent years has led hunters to push for a reintroduction of a hunting season.

“We hope [Wednesday’s] important action signals a shift to humane, effective bear management in the Sunshine State,” said Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. “Public education, trash management, and other nonlethal methods are more effective and humane than trophy hunting.”

(Photo: Millard H Sharp/Getty Images)

Release the Manatee

A wildlife worker at Florida’s Miami Seaquarium sprays down a manatee that is being prepped for release back into the wild. The juvenile male manatee was rescued last year after being found with boat propeller injuries that required medical attention.

Now fully rehabilitated, the marine mammal was released back into the Loxahatchee River at Jonathan Dickinson State Park on June 21.

(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Shining a Light on Pollinators

Animals and insects such as bees, bats, birds, butterflies, and beetles are responsible for pollinating a third of the world’s food supply.

And this week, those pollinators are getting some recognition, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and nonprofit group Pollinator Partnership have proclaimed June 20–26 National Pollinator Week.

Events planned around the country are intended to highlight the importance of these animals to the environment and food production, but some groups are using the occasion to bring attention to the plight of commercial honeybees, which sustain massive die-offs annually and are regularly exposed to agricultural pesticides.

On Wednesday, conservation group Friends of the Earth and a coalition of farmers, farmworkers, and beekeepers are planning to haul a truckload containing 2.64 million dead bees to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to urge immediate action for regulating pesticide use nationally and supporting sustainable agriculture.

(Photo: John McKeen/Getty Images)

Pacific Bluefin Tuna in Trouble

Like its Atlantic cousins, the Pacific bluefin tuna species is in trouble.

Recent estimates show the species known for its rich, buttery flesh has declined in numbers by some 97 percent since the 1960s—a victim of the massive impacts of overfishing.

Now, a coalition of conservation groups is petitioning the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect Pacific bluefin tuna by listing the species under the Endangered Species Act.

“New tagging research has shed light on the mysteries of where majestic bluefin tuna reproduce and migrate, so we can help save this important species,” said Catherine Kilduff of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of 14 groups listed on the petition. “Protecting this incredible fish under the Endangered Species Act is the last hope, because fisheries management has failed to keep them off the path toward extinction.”

The announcement comes the week before fisheries managers meet June 27 in La Jolla, California, to discuss catch reductions for Pacific Ocean–based species.

“The near extinction of the Pacific bluefin is yet another example of our failure to grow—or in this case, catch—our food in a sustainable manner,” said Adam Keats, a senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety. “We must change our ways if we are to survive. Hopefully it is not too late for the bluefin.”

(Photo: Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Seals Set Free in Ireland

A common seal named Groot is ready to make its return to the open ocean. Seal Rescue Ireland workers released Groot and one other seal back into the wild on June 12 after both had been rescued and received months of rehabilitation at the organization’s wildlife sanctuary in Wexford, Ireland.  

The release took place on the beach in Courtown, about 55 miles south of Dublin.

(Photo: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

Moose of the Midwest Could Get Protections

The northwestern subspecies of moose found in Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin might warrant protections under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced.

Climate change, habitat degradation, disease, and other factors have put the moose population in the region in a sharp decline, including a nearly 60 percent decrease in Minnesota in just 10 years. 

“The Endangered Species Act is the best tool we have to prevent extinction of our moose,” said Collette Adkins, a biologist and attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the petition with another group, Honor the Earth. “I’m saddened that moose are in such big trouble that they need the act’s protection but relieved that help is likely on the way.”

An estimated 4,000 moose remain in Minnesota today. Scientists have warned that the animals will be nearly extinct from the state within five years if the trend is not reversed. To alleviate some of the stresses on the animals, state officials called moose hunting in 2013.

(Photo: Layne Kennedy/Getty Images)

Human-Caused Climate Change Claims Its First Mammal

The Bramble Cay melomys, an Australian rodent found only on one tiny island along the Great Barrier Reef, has been declared extinct. And in a new report, scientists say it is the first mammal to be wiped out by human-caused climate change.

The key factor responsible for killing off the rodent was multiple occasions of flooding over the past decade that inundated the island, “causing dramatic habitat loss,” the report stated.

“Significantly, this probably represents the first recorded mammalian extinction due to anthropogenic climate change,” the researchers said in their report, quietly published on the Queensland government’s website last week.

In response to the report, the Queensland government website no longer recommends any recovery actions be taken. “Because the Bramble Cay melomys is now confirmed to have been lost from Bramble Cay, no recovery actions for this population can be implemented,” it reads.

On their secluded island, Bramble cay melomys couldn’t cope with sea level rise, a known consequence of climate change. In a new study, it’s estimated that 30 percent of mammal species are likely not going to be able to migrate fast enough to keep up with the average rate of climate change, increasing the risk of extinction for multiple species.

(Photo: University of Queensland)

The Daily Wild: Don’t Find Dory

With Disney and Pixar releasing Finding Dory—the follow-up to the animated undersea classic Finding Nemo—conservation groups are warning moviegoers to not purchase fish that look like Dory for their home aquariums.

Blue tangs like Dory cannot be bred in captivity, so the saltwater specimens for sale in pet shops are typically wild caught, taken primarily from coral reefs in the Philippines and Indonesia.

“We are already seeing a troublesome increase in the number of blue tangs offered for sale to unknowing consumers in preparation for the release of Finding Dory,” said For the Fishes director Rene Umberger. The conservation group recently created Tank Watch, a free mobile app that allows consumers to find out if a fish is wild caught, and inappropriate as a pet, or captive bred.

In a proactive move, Disney developed educational materials to inform the public on purchasing captive-bred, easy-to-care-for fish. “Blue tangs, like Dory, do not make good pets so instead choose appropriate acquacultured fish,” the guidelines note.

(Photo: MyLoupe/Getty Images)

Sea Otter Pup Reunited With Mom

A video posted by the Marine Mammal Center in Morro Bay, California, shows the rare reunion of a day-old sea otter with its mom in the wild.

The pup was found May 26 in the bay after wildlife officials received multiple calls about an abandoned sea otter pup. Heather Harris, a veterinarian with the Marine Mammal Center, a wildlife biologist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and volunteers helped successfully reunite the pup with its mother.

The video shows officials releasing the pup back into the bay and the mother swimming over and quickly scooping her baby onto her chest. “There are very few successful reunites so this is something to celebrate,” Harris write in a Facebook post.

(Photo: Paul Souders/Getty Images)

Three Endangered Red Wolf Pups Born

Three red wolf pups were born at the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, this month. The pups, all female, each weighed less than a pound at birth and have grown to six pounds. They are part of the captive population of the critically endangered species, of which as few as 50 remain in the wild today.

The species was once common throughout the eastern and southern United States, but habitat degradation and systematic wolf eradication programs led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare the red wolf extinct in the wild in 1980. The few remaining animals left in the wild were brought into captivity to preserve the species and create a captive breeding program that includes about 200 wolves.

“Red wolves face the very real possibility of vanishing from the wild if they don’t get the help they need,” Brett Hartl, endangered species policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Sadly, the Fish and Wildlife Service seems more concerned about appeasing a small minority of anti-wildlife extremists than preventing the extinction of these wolves.”

On Tuesday, conservation groups including the Animal Welfare Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity submitted a petition calling for the FWS to beef up protections for the few remaining wild red wolves and reintroduce new wolves from the captive population back into the wild.

