Wildlife

"One of the world’s smallest ethnic groups is finding its cultural traditions on the wrong side of Mongolian law, putting its very existence in peril."

"Populations of a rabbit-like animal known as the American pika are vanishing in many mountainous areas of the West as climate change alters its habitat, according to findings released Thursday by the U.S. Geological Survey."

"A drop in the food supply this summer, possibly tied to warmer Gulf of Maine waters, leads to the worst survival rate ever tracked on Machias Seal Island."

"Federal regulators are proposing to ban swimming with dolphins in Hawaii, a move that could imperil one of the Aloha State's most popular tourist delights and the industry that has sprung up around it."

"Scientists working with sophisticated DNA sequencing technology think they may have solved a 20-year-old mystery of what has caused thousands of Alaska’s wild birds to be afflicted with deformed, twisted beaks."

"Once abundant throughout the Pacific Northwest, Oregon silverspot butterflies have dwindled because of habitat loss and extended drought. Zookeepers have been lending the species a hand."

"The world’s longest-studied wolf pack may have been wiped out, wildlife officials fear amid an escalating battle between federal and state authorities in Alaska over the aggressive hunting of predators such as wolves and bears."

"Many species of shorebirds that migrate to the Arctic each year to breed their young will lose substantial amounts of their summer habitat to climate change, and the biggest losses in the coming decades will be in Alaska and neighboring parts of Russia, new research concludes."

"An anthrax outbreak in remote western Siberia has led to the hospitalization of at least 90 people in the Arctic town of Salekhard, with at least 20 confirmed cases of the illness. One person, a 12-year-old boy, has died from anthrax according to the TASS News Agency and other media reports."

"As government works to save big cats from extinction, indigenous forest dwellers pursue peaceful coexistence for man and beast".