With one island’s losses, the king penguin species shrinks by a third

ScienceNews

King penguin chicks, South Georgia. by Butterly austral.

It’s unclear what has happened to what was the largest of king penguin colonies in the 1980s. Story here.

For Marine Life, New Threats from a Fast-Tracked Canadian Pipeline

Yale Environment 360

A new Canadian government-backed pipeline that will triple the amount of thick Alberta tar sands oil flowing to a British Columbia port poses significant risks for a threatened population of killer whales and other coastal marine life. Story here.

Britain's biggest butterfly threatened by rising seas

The Guardian

New charity warns Britain’s largest butterfly could be lost within four decades as rising seas turn its habitat into saltmarsh. More here.

Another kind of  swallowtail in Manitoba, CA. A PinP photo.

Palm oil ‘disastrous’ for wildlife but here to stay, experts warn

The Guardian

The deforestation it causes is decimating species such as orangutans and tigers - but the alternatives could be worse, finds authoritative report. More here.

Pikas in Peril

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Photo by Rémi Bigonneau

UBC scientists say mammal threatened by climate change. More here.

China-backed Sumatran dam threatens the rarest ape in the world

TheConversation

The plan to build a massive hydropower dam in Sumatra as part of China’s immense Belt and Road Initiative threatens the habitat of the rarest ape in the world, which has only 800 remaining members. More here.

Photo by Tim Laman

Even familiar birds at risk of extinction, new study finds

BirdLife

INTERNATIONAL

A White-crowned sparrow. Photo by Wolfgang Wander

The 2018 State of the World’s Birds report, which provides a comprehensive look at the health of bird populations globally, has found that the extinction crisis has spread so far that even some well-known species are now in danger. More here.

Common pesticide can make migrating birds lose their way, research shows

The Guardian

A ring-necked pheasant on the Canadian Prairies. Will they be next? PinP photo.

The experimental study is the first to directly show harm to songbirds, extending the known impacts of neonicotinoids beyond insects. More here.

RELATED: "New Studies Show Farm Chemicals Are Affecting More Than Bees. Bird Populations are Declining, Too.Is modern agriculture's hold on nature becoming a death grip?"

Exclusive: US official appeared to delay protections for endangered species at behest of oil group

TheGuardian
The energy-friendlly agenda inside Trump's iinterior department is revealed in rccords obtained by the Guardian and the watchdog groups, Documented and the Western Values Project.  More here.

Monarch Butterfly Migration Could Collapse, Scientists Warn

EcoWatch

PinP photo.

The yearly count of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico, released Monday, shows a decrease from last year's count and confirms the iconic orange and black butterfly is still very much at risk.  Story here.

The terrifying phenomenon that is pushing species towards extinction

The Guardian

Scientists are alarmed by a rise in mass mortality events – when species die in their thousands. Is it all down to climate change? More here.

Scientists Haven't Seen a Single North Atlantic Right Whale Calf This Season

EcoWatch

The North Atlantic right whale is already one of the most endangered whales, with fewer than 450 of the iconic marine mammals left on the planet. More here.

A right whale with calf.
Photo by NOAA.

Europe's key animals 'making a comeback'

BBC News

Some of Europe's key animals have made a comeback over the past 50 years, a report suggests. More here.

Illegal global trade of pangolins

Science News

A baby pangolin.

Pinterest photo - author unknown.

Animal traffickers are taking advantage of remote ivory trade routes to smuggle pangolins – one of the world’s most endangered animals – out of Central Africa, a new study has found. Story here.

Dams nudge Amazon's eco-systems out of wack

Science Magazine

A dorado, somtimes called mahi-mahi.

A Wikimedia photo.

Once upon a time, thousands of dorados, a giant among catfish, would swim more than 3000 kilometers from the mouth of the Amazon River to spawn in Bolivia's Mamoré River, in the foothills of the Andes. But the dorado, which can grow to more than 2 meters in length, is disappearing from those waters, and scientists blame two hydropower dams erected downstream a decade ago. As countries seek new energy sources to drive economic growth, a surge in dam construction on the eastern flank of the Andes could further threaten fish migration and sediment flows, scientists warn this week in Science Advances. The main consequence of proliferating dams is habitat fragmentation. The dorado's disappearance suggests fragmentation is already taking a toll.

• Barbara Fraser is a freelance journalist in Lima.

Full story here.

Revealed: Gaps in polar bear conservation in Canada

World Wildlife Fund

WWF’s first Polar Bear Scorecard found that Canada has shown leadership by investing in subpopulation monitoring. But two years into the 10-year, five-nation Circumpolar Action Plan for the Conservation of Polar Bears (CAP) it has not met its goals in identifying critical habitat nor in setting out best practices for tourism operators and for oil spill response. Story here.

Photo by Ansgar Walk

Polar bears are wasting away in a changing climate

nature

Photo by Andreas Weith

Melting sea ice makes it hard for the Arctic predators to consume enough calories to survive. More here.

Ghost Cat Gone: Eastern Cougar Officially Declared Extinct

EcoWatch

Say good-bye to the "ghost cat." This week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially declared the eastern cougar (Puma concolor couguar) to be extinct and removed it from the endangered species list. Story here.

Photo credit - Pexels.

The Snowy Owl is Placed on the "Vulnerable" List.

by Larry Powell

A "Snowy" swoops down on its prey (probably a lemming).

Photo credit - Government of Quebec.

The beautiful Snowy Owl, like so many other wild creatures on Earth, faces an uncertain future. The “Red List,” a British agency, has just put the graceful, white bird of prey on the “vulnerable” list for the first time. It has drastically downgraded earlier estimates of 200 thousand individuals, worldwide, to as low as 10 thousand. 

Snowy Owl numbers have proven hard to judge since they fluctuate so widely, depending on the availability of food. Factors in their decline may include illegal hunting, collisions with vehicles and power lines and climate change, which can affect the availability of prey. So the agency’s prognosis is a somber one. “This species faces a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future.” 

Snowy Owls nest in the Arctic, but have a range that spans the northern hemisphere.” 

A conservation specialist, Andy Symes of Birdlife International urges, Snowy Owls must now be considered "a high priority for further research and conservation action."

"Red List" has been assessing the status of wildlife species for 50 years.

A deadly fungus is infecting snake species seemingly at random, new study shows.

ScienceNews

Any species in the eastern or midwestern United States could potentially be at risk. Story here.

A mating ball of garter snakes.
Oregon State University. Will
they be next?