endangered species

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Feds Move to Protect Monarch Butterfly

Threatened designation could have major consequences for large landowners

(Newser) - North America's best-known butterfly is in serious trouble and needs federal protection, scientists say. The US Fish and Wildlife Service said in a news release Tuesday that it is seeking protection under the Endangered Species Act for the monarch butterfly. Monarch butterfly numbers have plummeted in recent decades. "...

In 'Largest Ever' Effort, 1K Trafficked Animals Head Home

Endangered lemurs, tortoises are being sent back to Madagascar from Thailand in anti-trafficking bust

(Newser) - Nearly 1,000 "highly endangered" animals are heading back home to Madagascar, thanks to what CNN calls the "largest ever" repatriation initiative between the African nation and Thailand. The news outlet reports that an anti-trafficking police raid in May in the Thai province of Chumphon turned up 1,...

In Polar Bear Country, Small Town Finds Its Place

Churchill, Manitoba, welcomes the tourists but also has to keep them safe

(Newser) - Sgt. Ian Van Nest rolls slowly through the streets of Churchill in the Canadian province of Manitoba, stopping by a group of people standing outside a van and gazing at a polar bear on rocks about 300 yards away. "When you have people disembarking from the vehicle you should...

US Calls for Protecting Giraffes
US Calls for Protecting Giraffes

US Calls for Protecting Giraffes

Proposal seeks to add 3 declining species to Endangered Species List

(Newser) - In a first, the US government is looking to protect the world's tallest land animal under the Endangered Species Act. The US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed adding three subspecies of northern giraffe to the Endangered Species List on Wednesday, saying the West African, Kordofan, and Nubian subspecies primarily...

Annual Revelry Was 'Too Much' for This Baby Red Panda

Roxie 'choked on her vomit' during Bonfire Night fireworks in Scottish capital of Edinburgh: official

(Newser) - While the United States was in its final hours of a tense election on Nov. 5, locals in Scotland were kicking back to enjoy Bonfire Night , aka Guy Fawkes Day, an annual celebration held each year on that date to commemorate a failed 1605 attempt to blow up the House...

'Gone' in 25 Years: Florida's Key Deer

Rising sea levels threaten habitat, freshwater holes on Big Pine Key

(Newser) - The world's only Key deer, the smallest subspecies of the white-tailed deer, are found in piney and marshy wetlands bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico on the Florida Keys. For years, their biggest threat was being struck by vehicles speeding along US Highway 1 or local...

These Ferrets Are a Marvel in More Ways Than One

Endangered kits were born to a cloned mom

(Newser) - With only 370 black-footed ferrets believed to exist in the wild, the birth of two kits would be thrilling regardless. But these babies represent a deeper level of hope: They were born to a cloned black-footed ferret, and as NPR reports, it marks the first time a US clone of...

'Iconic Animal' Proposed for Endangered Species List

Bethany Beach firefly could be first firefly to receive federal protections

(Newser) - The act of catching fireflies may soon be a thing of summers past. For the first time, the US government hopes to add a firefly to the list of endangered species, making it illegal to harm the insect in most cases. Named after the Delaware town where it was discovered...

Only 18 Red Wolves Exist in the US Wild. Rescue Efforts Are on

FWS expert says it's 'a serious roller coaster' to save the endangered species from cars, guns

(Newser) - Red wolves used to frolic throughout the eastern United States, their habitats stretching from Pennsylvania to Texas. Now, there are fewer than two dozen left in the wild, settled in a handful of counties in northeastern North Carolina. Experts are trying their best to save the endangered canine from extinction,...

Reality Show Contestant Kills, Eats Protected Bird

'What I did disrespected New Zealand, and I'm sorry,' he says

(Newser) - The New Zealand Department of Conservation describes the weka as a "large, brown flightless bird that has a famously feisty and curious personality." It is also "fully protected," the department says—meaning reality show contestants definitely shouldn't kill and eat them. An American contestant on...

