Category: Animals

This category is dedicated to animal related topics

Untangled: Biodiversity Loss – What On Earth Is Causing It?

Right now, over 1 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction and the average population sizes of wildlife have dropped by around 70% since 1970. We’ve already lost half of the world’s corals and lose forest areas the size of 27 football fields every minute.

So what’s causing all this? And what can we do to turn things around?

Surveying For Pacific Marten

Journey into the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico with Bryan Bird, our Southwest Program Director, and our Wildlands Network partners as they survey for the rare Pacific Marten.


Trail cameras capture images and not animals and cat food is safe for martens.

Video Transcript:

Hi, I’m Bryan Bird, Southwest Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife, and we’re out here on the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico with our partners Wildlands Network.

We’re setting out camera traps for Martes caurina, this is the Pacific Marten. We’re looking for these animals up here on the Carson National Forest … Continue

Parrots Of The World: Budgerigar

Male on the left; female on the right

The Budgerigar(Melopsittacus undulatus) also known as Budgie, Common Parakeet, Warbling Grass Parakeet, Canary Parrot, Zebra Parrot, Scallop Parrot, or Shell Parakeet is a small parrot classified in the order Psittaciformes, and the family Psittaculidae. 

Physical Characteristics

Wild adult Budgerigars’ throats and faces are yellow; there are black spots and iridescent blue-violet cheek patches on each side of their throats. The body is mostly green, but there are black bars on the back of the head and the back.  The tail is blue. An adult male’s cere … Continue