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Science / Wildlife

Raymond Tritt, 52, dresses a fallen bull on the spring caribou hunt. Like virtually every Gwich'in man, he still remembers every detail of his first successful hunt, four decades later. The 100,000-plus caribou of the Porcupine River herd are a focal point for the Gwich'in people: they are a main source of sustenance as well as the key element in the group's rituals, dances and stories. "If we lose the caribou," says a tribal elder, "we lose our way of life."

ANWR: The Great Divide

The renewed debate over drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge hits home for the two Native groups nearest the nature preserve

Green turtle swimming over coral reefs in Kona

Back from the Brink

Not every endangered species is doomed. Thanks to tough laws, dedicated researchers, and plenty of money and effort, success stories abound

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Ghost of a Chance

How did the ivory-billed woodpecker, which was feared extinct, hang on all these years?

Some mostly solitary species (such as these whitetip reef sharks near Costa Rica) gather to feed or mate.

Shark

Recent attacks on people off the Florida coast are a reminder of the animal’s fierce nature. Yet scientists say the predator is itself in grave danger

Footprints and dung are often the only evidence of their route.

Saving Mali’s Migratory Elephants

A new photo library of West Africa’s desert elephants is helping researchers track the dwindling herd and protect their imperiled migration routes.

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Seeing a Ghost

A woodpecker feared extinct reappears in Arkansas

Biologist Sara Lewis (near Boston) says "they're very single-minded."

Your Branch or Mine?

Fireflies’ come-hither signals are being decoded by penlight-wielding biologists who’ve found treachery, also, in the summer-night flashes

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Killers In Paradise

The tropics are home to the world’s most venomous creatures-jellyfish with 4 brains, 24 eyes and stingers that can kill you in a minute flat

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A Puzzle In the Pribilofs

On the remote Alaskan archipelago, scientists and Aleuts are trying to find the causes of a worrisome decline in fur seals

Kicking off the Festival, NASA Deputy Administrator, the Honorable Shana Dale, shares lunch with the Prince of Bhutan, HRH Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck, and the acting head of the Smithsonian Institution, Cristian Samper.

Child of Wonder

Cristián Samper’s lifelong love of flora and fauna inspires creative new displays of the world’s largest collection

Bison do roam, up to tens of miles per day. Their ranging and even wallowing habits can shape plant and animal life on the prairie.

Back Home On The Range

When a group of Native Americans took up bison ranching, they brought a prairie back to life

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Tiny Treasures

From mosquitoes to mementos, the smallest items in the Smithsonian’s collections can be the most useful

Greer's efforts have led to the arrest of 20 poachers (rangers apprehend a suspect in Dzanga-Ndoki National Park). Still, hunters continue to slaughter western lowland gorillas in the Congo basin.

Stop the Carnage

A pistol-packing American scientist puts his life on the line to reduce “the most serious threat to African wildlife”—

Trumpeter Swan, John James Audubon, 1838.

John James Audubon: America’s Rare Bird

The foreign-born frontiersman became one of the 19th century’s greatest wildlife artists and a hero of the ecology movement

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Herd on the Street

In Anchorage, Alaska, you never know when a moose will show up on your doorstep

Close Encounters

Northwest of Seattle, an overly friendly orca polarizes a community

Luna in Vancouver Island's Nootka Sound

Whale of a Tale

When Luna, a people-loving orca, chose Vancouver Island’s Nootka Sound for his home, he set in motion a drama of leviathan proportions

Fighting For Foxes

A disastrous chain of events nearly wiped out California’s diminutive island fox. Scientists hope it’s not too late to undo the damage

California Condor at San Diego Zoo

Becoming a Full-Fledged Condor

The California condor learns from people, other condors and the school of hard knocks

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Pizza Park

Sure, the new Kids’ Farm at the National Zoo will be educational, but a giant rubber pizza and a “caring corral” will make it also a place for fun

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