A rare toad from Tanzania declared “extinct in the wild” three years ago has been restored to its original habitat. This is the first time an amphibian species has been returned home after being classified…
Saving the Tasmanian Devil is one of many pressing preservation goals.
Mandy Kennedy/AAP
You may have heard of Australia’s “Frozen Zoo” – the only facility of its kind on the continent – and that it’s facing funding difficulties. Why should you care about this? Let me explain. An increasing…
Exporting elephants from Laos to Japan could be the end of this Asian elephant population.
ElefantAsia
The 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan was undeniably a tragedy on many scales. Thousands killed, tainted agriculture, disappearing tourism and overall economic gloom. It’s little wonder the Japanese government…
When it comes to mammal extinctions, Australia’s track record over the last 200 years has been abysmal. Since European settlement, nearly half of the world’s mammalian extinctions have occurred in Australia…
Many species of cone snail, which contain compounds needed to treat neurological diseases, still await discovery.
Flickr/Phil Camill
The planet is home to anywhere between two million and 50 million undiscovered species, many of which are at threat from rampant habitat destruction, according to a report by an international team of researchers…
Only 5% of the world’s plants, and 1% of invertebrates have been assessed under IUCN guidelines.
Tim√
If an entire forest falls and its occupants approach extinction, does anybody hear it? Since for the vast majority of species, the answer is most likely no, we decided to be proactive and recently published…
When you buy imported products, are you buying dead endangered species as well?
Mark Hudson
The tide of globalisation drives development, providing jobs and much needed dollars. But development and trade consumes local biodiversity, much of it in the iconic biodiversity hotspots of tropical countries…
Lack of genetic diversity makes it hard for island-bound species to survive when threats arrive.
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
We have all heard at some time or another that Australia has the worst record of mammal extinctions in history, with many of our unique and vulnerable critters succumbing only years after the first Europeans…
Why have mass extinctions of species occurred since the late Proterozoic (from 580 million years ago) and repeatedly through the Phanerozoic? Integral to these extinctions were abrupt changes in the physical…
In the last ten years more than 1000 new species have been discovered in the Greater Mekong region. The new species are the focus of the Wild Mekong report from WWF, demonstrating the unique bio-diversity…
The pika is one species struggling to evolve fast enough to keep up with climate change.
http://www.itsnature.org/ground/pika/
We currently face a biodiversity and extinction crisis as human population pressures and climate change combine to push our natural environments to the limit. Because our urban and agricultural activities…
In his 2011 ASSA Cunningham Lecture this month, food policy expert Professor Tim Lang suggested that we “experiment” with alternative diets to reduce our meat and dairy consumption. Lang suggested that…
When we think of the last 50,000 years of prehistory, particularly the “Ice Age”, extinct species such as the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros often spring to mind. Did humans bring about the extinction…
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University