Wildlife

"About 5,000 oil and gas wells sit on national wildlife refuges — some of the prettiest land that American taxpayers own — and more than a thousand of them are spewing oil and brine because regulations written a half-century ago don’t force owners to plug leaks that are harmful to animals."

"The shaggy offspring of the United States' only wild, purebred herd of bison are pitting Montana conservationists, federal wildlife managers, ranchers and Native American tribes against each other."

"Twice a year, bald eagles from as far north as Canada and as far south as Florida flock by the thousands to a stretch of the Rappahannock River in Virginia for an all-you-can-eat buffet. They perch in trees atop pale cliffs rising along this river to the Chesapeake Bay and dive bomb the waters for shad, catfish, stripers and even waterfowl."

"Japan has announced it will resume whaling in the Antarctic early next year after a break of more than a year."

"America's beekeepers are having a rough time. They lost an estimated 42 percent of their hives last year."

"A northern white rhinoceros, one of just four left on Earth, died on Sunday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park after suffering from a bacterial infection and age-related health issues, zoo officials said."

"Deep in the Sundarbans, a vast mangrove maze where the Ganges and two other great rivers weave their way to the coast in India and Bangladesh, the big-cat conservationist Alan Rabinowitz plays a video clip on his laptop for a cluster of men and women in an impoverished village where tigers — in one of their last big refuges — regularly kill or maim people scouring the shorelines for meager hauls of fish and crabs."

"After retiring hundreds of research chimpanzees in 2013, the NIH says 50 remaining chimps will no longer be used for medical studies."

"Polar bear populations are likely to fall by more than 30 percent by around mid-century as global warming thaws Arctic sea ice, experts said on Thursday in the most detailed review of the predators to date."