Conservation (Page 8)

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

Latest in Conservation

seaweed underwater

What the heck is seaweed mining?

By Moira Donovan / Hakai Magazine

How deep does life go?

By James Lawrence Powell / MIT Press Reader

a bioluminescent coral shaped like a fan with a central hub

Bioluminescence may have evolved 300 million years earlier than scientists previously thought

By Laura Baisas

Vitamix Food Cycler countertop composter with a picture of a hopper full of food on the left and a hopper full of processed mulch on the right.

Save $100 on the Vitamix countertop composter at Amazon for Earth Day

By Stan Horaczek

an orange, black, and white lemur sits in a tree

Critically endangered lemur attacked by vulnerable fosa in Madagascar

By Laura Baisas

The algorithmic ocean: How AI is revolutionizing marine conservation

The algorithmic ocean: How AI is revolutionizing marine conservation

By Karen Bakker / MIT Press Reader

the moon over the red plateaus of the Petrified Forest National Park

The 12 most underrated national parks in the US

By Popular Science Team

a toucan with an orange beak and black and white plumage sits in a tree with its mouth open

How fruit-eating birds could help regrow tropical forests

By Laura Baisas

Can green hydrogen production help bring oceanic dead zones back to life?

By Brian Owens / Hakai Magazine

CT scan of California condor egg

CT scans look inside a California condor egg

Cargo Ship in Panama Canal

A new solution proposed for drought-stricken Panama Canal goes around it

a close-up of an octopus eye

Why counting octopus ‘rings’ is crucial

By Laura Baisas

a small panda in the woods

Glorious nature photographs honor the impact of Jane Goodall

By Popular Science Team

a juvenile chimpanzee in a forested habitat

Mining of materials needed for ‘green revolution’ puts great ape population at risk

By Laura Baisas

Shoe made from bacterial cellulose

Would you wear this ‘shoe-like vessel’ made from genetically engineered bacteria?

Close up of wolf spider resting on web

Spider conversations decoded with the help of machine learning and contact microphones

citizen science vacation

How ordinary travelers can become citizen scientists

By Alisha McDarris

The threatened Chiricahua leopard frog, in Sycamore Canyon, Arizona. The species can be difficult to spot in the murky, often deep, water holes that they inhabit.

New genetic tools have dramatically changed wildlife conservation

By Lourdes Medrano/Undark

A pair of mountain goats camera trapped walking along a hiking trail near Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Canada.

Nature wasn’t healing: What really happened with wildlife during pandemic lockdowns

By Lauren Leffer

A screenshot of one unidentified small hawkmoth unsuccessful visit to an orchid, recorded with a camera trap.

‘Spectacular’ new orchid species is pollinated by moths

By Laura Baisas

two men in scuba gear install a sound system by a coral reef

Healthy reef soundscapes can help degraded coral reefs grow

By Laura Baisas

several small and translucent glass eels on a yellow cloth

How citizen scientists are protecting ‘glass eels’

By Laura Baisas

a human wears a fox mask while feeding a baby fox in its care

Wildlife care staff wear fox masks to care for orphaned kit

By Laura Baisas

Group of Marco Polo Sheep on a snowy mountainside.

Montana traffickers illegally cloned Frankensheep hybrids for sport hunting

Concept art of cyborg jellyfish with forebody attachments

Hat-wearing cyborg jellyfish could one day explore the ocean depths

A potentially new squid species found off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

New squid alert! 100+ species discovered off the coast of New Zealand

By Laura Baisas

fish swimming by a healthy coral reef

Sandy ‘Reef Stars’ help bring life back to coral reefs hurt by dynamite fishing

By Laura Baisas

a deep sea worm with feathery appendages

Newly discovered deep-sea worm moves like a ‘living magic carpet’

By Laura Baisas

An orca whale hunts a great white shark. Blood is seen near the orca's mouth.

Orca observed hunting and killing a great white shark by itself for the first time

By Laura Baisas

Three eggs in a nest, while a bald eagle attends to it.

Watch: Three bald eagles could hatch any day now

By Laura Baisas

Tiger walking across snow

NASA and Google Earth Engine team up with researchers to help save tigers

An orange Chaunacops fish swimming in the waters of Chile’s Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park.

See the strange new species discovered near Chile—with the help of a deep-diving sea robot

By Laura Baisas

Sea cucumbers and fish feeding at a coral reef.

Sea cucumbers are the ‘scum suckers’ corals desperately need

By Laura Baisas

a school of sardines swarms the mouth of a whale

Dive into 11 remarkable images from the 2024 Underwater Photographer of the Year competition

By Annie Colbert

A photograph taken in the spring of 2016 of the debris field from an October 2015 landslide extends over the toe of the Tyndall Glacier and into Taan Fjord.

A new algorithm could help detect landslides in minutes

By Laura Baisas

‘Lost Bird’ not seen in 20 years photographed for the first time

‘Lost Bird’ not seen in 20 years photographed for the first time

By Laura Baisas

A single humpback whale calf swimming in the waters off of French Polynesia.

