If you’ve noticed a recent influx of the cleanest, whitest, prettiest nature portraits ever to grace the internet, you’ve probably seen the work of Meet Your Neighbours. MYN is an upstart program that unites photographers with local conservation groups. The project, co-founded by Niall Benvie and Clay Bolt and now including dozens of partners, generates [...]

The TedxDeExtinction conference, discussing how and whether to resurrect extinct species from DNA, took place on the Ides of March 2013 at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, DC. Watch archived versions of the talks. If people had the ability to resurrect extinct species (dubbed “de-extinction”) and reintroduce them to the wild, should we direct [...]

Perhaps our species’s greatest misconception about the sea was that it is inexhaustible. The idea seems rather silly now, in a world where most people are familiar with the word “overfishing.” But men once gazed into the deep and imagined that it teemed with life so plentiful that we could take and take without ever [...]

Hardly four years ago, I started my first job in science. After an 8-hour drive up the east coast, my brother escorted me into a small, single-floored building facing a woody patch above a salt marsh, the headquarters of Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. My heart swelled with anticipation: Here I was, finally living the [...]

Guam is 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles, and even our USC students were up early (or at least on time) for our first morning in Micronesia. After a generous and very international buffet breakfast in the Hilton we walked out into intermittent squalls and boarded our charter bus to the Guam Department of Agriculture. [...]

At some point in the next decade, if advances in biotechnology continue on their current path, clones of extinct species such as the passenger pigeon, Tasmanian tiger and wooly mammoth could once again live among us. But cloning lost species—or “de-extinction” as some scientists call it—presents us with myriad ethical, legal and regulatory questions that [...]

If scientists in Brazil have their way, the populations of eight endangered species could soon expand through a mass effort to clone them. The project is spearheaded by the Brasilia Zoological Garden in partnership with Embrapa, the Brazilian government’s agricultural research agency. The scientists have already spent the past two years collecting 420 genetic samples [...]

What does a two-month-old bison calf in the Bronx have to do with the future of its species? Quite a lot, it turns out. After being slaughtered to near extinction in the 19th century, the American plains bison (Bison bison bison) has become a bit of a conservation success story, albeit with a few important [...]

On Sunday, June 24, an armed militia group opened fire on the headquarters of the Okapi Conservation Project (OCP) near the village of Epulu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). By the time they receded into the forest two days later, six people and 13 of the 14 “ambassador” okapi that lived at [...]

He was the last of his kind and now he is gone. Lonesome George, the world-famous Pinta Island tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni) has died in the Galápagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. George, estimated to be at least 100 years old, was the last known member of his subspecies, and his solitary existence for [...]

The governments of Kenya and Ethiopia agreed last week to develop a new action plan to help protect the endangered Grevy’s zebra (Equus grevyi), the rarest zebra species and the largest equid species on the planet. The previous five-year conservation strategy for the species expired last year. Grevy’s zebra populations have declined from an estimated [...]

Scientists have captured video images of a wild pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis), a rare and elusive nocturnal species that has rarely been observed in its natural habitat in Liberia. Western scientists and zookeepers have been aware of the pygmy hippopotamus for more than a century, and the species breeds well in captivity, but very little [...]

The U.K. Highways Agency plans to build a series of new “bat bridges” to help endangered bats fly across the busy A11 highway near Norfolk in eastern England without being killed by cars and trucks, but even though measures to protect bats from projects like this are required by law some politicians are balking at [...]

A critically endangered South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) has killed another of its kind, sad news for efforts to save this rarest tiger subspecies from extinction. The death took place at the Laohu Valley Reserve in South Africa, where the organization Save China’s Tigers maintains a conservation project to breed South China tigers and [...]

There’s just one Franciscan manzanita (Arctostaphylos hookeri franciscana) plant left in the wild, and it could soon get protected status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) this week proposed adding the extremely rare shrub to the ESA in response to a petition from the conservation organizations Wild Equity [...]

Editor’s note: This post is part of a four-part series that Anne Casselman, a freelance writer and regular contributor to Scientific American, reported in early June during a rare opportunity to conduct field reporting on grizzly bears in Heiltsuk First Nation traditional territory in British Columbia. For more on her experience there, see this slide [...]

Florida mile marker 102 is easy to miss, and many of the volunteers coming to help save three struggling pilot whales have to make a U-turn on U.S. 1 before pulling into the inconspicuous dirt road marked by a small sign, "Marine Mammal Conservancy." The three young whales, two still young enough to be dependent [...]

Every year on June 8 ocean enthusiasts celebrate World Oceans Day. Last year over 300 official events in 45 countries recognized how the Earth’s largest and most complex ecosystem affects not only the rest of the planet and its inhabitants, but how the seas touch upon the essence of being human and the connectivity of [...]

Extinction, as any child in elementary school knows, is forever—never again shall we see the likes of the dodo, Tasmanian tiger, or passenger pigeon. Once every individual of a species is dead, there is no coming back. Extinction is too often a sad and familiar tale of humans changing a habitat for their needs, while [...]

The great recovery from almost-extinction of the Mauritius kestrel is regarded as one of the most spectacular raptor conservation programs in the world. Better known as the “Crécerelle de Maurice” in its native island of Mauritius, the Mauritius kestrel had a population of only four individuals in the wild in 1974. Today, the estimate of [...]

