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On June 3, 2026, a female giant panda cub was born at Everland in South Korea to parents Ai Bao and Le Bao — the country’s third successful natural panda birth. It arrives as Panda World marks 10 years of Korea–China joint conservation research.
Off South Africa’s west coast in December 2025, observers documented 299 humpback whales gathered in a single feeding “supergroup.” Once hunted to fewer than 10,000 in the Southern Hemisphere, humpbacks now number more than 100,000 — a landmark conservation comeback.
NOAA’s GAIA initiative (Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Animals) pairs very-high-resolution satellite imagery with machine learning to detect endangered whales — notably North Atlantic right whales and Cook Inlet belugas — across vast, hard-to-survey oceans, in partnership with the USGS, Microsoft AI for Good and others.
The numbat, Western Australia’s striped marsupial emblem, has been downlisted on the IUCN Red List from Endangered to Near Threatened. From around 300 animals in the late 1970s, careful predator control has lifted numbers to an estimated 2,000–3,000 across five secure populations.
The 2025–2026 calving season brought 23 North Atlantic right whale calves — the most since 2009 for a critically endangered species numbering only about 380. Eighteen of the mothers had calved within the past six years, and three were first-time moms.
Rwanda’s grey crowned crane population has climbed from 487 birds counted in 2017 to about 1,293 in 2024, driven by an amnesty program for captive cranes, wetland restoration and community engagement led by veterinarian Olivier Nsengimana.
Up to 100 eastern barred bandicoots — a marsupial declared extinct in the wild in 1991 — have been released on Phillip Island near Melbourne. A world-first genetic rescue mixing mainland and Tasmanian animals has produced a fitter, more resilient population.
On July 8, 2026, the Ocean Conservation Trust and Cornwall Wildlife Trust launched “Mor Nature,” an £1.8 million programme to restore 10 hectares of seagrass meadow in Falmouth Bay and rebuild native oyster reefs — the largest seagrass restoration ever attempted in the United Kingdom.
In October 2025, the IUCN reclassified the green sea turtle from Endangered to Least Concern on its Red List, citing a global population rise of roughly 28% since the 1970s. Conservationists call it proof that decades of coordinated protection can bring a species back from the brink.
The Oregon Zoo’s breeding center has produced 15 California condor chicks in 2026 — the most in its 23-year history. With the global population of the once near-extinct bird now topping 600, each chick reared for release is a milestone for one of America’s great recovery stories.
The Przewalski's horse, or takhi — the world's only truly wild horse — once vanished entirely from the wild. As of 2026 more than 1,000 again roam Mongolia, about half the global population, descended from just a handful of captive founders. It is one of conservation's most remarkable resurrections.
Mother Mizuno gave birth to six healthy black-footed ferret kits at the Smithsonian’s Front Royal campus on May 11, 2026, with a second litter following ten days later. Once thought extinct, North America’s only native ferret survives today thanks to decades of breeding and release efforts.
A University of Manchester-led team used AI and 35 years of Landsat imagery to produce the first wall-to-wall map of the Cerrado-Amazon transition zone in Brazil, giving conservation planners the empirical baseline they had been missing.
Three decades ago, Michael Thilgen and a handful of neighbors founded Friends of Sausal Creek to rescue a neglected Oakland waterway. Today, an all-volunteer effort has restored a three-mile creek that hosts wild rainbow trout and a federally endangered shrub — proof of what patient, collective care can achieve.
Spain and Portugal’s joint census found 2,401 Iberian lynx, up 19 percent in a single year from 2,021, with 844 cubs born. Once the world’s most endangered cat, the spotted feline has rebounded so strongly that the IUCN recently downgraded its status from Endangered to Vulnerable.
NOAA Fisheries reported that 23 North Atlantic right whale calves were born during the 2026 calving season, the highest number since 2009 and a welcome sign for one of the world’s most endangered large whales.
NOAA Fisheries confirmed that 23 North Atlantic right whale calves were born during the 2026 calving season — the highest number since 2009. Twenty of the 23 mothers were returning moms, and many calved on shorter, healthier intervals, offering hope for one of the planet's most endangered whales.
The 2025–2026 North Atlantic right whale calving season produced 23 mother-calf pairs, the highest count in 17 years. With only about 380 of these whales left, researchers say the strong season and shorter intervals between births are hopeful signs that the population’s reproductive health is improving.
The mountain gorilla, down to as few as 480 in 2010, now numbers an estimated 1,063 across Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. A ranger tool called SMART, used by 1,400 rangers, is helping rangers stay ahead of poaching threats in one of conservation’s great success stories.
After half a century of global protection, the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) has been moved on the IUCN Red List from Endangered to Least Concern, with the global population up about 28% since the 1970s.
