Penguins and iceberg-watching: Marking Christmas in Antarctica
BAS How are you spending your Christmas? While many will be curled up on the sofa in front of a roaring fire (or at least with the central heating on), spare a thought for the hundreds of people...
View ArticleNigerian authorities seize 2 metric tons of pangolin scales, arrest 1 suspect
On Dec. 5, Nigerian authorities seized more than 2 metric tons of pangolin scales in yet another effort to clamp down on the country’s booming transnational wildlife trade. Acting on intelligence...
View ArticleFrom Christmas trees to mistletoe: Holiday plants facing threats
Choosing a Christmas tree. Kissing under the mistletoe. Many people enjoy these fun traditions during the holiday season. But with climate change and habitat loss, some of these plants associated with...
View ArticleNew campaign seeks swifter justice for slain South African wildlife ranger
In July 2022, Anton Mzimba, the head ranger at Timbavati Private Nature Reserve in South Africa, was killed outside his home by two men, allegedly in connection with his rhino protection work. Two...
View ArticleBlight destroyed the American chestnut tree. Can scientists bring it back?
In the early 20th century, a blight fungus wiped out most of the 4 billion American chestnut trees on the eastern seaboard. The loss was ecologically devastating. Short Wave host Emily Kwong dives deep...
View ArticleNorway’s Salmon Farming Dilemma (Encore)
Norway is the largest exporter of salmon in the world. And while some of those fish are wild-caught, many are raised in “fish farms”- large cylindrical pens made of nylon in the open water. Sometimes...
View ArticleBird flu kills 20 big cats at US animal sanctuary
Twenty big cats – including a Bengal tiger and four cougars – have died of bird flu over the past several weeks at an animal sanctuary in the state of Washington. “This tragedy has deeply affected our...
View ArticleSnowboarder’s death in Swiss Alps avalanche is a reminder that even pros face...
The death of an Olympic snowboarding athlete is a reminder that even the most skilled and experienced athletes are not immune to the threat of avalanches, and that knowledge is key to staying safe....
View ArticleIllegal trade booms in South Africa’s ‘super-strange looking’ plants
Thuthuka Zondi / BBC A biodiversity hotspot in a remote part of South Africa has become the hub of an illegal trade in protected plant species, with organised crime groups capitalising on overseas...
View ArticleDeadline to record forgotten footpaths to be scrapped
Thousands of miles of footpaths that faced being lost forever could now be saved after the government committed to lifting a deadline for all rights of ways in England to be mapped. People had been...
View ArticlePacific’s ‘Blob’ heat wave killed millions more seabirds than thought: Study
In 2016, scientists became aware of a die-off of common murres, seabirds resembling flying penguins, that were found washed ashore from Alaska to California. A 2020 study estimated, based on an...
View ArticleIndonesia risks carbon ‘backfire’ with massive deforestation for sugarcane
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s plan to clear rainforests half the size of Switzerland for sugarcane plantations isn’t just an agricultural gamble, experts warn — it’s a potential environmental catastrophe. A...
View ArticleMauritius reopens talks with U.K. on controversial Chagos deal
A U.K.-Mauritius deal recognizing the latter’s claim to the Chagos Islands in the Western Indian Ocean could be in trouble as Mauritius seeks to renegotiate it. The agreement was reached in October,...
View ArticleCoffee agroforestry promises a path to EUDR compliance, but challenges remain
Over the last two decades, about 130,000 hectares, or 3,210,000 acres, of forest have been lost annually for coffee cultivation. Pressure on areas suitable for coffee growing, usually forest-rich...
View ArticleMassive tortoise rewilding in Madagascar’s spiny forest strives to save...
TAOLAGNARO, Madagascar – Gabriel Andriamanjaka holds the radiotracking aerial aloft and marches into a spiky forest thicket. Branches whip around his body as he pushes through in pursuit of his...
View ArticleBrazil’s Kadiwéu force international debate about authorship of Indigenous art
One of the main observers of the art of the Kadiwéu, an Indigenous people from South America, was French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. In the early 20th century, he visited Indigenous villages...
View ArticleHow the Sahel junta is responding to climate change amid political isolation
As the first light pierced through storm clouds, swollen rivers spilled over their banks, sweeping through villages across the Sahel. In countries ranging from Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to Nigeria,...
View ArticleNasa makes history with closest-ever approach to Sun
NASA A Nasa spacecraft has made history by surviving the closest-ever approach to the Sun. Scientists received a signal from the Parker Solar Probe just before midnight EST on Thursday (05:00 GMT on...
View ArticleThe World’s Largest River is Running Low (Encore)
The region drained by the Amazon River, including the Amazon Rainforest, is in the second year of a punishing drought. That has lead to the lowest water levels in more than 100 years for the Amazon and...
View ArticleGreat Himalayan leaf-nosed bat finally confirmed in Bangladesh
DHAKA — Scientists have published the first record of the great Himalayan leaf-nosed bat in Bangladesh, dropping another pin on this wide-ranging species’ distribution map across Asia and highlighting...
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