Jan. 14, 2021(ZME Science)-A group of six park rangers was ambushed and killed at Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The park, home of about a third of the world’s mountain gorillas, has been subject to repeated attacks over the years from poachers, loggers, rebels, and militia groups, with no clear solution in sight.

Jan. 6, 2021(NY Times Climate Forward)-The Trump administration gutted protections for migratory birds on Tuesday, delivering the second of two parting gifts to the oil and gas industry, which has long sought to be shielded from liability for killing birds unintentionally in oil spills, toxic waste ponds and other environmental disasters.

The move, by the Department of the Interior, came a day after the Environmental Protection Agency finalized another regulation that had long been sought by fossil fuel companies and other major polluting industries: A measure that effectively bars some scientific studies from consideration when the agency is drafting public health rules.

Dec. 31, 2020(The Guardian)-Australia is planning to build Antarctica’s biggest infrastructure project: a new airport and runway that would increase the human footprint in the world’s greatest wilderness by an estimated 40%.

The mega-scheme is likely to involve blasting petrel rookeries, disturbing penguin colonies and encasing a stretch of the wilderness in more than 115,000 tonnes of concrete.

(National Geographic), Dec. 30, 2020, -Looking at the animal skin that had been shipped to him in England from Australia, George Shaw, the keeper of the natural history collection at the British Museum at the turn of the 19th century, was dumbfounded. It was as though someone had taken the webbed feet and bill of a duck and jammed them on to the torso of a fuzzy four-legged mammal. Though he eventually accepted the platypus as authentic, at first he wondered whether someone had stitched various creatures together as a joke.

Two centuries later, the platypus continues to astound scientists. Along with the four species of echidnas, they’re the only mammals that lay eggs. They’re also one of only a few venomous mammals: Male platypuses have poisonous spurs that can cause as much pain as hundreds of hornet stings. (Recently their venom was also found to contain a hormone that might help treat diabetes.)

(Oregon Public Broadcasting), Dec 29, 2020, -Researchers have long known that dwindling salmon runs, water pollution and loud underwater boat noise are major contributors to the reduced number of orcas along the West Coast.

Now, a ten-year study of killer whale carcasses found washed up on beaches in the eastern Pacific Ocean has found a significant number who died from more direct human causes.

“This study was really a decade-long look at what do killer whales die from, from California to Alaska all the way out to Hawaii,” said Joe Gaydos, a wildlife veterinarian with UC Davis who participated in the study. “The idea is that, if we can figure that out, we might be able to find some ways that we can further help recover the endangered population, like Southern residents.”

(ZME Science), Dec. 22, 2020 - Wildlife trafficking has become such a major problem that conservationists are warning that many species are now at risk of extinction due to it. Not only that, but experts warn that wildlife trafficking increases the risk of zoonotic diseases jumping from animals to humans.

The year currently winding down wasn’t just a tough one for us, but also for most creatures on Earth, due to increasing threats. You can assume conservationists have their work cut out for 2021, especially given how an ever-increasing number of animals is threatened by extinction (and the threats aren’t always clear-cut).

That said, it is no surprise that the Center for Biological Diversity sounded a Dec. 18 alarm in the form of a news release over the diamondback terrapin and revealed a new report that talks about trafficking.

(ZME Science), Dec. 14, 2020 -A concerning number of the world’s plant and animal species are at risk of extinction, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List, an account of threatened species carried out by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Still, not all is lost: there are some notable success stories this year, showing that there are still ways to promote conservation.

(The Guardian), Dec. 12, 2020 - Before the stay-at-home orders of 2020 kept him in one place for months on end, David Attenborough had never sat in his garden and listened to the birds. Not properly, he says, not determinedly “swotting up with a notebook and keeping a bird list”.

The foremost figure in natural-world broadcasting (so admired by naturalists around the planet, he has three types of plant as well as a spider, snail, grasshopper, frog, lizard, marsupial lion and shark-like fish named after him) hardly paid attention to the wildlife on his doorstep until lockdown forced his hand. From spring through to autumn, he says, he sat outside with a pencil and made a determined effort to identify every species he could hear. Blackbirds. Thrushes. Jays. Blue tits and great tits. Swifts.

