The alpine landscapes of Australia’s southeast and Tasmania are home to hundreds of rare plants and animals. They’re healthy for now, but need careful looking after.
The common brushtail possum has made itself well at home in Australia’s cities.
Possum image from www.shutterstock.com
Bird feathers can tell us a lot about their owners and the places they visit.
Bleached coral can take on luminously beautiful pink and purple hues - but don’t be deceived, these corals are under stress.
Justin Marshall/coralwatch.org
The bleaching hitting the Great Barrier Reef not only harms corals. As these close-up photos show, it also deprives many other species of a home and livelihood.
The Northern Corroboree frog is among seven species at grave risk from fungal disease.
Michael McFadden
Chytrid fungus has already wiped out six species of Australian frogs since the disease arrived in the 1970s. Without urgent action, seven more are facing extinction.
Plans for managing Perth’s rapid urban growth have been touted as green. But they still look like robbing the iconic Carnaby’s black cockatoo of yet more crucial habitat.
The oceans are teeming with life and potential – but the high seas are still largely ungoverned.
Les Watling/NOAA
The open oceans are the world’s “wild west”, falling outside any nation’s jurisdiction. UN negotiations are aiming to draft new laws for the high seas.
Spider silk is just one of the ways nature has inspired innovation.
Silk image from www.shutterstock.com
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.
The southern black-throated finch could be brought to the brink by coal-mining developments.
Seabamirum/Wikimedia Commons
More than half of the remaining habitat for Queensland’s southern black-throated finches is potentially subject to mining development. If these mines go ahead, it will be bad news for these birds.
Australian defence ranges, such as Shoalwater Bay, cover some 3 million hectares of the country.
DVIDSHUB/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons
Australia’s defence forces manage huge swathes of land which are home to valuable ecosystems. The new defence white paper finally acknowledges the importance of looking after them.
Land clearing rates in Queensland tripled since 2010.
Martin Taylor
We’re going to have to adapt to climate change, but some of the options on the table could do more harm than good if they destroy the ecosystems that protect us.
Researchers in Sichuan disguise themselves as the real thing.
Reuters
New data have revealed a disturbing trend in forest loss: the hearts of the world’s forests are disappearing. To stop them bleeding out, we’ll have to say ‘no’ to some developments.
A puma and her two kittens look out over San Jose, California.
Cchristopher Fust
Many Americans move to rural areas to live near nature. But the mere presence of humans changes wildlife behavior in ways that may have ripple effects.