Watching a Baby Bison Die

This spring, well-meaning tourists tried to rescue a Yellowstone bison calf from the cold. It didn’t end well. What happens when we put our human narratives on the wild.

Kris Millgate

10 Overlooked Wildlife Experiences in Our National Parks

Move over grizzlies and bison. We’re looking for some of the more unusual national park wildlife encounters, from pupfish to endemic chipmunks to salamanders. How many have you seen?

Matthew L. Miller

Hyperstability: The Achilles’ Heel of Data-Poor Fisheries

New research indicates that hyperstability — when catches remain high even as fish are rapidly depleted — could be a major challenge for assessing data-poor coral reef fisheries.

Justine E. Hausheer

The Effectiveness, Costs and Coastal Protection Benefits of Natural and Nature-Based Defenses

A global synthesis of field measurements shows that coastal habitats – particularly coral reefs and mangroves, can be physically and economically effective at protecting coastlines.

Siddharth Narayan

A Treasure Hunt for Prairie Wildflowers

A rare prairie wildflower is lost, then found, then lost again. Or was it?

Jonathan Eerkes

Recovery: Mending Point Reyes, a Park Impaired by Invasive Mammals

Point Reyes National Seashore is recovering from an unusual invasive threat: non-native deer. Ted Williams reports.

Ted Williams

Unraveling the Mystery of the Western Sycamores that Weren’t

The problem? As trees in some of their restoration sites grew to maturity, they didn’t look like the native western sycamores the scientists were sure they had planted.

Cara Cannon Byington

Follow that Grouper: What Migration Data Tell Us About Locally Managed Marine Conservation

New research shows that minimal expansions to community-based protected areas in Melanesia can greatly enhance protection of fish populations.

Justine E. Hausheer

Can Drones Help Monitor Vultures on Mongolia’s Eastern Steppe?

Conservancy scientists are testing whether unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, are an effective tool to monitor Cinereous Vulture populations in Mongolia’s Kherlen Toono Uul Nature Reserve.

Justine E. Hausheer

The Alligator in the Basement: Breeding Bird Colonies Benefit Alligator Health in the Florida Everglades

Scientists have discovered that alligators living near nesting bird colonies in the Florida Everglades are healthier than those without access to this food resource.

Justine E. Hausheer

Harvesting Whitebark Pine Cones to Save a Forest

Near the top of the Rockies, crews climb trees and risk danger to collect pine cones. But this isn’t an extreme sport: their work is key to saving one of the West’s iconic trees.

Hal Herring

Adventures in Alternative Energy: Giant Clam Edition

The world's largest clams may well hold the missing link to large-scale production of clean biofuels from algae.

Cara Cannon Byington