(Photo: Great Plains Zoo/Facebook)

Turtles Have Their Day

On World Turtle Day, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule aimed at regulating and monitoring international trade in four turtle species, including the common snapping turtle, the Florida softshell turtle, the smooth softshell turtle, and the spiny softshell turtle. 

The listing under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will require exporters to get a permit before shipping turtles overseas, helping U.S. officials to better control trade and ensure its legality, FWS said.

“Listing these species under CITES will help engage our international partners to assist our special agents and wildlife inspectors in the fight against the illegal turtle trade, including investigating the criminals who profit from it,” Ed Grace, FWS deputy chief of law enforcement, said in a statement.

A majority of the more than 2 million wild-caught live turtles exported from the U.S. each year end up as meals or in medicinal markets in Asia where turtle populations are already decimated, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Commercial trade only compounds the problems native turtles already face from habitat destruction, water pollution, and being hit and killed by cars,” said Jenny Loda, a biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These protections will prevent trade in illegally acquired animals and allow the United States to track trade of the species.”

(Photo: Jim McKinley/Getty Images)

On Endangered Species Day, A New Call to Save Birds

There are 1,154 species of birds native to Canada, the United States, and Mexico—and 432 of them are in danger of extinction, according to the first-ever assessment of the state of North American birds released just in time for Endangered Species Day. According to State of North America's Birds 2016, 37 percent of North American bird species overall are in trouble—such as the Florida grasshopper sparrow—including over half of tropical and ocean birds; and the continent's total bird population has dropped by a billion birds since 1970.

The main reason is destruction of the natural environment: For tropical birds, like this Resplendent Quetzal, a federally listed endangered species in Mexico, deforestation has claimed 70 percent of their North American habitat.

But we already know a lot about creating successful conservation programs, the report concludes, and with enough political will can save most of these species: "The Migratory Bird treaties reflect the will of the people—our societies expect our governments to sustain the abundance and diversity of birds as part of our shared natural heritage."

(Photo: Juan Carlos Vindas/Getty Images)

A First-Ever Count of Amazon Ocelots

Amazon ocelot numbers are stable, but lower than researchers expected, according to new research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. To create this first-ever population density study of the species, researchers collected data with camera traps for three years in the Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve, in the Central Brazilian Amazon. They found an average of 25 ocelots per 100 square kilometers (about 38 square miles) of forest in the reserve, which is a prime habitat for the cats. Less amenable areas may have fewer ocelots, they noted.

Amazon ocelot pelts were once a hot item in the international fur trade, with up to 200,000 animals killed a year. But now habitat loss is the biggest threat to the little cat. So this density estimate “will be useful for refining the ocelot extinction risk assessment and underpinning future conservation actions focused on the species,” said study co-author Daniel Gomes da Rocha in a statement.

(Photo: Daniel Rocha/Instituto Mamirauá; CCAL)

Killing Cormorants to Save Salmon

With the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has so far successfully killed more than 2,000 double-crested cormorants this year—about two-thirds of the total amount the agency is legally allowed to remove from East Sand Island, an estuary on the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington.

The agencies say killing the birds is necessary to protect Columbia River salmon populations, which the cormorants feed on. But conservation groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity say the science doesn’t back up the cull and the agencies are scapegoating wild birds for the region’s salmon declines that have actually been caused by the federal hydropower system.

In the past two years, the agency has shot more than 4,500 cormorants and destroyed more than 6,000 cormorant nests, representing more than 7 percent of the entire double-crested cormorant population west of the Rocky Mountains.

“We’re outraged that the Corps continues to kill cormorants without any justification or benefit,” Tanya Sanerib, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “The science shows that cormorant killing does nothing to protect salmon. It is the Corps’ refusal to modify dam operations that’s the real threat to salmon, and the needless deaths of cormorants are another causality of the agency’s mismanagement of the Columbia River ecosystem.”

(Photo: Arthur Morris/Getty Images)

Only 60 Vaquitas Left on Earth

The vaquita—the world’s smallest porpoise—is even closer to extinction, scientists have found. Only about 60 of the snub-nosed marine mammals remain alive in Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California.

The latest data from the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita shows a nearly 40 percent decline in the world’s population of vaquitas, which numbered 97 in 2014.

The upper gulf is the only known home of the vaquita, where gillnets set by fishermen to catch another threatened species—the totoaba fish—remain the largest threat to the animals.

Gillnets have been banned inside the vaquita’s known habitat, but illegally set nets continue to be found in the region by patrolling Mexican navy boats and conservation groups monitoring the area.

“Despite all the best efforts, we are losing the battle to stop totoaba fishing and save the vaquita,” said Omar Vidal, chief executive at World Wildlife Fund–Mexico. “In addition to a fishing ban, Mexico, the United States, and China need to take urgent and coordinated action to stop the illegal fishing, trafficking, and consumption of totoaba.”

(Photo: Paula Olson/NOAA)

Catfish Rescued out of Nearly Dried-Out Lake

Workers rescued about 100 catfish stuck in a muddy lake in danger of completely drying up on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India. The fish were released into the city’s Sabarmati River.

Two weak monsoon seasons have left at least 330 million people across 10 states in India dealing with extreme levels of drought, with farmers suffering crop losses and entire villages enduring severe water shortages.

On Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported that India’s top court had criticized government leaders for failing to set up a disaster fund to help drought-affected farmers and villagers. The court recommended a disaster management fund be created and standard procedures be put in place for declaring drought-hit areas.

“Evidently, anticipating a disaster such as a drought is not yet in the ‘things to do’ list of the Union of India, and ad hoc measures and knee-jerk reactions are the order of the day,” Supreme Court Justice Madan B. Lokur said in a written judgment.

(Photo: Sam Panthaky/Getty Images)

Elephant Mothers in Africa’s Forests in Danger

The high levels of poaching on Africa’s forest elephants—the lesser-known, smaller cousins of the iconic savanna elephants—will result in the loss of the oldest and wisest female elephants in the herds, and that could have devastating consequences on the future of the species.

As the matriarchs of the herd, the oldest females guide and teach younger elephants where to go for food, what to eat, and how to avoid danger thanks to knowledge obtained over decades. Without their “living libraries,” forest elephant herds are rendered socially unstable, and are likely falling behind in their role as ecosystem engineers, according to a new report published in the journal Conservation Biology.

Like savanna elephants, forest elephants naturally act as seed dispersers of a variety of plant and tree species, create natural forest clearings, and maintain habitat for a number of species.

Between 2002 and 2013, sixty-five percent of Africa’s forest elephants were killed, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, poached for their ivory and dying off at a rate of 9 percent per year.

“We’ve been aware of the catastrophic decline of forest elephants since 2013,” said Dr. Thomas Breuer, WCS conservationist and lead author of the essay. “But, as with savanna elephants, the impacts are greatest when we lose the matriarchs.”

In the essay, the authors state that conservation plans for the elephants need to take into account the disruptions poaching plays on the social structure of the forest elephant herds.

(Photo: Michael Gottschalk/Getty Images)

Baby Sea Stars Bounce Back

A mysterious wasting disease has devastated populations of sea stars from Alaska to California’s coastline in the past two years, turning the important tide pool inhabitants into piles of goo.

But now, scientists are reporting a record number of juvenile starfish in areas along the Oregon coast where adult colonies were once hit. The starfish population in some locations is 300 times higher than typical numbers and could spell a resurgence of the purple ochre—a starfish known as a “keystone species” because of its ability to manage populations of mussels and maintain healthy marine ecosystems.

