Wildlife Conservation and Protection

A new study offers yet more evidence. Research by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory shows how pesticide tests focus on the death of an animal and ignore any important “sublethal” effects.

If a creature, such as a honeybee, is alive 48 hours after exposure, then it is deemed that all is well, and the chemical may be approved for use. The bee may be unable to fly or navigate, or its immune system may no longer function, but that is not recorded.

Millions of buffalo once roamed the grasslands, until colonialism nearly wiped them out. Finally, they're returning to — and restoring — the prairies.

The extinction of hundreds of bird species caused by humans over the last 130,000 years has led to substantial reductions in avian functional diversity—a measure of the range of different roles and functions that birds undertake within the environment—and resulted in the loss of approximately 3 billion years of unique evolutionary history, according to a new study published in Science.