Conservation
Antarctica is the Earth’s only continent without a native human population, and no one country can claim to own it. Unique in the world, it is a land dedicated to science and all nations. However, that could soon change.
Nature & Wildlife
As I was driving home from the YMCA yesterday, I saw two sandhill cranes near a small pond that sits along the highway, only about a half-mile from my house. They were my first sandhill crane sightings of 2014.
Videos
In ecological circles, a trophic cascade is a term used to describe a process in an ecosystem that starts at the top of the food chain and works its way down to the bottom.
Conservation
Kudos to California. Last October, it became the first state to ban lead ammunition for all types of hunting. The ban will benefit the state’s namesake condors, which nearly went extinct. In 1982, only 22 California condors remained on the planet.
Conservation
On January 31, 2014, the State Department released its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement of the Keystone XL pipeline in an 11-volume publication. The proposed pipeline segment would carry heavy oil from Canada’s tar sands across Nebraska and five other states to refineries in Texas.
Nature Photography
There are probably as many different reasons to travel as there are people traveling, but some common motives include getting away for a while from a normal routine, to relax, or to see a place you’ve always felt a connection to or dreamed about.
Videos
While green herons didn’t make this list of Top 25 Most Intelligent Nonhuman Animals, one particular green heron recently demonstrated why these birds make a good candidate for inclusion. Watch the video below, in which a green heron uses a piece of bread as fishing bait.
Conservation
Last fall, in the midst of burned and charred trees left in the wake of Yosemite National Park’s Rim Fire, I participated in, of all things, a wedding. It was the most beautiful wedding I have ever attended.
Conservation
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.”
Videos
It’s not often that stressed wild animals trust us humans enough to ask for our help, but that’s exactly what one bottlenose dolphin did earlier this year. Watch!
Videos
Sometimes, even Santa’s strongest and swiftest assistants need a little help. Reindeer in the Arctic lead a tough existence, depending on a delicate balance of climate, food supplies and predator/prey relationships to maintain their population numbers. A slight deviation in any of these factors can have dire consequences.
Nature & Wildlife
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…
