The most extensive global assessment of freshwater animals to date has revealed that a quarter of all freshwater animal species on the IUCN Red List are threatened with extinction.
The largest number of these threatened species are found in East Africa’s Lake Victoria, South America’s Lake Titicaca, Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone, and India’s Western…

A new global data set makes it possible to track near-real-time changes in several types of vegetation across different ecosystems, including grasslands, savannas, shrublands, croplands, temperate forests and boreal forests.
Called DIST-ALERT, the new product can be visualized on the Global Forest Watch platform of the World Resource Institute (WRI).
GFW has long offered…

• A new study indicates that right whales have extremely long lifespans of 130 years or more, adding to growing evidence of extreme whale longevity.
• The research draws attention to the plight of North Atlantic right whales, which are critically endangered. It found that despite their long potential lifespan, their actual lives are far shorter than

…

• In Southeast Asia, the time-honored tradition of keeping songbirds in cages has resulted in an unsustainable trade in wild-caught songbirds and an alarming decline of many species — a phenomenon ecologists have termed the Asian songbird crisis.
• A recent study finds evidence for a new family of poisonous birds — the pitohuis that are endemic

…

On Saturday, President Joe Biden honored Jane Goodall as one of nineteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor. This accolade recognizes individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors.
“Dr.…