In 1966, an ecologist at the University of Washington named Robert Paine removed all the ochre starfish from a short stretch of Pacific shoreline on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The absence of the predator had a dramatic effect on its ecosystem. In less than a year, a diverse tidal environment collapsed into a monoculture of mussels because the starfish was no longer around to eat them.

Getting caught in fishing nets is a major cause of death for the increasingly endangered New Zealand sea lion, according to new research from the University of Otago, Massey University and the University of Toronto.

The most effective way to save North America’s dwindling caribou herds is to keep numbers of invading prey animals—like deer and moose—low, according to a new UAlberta research study.

“Prey like moose and deer are expanding in numbers and range because of logging and climate change,” said Robert Serrouya, a postdoctoral fellow in biological sciences professor Stan Boutin’s lab.

Reducing nutrient pollution may help prevent human disease

Horned Larks are cute songbirds with white bellies and yellow chins—at least, now they are.

Birds who live next door to family members or to other birds they know well are physically healthier and age more slowly, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Trees in tropical forests are well known for removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing the potent greenhouse gas as carbon in their leafy branches and extensive roots. But a new analysis led by Stanford University researchers finds that large forest animals are also an important part of the carbon cycle.

Nearly 1 million acres of trees were cut down in Queensland, Australia from 2015 to 2016, representing a 33 percent rise in deforestation, according to a new government land survey.

Hurricane Irma took a devastating toll on incubating sea turtle nests in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most important loggerhead and green turtle nesting sites in the world, according to new estimates from the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group.

Remote sensing technology has detected what could be a win for both spotted owls and forestry management, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station and the University of Washington.