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News Articles: extinction

Senior Wildlife Biologist Jessica Thompson and Wildlife Technician Trip Kolkmeyer try use to photography and a drone to help identify an endangered North Atlantic right whale near St. Marys on Jan. 26, 2025.

Tagged as: 

  • Animals

Right whales face uncertain future, but research continues

Georgia scientists who study highly endangered North Atlantic right whales may be preventing their extinction or documenting their demise.

February 06, 2025
|
By:
  • Mary Landers and
  • The Current
Two Kea birds, Arthurs Pass South Island New Zealand.  The species is listed as threatened in that country and climate change is among the reasons their numbers are in danger.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

How many species could go extinct from climate change? It depends on how hot it gets.

A new study projects biodiversity threats if global warming speeds up. Under the most extreme scenarios, about one in three species could be facing extinction by the end of the century.

December 07, 2024
|
By:
  • Jonathan Lambert
An Ethiopian wolf and a red hot poker flower.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

A wolf walks into a flower — and appears to pollinate it

The bees and ... the wolves? Turns out, the Ethiopian wolf may be a pollinator, too.

December 07, 2024
|
By:
  • Ari Daniel
A researcher holds up a sandy De Winton's golden mole.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

Once lost to science, these "uncharismatic" animals are having their moment

Historic numbers of animals across the globe have become endangered or pushed to extinction. But some of these species sit in limbo — not definitively extinct yet missing from the scientific record. Rediscovering a "lost" species is not easy. It can require trips to remote areas and canvassing a large area in search of only a handful of animals. But new technology and stronger partnerships with local communities have helped these hidden, "uncharismatic" creatures come to light.

Have other scientific gray areas you want us to cover in a future episode? Email us at shortwave@npr.org!

March 29, 2024
|
By:
  • Anil Oza,
  • Rebecca Ramirez,
  • and 1 more

Tagged as: 

  • Science

One woolly mammoth's journey at the end of the Ice Age

Lately, paleoecologist Audrey Rowe has been a bit preoccupied with a girl named Elma. That's because Elma is ... a woolly mammoth. And 14,000 years ago, when Elma was alive, her habitat in interior Alaska was rapidly changing. The Ice Age was coming to a close and human hunters were starting early settlements. Which leads to an intriguing question: Who, or what, killed her? In the search for answers, Audrey traces Elma's life and journey through — get this — a single tusk. Today, she shares her insights on what the mammoth extinction from thousands of years ago can teach us about megafauna extinctions today with guest host Nate Rott.

Thoughts on other ancient animal stories we should tell? Email us at shortwave@npr.org and we might make a future episode about it!

February 19, 2024
|
By:
  • Nathan Rott,
  • Margaret Cirino,
  • and 1 more
Ninety-seven percent of migratory fish species are facing extinction. Whale sharks, the world's largest living fish, are among the endangered.

Tagged as: 

  • Animals

Across the world, migrating animal populations are dwindling. Here's why

In a landmark U.N. study, researchers found nearly half of the world's threatened migratory species have declining populations. More than a fifth of the assessed animals face extinction.

February 13, 2024
|
By:
  • Nathan Rott
A sea otter in the estuarine water of Elkhorn Slough, Monterey Bay, Calif.

Tagged as: 

  • Research News

California sea otters nearly went extinct. Now they're rescuing their coastal habitat

California sea otter populations have rebounded in recent decades. New research finds that by feasting on shore crabs, these otters are helping to protect their coastal marsh habitat against erosion.

February 08, 2024
|
By:
  • Ari Daniel
The Key deer is the smallest deer species in North America. The deer live only in the low-lying Florida Keys. They are considered federally endangered, with an estimated population of around 1,000.

Tagged as: 

  • Climate

A tiny deer and rising seas: How far should people go to save an endangered species?

The Key deer is losing the only place it lives, raising uncomfortable questions for the people tasked with keeping endangered species alive.

November 12, 2023
|
By:
  • Nathan Rott and
  • Ryan Kellman
A study published in the journal <em>Nature</em> found that the status of amphibians globally is "deteriorating rapidly," earning them the unenviable title of being the planet's most threatened class of vertebrates. Here, an endangered Agalychnis annae, commonly known as a Blue-Sided Leaf Frog, is seen at National Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica, INBio, in Heredia, Costa Rica.

Tagged as: 

  • Climate

Scientists looked at nearly every known amphibian type. They're not doing great

A new global assessment of the world's amphibians finds that more than 2 of every 5 known species is at risk of extinction. Habitat loss, disease and climate change are the main drivers.

October 04, 2023
|
By:
  • Nathan Rott
Researchers examine an evening bat while handling it for scientific measurements during a night of data collection on creek in Macon in 2015. The data collected that night is just one point in a just published seven year study of Georgia's bats.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

PHOTOS: Georgia's bat populations are crashing, but signs of hope emerge in some habitats

A study of Georgia’s bats describes which parts of the state provide refuge for at least one species in the face of the ongoing, cataclysmic crash of bat populations in some habitats.

April 21, 2023
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship
The last Carolina Parakeet died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918.

The Life, Death And Future Of The Carolina Parakeet

The Carolina Parakeet was a wild bird in lots of senses of the word; it flew throughout the Southeast and Midwest, including along the Georgia coast....

April 30, 2018
|
By:
  • Maura Currie and
  • Adam Ragusea
Toughie was the last known member of his frog species. He died in September at his home in the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

A Elegy For Toughie The Tree Frog

You know, there have been big success stories when it comes to animal conservation. There were very few grizzly bears left in 1975. Now there are...

October 06, 2016
|
By:
  • Celeste Headlee

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