In a new blog at PBS Nature for Hispanic Heritage Month, New York Aquarium Hospital Manager Patty Toledo takes pride in her efforts to monitor the health of innumerable marine species and looks to future work that may expand to the Amazon or Galapagos Islands in her native Ecuador. "It would personally mean a lot to me if I could contribute to the survival of the wonderful and unique species that exist in my homeland.

Timed to the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, UN Climate Week brings together global leaders in business, government, and the climate community. This year, the theme is “Getting It Done,” so Wild Audio asked WCS forest and climate scientist Lauren Oakes what she thinks about when it comes to adaptive strategies to confront the climate crisis.

Coral reefs cover less than 3% of the ocean but contain a quarter of all marine life. Next to tropical rainforests, they are the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. Fifty of the world’s leading scientists recently laid out a roadmap to save the world’s coral reefs. With urgent climate action and by following this roadmap, argue WCS's Simon Cripps and Emily Darling, these oases of beauty may retain critical marine biodiversity and provide a lifeline for coastal communities into the next century and beyond.

The Selva Maya represents the largest continuous forest in Central America. Encompassing parts of Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, it includes Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve, where a government campaign to target illegal ranching is reversing years of destructive deforestation. WCS's Gabriela Ponce Santizo describes what that means for the people of the region and the wildlife that lives there.

In a new essay for Medium, WCS's Samantha Strindberg and Fiona Maisels note that the best evidence of successful conservation management is stable or increasing wildlife populations. With that in mind, they look at new ways to measure wildlife density and abundance.

Big cats today face multiple threats—from poaching and habitat loss to snares and human conflict. But also key to their survival is the presence of preferred prey. The WCS Laos program’s Akchousanh Rasphone knows which species are prized on the menu of the country’s clouded leopards and, one day, might help sustain a return of “the big guy,” as she refers to the tiger—now functionally extinct in Laos.

In a commentary for Medium, WCS Arctic Beringia partner Dahlia Berns describes how in bringing a new plains bison herd to Alaska's Sitkalidak Island for greater food security, the Alutiiq community of Old Harbor can create a stronger sense of unity and connection between older and newer generations.

With climate change warming the oceans, coral reefs remain some of the most vulnerable ecosystems. Keeping an eye on them can be time-consuming and expensive, since it requires divers to do spot-checks to see if the reefs are bustling, lively environments or if they are degrading into abandoned neighborhoods. Emily Darling discusses the current threat to coral reefs with Danny Lewis for the Wall Street Journal's "The Future of Everything" podcast.

With the advent of the pandemic, writes WCS's Tony Lynam, training in the use of a broad array of tools to monitor animals and estimate their populations has expanded to include remote learning.

More and more scientists today are using environmental DNA—or eDNA—to identify species or organisms inhabiting a particular area by measuring genetic traces found in water, soil, or air. In 2019, a group of researchers co-led by WCS’s Tracie Seimon surveyed Mt. Everest to explore high elevation biodiversity there using eDNA. Now that they have begun publishing their findings, WCS Wild Audio checked in with Tracie to find out what they learned.

Internships in the science and conservation field have for too long failed to reach the full diversity of young people. To address that inequity, the WCS Education Department—based at the Bronx Zoo and led by Karen Tingley—recently launched a new internship program designed to proactively help more young people get a head start on a conservation career.

In a new essay, WCS's Diane Detoeuf explains why social sciences are essential to understanding the role humans play in the use, management, and protection of natural resources.

In a new essay for Landscape News, WCS Tanzania's Vicky Mbofu writes that her program hopes "to manage or improve the management of more than 800,000 hectares of forests, made up of 36 forests." The project aims to reduce deforestation and degradation, strengthen species conservation and support sustainable community livelihoods.

Science is at the heart of effective conservation. It factors into everything WCS does at its global field sites and its New York City-based zoos and aquarium to better understand wildlife and wild places. But translating that knowledge into policy and action requires creative engagement with the public and lawmakers. WCS's John Calvelli oversees that effort in the U.S. and recently discussed with Wild Audio why it’s so important.

For the People Behind the Science podcast, WCS's Emily Darling discusses her research investigating how coral reefs around the world will survive climate change, as well as the different coral types found on a reef and the patterns she has seen related to reef disturbance, recovery, and influences of climate change.

In a new essay for Canada's National Observer, WCS Canada's Dan Kraus explains why the GBF is a big opportunity for wildlife and for people. "Reversing the loss of nature on a planetary scale has never been done before, says Dan, "and offers this generation an opportunity for a legacy that will alter humanity forever."