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Conservation

Researchers deposited the larvae into the hull of a shipwreck off the coast of Belgium.

Scientists Deposit 200,000 Rare Oysters in a Shipwreck 100 Feet Below the Surface of the North Sea

European flat oysters have nearly disappeared from the region. Now, researchers are helping them recover by depositing the oyster larvae on gravel beds off the coast of Belgium

The leaf-toed gecko has been rediscovered on Rábida Island in the Galápagos.

Small, Secretive Gecko Rediscovered in the Galápagos After Scientists Eliminate Invasive Rats

Researchers thought leaf-toed geckos were locally extinct on Rábida Island, so they were thrilled to find several of the lizards alive and well during 2019 and 2021 expeditions

A juvenile blacktip reef shark swims in shallow waters by the mangroves in Palau. This image was highly commended in the underwater category.

See 11 Stunning Images of Mangrove Forests and Their Wildlife, Showcasing the Trees’ Beauty and Fragility

The winners of the Mangrove Photography Awards shed light on the ecologically valuable but highly threatened coastal ecosystems

Migrant Child depicts a shipwrecked young child in a life jacket holding up a flare emitting bright pink smoke.

Venice Breaks Ground on Controversial Banksy Mural Restoration

“Migrant Child” is being removed for restoration after years of water and salt damage, despite concerns from artists and community members

Feral cats have made their home on Fire Island.

Why Fire Island Has Seen an Explosion of Feral Cats

In New York’s only federal wilderness area, the loss of a key predator has led to the rise of a new one—with dire consequences for the island’s native birds

Breakthroughs in tagging technology are opening a window into the lives of smelt and other small swimmers—a shift some scientists say could transform our understanding of the underwater world’s more minute creatures.

A New Generation of Tiny Tracking Tags Offers a Fresh Look at the Lives of Little Fish

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a tag the size of a grain of rice that can also work underwater

A large prawn walks over a field of mineral-rich nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ).

As Interest in Deep-Sea Mining Grows, Scientists Raise Alarms About the Possible Ecological Consequences

Gathering minerals such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium from the seabed could affect everything from sponges to whales. The long-term effects of these extractions remain uncertain

Ancient sloths lived in trees, on mountains, in deserts, in boreal forests and on open savannas. Some grew as large as elephants.

Giant Sloths and Many Other Massive Creatures Were Once Common on Our Planet. With Environmental Changes, Such Giants Could Thrive Again

If large creatures like elephants, giraffes and bison are allowed to thrive, they could alter habitats that allow for the rise of other giants

Through this model of community-based conservation, Peru’s vicuña population has grown to over 200,000.

How an Ancestral Peruvian Ceremony Is Saving the Once-Endangered Vicuña

Each year in the first weeks of June, Indigenous communities in the Andes form a human chain to corral the camelids and shear their valuable wool

A dark cloud of starlings shapeshifts over Rome.

A Closer Look at the Kestrels, Hedgehogs and Other Wild Animals That Inhabit Rome

From antiquity to modern times, the city has been rife with creatures that creep, slither, scurry and nest among its pillars and palaces

A Honduran white bat (Ectophylla alba) flies from its roost.

Ten Stunning Nature Photos From the BigPicture 2025

From the beautiful to the bizarre, this annual photographic showcase shines a light on some of our planet’s most breathtaking species and places

A veery gets ready to rise into the Vermont skies, not long before setting off on an annual migration to the species’ wintering grounds in Brazil.

Scientists Are Tracking Worrying Declines in Insects—and the Birds That Feast on Them. Here’s What’s Being Done to Save Them Both

In Vermont, researchers have investigated the types of creepy, crawly bugs that their avian predators consume and may have found the answers to keeping them both alive

Over the years, a conservator replaced the headgear on deer with real antlers and the originals mounted on moose with synthetic alternatives.

When a Lumberjack’s Imagination Ran Wild, He Created More Than 200 Sculptures in Wisconsin’s Northwoods

Decades later, a conservator keeps Fred Smith’s art alive in the whimsical Wisconsin Concrete Park

The vision is to use the gate to create extended elephant migration routes that cut across South Africa, connecting green areas with navigation corridors that bypass cities and the rehabilitated gold mine dumps that ring Johannesburg.

In South Africa, a Smart Gate Could Help Connect Elephants’ Fragmented Habitat

An unlikely quartet’s clever contraption may allow the pachyderms to make better use of their range

Red-shanked doucs are adept communicators, growling with a fixed stare when they’re threatened, or squealing harshly and slapping tree branches when they’re in distress or startled.

This Majestic Monkey Has Become a Beloved Neighbor for Millions in Vietnam

For the critically endangered red-shanked douc, proximity to an urban center has had surprising benefits

Carl Hagenbeck opened his Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg, Germany, in 1907. Decades earlier, the impresario had exhibited Indigenous humans in conditions that replicated their home environments.

The Man Who Invented the Modern Zoo Tested Out His Ideas on People First

Carl Hagenbeck believed that animals should be housed in habitats that mimicked their natural environment. Earlier, he’d followed the same guiding philosophy when exhibiting Indigenous people in “human zoos”

Scavengers like turkey vultures remove millions of tons of waste each year by consuming carrion.

Scavenger Animals Are in Trouble, and That Could Spell Bad News for Human Health

More than one-third of species that eat some amount of carrion are threatened or declining, a new analysis finds, and that could lead to a rise in zoonotic diseases

A sandhill crane stands over a Canada gosling it adopted in Madison, Wisconsin. Such interspecies adoptions appear to have become more common in recent years.

These Sandhill Cranes Have Adopted a Canada Gosling, and Birders Have Flocked to Watch the Strange Family

Ornithologists and locals wonder what the future holds for this chick being raised by much taller, but still doting parents

Pangolin species across Africa and Asia are under threat from poaching, climate change and habitat loss.

The World’s ‘Most Trafficked Mammal’ Might Soon Be Protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act

The Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing seven species of pangolin, often poached for their scales and meat, as endangered

During mating season in fall, this male hellbender wanders along the bottom of a stream in North Carolina in search of a den site. Hellbenders rely on pristine streams and well-oxygenated flowing water. As they have declined across much of their range, sights like this have become uncommon.

Why Has This North Carolina Town Embraced a Strange Salamander?

The city of Boone has put a giant mural of the eastern hellbender downtown and its residents often imbibe a local Hazy IPA named after the amphibian

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