Articles tagged as Conservation | Smithsonian Magazine

By the end of 2017, the world’s largest ivory market will be closed

December 30, 2016

Ocean Legacy has a task not even Sisyphean would envy: picking up, sorting and recycling the vast amount of plastic that ends up on our shores.

From the common plastic water bottle to the shoes of tsunami victims, one recycling organization tries to find a home for all ocean refuse

December 30, 2016

Leah Desrochers, a former employee of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, holds a stranded Kemp's ridley sea turtle.

Why Are Endangered Sea Turtles Showing Up Cold and Seemingly Lifeless on Northeastern Shores?

In the past three decades, scientists have confronted a worsening epidemic of stranded Kemp’s ridley sea turtles

December 29, 2016

Poppies near Ribeira de Piscos, Côa Valley, Western Iberia, Portugal

Europe

A Project to “Rewild” Europe, Brings a Safari-Style Camp to Portugal

See Europe as it was five thousand years ago

December 29, 2016

New Research

Cheetah Populations Plummet as They Race Toward Extinction

Hunting, habitat loss and the pet trade have reduced the fastest land animal to roughly 7,100 individuals

December 27, 2016

Two of the last remaining wolves on Isle Royale

The NPS has proposed a plan to boost the wolf population on the island where currently only two inbred canines remain

December 23, 2016

But questions remain about the permanency of the act in the arctic

December 21, 2016

Phuket Horned Tree Agamid, Acanthosaura phuketensis, found in Phuket,Thailand

Cool Finds

Meet the Klingon Newt, Ziggy Stardust Snake—Two of the 163 New Species Discovered in the Mekong

A new reports details the dozens of new animal and plant species scientists found in Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong in 2015

December 20, 2016

Bei Bei, the National Zoo's youngest giant panda cub, during a veterinary exam when he was less than three months old.

The Long, Adorable History of Pandas in America

Su Lin was the first giant panda to come to America, landing in San Francisco in 1936

December 16, 2016

Swabbing the toads to sample their microbiomes.

Meet the Colorful New Weapon Scientists Are Using to Save Toads From a Devastating Fungus

Researchers are supplementing the amphibians’ natural microbiomes with a fluorescent fungus-fighter they’ve dubbed “Purple Rain”

December 15, 2016

Years of habitat destruction and poaching have reduced giraffe numbers by 30 percent, placing them in the vulnerable category for the first time

December 9, 2016

How does a bear catch a break around here?

New Research

Decades-Old Chemicals May Be Threatening Polar Bear Fertility, As If They Didn’t Have Enough to Worry About

A new study sheds light on how today’s pollutants could become tomorrow’s threats to wildlife and humans

December 2, 2016

Caribbean spiny lobster on a sea fan off the coast of Honduras

Proposed New Marine Reserve System Offers Rosy Outlook for Both the Lobster and the Lobster Fisherman

With the help of a supercomputer, Smithsonian scientists figure out how to help the lobster fishery off the coast of Honduras

November 28, 2016

Before the recent reintroductions of P-horses, the last confirmed sighting in the wild was in 1969.

The Remarkable Comeback of Przewalski’s Horse

Once nearly extinct, the population of these wild horses has rebounded on the dusty steppes of Mongolia

December 2016

Roughly 400 people attempted to mount the blockaded Backwater Bridge last night, resulting in another clash between protestors and police.

Latest clash comes over access to a barricaded bridge

November 21, 2016

Cool Finds

World’s Largest Herd of Origami Elephants Takes Over the Bronx Zoo

People around the world folded the paper pachyderms to raise awareness of the elephants’ plight

November 18, 2016

Caretakers fear the row over the metro’s overspending could endanger the ancient arena

November 16, 2016

Cool Finds

New Underpass Helps New Zealand Penguins Cross Busy Road

The blue penguin colony in Oamaru can now cross between their nesting area and the ocean without dodging traffic

November 14, 2016

A purplish-mantled tanager, a species the study suggests should be listed at vulnerable

New Research

Is the Endangered Species List Missing Hundreds of Species of Birds?

A new study suggests the IUCN’s methods are underestimating the risks to many species, but the organization say the research is flawed

November 10, 2016

An annotated note hidden in the margins of an 18th-century mathematical manuscript by a past restoration attempt.

Cool Finds

How Experts Are Digitizing Ancient Manuscripts

Digital preservation is more work than it might seem

November 3, 2016