Spain released its final 62 lynx into the wild, hoping to rescue a species once on the brink of extinction. The animals vanished from the country decades ago, and these releases marked the last chance to rebuild a wild population from nothing.
By the early 2000s, the scrublands of southern Spain had lost a critical part of their ecological structure. Two viral outbreaks, spread largely through human activity, had nearly eliminated the European rabbit from the Iberian Peninsula. That loss had severe consequences for the region’s wildlife, particularly for the Iberian lynx, a predator that depends almost entirely on rabbits for food.The I…
Florida’s lakes face an invisible war beneath the surface, and the invasive fish blamed for wrecking them is suddenly vanishing. Scientists tracking the species noticed something hunting it far faster than any eradication effort they designed.
Carol Hennessey had been fishing Lake Tohopekaliga, near Kissimmee, Florida, for 19 years when she noticed a shift on a June morning. She launched her bass boat before sunrise and worked the shallow vegetation mats along the south shoreline as usual. By 8 a.m., she had a productive morning, something she had not experienced on that lake in over a decade. Largemouth bass were in her live well, and…