Travel Tips
A New New Year’s Resolution
It’s December 31, the eve of a brand-new year. Time for reflection on the past 12 months and dreams of how we’ll make 2014 even better. And that puts us into the territory of New Year’s resolutions.
Good Nature Travel Blog
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Conservation
Video of the Week: Can "rewildling" create a wilder world?
With our Yellowstone wolf tours kicking off next week, we wanted to share George Monbiot’s TED Talk about the concept of “rewilding,” or what he calls a “mass restoration of ecosystems.”
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Nature & Wildlife
Could Grizzly Bears Hold the Secret to a Cure for Human Obesity?
When UCLA Medical Center cardiologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz was asked one day to perform echocardiography on the failing heart of a Los Angeles Zoo emperor tamarin, a small monkey that evolved in the treetops of the Central and South American rain forests, she couldn’t have predicted how profoundly that act would change her thinking on…
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Conservation
We Need More Snow Days
I think part of the reason that I love snow and ice is because I think winter is an endangered species. Have you ever chosen to travel to a particular place because you miss the colder winters of the past?
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Nature & Wildlife
An Untrue Wolf Story: Continuing the Conversation
Other than climate change, there may be no other environmental topic that arouses more passions or garners livelier debate than our nation’s wild wolves. A recent Good Nature post is a case in point. Both topics deserve our thoughtful consideration and the voicing of our personal opinions, careful judgments and real-world solutions.
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Nature & Wildlife
Are Wolf Protection “Kid Cages” Necessary, or Just a Scaremongering Tool?
When I was growing up in Wisconsin, I would hear occasional rumors of kids in the Northwoods having to worry about wolves as they “waited for the school bus.” Why they would have to fret only Monday through Friday at a specific time of day always baffled me.
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Nature & Wildlife
Wild Dolphins Identify Themselves by Individual “Names”: Will It Change How We Treat Them?
In scientific circles, it’s common practice to give individual wild animals under observation identifying numbers rather than names, such as the well-known, numbered wolves in Yellowstone National Park. But a recently published study provides evidence that we may be a bit limited in our thinking about how nonhuman animals see and distinguish themselves.
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Conservation
Could a New “Voice Recognition” Software Program Help Protect Wolves?
Seeing a wolf in the wild is one of those lump-in-your-throat moments that you never forget. One of my first such experiences was in the Lamar Valley during a trip to Yellowstone National Park. One particular wolf I watched during that tour still stands out in my mind.
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Nature & Wildlife
The Endangered Species Act’s 40th Birthday: Time for a Makeover?
On December 28, 1973, President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) into law. And, as with most of us who approach a 40th-birthday milestone, it’s time for reflection: have the act’s past four decades of life been well spent?
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Videos
Watch as Ospreys Demonstrate Their Hunting Skills
Ospreys are unique among North American raptors for their diet of live fish and their diving expertise.
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Travel Tales
A Quiet Season Journey in Yellowstone Country
An essay in words and images from Nat Hab staff member Andrea Reynolds. I remember the first time I visited Yellowstone National Park. I was driving from Alaska to Colorado after experiencing some of our country’s wildest national parks in the far north.
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Nature & Wildlife
Are Grizzlies Losing Federal Protections Too Soon?
When Lewis and Clark were exploring the West in 1805, it’s estimated that 50,000 to 100,000 grizzly bears roamed the Great Plains. But by the late 1800s, as the West was getting settled, large animals were “cleared away” to make room for homesteading, mining and ranching.