Cougars are the most widely distributed large predator in the Western Hemisphere. Known in various regions as the mountain lion, panther, puma, painter and catamount, cougars range from northern British Columbia through Latin America to the Patagonia region of southern Chile and Argentina. Cougars thrive in deserts, jungles, mountains, forests and broken plains environments. In what is now the Lower 48, they were found from coast to coast at the...

Earthjustice cites their slogan “Because the Earth needs a good lawyer” as justification for continuing legal fights to keep grizzly bears on the Endangered Species List. That group and others like it routinely claim to speak for wild places and wild creatures.
In contrast, public servants at state and federal agencies often feel ensnared in the environmentalists’ lawsuits. They say those self-proclaimed “good lawyers” too often waste taxpayers...

Federal officials on Wednesday proposed to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list. The decision was revealed by David Bernhardt, the acting secretary of the Department of the Interior, at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Denver.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted that there has been a significant increase in wolf numbers across much of the country, citing a population jump from 1,000 to 5,000 in...

Residents of the Russian community, Belushya Guba, a settlement that’s part of the Novaya Zemlya chain of islands in the Arctic Ocean, have a longstanding familiarity with polar bears. Six to 10 bears are considered “locals” that never leave the territory, but recently that number became inflated.
“I have been in Novaya Zemlya since 1983, but there has never been so many polar bears in the vicinity,” said Zhigansha Musin, head of Novaya Zemlya...

Two years ago, a pair of golden eagle chicks were tagged in Alaska’s Denali National Park. The birds were fitted with satellite tracking equipment as part of a study being carried out by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service. Their goal was to get a more nuanced look at the migration of golden eagles, which regularly make excursions spanning thousands of miles across the continent.
The first golden...

Match.com, a pioneer in the online dating industry, has been setting up couples for nearly 25 years. Last February, they took on their toughest client ever.
Romeo, a Sehuencas frog that has spent nearly his entire life in captivity, is one of the last known of his critically endangered species. He hasn’t met a female since 2008.
Inspired by the amphibian’s story, Match.com and a few conservation organizations set out to help what they considered...