(Center for Biological Diversity), Dec. 10, 2020 -An updated assessment released today by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature found that 28% of evaluated species of plants and animals around the globe are now at risk of extinction.

Seventeen freshwater fish from the Phillipines were declared extinct, along with three frogs from Central America. Conservation has helped some tropical frogs, but 22 species from Central and South America were deemed possibly extinct, as was the lost shark from the South China Sea.

The new update to the Red List of Threatened Species identifies 35,765 species as belonging to an extinction risk category out of 128,918 for which there is enough information to determine their conservation status.

(ZME Science), Dec. 10, 2020 -The devastating Australian bushfires of 2019-2020 harmed up to 3 billion animals, burning almost half the country in the process. Many species, including the pygmy possum, were feared extinct. Now, for the first time since the fires, one possum has been found, raising hopes that the species may yet survive.

The pygmy possum, one of the smallest possums in the world, was feared extinct, but recently, the conservation group Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife found the little pygmy during their recent conservation efforts on Kangaroo Island.

(Sierra Sun Times), Nov. 29, 2020 -The EPA released a draft biological evaluation on Wednesday finding that glyphosate is likely to injure or kill 93% of the plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The long-anticipated draft biological evaluation released by the agency’s pesticide office found that 1,676 endangered species are likely to be harmed by glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and the world’s most-used pesticide.

The draft biological opinion also found that glyphosate adversely modifies critical habitat for 759 endangered species, or 96% of all species for which critical habitat has been designated.

(ZME Science), Nov. 25, 2020 -Pollution regulations in the U.S. are helping people and birds both, a new study reports. The findings showcase how federal measures meant to reduce ozone pollution likely prevented around 1.5 billion bird deaths over the past 40 years, roughly one-fifth of the US’ current bird population.

Keeping our environment clean and tidy benefits everybody quite literally. The effects of pollution on public health have been investigated in the past, but it also affects wildlife. The current study comes to flesh out our understanding of its effects on the general health of bird species.

The study was conducted by scientists at Cornell University and the University of Oregon. They based their research on a series of models from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird program, which they ran alongside ground-level pollution data, to track monthly changes in bird abundance, air quality, and regulation status for 3,214 U.S. counties over a span of 15 years.

(ZME Science), Nov. 23, 2020 -Tim Flach, a London-based nature artist, is not your typical photographer. He’s renowned for his meticulous, marvelously-lit photography of various animals, from common creatures like ducks or domestic dogs and horses to the exotic and endangered.

One of Flach’s signature styles is portraying his subjects intimately, emphasizing their expressive, almost human-like qualities. This is perhaps most illustrated in his latest project of birds from across the globe, from the Peruvian Inca tern to the Toco toucan.

(Center for Biological Diversity), Nov. 5, 2020 -The EPA released an assessment today finding that the endocrine-disrupting pesticide atrazine is likely to harm more than 1,000 of the nation’s most endangered plants and animals.

The finding is a result of the agency’s first-ever nationwide assessment of an herbicide’s harm to protected species, an analysis that’s required by the Endangered Species Act.

The assessment’s release comes just two months after the EPA re-approved the pesticide’s use for another 15 years.

“Finally the EPA has been forced to acknowledge atrazine’s far-reaching harms,” said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. ”This alarming assessment leaves no doubt that this hideously dangerous pesticide should be banned in the U.S., just as it is across much of the world.”

(StarTribune), Oct. 29, 2020 -Federal wildlife officials are removing the gray wolf from the U.S. Endangered Species Act list, saying the wolf population — an estimated 6,000 roaming the continental U.S. — has recovered and the animal no longer requires federal protection.

The national delisting decision, to be announced Thursday, turns management of the wolves over to states to handle as they see fit.

Long anticipated, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service ruling is nonetheless a blockbuster as the wolf reigns with the bald eagle as a majestic and symbolic species in the United States, one revered by many Native American tribes. The delisting generally opens the gray wolf to hunting and trapping.

