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Endangered Species

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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If You Watch Slow Loris Videos on YouTube, Are You Threatening the Species’ Survival?

Never has been being so cute been so dangerous

The species could self-destruct because of its biting behavior.

What is Killing the Tasmanian Devil?

The island’s most famous inhabitant is under attack by a diabolical disease

Off the coast of Cape Town, Robben Island is home to African penguins, whose future is by no means assured.

Make Way for the African Penguins

Few places let you get as close to the raffish birds—many of which are endangered—as South Africa’s Robben Island

Tigers are thriving in and around India’s Nagarhole National Park, with a regional population of 250. “If we do everything right, we can have 500,” says big-cat biologist Ullas Karanth.

The Fight to Save the Tiger

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A Debate Over The Best Way to Protect the Tiger

Experts battle each other over a $350 million plan to keep the tiger from becoming extinct

The Chinese alligator now numbers fewer than 200 in the wild, mostly restricted to a small reserve in the Anhui province of China, along the lower Yangtze River.

Ten Threatened and Endangered Species Used in Traditional Medicine

The demand for alternative remedies has given rise to a poaching industry that, along with other factors, has decimated animal populations

The St. Francis Satyrs now number around 1,000 and are found in an area of less than 20 acres.

Who Can Identify the World’s Rarest Butterfly

Two scientists are in a grim contest to document some of the animal kingdom’s most endangered species

Kemp's ridleys are the world's smallest sea turtles and are also the most endangered.

North America’s Most Endangered Animals

Snails, marmots, condors and coral reef are among the many species on the continent that are close to extinction

Ferrets raised in captivity are getting a taste of what it takes to go wild.

Survival Training, Ferret Style

Before the captive animals can go free, they have to hone their killer instinct at a conservation center in Colorado

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Zoo Receives Award for Efforts in Breeding Kori Bustards

Silky sifakas have long eked out an existence in rugged, high-altitude forests. Now the growing number of people nearby pose a threat to the furtive primate.

Saving the Silky Sifaka

In Madagascar, an American researcher races to protect one of the world’s rarest mammals, a white lemur known as the silky sifaka

"If we don't do something," says Knowlton, who has earned the nickname Dr. Doom, "we could lose all corals by 2050."

A Coral Reef’s Mass Spawning

Understanding how corals reproduce is critical to their survival; Smithsonian’s Nancy Knowlton investigates the annual event

In the Ecuador wilderness (guides Nelson, at the helm, and Paa), Charles Bergman sought the roots of the illegal animal trade (a blue-headed parrot chick).

Wildlife Trafficking

A reporter follows the lucrative, illicit and heartrending trade in stolen wild animals deep into Ecuador’s rain forest

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Seven Species You’ll See Only in Pictures

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