Papua New Guinea’s rainforests, which span 28.2 million hectares (69.6 million acres), are among the most biodiverse in the world, hosting an estimated 5-8% of all species. The country also…
It’s a fundamental question for ecologists in this age: How are biodiversity losses reshaping how ecosystems function? A recent study quantifies the impact of biodiversity and abundance losses on ecological…
In an isolated backroom of a nature reserve near Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, Wayra, a recently hatched condor chick, is a symbol of hope for Fernando Castro, a wildlife specialist. Castro,…
COLOMBO — “Cries in silence, her veins robbed by greedy hands, each grain of stolen sand buries a future beneath the lands” — these lines from the song Karunilam (‘black…
KATHMANDU — Birds prefer to live in a mix of forests, fields and wetlands, but human activities such as logging, hunting and sand and gravel mining are taking a toll…
In October, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer at California's Otay Mesa border crossing noticed an odd bulge inside a man's pants. Jesse Agus Martinez, a U.S. citizen who…
New research has found that even small amounts of plastic can be deadly to seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals. While previous research has established that plastic can lead to…
The crow-sized, slate-blue-backed peregrine falcon, with its bright yellow feet, soars across the skies from Greenland’s Arctic tundra to the steppe plains of Patagonia in South America. Falco peregrinus is…
For millions of years, the African landscape — the rainforests, woodlands, savannas and scrublands — has echoed with the booms and cackles of large, raucous, strange-looking birds: hornbills. When U.S.…
LUKU CENTRAL FOREST RESERVE, Uganda — Ornithologist Ivan Oruka stops suddenly near the foot of a cliff that’s streaked with the telltale whitewash of bird droppings. He quickly presses his…
CURAÇÁ, Brazil — Under the scorching sun of Brazil’s semiarid Caatinga shrubland, squawks tear through the skies, signaling the arrival of one of the most threatened bird species in the…
When songbirds migrate through the Americas, they often cut through sections of the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to save energy. A new study looks at their flying patterns…
LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — Fifty African gray parrots have been released back into the wild in the Democratic Republic of Congo following their rescue from the illegal wildlife…
A recent study has found “alarming” levels of toxic chemicals in free-range eggs around the globe. The finding is based on more than a decade of analyses of eggs on…
A survey of Colombian birdlife, which evolved over more than a decade into the world’s largest-ever ornithological study, has found that clearing forests to create new pastures is causing as…
NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia — Two young conservation workers rattle up on a motorbike and dismount at the edge of a coconut grove. Picking through husks, fallen fronds and stray plastic…
LUBUMBASHI, DRC — African gray parrot populations in the central and northern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo are declining. Data collected by patrols carried out by the Lukuru…
It’s early August 2025. Deep in the rainforests of Upolu, on the island of Samoa, Moeumu “Moe” Uili and I have paused our hike, counting the seconds between coo calls…
A cluster of mass vulture poisonings earlier this year has drawn attention to an alarming, ongoing problem in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and…
A new study reports that the Niassa Special Reserve, a 4-million-hectare (10-million-acre) wilderness in northern Mozambique, harbors the largest documented breeding population of Taita falcons. A survey that focused on…
A spate of poisoning events this year has killed more than 400 vultures in and near South Africa’s Kruger National Park. In May, 49 vultures died after feasting on a…
Francis’s gorgeous sapphire — a new-to-science species of butterfly — has just been described in the high-altitude evergreen forests of western Angola. The identification of Iolaus francisi, with its shimmering…
Researchers have developed the first model to map how supply and demand interact in Indonesia’s highly lucrative songbird trade, revealing patterns that could help curb poaching pressure on rare and…
KATHMANDU — Debate is growing in Nepal over moves to start breeding the Bengal florican, a critically endangered bird, in captivity. A 2024 government plan that proposes captive breeding in…
BANYUMAS, Indonesia — As youngsters, Ari and Junianto would clamber over the upland above Sambirata village, gathering sap to glue-trap the birds nesting below Java’s Mount Slamet. “If it gets…
KATHMANDU — Whenever Chandra Prakash Pathak visits neighboring farms in his hometown of Lumbini, in southwestern Nepal, he sees a thick blanket of black smog. The problem is more severe…
MANNAR, Sri Lanka — Under the blanket of darkness, giant trucks rumbled through the narrow roads of Sri Lanka’s Mannar district, their headlights cutting through the night. On their trailers…
Corvus splendens — Corvus meaning ‘raven’ in Latin and splendens meaning ‘shining’ or ‘brilliance’ — is a fitting name for the strikingly intelligent birds that house crows are. Crows have…
When drought became a perennial visitor to the Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado in the late 1990s, Steve Wooten remembers telling his family, “We got to do something different.” Between…
TELUK AIR TAWAR, Malaysia — The tide is rising. On the Teluk Air Tawar-Kuala Muda coast (TAT-KM) of Penang state in Peninsular Malaysia, fishers are boating out to the sea…
Wetlands are disappearing at three times the rate of forests, alarming conservationists who highlight the ecosystems’ role in achieving global biodiversity and climate goals. To address these challenges and chart…
COLOMBO — As darkness settled over Colombo on Aug. 3, a small group of young men, led by a zoology professor, slipped quietly into Sri Lanka’s largest cemetery, Borella Kanatte,…