(The Revelator), Oct. 14, 2020 -Oh what a difference a few decades make.

Back in in the 1980s and 1990s, a species known as the smalltail shark (Carcharhinus porosus) was one of the most common fish caught off the coast of northern Brazil.

That’s not the case anymore. A new paper by researchers from a trio of Brazilian science institutions calculates that smalltail shark populations in the country have declined by a shocking 90%. They say the species has now become critically endangered and is in need of “urgent conservation methods…to prevent its extinction in the near future.”

The problem, as with so many other declining oceanic species, stems from rampant overfishing.

(Boston Globe), Oct. 13, 2020 -The 13-pound male calf, which has yet to be named, has been bonding behind the scenes with his mother, Cleo, before making his exhibit debut, Zoo New England officials said in a news release.

His arrival marked the first ever successful birth of this endangered species at the Franklin Park Zoo, officials said.

Zoo officials said they learned of Cleo’s pregnancy on March 2 and ultrasounds were conducted to monitor the baby’s development. Because Cleo gave birth to stillborn calves in 2018 and 2019, the decision was made to induce her so that the veterinary team could assist her if needed, zoo officials said in the statement.

Lisa Friedman,(ZME Science), Oct. 12, 2020 -Scientists and conservationists from 40 countries have signed an open letter calling for global action to protect cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) from extinction. Half of all species are of conservation concern, with two on the edge of extinction according to the researchers, who called for urgent action.

“Let this be a historic moment when realizing that whales are in danger sparks a powerful wave of action from everyone: regulators, scientists, politicians and the public to save our oceans,” Mark Simmonds, a visiting research fellow at the University of Bristol who coordinated the letter, told the BBC.

(ZME Science), Oct. 5, 2020 -Around 3,000 years ago, Tasmanian devils were driven out from mainland Australia by dingoes introduced by Sulawesi hunter-gatherers. Fortunately, dingoes never made it to the island of Tasmania, the namesake of the devils, which helped the aggressive scavengers avoid extinction. But recent challenges such as habitat loss and the spread of one of the only known contagious cancers in the world are casting doubt on the fate of the iconic mammal.

With just 25,000 devils left in the wild in Tasmania, today’s announcement of their reintroduction to the Australian mainland marks a historic moment.

(The Guardian), Sept. 29, 2020 -Two in five of the world’s plant species are at risk of extinction as a result of the destruction of the natural world, according to an international report.

Plants and fungi underpin life on Earth, but the scientists said they were now in a race against time to find and identify species before they were lost.

These unknown species, and many already recorded, were an untapped “treasure chest” of food, medicines and biofuels that could tackle many of humanity’s greatest challenges, they said, potentially including treatments for coronavirus and other pandemic microbes.

(ZME SCIENCE), -Sept. 28, Threatened by bushfires and ongoing habitat destruction, the koala is being officially considered for listing as endangered by the Australian government. The species is now seen as ‘vulnerable’ according to local environmental laws but this could soon change as the number of koalas keeps dropping.

The government is also considering upgrading the status of the greater glider to endangered, as 30% of its habitat range was affected by bushfires. Several frog and fish species, such as the Blue Mountains perch and Pugh’s frog, are also being considered for critically endangered listing, as well as some species of kangaroo.

(US News), Sept. 25, 2020 -The Center for Whale Research has confirmed that another baby orca has been born to a pod of endangered southern resident orcas that frequent Puget Sound.

It’s the second calf born this month for J pod, according to director Ken Balcomb, who confirmed the birth.

J35, the orca also known as Tahlequah, gave birth to a male calf on Sept. 4. She raised global concern in 2018 when her new calf died and she carried it for 17 days and more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers).

(The Guardian), -Sept. 24, The western Joshua tree will be considered for protection under the California Endangered Species Act, possibly becoming the first plant species to be given protection of law in the state because of a primarily climate crisis-related threat.

