A massive new nature reserve has just been declared in South Africa’s Drakensberg mountain range. It’s good news for communities, landowners, the land and local wildlife.
Wild turkeys in a yard on Staten Island, N.Y.
AP Photo/Kathy Willens
Wild turkeys were overhunted across the US through the early 1900s, but made a strong comeback. Now, though, numbers are declining again. Two ecologists parse the evidence and offer an explanation.
Knowing which parts of Africa best help to store carbon means funding and policy efforts can be directed to protecting and increasing this carbon ‘land sink’.
Over 1 million acres of grassland burn in the Texas Panhandle in late February 2024.
Greenville Fire-Rescue via AP
The state’s largest wildfire on record tore across the heart of Texas cattle country, and more days of strong winds were forecast. A rangeland ecologist explains why the flames spread so fast.
The Aldabra giant tortoise spreads tree seeds through defecating, helping the seeds germinate and restore Madagascar’s forests.
Gerard Soury/Getty Images
The successful quest to find a species last seen more than 50 years ago has added to the urgency of protecting the vanishing grassland habitat of a lizard that had been feared extinct.
The Sooty blue butterfly (Zizeeria knysna), a common yet easily missed resident species in grassland habitats.
Charl Deacon
Governments and wildlife advocates are working to protect 30% of Earth’s lands and waters for nature by 2030. An ecologist explains why creating large protected areas should be a top priority.
An ape that lived 21 million years ago was used to a habitat that was both grassy and wooded.
Corbin Rainbolt
Contrary to the idea that apes evolved their upright posture to reach for fruit in the forest canopy, the earliest known ape with this stature, Morotopithecus, lived in more open grassy environments.
California’s snowpack was more than twice the average in much of the state in early March 2023.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Reservoirs and streams are in good shape in California and the Great Basin, but groundwater and ecosystems are another story. And then there’s the Colorado River Basin.
Humanity’s biggest challenges are not technical, but social, economic, political and behavioural. Effective actions are still possible to stabilise the climate and the planet, but must be taken now.
A plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) emerges from its burrow.
John Holmes/Alamy Stock Photo
Large-scale tree-planting projects are politically popular and media-friendly, but without effective planning and long-term management, they can do more harm than good.