Rhinoceros populations are beginning to rebound in the species' native home of Zimbabwe, a sign that efforts to preserve the species are working, according to animal conservationists. The rhino population in Zimbabwe has surpassed more than 1,000 animals for the first time in more than 30 years, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission's African Rhino Specialist Group.

The deep sea contains more than 90% of the water in our oceans, but only about a third of all fish species. Scientists have long thought the explanation for this was intuitive — shallow ocean waters are warm and full of resources, making them a prime location for new species to evolve and thrive.

Bears, wolves, and bison are making a comeback across Europe, new research has revealed. The animals are among 50 expanding species tracked in the new European Wildlife Comeback report. From loggerhead turtles and Eurasian otters to humpback whales and wolverines, many previously-struggling species have made ‘spectacular’ recoveries.

When Hank Greely, a law professor at Stanford University, took to the stage at 2013's TEDx De-extinction conference in Washington, DC, he posed a simple question. "De-extinction," he started. "Hubris? Or hope?" The answer, he offered to a smattering of laughter, was "Yes." Greely's talk, which you can watch on YouTube, has played on my mind a lot since US biotech startup Colossal announced on Aug. 16 that it will finance an extremely ambitious research project to resurrect the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger.

Lobster nets and pots have become such a threat to the survival of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales that the crustaceans have been “red-listed” as seafood to avoid by a major fish sustainability guide. Fewer than 340 of these whales exist today, including only 80 breeding females. The population is estimated to have dwindled by 28% over the past decade.

Near the old Silk Road trading town of Tengchong, hard by the Burma border in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, a green massif parts the sky like the prow of a giant ship. This is the Gaoligong range. Some 300 miles long and topping 16,000 feet, it is an ark of life.

Before our very eyes, life is changing irreversibly on our planet. According to our best scientific estimates, only 4% of the Earth’s collective mammalian biomass now belongs to species living in the wild. The remaining 96% either belongs to humans or our livestock. Countless species have disappeared in the last decades, and we know that more will follow.

Twin giant pandas have been born at a breeding center in southwestern China, a sign of progress for the country’s unofficial national mascot as it struggles for survival amid climate change and loss of habitat. The male and female cubs, born Tuesday at the Qinling Panda Research Center in Shaanxi province, are the second pair of twins born to their mother, Qin Qin. Another panda, Yong Yong, gave birth to twins at the center earlier this month.

Wild tigers in Nepal have clawed their way back from the brink of extinction. There are now almost three times as many wild tigers in the country as there were in 2009, according to the Nepalese government.

Latest figures show native birds have increased by 51 percent on Wellington's Miramar Peninsula. This includes a whopping 550 percent rise in the pīwakawaka / fantail population of, a 275 percent increase in riroriro / grey warblers, and a 49 percent increase in tūī.

The Yangtze sturgeon lived in its namesake river for 140 million years. Now it doesn’t. Nor does another behemoth it shared China’s longest waterway with for ages, the Chinese paddlefish. Updating its Red List of Threatened Species on Thursday for the first time in 13 years, the International Union for Conservation of Nature declared the two species, known as “the last giants of the Yangtze,” extinct.

The iconic monarch butterfly has been added to the Red List of endangered species, but hasn’t received protection in the US yet. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

There are 40% more tigers in the wild than previously thought, with as many as 5,578 around, though they remain an endangered species, according to a leading conservationist group. The jump in numbers was due to improved monitoring, with the population thought to be stable or increasing, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Habitat protection projects showed that “recovery is possible”.

1 out of every 5 people around the world depend on wild species for food and income

One of the typical preconceived notions people have about artificial intelligence is fear. It is because of the prospect that in the near future, artificial intelligence will take away people's jobs and one day destroy human civilization as well.

An isolated population of polar bears has been discovered in southeast Greenland1, which is free of sea ice for most of the year. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) typically need sea ice to survive, so the discovery is raising hopes that some members of the species might survive the loss of ice caused by climate change.

In the over three decades that Bob Popp has been traipsing through the Vermont woods as the state’s botanist, he had never encountered a small whorled pogonia within the state. He had seen the yellowish-green orchid on excursions to other states, but never in Vermont, where the flower had been considered locally extinct since 1902. Despite its vast range within the U.S. from Missouri and Michigan up through Maine, the species has been considered threatened by federal wildlife officials since 1982.

For years, scientists have warned that monarch butterflies are dying off in droves because of diminishing winter colonies. But new research from the University of Georgia shows that the summer population of monarchs has remained relatively stable over the past 25 years. Published in Global Change Biology, the study suggests that population growth during the summer compensates for butterfly losses due to migration, winter weather and changing environmental factors.

It's been 20 years since the last Spix's Macaw has been seen in the wild, but the near-extinct species could be set to make a comeback. In a few days, the bird will be reinstated in a reserve, located in Caatinga in northeastern Brazil, thanks to a breeding and rehabilitation program.

More than a fifth of all reptile species are threatened with extinction, which could have a “devastating” impact on the planet, a new study warns. The largest ever analysis of the state of the world’s reptiles, published in Nature, found that 21% of reptile species are facing extinction. From lizards to snakes, such a loss could have disastrous impacts on ecosystems around the world, the study says.