They might comprise close to 75% of all known animal species. But when it comes to the monitoring and protection of insects, global efforts have been inadequate. The numbers tell…
What do lakes tell us about life on the land surrounding it? When environmental DNA scientist Kristy Deiner and her team started thinking about this question, the answer seemed evident:…
What’s on the menu tonight? For one of the world’s largest species of monkeys, it’s likely to be antelope poop. This was among the findings from a study in which…
Aquifers are vital for balanced ecosystems and human existence. While only 3% of the water on Earth is freshwater, almost 99% of that unfrozen volume is located in these geological…
When it comes to monitoring deforestation, tropical rainforests rightfully get the lion’s share of attention. However, as climate change-induced natural disasters and conversion of natural lands for agriculture increase in…
When the organization Save Vietnam’s Wildlife receives a pangolin rescued from the wildlife trade, it can take months to remind the scaly, housecat-sized mammal how to be a pangolin again.…
More than one-third of land on Earth — that’s about three times the size of Russia, the largest country — has vegetation whose canopy reaches a height greater than 1…
How do you identify sick oaks? For a long time, detecting unhealthy oaks and identifying the disease afflicting them required a lot of manual labor. Scientists often looked out of…
Environmental crime slows climate action, deters investment in nature-based solutions, and undermines the green transition. Around the world, land grabbing, illegal deforestation, illicit mining, poaching and a rash of other crimes are…
Vocalizations have the capacity to illuminate valuable information about an animal’s health and wellbeing, if we are willing to put in the effort to listen. The first time I appreciated…
A team of paleontologists found a giant fossilized skull along the shore of the Napo River in the Peruvian Amazon. To their surprise, the relic belonged to a newly described…
Kamilo Melo was building a robot shaped like a salamander for his Ph.D. in 2015 when an unexpected assignment came knocking on his door. Two producers at the BBC were…
The yellow-legged hornet is a predator: after it sets up a nest in a new neighborhood, its workers head out in search of smaller wasps, flies and bees to feed…
For years, monitoring water levels in the semiarid Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya was a tedious task. Team members would travel the 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the main office…
To say tracking prairie dogs is difficult would be an understatement. The animals spend most of their time in burrows. Since conventional GPS collars don’t function underground, the movements and…
In 2019, the conservation nonprofit Australian Wildlife Conservancy started developing an artificial intelligence model to identify animals in camera-trap images. Since then, despite limited funding and resources, the team has…
For Carolina Pinto and Paulina Rodriguez, the story of the Osa Peninsula embodies one of hope. The diverse rainforest ecosystem in Costa Rica, home to plants and animals seen nowhere…
To bring seabirds back to Kaho‘olawe, you need to first find the cats. And to find the cats on Kaho‘olawe, you need to know where to find the bombs. Eleven…
How do you count manatees? Ideally, standing by a river while playing with the aquatic mammals. However, in a world where manatee populations face increasing threats, a faster and more…
As an undergraduate biology student, Talia Speaker faced several hurdles in using technology in her work. Biology and ecology professors weren’t well-versed with the technical side of things, while those…
Conservation technology company Conservation X Labs and nonprofit Wild Me have announced they are merging in a bid to ramp up the role of artificial intelligence in biodiversity protection. With…
Otters, with their gleeful yikkering, playful presence and sinuous underwater grace, are emblematic of the joy and resilience of nature in many parts of the world. But they aren’t among…
Early in her career, Megan Owen recalls, she often found herself wishing for more data to understand certain behavioral patterns in the animals she was studying. However, more often than…
Ports are considered lifelines of our economy, accounting for 75% of world trade (over 90% by tonnage), but generally not thought of as incubators to solve the climate crisis or…
Indonesia’s shark and ray trade is highly regulated but poorly monitored, opening the door for illegal activity alongside the legal sale and purchase of these fish and their products. Finding…
To fully understand animal behavior and conservation, scientists are finding they need to study humans' daily movements and activities. A paper published in Nature Ecology & Evolution brings together a…
Over the past 50 years, lion numbers have decreased by three-quarters. Only 20,000 to 40,000 of these majestic big cats survive in the wild today. A third of lion deaths…
Imagine you’re leading an expedition in the depths of a forest. You discover a species of frog that piques your interest. Conventional rules of taxonomy dictate that you capture the…
A new platform allows companies and landowners to monitor the ecosystems in their supply chains, as governments around the world increasingly consider regulations that require businesses to account for biodiversity.…
On the first day of a 2021 prescribed fire in south-central Oregon, all went to plan as firefighters slowly burned areas in Fremont-Winema National Forest. They created a deliberate mosaic…
Wildlife conservation actions tend to be focused in specific locations because the data that inform them also tend to be highly localized. But what if we could visualize where a…
How do you bridge the gap between ecology and the economy? It’s this question that guided both Kevin Webb and Tom Quigley, albeit from different perspectives. Webb, a venture capitalist,…
