Ecology

In 2020, at the height of COVID lockdown, three housemates decided to see how many animals lived in their house and backyard. What they found surprised them.

For two million years, Gigantopithecus blacki roamed the forests of what is now southern China. A new study claims to discover when — and why — it went extinct.

It is the elusive "holy grail" for shark documentary filmmakers, but to date nobody has seen great whites mating, nor do researchers know where they give birth.

Dredgers at the River Murray mouth were halted for the first time in six years when floodwaters arrived in 2022. But now they're back in action in what irrigators and scientists see as an unfortunate necessity in this unique ecosystem.

More leopard seals have been recorded on SA beaches annually in the past five years compared to the previous 30 years, but no one knows why.

Clusters of dead carp spotted near Adelaide's Torrens weir are likely the result of last week's heavy rain higher up in the catchment area, rather than anything more noxious in the water, a biologist says.

In low-lying Narooma on the New South Wales south coast, an award-winning initiative is creating a "self-healing" barrier against erosion and rising sea levels.

Sydney Botanic Gardens experts conduct genetic testing to help restore the only population of river red gums east of the Great Dividing Range. 

A United Nations report warns the world is "perilously close" to triggering tipping points that could have "irreversible, catastrophic impacts for people and the planet" — but it's not too late to act.

Researchers are now studying the movements of the elusive and endangered Australian painted-snipe after a "sleep deprived" stake-out lasting several days in regional New South Wales.

The beauty and wonder of the natural world is what keeps scientists like Dana Bergstrom fighting to protect it. She's one of many who say speaking out comes at a cost but not speaking up can take an even greater personal toll.

Early warm weather has triggered a bumper season for Australia's 30,000 fly species. So who are these curious insects, and how should we think about their presence in our lives?

There is excitement among a group of ecologists in north-east Victoria who have been working for nearly eight years to reintroduce an endangered frog species.

There are just 50 southern brush-tailed rock wallabies left in the wild. These are the people fighting to save them.

Marine scientists have started mapping the giant coral boulders of the Ningaloo Reef in the hopes of predicting the future of the ecosystem's health.

Large bommies made of a stony coral known as porites underpin the World Heritage reef system. It's hoped they can help scientists predict how a warming world will affect the reef's health.

Volunteers are recreating habitat for the fish along Oolong Creek in a bid to boost southern pygmy perch numbers.

Scattered across the country are iconic yellow diamonds with the silhouette of a native (and some feral) animals. Many of these signs don't have any words on them, yet drivers and the public understand what they represent. But that doesn't mean we act on it.

A photography exhibition in Manjimup, Western Australia, helps highlight the ecological importance of what some say is a forgotten part of the planet's biodiversity.

Lyrebird calls echo through the forests of south-east Australia. But the passing of these songs from one generation to another is at risk.

Species which once roamed freely now thrive in a fenced-in safe haven created in Sturt National Park, part of one of the world's biggest mammal reintroduction projects.

A small island in the Southern Ocean is being torn apart by the relentless burrowing and foraging of rabbits, and they're threatening the island's native seabird population.

The ABC is given access to pastoral Comeroo Station in remote NSW, soon to be converted to national parkland, protecting a healthy and unique river system. 

Did you know South Australia is home to the only great white shark cage-diving tour in Australia? It's been around since the 1970s, but some locals aren't a fan.

The plant collection made by an amateur Mallee botanist in the 1950s helps scientists rediscover a plant thought to be extinct in Victoria.