Until the late l9th century, American bison thundered across plains and trails from Kansas to West Virginia, carrying with them the seeds of running buffalo clover—embedded in hooves, entangled in hair and lodged within droppings. Within this symbiotic relationship, wherever buffalo went in eight states, clover followed. The last buffalo east of the Mississippi was […]
Three Native Americans from the Gwich"in tribe of northern Yukon were honored with this year’s North American Goldman Environmental Prize for their efforts to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) from the effects of oil drilling. The Gwich"in consider the land and wildlife intrinsic to their culture. Winner Sarah James hopes the prize’s publicity […]
Wildlife researchers have discovered a new best friend. In studies from Alberta to Vermont, specially trained dogs are now being used to gather valuable information about bears, foxes and other elusive species from their droppings. The idea of using dogs to systematically detect wildlife "scat" was initiated five years ago by Samuel Wasser, director of […]
While Floridian beachgoers may wonder if the state will suffer the same rash of shark attacks it did last summer, scientists are still debating what prompted the bites. The attacks weren’t more frequent than usual, but conservation groups have pointed fingers at four small tour operators that offer educational, adrenaline-packed feeding dives where, at popular […]
Andy McIntosh made his way through a maze of garbage, undeterred in his search for a new energy source. After a 10-minute hike through the city dump, McIntosh found what he was looking for: thousands of discarded tires. "When I see a tire, I see green," says McIntosh, speaking in both the environmental and monetary […]
Beaked whales, distinguished by the strange, teeth-like protuberances from their lower jaws, have been around virtually unchanged for 30 million years, but are still the least studied large mammal in the world. Found in tropical and temperate waters worldwide, beaked whales are generally shy animals. Their habitat’s ocean-depth topography rivals the Grand Canyon and they […]
Twenty-five years after pregnant women and children were evacuated from the neighborhood bordering the Love Canal toxic waste site, environmental health pioneer Lois Gibbs is poised to launch a national campaign aimed at redirecting the way government and industry regulate environmental hazards in the United States.
The Rio Grande River has dried up along the US-Mexico border.
Former tobacco growers like Sam Askins are turning to organic vegetable crops to rescue their farms.
At the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, a conservation center run by the National Zoological Gardens, 69 elephants, 20 of them under five years old, eat, work and bathe before the eager eyes and camera lenses of local and foreign tourists. Founded in 1975, Pinnawala is home to many second- and third-generation animals, the progeny of the original adoptees.
