Three owlets,all doing fine.

After a century of absence, the endangered California condor is set to return to the skies of the Pacific north-west. The condor once soared from British Columbia to Mexico, but habitat loss, overhunting and, most significantly, poisoning from hunting ammunition drove the birds to near extinction.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released to the public a digital collection of some 2,200 forgotten, historical scientific wildlife illustrations from its Department of Tropical Research (DTR), which it ran from 1916 to 1965.

A whitetail deer was found stumbling through the streets of Farragut, Tennessee, with thick hair growing out of both of its eyeballs. The hair protruded from discs of flesh covering both the buck's cornea — the transparent part of the eye that covers the iris and pupil. The bizarre condition, called corneal dermoids, has been documented in just one other whitetail in the state of Tennessee, according to Quality Whitetails magazine, the journal of the National Deer Association.

Ecologists involved in mapping all life on Earth have now taken the next step: predicting where the life we don’t know about is waiting to be discovered. As a first pass, they have created an interactive map showing diversity hot spots with the richest potential for new mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian species. They describe their results today in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Fake news on social media about climate change and biodiversity loss is having a worrying impact in the battle to halt the growing environmental threats to the planet, a group of scientists and analysts have warned.

Once a US conservation success story, numbers in the wild have plummeted. Now a court has given hope for their survival

Watch a lone penguin flee a pod of killer whales in Antarctica and escape by jumping into a sightseeing boat full of tourists. The post Penguin Escapes Killer Whales by Jumping into Sightseeing Boat appeared first on Nerdist.

Let’s start with some facts: The majority of New Mexicans want to see Mexican wolves recovered. Public lands livestock are a leading source of conflict for the wolf recovery program.

Governments must fill a major gap in post-Covid recovery plans with action on the root cause of pandemics – the destruction of nature – a new coalition of health and environment groups has warned. Crucial investments and actions are missing, the Preventing Pandemics at the Source coalition said, leaving the world playing an “ill-fated game of Russian roulette with pathogens”.

A farmer in northern B.C. captured a wild cat he found in his chicken coop Sunday, picking it up by the scruff of the neck and gently scolding it before relocating it to the bush.

As parts of the world become drier and hotter, wildlife adapt by moving to more suitable habitats. But human-made borders could stand in the way, researchers warn. A first-time study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA examined how human-made barriers could restrict wildlife movement as their habitats become uninhabitable due to climate change, Bloomberg Green reported.

An investment group of Swedish retail giant Ikea has acquired forestland in southeast Georgia to protect the land and its diverse ecosystems from development. The Ingka Group, which owns and operates most Ikea stores, purchased 10,840 acres of land near the Altamaha River Basin, the company announced on January 14.

Researchers have found a minuscule chameleon in Northern Madagascar, which they believe to be the smallest reptile on the planet. Small body, big attitude—just look at that face. The chameleon is Brookesia nana, abbreviated to B. nana (if you squint, it does kind of look like a banana). Females of the species are larger than males, at about three-quarters of an inch from snout to vent. The new record holders are the adult males, which are less than an inch including the tail. Oh, and the males also have huge hemipenes (genitals) in proportion to their size.

The last thing Carrot the deer probably wanted in 2020 was a hole in his head. But the Canadian whitetail deer which made headlines last week for his shocking injury no longer has an arrow impaling his head. “What he’s gone through in the last few weeks – from a bolt through his head to having it removed and enduring the bitter winter … I can’t imagine another animal surviving,” said Lee-Anne Carver, a wildlife photographer who has documented the deer’s unlikely story.

The Canadian winter can be tough for deer, as temperatures plummet and food becomes scarce. But Carrot, a whitetail buck living in northern Ontario, faces an additional challenge: he has an arrow sticking out of his head. “It’s been really tough to see,” said Lee-Anne Carver, a wildlife photographer in the city of Kenora, who named the young animal. “I’ve been photographing animals for years and there’s something special about Carrot. He’s unlike any deer I’ve ever met.”

Nature Photographer of the Year always presents us with some amazing images of the natural world around us. The contest has just announced its 2020 winners, and a mystical, fairytale-like photo of a giraffe won the first prize.

A species of tiny pygmy possum has been rediscovered on Kangaroo Island, South Australia for the first time since the devastating bushfire season. As the one of the world's smallest marsupials it has always been difficult to spot. The nocturnal animals weigh only 8 grammes and are rarely seen, but the island worried it might have been wiped out in the blaze. Half the 500-hectare island was burned at beginning of the year, including much of the possum's habitat.

Every fall, coho salmon undertake an epic journey from the ocean back to the freshwater streams and creeks where they were born so they can reproduce and then die shortly after. For several decades, though, scientists have observed that a disturbing number of these migrating fish in the Pacific Northwest die while swimming through urban waterways polluted by stormwater runoff. At some sites, between 40 and 90 percent of returning salmon may die before they have a chance to spawn.

The Gwich'in First Nation is once again facing down a threat to their way of life, as outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump makes a late-game effort to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration before he leaves office.