Conservation (Page 2)

Protecting natural resources—from sea to sky—is about much more than planting a few trees.

Latest in Conservation

a dolphin (left) and a more rounded porpoise (right)

Florida can’t decide if its official saltwater mammal is a dolphin or a porpoise

By Margherita Bassi

Two photos next to each other. One is a man laying on grass next to longest snake in the world for scale reference. The other is a with portion of the world's longest snake draped over his shoulder in the jungle

Longest snake ever measured is over 23.5 feet long

yellow flowers blooming near hills

Best superbloom since 2016 fills Death Valley with wildflowers

By Laura Baisas

a pink flamingo standing in water (left). a blue songbird sitting on a tree branch (right)

Florida considers making the flamingo its state bird

By Margherita Bassi

a large pool of water with smoke rising from it

World’s largest acidic geyser erupts for first time since 2020

By Laura Baisas

woman's face in front of sun and garbage

We can’t launch our trash into the sun. But why?

By Popular Science Team

a polar bear mother closes her eyes while laying down with two cubs. one cub is biting the other's cheek

11 cool photos to celebrate International Polar Bear Day

By Popular Science Team

Panamanian golden frog on leaves in forest

Panama’s golden frogs beat extinction

a dolphin swims in venice, italy

Humans pose the biggest risk to Venice’s celebrity dolphin

By Laura Baisas

Satellite image of southern tip of Florida showing bright blue waters off west coast caused by winter storm weather

NASA spots Florida’s ocean waters changing color

a large group of yellow bananas

New discovery could help stop banana extinction

By Laura Baisas

a monkey standing up on two legs in a forest

9 rare animals caught on camera in the ‘Amazon of Asia’

By Popular Science Team

Wild boars killed by a pellet gun is seen inside a booby trap at a residential area near Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Tomioka town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, March 30, 2017. (Photo by Richard Atrero de Guzman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nuclear hog hybrids are breeding at breakneck speed in Japan

Termites eating wood

Termites are swarming Florida even faster than predicted

Large group of used dirty sleeping mattresses. Abandoned in wild landfill

Fungi help turn old mattresses into insulation

ROV pilots filmed this glass squid at 1,725 meters while exploring the Colorado-Rawson submarine canyon off the coast of Argentina. CREDIT: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute Due to our legal status as a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation, no media produced by Schmidt Ocean Institute may be used in attempting to influence legislation or lobbying. Additionally, all visual assets (Images, videos, etc) can only be used as stated by creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Marine biologists discover 28 new deep sea species—and an old VHS tape

A white pickup truck is driving away from the viewer across a flat sandy plain with tall, smoothly sculpted dunes rising in the background. Small patches of dry grass are scattered in the foreground.

Death Valley National Park needs help ID’ing joyriding vandals

a small chick sits on a nest with its parent behind, cleaning its feathers with its beak

Watch an albatross give its brand-new chick a very careful cleanup

By Laura Baisas

Poison warning label layered atop brown hair

Hair samples reveal the benefits of lead regulation

a small primate with large eyes clings to a branch

This wide-eyed baby primate is cute, cuddly—and venomous

By Margherita Bassi

a large dark millipede

These rare, giant millipedes only exist in Florida

By Margherita Bassi

Two images of king cobras seen on or near trains in India

King cobras take the train in India

She-bear and bear-cubs. Adult female of Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) with cubs on the snow in spring forest.

Facial recognition AI trained to work on bears

Lake Lipno frozen with green cyanobacterial blooms in winter

Toxic algae turned a frozen lake green

Hobart, Tasmania - December 27 2016: road side warning sign for Tasmanian kangaroo, tasmanian devil and echidna wildlife

Roadkill is a surprising and untapped source for scientists

Abalone shells with numerical tags

Mysterious, numbered mollusk discovered on Australian beach

a jellyfish with a red center, blue circle on the outer part of its body, and small tentavles

Perplexing blue button jelly looks like something out of ‘Lord of the Rings’

By Margherita Bassi

a small mammal called a marten stands on a log

Adorable ferret-sized martens are rebounding in California

By Laura Baisas

White axolotl seen underwater

Is it illegal to own an axolotl? It depends.

a mother whale and calf

2026 is off to a hopeful start for these critically endangered whales

By Margherita Bassi

The tiny blooms of Dendrobium eruciforme, known as the caterpillar orchid due to its creeping habit and small size. © Andre Schuiteman RBG Kew

Zombie fungus, ‘living stones’ among favorite botany discoveries of 2025

an iguana with blue and green scales

10 vulnerable wildlife species to watch in 2026

By Laura Baisas

three side by side images of a large jellyfish in a deep sea canyon

Giant phantom jellyfish spotted deep in Pacific

By Laura Baisas

an elk with horns in the wood

New wildlife cam features 800-pound elk in northern Michigan

By Laura Baisas

A fluffy beavers sits in front of a fallen tree branch with yellow leaves.

