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Conservation

The fuzz of the fingernail-sized rosy maple moth may remind you of a teddy bear.

These Moths Are So Gorgeous They ‘Put Butterflies to Shame’

To celebrate National Moth Week, bask in the beautiful variety of these oft-overlooked insects

Experts restored the sitter's facial expression to its original state.

Why the Vegetable Seller in This 450-Year-Old Painting Isn’t Smiling Anymore

Restoration revealed that a grin had been added to the original—and brought experts closer to identifying the work’s creator

An Atlantic White Shark Conservancy boat and crew work to tag a great white shark in the waters off the shore in Cape Cod, Massachusetts on July 13, 2019.

Can New Tools Help Beachgoers Predict the Likelihood That a Shark Is Nearby?

Great whites have returned to Cape Cod, and efforts are underway to help people coexist with them

A view of the Thornton Portrait Gallery at the Huntington (L to R): Joshua Reynolds, Diana (Sackville), Viscountess Crosbie, 1777; Thomas Gainsborough, The Blue Boy, 1770; and Thomas Gainsborough, Elizabeth (Jenks) Beaufoy, later Elizabeth Pycroft, c. 1780

Gainsborough’s ‘Blue Boy’ Is Headed Back to the U.K.—but Some Experts Fear for Its Safety

A 2018 panel of nine conservators “strongly recommend[ed] against lending” the fragile 18th-century portrait

Genetic tests reveal that the Shark Bay mouse (pictured) from Shark Bay, Western Australia, is actually a living population of Gould's mouse, which had been thought to be extinct for more than a century.

New Research

Australian Mouse Presumed Extinct for More Than a Century Found Alive on Island

The living Shark Bay mouse turned out to be genetically identical to the formerly extinct Gould’s mouse

A Chinese mountain cat photographed in a field of grass.

New Research

Elusive Chinese Mountain Cats Aren’t Domestic Cats’ Ancestors

Past genetic studies on feline domestication hadn’t included this wildcat native to the Tibetan Plateau

Currently, Tasmanian devils are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Tasmanian Devils Wipe Out an Entire Colony of Little Penguins

The marsupials were brought to the island in a conservation rebound effort. Instead, they decimated native bird populations

A proposed government plan will move the A303 highway, pictured here in the distance behind Stonehenge's iconic structures, underground. But Unesco warned in a report Monday that the efforts might endanger the site's OVU, or outstanding universal value.

Unesco Weighs Changes to Stonehenge’s Cultural Heritage Status

A new report also cited Venice and the Great Barrier Reef as sites that might be placed on the World Heritage in Danger list

The Algodón River flows through a forest of the Amazon Basin in the remote northeastern corner of Peru. Scientists collected and analyzed a series of ten roughly 3-foot-long soil cores from three sites, each located at least a half-mile away from river courses and floodplains.

Future of Conservation

In a Remote Amazon Region, Study Shows Indigenous Peoples Have Practiced Forest Conservation for Millennia

Smithsonian researcher Dolores Piperno says native people have always played an important role in sustainability

A photo of the Asian giant hornet specimen found near Marysville, Washington.

Dead ‘Murder Hornet’ Found North of Seattle

The dried out male hornet is 2021’s first confirmed sighting of the Asian giant hornet, but scientists say the corpse doesn’t look fresh

The new gray wolf pups in Colorado have yet to be photographed, so for now you'll have to make do with this bright-eyed pair.

Gray Wolf Pups Seen in Colorado for the First Time in 80 Years

Wildlife officials spotted at least three pups around a den site located near the Wyoming border

A Florida manatee swimming near the surface.

Florida’s Manatees Are Dying at an Alarming Rate

Experts say starvation appears to be the main cause of death. Polluted waters are likely smothering the manatees’ favorite food: seagrass

Tinier whales threaten the species’ survival because smaller whales do not have as many offspring. Nursing mothers who entangle themselves in nets also produce smaller calves.

Humans, We’ve Shrunk the Whales

North Atlantic right whales born today are three feet shorter on average than whales born in 1980—and commercial fishing could be to blame

Though researchers repaired the crack, much of the egg's contents leaked out.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover—and Crack—an Intact, 1,000-Year-Old Chicken Egg

Human waste in a cesspit in Israel preserved the shell and its contents for a millennium

An aerial photo taken on June 5, 2021 shows the herd of Asian elephants in the Jinning District of Kunming, a populous city located in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

A Herd of 15 Elephants Is Wandering North Across China—and Nobody Knows Why

Experts are unsure why the group began its journey, which now spans more than 300 miles, or where it will end

The team used bacteria to clean the tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Nemours (pictured here). Allegorical sculptures of Night and Day flank the marble sarcophagus.

Art Meets Science

Italian Art Restorers Used Bacteria to Clean Michelangelo Masterpieces

Researchers deployed microbes to remove stains and grime from the marble sculptures in Florence’s Medici Chapels

A Libo leopard gecko (Goniurosaurus liboensis). After this species of cave gecko was first described in 2013, it quickly appeared online for sale.

Reptile Traffickers Often Target Newly Described Species

Traders trawl recently published scientific papers to get the names and locations of animals to sell to collectors

Fernanda, the Fernandina Giant Tortoise was found in 2019 on an expedition. (Pictured here) The tortoises on Fernandina Island were thought to have gone extinct from volcanic eruptions.

Meet Fernanda, the Galápagos Tortoise Lost for Over a Century

Now that researchers have confirmed the animal belongs to the previously vanished species, conservationists are planning to search the islands for a mate

A wild giant otter photographed in the Bermejo River in Argentina's El Impenetrable National Park. This is the first time the species has been seen in Argentina in more than 30 years.

Planet Positive

Giant River Otter Spotted in Argentina for First Time in Decades

The first wild sighting of the species in Argentina since the 1980s, this surprise offers hope to conservationists looking to bring the otters back

Aussie Ark and other conservation groups collaborated to release 26 Tasmanian devils into a nature preserve north of Sydney. Their goal is to bring this species back to mainland Australia 3,000 years after they went locally extinct.

Tasmanian Devils Born on Mainland Australia Offer Hope for a Species at Risk of Extinction

Seven infant devils born inside an enclosed nature preserve represent a conservation milestone

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