#conservation

#conservation

Every winter about 10,000 elephant seals make their way to California's Año Nuevo State Park to fight, mate and give birth. The spectacle runs from mid-December through March, drawing wildlife watchers eager for a glimpse of the largest seals on the planet. During what park docent Laura Stern called "pupping season," bull seals - some reaching up to 16 feet (4.9 meters) in length and weighing up to 2.5 tons - engage in bloody battles for breeding access to the females.

Over the past year, a wave of high-profile development proposals - from oil fields and mining roads to timber projects - has reshaped a fast-moving debate, propelling Alaska into the center of the national conversation over how to balance energy production with conservation. These projects have revived long-running tensions over what the state's public lands are for, and who they ultimately benefit.

But as he swept his flashlight through the dark waters, something unexpected emerged. Inching through the beam of light, an alien creature crawled across the surface of the sand, resembling an inch-long cluster of ghostly leaves fringed with silvery filigree and capped with a pair of antennae-like stalks. It immediately caught my eye, said Gosliner, Invertebrate Zoology Curator for the California Academy of Sciences. I've been diving there for 30 years and this one immediately struck me as different.

The OpenRoad staff announced Wednesday that Mr. McConnell struggled with health problems after a stroke in 2023. His coworkers at OpenRoad described him as a human golden retriever in their tribute on social media. He made friends wherever he went, the staff said. He was the best road trip companion you could have, the biggest optimist we ever met, a human GPS with a steel trap memory, friendly to a fault, knowledgeable about most any subject, and filled the world with enthusiastic positivity.

We genuinely welcome feedback and ideas about the future of the Zoo, and we're always open to thoughtful public input. That said, the first time we saw this proposal was this week in a newspaper opinion piece, and we do not consider this idea realistic. Anyone can come up with a fanciful plan and pretty pictures, but these images do not reflect the complexity or responsibility involved in caring for animals, conservation of species, and operating a major public institution.

To celebrate its bicentenary, London Zoo is launching a programme of monthly history tours that delve into two centuries of animals, architecture and scientific discovery. The guided walks are included as a free extra with a paid Zoo visit and run on a rotating theme throughout the year, allowing visitors to choose tours that match their particular interests in the Zoo's long and varied past.

Not so for Willard Carroll Smith II, the Academy award, Bafta and Grammy-winning actor and rapper who enjoyed an uninterruptedly stellar career from the late 80s until 2022, when he put a crimp in things by lamping the Oscars' host Chris Rock for insulting Smith's wife. This was followed by a tour violinist suing him for alleged predatory behaviour, unlawful termination and retaliation, which is working its way through the California legal system now. Smith has categorically denied all allegations.

Hampstead Heath is one of London's most treasured parks. It's home to one of the best views of the London skyline, a Grade-II listed lido, three of the city's most beloved bathing ponds, a zoo, a grand manor house and acres of glorious woodland. And over the next five years, there are big plans to introduce even more attractions and conservation schemes to the space.

Kakapo breed only every two to four years when the native rimu trees mast and produce large numbers of berries, so repopulation is slow. This year a mega-mast is expected, resulting in a bountiful harvest of rimu berries, which could prompt the birds to produce more eggs. The rimu tree produces berries that provide enough nutrition for the birds to raise chicks. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

A massive 243-kilogram (535-pound) bluefin tuna sold for a record 510 million yen ($3.2 million) at the first auction of 2026 at Tokyo's Toyosu fish market. The top bidder for the prized tuna at the predawn auction on Monday was Kiyomura Corp., whose owner Kiyoshi Kimura runs the popular Sushi Zanmai chain. Kimura, who has won the annual action many times in the past, broke the previous record of 334 million yen ($2.1 million) he set in 2019.

As the sun descends behind the Sierra de la Giganta mountains, I join the end-of-day procession to Loreto Bay National Park, a protected marine area in the Sea of Cortez. Fisherfolk, families, and out-of-towners stroll the Malecón, a mile-long esplanade that traces the water, watching as the sea turns the same sherbet hues as the evening sky. Seabirds dive-bomb for their dinner, and when a gray whale spouts remarkably close to shore, I hear myself gasp.