“When we looked at the settlement of the larval sea stars on rocks in 2014 during the epidemic, it was the same or maybe even a bit lower than previous years,” said Bruce Menge, a professor of marine biology at Oregon State University and lead author of the new sea-star study. “But a few months later, the number of juveniles was off the charts—higher than we’d ever seen.”

But with warmer ocean temperatures discovered as a promoter of sea-star wasting disease, scientists remain concerned the juveniles could face the same fate as the adult stars.

(Photo: Robert Glusic/Getty Images) 

Coho salmon

Judge to Feds: Consider Breaching Dams to Save Salmon

A U.S. District Court judge has thrown out the latest federal blueprint for saving 13 endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead stocks in the Pacific Northwest.

In his May 4 decision, Judge Michael Simon castigated the government for ignoring the best available science in its plan, noting that two decades of effort and “billions of dollars” spent have left the fish in a “perilous state” by failing to consider the obvious: “breaching, bypassing or removing one or more of the four Lower Snake River Dams.”

The agencies have until March 1, 2018, to create a new plan that includes dam-busting options.

Pacific Northwest salmon feed local communities and support a regional fishing industry. They are also vital to the survival of the endangered Southern Resident killer whales. A public-private coalition in Northern California is working to remove several salmon-blocking dams from the Klamath River by 2020.

(Photo: Andy Clark/Reuters)

Panda Baby Born

More than 100,000 people were able to watch a panda birth live online.

The new mother gave birth May 6 at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center in southwest China's Sichuan province. The baby panda, weighing in at 5.1 ounces, was the first Giant Panda born at the center this year.

The newborn male has not been named yet, but the nine-year-old mother panda, named Ai Bang, is famous for her “phantom pregnancy” of 2014. At the time, the panda was showing signs of pregnancy but was not pregnant. Researchers say the condition is not abnormal among captive pandas, as the animals notice an increase in food sources and comforts from their human caretakers.

“After showing prenatal signs, mothers-to-be are moved into single rooms with air conditioning and round-the-clock care. They also receive more buns, fruit, and bamboo, so some clever pandas have used this to their advantage to improve their quality of life," Wu Kongju, research assistant at the center, said in a statement.

This time around, the pregnancy was real.

(Photo: 'China Daily'/Getty Images)

Saving America’s Bobcats From the International Fur Trade

Wildlife conservation groups are suing to halt the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s export program that allows thousands of bobcat pelts to be traded internationally.

In 2014, export tags for 59,000 bobcat pelts were issued by FWS. The species has been increasingly targeted by trappers to meet rising demand for animal furs in Russia and China to be used in products such as coats.

Bobcat populations in the U.S. are not in danger, according to FWS, but the impact of the fur trade export program has not been publicly evaluated, said attorney Matthew Bishop of the Western Environmental Law Center.

“The removal of nearly 60,000 bobcats from U.S. soil each year to fuel the international fur market warrants serious analysis, not zero analysis.” Bishop said in a statement. “The agency has mismanaged the domestic side of what is otherwise an important treaty.”

(Photo: Barrett Hedges/Getty Images)

Captive Wolf Pups Get a Wild Family

For the first time, Mexican gray wolf pups born in captivity have been successfully integrated into a wild litter in New Mexico, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials said.

Two nine-day-old wolf pups born at the St. Louis–based Endangered Wolf Center were flown to New Mexico and introduced to their new wild pack April 23. The technique of inserting captive-born pups into wild dens has never been tried with Mexican wolves, according to the center's director, Regina Mossotti. If the attempt is successful, the surrogate mother will raise the introduced pups as her own.

“Years of work went into this moment,” Mossotti said in a statement. “And we are elated to be a part of history. The Endangered Wolf Center has been working over the last 45 years to help make breakthroughs in conservation efforts. Getting these pups from a den in St. Louis to a den in New Mexico successfully was nothing short of exhilarating—and exhausting.”

With fewer than 100 Mexican gray wolves left in the wild, the two pups represent a vital component of the recovery effort led by FWS.

“The intent is for these newly released pups to be raised in the wild by experienced wolves and ultimately contribute to the gene diversity of the wild population by becoming successful, breeding adults,” FWS said in a statement.

(Photo: Endangered Wolf Center)

Zimbabwe Is Selling Off Its Wildlife

Drought has gotten so bad in Zimbabwe that the country’s wildlife agency has put its wild animals up for sale, hoping buyers can supply food, water, and land to save the animals.

“In light of the drought that was induced by the El Niño phenomenon, ZimParks intends to destock its parks estates selling some of the wildlife,” the agency wrote in a statement. “The authority is, therefore, inviting members of the public with the capacity to acquire and manage wildlife to submit their expression of interest.”

No details have been given on how many or which animals are for sale, or at what price, but the country’s 10 national parks are famous for their populations of elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards, and buffalos.

The water shortage around the famous Hwange National park, where 54,000 elephants are known to roam, is expected to worsen, officials said. Conservationists fear the sale could lead to more international wildlife acquisitions, such as China’s purchase of 24 baby elephants from the country in 2015.

(Photo: Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters)

Alien Imitator Is Actually a Jellyfish

This spindly orb might look like an alien life form, but it was discovered in the depths of our own oceans, as scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found out on a recent dive some two miles below the surface of the sea.

Video footage captured by ROVs deployed from NOAA’s research vessel Okeanos Explorer show the specimen—dubbed a hydromedusa jellyfish—gliding along the ocean floor at the Enigma Seamount near the Mariana Trench. Researchers believe the jellyfish belongs to the genus Crossota, a class of jellyfish that spend their entire lives gliding through the water.

The discovery came during NOAA’s nine-week deep-sea expedition to collect baseline information in the little-known areas in and around the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

More images and videos of the expedition’s findings are available here.

(Photo: NOAA)

Bison One Step Away From Being National Mammal

The bison, an icon of the American West, is now one step away from becoming the national mammal of the United States.

Late Thursday evening—two days after the House of Representatives voted to approve a bill for bison designation—the Senate gave its approval as well.

Now it’s up to President Obama to sign the legislation into law, which would elevate the massive mammal to the level of the bald eagle—the national bird.

Bison are the largest land mammals in North America and considered its first conservation success story. After nearly being wiped out by expansion across the West, a concerted effort led by Teddy Roosevelt in 1907 led to bison restoration efforts across all 50 states.

“Finally we are placing this symbolic creature in proper perspective by recognizing its many values to the American people both past and present,” said Keith Aune, Wildlife Conservation Society senior conservationist and bison program coordinator. “The passage of this bill not only recognizes the historic significance of bison but signals the beginning of a grand American adventure to carry out ecological, economic, and cultural restoration of American bison into the future.”

(Photo: Eric Raptosh Photography/Getty Images)

Saving Circus Lions and Sending Them Home

Thirty-three lions, including Chino and Rolex, pictured here, are ready to embark on a trip back to their native land.

The lions, many of which were in poor health, have all been rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia and are being transported via cargo plane April 29 to live out their lives at an animal sanctuary in South Africa.

The U.K-based nonprofit group Animal Defenders International has organized the trip, dubbed the “largest lion airlift” ever. The sanctuary is the best option for these lions, as many have had their claws removed and teeth blunted by their handlers, making it impossible for them to catch prey or survive in the wild.

“These lions have endured hell on earth, and now they are heading home to paradise. This is the world for which nature intended these animals for,” said ADI president Jan Creamer in a statement.

More than 40 countries have implemented restrictions on wild animal performances in traveling circuses.

