Endangered Species

This month brings new books about elephants, energy and an all-too-real mythic figure.

Got knowledge about endangered species? A new toolkit tells you how to put it to good use.

On the cusp of historic ESA success, feds move to permanently isolate iconic bears.

Not only that, they’re giving each other tips on how to get away with it.

Tigers aren’t sexy, especially if you're posing with one in captivity.

The federal Court of Appeals this week reinstated Endangered Species Act protection for the gray wolf populations in the Great Lakes region, vacating a previous decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The court ruling says the previous decision did not take into account the potential impact on other wolf populations, a decision which could have implications for other species sub-populations or “distinct population segments” which have similarly lost protections. 

Trying to save this species from extinction also means being witness to their destruction.

Calls to “modernize” the Endangered Species Act really just want to weaken it.

Saving freshwater mussels requires scrappy scientists and unlikely allies.

Extinction starts to have an effect on ecosystems long before a species fully disappears. A new paper calls this “biological annihilation” — the effect that localized extinction has on a region when certain species, such as lions, become extirpated from their former habitats. The paper argues we should pay more attention to species even if they are considered “of low concern,” because many of them are actually in decline. Although these species are not currently considered threatened with extinction, their “population decay” causes cascading effects on the abundance of other local species — which, the paper warns, will eventually result in yet more extinctions.