"As New England winters get warmer and shorter, ticks are driving a worrisome decline in a species that's crucial to the region's economy."

"The hard-line anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said it has agreed to pay $2.55 million in damages to Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research over its continued obstruction of whaling vessels despite an injunction."

"U.S. wildlife managers proposed on Tuesday allowing the first migratory bird hunt at a wildlife refuge in Oregon and opening or expanding sport fishing and hunting at other protected sites in states including California and North Dakota."

"Bears, cougars, elk and even lizards will be getting a bridge of their own in Washington state so some of the region's largest and most endangered wildlife can safely cross a major highway."

"The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) confirmed reports Thursday of a widespread die-off in critically endangered saiga antelope throughout central Kazakhstan, reporting that more than 120,000 of the animals have died since mid-May."

"The Obama administration, aiming to keep a finicky, chickenlike bird called the greater sage grouse off the endangered species list, moved on Thursday to limit petroleum drilling and other activities on some of its wide-ranging habitat in the American West."

"Their desperate mission: to attempt the first artificial insemination ever of a softshell turtle, saving the species from oblivion."

"The foul-smelling carcasses of whales are attracting a veritable swarm of marine biologists to California beaches in what has so far been a futile effort to figure out why so many of the blubbery beasts are washing ashore."

"If honeybees are busy pollinating large, blooming croplands, farmers wanting to spray toxic pesticides will soon have to buzz off, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing."

"Stephanie Mutz makes a living plucking sea urchins from the Santa Barbara coast and selling the prickly treasure to upscale restaurants in Southern California. Now, she needs new hunting grounds."