(Photo: ADI)

Red Fox Pups Saved

Three red fox kits were taken in by workers at the wildlife rescue center Salthaven West near Weyburn, Saskatchewan.

According to the rescue center, the foxes are about 10 weeks old, and the person who rescued them thought they were doing a good thing, but it might have been better to leave the pups where they were.

“Often people will come across them and see that they’ve been orphaned or abandoned when that’s not the case,” Megan Lawrence, director of rehabilitation at Salthaven, told CBC News. “These ones were in care with the person who found them for about a week before they decided to call for help.”

Now the wildlife rescue team is working on rehabilitating them, with a plan to release them back into the wild in about six months, when they are old enough to survive on their own.

“Foxes in the wild will stay with their parents the entire summer, and the parents will teach them how to be wild and basically teach them how to hunt,” Lawrence said. “So we sort of mimic those conditions in rehab, and we will keep them for the same period of time that they would stay with their parents.”

(Photo: Salthaven West/Facebook)

First Wild Whooping Cranes Hatch in Louisiana Since WWII

Two whooping crane eggs hatched last week in Louisiana, the first time the species has hatched in the wild in the state since 1939.

The white-feathered, red-crowned birds disappeared from Louisiana in the 1950s owing to habitat loss and hunting. Since 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife officials have worked to return the endangered species to its natural habitat.

“One of the major steps in restoring the species is successful reproduction,” said Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Sara Zimorski, who leads the Louisiana whooping crane project. “We’ve had several pairs nesting the last couple of years but until now no favorable outcomes. It’s an exciting time for us and all of our partners who have worked so hard.”

The two chicks belong to a recently paired three-year-old male and four-year-old female in Jefferson Davis Parish near Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Whooping cranes are the tallest North American bird, standing up to 4.9 feet tall, with a wingspan measuring 7.5 feet. Around 400 birds survive in the wild today.

(Photo: Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries)

South Africa Nixes Plan to Legalize Rhino Horn Trade

Officials in South Africa announced Thursday that they are not proposing a plan to legalize the trade of rhinoceros horn.

The country contains a majority of the world’s rhino population, which has been devastated by poachers who have slaughtered more than 3,000 rhinos in the last three years.

Wildlife conservation groups feared South Africa would begin working to permit a global trade in rhino horns—as the keratin-based appendage’s value continues to surge in Asia.

“I commend the South African government on its decision to not submit a proposal at the upcoming CITES [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species] meeting that would have proposed the legalization of rhino horn trade,” said African Wildlife Foundation president Kaddu Kiwe Sebunya in a statement. “This was the absolute right decision for Africa’s rhinos. Though we are in desperate times, now is not the time to test out dangerous trade experiments and gamble with the survival of a species.”

(Photo: Peter Johnson/Getty Images)

More Wolves Coming to New Mexico

Critically endangered Mexican gray wolves will be released back into the wild in New Mexico this year despite state opposition, federal wildlife officials announced this week.

In its new captive-release plan, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it intends to release a pack of captive-raised wolves back into the wild this year, to join the estimated 97 wolves roaming the state. Officials also hope to “cross-foster” captive-bred pups into established wild packs, to help improve genetic diversity in the wild.

“The 2016 plan is aggressive by attempting as many cross-fostering efforts as logistically possible, while continuing to evaluate the efficacy of the method,” the report stated.

New Mexico state wildlife officials, who have actively worked to shut down wolf recovery efforts there, told the Albuquerque Journal they are prepared to sue to block federal efforts to bring more wolves into the state.

(Photo: Joel Sartore/Getty Images)

Orcas Rescued in Russia

Three orcas were rescued after becoming surrounded by ice off the east coast of Russia.

Video footage shows rescue workers jumping into the freezing water to break up the ice and create an escape path for the killer whale group that included one calf.

According to Russia’s emergency ministry, the three whales became stuck overnight on April 19 in the Sakhalin region of eastern Russia, trapped about 100 yards from the coastline by the encroaching ice.

(Photo: TASS/Getty Images)

Why the Bearcat Smells Like Buttered Popcorn

Binturongs, also known as bearcats, are known for having a distinct scent reminiscent of buttered popcorn.

Now scientists have unlocked the mystery as to why the whiskered, shaggy-haired mammals found in Southeast Asia emit a movie-theater aroma: It’s in their pee.

In a study published in the journal The Science of Nature, researchers studied urine samples of 33 binturongs at a wildlife sanctuary in North Carolina. They found the chemical compound known as 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline—the same compound that gives popcorn its signature scent—in every bearcat urine sample.

The researchers also found that males secreted more of the compound than females. “The fact that the compound was in every binturong we studied, and at relatively high concentrations, means it could be a signal that says ‘A binturong was here’ and whether it was male or female,” said the study’s lead author, Lydia Greene, a graduate student at Duke University.

(Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Fluff Ball is Actually a California Condor

Biologists at the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in Southern California have discovered a newborn California condor chick in one of the nesting sites monitored by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The FWS and biologists from the Santa Barbara Zoo are involved in the recovery of the species. 

The four-day-old chick’s father is known as Condor #21, the last California condor to be captured and removed from the wild in 1987, as part of FWS’s effort to save the endangered species by setting up a captive breeding program. 

“He [Condor #21] was an integral part of the captive breeding program until his return to the wild in 2002,” FWS wrote on its Facebook page on April 13.

(Photo: Joseph Brandt, USFWS)

Alaska’s Walrus Cam Is Back Online

Want a live-streaming peek into the daily lives of a famously mustachioed marine mammal? 

Thanks to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and media group Explore.org, you can watch Pacific walruses hustle and bustle around the remote beaches of Round Island, Alaska—a popular hangout spot where more than 2,000 to 3,000 of the blubbery beasts can congregate at a time.

“To most, the creature [walrus] is a caricature that will only be seen at a zoo or in a depiction from mass media,” said Explore.org founder Charles Weingarten in a statement. “We are honored to bring people up close to observe the walrus in their natural habitat and we are thankful for the opportunity to partner with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to preserve this wonderful the pearl of our planet.”

Four cameras have been installed along the beachfront this year. Watch online now.

(Photo: Explore.org)

Sardine Shutdown

For the second year in a row, officials have shut down the sardine fishery on the United States’ West Coast.

The small baitfish are susceptible to “boom and bust” population cycles, but the recent collapse has left the fish at near-record low numbers as demand for fish oil and fish meal continues to rise around the world.

Researchers cite overfishing and warmer-than-usual ocean temperatures offshore for exacerbating the sardine collapse.

As a forage fish, sardines are integral to the oceanic food web, providing protein for larger fish species and seabirds.

To better protect hundreds of tiny fish species from large-scale collapses, the United States National Marine Fisheries Service passed a rule on April 4 that makes it illegal to develop new fisheries for forage fish species unless scientists show the additional fishing pressure will not harm the marine ecosystem.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Chernobyl’s Thriving Wildlife

A white-tailed eagle lands on a wolf’s carcass within the 19-square-mile “Exclusion Zone” around the Chernobyl Nuclear reactor that exploded in 1986.

More than 100,000 people had to abandon the area permanently after the nuclear disaster, leaving the native animals as the sole proprietors of the land. Today, booming populations of wolf, elk, fox, bears, and other wildlife are thriving within the vast contaminated zone in Belarus and Ukraine.

(Photo: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Do Sperm Whales Use Their Foreheads to Ram Ships?

The sperm whale’s forehead is one of the largest and strangest structures in the animal kingdom.

