Australia News

Fish talk. They boom, buzz, croak, and chatter. They even create a dawn chorus similar to birds. Shrimp vocalize too, by snapping and popping. A reef’s soundscape—the variety of sounds…

The Australian Government has announced more than 500 million Australian dollars ($379 million) in funding to protect the Great Barrier Reef. This "represents the single largest investment for reef conservation and…

Some strategies for protecting forests and wildlife, such as protected areas and community forestry, have become immensely popular around the world. But do these conservation strategies truly achieve the objectives…

Carving up rainforests to make room for farming, ranching and other uses induces a host of changes into the ecosystem, many of which scientists are only just beginning to understand.…

Sharks are in trouble worldwide, with one study estimating that people kill up to 100 million of them each year through illegal fishing, shark finning, and bycatch. The negative public…

Australia is known for protecting its sea life in a 3.3 million square kilometer (1.3 million square mile) system of marine parks that covers 36 percent of the country’s oceans.…

Scientists have just described a new species of “pygmy squid” the size of a thumbnail. The tiny marine creature is not a true squid, though. Rather, it belongs to a group…

Wildlife DJ Ben Mirin has teamed up with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Cornell Hip Hop Collection on a new online game that is sure to entrance nature…

Why are scientists turning to aerial images to monitor the health of ecosystems found beneath the ocean’s surface? Coral reefs support millions of species ranging from single-celled algae to sharks…

Spiders are one of the most ubiquitous creatures on Earth, found on every continent except Antarctica. Whether in underground caves in the Amazon or the icy climes of Mount Everest,…

Jarrod Hodgson is one of very few scientists who have used rubber ducks as part of their Ph.D. research. Hodgson and colleagues at the University of Adelaide compared the accuracy…

Divers have discovered a new population of what is considered to be one of the world’s rarest fish. Until recently, scientists knew of only one tiny population of about 20…

Animals that live in trees in the tropics are likely to be better at crossing mountains and dealing with climate change compared to ground-dwelling animals, a new study published in…

Some birds in Australia use smoldering sticks to spread wildfires and flush out smaller birds, insects, frogs and other prey, according to a recent study published in the Journal of…

Is Australia’s Great Barrier Reef losing its male sea turtles? A new study has found that green sea turtle hatchlings in one of the world’s largest colonies are increasingly female,…

Vast swaths of the world’s oceans are turning into “dead zones” as global warming and pollution strips them of oxygen, threatening marine life on a massive scale, a new study…

Coral bleaching has accelerated to a clip at which established reefs can no longer keep up, reports a team of scientists Thursday in the journal Science. Severe bleaching can blot…

Between America's abandonment of leadership on conservation and environmental policy, Brazil's backtracking on forest conservation, massive forest fires worldwide, and the revelation of a sharp increase in global forest loss…

The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) of Sumatra is both the world’s newest known great ape species and its most threatened, after being officially categorized this week as “Critically Endangered,” or…

In Bonn, Trump administration delegation provides cover for developed nations to stall financing for climate adaptation and loss for world’s most impacted developing nations.

The Australian state of Queensland is losing tree cover at the fastest rate in more than a decade, according to a government study released in September. “It’s even worse than…

Coral reefs support 25% of the world’s marine species, protect shorelines, support fisheries, and encourage eco-tourism—their global economic value is over US $30 billion per year. A new film, “Chasing…

On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast we discuss a proposed rare earth mining project in Madagascar that worries both lemurs and locals, and we also speak with a researcher…

The massive ocean sunfish -- an odd-looking fish with a flat, rigid, tailless body -- is not only the world's largest bony fish, but also one of the most elusive…

Australian Mick Fanning is a three-time world champion surfer, and now he has another accolade to his name: an eponymous spider species. Pisauridae mickfanningi is a newly discovered species of…

The 1980s rock band Cinderella had its biggest hit with the song, “Don’t Know What You Got (Till it’s Gone),” riffing off the age-old proverb. Of course, Cinderella’s song is…

A two-week expedition in Australia's Cape York Peninsula has uncovered 50 new species of spiders. The expedition, which identified spiders ranging from tarantulas as big as a human face to ant-mimicking…

Beef has never been a favored meat in most of Asia. Cows are harder to raise than chickens and pigs, which take up less space and can be fed scraps.…

The world's most prestigious award for grassroots environmental activism has announced its winners for 2017. Every year, the Goldman Environmental Prize, dubbed the Green Nobel Prize, honors grassroots environmental heroes…

In April 2016 at the Recherche Archipelago, just south of Western Australia’s coast, the ruby seadragon’s time as a science fugitive was about to end. There, Greg Rouse, a professor…