https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Wildlife Conservation Society A new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) published in Coral Reefs reveals why many coral reef fishers remain in poverty, even as fish stocks decline and some fishers leave the profession. The research shows that ecological differences, economic pressures, and market incentives keep fishing efforts high enough to suppress reef recovery—and trap remaining fishers below living wage thresholds. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-hidden-reef-fishers-wage.html Environment Mon, 24 Nov 2025 09:55:08 EST news683200502 A new study led by WCS, University of the South Pacific, and partners has found that coral reefs in Fiji showed remarkable resilience after being battered by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016. Despite losing more than half of their hard coral cover on average, reefs rebounded within four years, reassembling to nearly their pre-cyclone condition. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-fiji-coral-reefs-remarkable-recovery.html Plants & Animals Wed, 22 Oct 2025 10:33:04 EDT news680347981 A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) finds that artificial intelligence (AI) models are providing more accurate and more hopeful predictions for the future of coral reefs amid climate change. Findings show that while many reefs face serious risks and degradation, others may remain stable or even recover, especially where local management reduces pressures like overfishing, water pollution, and coastal degradation. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-ai-outperform-traditional-climate-insights.html Ecology Wed, 22 Oct 2025 09:34:04 EDT news680344441 In a new study published in the journal Ecosystem Services, researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, and the Wildlife Conservation Society examined how protecting areas valuable for human needs—like clean water, flood control, and carbon storage—could simultaneously benefit bird populations across the United States. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-sweet-nature-birds-humans.html Plants & Animals Thu, 22 May 2025 16:07:36 EDT news667148852 It may take 100 years for the southern elephant seal colony of Península Valdés in Argentine Patagonia to look like it did in 2022. A study published in Marine Mammal Science has projected population trajectories after the 2023 epidemic of the High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza H5N1 virus, which killed almost all newborn pups and an unknown number of adults. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-avian-influenza-devastating-setback-patagonian.html Plants & Animals Thu, 17 Apr 2025 14:59:04 EDT news664120741 A recently published paper reveals that soil scratching by gorillas in Congo's Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park is a foraging strategy to access a species of deer truffle, identified as Elaphomyces labyrinthinus, and not insects, as long assumed. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-gorillas-congo-nouabal-ndoki-national.html Plants & Animals Wed, 16 Apr 2025 15:16:41 EDT news664035397 New science shows that overfishing is eroding the sustainability of tropical coral reef fisheries in East Africa, with small-scale fishers losing out on fisheries' productivity as entire species disappear from their catch. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-fish-overfishing-undermining-coastal-fisheries.html Ecology Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:06:04 EDT news662882762 A new study reveals that peatlands—a vital carbon store that many people have never heard of—are dangerously under-protected, putting the global climate at risk. Covering just 3% of Earth's surface, these terrestrial wetlands store 600 billion tons of carbon—more than all the world's forest biomass combined—yet only 17% of peatlands fall within a protected area. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-peatlands-carbon-forests-shortfall.html Environment Fri, 14 Feb 2025 11:21:04 EST news658754461 Scientists have developed and validated a first-of-its-kind, portable environmental DNA (eDNA) test to help detect the world's rarest turtle, the Swinhoe's softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), which is teetering on the brink of extinction. Two of these turtles are currently known to exist, one wild animal in Vietnam (sex unknown) and one captive male in China (more than 100 years old). Additional Swinhoe's softshell turtles need to be found in order to breed these turtles successfully in captivity and rescue this species. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-portable-edna-rare-softshell-turtle.html Plants & Animals Thu, 16 Jan 2025 12:43:12 EST news656253785 Advances in data availability and accessibility have resulted in a new study on wild animal hunting in African tropical forests. It suggests that the commercial trade in wild-sourced meat is increasing, and highlights the urgent need for countries to develop robust frameworks to ensure hunting and trade is sustainable in a growing commercialized sector. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-database-paves-wild-animal-patterns.html Ecology Thu, 09 Jan 2025 12:36:34 EST news655648585 New science from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has mapped coral reefs across the Western Indian Ocean, uncovering unexpected pockets of climate-resilience that could offer hope for conservation efforts in the region. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-temperatures-threaten-reefs-efforts.html Earth Sciences Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:56:29 EST news654512183 Conservationists have succeeded in restoring tiger populations in a region where they were virtually absent for more than 50 years in Russia. This restoration took place from 2012–2021 in the Pri-Amur region of Russia. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-conservationists-successfully-tiger-populations-russia.html Plants & Animals Thu, 12 Dec 2024 08:42:24 EST news653215339 A new study led by staff from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in East Africa has used a predictive artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to confirm the location of previously-unmapped high marine biodiversity areas along Mozambique's extensive coastline. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-ai-marine-biodiversity-hotspots-mozambique.html Ecology Wed, 02 Oct 2024 16:08:41 EDT news647104116 A new study from WCS reveals that community capacity-building interventions, even those with only indirect environmental links, significantly improved perceptions of fisheries management and conservation in coastal fishing villages in East Africa. The most notable positive changes were observed among women, youth, and initially skeptical communities. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-community-focused-approaches-fisheries-local.html Ecology Wed, 07 Aug 2024 10:48:50 EDT news642246527 There's phenomenal news for the Endangered tiger: There's been a 250% increase in tiger numbers in Thailand's Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM) over a 15-year period from 2007 to 2023. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-great-news-endangered-tiger-thailand.html Plants & Animals Mon, 29 Jul 2024 11:06:27 EDT news641469981 As the world presses forward with urgency towards reaching global biodiversity and climate targets by 2030, there must be increased attention to center equity in dialogue and practice when designing ocean conservation, adaptation and development interventions. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-equity-ocean-global.html Environment Wed, 15 May 2024 12:59:05 EDT news634996742 A recent study published in the journal Plant Ecology and Evolution gives valuable insights into forest stands of Gilbertiodendron dewevrei (G. dewevrei) in the Sangha Trinational region. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-reveals-uniqueness-naturally-monodominant-forests.html Ecology Wed, 01 May 2024 11:21:03 EDT news633781261 Conservationists and scientists from almost 20 institutions in the United States, Europe, and Africa, have concluded that immediate conservation efforts to protect red colobus monkey species could have cascading net positive impacts on African tropical forest health in the face of a growing biodiversity crisis. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-rare-group-monkeys-africa-tropical.html Plants & Animals Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:11:58 EDT news633708707 A study published in Oryx sheds light on the status of Mongolian gazelle populations across Mongolia, Russia, and China, revealing both successes and challenges in the conservation efforts of this iconic species https://phys.org/news/2024-04-million-gazelle-roam-mongolian-steppe.html Plants & Animals Mon, 29 Apr 2024 09:13:04 EDT news633600781 The New York Bight is an important year-round habitat for endangered fin whales, according to new research examining fin whale song patterns. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-reveals-york-bight-important-year.html Plants & Animals Thu, 15 Feb 2024 13:16:04 EST news627225361 Here's a climate solution we can all get behind: don't kill elephants. Or poach gorillas—or wipe out tapirs, hornbills, or other large-bodied wildlife that eat fruit and disperse large seeds. That's because a new paper by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has found that overhunting these species makes forests less able to store or sequester carbon. The authors describe their results in the journal PLOS Biology. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-climate-dont-poach-gorillas-elephants.html Plants & Animals Tue, 29 Aug 2023 14:00:01 EDT news612517767 A new study mapping the potential scale of forest restoration globally shows that prioritizing 1.5 billion hectares of degraded forest—an area almost the size of Russia—could significantly boost effectiveness of meeting climate and biodiversity goals. The results of the study are described in the journal Conservation Biology. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-degraded-forests-under-appreciated-climate-solution.html Ecology Tue, 15 Aug 2023 11:20:01 EDT news611313115 Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries of the Royal Government of Cambodia have documented the first case of lumpy skin disease (LSD) in wildlife in Cambodia. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-vaccination-campaign-endangered-wild-cattle.html Plants & Animals Tue, 08 Aug 2023 15:44:44 EDT news610728279 For the first time, a newly published artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm is allowing researchers to quickly and accurately estimate coastal fish stocks without ever entering the water. This breakthrough could save millions of dollars in annual research and monitoring costs while bringing data access to least-developed countries about the sustainability of their fish stocks. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-ai-fish-stocks.html Ecology Thu, 18 May 2023 16:45:42 EDT news603647137 Publishing in the journal Nature Sustainability, a team of conservationists led by the Wildlife Conservation Society say that providing a "Conservation Basic Income" (CBI)—of $5.50 per day to all residents of protected areas in low- and middle-income countries would cost less than annual subsidies given to fossil fuels and other environmentally harmful industries. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-conservationists-global-basic-income-safeguard.html Environment Thu, 18 May 2023 12:16:03 EDT news603630961 A new WCS-led study that analyzed 17 years of migratory bird-nesting data in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, revealed that nest survival decreased significantly near high-use oil and gas infrastructure and its related noise, dust, traffic, air pollution, and other disturbances. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-oil-gas-infrastructure-birds-globally.html Ecology Tue, 02 May 2023 15:11:04 EDT news602259061 A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) identified a viral hotspot in Vietnam where bat roosting sites, bat guano harvesting, and pig farms are all in close proximity. The findings of this collaborative One Health study, described in the latest issue of the journal Viruses, have important implications for public health and wildlife conservation. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-surveillance-vietnam-highlights-hotspots-viral.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 26 Apr 2023 17:16:04 EDT news601748162 A new paper in The Lancet Planetary Health by an international team of scientists from the University of Washington, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and other institutions says that any future pandemic prevention agreement must address the wildlife trade for human consumption. The authors warn that to date, pandemic governance has mostly focused on outbreak surveillance, containment, and response rather than on avoiding and preventing zoonotic spillovers in the first place. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-pandemic-agreement-wildlife.html Ecology Tue, 04 Apr 2023 13:16:49 EDT news599833004 Findings from a new paper published in Cat News have identified the first ever report of Pallas's cat on Mount Everest, in the Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal. This groundbreaking finding is a result of the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition, the most comprehensive single scientific expedition to the mountain in history. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-rare-cat-mt-everest.html Plants & Animals Thu, 26 Jan 2023 15:57:18 EST news593971035 Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) published the results of an international investigation finding that the online trade of jaguar parts is openly detectable on multiple online platforms, representing an emerging and serious threat to jaguar populations across the range of this Latin American wildlife icon. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-online-jaguar-threat-widespread.html Plants & Animals Tue, 24 Jan 2023 14:36:03 EST news593793361