The California Fish and Game Commission voted Tuesday to accept a petition that provides the gnarly-limbed yucca plants protected status for a year while the state conducts a study. The Joshua tree – which is not a tree but is actually a succulent called Yucca brevifolia – has graced the landscape of the Mojave desert for 2.5m years.

Research has shown that amid unmitigated climate change, only .02% of the tree’s current habitat in Joshua Tree national park would remain viable.

(National Geographic), -Sept. 23, The retired elephants of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will be moving to a spacious new home at a Florida conservation center next year, concluding a journey that began in 2015 when the circus’s parent company, Feld Entertainment, first announced it would be phasing out its use of performing elephants.

White Oak Conservation’s purchase of 35 Asian elephants from Feld Entertainment, announced today, creates what will be the largest community of Asian elephants in the Western Hemisphere, according to the organization. Construction has begun on a 2,500-acre (four-square-mile) habitat that is slated for completion in 2021.

(ZME SCIENCE), -Sept. 22, 2020, More than one in five species of maple trees, known for the vivid colors on their autumn leaves, are at high risk of extinction. A new report calls for more conservation measures and the inclusion of maple species in botanic gardens and seed banks.

Maples are a very well known, diverse, and versatile group of trees and shrubs. They draw millions of visitors each year to the natural maple woods in North America and East Asia but also to gardens and arboreta worldwide. Maples range across the northern hemisphere from North America to Japan and are especially diverse in China.

The “red list” for maples, published by the Botanic Gardens Conservation International, showed that 36 out of the 158 known species, some 23%, are at high risk of extinction in the near future in the wild.

(National Geographic), -Sept. 21, Skyler Kardell gets to watch birds for a living, in his job as a coastal steward on Tuckernuck Island, part of the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts. While patrolling the beach on September 5, observing terns, the 18-year-old spotted what initially looked like a great blue heron, a waterbird commonly seen there. But on closer look, something was off—it appeared smaller and paler.

“It had a shorter neck, shorter legs, and shorter bill than a great blue,” Kardell says. In fact, it looked like a gray heron, though Kardell had only seen one before in a book. But these birds are native to Eurasia and Africa.

“I had my suspicions right from the get-go, but because this identification poses a number of issues, I knew I had to be careful with my excitement,” he says. 2020,

(The Guardian), -Sept. 21, 2020, Hundreds of elephants died in Botswana earlier this year from ingesting toxins produced by cyanobacteria, according to government officials who say they will be testing waterholes for algal blooms next rainy season to reduce the risk of another mass die-off.

The mysterious death of 350 elephants in the Okavango delta between May and June baffled conservationists, with leading theories suggesting they were killed by a rodent virus known as EMC (encephalomyocarditis) or toxins from algal blooms.

The latest tests have detected cyanobacterial neurotoxins, bacteria found in water, to be the cause of deaths.

(ZME SCIENCE), -Sept. 21, 2020, We might unwittingly be eating endangered fish species as part of our diet, according to a new study which found that almost 100 endangered species that are being sold as seafood across the globe — legally. The researchers warn that the problem could be even greater than we believe, and called to keep endangered species off the menu.

A team from the University of Queensland looked at records between 2006 and 2014 and found 92 endangered and 11 critically endangered species of seafood where caught and sold, 13 of them internationally. When sold, they aren’t required to be labeled according to species, so consumers don’t know what they are eating.

(Center for Biological Diversity), -Sept. 16, 2020, LAS VEGAS— Conservationists discovered over the weekend that someone had dug up and destroyed more than 17,000 Tiehm’s buckwheat plants, a rare Nevada wildflower the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this summer may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.

As much as 40% of the flower’s global population, which exists on just 21 acres in western Nevada, may have been destroyed.

“This is an absolute tragedy,” said Patrick Donnelly, Nevada state director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Tiehm’s buckwheat is one of the beautiful gems of Nevada’s biodiversity and some monster destroyed thousands of these irreplaceable flowering plants.”

(The Revelator), -Sept. 10, 2020, In August 2020 federal authorities charged a dozen people for illegally trafficking millions of dollars of shark fins in Florida and two other states over the previous seven years.

