Extinction News

April 7, 2025

Top Headlines

Century-Old Clues Reveal Hidden Threat to Australian Songbird

Apr. 4, 2025 — A hidden threat facing one of Australia's most iconic birds has been uncovered in a new study. The critically endangered regent honeyeater once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but their population has dwindled to fewer than 300. By analysing ...

Animal Behavioral Diversity at Risk in the Face of Declining Biodiversity

Apr. 3, 2025 — Drastic declines in biodiversity due to human activities present risks to understanding animal behaviors such as tool use, according to new research. Shrinking animal populations make the study of these behaviors increasingly difficult, underscoring ...

Mammals Were Adapting from Life in the Trees to Living on the Ground Before Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid

Apr. 1, 2025 — More mammals were living on the ground several million years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, new research has ...

New Warnings of a 'Butterfly Effect' -- In Reverse

Mar. 31, 2025 — A new study warns that global climate change may have a devastating effect on butterflies, turning their species-rich, mountain habitats from refuges into traps. Think of it as the 'butterfly effect' -- the idea that something as small as the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:14pm EDT

If Native Plants Are Going to Survive Climate Change, They Need Our Help to Move -- Here's How to Do It Safely

Mar. 26, 2025 — Many native plants in the U.S. cannot possibly move themselves fast enough to avoid climate-change driven extinction. If these native plants are ...

Coral Diseases and Water Quality Play a Key Role for Coral Restoration and Survival Efforts

Mar. 26, 2025 — Coral diseases, particularly in the Caribbean, have caused major declines in coral populations, especially affecting staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) ...

Introduced Pacific Oysters Provide Biodiversity Benefits in Port River

Mar. 24, 2025 — The introduction of exotic species can pose significant challenges in the sustainable management of coastal ecosystems, yet researchers have found that Pacific oysters introduced to the Port River in ...

The Devastating Human Impact on Biodiversity

Mar. 26, 2025 — Humans are having a highly detrimental impact on biodiversity worldwide. Not only is the number of species declining, but the composition of species communities is also changing. This is one of the ...

Conservation Efforts Are Bringing Species Back from the Brink, Even as Overall Biodiversity Falls

Mar. 18, 2025 — A major review of over 67,000 animal species has found that while the natural world continues to face a biodiversity crisis, targeted conservation ...

Sharks Are Dying at Alarming Rates, Mostly Due to Fishing. Retention Bans May Help

Mar. 14, 2025 — Nearly one-third of sharks are threatened with extinction, mostly due to fishing. While mandated releases are helpful, researchers discovered that ...

Unique Dove Species Is the Dodo of the Caribbean and in Similar Danger of Dying out

Mar. 17, 2025 — Ancient DNA shows an endangered dove species endemic to Cuba is more genetically distinct than the dodo was before it died ...

Brown Trout Proven to Successfully Navigate Beaver Dams

Mar. 13, 2025 — A groundbreaking study has revealed that brown trout can successfully navigate beaver dams -- obstacles which were previously thought to pose a significant barrier to their ...

New Species of Killifish from Kenya Already Critically Endangered

Mar. 12, 2025 — A critically endangered new species of killifish sampled from an ancient forest in Kenya in 2017 and 2018 has now been described. Nothobranchius sylvaticus, from the Latin meaning 'pertaining to the ...

Rare Frog Rediscovered After 130 Years

Mar. 11, 2025 — A team of researchers has rediscovered a frog species which has not been seen in more than 130 years. First described in 1902, Alsodes vittatus had evaded detection since then, despite multiple ...

Conservation Efforts Analysis Reveals Which Actions Are Most Helpful for Endangered Species Status

Mar. 18, 2025 — Targeted conservation actions are essential to prevent wildlife extinctions, but more efforts are needed to fully recover biodiversity, according to a new ...

Want to Preserve Biodiversity? Go Big

Mar. 12, 2025 — Large, undisturbed forests are better for harboring biodiversity than fragmented landscapes, according to recent research. Ecologists agree that habitat loss and the fragmentation of forests reduces ...

