More than 60,000 penguins in colonies off the coast of South Africa have starved to death as a result of disappearing sardines, a new paper has found. More than 95% of the African penguins in two of the most important breeding colonies, on Dassen Island and Robben Island, died between 2004 and 2012. The breeding […]
Hybrid ‘Grolar Bears’ Reveal a Changing Climate for Arctic Wildlife
According to New Scientist, the strange family story of grolar bears offers a window into a rapidly changing world. A lone polar bear pushed south by disappearing sea ice found herself in grizzly territory and produced several hybrid cubs. Their tangled lineage surprised biologists because cross species offspring are often infertile, yet these cubs were […]
Conservation Groups Sue Bureau of Land Management to Stop Destruction of Critical Sage Grouse Habitat
Greater sage grouse occupied more than 460,000 square miles across 13 Western states, including Montana, and three Canadian provinces before European settlement in the 1800s. But since that time, sagebrush ecosystems have been destroyed, fragmented, and degraded. Now there are so few pristine and intact sagebrush ecosystems their population has been in a continuous and […]
Birdwatch: a rare winter sighting of the short-eared owl
An owl? Or just a gatepost? In my experience, it’s usually a gatepost. So as I drove home across the Somerset Levels, returning from my first starling murmuration of the year, I was convinced that the owl-shaped lump a few yards away was just that. It was also dark brown, unlike the barn owls I […]
Results of the Best Photo of the Month January 2026
We are delighted to announce the results of our latest photo competition. Jess Findlay and Candy McManiman share First Prize with their outstanding images ‘Barred Owl’ and ‘One Of Them Is Mine‘. Third Prize goes to Jess Findlay with ‘Male Anna Hummingbird’. Please give kudos to the photographers by leaving comments at the bottom of […]
Giant Sperm Whale Washes Onto Nantucket Beach in a Rare and Sobering Event
A massive sperm whale that washed onto a Nantucket beach is drawing national attention as scientists and local officials work to understand what happened and how to manage the remains. According to CBS Boston, the fifty foot male whale weighs an incredible fifty two tons, making it impossible for crews to remove from the shoreline. […]
‘Extinct’ Graceful Oryx Thriving in the Saharan Wilds Thanks to Decades of Captive Breeding
Even as the final scimitar-horned oryx was felled for meat and leather on the Saharan dunes, a network of zoos, hunting reserves, and even a royal menagerie, guaranteed they would live on in captivity. Now, 9 years after these graceful antelope were first introduced back into the lands they once roamed, they have become one […]
A Troubling Rise in the Grisly Trade of a Spectacular African Bird
In late August the Nigeria Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society received photos of primate and bird parts recently seized by the Nigerian Customs Service in Oron, a small port city in southeastern Nigeria, some 20 miles from the border with Cameroon. The images showed 11 blackened ape heads — a gorilla and 10 chimpanzees […]