If you turn on the news, you’re likely to be inundated with depressing pictures: Oceans are rising, species are dying, pollution is spreading. But how bad do most scientists think it really is? Are these doom-and-gloom projections the real deal, or just the lamentations of a few pessimists? Sadly, at least for conservation biology, the [...]

NORMAN, Okla.—Evolution might not sound like it would be of much use to species whose small numbers have already placed them on the endangered or threatened list. But its lessons are being applied with next-generation genetic sequencing speed to solve some of today’s pressing conservation questions. Many endangered and threatened species are so rare and [...]

Today is the end of a series of dispatches we posted on our Expeditions blog – The ‘Problems Without Passports’ program at USC takes two experienced instructors and a number of students to do underwater research on the islands of Guam and Palau. I have immensely enjoyed working with the group and reading their posts [...]

When a summer heat wave engulfs New York City, people seek the soothing embrace of water in whatever way they can: they swarm the neighborhood swimming pool; they visit the beach at Coney Island; they take multiple showers. People also tap into the city’s water supply through some of its most vulnerable access points: fire [...]

The illegal trade in elephant ivory is booming. African elephants are being slaughtered at rates exceeding the former peak in the late 1980s, before Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES (pronounced SITE-ees), banned all trade in elephant products. The ban—as well as a worldwide public outcry against the slaughter—helped to stabilize the [...]

Here is some more food for thought about the modern global food economy. A study recently published by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization found that about one-third of all food produced on the planet is wasted, to the tune of 1.3 billion tons per year. Put another way, planet Earth throws away over 300 [...]

In terms of basic human needs, shelter comes in right after food, air, and sleep. Over years of human development, buildings have become some of mankind’s greatest achievements. A look at the skyline of any major city showcases centuries of technological advancements and creativity. Yet, the impacts of buildings on the environment and our resources [...]

James Prosek is a person who continually challenges the neat categories we create to delineate where one discipline ends and another begins. In his own words: I want to be able to be a writer and a painter and an illustrator and a sculptor and not have to be confined by the taxonomies of art [...]

As I’ve pointed out before on Symbiartic, before the modern naturalist movement, nature lovers would shoot and kill the objects of their fancy to get a better look. Audubon himself would take dead specimens and pin them into life-like poses before drawing them and turning them into the prints that are so treasured today. But [...]

What do you see when you look at this painting? Do you only see the original drawing and woodcut by Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, done from a description of a rhino in 1515? The future artists’ rendition of rhinos after they have gone extinct?  Humanity’s view of nature? Let us know in the comments below! [...]

The following post is a guest contribution by Brooklyn-based Raphael Rosen, an independent science communicator and museum consultant. Science Gallery by Raphael Rosen Anyone who knows me knows I am in love with the intersection of art and science. Scientific illustrations, cool art pieces that combine laboratory research with an aesthetic sensibility, events that explore [...]

One of the most fascinating aspects of art is that two artists can use the same exact materials and create vastly different works. Last week, I posted an interview with Heather Knight, an artist who creates abstract porcelain tiles inspired by nature’s patterns and textures. Today, I introduce Kate MacDowell, another artist working in unglazed [...]

As a regular Tet Zoo reader (right?) you’ll be aware of the petrel series. I’m keen to finish it (hey, just as I am with all the other still-incomplete Tet Zoo series), so let’s crack on. In previous articles, we looked at gadfly-petrels, the members of Fulmarini, and also at the evolution, biology and diversity [...]

Glassfrogs, or centrolenids, are wide-skulled, long-limbed arboreal little frogs (SVL 20-60 mm), unique to the Central and South American cloud and rain forests. Not until 1951 did this group get recognised as a distinct and nameable entity: prior to this, species within the group (known to science since 1872) had been classified as part of [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about wildlife conservation psychology, especially in light of last month’s TEDxDeExtinction event. How do we convince human animals that other animals are worth protecting? Modern, ethical zoos have long made claims about the effectiveness of zoo visits and their in-house educational programs on learning outcomes and on conservation attitudes. [...]

What responsibilities do filmmakers have in terms of scientific accuracy? Usually, I argue that filmmakers are storytellers first, and while scientific accuracy (or plausibility) can often support a narrative, the first responsibility of the filmmaker is to weave a captivating tale. But what happens when the film (or TV series) in question is overtly scientific [...]

Several weeks ago, science writer Virginia Hughes wrote a piece about her trip to the Galapagos Islands. In it, she described a project in which scientists intentionally killed eighty thousand feral goats on one of the islands in the archipelago. The post led to an interesting conversation in the comments. Following the discussion, Ginny put [...]

It’s winter, and while Los Angeles has been unseasonably warm, I find my mind wandering to cooler things, like polar bears. In most zoos and animal parks, polar bears (ursus maritimus) attract such a disproportionate amount of attention that they are referred to in the industry as “charismatic megafauna,” or in other words, “really cool [...]

Lots of people mistake bonobos for chimpanzees, despite the fact that they’re really two different species. But that people are familiar with chimpanzees in the first place is actually somewhat remarkable, given how rare these primates truly are. The IUCN’s most recent estimate (in 2003) for the global population of wild chimpanzees is only 172,700 [...]

Happy Earth Day, everyone! In honor of the day, here’s a modified re-post of piece I wrote recently for LAist. Figure 1: Photo by poloroid-girl via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr. The great philosopher Kermit the Frog once said, “It’s not that easy being green.” Maybe he was on to something. You can’t walk three [...]