Wildlife

"PINEDALE, Wyo. — The anticline is a tableland of nearly 200,000 acres, the Tetons visible in the distance and, in June, still covered with snow. The plateau is filled with sagebrush that barely reaches the knee, short grass, dirt roads and the occasional oil drill. Beneath its rocky surface are 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, one of the richest concentrations in the entire United States."

"Behind the scenes at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, there's a vast, warehouse-like room that's filled with metal cabinets painted a drab institutional green. Inside the cabinets are more than half-a-million birds — and these birds are not drab. Their colorful feathers make them almost seem to glow."

"California's brown pelicans, nearly driven to extinction by poisons a half century ago, are in trouble again, and no one knows why."

"Global warming is putting wildlife at risk, leading to hard questions about wilderness ethics."

"Venom from one of the world's most poisonous spiders may help save the world's honeybees, providing a biopesticide that kills pests but spares the precious pollinators."

"Disappearing puffins, stray whales, invading sailfish: The North Atlantic is in a bad way. Here's why."

"The proportion of polar bear females around the Arctic islands of Svalbard who gave birth to cubs crashed to just 10% in 2014, according to a small scientific survey of the animals. It follows a series of warm years and poor sea ice."

"Less food for hawks, owls, white-tailed kites, falcons and even golden eagles is theorized to be connected to years of too-dry weather. One apparent consequence: a 'breeding crash' beyond any in local experts' memory."

"In a deep fjord in British Columbia called the Douglas Channel, where the Kitimat River pours runs of Chinook salmon into the Pacific Ocean, fishermen see singing humpback whales fling themselves into the air."