Featured
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World View |
We must train specialists in botany and zoology — or risk more devastating extinctions
Failure to fund education in taxonomy could derail efforts to support conservation in low- and middle-income countries.
- Dasheng Liu
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Nature Podcast |
Ancient DNA debunks Rapa Nui ‘ecological suicide’ theory
Study refutes claim that mismanagement of natural resources led to population crash — plus a tiny wasp that’s been found in an unexpected place.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Editorial |
How to support Indigenous Peoples on biodiversity: be rigorous with data
Questions surrounding an often-repeated statistic about Indigenous Peoples and biodiversity show that researchers should take more care when sourcing facts.
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Research Highlight |
The Amazon’s gargantuan gardeners: manatees
The aquatic mammals disperse seeds of their favourite foods as they migrate, according to a serendipitous study of their poo.
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Comment |
No basis for claim that 80% of biodiversity is found in Indigenous territories
A much-cited statistic about how much of the world’s biodiversity is under Indigenous stewardship is unsupported — and could harm the cause it is meant to support.
- Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares
- , Julia E. Fa
- & Stephen T. Garnett
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Book Review |
Why repairing forests is not just about planting trees
An exploration of deforestation and restoration shows that woods are much more than trees. They depend on — and provide for — people, animals and microbes.
- Debraj Manna
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Career Feature |
Tales of a migratory marine biologist
Christine Gabriele’s research involves tracking the endangered humpback whale in both Hawaiian and Alaskan waters.
- Lesley Evans Ogden
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News Q&A |
Lonely? Playful? Why are dolphin attacks rising in Japan?
Dolphin ecologist Tadamichi Morisaka discusses common dolphin behaviours that could explain the encounters with people.
- Anna Ikarashi
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Book Review |
Fall of the wild: why pristine wilderness is a human-made myth
Even ‘untouched’ natural landscapes bear witness to millennia of human influence, a lyrical book argues — with implications for how we seek to rewild them.
- Douglas H. Erwin
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Research Highlight |
How to train your crocodile
Doctored toad carcasses teach crocs to avoid eating the toxin-producing cane toad.
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Comment |
Dismantle ‘zombie’ wildlife protection conventions once their work is done
Almost 80 years after it was created, the international whaling convention has outlived its usefulness. Ending it could set an example for other organizations.
- Peter Bridgewater
- , Rakhyun E. Kim
- & Nikolas Sellheim
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News |
Great Barrier Reef’s temperature soars to 400-year high
Chemical analysis of coral skeletons reveals unprecedented warming trend that could spell disaster for the iconic reef.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News & Views |
Forest-degradation thresholds shape tropical biodiversity
Can forest-degradation thresholds be identified to assess whether logged sites have conservation value? A long-term multi-species study reveals the effects on biodiversity when tropical forests are logged at differing intensities.
- Umesh Srinivasan
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Article
| Open AccessThresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate
An analysis of the impact of logging intensity on biodiversity in tropical forests in Sabah, Malaysia, identifies a threshold of tree biomass removal below which logged forests still have conservation value.
- Robert M. Ewers
- , C. David L. Orme
- & Cristina Banks-Leite
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Article
| Open AccessGroundwater-dependent ecosystem map exposes global dryland protection needs
Mapping of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, which support biodiversity and rural livelihoods, shows they occur on more than one-third of global drylands analysed, but lack protections to safeguard these critical ecosystems and the societies dependent upon them from groundwater depletion.
- Melissa M. Rohde
- , Christine M. Albano
- & John C. Stella
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Where I Work |
Serpents of the people: how a religious festival helps me to monitor snake behaviour
Ernesto Filippi tracks the health of captured specimens thanks to a citizen-science project inspired by an ancient ritual.
- Francesco Martinelli
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Career Feature |
Harrowing trends: how endangered-species researchers find hope in the dark
When data collection can be damaging, conservation scientists must balance ethical trade-offs between interference and inaction.
- Nikki Forrester
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Nature Podcast |
These frog 'saunas’ could help endangered species fight off a deadly fungus
How a hot resting spot can help frogs survive chytridiomycosis infection, and the decades-long hunt for dark matter in black holes.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News & Views |
Mini saunas save endangered frogs from fungal disease
Amphibian species around the world are threatened with extinction by the deadly fungal disease chytridiomycosis. A simple, low-cost solution to provide warm conditions enables frogs to clear the infection and remain disease free.
- Brian Gratwicke
- & Anna Savage
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Article |
Hotspot shelters stimulate frog resistance to chytridiomycosis
Artificial thermal refugia—sites heated to temperatures higher than that of the surrounding environment—provide a way to protect an endangered Australian frog species from a fungal disease that has caused the extinction of many amphibians.
- Anthony W. Waddle
- , Simon Clulow
- & Richard Shine
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Where I Work |
I raise delicate butterflies on the mean streets of New York
Robyn Elman works to protect and conserve monarch butterflies before their dangerous migration down the US East Coast to Mexico.
- Jack Leeming
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News |
‘Rainbow’, ‘like a cricket’: every bird in South Africa now has an isiZulu name
An effort to create names for wild bird species in the Indigenous language hopes to strengthen conservation research.
- Sarah Wild
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal shortfalls in documented actions to conserve biodiversity
A global assessment of conservation interventions for threatened species across a range of data sources finds that interventions for most species remain insufficient or absent.
- Rebecca A. Senior
- , Ruby Bagwyn
- & David S. Wilcove
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Research Highlight |
A tiny killer is making an entire region’s sea urchins disintegrate
A single-celled organism is destroying up to 100% of urchins in parts of the Red Sea and the Western Indian Ocean.
