Wildlife

"North America's tallest bird, with a population of about 600, has lost three adults to gunfire in recent months, 'senselessly' undercutting plans to breed a thriving population of the radiant white whooping crane, wildlife authorities say."

"The Obama administration used flawed research in devising a plan to strip gray wolves across the continental United States of Endangered Species Act protections, and discounted evidence that failed to support it, a scientific panel said in a report released on Friday."

"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — More than 90 whales have become stranded on Florida beaches in the past two months, almost three times the average, baffling marine biologists and making them wonder if a deadly common denominator is at play."

"Life has never been easy for just-hatched Magellanic penguins, but climate change is making it worse, according to a decades-long study of the largest breeding colony of the birds."

"BRIGHTON, UK -- Controversial pesticides ingested by bumble bees can seriously impact the insects’ ability to collect food, even at very low levels of contamination, finds new research from the University of Sussex and the University of Stirling."

"MEXICO CITY -- The stunning and little-understood annual migration of millions of Monarch butterflies to spend the winter in Mexico is in danger of disappearing, experts said Wednesday, after numbers dropped to their lowest level since record-keeping began in 1993."

"SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – In a shallow arm of the bay, where Pacific tides cause hardly a ripple, hundreds of harbor seals lounge, mate and bear young. With placid expressions on bewhiskered faces and bulky bodies reclining on shorelines, the seals belie a disturbing burden they carry."

"Polar bears have shifted to a diet of more land-based food in response to climate change and melting sea ice in the Arctic, new research finds."

"When Velma Johnston almost single-handedly persuaded Congress to pass the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, her goal was to protect an icon of the American West that had been slaughtered, poisoned and abused and was quickly disappearing."