On Earth Day 2026, the Cayman Islands government designated six new protected areas under the National Conservation (Protected Areas) Order 2026, safeguarding wetlands, mangroves, coastal cays and forest. The package also includes a move to ban eight single-use plastic items, part of broad environmental commitments.
On Earth Day 2026, the non-profit search engine Ecosia announced it had planted 250 million trees worldwide since 2009. Working with 125 reforestation partners and over 200,000 planters, it has put 1,600 native species into the ground — including 144 that are endangered or vulnerable — and invested more than 100 million euros in climate action.
Bald eagles have staged a striking comeback in the Connecticut River Valley, with New Hampshire reaching 128 nesting pairs and Vermont 38 by 2025. Once driven to near-extinction by DDT and habitat loss, the national bird is now a familiar sight over New England rivers.
Chester Zoo in the UK has welcomed three giant otter pups — two males and one female — born to first-time parents Bonita and Manu. It is the first time the endangered species, of which fewer than 6,000 survive in the wild, has bred at the zoo in seven years.
The critically endangered kakapo, a flightless nocturnal parrot, has had its best breeding season on record, with at least 95 chicks hatching in 2026 and surpassing the previous high. Triggered by a bumper crop of rimu berries, the success brings new hope for a bird saved from the brink.
NOAA Fisheries built GAIA, a cloud-based system that pairs very high-resolution satellite imagery with machine learning to detect endangered whales such as North Atlantic right whales and Cook Inlet belugas, with an open-source annotation tool from Microsoft AI for Good.
A century after being hunted to extinction in the wild, the European bison now numbers around 7,000 free-roaming animals, up from 2,579 a decade ago. New research shows rewilded herds also act as climate allies, with a Romanian herd helping lock away carbon equal to tens of thousands of cars.
Chamilandu, an elephant orphaned by poaching at just 18 months old, has given birth to her first calf born entirely in the wild in Zambia's Kafue National Park, surrounded by a herd of released and wild elephants — a powerful testament to conservation.
Despite rising emissions, 2025 delivered tangible environmental victories: renewable energy capacity surged to record levels, endangered green sea turtles hit milestone recovery numbers, and tiger populations grew across Asia, reports the BBC.
The California condor population has reached 1,000 individuals — a remarkable recovery from just 22 birds in 1982, making it one of the most successful endangered species recovery programs in history.
Monarch butterfly populations have increased by 64%, offering a significant boost to conservationists who have worked for decades to protect the iconic species and its epic annual migration across North America.
Dozens of juvenile hybrid giant tortoises have been released on Floreana Island in Ecuador's Galápagos archipelago, marking the first step in restoring the island's ecosystem after the native species was driven to extinction nearly 200 years ago.
Ugandan wildlife authorities have reintroduced southern white rhinos into Kidepo Valley National Park, where the species had been extinct since 1983 due to poaching. The first two rhinos arrived on March 17, with more planned from both local sanctuaries and Kenya.
The large tortoiseshell butterfly, absent from Britain since the 1960s, has been reclassified as a resident species after sightings across Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, Cornwall, and the Isle of Wight. Britain's native butterfly count has risen to 60 with the species' return.
Eight critically endangered mountain bongo antelopes were rescued after being stranded overnight on a grounded charter flight at Palm Beach International Airport. The emergency response by FIU's Tropical Conservation Institute saved the animals being transported for a repatriation program to Kenya.
Uganda Wildlife Authority has begun the historic reintroduction of rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park, where the species went extinct in 1983 due to poaching. The first two Southern white rhinos arrived from Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary.
New Zealand's critically endangered kākāpō — the world's heaviest, flightless parrot — had its best breeding season ever in 2026, with over 100 chicks hatching, far surpassing the previous record of 85. With only 235 adults, the bumper season could meaningfully grow a species once down to a few dozen.
Two southern white rhinos have been reintroduced to Kidepo Valley National Park in Uganda, the first to roam there in over 40 years after being poached to extinction. More reintroductions are planned.
The Large Tortoiseshell butterfly, absent from the UK for over 30 years, has been spotted across six southern English counties. Butterfly Conservation reports cautious optimism about a potential natural recolonization.
Conservation group Fauna & Flora reported 11 new species discovered across 60 Cambodian caves, including a striking pit viper and a gecko named for the Hindu god Shiva, highlighting the region's hidden biodiversity.
On March 19, 2026, eastern black rhino Kapuki gave birth to a healthy female calf at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, weighing about 60 pounds. With only around 1,000 eastern black rhinos left in the wild, the birth — recommended by the Species Survival Plan — is a meaningful boost for the critically endangered subspecies.
Monarch butterflies occupied 2.93 hectares of central Mexico’s oyamel fir forest this winter, a 64 percent jump from the previous year, alongside a drop in illegal logging. Conservationists welcome the rebound while stressing the iconic migration still needs more habitat.
