An endangered species is a taxonomic group (typically at the species level) that faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future across all or a significant portion of its range, as determined by quantitative assessment criteria such as population size, rate of decline, geographic range, and degree of habitat fragmentation. In conservation biology and environmental policy, endangered status guides prioritization of management actions, legal protections, and resource allocation. Scientific evaluation commonly uses standardized frameworks (e.g., formal Red List–type criteria) based on demographic trends, reproductive rates, and known or projected threats, including habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, and climate change.
A new gecko species, Paragehyra tsaranoro, has been discovered in Madagascar's Tsaranoro valley. As a microendemic species, it is restricted to only three small forest fragments in the region. This small species is under ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 24, 2025
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The endangered golden-shouldered parrot, a technicolor species native to Far North Queensland's Cape York Peninsula, is abandoning areas of grassland it usually nests in because woody plants are encroaching upon its preferred ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 24, 2025
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What happens when a species has not been seen by anyone for decades? Environmentalists think of these as "lost species." We do not know if they've gone extinct, or if it's simply that nobody has looked for them.
Plants & Animals
Jul 23, 2025
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For nearly two decades, no one had spotted the world's smallest-known snake. Some scientists worried that maybe the Barbados threadsnake had become extinct, but one sunny morning, Connor Blades lifted a rock in a tiny forest ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 23, 2025
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There is a significant and concerning decline in the genetic diversity of British nightjar populations over the past two centuries, a study from the University of York has found.
Ecology
Jul 22, 2025
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A few streams on the Cumberland Plateau northeast of Chattanooga are the only places where a small freshwater fish called the laurel dace lives in the wild, so when drought struck the Southeast last summer, the species faced ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 21, 2025
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Over the past 100,000 years, Australia and New Guinea's large animal communities have been disrupted by extinctions and invasive species, altering entire ecosystems and threatening the conservation of remaining species.
Plants & Animals
Jul 21, 2025
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Gene editing technologies—such as those used in agriculture and de-extinction projects—can be repurposed to offer what an international team of scientists is calling a transformative solution for restoring genetic diversity ...
Ecology
Jul 17, 2025
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A group led by University of São Paulo (USP) researchers in Brazil has described a new genus of frogs, Dryadobates, also known as rocket frogs, which was previously considered a single species. The study was published in ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 17, 2025
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In remote central Arnhem Land, finding a northern brushtail possum is encouraging for the local Indigenous rangers. Though once common, such small native mammals are now rare. Many are threatened with extinction.
Ecology
Jul 16, 2025
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