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News & Views |
Save the forest to save the tiger — why vegetation conservation matters
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, emphasizes the importance of conserving wild plant species, plus a wonderstruck sky-watcher spots a brilliant meteor, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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News |
China’s Yangtze fish-rescue plan is a failure, study says
Researchers have debated the best management plan for highly endangered fish species since the 1980s.
- Xiaoying You
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Editorial |
Forestry social science is failing the needs of the people who need it most
Rich nations’ fixation on forests as climate offsets has resulted in the needs of those who live in or make a living from these resources being ignored. A broader view and more collaboration between disciplines is required.
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Research Briefing |
‘Ghost roads’ could be the biggest direct threat to tropical forests
By using volunteers to map roads in forests across Borneo, Sumatra and New Guinea, an innovative study shows that existing maps of the Asia-Pacific region are rife with errors. It also reveals that unmapped roads are extremely common — up to seven times more abundant than mapped ones. Such ‘ghost roads’ are promoting illegal logging, mining, wildlife poaching and deforestation in some of the world’s biologically richest ecosystems.
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Correspondence |
Finding millennia-old ‘monumental’ corals could unlock secrets of climate resilience
- Simone Montano
- , Federica Siena
- & Giovanni Strona
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Correspondence |
Zoos should focus on animal welfare before claiming to champion conservation
- Donald Broom
- , Hsiao Mei Yeh
- & Shawn Peng
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Research Highlight |
Not just truffles: dogs can sniff out surpassingly rare native fungus
Daisy, a member of a breed used to find fungal delicacies, detected a critically endangered Australian fungus faster than a trained human could.
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Career Feature |
Want to make a difference? Try working at an environmental non-profit organization
Moving to non-profit work requires researchers to shift their mindset to focus on applied science for policymaking and conservation practice.
- Natasha Gilbert
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News & Views |
Wildlife boost in African forests certified for sustainable logging
Is there a conservation benefit if tropical forests that are affected by logging gain certification from the Forest Stewardship Council? An analysis of the biodiversity outcomes in such tropical forests provides answers.
- Julia E. Fa
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Article
| Open AccessFSC-certified forest management benefits large mammals compared to non-FSC
Camera-trap images of 55 mammal species in 14 logging concessions in western equatorial Africa reveal greater animal encounter rates in FSC-certified than in non-certified forests, especially for large mammals and species of high conservation priority.
- Joeri A. Zwerts
- , E. H. M. Sterck
- & Marijke van Kuijk
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News & Views |
Climate change predicted to exacerbate declines in bee populations
What effects will climate change have on insect communities? Analyses of data collected over decades robustly document consequences specific to bee populations, and this evidence might aid future conservation efforts.
- Nicole E. Miller-Struttmann
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Article
| Open AccessClimate velocities and species tracking in global mountain regions
An analysis of the rate at which isotherms are shifting in mountain regions worldwide identifies 17 key regions with particularly high vertical isotherm shift velocities, and provides insight into how these shifts affect species ranges.
- Wei-Ping Chan
- , Jonathan Lenoir
- & Sheng-Feng Shen
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Obituary |
Christophe Boesch (1951–2024), primatologist and chimpanzee champion
Zoologist whose understanding of chimpanzee behaviours has helped to assure their survival.
- Kathelijne Koops
- & Richard Wrangham
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Nature Podcast |
Audio long read: Chimpanzees are dying from our colds — these scientists are trying to save them
Endangered apes are increasingly being put at risk by human diseases.
- Rachel Nuwer
- & Benjamin Thompson
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Editorial |
It’s time for countries to honour their million-dollar biodiversity pledges
Promises to safeguard biodiversity need to be translated into money in the bank.
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News & Views |
From the archive: river pollution, and a minister for science
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Where I Work |
I listen to the sounds this remote wetland makes to learn its rhythms
Peter Chatanga uses weeks-long audio recordings to build a picture of biodiversity in Lesotho’s crucial wetlands.
- Linda Nordling
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Career Q&A |
I took my case to Nepal’s highest court to improve conservation
After seeing an endangered-animal pelt displayed on television, Kumar Paudel embarked on a five-year legal battle, advocating for equitable enforcement of wildlife laws.
- Saugat Bolakhe
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News & Views |
Ecosystem effects of sea otters limit coastal erosion
Conservation is bringing back certain predators that are high in the food chain, but how this affects an ecosystem overall is debated. Rigorous fieldwork provides strong evidence that sea otters help to mitigate coastal erosion.
- Johan S. Eklöf
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Article |
Top-predator recovery abates geomorphic decline of a coastal ecosystem
Sea otters recolonizing an estuary in California indirectly reduce erosion by reducing burrowing crab abundance, suggesting that restoring predators could be a key mechanism to improve the stability of coastal wetlands and other ecosystems.
- Brent B. Hughes
- , Kathryn M. Beheshti
- & Brian R. Silliman
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Nature Video |
‘Like a moth to a flame’ — this strange insect behaviour is finally explained
Many explanations have been put forward for insects’ attraction to light, but high tech cameras now suggest a different answer.
- Dan Fox
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Research Briefing |
Predator die-off reshapes ecosystems in expected and unexpected ways
Mass-mortality events of predators are becoming more common, but their precise effects on food webs remain unclear. Experimentally induced predator die-offs led both to reduced predation and to fertilization from the bottom up. Together, these effects stabilized food webs.
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News Feature |
Chimpanzees are dying from our colds — these scientists are trying to save them
Humans are increasingly passing pathogens to animal populations, imperilling endangered species such as chimpanzees and gorillas.
- Rachel Nuwer
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News |
Can foreign coral save a dying reef? Radical idea sparks debate
Devastation brought on by climate change and other threats prompts a last-resort proposal to rescue Caribbean corals.
- Heidi Ledford