So big, in fact, that it has given rise to tales of the species ramming and sinking ships. Now, scientists have embarked on studying whether or not there is truth behind the fiction in Herman Melville’s famous literature.

“The theory was instrumental in inspiring Herman Melville's novel ‘Moby Dick,’ but until our research, its mechanical feasibility had never been addressed,” researcher Olga Panagiotopoulou of the University of Queensland said in a press release. “The scientific community received the ramming hypothesis with reluctance.”

In the study, the team examined the enlarged foreheads of male sperm whales, which house two large, oil-filled cavities: one called the “spermaceti organ” and the other called “the junk.” Together, they account for one-third of the whale’s mass.

And while the researchers remains skeptical that the whale could use its massive forehead for blasting up ships, they do suspect it might play a role in courtship—or competition—since it is only prevalent in male sperm whales.

“Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the structure also evolved to function as a massive battering ram during male-male competition,” the study authors wrote.

(Photo: James R.D. Scott/Getty Images)

Bison Return to Their Home Range

After over a century spent in Canada, 88 descendants of a displaced American bison herd were transported back to their home range near Browning, Montana on April 5.

The land is part of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, where the Blackfeet people roamed for centuries. The calves are generations descended from a handful of bison from the famous Pablo-Allard herd used to restock and supplement many public conservation herds across the U.S., until they were sold to Canada and shipped to Elk Island National Park in 1912.

“This project has tremendous ecological, economic and cultural impacts to the Blackfeet Nation,” Wildlife Conservation Society senior conservationist Keith Aune said in a statement. “It has been a great model of international cooperation and the melding of people from different cultures. We have been planning for this day for five years and are excited to see them finally come home.”

After a six-hour journey from Canada, the bison were unloaded at the 9,000-acre Buffalo Calf Winter Camp on the Two Medicine River in Montana. The return of the bison herd is part of a larger effort to reintroduce the animals to the Western plains.

(Photo: Jeff Morey/WCS)

Suing to Save Bull Trout

A planned $500 million copper and silver mine in northwest Montana could endanger wildlife habitat and creeks in the state where threatened bull trout reside.

Now, environmental groups including Earthworks and the Clark Fork Coalition are suing the U.S. Forest Service for approving the mine back in February despite government-sponsored studies that found it could potentially drain groundwater supplies that feed into creeks and rivers in the pristine area.

“Mining companies have been tinkering with this project for over two decades, and they still don’t have it right,” Karen Knudsen, executive director of the Clark Fork Coalition, said in a statement. “The Forest Service’s approval of mining at the expense of clean, plentiful water and trout habitat isn’t just old thinking, it’s also dangerous and unlawful.”

At full capacity, the proposed mine could excavate as much as 20,000 tons of ore every day for up to 20 years.

(Photo: Joel Sartore/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Group Sues to Protect a Threatened Shore Bird From Feral Cats

The American Bird Conservancy has sued New York's parks agency to get feral cats out of the habitat of an endangered shore bird.

“The endangered plovers are already arriving for the 2016 breeding season," said Grant Sizemore, ABC's director of invasive species programs, in a statement, "and are being placed at an unacceptable risk."

ABC is demanding that the state remove feral cat colonies in Jones Beach State Park. Park officials have acknowledged the presence of the cats and agreed that they should be removed but have done nothing about it, the group has charged.

Atlantic coast piping plovers are listed as"'threatened" under the federal Endangered Species Act, and "endangered" under New York State's version of the law. Plover chicks are ground-bound for nearly a month after hatching, making them easy targets for cats.

(Photo: Kaiti Titherington/USFWS)

manatee

For Manatees, Every Scar Tells a Story

Manatees can end up with many scars on their backs as a result of boat strikes—the leading cause of manatee deaths.

“By the time they are adults, many, maybe most, manatees have at least one permanent identifying mark, primarily a scar or mutilation from being hit by a boat,” wildlife biologist Cathy Beck of the U.S. Geological Survey said in a recent in-house interview. “In clear waters like Crystal River, the evidence of repeated strikes is especially apparent.”

Wildlife officials know from her scar pattern that this manatee, nicknamed “Red Hot Poker,” is one that has been visiting Florida’s Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge since 1979.

(Photo: USFWS)

baby giraffe

New Baby Giraffe Gets a Name

Six feet, six inches and 191 pounds of newborn baby giraffe arrived at California's Santa Barbara Zoo on Saturday. Today the zoo announced that the addition has been named Chad, and that he and his mother, Audrey, are continuing to bond away from public view.

The calf is an especially welcome addition because "Michael, the calf’s sire, is considered the most genetically valuable male Masai giraffe in captivity" in North America, according to a zoo statement.

“Michael’s genetics greatly help the diversity of the North American Masai population,” said Sheri Horiszny, the zoo's director of animal care, in the statement. “Every Masai giraffe born here is critical to keeping the gene pool robust.”

(Photo: Santa Barbara Zoo)

That Time When an Elephant Gave You the Hairy Eyeball

An African elephant eyes visitors from an enclosure at Opel Zoo wildlife park in Kronberg, Germany, on March 20.

(Photo: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

Alexander Archipelago Wolf

The Supreme Court Gives a Forest—and Its Rare Wolves—a Win

A 13-year effort by the state of Alaska to overturn a forest-protection regulation ended on Monday, when the Supreme Court declined its petition to reconsider a case decided last year by a federal appeals court. That ruling upheld the Forest Service’s “roadless rule” across 9.3 million intact acres of the 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest.

The win goes to a coalition of environmental groups and Alaska Natives. It could help the dwindling population of Alexander Archipelago wolves, a subspecies of gray wolf that is unique to southeastern Alaska. Logging and fragmentation of the Tongass has degraded the habitat of the Sitka black-tailed deer, an important prey species for the Alexander Archipelago wolves.

(Photo: Robin Silver/Courtesy Center for Biological Diversity)

Sumatran Rhino Found Where It Was Thought to Be Extinct

The first sighting of a Sumatran rhino on the Indonesian side of Borneo is reason to hope for the critically endangered species, says the World Wildlife Fund.

Sumatran rhinos were thought to be extinct in the region, and this is the first rhino sighting confirmed in Kalimantan in more than 40 years.

Conservationists safely captured the female rhino, estimated to be between four and five years old, in a pit trap in Kutai Barat, East Kalimantan, on March 12. The plan is to transport the rhino to a protected forest 90 miles away, which is intended to become the second Sumatran rhino sanctuary in Indonesia.

The discovery comes following a 2013 survey by World Wildlife Fund researchers who found footprints and other evidence of rhinos in the region, which led them to believe the animals weren’t extinct in Kalimantan.

“This is an exciting discovery and a major conservation success,” said Pak Efransjah, chief executive at WWF Indonesia. “We now have proof that a species once thought extinct in Kalimantan still roams the forests, and we will now strengthen our efforts to protect this extraordinary species.”

(Photo: World Wildlife Fund)

Conservationists Want Florida’s Bears Protected, Not Hunted

Animal rights and conservation groups are petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to once again protect Florida’s black bears under the Endangered Species Act.

The petition, submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity, notes that being listed as a threatened species by the state helped the bear population grow from 300 to 500 in the 1970s to around 3,500.

But protections for the state’s largest land mammal were removed in 2012, and authorities approved a two-day hunt in October 2015 that resulted in the deaths of 304 bears.

The Florida black bear once roamed widely throughout the Southeast but now occupies only 18 percent of its original range in seven highly isolated subpopulations, the petition states.