Idaho once dropped 76 beavers from airplanes—on purpose

By Jennifer Byrne

African penguin chick close-up

Aquarium welcomes third endangered penguin chick in less than a month

a cave painting of two warty pigs

Pigs have been island hopping for 50,000 years

By Laura Baisas

a yellow flag with a coiled rattle snake and the words "dont tread on me"Gadsden Flag, Vikkram, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0.

How the timber rattlesnake became a symbol of American independence

By Laura Baisas

two smuggled spider monkeys hugging

Baby spider monkeys rescued in Texas

By Laura Baisas

Anti-icing chemicals in winter season. Street treated with technical salt or de-icing chemicals, closeup view. Effective tool to fight ice on surfaces. Rock salt on road.

Stop using so much sidewalk salt

By Alisha McDarris

Pair of African penguin chicks

Newborn African penguin named after a hot dog

A pink octopus squid floating upside down spotted by MBARI researchers

Dive into 2025’s most stunning deep-sea wildlife encounters

Water flowing through the Hamlin Lake Dam in Ludington Michigan.

2,500 ‘high-risk’ U.S. dams are sinking into the ground

a mother polar bear walking on ice with two cubs behind her

Rare polar bear adoption could save cub’s life

By Laura Baisas

‘Mr. Fezziwig's Ball,’ an 1843 illustration by John Leech for ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. This novella was the earliest and most popular of Dickens' Christmas stories. The kissing under mistletoe (left) and evergreen decoration hanging from the ceiling are vestiges of pre-Christian winter rites.

A history of mistletoe: The parasitic ‘dung on a twig’

A cross sectional image of an actively growing microbialite from South Africa.

‘Living rocks’ suck up a lot of carbon

By Laura Baisas

a small orange frog sits on a pencil tip for scale

Teeny tiny orange toadlet found in Brazil

By Laura Baisas

a big group of oysters still in the shell

Pills, powders, and opioids stress out oyster babies

By Laura Baisas

several red and beige mushroom-like plants growing at the base of a tree

Asexual parasitic plants break biology’s rules

By Laura Baisas

Denman Glacier in Antarctica

Underwater robot survives voyage to ‘never-accessed region of the planet’

a dead sperm whale floats among ice while a polar bear floats on the whale

5 captivating images from National Geographic’s Pictures of the Year

By Popular Science Team

German hairy snails are disappearing from London’s River Thames

By Margherita Bassi

A close-up, colorized photograph of a middle-aged man with a stern expression and a thick, reddish-brown beard. He is superimposed over a faded, beige background of densely printed, historical text, suggesting he is a figure related to the document's content, which appears to discuss Cattalo or Beefalo (a cow and buffalo hybrid), based on the filename.

The strange Wild West tale of the first cow-buffalo hybrid

By Bill Gourgey

This is a type of animal that is related to land spiders but does not belong to that group. They can grow to the size of a palm in the deep sea around Antarctica, but this particular species is only a few millimeters in size Photo: Natural History Museum, London & Göteborgs universitet

Deep sea mining test uncovered multiple new species

Ruby the turtle needs a new greenhouse. Dance companies are stepping up.

By Laura Baisas

Close up of young rhesus macaque monkey eating peanut

Escaped lab monkey finds new home at New Jersey animal sanctuary

an bird with white and black feathers called an albatross

Record-breaking 75-year-old mother bird prepares to nest

By Laura Baisas

a close up of evergreen branches

How the evergreen shaped America

By Trent Preszler

a monkey with its hand over its mouth

10 captivating images from National Geographic’s Photo Ark

By Popular Science Team

Close up of glossy black wolf snake

New wolf snake honors the late Steve Irwin

Close up of Calumma gallus chameleon. Males of Calumma gallus have a nasal appendage with distinct spines.

No lie. The long-nosed Pinocchio chameleon is multiple species.

a small brown and white owl on a brown towel

Alaska’s smallest owl gets the royal treatment after life-threatening injury

By Margherita Bassi

two black whales under water. one is diving down the other is looking at a camera head on

Hawaii’s short-finned pilot whales eat over 77,000 squid a year

By Laura Baisas

person petting a turtle

Trafficked turtles get a second chance at life in New Jersey sanctuary

By Laura Baisas