Dr Lana Ciarniello is an independent wildlife research biologist and co-chair of the IUCN SSC Bear Specialist Group's human-bear conflict expert team. She is currently the principal investigator for the Orphaned Grizzly Bear Rewilding Project, which is the only rehabilitation and research program for grizzly bears in North America. In a new Frontiers in Conservation Science article, Ciarniello explores why current attempts to rehabilitate orphaned grizzly bears to the wilderness might be backfiring. Based on her findings from five years of monitoring rehabilitated grizzly cubs, she poses the question of whether rehabilitation programs in their current form are an effective conservation tool or sympathetic management.

An international study led by Curtin University has put to bed a scientific debate dating back 176 years, confirming that two historically significant oyster species from Western Australia and Fiji are in fact distinct species.

Risso’s dolphins around the British Isles are part of a single population – genetically distinct from those elsewhere in the Atlantic, new research shows.

How dinosaurs digested food has long remained a mystery because soft tissues such as stomachs and intestines are rarely preserved in the fossil record. In a new study, researchers analyzed the shapes and wear patterns of gastroliths—stones preserved in the abdominal cavities of dinosaurs—and compared them with those of living birds and crocodilians. The results suggest that rounded, heavily worn gastroliths indicate the presence of muscular stomachs used to grind food, while angular gastroliths are associated with less muscular stomachs. Applying this framework to dinosaurs, the team found evidence that different groups evolved distinct digestive strategies. Some toothless theropods likely processed plant material using bird-like muscular stomachs, whereas herbivorous dinosaurs such as sauropods and ornithischians may have relied more on their teeth and prolonged intestinal fermentation than on gastrolith-assisted grinding. The study presents a new hypothesis for the evolution of dinosaur digestive systems and provides a framework for reconstructing feeding biology by integrating gastrolith evidence with other dietary indicators.

Researchers at UC Riverside, together with collaborators at UC Irvine and Yale, have received more than $8 million in NIH funding to develop new treatments for malaria and babesiosis, diseases caused by related parasites that are becoming resistant to existing drugs.

A study combining remote sensing, geographic data science, and field research shows that the Xavante territory has preserved its environmental configuration, while neighboring areas have been converted to large-scale soybean farming and livestock ranching

For decades, research on wildlife parasites and pathogens has often relied on methods that require capturing, handling, or even euthanizing animals. These invasive approaches can impose considerable stress on wildlife. However, according to a recently published article by researchers at the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, a growing number of modern, non-invasive methods, such as citizen science, digital epidemiology, and eDNA, are now available that enable the monitoring of parasites and pathogens without placing substantial stress or burden on wild animals, showing that in many cases, animals do not even need to be captured. 

According to the authors, the growing adoption of non-invasive surveillance methods benefits nature conservation, animal health, and ultimately human health alike. These innovative tools enable earlier detection of emerging wildlife infections and provide a more accurate understanding of how pathogens and parasites spread, while making wildlife research more ethical and sustainable.