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Endangered Species

Imperiled survivors: A herd migrates across Chad, once home to tens of thousands of elephants. After a surge in poaching, only about 1,000 remain.

The Race to Stop Africa’s Elephant Poachers

The recent capture of a notorious poacher has given hope to officials in Chad battling to save the African elephant from extinction

University of Sao Paulo researcher Marcio Martins holds one snake while watching another, a deadly venomous snake living only on Queimada Grande Island, Atlantic Forest, Brazil.

This Terrifying Brazilian Island Has the Highest Concentration of Venomous Snakes Anywhere in the World

Brazil’s Ilha de Queimada Grande is the only home of one of the world’s deadliest, and most endangered, snakes

Cool Finds

In Maya Lin’s New Exhibition, a Singing Ring Contains the Sounds of Endangered Worlds

The Sound Ring represents places as diverse as California forests and the Indian Ocean

Cool Finds

Europe Has Its Own Bison Species That Came Back From the Brink of Extinction

Bison were just reintroduced into a stretch of Romania where they haven’t been found for two centuries

New Research

A 20,000-Plus Room Resort Threatens This UNESCO Site in Mexico

For twenty years, conservation efforts have protected the beach and its coral reef; a new development could harm them both

A drawing of the West Indian or Caribbean monk seal based on a specimen collected in Matanzas, Cuba.

New Research

For the First Time in More Than 100 Years, Scientists Discover New Seal Genus

The now extinct Caribbean monk seal shares an evolutionary connection with the endangered Hawaiian monk seal—one more reason to save the species

Cool Finds

France Is Spending 3 Million Euros to Save the Great Hamster of Alsace

There are only a few hundred left!

None

Decades of Political Strife Have Left Myanmar’s Jungles Unexplored and Unchartered

Now as the country opens up, what will happen to its endangered species? A new three-part series on the Smithsonian Channel explores the issue

A bowl of shark fin soup, which is sometimes made with meat from protected species of sharks

Cool Finds

People Caught Eating Rare Animals in China Might Soon Face Jail Time

Eating endangered species was never kosher, but now legitimate punishments can finally be dished out for this crime

A West Indian manatee calf nurses from its mother.

American South

14 Fun Facts About Manatees

These roly-poly herbivores just may be the teddy bears of the sea. But keep an eye out when boating; they don’t move so fast.

The Anguilla Bank skink, a Caribbean species discovered along with 23 others in 2012, is vulnerable to extinction.

How Many Species Can We Find Before They Disappear Forever?

Biologists are in a race to locate and identify new species as habitats become victim to an industrialized world

Cool Finds

Japan Plans to Halve the Number of Young Bluefin Tuna It Catches

Sushi might get more expensive, but tuna populations need the break

A scene from the whale shark processing factory, where the endangered species are turned into meat, medicinal supplements and cosmetics.

Cool Finds

A Factory in China Is Slaughtering Endangered Whale Sharks

A Chinese non-profit wildlife organization exposed what they believe to be the largest whale shark-processing factory in the world

Trending Today

Try to Smuggle an Illegal Elephant Tusk Out of Kenya, Pay a $230,000 Fine

For the first time, Kenya exercised its new, stricter punishments for wildlife trafficking crimes

A curious, rare snow leopard checks out the researchers' camera trap.

Cool Finds

The Elusive Snow Leopard, Caught in a Camera Trap

Researchers managed to capture images of notoriously elusive snow leopards in Pakistan

In Selfmade, microbiologist Christina Agapakis and scent artist Sissel Tolaas made cheese from bacteria collected from people's mouths and toes.

Art Meets Science

Cheese Made From Bacteria Between Your Toes and Other Bizarre Bio Art

With groundbreaking (and controversial) projects, artists are starting a conversation about the future of synthetic biology

Bao Bao at 10 weeks. Scientists estimate that a giant panda ancestor split from the bear lineage 18 million years ago.

Get Up Close and Personal with Bao Bao in Amazing New Photos

Take an exclusive backstage tour of the National Zoo and meet Bao Bao, the newest giant panda star

Desert Tortoises May Be Starving, Dehydrating And Dying Because of Climate Change

Those that hadn’t succumbed to death by drought appeared to have been predated on by starving coyotes, which usually eat mammals

Guadalupe White Shark

Great White Sharks Are Being Killed Before They Can Become Truly Gigantic

Sharks aren’t shrinking, they’re just being hunted and inadvertently killed by fishing nets so often that they’re no longer living long enough to grow up

A group of critically endangered California condors near Zion National Park, Utah.

Why the Endangered Species Act Is Broken, and How to Fix It

On the landmark species-saving law’s 40th anniversary, environmental historian Peter Alagona explains why it doesn’t work and offers a path toward recovery

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