• Animals

One Cool Thing: 2000 Historical Wildlife Illustrations Now Available

• #30x30
• birds
• frogs
• insects
• Wildlife Conservation Society

Forget digital photos – at least for a minute. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), one of the largest conservation organizations in the world, yesterday made available to the public a collection of more than 2,000 historical scientific wildlife illustrations from its Department of Tropical Research (DTR), which it ran from 1916 to 1965.  The collection […]

• Animals

One Cool Thing: Changing Names of Species and Places In the Name of Justice

• birds
• equity
• justice
• name
• species

There is a growing movement to rename certain species in order to ensure racial justice and equity, John Platt writes in the Revelator. An organization called Bird Names for Birds is working to change eponyms (a person after whom a discovered species is named) and honorific common names, which can be problematic if they honor […]

• Animals

Trump Takes Aim at Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Reduces Protections for Nations Birds

• birds
• Department of Interior
• Migratory Bird Treaty Act
• rollback

On Friday, the Trump administration moved another step closer to cutting federal protections for birds despite opposition from conservation groups and experts. Former federal officials have come forward to say that cuts will severely endanger the U.S. bird population.

Why This Matters: There are approximately 7 billion birds in North America. Harmful industrial practices in the U.S. kill an estimated 450 million to 1.1 billion birds each year in the U.S., according to estimates by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

• Politics

New Study Finds Species In Crisis Are “Clustered”

• Arctic
• birds
• extinction
• mammals
• marine mammals
• reptiles
• wildife

A study published last week in the journal Nature provides a new view on the extinction crisis — that most of the planet’s species are not in decline and the ones that are in deep trouble are “clustered.” 

Why This Matters:  Is the glass half empty or half full? It all depends on how you look at it. These scientists argue that “the way global averages were being estimated could be strongly influenced by a small number of populations that were experiencing extreme declines, even if most were stable.”

• Animals

Do Animals (Besides Us) Vote For Their Leaders?

• Bees
• birds
• election
• endangered
• extinction
• honeybees
• pollination

We humans aren’t the only ones who have devised democratic methods for electing leaders. As our count for the presidential winner continues, the Guardian explains how other species “vote” for leaders that can make or break their survival. 

Why This Matters:  We need to ensure 30% of the planet is protected by 2030 because the human-induced imbalances in the natural world are impacting waggling honeybees and soaring birds, among other species.

• Animals

Climate Change Kills Thousands of Birds in the Southwest

• biodiversity
• birds
• migratory birds

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Contributing Writer On Sunday, journalist Austin Fisher stumbled on a horrifying sight: hundreds of bird carcasses scattered across the hiking path. This isn’t an isolated incident; thousands of migrating birds have inexplicably dropped dead, falling out of the sky into nature reserves, golf courses, and driveways across the southwestern US. The […]