A global effort to prevent all future species extinctions would cost about $80 billion a year, or $11.42 annually from every person on the planet, according to a study published last week in Science. The study, released in conjunction with eleventh meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) currently underway in Hyderabad, India, is [...]

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Scientific American Blog Network (which this blog preceded by a few years), so instead of our usual news coverage we’re all marking the occasion by asking to hear more about you. Please drop on down into the comments section on this page and tell us a little bit [...]

Just two weeks after the World Wildlife Fund declared the Vietnam Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) extinct comes the announcement of another rhino extinction, this time the western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes) of Africa. The declaration came last week from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) as part of [...]

What do you do when a species is rapidly disappearing in the wild and two of its most likely in-captivity studs decide to cuddle with each other instead of with eligible bachelorettes? That’s the problem Toronto Zoo is encountering this week as two endangered male African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) recently brought to the zoo for [...]

It’s a fairly common practice to help certain endangered species in the wild by providing them with extra food or prey. But could these activities actually end up harming the very species conservationists are trying to help? Researchers from Spain’s National Museum of Natural Sciences, the Doñana Biological Station and GIR Diagnostics asked that question [...]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) this week granted the Ozark hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) but made the unusual decision not to declare critical habitat for the rare, giant salamanders because, it said, doing so could open it to threats from those who would illegally collect the [...]

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 [...]

South Korea has filed an application with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to turn a portion of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea into what is known as a biosphere reserve, an internationally recognized conservation site with a focus on sustainable development. There are currently 580 other UNESCO [...]

Australia is debating whether or not to list koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) as a threatened or endangered species, and one of the ideas for saving them is to build tunnels to help the marsupials cross under roads without being killed by cars and trucks. We’re used to thinking about koalas living in trees, but they spend [...]

A subsidiary of Petrohawk Energy Corp. has been fined $350,000 and ordered to pay an additional $150,000 in restitution for damaging the habitat of an endangered species in Arkansas. The latter amount will be paid to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for use in watershed restoration projects in the area, according to a press [...]

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 [...]

One of the largest orb-weaving spiders had remained hidden from entomologists in plain sight. The new species of giant golden orb weaver (Nephila komaci), which builds meter-wide webs, entangled a doctoral student who stumbled upon a specimen in a museum collection. "It was surprising to find a giant female Nephila from South Africa in the [...]

Quick update on the Bastrop, TX fires. According to local news outlets, the wildfires are 70 percent contained. Of the 34,000 acres burned by the wildfire, 6,400 acres were in Bastrop State Park. In addition to the many homes lost or damaged by the fires, two historic Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) structures have been damaged. [...]