Wildlife

"On a Panamanian beach long after dark, a group of undergraduate students dug into the sand to excavate a sea turtle nest, their lamps casting a soft red glow as they studied eggs, inventoried the success of the hatch and checked for any surviving hatchlings stuck at the bottom of the nest. Nearby, armed members of the National Border Service stood watch for protection in an area known for drug trafficking."

"Funders thought watching bats wasn’t important. Then she helped solve the mystery of a deadly virus."

"If there’s new hope, it’s blurry. What’s certain: The roller coaster tale of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a majestic bird whose presumed extinction has been punctuated by a series of contested rediscoveries, is going strong."

"Humanity is ramping up the risk of global health disasters by intruding deep into the world’s bat habitats, breeding grounds for deadly viruses."

"U.S. officials on Tuesday announced the emergency use of a bird flu vaccine to protect the California condor, a critically endangered and magnificent animal that has already bounced back once from the brink of extinction."

"One of Kenya’s oldest wild lions was killed by herders and the government has expressed concern as six more lions were speared at another village on Saturday, bringing to 10 the number killed last week alone."

"The use of pesticides and fertilisers in intensive agriculture is the biggest cause of the dwindling number of birds in the UK and the rest of Europe, scientists have said."

"Deer and elk were no problem for Kashius Gleason. The 19-year-old member of the Yakama Nation had hunted plenty of them around his reservation in the state of Washington. Yet standing in freezing temperatures at the doorstep of Yellowstone at daybreak one February morning, he was nervous as a herd of bison trekked out of the park."

"Australian scientists have begun vaccinating wild koalas against chlamydia in an ambitious field trial in New South Wales."