“The Florida black bear almost blinked out of existence once on our watch,” Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Years of out-of-control sprawl have pinched the Florida black bear between roads and homes, threatening its long-term survival, but the Endangered Species Act can provide a road map to make sure the bear has a place in Florida’s future.”

(Photo: Mark Conlin/Getty Images)

The Daily Wild: Can High-Speed Railways and Elephants Mix?

Wildlife rangers strapped 10 elephants in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park with satellite radio tracking collars this week so they can determine how construction and operation of a high-speed railway in the region will impact the animals.

The 300-mile-long railway cuts through and divides Kenya’s largest national park—home to the country’s largest population of elephants—in two. The tracks are on raised terrain and will be fenced off. Elephants will only be able to pass from one side of Tsavo to the other through wildlife crossing tunnels.

The collaring program is a joint effort between Kenya Wildlife Services and conservation group Save the Elephants. The findings could help wildlife managers better understand how large-scale construction projects impact elephant mobility, and the effectiveness of wildlife corridors.

With more than half of the world’s population growth over the next 35 years expected to occur in Africa, infrastructure projects like this high-speed railway will become commonplace.

“As the use of elephant movement data to inform the planning process is refined, more precise spatial definition will allow the country to proactively secure space for wildlife as the Kenyan population grows,” Patrick Omondi, Kenya Wildlife Service deputy director, said in a statement.

(Photo: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Alaska Sea Otters in for a Rough Year

Two new sea otter pups were admitted to the Alaska SeaLife Center this week, after being found stranded. Veterinarians at the center say they expect 2016 to be another record-breaking year for stranded marine mammal cases.

In 2015, the Seward-based nonprofit organization—which is the only permitted marine mammal wildlife rehabilitation center in the state—recorded 300 reports of sea otter strandings. So far this year, it has reported 80 cases—and that’s before the busy summer stranding season has even begun.

Alaska SeaLife veterinarian Carrie Goertz is seeing a general increase across all causes of otter deaths, and there are indications that something new may be exacerbating the situation.

“It’s hard to say how much impact the uptick in algal blooms or the El Niño pattern is having,” Goertz said in a statement. “However, the feeling is that it must be having some impact which is distressing since both are expected to continue this year.”

(Photo: Milo Burcham/Getty Images)

U.S. Proposes Protections for All Pangolin Species

Seven species of pangolins, the most trafficked animal on the planet, could be getting increased protections under the United States’ Endangered Species Act.

The animals, akin to scaly anteaters, are native to Asia and Africa. They protect themselves by rolling into a ball, which works well against natural predators but makes easy prey for poachers, who sell the animal’s scales and meat. As many as 1 million pangolins were taken illegally from the wild in the past decade.

Four Asian pangolin species are listed as “endangered,” or “critically endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list. But the illegal market is shifting to African pangolin species as well, says conservation group Born Free USA.

In its preliminary review, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service said seven species of pangolins in the world might warrant endangered species protections. Listing all pangolins as endangered would enable authorities to take actions against sellers of pangolin products no matter what species they were.

“The U.S. is a destination for parts and products of poached pangolins,” Teresa Telecky, director of wildlife for Humane Society International, said in a statement. “Our research shows that these products are sold here in the U.S., both online and in stores. Listing all pangolin species as endangered will end the role of the United States in this harmful trade.”

The agency is now requesting scientific and commercial data on the animals to finalize their findings.

(Photo: Nigel Dennis/Getty Images)

Pollute Salamander Ponds, Pay $1 Million

A California development company has been ordered to pay $1 million in fines for polluting a pond that housed threatened tiger salamanders and forging documents to hide its actions.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar came March 11, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The fines will go to conservation groups and local fish and wildlife agencies in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The judge ruled the company must set aside 107 acres in the region as a “conservation easement” where development will be prohibited.

The California tiger salamander has lost 58 percent of its historic breeding sites and 75 percent of its habitat in the state, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

(Photo: James Gerholdt/Getty Images)

Irrawaddy Dolphins May Be Bouncing Back

The dolphins of Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River are critically endangered. But a February population survey in a 230-mile-long dolphin protection zone turned up good news: The population has risen from 58 to 65 in the past year, including “three babies swimming beside their mothers,” according to The Irrawaddy.

Kyaw Hla Thein of the Wildlife Conservation Society told The Irrawaddy that interest from tourists and researchers is changing local fishers’ minds about saving the species. “This, along with our education programs, has resulted in the increase in population.”

The Irrawaddy dolphins are renowned for their cooperative fishing arrangement with traditional fishers. But contemporary practices—including gillnetting and electric fishing—along with pollution from gold mining operations along the river have killed many.

(Photo: Gerard Soury/Getty Images)

The Teddy Bear Leaves the Endangered Species List

The Obama administration has declared victory in the effort to save the Louisiana black bear.

On Thursday, federal officials ended a quarter-century of endangered species protections for the bear, although it will continue to monitor the species’ status.

The Louisiana black bear became an American icon in 1902 after President Theodore Roosevelt “refused to shoot a bear that was trapped and tied to a tree by members of his hunting party,” said the wildlife service in a statement. “The episode was featured in a cartoon in The Washington Post, sparking the idea for a Brooklyn candy-store owner to create the ‘Teddy’ bear.”

That affection didn’t prevent the species’ numbers from dropping to around 150 by 1992, when the bear was listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Forest conservation and restoration have helped the species rebound to between 500 and 750 individuals and rising, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Its current range extends over about 750,000 acres in Louisiana—much of it private land protected by conservation easements.

(Photo: Clint Turnage, USDA/USFWS)

Wolf Species Have 'Howling Dialects,' Study Finds

Wolf species and subspecies have distinguishing types of howls, or “vocal fingerprints,” according to scientists at Cambridge University.

The team gathered more than 2,000 recordings of howls from wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs and used computer algorithms to analyze and categorize 21 howl types based on pitch and fluctuation.

One example is the howling range difference between the North American timber wolf (heavy, with low, flat howls) and the critically endangered red wolf (a high, looping howl).

Researchers think the distinct “howling dialects” data could be used in conservation efforts, enabling wildlife managers to track and manage wild wolf populations more accurately.

Studying the sounds of other species that use vocal communication for cooperative behavior—such as wolves and dolphins—may provide clues to the earliest evolution of the human language, lead researcher Arik Kershenbaum from the University of Cambridge said.

“Wolves may not be close to us taxonomically, but ecologically their behaviour in a social structure is remarkably close to that of humans. That’s why we domesticated dogs—they are very similar to us,” Kershenbaum said in a statement. “Understanding the communication of existing social species is essential to uncovering the evolutionary trajectories that led to more complex communication in the past, eventually leading to our own linguistic ability.”

(Photo: Ben Queenborough/Getty Images)

Removing the Horn to Save the Rhino

A critically endangered black rhino is pictured at a farm outside Klerksdorp, in South Africa’s North West province. Wildlife officials tranquilized the rhino and removed its horn in an effort to deter poachers, who have pushed the species to the brink of extinction. Large-scale poaching efforts led black rhino populations to plummet from 65,000 in 1970 to just 2,300 by 1993. Recent conservation efforts have brought the numbers back to up around 5,000. 

(Photo: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)

This Little Ghost Octopus Is New to Science

There’s a lot we don’t yet know about what lives in the ocean—such as this mysterious, ghostly white octopus.

Scientists encountered the little critter nearly 2.7 miles beneath the surface of the Pacific, near the Hawaiian archipelago, on Feb. 27 as they surveyed the area with a remote-operated vehicle.

