Biodiversity

"After stalling for months, a top Trump official released a polar bear study by government scientists Friday that highlights the endangered animals’ vulnerability to climate change and the fact that proposed oil drilling in Alaska would probably encroach on their habitat, causing more stress."

"France said Tuesday it planned to 'gradually' ban mink farms in the country as well the use of wild animals in travelling circuses and the breeding of dolphins and orcas in captivity."

"New findings suggest a previously unknown virus may play a role in the sudden death of many freshwater mussels in recent years."

"In the Pacific north-west, local people work the shoreline, creating conditions for useful species to thrive".

"Wildfires in Washington state have burned hundreds of thousands of acres, including an important mating habitat for sage grouse."

"The deaths of hundreds of elephants in Botswana this year which had baffled and alarmed conservationists were caused by toxins produced by cyanobacteria in water, officials said on Monday."

"A decade-long global effort to save Earth’s disappearing species and declining ecosystems has mostly stumbled, with fragile habitats like coral reefs and tropical forests in more trouble than ever, researchers said in a report Tuesday."

"In the past seven years, trafficking of jaguars and their body parts has become a major threat to the species, with China the main destination."

"The discovery was heartbreaking for biologists, who consider the mountain lions of Southern California to be among the most threatened mammals in North America: a young male with the distortions of inbreeding — a tail kinked like the letter “L” and only one descended testicle."