In a refreshingly heartwarming story earlier this month, the world’s oldest known wild bird has hatched yet another chick. Wisdom the Laysan Albatross is believed to be at least seventy years old, and is nesting in the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge, a small island in the North Pacific. Wisdom is believed to have hatched

There are perhaps no more than 10 red wolves left in the wild, and they are all in just one place: North Carolina. It is an astonishing statistic for a species once hailed as undergoing the most successful reintroduction programme in the US, providing the blueprint for Yellowstone national park’s much-lauded grey wolf rewilding project.

Bald Eagle. Photo: Sharon Walker/Audubon Photography Awards In the 1960s, only about 500 breeding pairs of Bald Eagles remained in the contiguous United States. The species faced a real threat of extinction. Today, that number sits at more than 14,000 pairs. The charismatic raptors have rebounded so mightily that their conventional nesting sites are filling

Reddish Egret. Photo: Peter Brannon/Audubon Photography Awards (March 22, 2021) – Today the Deepwater Horizon Trustees announced nearly $100 million in new Gulf restoration projects, including almost $35 million specifically to support bird populations that are still recovering from the oil spill nearly 11 years ago. Several of the projects selected for funding are included

Elephants are gentle giants that are often taken advantage of by human beings. The endangered animals are trophy-hunted, pushed out of their natural habitat, poached for their ivory, neglected in zoos, exploited for various tourist attractions, and forced to perform in circuses. There are some amazing, credible sanctuaries out there for elephants, however, there are

UK-based campaign group Save the Asian Elephants (STAE) is pushing for a ban on advertising in the country of unethical elephant tourism venues. Its campaigning hit a milestone in early 2020, with a petition on the issue surpassing a million signatures. STAE’s founder Duncan McNair says it is “the largest petition in history for the

It’s midday in summer, the mercury climbing above 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit), and nature guide Nuno Roxo is leading us on a hike in Guadiana Valley National Park in Portugal. The high grass and herbs, battered by the strong sun, have not seen any rain for several months. We continue down a narrow trail, used

Plenty of people support the idea of a diverse, inclusive outdoors, but helping to make that a reality can feel complicated or intimidating. It doesn’t have to be. If you don’t have to consider your identity or fear for your safety while birding, running, thru-hiking, or spending time in nature, you are ideally positioned to be

Magnolia Warbler. Photo: Seth Davis/Audubon Photography Awards Forests offer more than just beautiful scenery. They also protect drinking water, serve as stopover habitat for migratory birds like Magnolia Warblers, and are an important piece in our defense against climate change. Like any resource, forests need care and investment to reach their fullest potential. As climate

Illustration: Gracia Lam There were no busloads of tourists vying for Golden Gate Bridge views in the San Francisco Bay Area last spring, and roads normally clogged with commuters were nearly empty. With pandemic lockdowns in force, behavioral ecologist Jennifer Phillips was struck by the profound quiet—and by a unique chance to see how the

Canada Geese are important to Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. Photo: Brendan Forward What a difference a few weeks make. As I write this, we’re about a month into the Biden-Harris administration, and the conservation landscape has completely changed. With the commitments that the administration has already made to a number of

When ornithologist Francisco Sornoza visited Ecuador’s Cerro de Arcos in April 2017, he was hoping to find interesting birds but had no idea he would discover a new species. He had made the 15-hour drive from Quito to this windswept Andes mountain region, named for its rocky arches, to help El Oro provincial government assess

Illustration: Gracia Lam It was still early enough in the pandemic that my Zoom meetings felt novel, and spring birdsong brought hope of a swift return to normalcy. Then the roar of a gasoline-powered blower drowned out both. The goldfinches outside took flight. Shutting my window only muffled the noise. You’re likely fortunate if loud

“Critically endangered orangutans, tigers, elephants and subsistence farmers, are now all struggling to survive in remnant forests,” said Leif Cocks, founder of The Orangutan Project, in an emailed statement. “Over 80% of native forest in Sumatra and Borneo have been cleared for large plantations. [embedded content] When you add in a global pandemic which has

What do Barn Owls, Common Nighthawks, and Killdeer have in common with the finale of Haydn’s Symphony No. 14? A pattern—specifically, moth-like flight motion punctuated by quick directional changes and bursts of activity. The New Bedford Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts will celebrate both in a unique concert and children’s program premiering on March 23. In a COVID-adapted

A Moluccan cockatoo pair perch together in their native Indonesia. Photo courtesy of the Indonesian Parrot Project Wild parrots need our attention and help, not just to thrive but often simply to survive. Many worthy research and conservation organizations are working hard to protect a wide diversity of parrot species. Lafeber is committed to helping.