We finally know how baleen whales make noise

By Laura Baisas

Hippocampus patagonicus seahorse

In Brazil, the seahorse black market is bustling

By Marina Wang / Hakai Magazine

A mother and calf humpback whale swim underwater.

Close to half of migratory species are in serious decline: UN report

By Laura Baisas

Anchovy sex is a force of nature

Anchovy sex is a force of nature

By Christina Couch / Hakai Magazine

NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Climate, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite launches aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Fire and smoke are below the spacecraft as it lifts off from the launch pad.

NASA’s PACE satellite takes off to monitor phytoplankton—from space

By Laura Baisas

The St. George’s Cross medusa is about four inches wide, three inches long, and has about 240 tentacles. It has a red cross on its body when viewed from above.

New jellyfish discovered near Japan may contain multitudes of venom

By Laura Baisas

A multiple-exposure photograph of insects circling an artificial light at night. The light can mess with a moth’s sense of what direction is up and which way is down.

Why artificial light—and evolution—trap moths

By Laura Baisas

Elephants navigate a landscape invaded by big-headed ants at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, Kenya. Following invasion by big-headed ants, whistling-thorn trees are rendered vulnerable to elephants, whose browsing and breaking of trees promotes savanna openness.

Invasive ants leave lions scrambling for prey on the savannah in an ecological chain reaction

By Lauren Leffer

A sea otter resting in a kelp bed in Monterey Bay, California.

Sea otters can help conserve vital kelp forests

By Laura Baisas

A yellow salamander with a brown stripe on its back sits on a green leaf.

Why small, scary, and ‘non-charismatic’ lost species are harder to rediscover

By Laura Baisas

The bow of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Duane, a decommissioned ship deliberately sunk off Florida to serve as an artificial reef.

Not all underwater reefs are made of coral

By Avery Paxton and D'amy Steward / The Conversation

Dense thickets of the reef-building coral Desmophyllum pertusum make up most of the deep-sea coral reef habitat found on the Blake Plateau in the Atlantic Ocean. The white coloring is healthy–deep-sea corals don’t rely on symbiotic algae, so they can’t bleach. Images of these corals were taken during a 2019 expedition dive off the coast of Florida.

World’s largest known deep-sea coral reef is bigger than Vermont

By Laura Baisas

Data visualization of all maritime activity in the North Sea

AI and satellite data helped uncover the ocean’s ‘dark vessels’

A man holes a 14-inch goldfish removed from the Niagara River.

Releasing pet goldfish into the wild has serious consequences

By Laura Baisas

Waves on the ocean.

Warming oceans could thaw trapped ‘fire-ice’

By Laura Baisas

A white axolotl in a tank. Axolotls are sometimes called the ‘Peter Pan of amphibians’ since they do not go through a traditional metamorphosis and keep larval traits like their signature gills.

Go (virtually) adopt an axolotl, the ‘Peter Pan’ of amphibians

By Laura Baisas

A large rat stands on a tree trunk at night. The Vangunu giant rat is the first new species of rodent described from Solomon Islands in over 80 years.

A legendary Vangunu giant rat was finally caught on camera

By Laura Baisas

A newborn rhino calf stands under his mother. He is black and does not have his signature horns in yet.

A critically endangered Sumatran rhino named Delilah welcomes first calf

By Laura Baisas

Broadclub Cuttlefish

Cuttlefish and their amazing technicolor dreamcoats

By Olivia Ferrari / Hakai Magazine

Dolphins that learn to approach people for an easy meal will often hang around fishing boats.

Stop feeding the dolphins—seriously

By Emily Harwitz / Hakai Magazine

A bioluminescent sea cucumber called Scotoplanes or the “sea pig.”

Surprise! These sea cucumbers glow

By Laura Baisas

A piping plover walks along L Street Beach in South Boston. The bird is small, with white and grey plummage.

Piping plovers are in trouble, but there’s some good news

By Laura Baisas

Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, photographed by a camera trap.

Elusive egg-laying mammal caught on camera for the first time

By Laura Baisas

Smallmouth buffalofish caught at Apache Lake, Arizone

Century-old buffalofish are still living in their prime

How frozen baby corals and high-powered lasers could help dying reefs

How frozen baby corals and high-powered lasers could help dying reefs

By Brent M. Foster / Hakai Magazine

Kelp holds a timeline of Earth’s history

Kelp holds a timeline of Earth’s history

By Bill Morris / Hakai Magazine

A baby loggerhead turtle pokes out of a shell on the sand. Its head and front flippers are out of the shell, with the lower half remaining inside.

Endangered sea turtles build hundreds of nests on the Outer Banks

By Laura Baisas

A steak with kelp on top is plated by a chef holding a sauce pan.

This sea-to-farm-to-table restaurant wants kelp to catch on

By Laura Baisas