It turns out that to tell the sex of a Galápagos penguin, all you need is a ruler.

In a paper published April 5 in the journal Endangered Species Research, scientists at the University of Washington announced that, for a Galápagos penguin, beak size is nearly a perfect indicator of whether a bird is male or female. Armed with this knowledge, researchers could determine the sex of a bird quickly and accurately in the wild without taking a blood sample — speeding up field studies of this unusual and endangered seabird.

Salmon returning to the rivers of Vancouver Island to spawn have always had a long and perilous migration route. But in the past 10 years their time away has become deadlier than ever, with populations dropping precipitously.

The Painted Lady, also known as the Vanessa cardui butterfly, performs a migratory cycle that can reach 12,000 km in multiple generations —  a cycle longer than that of the monarch — making it the longest migration known for any butterfly species and similar to that of many birds.

Last summer, my daughter and I hiked the Sulphur Skyline trail in Jasper National Park. As it was mid-week, we had hoped it would not be as crowded as it can be on a weekend.

Many coral reefs will be unable to grow fast enough to keep up with predicted rising sea levels, leaving tropical coastlines and low-lying islands exposed to increasing erosion and flooding risk, new research suggests.

With summer officially here, it’s a great time to explore the outdoors! As people go hiking, camping, wildlife viewing and engage in other recreation activities, there can be associated impacts on the natural environment.

Young turtle doves raised on a diet of seeds from non-cultivated arable plants are more likely to survive after fledging than those relying on food provided in people’s gardens, new research into Britain’s fastest declining bird species has shown. 

On 21 June 2018, the JRC published a new edition of the World Atlas of Desertification, offering a tool for decision makers to improve local responses to soil loss and land degradation.

Vegetation plays an important role in shaping local climate: just think of the cool shade provided by a forest or the grinding heat of the open desert.

Even though it was closed decades ago, the Giant Mine on the outskirts of Yellowknife has left a long environmental legacy.