Why is groundwater important to birds, how is it at risk, and what can we do to protect it? In Arizona, groundwater makes up a significant portion of the state’s water supply, particularly in rural, or greater, Arizona—areas outside of the central populous part of the state. Sometimes, groundwater is the sole source of water

South Island Pied Oystercatcher sitting on its nest. Photo: Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research In August 2016, toward the end of the New Zealand winter, a feral cat in the South Island’s Mackenzie Basin picked up an exciting scent on the wind: chicken. The feline followed its nose across the flat, rocky expanse of the basin’s

Kenyan elephants risk a slow extinction in a bleak, ever-shrinking “ecological island” in one of the country’s most picturesque and photographed landscapes, according to a government report. The animals face a grim future as habitat loss is exacerbated by the pandemic’s impact on tourism, which is pushing landowners to sell off areas for development, and

Brown-headed Nuthatch on a Longleaf Pine. Photo: Matt Tillett/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) DOVER, Del. – Today, Delaware Governor John Carney signed Senate Bill 22 banning the commercial traffic of invasive plant species in Delaware during Delaware Naturally, an environmental summit sponsored by the Delaware Native Species Commission. Introduced by sponsor Sen. Stephanie Hansen (D-10th District) and

Western Meadowlark. Photo: Evan Barrientos/Audubon Rockies The past few years have confirmed that North American birds are in bad shape. Three billion North American birds have perished since the 1970s. A warming future may force many of those remaining to the brink of extinction. And the birds of America’s vast grasslands are the hardest hit

Millions of migratory birds occupy seasonally favorable breeding grounds in the Arctic, but scientists know little about the formation, maintenance and future of the migration routes of Arctic birds and the genetic determinants of migratory distance. In new research, a multinational team of researchers established a continental-scale migration system that used satellite tracking to follow

The allegedly dark-money-fueled HB6 legislation wiped out Ohio’s renewable energy standard, which could have driven 10-times more solar installations than HB6, according to an analysis. Illustration: Fabio Consoli With renewable energy on the rise, many electric utilities—especially those dependent on fossil fuels—are facing a crisis. Some are embracing the challenges necessary to implement new infrastructure,

“There have always been wolves. We humans have hunted and killed all the animals around us because we want everything for ourselves,” says Laura Serrano Isla, who tends her flock of 650 sheep near Burgos in north-west Spain. “We think we rule the world but if we kill all the rest of the animals, the

Scientists at Chicago’s Field Museum are researching how deforestation is affecting animals’ stress levels. Just like humans, it seems, animals are feeling the mental effects of climate change and deforestation. The scientists studied hormones in South American marsupials and rodents’ fur and found those in deforested areas were under more stress than those with intact

JAKARTA — Forests in parts of Indonesia regions that have remained largely untouched are now fast disappearing as deforestation driven by agribusiness and infrastructure development moves east, according to a new report. Using deforestation data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) data set and land cover maps from the Ministry

A grey wolf has made the longest tracked journey of any wolf over the last century, venturing hundreds of miles from its home range in Oregon to California’s Sierra Nevada. The wolf, a male called OR-93, has been fitted with a GPS collar, allowing officials at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to monitor

National and international NGOs from around the world have asked more than two dozen banks not to finance a 1,445-kilometer (898-mile) pipeline to shuttle oil from fields in Uganda to a port on Tanzania’s coast. The groups contend that the project is already impinging on communities and exacerbating poverty in the region. Their representatives also

Animal rights activists in Canada are angry after it was revealed that Canadian companies purchased 1,000 monkeys for animal testing from Cambodia, according to the National Post. Activists argue the country should not be supporting inhumane breeders. In 2020, the government approved the import of 1,056 macaques from Cambodia for “scientific and research” use in

A wild parrot was found in Brazil with a devastating injury to its beak. For many years, the technological ability to help repair damages to nature has been on the uptick. One of the most satisfying trends has been 3D printing of damaged and essential parts of creatures in our animal kingdom and their appendages.