“This octopus is now confusing several of our shore-based scientists, who have never seen anything like this,” said one excited researcher over the survey’s live video feed.

The octopus is “almost certainly an undescribed species,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “and may not belong to any yet-described genus.”

(Photo: Courtesy NOAA)

Male Gorillas Hum and Sing While Eating

Gorillas, particularly males, frequently hum and sing while they eat. And the type of food consumed affects the likelihood a gorilla will hum while doing so, according to a new study published in the journal PLOS One.

Aquatic vegetation, flowers, or seeds lead to a higher likelihood of singing, while gorillas eating insects show the least inclination for song.

To get their findings, researchers recorded and analyzed the food-associated calls of two wild western gorilla groups in the Republic of Congo. While the reason for the singing is unknown, the authors surmise that the calling may be a means of expressing well-being. They also propose it could aid group coordination and social cohesion.

“Similar to the function of food-calls in chimpanzees, gorillas may call to let their group mates know when it is time to finish eating,” said Eva Maria Luef, lead author of the study. “Silverback males may have to call more frequently since they are often the ones initiating changes in group activity.”

Wondering what those calls sound like? Video footage of rescued orphan gorillas in Rwanda (not associated with the study) gives an example of some of the tunes they hum.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Monarch Butterflies Rebound in Mexico

The annual count of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico was estimated at 150 million this year, an encouraging population rebound from last year’s second-lowest-ever count of 42 million butterflies.

The increase is a positive sign for the species, but the total is still below the 22-year average for wintering monarchs, according to annual population surveys.

“The increase in monarch numbers is great news for sure, but the bottom line is that these butterflies must reach a much larger population size to be resilient to ever-increasing threats,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Monarch populations are still severely jeopardized by milkweed loss in their summer breeding grounds due to increasing herbicide use on genetically engineered crops,” said George Kimbrell, a senior attorney at Center for Food Safety. “Only Endangered Species Act protection will provide the scientific and legal blueprint that is needed to ensure the butterfly’s future.”

(Photo: Mint Images/Getty Images)

Lynx Back on Spain’s Plain

Around 20 Iberian lynx have been released in Spain and Portugal so far this year, the latest reintroduction effort to bring one of the world’s most endangered cats back to its native land.

The species faced extinction when two diseases decimated populations of its main prey, rabbits. By 2002, there were fewer than 100 Iberian lynx left in the wild. But conservation work and the release of more than 100 lynx back into the wild has increased the population to 300 today.

Last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature downgraded the species’ status from critically endangered to endangered.

“I’m more optimistic than I was a few years ago,” Miguel Simón, director of the lynx reintroduction project, told New Scientist.

As many as 48 lynx are expected to be released back into the wild this year.

(Photo: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/Getty Images)

$25,000 Reward for Information About Mysterious Bald Eagle Deaths

After the discovery of 13 dead bald eagles in rural Maryland on Feb. 19, conservation groups have pledged up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the mysterious case.

Wildlife officials suspect the birds were poisoned and have sent the carcasses to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s forensics lab in Oregon to be tested. 

Bald eagles are no longer listed as endangered but remain protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection act. Killing a bald eagle carries a fine of up to $100,000 and up to one year in jail.

The Center for Biological Diversity is offering $15,000, while three other conservation groups, along with FWS, have pledged an additional $10,000 for information.

“These 13 bald eagles deserved better than to be killed,” Catherine Kilduff, a staff attorney at CBD, said in a statement. “Bald eagles have been a remarkable story of national conservation and recovery over the past 40 years, but clearly there’s more work to be done. If they were poisoned or shot, the heartbreaking deaths of these 13 bald eagles is a crime. Those responsible need to be caught and prosecuted.”

(Photo: Bruce Hallman/USFWS)

Grandmas Are Big Key to Baby Elephants’ Survival

The wisdom of grandma elephants is turning out to be vital to the survival of babies in a herd.

That’s according to research conducted over four decades in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, which found a positive relationship between herds having a grandmother present and how well the daughters were doing in terms of their reproduction.

“Having an experienced mother, one who knows how to respond to their calf’s demands and how to keep them close by, makes a huge difference in whether a baby elephant survives—having a grandma adds much-needed extra help,” said Phyllis Lee, a behavioral psychologist at the University of Stirling, who led the study analyzing data from 834 female elephants in Amboseli. “Daughters of long-lived mothers lived longer themselves and had higher reproductive rates. In some large families, three generations of mother-daughter pairs reproduced simultaneously.”

(Photo: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Humpback Whale Rescued From Illegal Fishing Net

The crew of Sea Shepherd’s research vessel, Martin Sheen, have reportedly saved a humpback whale found entangled in an illegal gill net in the Gulf of California, Feb. 19.

Sea Shepherd Capt. Oona Layolle notified the Mexican Navy of the whale’s condition, and the two crews began working to free the 35-foot whale by cutting the gill net off its head and torso.

Gill nets are banned in the Vaquita Refuge off Baja California, Mexico. The nets are used to target an endangered fish species called the totoaba, whose swim bladders are an Asian delicacy. But the nets kill indiscriminately, and one unintended victim is the world’s most endangered marine mammal—the vaquita porpoise—native only to the northernmost part of the Gulf of California.

Sea Shepherd has released a video of the whale rescue operation.

(Photo: Sea Shepherd)

Baby Gorilla Survives Rare C-Section Birth

A female Western lowland baby gorilla was born at Bristol Zoo in Britain after a rare cesarean was performed.

The procedure has only been successfully carried out on gorillas a handful of times worldwide, and this was the first performed at the Bristol Zoo.

Professor David Cahill, a gynecologist at a nearby hospital who has delivered hundreds of babies by cesarean but never a gorilla, was called in to perform the operation.

“Along with having my own children, this is probably one of the biggest achievements of my life and something I will certainly never forget," Cahill said in a statement. "I have since been back to visit Kera [the mother] and the baby gorilla, it was wonderful to see them both doing so well."

The endangered primate, now 11 days old, weighed just over 2 pounds, 10 ounces, at birth.

(Photo: Bristol Zoo/Reuters)

Baby Indian Rhino Born

A baby Indian rhinoceros has been born at the Toronto Zoo—a welcome sign for a threatened species.

Zoo officials announced that Ashakiran, an 11-year-old female Indian rhino, gave birth to the male calf on Feb. 17, and it appears to be healthy and feeding well.

“The first 30 days will be critical for both mom and calf,” the read a Toronto Zoo Instagram post. “Wildlife Care staff will continue to closely monitor Asha[kiran] and her calf in the maternity area, which is not visible to the public at this time.”

Indian rhinos are listed as “Vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Around 2,000 remain in the wild, dispersed in small populations across Nepal and India.

The zoo’s breeding program is part of the Indian Rhinoceros Species Survival Plan, developed to maintain healthy and genetically diverse populations of the species and help raise awareness of conservation efforts for the animals.

(Photo: Toronto Zoo)

Deep Dive for Dinner

Beluga whales are picky eaters and will go to great lengths to get their food, new research has found.

Data taken over 15 years shows that two populations of belugas living in U.S. Arctic waters will dive as far as 900 meters—about 2,950 feet—to reach Arctic cod.

The lead author of the study, Donna Hauser, told The Associated Press the findings adds to the limited information scientists have on the diet and behavior of the two whale populations.

“In the context of a changing Arctic with changes in sea ice in particular but also changes in anthropogenic interest, it’s sort of important to get some benchmarks and some baseline information,” said Hauser, a doctoral student in the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

The research was published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.