These 60 Baby Crocs Have Conservationists Swooning

Hatching is 'a real sign of hope' for near-extinct Siamese crocodile

(Newser) - The Siamese crocodile was once found throughout much of mainland Southeast Asia. Today, not so much. Feared extinct only a few decades ago, the freshwater crocodile is listed as critically endangered, with around 400 individuals left in the wild, mostly in Cambodia. Hunting has taken a toll, while large-scale farming...

To Save One Kind of Owl, Death to 450K Others

FWS plans to cull 450K barred owls so that the spotted owl can compete for habitat

(Newser) - To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, US wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their smaller cousins. The US Fish and Wildlife Service strategy released Wednesday is...

Unto a Chilean Zoo, a Rare White Rhino Is Born

Silverio is the third calf for his parents, in an uncommon success story

(Newser) - Hannah, a 13-year-old southern white rhinoceros, has delivered a newborn calf in a rare zoo birth for the almost endangered species. The arrival of the male calf, named Silverio, two weeks ago marked the third time that a white rhino has ever been born in South America, reports the AP...

Millions of Altered Mosquitoes Could Save Hawaii's Birds

Incompatible insect technique aims to limit disease-carrying insects on Maui

(Newser) - Ten million mosquitoes have been released over the Hawaiian island of Maui at a rate of 250,000 per week. Believe it or not, this isn't an effort to deter tourists, but rather one to save endangered birds. Many Hawaiian honeycreepers are disappearing due to avian malaria, a disease...

Scientists Clone Endangered Ferrets
Scientists Clone
Endangered Ferrets

Scientists Clone Endangered Ferrets

2 more black-footed ferrets born, with hopes of breeding them

(Newser) - Two more black-footed ferrets have been cloned from the genes used for the first clone of an endangered species in the US, bringing to three the number of slinky predators genetically identical to one of the last such animals found in the wild, the US Fish and Wildlife Service said...

Off the Florida Keys, 'Emergency Response' Over Spinning Fish

NOAA has implemented an 'emergency response' to strange behaviors of dying smalltooth sawfish

(Newser) - Endangered smalltooth sawfish, marine creatures virtually unchanged for millions of years, are exhibiting erratic spinning behavior and dying in unusual numbers in Florida waters. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced what it calls an "emergency response" focused on the Florida Keys starting next week. A NOAA news release...

Scientists Urge French to Cut Down on Frog Legs

French taste for the delicacy was called out by 557 experts as overconsumption

(Newser) - Hundreds of concerned scientists are asking French President Emmanuel Macron to put the brakes on a very French custom: eating frog legs. The open letter , signed by 557 research, veterinary, and conservation professionals, notes that the European Union isn't exactly practicing what it preaches in how native frogs are...

Half of Migratory Species Are in Trouble: UN

New report has bad news for critters who roam the planet to feed, breed

(Newser) - Nearly half of the world's migratory species are in decline, according to a new United Nations report released Monday. Many songbirds, sea turtles, whales, sharks, and other migratory animals move to different environments with changing seasons and are imperiled by habitat loss, illegal hunting and fishing, pollution, and climate...

A Unique Love Story Has Ended
A Unique
Zoo Love Story
Has Ended

A Unique Zoo Love Story Has Ended

Walnut, a white-naped crane who attacked potential mates but bonded with her keeper, has died

(Newser) - One of the great interspecies love stories of our time has come to an end. Walnut, a white-naped crane and internet celebrity, has passed away at age 42, reports the AP . She is survived by eight chicks, the loving staff at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute,...

For This Nearly Extinct Rhino, a Chance to Bounce Back

Successful embryo transfer into southern white rhino could bode well for northern white rhinos

(Newser) - A rhinoceros was impregnated through embryo transfer in the first successful use of a method that conservationists said might later make it possible to save the nearly extinct northern white rhino. In testing with another subspecies, the researchers created a southern white rhino embryo in a lab from an egg...

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