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Conservation

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The EPA Declared That Burning Wood Is Carbon Neutral. It’s Actually a Lot More Complicated

Here are five things to know about the controversial change

The museum's situation on the National Mall gives it access to ample water and sunlight.

The African American History and Culture Museum Wins Gold for Going Green

How the Smithsonian’s newest museum set the bar for sustainability in architecture

Three color morphs of bleached corals on the Great Barrier Reef

New Research

2016 Ocean Heatwave Killed 30 Percent of the Great Barrier Reef

Combined with a 2017 temperature spike, half of the 2 billion corals on the reef have died since 2015

Once Rare Nectar-Feeding Bat Removed From U.S. Endangered Species List

The move is a first for bat species

Fossil ostracods on a slide from the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The science team behind the recent Nature paper relied heavily on this collection for their analysis.

What the Large Penises of Tiny Crustaceans Tell Us About Evolution

Massive male sex organs have their perks, but in the long run, a little modesty pays

Turtle That Breathes Through Its Genitals Lands on Endangered Reptiles List

Australia’s Mary River turtle was a popular pet in the 1960s and 70s, but raids of the animal’s nests have driven it towards extinction

Everyone knows about shallow coral reefs like this one, which Shepherd captured during a decompression stop up from a mesophotic dive. Far fewer know about the deep reefs that lie just below them.

Illuminating the Ocean’s Teeming Twilight Zone, Before It Disappears

Like underwater islands, these deep reefs harbor countless creatures that scientists have never heard of, and many they never will

Rafters on the South Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho

Trending Today

These Are America’s Ten Most Endangered Rivers

Mining and flood control projects are the main threats to waterways, according to the new report

Giant Panda cubs developing their tree-climbing skills at China’s Chengdu Panda Base

The Science Behind the Unbearably Cute IMAX Movie “Pandas”

Wild populations of these loveable fuzz-faced bears need help, and scientists are on the case

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Explore 20,000 Acres of South Carolina’s Wildly Beautiful Lowcountry

Turtles on Versova Beach

Cool Finds

Baby Sea Turtles Spotted on Mumbai Beach for the First Time in 20 Years

Though conservationists are celebrating the apparent success, the creatures may not be as rare as once believed

An x-ray of a Whiskered Prowfish (Neopataecus waterhousii), which has a "lachrymal saber." One species of waspfish features a saber that glows.

New Research

Why Did a Venomous Fish Evolve a Glowing Eye Spike?

A newly discovered “lachrymal saber” could illuminate relationships between an order of deadly fishes

A whale with water gushing out of its blowhole would not be smiling. It would be drowning.

How Children’s Books Reveal Our Evolving Relationship With Whales

Storybooks feature a fair amount of factual errors—and those errors can be revealing

Cool Finds

Why This Elephant in India Is Blowing Smoke

It’s likely the puffing pachyderm is eating ash-covered charcoal as a form of self-medication to flush out toxins

Zoo curator Bryan Amaral expects Spike will play nice with the other elephants. "For a bull elephant," he says, "Spike's a pretty amenable guy."

Meet Spike, the Affable Asian Bull Elephant Trucked Up From Florida to Join the National Zoo

With a new male elephant in the mix, zookeepers are hopeful babies will soon be on the way

The towering, 2,500-year-old “Mother of the Forest” (second from left) died after its bark was stripped for display in New York in 1855.

How California’s Giant Sequoias Tell the Story of Americans’ Conflicted Relationship With Nature

In the mid-19th century, “Big Tree mania” spread across the country and our love for the trees has never abated

In Asia, the biggest threat to elephant survival isn't ivory poaching but habitat loss. Here, men ride Asian elephants in Thailand.

New Research

In a Horrifying New Twist, Myanmar Elephants Are Being Poached For Their Skin

In Asia, the biggest threat to elephant survival has long been habitat loss. That may be changing

The quolls say: Please reintroduce us, please.

Trending Today

The Super-cute Eastern Quoll Returns to Mainland Australia

Wiped out by a mystery disease and non-native foxes, the spotted, cat-sized predator is being reintroduced in Booderee National Park

U.S. Lifts Ban on the Import of African Elephant Trophies

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said that it will now evaluate big-game permits on a ‘case-by-case basis’

The World’s Last Male Northern White Rhino Dies

Only two individuals of the subspecies remain in the world

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