Red-breasted geese breed mainly on Russia’s Taymyr Peninsula and migrate to areas adjacent to the Black Sea in Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria.
Daniel Mitev
Russia has vast natural resources and is involved in many conservation efforts. Its diplomatic isolation as a result of the war in Ukraine is making it harder to protect many wild species and places.
Waste on Lekki beach, Lagos.
Alucardion/Shutterstock
Most of Iran is wild and beautiful, but development threatens to degrade highly-prized ecosystems. Now new research is honing in on the hotspots, to preserve biodiversity in expanded protected areas.
Our research looked at data from the government’s annual baking competition. Upon close analysis, we find a dangerous lack of diversity and biases towards cute, cuddly mammals.
The pet trade has spurred a wave of bird imports, leading to escapes or even deliberate releases of exotic species into the wild. New research reveals the threat they now pose to native birds.
A black-tailed jackrabbit.
ranchorunner/Shutterstock
You might think of bunnies as ubiquitous, but it’s actually a relatively small group of species – and many of them are unique, little-known, and in trouble.
Te mokomoko a Tohu – Aotearoa New Zealand’s newest species of gecko.
Nick Harker/All rights reserved
A new gecko species in New Zealand was named te mokomoko a Tohu in consultation with a local Māori tribe. This could be a good example for how taxonomists might approach the naming of new species.
A grizzled giant squirrel, native to Sri Lanka.
Martin Mecnarowski/Shutterstock
Abi Gazzard, International Union for the Conservation of Nature; Connor Panter, University of Nottingham, and Rosalind Kennerley, International Union for the Conservation of Nature
Rodents are the most numerous – and least studied – of all Earth’s mammals.
Dendrobium orchids are familiar to most people in bouquets, but they are in high demand in China for use in traditional medicines. Can Beijing find ways to grow these threatened plants sustainably?
Polar bears and wolves may get the glory, but small predators like weasels, foxes and their cousins play outsized ecological roles. And many of these species are declining fast.