Biodiversity

"First, there were murder hornets. Now, invasive, poisonous toads are the latest bizarre creature to go wild in the U.S. As South Florida enters its wet season aka hurricane season, the cane toad—an ugly, warty, brown amphibian with poison can kill pet dogs—is thriving. That’s not only concerning for pet owners. These toads are highly destructive to the environment."

"The [Chinese] government has moved slowly to permanently stop the sale and consumption of wild animals in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic, raising fears the practice may continue."

"Master builders of the sea construct the equivalent of a complex five-story house that protects them from predators and funnels and filters food for them — all from snot coming out of their heads."

"We talk with#BlackBirdersWeek co-founder Chelsea Connor about how black birders are changing the narrative around who gets to enjoy nature and the challenges black birders face."

"We are in the midst of a mass extinction, many scientists have warned — this one driven not by a catastrophic natural event, but by humans. The unnatural loss of biodiversity is accelerating, and if it continues, the planet will lose vast ecosystems and the necessities they provide, including fresh water, pollination, and pest and disease control."

"An international team of scientists, including a prominent researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has analyzed all known coronaviruses in Chinese bats and used genetic analysis to trace the likely origin of the novel coronavirus to horseshoe bats."

"Horseshoe crabs’ icy-blue blood will remain the drug industry’s standard for safety tests after a powerful U.S. group ditched a plan to give equal status to a synthetic substitute pushed by Swiss biotech Lonza and animal welfare groups."

"A decade ago, the highly prized “king of fish”, the bluefin tuna, was taken off menus in high-end restaurants and shunned by top chefs, amid warnings by environmentalists that it was being driven to extinction."

"One Mexican gray wolf died after being caught in a trap in April and another was found dead in the wild, bringing the total to more than a dozen of the endangered predators that died in the first four months of the year in New Mexico and Arizona."

"A U.S. judge has dealt another blow to the Trump administration's efforts to increase domestic oil and gas output from public lands, saying officials failed to protect habitat for a declining bird species when it issued energy leases on hundreds of square miles."