Some conservationists and researchers propose that exploitation of pangolins is primarily driven by overseas demand for pangolin scales used in traditional medicine, But a new study by WCS's Charle Emogor challenges this view and suggests that African pangolin exploitation is motivated more by local demand for meat than international demand for scales.

In 2022, WCS began investigating just how much untreated sewage was flowing into the reefs around Malindi and Watamu, along Kenya's northern coast. A combination of open dumpsites, flood-prone latrines, and illegal sewage disposal appeared to be introducing high levels of bacteria and nutrients into the water, risking coral disease, algae blooms, and reduced reef resilience. To respond, WCS partnered with Sanivation, a social enterprise transforming human fecal waste into biomass briquettes. Read the story by WCS's Rosanna Hine.

Participants from around the world gathered in Nice this month for the third United Nations Oceans Conference. It was an opportunity to assess the current state of marine conservation and seek ambitious new opportunities to achieve progress toward ocean protection. WCS Global Marine Program Executive Director Stacy Jupiter was there with some members of her team and a big announcement to make.

A new book explores what the wolf’s return to the continent means for people who have never known its presence. Read the review in The Atlantic by WCS's Jonathan Slaght

On May 28, " writes WCS India's Thasmai H S in a new essay for Down to Earth, "we celebrate World Dhole Day; a day to perhaps appreciate all the complexities that encapsulate this much-maligned predator and our arduous efforts to save the endangered dogs of Asia, one pack at a time."

The Amazon Basin is home to the largest freshwater system on Earth. These waterways don’t just support rich biodiversity—they’re a vital source of food and nutrition for millions across South America, where fish are often the most affordable and accessible source of protein. But this life-sustaining resource is under threat. Mercury contamination, overfishing, and the pressures of a globalized food market are putting fish populations—and the health of the people who rely on them—at risk. In this episode, WCS Wild Audio explores how conservationists are working to reimagine food systems in the Amazon—blending traditional knowledge with science to protect rivers, restore fisheries, and ensure a healthy, sustainable future for communities and ecosystems alike.

For the BBC's Science in Action podcast, Roland Pease talks to WCS's Sue Lieberman, who was in the trenches of the World Health Organization's Pandemic Agreement negotiations, and shares some of her hopes for its success.

The idea of integrating Indigenous and Western knowledge systems is often well-intentioned, but ultimately misguided, writes WCS's Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle and her colleagues in a new commentary for Mongabay. As part of a collaborative project by WCS-Canada and the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation in the Yukon, they produced a new study offering an alternative approach, in which these knowledge systems can exist independently and simultaneously, without seeking to control or validate one another.

The World Health Organization’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body recently reached consensus on a draft pandemic agreement with member states that endorses the reality that human contact with live wildlife must be regulated or curbed as part of prevention of pathogen spillovers. Read the essay by Chris Walzer, Sue Lieberman, and Christine Franklin for Mongabay.

A leopard. A giant pangolin. A group of forest elephants. They can be almost impossible to spot in the wild. But in February, WCS and wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas released a series of high definition camera trap photos of these species and more from the Republic of Congo’s Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park. The hope is that sharing these remarkable pictures of rarely seen animals in their natural environment will inspire people to protect them. WCS Wild Audio's Dan Rosen has the story.

For four decades, the Conservation Leadership Programme, or CLP, has been providing critical early career funding awards to emerging conservationists. Born out of a partnership between Birdlife International, Fauna & Flora, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, the CLP has opened the door countless scientists working across the globe in countries rich in biodiversity but often lacking resources for their protection. As the program turns 40, WCS Wild Audio checked in with a few alumni to hear how the program has helped them to advance in their journey to become conservation leaders.

For over 50 years, we have set aside April 22 as a day to celebrate our planet," writes WCS's John Calvelli in a special Earth Day essay for PBS Nature. "It’s a time for many to get outside to our beautiful parks and hike our natural places. It’s an occasion to tend to gardens that will soon be bursting with flowering plants and vegetables. But if Earth Day is an opportunity to appreciate the natural world, it is also a moment to take stock of threats it faces and what we can do to protect it."

While India has strong laws and policies governing forests and wildlife, their effectiveness depends on how well these laws are understood, enforced on the ground, and continuously adapted to address emerging challenges. WCS's Vidya Athreya joins The Green Mandate podcast to discuss how on-ground research and filmmaking play a crucial role in shaping public understanding and are extremely crucial in informing law-making and conservation policies.

As Earth Day turns 25 this year, it seemed like a good moment to reflect on WCS’s mission to protect wildlife and wild places. Why does the protection of biodiversity carry with it so many other benefits for people and the planet? What are the approaches that work and what are the challenges? And what can the average person do to make it a priority in their lives? WCS Wild Audio knew just the right person to ask.

"What we hope to achieve," writes WCS's John Calvelli in a new op-ed for the New York Daily News, "is a new way for conservation organizations like WCS to help educate the public and at the same time inspire them to become further engaged as changemakers through the curation of a carefully chosen set of outstanding films."

In February 1925, the Arcturus Oceanographic Expedition set sail from New York City. Led by the Department of Tropical Research (DTR) of the New York Zoological Society—now the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)—the six-month expedition sought to extend the DTR’s novel ecological approach beneath the ocean’s surface, through the Sargasso Sea and around the Galápagos Islands. As WCS's Madeleine Thompson and Alyssa Daughdrill document in a new essay at PBS Nature for Women's History Month, women were an integral part of the team. At a time when it was rare for women to work in the sciences—let alone spend six months exploring what Popular Science dramatically called “Neptune’s Graveyard”—the Arcturus Expedition included six women.