AUDIOMATERIA

Keepers at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia prepare to send black-footed ferrets to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in 2011. | Cliff Owen/Associated Press In the open grasslands of South Dakota, not far from the dramatic rock formations of Badlands National Park, lives one of the continent’s cutest,…

Illustration of thick-walled arthroconidia and arthrospores from the fungus Coccidioides immitis. | Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library/Getty Images As our planet gets increasingly warmer, we’re seeing in real-time the myriad of ways our climate is changing: unbearably hot summers, extreme cold snaps, and more dangerous natural disasters. And when our environment changes, so do we —…

Once a year, typically after sunset in the late summer, the coral baby-making process begins. Large colonies of coral spawn, spewing out sperm and eggs, often in pea-size bundles, that drift around until they encounter the spawn of other corals. Fertilized eggs turn into coral larvae — tiny and squishy free-swimming organisms — which eventually…

Shreya Vinodh, a habitat intern, collects plankton samples during a research cruise to study right whales with the Center for Coastal Studies in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts on April 1, 2024. | Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired recently, and more may be in danger of being let go….

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is working to revive populations of endangered black-footed ferrets, an integral part of the prairie ecosystem. | Kathryn Scott Osler/The Denver Post via Getty Images President Donald Trump says he wants the US to have the cleanest air and water on the planet — a desire, unsurprisingly, shared by all…

A crowd of visitors at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. | George Rose/Getty Images America’s beloved national parks face a problem that could, in a matter of weeks, grow into a full-blown crisis.  The number of people visiting areas managed by the National Park Service — which includes national parks, monuments, and other sites…