(Photo: Barcroft/Getty Images)

Atlantic puffin

Puffin Mystery Solved

Atlantic puffins nest and raise chicks on islands off the Maine coast. But no one knew where these little seabirds spent the winter—until now.

The reason is that once their chicks have flown, puffins like to stay out on the water. By tagging about three dozen Maine puffins with light-sensing geolocators, scientists with the Audubon Society figured out that the birds first fly north, to forage for fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Then they head south to spend the rest of the winter offshore of Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, over subsea canyons along the continental shelf.

"Puffins are likely attracted to the region because of the productive upwelling that offers abundant food—the same conditions that favor whales, porpoise, tuna, sailfish and other seabirds," according to the Audubon Society, which announced the findings on Tuesday. "These locations have been proposed for designation as the first Atlantic marine national monument in the United States."

Decades of hunting and egg collecting all but wiped out Maine's puffins. Since being reintroduced in 1973, the population has grown to around 1,000 breeding pairs on three islands.

(Photo: Richard Bartz/Wikimedia Commons)

Abandoned Baby Sea Otter Finds a Home

A 10-week-old orphaned sea otter has a new home at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. Monterey Bay Aquarium staff members rescued the pup, which was found alone on Carmel Beach in California on Jan. 6.

Attempts to find the pup’s mother were unsuccessful, so Monterey Bay sent out a call to aquariums to take in the marine mammal.

“Shedd officials and animal care staff quickly accepted Monterey Bay Aquarium’s call to provide the stranded pup with a permanent home,” according to Shedd.

The otter, known as Pup 719, is the third sea otter from the threatened population along California’s coast to call the Chicago aquarium home. Shedd released video of the 11-pound pup getting acclimated to its new surroundings on Feb. 16.

(Photo: YouTube)

California’s Coastal Martens Are ‘Candidates’ for Protection

The coastal marten, a stealthy cat-size member of the weasel family, gained protections in California under the Endangered Species Act on Feb. 11.

The decision was made by the state Fish and Game Commission, who voted to make the species a “candidate” for listing—meaning the animals will be protected during the course of the yearlong review to determine whether they should be listed as endangered.

Also known as the Humboldt marten, the carnivore is found in old growth forests of Northern California and southern Oregon. Scientists estimate that as few as 100 martens are left in California.

(Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Rampaging Elephant Craned Away

A wild elephant strayed into a village in West Bengal, India, on Wednesday, where it reportedly damaged dozens of homes, cars, and motorbikes.

No one was injured in the incident, officials told the BBC, and local forestry authorities were able to tranquilize the elephant. Once the animal was subdued, officials used a crane to hoist it onto a truck, which transported the full-grown female to a park where domesticated elephants are kept.

Officials are hopeful they will be able to release the elephant back into the wild.

(Photo: Lila Rai Sah/Getty Images)

Orangutan Rescued

A one-year-old orangutan named Puspa looks through the hole in his freight cage in Jakarta, Indonesia, Feb. 9. Puspa was one of seven orangutans to be transported by officials to a wildlife refuge in Borneo this week.

In recent years, Indonesia has stepped up its efforts to stop wildlife crimes. Prosecutions for trading in orangutans have increased in recent years, and in 2014, a national law banned fishing and export of threatened manta rays in Indonesia.

(Photo: Beawiharta/Reuters)

Python Challenge Nabs 90 Snakes So Far

Media members got an up-close look at this year’s Python Challenge in Florida, where 90 invasive Burmese python snakes have been removed from the state’s public lands so far.

The month-long annual event started in 2013 as an attempt to get citizens involved in removing snakes that pose a threat to the native birds, mammals, fish, and reptiles in the Florida Everglades ecosystem.

Volunteers take a training course on how to trap the pythons safely and then head out to try and capture members of the slithery population, which has exploded owing to a lack of natural predators in the region.  

(Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Conservationists Sue Wolf-Killing Federal Program

Environmental groups sued a branch of the federal government on Feb. 3, challenging the agency’s authority to kill the 81 wolves roaming the state of Oregon.

The branch, called Wildlife Services, is part of the United States Department of Agriculture and kills approximately 1.5 million to 3 million animals a year, mostly as part of its population control strategy. In the lawsuit, the group contends the service has targeted wolves on behalf of livestock interests without providing adequate analysis or explanation for the killings.

“Wildlife Services has for decades taken advantage of a legal loophole to avoid conducting any meaningful analysis of its deplorable killing program, or any assessment of whether its programs are effective at all,” said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. “We believe if the agency truly takes a hard look at its activities, the impacts and the costs, these killing programs will be terminated.”

(Photo: Randy Wells/Getty Images)

Video Shows America’s Only Known Jaguar

Rare footage of the only wild jaguar in the United States was released on Feb. 3 by the Center for Biological Diversity.

The videos were taken last fall in the Santa Rita Mountains about 30 miles outside Tucson, Arizona. The conservation group has been monitoring the southeastern Arizona region in search of endangered jaguars, of which only 15,000 remain. Chris Bugbee, a biologist with Conservation CATalyst, has been collecting data on the Santa Rita jaguar for the past three years.

“Studying these elusive cats anywhere is extremely difficult, but following the only known individual in the U.S. is especially challenging,” Bugbee said in a statement. “We use our specially trained scat detection dog and spent three years tracking in rugged mountains, collecting data and refining camera sites; these videos represent the peak of our efforts.”

(Photo: Conservation CATalyst)

New Zealand's Little Penguins Are Newcomers

The little penguin species (aka little blue penguins) found in southern New Zealand is a recent migrant from Australia, a new study says.

The small, flightless birds were thought to be residents of New Zealand for hundreds of thousands of years but new DNA analysis shows they arrived from Australia less than 500 years ago.

“Our results clearly show that the Australian penguin colonized Otago very recently, between 1500 and 1900 AD, apparently following the decline of the native New Zealand little penguin, which was hunted by early human settlers and introduced predators,” University of Otago professor Stefanie Grosser, author of the study, said in a statement.

(Photo: Fairfax Media/Getty Images)

Drone-Destroying Eagles

Historically, eagles and falcons have been trained by humans to hunt prey, with deadly accurate results. Now, the Dutch National Police are looking into using the birds’ keen eyesight, agile flying skills, and powerful talons to take down rogue drones illegally operating in Holland.

Footage of the eagles in action can be seen in a video released by Guard From Above, which describes itself as “the world’s first company specialized in training birds of prey to intercept hostile drones.”

“For years, the government has been looking for ways to counter the undesirable use of drones,” GFA founder and CEO Sjoerd Hoogendoorn said in a statement. “Sometimes a low-tech solution for a high-tech problem is more obvious than it seems. This is the case with our specially trained birds of prey. By using these birds’ animal instincts, we can offer an effective solution to a new threat.”

(Photo: YouTube)

New Chameleon Species Found

A new species of chameleon has been discovered in Tanzania. The brown-and-green reptile, Kinyongia msuyae, is named after its discoverer, Charles A. Msuya, a pioneer in Tanzanian herpetology.

Msuya and a team of researchers found the species in four forest patches in Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains and Southern Highlands.

The Southern Highlands have become somewhat of a hotbed of new species discoveries according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. In 2003, WCS researchers discovered the kipunji—a species of primate that turned out to be an entirely new genus—and in 2012, WCS found the Matilda’s horned viper, a new variety of snake.

(Photo: Tim Davenport/WCS)