For the first time in nearly two decades, captive-bred Panamanian golden frogs have been returned to a Panamanian forest. In a landmark trial reported in March 2026, the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project released 100 of the bright-yellow frogs to learn how to outwit the fungal disease that erased them from the wild.
A groundbreaking study published in Conservation Biology shows that detection dogs can identify trafficked wildlife in sealed shipping containers from tiny air samples with nearly 98% accuracy, offering a major new tool against wildlife crime.
The UN High Seas Treaty has come into force, creating for the first time a legal framework to protect biodiversity in international waters — covering almost half of Earth's surface that previously had no dedicated conservation law.
By sequencing more than 13,000 genes, scientists found that Borneo’s fanged frogs, long treated as one species, actually comprise six or seven distinct species, a finding that helps target conservation more accurately.
The sihek, or Guam kingfisher, is flying free in the wild for the first time in over four decades after being declared extinct in its natural habitat. A small but stable population has been established on a predator-free island, and the birds have begun laying eggs — a critical milestone for the species' recovery.
Dozens of juvenile hybrid giant tortoises were released on Floreana Island in the Galápagos on February 20, 2026, marking the return of these iconic creatures nearly 150 years after they were hunted to local extinction. The rewilding effort aims to restore the island's ecosystem to its original state.
Several humpback whale populations have recovered to near pre-commercial whaling numbers, with some groups removed from endangered lists, marking one of the greatest conservation comebacks in wildlife history.
A March 2026 update to the UN State of the World's Migratory Species report identifies seven species moving to a lower extinction-risk category — among them the saiga antelope, scimitar-horned oryx and Mediterranean monk seal — proof that coordinated, cross-border conservation can turn the tide for animals on the move.
In one of Italy's greatest conservation success stories, Sardinia's griffon vulture population has soared from near-extinction at the start of 2010 to over 500 individuals today, thanks to decades of dedicated conservation work.
The public debut of giant pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao at the Smithsonian National Zoo in January 2025 drew record-breaking crowds, with Washington D.C. celebrating a city-wide "District of Panda Party" that united the community through joy, diplomacy, and conservation awareness.
In a feat once thought improbable, the green sea turtle has been removed from the endangered species list in 2025, marking one of the greatest conservation success stories of our time. Decades of beach protection, fishing regulation changes, and international cooperation have brought the species back from the brink.
Chinook salmon were spotted swimming in Oregon's Chiloquin Basin for the first time in 100 years, following a historic dam removal and river restoration project. The return of these iconic fish represents the culmination of decades of environmental advocacy by Indigenous communities and conservationists.
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After losing her mother as a tiny cub, an endangered red panda named Asha — meaning “hope” in Nepali and Sanskrit — was hand-reared by keepers at Bristol Zoo Project and has now taken her first confident steps in her outdoor habitat, part of a European breeding program for the species.
The UK’s Twycross Zoo has welcomed its first baby of 2026: an endangered pileated gibbon. Keepers called it a hugely important birth for the entire European population of these long-armed, tree-swinging apes, which are threatened by habitat loss across Southeast Asia.
The first lynx reintroduced to Scotland in 500 years are thriving, with the pilot population successfully establishing territories and producing cubs.
In February 2026, Natural England licensed two new wild beaver release projects in the south-west, joining the National Trust’s release in Dorset. With around 100 beavers set for release this year and 30 projects in the pipeline, the once-extinct mammal is returning to English rivers.
A trailblazing attempt to repopulate the ocean with sharks born from surplus aquarium eggs is expanding marine conservation.
Conservation efforts to let hedgerows grow wild have led to record numbers of rare butterfly eggs being recorded across the UK.
A group of women in rural India known as the Stork Sisters have become guardians of the endangered greater adjutant stork, saving hundreds of chicks and changing local attitudes toward wildlife.
Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has dropped to its lowest level in 15 years, thanks to stronger enforcement and Indigenous-led conservation efforts.
The Great Barrier Reef has experienced its largest coral spawning event in decades, a sign that conservation efforts are helping the ecosystem recover.
Marine biologists have developed heat-resistant coral varieties that can survive in waters up to 3°C warmer, offering hope for reef conservation as oceans warm.
Across Iowa, a tiny endangered fish has inspired an enormous conservation program that has restored hundreds of oxbow ponds, bringing back 57 fish species, 81 bird species, and many other animals.
A new generation of language learning apps is helping Indigenous communities revive endangered languages, with some seeing a 300% increase in young speakers.
In a conservation success story decades in the making, the green turtle has been removed from the endangered species list, proving that dedicated protection efforts can save species from extinction.
On February 2, 2026, a healthy female Asian elephant calf was born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo to first-time mother Nhi Linh — the first elephant born there in nearly a quarter century. Because her parents’ genes are rare in zoos, the calf strengthens the genetic diversity of an endangered species.