A 62-Million-Year-Old Skeleton Sheds Light on an Enigmatic Mammal

Mar. 11, 2025 — For more than 140 years, Mixodectes pungens, a species of small mammal that inhabited western North America in the early Paleocene, was a mystery. What little was known about them had been mostly ...

Death by Feral Cat: DNA Shows Cats to Be Culprits in Killing of Native Animals

Mar. 10, 2025 — Feral cats have long been suspects in killing native species reintroduced into Australian conservation areas. DNA testing of the carcasses puts felines firmly in the ...

Growing Consumption of the American Eel May Lead to It Being Critically Endangered Like Its European Counterpart

Mar. 10, 2025 — To investigate the prevalence and consumption of endangered eels, a research team examined 327 individual eel products purchased across 86 retailers throughout Singapore. The team discovered ...

Nearly Half of Popular Tropical Plant Group Related to Birds-of-Paradise and Bananas Are Threatened With Extinction

Mar. 7, 2025 — A new analysis reveals that nearly half of the genus Heliconia, a group of tropical plants popular for their bright, beak-shaped flowers, are threatened with ...

Study Raises the Possibility of a Country Without Butterflies

Mar. 6, 2025 — A sweeping study for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: Butterflies -- all of them -- are ...

Adaptability of Some Coral Reef Fish to Rising Temperatures

Mar. 6, 2025 — Researchers have found that reef fish from the Arabian Gulf, the world's hottest sea, exhibit a higher tolerance to temperature fluctuations compared to those from more thermally stable coral ...

Plants Struggled for Millions of Years After the World's Worst Climate Catastrophe

Mar. 6, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered how plants responded to catastrophic climate changes 250 million years ago. Their findings reveal the long, drawn-out process of ecosystem recovery following one of the most ...

Insect Populations Are Declining -- And That Is Not a Good Thing

Mar. 5, 2025 — Using two species of flies from different climates -- one from the cool, high-altitude forests of Northern California, the other hailing from the hot, dry deserts of the Southwest -- scientists ...

Caribou Migration Patterns Are Shrinking

Mar. 5, 2025 — The study shows caribou herds changed their migratory duration, distance or elevation over 35 years of radio tag ...

The Pot Is Already Boiling for 2% of the World's Amphibians

Mar. 5, 2025 — Amphibians are increasingly vulnerable to global warming, according to new ...

Study Reveals How Rising Temperatures Could Lead to Population Crashes

Mar. 4, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered a critical link between rising temperatures and declines in a species' population, shedding new light on how global warming threatens natural ecosystems. The study ...

Amphibians Bounce-Back from Earth's Greatest Mass Extinction

Mar. 4, 2025 — Ancient frog relatives survived the aftermath of the largest mass extinction of species by feeding on freshwater prey that evaded terrestrial predators, academics have ...

Who Gets the Lion's Share? Ecologists Highlight Disparities in Global Biodiversity Conservation Funding

Mar. 3, 2025 — The extensive loss of biodiversity represents one of the major crises of our time, threatening not only entire ecosystems but also our current and future livelihoods. As scientists realize the ...

Conservation Focusing on Birds of a Feather May Have Mixed Results

Feb. 27, 2025 — Conservation strategies are turning back the doomsday clock in threatened Florida-Scrub Jays -- but not without caveats, a new study ...

Feeding Anemone: Symbiote Fish Actively Feed Hosts in Wild

Feb. 26, 2025 — A research team observing anemonefish in the field found they engage in interesting feeding behavior with their host sea ...

Bite-Size Clue May Help Rediscover the Missing Desert Rat-Kangaroo

Feb. 25, 2025 — An intriguing native Australian rat-kangaroo, thought to be probably extinct, may still be running around in the inhospitable remote Sturt Stony Desert -- and researchers have discovered new details ...

Heat-Stressed Reefs May Benefit from Coral-Dwelling Crabs

Feb. 24, 2025 — Crab behavior suggestive of wound-tending may improve coral tolerance to heat ...

Unexpected Discoveries in Study of Giraffe Gut Flora

Feb. 24, 2025 — The gut bacteria of giraffes are not primarily determined by what they eat, but by the species they belong to. This is shown in a new study in which researchers have analyzed the link between diet ...