On a grey day in early June, a commercial plane landed at Norfolk Island Airport in the South Pacific. Onboard was precious cargo ferried some 1,700km from Sydney: four blue plastic crates with LIVE ANIMALS signs affixed to the outside. Inside were thumbnail-sized snails, hundreds of them, with delicate, keeled shells. The molluscs' arrival was the culmination of an ambitious plan five years in the making: to bring a critically endangered species back from the brink.

There isn't a nook or cranny in the Almaden Valley that Ali Henry hasn't spent time in. She grew up here, camping, boating and fishing with her dad and her grandparents. Those long, sun-drenched days on the water often finished with fresh-caught trout sizzling over a campfire. Today, Henry is devoting her life to preserving and celebrating some of her favorite childhood hangouts as Santa Clara County Parks' first-ever woman chief park ranger.

The idea of having this medal, and Starmus being entrusted to organising it, is Jane's. Jane said she would like this to happen. And I think it's because of the very special relationship she had with us, he said. Goodall's grandson, Merlin van Lawick, welcomed the award. The Starmus Jane Goodall Earth medal will acknowledge sustainable programmes undertaken to make our world a better place for people, animals and the environment and provide encouragement for the continuation of that work, he said.

These are just some of the ways that books can be damaged, as seen on a recent afternoon at the Weissman Preservation Center. Students in "Texts in Transition," a GenEd class taught by Professors Ann Blair and Leah Whittington, were visiting the Weissman Preservation Center to witness textual preservation firsthand.

66 million years ago, a giant asteroid hit the earth at a whopping 45,000 miles per hour and changed the course of life on our planet. Today, the American Museum of Natural History is telling the story in a fascinating and educational new exhibit called "Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs." Impact transports visitors to a time before, during and after the catastrophic event occurred via interactive installments, immersive videos and realistic displays.

The mystery of when, how and perhaps most importantly why a giant naked figure was carved into a dizzyingly steep hillside in the English West Country has been a source of wonder and intrigue for centuries. Future generations may come closer to solving the puzzle of the Cerne Giant after the National Trust stepped in to buy 340 acres of land around the 55-metre (180ft) figure. The planned purchase is expected to clear the way for more archaeological investigations around Britain's largest chalk hill figure, which looms over the rolling Dorset landscape.

Eels are the stuff of nightmares - slimy, snakelike creatures that lay millions of eggs before dying so their offspring can return home to rivers and streams. They've existed since the time of the dinosaurs, and some species are more poorly understood than those ancient animals. Yet they're also valuable seafood fish that are declining all over the world, leading to a new push for restrictions on trade to help stave off extinction.

Outdoor art can become a crucial element of a place's identity, but long-term and permanent pieces face particularly complex conservation issues. As these works weather the elements-which can include intended and unintended public interaction-they are subjected to damage and decay, leaving those in charge of their care with the difficult and costly task of ongoing maintenance. But who exactly is responsible can be complicated, leading to disrepair, litigation and even the eventual removal of works.

A biologist has shared the heartwarming moment he found one of the rarest flowers in the world, breaking down in tears over the discovery. Dr Chris Thorogood, associate professor of biology at the University of Oxford, had trekked day and night through the jungle to hunt for the incredibly rare Rafflesia hasseltii. These elusive plants only grow in the tiger-patrolled jungles of West Sumatra, Indonesia and bloom for only a few days.

He's taken up the mantle of keeping the world's zoos in check at an interesting time, when their role in modern society is the subject of heated debate, with rows about lonely gorillas or penguins kept in a basement seem to erupt every week. Keeping wild animals solely for entertainment purposes was socially acceptable some decades ago, but there are now far more concerns for their welfare and the conservation objectives of their captivity. This particularly applies to animals such as elephants, which need large spaces to roam and in the wild have complex relationships within giant social groups.

Some people just use one bow their whole life, said Baker said from his home in the United Kingdom. The bow is really their voice. The violin, you just have a string, and you put your fingers down. But the way the sound comes out all comes from the bow.