Biodiversity

"A huge marine reserve in the Pacific Ocean has led to the recovery of tuna and other migratory fish around its borders, according to a study."

"After diving into the warm sea off the coast of northern Bali, Indonesia, Made Partiana hovers above a bed of coral, holding his breath and scanning for flashes of color and movement. Hours later, exhausted, he returns to a rocky beach, towing plastic bags filled with his darting, exquisite quarry: tropical fish of all shades and shapes."

"In one corner, there is the agile climber with steak knife-like horns. In the other is America’s largest wild sheep. They are locked in significantly one-sided combat in the mountains of the US west, scientists have found, in a battle over resources uncovered by the region’s vanishing glaciers."

"A federal appeals court in New Orleans on Monday ordered a nine-year-old lawsuit filed against oil and gas companies over damage to Louisiana's wetlands to be returned to state court for trial, potentially clearing the way for at least 41 similar suits -- alleging billions of dollars in damages -- to also move forward."

"In the misty forests of the Congolese rainforest, a small band of apes fed in a tree. Adult chimpanzees dined on fruit in the canopy, while a pair of young apes played nearby. But one of the playing apes was not a chimpanzee: It was a gorilla."

"Maine lobster fishermen have hired a former high-ranking U.S. Department of Justice official to represent them in their case against new laws intended to protect whales."

"The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has long been hampered by inadequate resources, leaving the US’s foremost law for protecting plants and animals filled with delays and failures in species recovery, researchers said on Wednesday."

"The latest update to an important assessment found that populations had declined by an average of 69 percent since 1970. But that might not mean what you think."

"It’s clear that wildlife is suffering mightily on our planet, but scientists don’t know exactly how much. A comprehensive figure is exceedingly hard to determine. Counting wild animals — on land and at sea, from gnats to whales — is no small feat. Most countries lack national monitoring systems.

"Zoos, bird rescue groups and other animal facilities are grappling with a “radically different” outbreak of avian influenza."