Extinction

We are on the brink of being able to genetically engineer an extinction. Should we?

• By Rowan Jacobsen

A collection of some of our most important and timely stories, from a new cover story on efforts to reintroduce the grizzly to California to a FOIA-based investigation into the Department of the Interior's current priorities.

• By Pacific Standard Staff
• Member Exclusive

California plant lovers are finding—and nurturing—species once presumed to be extinct in the wild.

• By Jimmy Tobias

Teams of researchers are trying to uncover the cause of death for 31 Verraux's sifakas Lemurs—which could spell the end for the critically endangered species.

• By Edward Carver

With no more than 800 individuals left in a fragile habitat, the Tapanuli orangutan could face extinction not long after we became aware of its existence.

• By John C. Cannon

A new study finds populations of several frog species in Panama appear to be gaining resistance to a deadly pathogen that can lead to extinction.

• By Morgan Erickson-Davis

One hundred years after its extinction, the Carolina parakeet is more than an extinct species. It's a reminder that we have one last chance.

• By Christopher Cokinos

Climate change may drive as many as one in three parasite species extinct by 2070. That's very bad.

• By Jimmy Tobias

A new study finds that the populations of thousands of vertebrates, many of which have yet to raise concern, are decreasing.

• By John C. Cannon

New research suggests that the mass extinction event that occurred 66 million years ago spurred something of an explosion of new frog species.

• By Mike Gaworecki

Limited resources combined with the rate at which the number of people is increasing makes the need for solutions especially urgent.

• By John C. Cannon

Climate change is set to erode the reef at a record pace. What used to take centuries is now happening in less than a generation.

• By Lane Severson

A wave of new research points to a disturbing cause for the woolly mammoth's extinction. Can we prevent ourselves from repeating the same mistake?

• By Greg Rosalsky

The surprising way fruit-eating animals serve as a buffer against climate change.

• By Madeleine Thomas

New research highlight the dangers of standing by while large animals go extinct.

• By Nathan Collins

Some Floridians have turned on their once-beloved state cat.

• By Kim Tingley

A new study says captive breeding programs often do endangered species more harm than good.

• By Brian Palmer

A study says that if we want to prevent extinction, we’re protecting the wrong areas of the country. Can't we do both?

• By Brian Palmer

The latest indication of wildlife recovery in Gabon is a solitary male lion captured on a remote video camera that was set up to study chimpanzees. Nobody knows how he got there, or why he’s chosen the forest as his home.

• By Amy Mathews Amos

A strange Indiegogo campaign bent on preserving a vestige of Icelandic history inspires Justin Taylor to track the story all the way down to the determined goat farm at its source.

• By Justin Taylor

It's not something we need to worry too much about, but....

• By Max Knoblauch

Must we triage the world’s biodiversity? An ecologist asks if it’s worth trying to save a species caught in an ‘extinction vortex,’ in this case monk seals, by culling Galapagos sharks that have their own survival issues.

• By Leah R. Gerber