Wildlife TV producers used to think that focus on environmental issues could only be structured around doom and gloom stories – scaring away large audiences.
H. Resit Akcakaya, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Scientists have tracked endangered species for years. Now they’re figuring out how to highlight animals and plants that have recovered – but what does that mean?
‘California is America fast-forward,’ writes one scholar. Does that mean that the dystopian infernos that have consumed parts of the state are simply a picture of what awaits the rest of America?
There is a myth that dingoes are extinct and wild dogs are all that remain in Australia. Our results show dingoes in New South Wales persist despite some mixing with domestic dogs.
Aside from their intrinsic value, common bird species might be one of the only ways we connect with nature in our everyday lives. But these opportunities are under threat.
What can we do as individuals to help save the planet? Acting locally is satisfying because we can see the results, but a geographer argues that large-scale solutions often make the most difference.
Rachael Shaw, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
The New Zealand robin has learnt to hide left-over food for later consumption, and it turns out that male birds with the best spatial memory have the greatest breeding success.
Erle C. Ellis, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and James Watson, The University of Queensland
To save what’s left of nature on this increasingly human planet, conservation needs to become a top priority around the world, from the wildest of wildlands to the densest of cities.
Do animals have their own culture? A researcher studying the culture of whales argues that they do. She says understanding that may be one way to save them from extinction.
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University