Australia’s conservation laws presume that we can preserve everything in its natural state. But in a changing world, we’ll have to be more flexible than that.
Pandas are bears – but two million years ago they stopped eating meat. Their digestive systems have not yet adapted, though. Do upset stomachs make panda pregnancy more difficult?
The grizzly bear of Yellowstone is expected to be delisted from the Endangered Species Act. But a survey of grizzly bear researchers finds flaws in how wildlife experts evaluate scientific data.
Why are our cities full of crows, ravens and rainbow lorikeets, while other species decline? The answer comes down to street smarts, adaptability, and sometimes plain bullying.
A warming Earth could see invading species arrive in Antarctica via the floating “taxi service” of the sea. That could be a threat to the southern continent’s delicate ecosystem.
Virtual reality is enabling researchers to get first hand experience of remote environments, helping them make better decisions about their conservation.
Antarctica’s blue whales all feed in the same place. But a new genetic analysis suggests they are actually three separate populations that breed in different parts of the globe.
Australia may have reputation for vast areas of wilderness, but in reality the continent’s ecosystems have been chopped and diced. Now we need to protect what’s left.
The government is set to restrict green groups’ right to challenge environmental approvals in court. But the law isn’t doing its job in protecting Australia’s plants and animals anyway.
Peter Alagona, University of California, Santa Barbara
The Endangered Species Act may stave off extinction for the Delta smelt in California, but will it help this threatened fish – or any other at-risk species – recover and thrive again?
Chalk it up as a rare conservation win: humpback whales have bounced back so strongly since the whaling era that there is no longer a need to include them on Australia’s official threatened species list.
Feral cats are highly adaptable and highly variable, hence we must continue to search for their Achilles Heel and invest in a wide range of control methods.