Biodiversity

"A landmark agreement to protect shark species threatened with extinction was reached Friday as 113 countries signed up to a United Nations-backed wildlife treaty to conserve migratory sharks."

"While lawmakers and the White House ratchet up efforts to keep Asian carp out of Lake Michigan, boating and fishing communities along the Illinois River are under siege."

"The Obama administration will consider federal protection for 82 coral species threatened by warming water temperatures."

"Despite a backlog of endangered species issues and a host of current lawsuits, the Fish and Wildlife Service plans to focus firmly on the future."

The bright-golden spray toads, small as a dime, once lived in the spray of a waterfall on the Kihansi River in Tanzania. A dam funded by the World Bank destroyed the species habitat, and they are now extinct in the wild. They now live only in captivity.

"Federal land managers said Monday they'll delay a roundup of most of the nearly 600 wild horses in a range in eastern Nevada, at least until after the herd's spring foaling season."

"Anti-whaling protest group Sea Shepherd said a Japanese whaling vessel 'intentionally rammed' one of its protest boats on Saturday during a standoff in Antarctic waters."

"Blue whales are updating their playlist, according to new research on the huge mammals."

Researchers are hoping to find new medicines underwater in corals and sponges.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday evening that it would not grant the American pika -- a tiny mammal whose mountainside habitat is being threatened by climate change -- protection under the Endangered Species Act."