Tasmania’s emus were hunted to extinction in the mid-1800s but we could have them back – and their return could help other species survive climate change.
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.
New research finds nearly 30% of land animals could disappear form their local area by 2100 due to climate change and habitat destruction. This is more than double previous predictions.
China has rich natural resources and is seeking to play a leadership role in global conservation, but its economic goals often take priority over protecting lands and wildlife.
Inbreeding usually leads to an accumulation of genetic defects, but evolution on a small archipelago may have helped the severely inbred Chatham Island black robin to avoid this fate.
38 mammals have been driven to extinction since colonisation, and many more are close to joining them. We have the solutions at hand, but warnings continue to be met with mediocre responses.
Climate change is exposing animals to temperatures outside of their normal limits – a new study has found that insects have a particularly weak ability to adjust.
Emma Kast, University of Cambridge; Jeremy McCormack, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, and Sora Kim, University of California, Merced
Megalodon, the world’s largest known shark species, swam the oceans long before humans existed. Its teeth are all that’s left, and they tell a story of an apex predator that vanished.
As a major conference on the global biodiversity crisis opens in Montreal, a conservation biologist explains how ideas about protecting nature have evolved over the past 40 years.
Species are declared extinct when there have been no verifiable sightings for 50 years. Declaring a species extinct has implications for conservation efforts and policies.
The hardest to save will be five reptiles, four birds, four frogs, two mammals and one fish, for which there are no recent confirmed records of their continued existence.
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University