Conservation organizations are using drones to plant trees in hard-to-reach areas, potentially revolutionizing the expansion and restoration of temperate rainforests.
Mexico reported a significant increase in its jaguar population in 2025, the result of expanded protected corridors, community-led conservation programs, and reduced human-wildlife conflict across the Yucatán Peninsula and beyond.
A billionaire art collector sold a rare Rembrandt drawing of a lion for $18 million, donating the proceeds to conservation efforts to save the very animal depicted in the artwork.
Scientists recorded the highest number of North Atlantic right whale sightings ever for January, a hopeful sign for the critically endangered species with only 384 individuals remaining.
In a landmark conservation victory, the green sea turtle was officially removed from the endangered species list in 2025. Decades of beach protection, anti-poaching measures, and international cooperation brought the species back from the brink.
The Bronx Zoo has announced the birth of an endangered pygmy slow loris, the first primate born in its new World of Darkness exhibit. The tiny, large-eyed primate is one of only about 50 of its kind in accredited North American zoos, making the birth a valuable contribution to the species’ breeding program.
A previously unknown jaguar was identified in southern Arizona through remote cameras, suggesting that conservation efforts are helping the endangered species expand its range northward.
A new conservation study offers hope for wild axolotls facing extinction: captive-bred populations retain enough genetic diversity to potentially replenish their wild counterparts in Mexico.
The Saving Wildcats project has released 46 captive-bred European wildcats into the Cairngorms National Park, with 95 percent surviving their first ten months and females raising litters in the wild in both 2024 and 2025. Conservationists say it proves a critically endangered cat can be brought back.
The first giant panda cub ever born in Indonesia, a male named Satrio Wiratama and nicknamed Rio, arrived at Taman Safari Indonesia in late November 2025. His birth crowns a decade-long conservation partnership between Indonesia and China for a species now classed as vulnerable.
Camera traps in Kenya’s Chyulu Hills captured a critically endangered black rhino calf at the side of its mother, Namunyak — whose name means “blessed” in Maa. The birth, the second in two years, brings this genetically distinct population to nine and is hailed as a conservation success.
Once the world's most endangered cat with just a few hundred individuals, the Iberian lynx has rebounded to several thousand thanks to dedicated conservation programs across Spain and Portugal.
In a remarkable conservation success, the green turtle has been removed from the endangered list following a decades-long mission to save the species from extinction.
The IUCN officially reclassified the green sea turtle from Endangered to Least Concern, marking one of the greatest conservation success stories of our time.
The saiga antelope, an Ice Age survivor with a distinctive trunk-like nose, has rebounded from roughly 48,000 individuals in 2005 to about 1.9 million today. The dramatic recovery, driven largely by conservation in Kazakhstan, led the IUCN to move the species from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened.
Common cranes have made a remarkable comeback in Scotland, returning to breed in areas where they were hunted to extinction centuries ago.
The critically endangered Amur leopard, once down to around 25 animals, has rebounded to roughly 130 individuals in Russia’s Far East. The recovery — the highest density recorded in a decade of monitoring — is credited to the Land of the Leopard National Park, anti-poaching efforts and prey recovery.
Philadelphia Zoo’s nearly 100-year-old Galapagos tortoise “Mommy” has hatched 16 babies with mate Abrazzo, becoming the oldest first-time mother of her species. The clutch is hugely significant for the critically endangered Western Santa Cruz tortoise, of which only 60 live in U.S. care.
Conservation group Aussie Ark announced in June 2025 that at least ten Tasmanian devil joeys had been born in its mainland breeding program, with more on the way. The births strengthen an “insurance population” safeguarding a species devastated by a contagious facial cancer.
A second group of seven Przewalski’s horses arrived at Kazakhstan’s Altyn-Dala State Nature Reserve in June 2025, bringing the reintroduced herd to fourteen animals. The species, once extinct in the wild, is being restored to the golden steppe it last roamed roughly two hundred years ago.
A kingfisher native to Guam laid eggs outdoors for the first time in nearly four decades, thanks to a dedicated breeding programme that has brought the species back from the edge of extinction.
A review of about 300 sea turtle population records found that significant increases were three to six times more common than significant declines, with four of five green turtle regional populations growing. Loggerhead nests in Cape Verde jumped from roughly 500 in 2008 to 35,000 by 2020 — a global conservation success story.
A new Colorado law grants bison dual status as both livestock and wildlife, allowing America's national mammal to roam more freely after years of advocacy by Native Americans and conservationists.
A combination of AI-powered translation tools and language learning apps has helped revitalize 20 indigenous languages that were on the brink of extinction.
The Iberian lynx has been downlisted from Endangered to Vulnerable by the IUCN, following an incredible 20-year recovery from just 94 individuals to over 2,000.
