The Sydney Opera House is proof that Danish architects like to do things differently. As do some Danish zoos, who kill giraffes for conservation. And now there is a Danish proposal to create a zoo there…
Gump, who died in May, was the last known member of her species.
Director of National Parks/Supplied
Among the most haunting and evocative images of Australian wildlife are the black and white photographs of the last Thylacine, languishing alone in Hobart Zoo. It’s an extraordinary reminder of how close…
Investigating plant family trees could be used to pinpoint areas in need of conservation. Researchers from University of…
We hear a great deal about China’s future – but how is it treating its past? Sangzhutse Fortress in Shigatse, Tibet – after restoration work.
Photo: Tongji University
For most Australians, mention of China probably does not evoke preserved buildings and landscapes in the way the English countryside does or the Italian centro storico. But a new exhibition, Envisioning…
I spent a few years in South Africa searching for the elusive brown hyaena. The aim of the study was to assess the differences in the distribution and abundance of brown hyaena between protected and unprotected…
Cattle drovers have won back the right to graze livestock in the Australian Alps - against scientists’ advice.
AAP Image/Bob Richardson
From reef dredging, to shark culling, to opening old-growth forests to logging, environmental policies are leaving Australia’s wildlife exposed to threats. The reason, we propose, is that society and government…
Mining in Madagascar – but do the miners give enough back?
Amy Glass/People and Development/supplied
“Biodiversity offsetting” – protecting animals and plants in one area to make up for negative impacts in another – is increasingly used by companies such as mining firms, as a way to boost their corporate…
What lives in Brazil and looks like a football? Brazil’s official World Cup mascot. The three-banded armadillo is a mammal native to Brazil’s dry tropical forests, and rolls into a ball when threatened…
When former Mexican president Felipe Calderon shut down the development of a planned US$2 billion, 4,000 hectare hotel mega-resort in 2012, it looked as though the extraordinary diversity of the Cabo Pulmo…
Caught: a female swift parrot emerging from her tree-hollow nest.
Dejan Stojanovic
Swift parrots are one of Australia’s most endangered birds, but until very recently we didn’t know why. New research shows that they’re being eaten by sugar gliders at their breeding grounds in Tasmania…
Global shipping is expected to triple by 2060.
Let Ideas Compete/Flickr
The high seas cover about 50% of Earth’s surface and host a major share of the world’s biodiversity, but remain largely ungoverned. With increasing threats to open ocean ecosystems, now more than ever…
A conservation success story, Bald Eagle numbers are now sky high.
Frank Kovalchek
The number of endangered bird species is rising and even with our best intentions, there isn’t enough money to save them all – so how do we decide which species we should let go? A new approach has been…
This month marks the re-opening of the controversial trophy hunt for at-risk grizzly bears in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Scrutiny of this hunt was ramped up last year with new evidence that…
Furniture retailer Harvey Norman has been targeted by activists, in a campaign described by the federal government as dishonest.
AAP Image/The Last Stand/Matthew Newton
In October 2000, I was driving through downtown Boise, Idaho, and nearly careered off the road. Just in front of me was a giant inflatable Godzilla-like dinosaur, well over 30m tall. It was towering over…
Dingoes offer a way to conserve Australia’s wildlife, for free.
Arian Wallach
Introduced species pose one of the greatest threats to Australia’s fauna and flora, but expensive efforts to control them aren’t working. Instead of spending millions of dollars on culling, giving dingoes…
Digital tools offer a ray of hope for conservationists in an era when the need for more data to better understand the natural world is ever increasing. From combating rhino poaching in Africa to tracking…
Emus, as depicted after being seen on the 1800-04 Baudin voyage.
Charles-Alexandre Lesueur/F. Lambert/Wikimedia Commons
Environment minister Greg Hunt’s pledge to appoint a threatened species commissioner is a bright spot on an otherwise pretty bleak conservation landscape. Hunt described the “deep challenge” of species…
Lake Judd, in Tasmania’s Southwest National Park.
JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons
Prime Minister Tony Abbott this week told a timber industry dinner that he doesn’t think national parks should be a growth industry: “We have quite enough national parks. We have quite enough locked up…