Setting Sail on the Winding Waterways of California’s Delta

The sprawling 1,250-square-mile system of water and farmland in Northern California is a four-season destination for watersport fans and home to many riverbank communities.

Opinion | We’re Living Through One of the Most Explosive Extinction Episodes Ever

The growing damage to the world’s biodiversity presents dire risks to human societies.

Protected Too Late: U.S. Officials Report More Than 20 Extinctions

The animals and one plant had been listed as endangered species. Their stories hold lessons about a growing global biodiversity crisis.

Protected Too Late: U.S. Officials Report More Than 20 Extinctions

The animals and one plant had been listed as endangered species. Their stories hold lessons about a growing global biodiversity crisis.

Power Outages Hit China, Threatening the Economy and Christmas

High demand and soaring energy prices have forced some factories to shut down, adding further problems for already snarled global supply chains.

Bezos Puts $1 Billion of $10 Billion Climate Pledge Into Conservation

A year after announcing the Bezos Earth Fund, the Amazon founder detailed how some of the money would be spent.

Giraffes Prefer a Fair Fight

Researchers found that the long-necked mammals spar with partners of similar stature.

Komodo Dragons Are Now Endangered and ‘Moving Toward Extinction’

A top conservation organization updated the status of the fierce giant lizards on its Red List of threatened species.

The Nigerian Activist Trying to Sell Plants to the Oil Company That Destroyed Them

“I need to help my women to stand,” says Martha Agbani, who helped a group of women from the Niger Delta build a flourishing mangrove nursery.

Reuniting an Orphan Elephant and Her Mom, Perhaps, With DNA and Luck

Nania beat the odds to survive separation from her forest elephant family in Burkina Faso. Her caretakers hope DNA testing may help return her to the wild with her family.

Reuniting an Orphan Elephant and Her Mom, Perhaps, With DNA and Luck

Nania beat the odds to survive separation from her forest elephant family in Burkina Faso. Her caretakers hope DNA testing may help return her to the wild with her family.

40 Million People Rely on the Colorado River. It’s Drying Up Fast.

Low water levels have triggered cutbacks to some Western states.

Taking the Pulse of the Ocean’s Comb Jellies

New kinds of molecular probes are revealing the true extent of ctenophores, a form of ocean life that has long eluded firm reckonings.

It’s a Grizzly Bear Survival Program. For Grizzly Bears.

In British Columbia, researchers have undertaken a unique challenge: tracking orphan grizzly cubs, reared in a shelter, to see whether they can thrive back in the wild.

El misterio de una extinción halla un aliado en un caracol con una computadora a cuestas

Una improbable colaboración ha resuelto un antiguo misterio sobre la supervivencia de los caracoles en las Islas de la Sociedad, en la Polinesia Francesa.

How Do You Solve an Extinction Mystery? Put a Tiny Computer on a Snail.

An unlikely collaboration has solved a longstanding snail survival mystery in the Society Islands in French Polynesia.

The Maori Vision of Antarctica’s Future

Maori may have been first to reach Antarctica, in the seventh century. But the past matters less than what lies ahead, Indigenous scholars say.

Opinion | Once Again, the Earth Is Being Wrung Dry

We can survive an arid future if we put our minds to it.

Where the Grass is Greener, Except When It’s ‘Nonfunctional Turf’

Plus, mammoths in Vegas, watermelon snow, Miami’s looming sea wall and more in the Friday edition of the Science Times newsletter.

Opinion | Modern Zoos Are Not Worth the Moral Cost

Many of them aspire to be good civic institutions that care for animals on their grounds and in the wild. But is it really worth their captivity?