Connect with Nature

Connect with Nature

Our stories bring nature to you… in your backyard, a nearby park, and around the world. From wildlife to wild places, follow your curiosity and explore with us.

Find Wildlife

Is that a coyote? Our tips for how to find, identify, & understand wildlife.

On “Trash” Birds: Rethinking How We Label Common Species

Why trash birds is a trash term.

Lauren D. Pharr

A Search for the Cassia Crossbill, Idaho’s Endemic Bird

Meet the crossbill shaped by lodgepole pine “islands” and an absence of squirrels.

Matthew L. Miller

Rwanda’s Mountain Gorillas: Culture and Community-Centered Conservation

National Geographic Society & TNC extern Cyusa Rio Dasilva shares his experience studying mountain gorillas in Rwanda.

Cyusa Rio Dasilva

Maximizing Climate Returns: Albedo Accounting for Smarter Carbon Investments

New research shows how the albedo effect—Earth’s reflectivity—influences how well forest restoration projects can help cool the Earth.

Story type: TNC Science Brief

Breakfast with the Resplendent Quetzal

Haunting the cloud forest on a quest to find the magnificent, and increasingly rare, national bird of Guatemala

Cara Cannon Byington

Camera Trap Chronicles: Up Close With Snow Leopards

Enjoy this footage of snow leopards from Mongolia, including the animals scent marking and vocalizing.

Matthew L. Miller and Susan Wollschlager

Explore Outdoors

Explore nature near you & the places where TNC works.

Crossing Nets: A Loggerhead Turtle’s Journey Through Bycatch in Catalonia

National Geographic Society & TNC extern Ona Santisteban Uribarri shares her experience studying loggerheads and bycatch in the Mediterranean.

Ona Santisteban Uribarri

Mangroves: These Climate Defenders Are Critical to Human Health

National Geographic Society & TNC extern Vaidehi Patel shares her experience studying the intersection between mangrove populations and human health.

Vaidehi Patel

Aquaculture Can Benefit Blue Carbon Ecosystems

A new review, led by TNC scientists, explores the potential for bivalve aquaculture to benefit blue carbon ecosystems.

Story type: TNC Science Brief

New Jersey Cats Caught on Camera

Photographer Steve Winter uses camera traps to capture stunning images of bobcats and other wildlife in New Jersey.

Jenny Rogers and Steve Winter

Remote-Controlled Badger Helps Study Prairie Dog Alarm Calls

Researchers in Montana use a taxidermied badger and remote-control car to show how long-billed curlews listen in on prairie dog alarm calls.

Christine Peterson

Palmyra Atoll: An Angler’s Experience Fishing for Science

A passion for fishing remote places leads this global fishing guide to Palmyra Atoll.

Francois Botha

Know Your Nature

Stories that satisfy your curiosity about the natural world.

Call Boxes & Crow Effigies: Protecting Nesting Birds in Cape May

TNC is using call boxes, fake effigies, and bird decoys to protect nesting shorebirds on Cape May.

Matthew L. Miller

To Help Iconic Trees, Inject Them With Disease

To save American elms, conservationists are quite literally injecting disease into the trees. This Q&A explains why.

Jenny Rogers

How Living Cover Could Help Heal the U.S. Corn Belt

Regenerative ag practices—like cover crops, agroforestry, and pastured livestock—could reduce nitrate loss, erosion and emissions.

Cara Cannon Byington

Story type: TNC Science Brief

Three New Natural History Books for August

Stunning photos of fungi, botanical essays, and stories from the Australia’s natural history collections.

Justine E. Hausheer

Climate Mitigation Depends on Seed-Dispersing Wildlife

A new study finds that the loss of seed-dispersing species in tropical forests more than halves the potential for areas of natural regrowth to sequester carbon.

Justine E. Hausheer

Story type: TNC Science Brief

The Power of the Emerald Edge

Old-growth forests in the Emerald Edge store carbon, support biodiversity, and sustain Indigenous stewardship.

The Editors