Thanks to the Yurok Tribe, condors will return to the PNW
in Mongabay
California condors will soar in northern California for the first time in a century next year thanks to the Yurok Tribe, who have fought for the return of this culturally and ecologically important bird for the past 13 years.
Grizzly bear DNA maps onto Indigenous language families
in Science Magazine
The bears and Indigenous humans of coastal British Columbia have lived side by side for millennia. But it’s the DNA that really stands out: A new analysis has found that the grizzlies here form three distinct genetic groups, and these groups align closely with the region’s three Indigenous language families.
An artificial island may be the lifeline Maryland’s common terns need
in Audubon*
(*also ran in Fall Issue of magazine)
Seabirds like skimmers and common terns have been in worrying decline in the state’s Coastal Bays region. A makeshift nesting site could them rebound—if the birds make use of it.
- Supposedly immobile barnacle can “surf” across turtle shells
- Who censored Marie Antoinette’s letters? X-rays reveal a surprise
- Vampire bats take their blood meals with friends
- This early ocean predator was a giant “swimming head”
- After Hurricane Ida, researchers take stock
- Inflammation gene may be possible drug target for endometriosis
- How rattlesnakes fool you into thinking they’re right underfoot
- New poo, new you? Fecal transplants reverse signs of brain aging in mice
- A new “Green List” provides road map for species recovery
- Organ transplant recipients have higher rate of COVID-19 breakthroughs
- When will COVID-19 vaccines be fully approved?
- Your sweaty fingertips could help power the next generation of wearable electronics
- The world needs to get serious about managing sand
- This shrimplike creature makes aluminum armor
- Ten fun facts about the American crow
- The quest for “lost” birds delivers highs and lows
- The world’s two oldest common loons are a couple—and amazing parents
- Birds gave this photojournalist hope in the wake of tragedy
- The surprising reason scientists haven’t been able to clone a bird
- Ducks are moving north as winters warm
- When it gets too hot, Phoenix’s lovebirds turn to air conditioning
- False scents can trick predators into ignoring nesting seabirds
- Capturing the whole history of conservation—for better and worse
- Lost birds rely on Earth’s magnetic field to get back on track
- The interior least tern’s comeback is a model conservation success
- Black-footed ferrets riding out COVID-19 with a vaccine and a lot of TLC
- Thanks to the Yurok Tribe, condors with return to the Pacific Northwest
- Smallholder agriculture cuts into key Sumatran tiger habitat
- *Agriculture, mining, hunting push critically endangered gorilla to the brink (One of Mongabay’s 15 most popular stories in 2019)
- Huge rubber plantation in Cameroon halts deforestation following rebuke
- Super-spreaders: How the curious life of a newt could ignite a pandemic
- As biomass energy gains traction, southern US forests feel the burn
- Estonia’s trees: valued resource or squandered second chance?
- Mothers vs. loggers: the destruction of Bialowieza Forest splits Poland
- A new highway could jeopardize tigers in India
- Sand mining ban lifted on beach in Suriname
- Scientist cheered by bowhead whale recovery despite Arctic warming
- US plans to protect thousands of miles of coral reefs in Pacific and Caribbean
- Trump officials rush plans to drill in Arctic refuge
- Conservationists condemn US failure to protect wolverines
- The battle to save black-footed ferrets from the plague
- The world wasted nearly 1 billion metric tons of food in 2019
- “Green” burials are slowly gaining ground among environmentalists
- *Ancient people may have survived desert droughts by melting ice in lava tubes (“Best Shortform Science” Honorable mention)
- Power lines may mess with honeybees’ behavior and ability to learn
- Scouring the Desert for a Seabird
- A 450-Year Record of North Sea Herring, Pried from Clams
- The Mystery of the 19th Century Maine Marine Monster
- To make better hurricane models, consider air pollution
- Jellies transfer a significant amount of carbon to the deep ocean
- The Resurrection plate is dead, long live the Resurrection plate
- Fibers pick up Silicon Valley traffic during quarantine
- Jupiter’s ocean moons raise tidal waves on one another
- Megaripple migration offers insight into Martian atmosphere
- To save low-lying atolls, adaptive measures need to start now
- Most of the Arctic’s microscopic algae are chilling under ice
- To Protect the World’s Sand, We Need to Know How to Measure It
- Space Weather Lessons from a 1928 Dirigible Debacle
- Edmond Dewan, citizen science, and the mystery of ball lightning
- New England forests were historically shaped by climate, not people
- Poor water management implicated in failure of ancient Khmer capital
- *Pre-Inca Canal System Uses Hillsides as Sponges to Store Water (“Best Shortform Science” Honorable Mention)
- How Maryland’s preference for burning trash galvanized activists in Baltimore
- For the Sunrise Movement’s DC Hub, a call to support Black lives
- Forgotten trove of fossil feathers belonged to tiny polar dinosaurs
- Hurricanes, climate change, and the decline of the Maya
- A new pesticide is all the buzz
- Drawing lessons from deep history, Annalee Newitz puts a pandemic in perspective
- A profile of science writer Anil Ananthaswamy
- A profile of podcaster Molly Segal
