Wildlife

"The Biden administration on Thursday withdrew a proposal to expand protections for an endangered whale species. The rules would have required some ships along the Eastern Seaboard to slow down." "The proposed rules would have slowed more ships to prevent collisions with endangered North Atlantic right whales."

"Ants — yes, ants — could protect apples, nuts, cocoa, and other beloved crops from disease and climate change."

"Bird flu outbreaks have been detected at three poultry operations in Maryland and Delaware, impacting more than 500,000 chickens and leading to heightened alert among officials in the Washington region."

"It turns out that the Indri Indri lemurs of Madagascar can carry a tune. Researchers have found that these furry, tree-dwelling creatures use music to communicate with one another, likely for generations. ... The finding that these “singing lemurs” produce rhythmic calls provides an evolutionary pathway that may explain the origin of music."

"As people have shaped the natural world, so wildlife – from mahoganies to magpies – has had to evolve to survive"

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will keep endangered species protections for grizzly bears in place in most of the western U.S., the agency announced Wednesday, rebuffing states that petitioned for their removal."

"One of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s biggest “drill, baby, drill” initiatives suffered a significant setback on Wednesday as the Interior Department announced that a lease sale in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ended without a single bidder."

"The Biden administration on Tuesday abruptly dropped its nascent plan to protect old-growth forests after getting pushback from Republicans and the timber industry."

"Krishna, a skinny 12-year-old, waits near a Hindu temple packed with pilgrims. He hears a yell – that's his cue. He zigzags between motorbikes and honking tuk-tuks, elbows his way through the crowd and finds a man waving wildly at a monkey."