According to the indictment, the defendants and their two shell companies also smuggled marijuana across the country and laundered their ill-gotten gains into gold, jewels and other commodities.

Although the court cases could still take months, the arrests represent a rare victory in the world of wildlife crime.

(ZME SCIENCE), -Sept. 10, 2020,The population sizes of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians have declined an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Living Planet Report 2020, a biannual assessment of wildlife. Latin America and the Caribbean were the most affected, with an average decline of 94%.

The report pointed to humanity as the underlying cause of the deterioration of nature and the decline in the wildlife population. The increase in consumption, population, trade and urbanization in the last 50 years means we now use more of Earth’s resources that can be replenished. And this has a tremendous impact on biodiversity.

(The Guardian), -Sept. 7, 2020, An orca who became famous around the world in 2018 when she carried her stillborn calf aloft in the water for 17 days has given birth to a healthy baby.

The not-for-profit Center for Whale Research spotted the baby, dubbed J-57, “swimming vigorously alongside its mother”, named Tahlequah, on Saturday in waters near the border between the US state of Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia. They estimate that the calf was born a few days earlier.

(ZME SCIENCE), -Sept. 8, 2020, If conservation efforts don’t step up, the number of mammal species going extinct could reach 558 by 2100, according to a new study, which estimated the number based on fossil evidence of past extinctions.

Unlike previous extinction events, however, humans are largely to blame for this one, researchers argued.

(The Guardian), -Sept. 3, 2020, Earlier this year, more than 350 elephants mysteriously died in the Okavango delta in Botswana. Individuals of all ages and both sexes were affected, with many walking in circles before dying suddenly, collapsing on their faces. The mass die-off in May and June was described as a “conservation disaster.”

Three months later, most surviving elephants have fled. Last week a plane flew over the Okavango Panhandle, an area in the north-west of the delta where most of the deaths occurred, and eight elephants were spotted, when normally you would see hundreds, says Dr Niall McCann, director of conservation at UK-based charity National Park Rescue. “It is understandable, I’m sure you or I would flee if all our friends and relatives were dying, and that’s what the elephants appear to have done.”

Aug. 21, 2020 (Science News) - Saving endangered species isn’t easy. Doing so requires the cooperation of many people — from scientists and conservation organizations to governments and local residents — as well as a bit of luck. That’s as true in real life as it is in Endangered, a new board game from Grand Gamers Guild.

Endangered is a cooperative game for one to five players. Each person takes on a role — zoologist, philanthropist, lobbyist, environmental lawyer or TV wildlife show host — and players work together to convince at least four ambassadors to save a species. (In a one-player game, two roles are played simultaneously.) If you get too few “yes” votes, or let habitat destruction spread too much, or if your animal population dies out, everyone loses

National Geographic, August 7, 2020 -In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials believed that one of the most effective ways to fight the spread of the virus was to disinfect highly touched surfaces.

That led China, South Korea, France, Spain, and several other countries to spray copious amounts of disinfectant throughout densely populated urban areas. Fleets of trucks, drones, and even robots doused streets, parks,playgrounds, and other outdoor public spaces with virus-killing chemicals.

In Indonesia, drones drenched homes in disinfectant from above. And in one village in Spain, tractors dumped hundreds of gallons of bleach onto a public beach.

Aug. 4, 2020,(The Guardian)-Satellite images have revealed 11 previously unknown emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica, boosting the number of known colonies of the imperilled birds by 20%.

The discoveries were made by spotting the distinctive red-brown guano patches the birds leave on the ice. The finds were made possible by higher-resolution images from a new satellite, as previous scans were unable to pick up smaller colonies.

July 31, 2020,(Science News)-The emergency surgery took place in the back of a modified pickup truck in a parking lot in Pikeville, Ky. This scrappy plan to rescue a species of mussel on the edge of extinction made perfect sense: Meet somewhere between Indian Creek in Virginia, where the last known wild golden riffleshells lived, and Kentucky’s Center for Mollusk Conservation in Frankfort, where they would be saved.

