Once pristine natural places become Instagram famous, everything changes. Lonely trails clog with hikers; empty forest pools fill with swimmers. Some have argued that the meshing of social media with the outdoors could cause locations to be loved to death, or even fundamentally taint outdoor recreation itself.

Humans and their constant barrage of noise cause all sorts of problems for wildlife. But new research suggests noise pollution may do more than impact individual animals—it can potentially modify whole ecosystems by messing with how predators interact with their prey.

To understand how our warming oceans impact tropical cyclones, scientists need more information about storm patterns during the past. Unfortunately, a reliable historical record of these storms doesn’t extend all that far back—not even two centuries. Now a team of researchers thinks giant clam shells could help fill…

Ecuador has five new species of snake, described by science for the first time. But these critters aren’t just any rainforest snakes: the new species have a diet that’s exceptionally weird, eating almost nothing but soft, gooey prey like snails and slugs. The researchers who found them also took the unusual step of…

Madagascar has an invasive toad problem, and new research suggests that fears about its ecological consequences are well-deserved. Almost every predator native to the island is likely sensitive to the toads’ dangerous toxins.

Things look pretty bleak for the northern white rhinoceros. Since the death of Sudan, the last male, the entirety of the subspecies has dwindled to only two females. But a group of scientists is churning away on a high-tech save involving carefully cryopreserved cells and tissue cultures from long-dead northern white…

France is known for many of its cultural items, including exceptional cuisine, wine, and the Louvre. Soon, it may also be known for its arm-length, shovel-headed, carnivorous worms.

Over the last several years, a deadly fungal disease has killed hundreds of thousands of native Hawaiian ʻōhiʻa trees. Before now, the disease—Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death—was limited to Hawaiʻi Island. But the disease-causing fungus has now been found on the island of Kauaʻi. And that’s a big problem, considering that ʻōhiʻa…

The ultimate goal of the Paris climate agreement is to limit human-caused global warming to “well below” two-degrees Celsius, while pursuing efforts to keep it lower than 1.5 degrees. A new, large-scale study suggests that if we can keep the mercury from rising above the 1.5 mark, many of the Earth’s plants and…

The origin of the world’s deadliest amphibian disease has remained elusive for decades, but not anymore. New research has pinned down where the infamous fungal plague “Bd” got its start and how it began infiltrating habitats across the globe. Unsurprisingly, humans are largely responsible for its spread.

Oregon’s coastal martens (Martes caurina humboldtensis) are adorable, fierce, and extremely rare. Sadly, new research suggests that if something doesn’t change soon for these secretive, enchanting mammals, they may become extinct in the state within a few decades.

Late last month, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke left Northwest wildlife advocates pleasantly surprised when he reignited an environmental impact study on the reintroduction of grizzly bears into Washington’s North Cascades National Park, putting his enthusiastic support behind the regional recovery of what he…

In the forest-flanked waters of the Eleven Point River in southern Missouri’s Ozarks, scientists are on the hunt for one of the rarest crayfishes in the United States. To evaluate the status of their populations, researchers are using two very different methods—one of which is an emerging high-tech tool that may…

It’s March, which means that once again, snow is melting, plants are leafing out, and furry beasts are walloping on each other on Twitter. Yes, for the sixth year running, March Mammal Madness has engrossed science Twitter, turning rodent against marsupial and carnivore against nectar-slurper in the annual battle to…

We humans are a loud group of primates, with the constant clanging and droning of our machines emanating from our cities and towns. All this racket may have permanent and insidious effects on wildlife, including throwing a wet blanket on cricket sex, according to new research.

As global temperatures rise, the lives of countless plants and animals are changing in response. That includes king penguins, which a new study predicts will see profound, climate-driven changes in their numbers and the location of their breeding grounds over the next century.

Thanks to climate change, the hallmarks of winter’s end—snow melting and plants budding and flowering—are occurring earlier and earlier. While humans might cheer a little less time dealing with snow and slush each year, the animals that have evolved to sync their coat color with their seasonal surroundings are in…

As Earth’s atmosphere soaks up an ever-increasing amount of carbon dioxide, our oceans are becoming more acidic, which is causing problems for animals that create hard shells, from crabs to shellfish. Now, new research has revealed a more subtle and sinister consequence of acidification. By the end of this century,…

Vultures are a critical part of ecosystems across the world, acting as the primary cleanup crew for the dead. New research suggests that if vultures weren’t here to do what they do best, the whole recycling side of the Circle of Life could grind to a halt, because other scavengers just don’t fill their feathered shoes.

Polar bears are a fitting avatar for the dire consequences of climate change, living right at the heart of where the Earth has been warming the fastest. Now, two new studies add to a swelling pile of evidence that polar bears aren’t handling their rapidly changing environment very well. The new research suggests that…