The strategy was a malacologist’s version of a Hail Mary pass. One scientist would gingerly pry open three golden riffleshells and remove their larvae to be nurtured in his lab. The other would return the three mussels to Indian Creek, and wait for the day he could introduce their grown offspring to the same habitat. If the plan didn’t produce enough offspring to sustain a new population, the mussels would probably vanish.

ZME SCIENCE, July 29, 2020 -The populations of migratory freshwater fish species have drastically declined by 76% on average since 1970, according to a new report. Most of this damage is linked to human-made impacts such as hydropower, overfishing, and pollution.

Europe was the most affected region, with a 93% plunge.

Issued by the World Fish Migration Foundation and Zoological Society of London, the Living Planet Index is the first major report to look to the status of freshwater migratory fish on a global scale.

The Amboseli Trust for Elephants aims to ensure the long-term conservation and welfare of Africa’s elephants in the context of human needs and pressures through scientific research, training, community outreach, public awareness and advocacy.

An international Animal Conservation Charity in Conjunction with Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks.

Mission: to halt extinction of rare and endangered species and return them to the wild where possible.

It's the longest-running and most successful conservation project dedicated to cheetah survival.

Their signature programs, addressing human-wildlife conflict, livelihood development, education and habitat restoration, have stabilized the wild cheetah population of Namibia – the world’s largest — and have helped launch sister programs in several other cheetah range countries. None of this would not be possible without you.

Joel Sartore has traveled the world for more than 25 years, photographing subjects from tiny to terrifying.

These images are not to be missed.

Born from one family’s passion for Kenya and its wilderness, the Trust is today the most successful orphan-elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in the world and one of the pioneering conservation organizations for wildlife and habitat protection in East Africa.

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International is dedicated to the conservation, protection and study of gorillas and their habitats in Africa. Our successful, integrated approach includes close collaboration with local governments and communities as well as partners from around the world

Explore 15,000 of the world’s endangered species. With over 100,000 photos and videos, discover what these animals, plants and fungi look like, what makes them special and why we should protect them.

The EDGE of Existence program is the only global conservation initiative to focus specifically on threatened species that represent a significant amount of unique evolutionary history.

See article upon article covering threats to the endangered natural world.

Set up to address fish & wildlife, hunting and game mamagement, fisheries, law enforcement, habitat ans species conservation and more.

We're counting on the commitment of our members to help our fight to uphold the Endangered Species Act and defend the wild plants, animals and places we all love.

The Endangered Species Act has an unmatched record of success and has put hundreds of species on the path to recovery, but countless plants and animals are still clinging to existence. Their futures depend on the Center for Biological Diversity and the strength of the Endangered Species Act, and we depend on you.

World of the Wild is a unique game that gives users an opportunity to participate in fun gameplay while contributing to real life wildlife conservation efforts. This app gamifies the concept of saving animals and allows you to rescue, rehabilitate and care for animals and habitats within your own carefully crafted world. Each animal in the app represents a real-life charity!

Partnered with 18 charities, World of the Wild offers unique facts and pop quizzes and will allow users to rescue animals in need! The game will empower the global community and transform online culture while restoring the natural world. It's a change to the status quo; utilising online activism to achieve tangible results in conservation.

The (NWPR) is a 22,000 square foot office and warehouse located northeast of Denver, Colorado at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. The facility is responsible for receiving wildlife items that have been forfeited or abandoned to the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service.

By law, these items are stored in a secure environment, many of which are donated to educational facilities, nonprofit organizations, and conservation agencies to aid in teaching about endangered species and other wildlife.

Learn about the earth's species and how they are endangered.

Planet Earth teems with life. And now you can meet some of its stars!

Established in 1964, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species.

Humans are generating climate-altering greenhouse gases at a rate that will forever alter our world’s ecosystem...

There Statement: “It’s very simple: We cannot condone the dilution of the role of science in protecting endangered and threatened wildlife,” said WCS President and CEO Cristián Samper.