Environment

Wildlife, oceans, forests, climate and conservation

In Environment, ECOnews covers wildlife and biodiversity, oceans, forests, climate change, pollution, recycling and conservation. Surprising stories from around the planet that explain how nature works and how people are changing it.

The rusted hull of the SS Ayrfield covered in mangrove trees in Homebush Bay, Sydney

In Sydney’s Homebush Bay, the SS Ayrfield, a 1911 collier abandoned at a scrapyard, has become a floating forest of mangroves, and the bay it sits in needed a dioxin cleanup that ran until 2010

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 22, 2026 at 6:31 AM

Bara, one of five rescued moon bears from a South Korean bile farm, walking on grass beside a log at Jimmy's Farm & Wildlife Park

In Suffolk, England, five moon bears rescued from a South Korean bile farm after more than 20 years in cages finished a 5,500-mile journey, and 219 bears were still on Korean farms in June

By ECONEWS

—

October 21, 2026 at 8:01 PM

Vent pipes above underground homes on a rocky hillside in Coober Pedy, South Australia, with the town and desert behind

In South Australia’s opal town of Coober Pedy, about half of residents live in underground homes that stay between 66 and 77°F, and SA Water takes over the town’s aging water system before 2027

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 21, 2026 at 6:31 PM

NOAA slide from the October 2026 El Niño 2026 briefing on why the agency monitors and predicts ENSO

In Princeton, New Jersey, NOAA forecaster Nat Johnson ranked the 2026 El Niño the second strongest on record through August, and the agency now gives a very strong event through early winter its highest odds

By ECONEWS

—

October 21, 2026 at 4:13 PM

Asian elephant Sandro standing among palm trees and tall grass in the male habitat at Elephant Sanctuary Brazil

In Brazil’s Chapada dos Guimarães, Asian elephant Sandro, about 54, walked out of a crate after 44 years at the Sorocaba Zoo, and on his second night he chose to sleep outside under the stars

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 21, 2026 at 3:01 PM

Buried cotton underwear in various stages of decomposition hung on a line above a wheat field

Across Switzerland, 1,000 volunteers buried over 2,000 pairs of cotton underwear, and within two months gardens broke down about 58 percent of the fabric in soils holding roughly four times the phosphorus of farm fields

By ECONEWS

—

October 21, 2026 at 1:46 PM

Calm blue water of Lake Nasser seen from the top of the Aswan High Dam, with a rocky shore and sandy road in the foreground

On Lake Nasser behind Egypt’s Aswan High Dam, an estimated 3.2 trillion gallons evaporate each year, more than the Seine carries through Paris, and a 1959 treaty budgeted for 2.6 trillion gallons in storage losses

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 21, 2026 at 12:31 PM

Robert-Bourassa (LG-2) reservoir in Quebec's La Grande complex, where flooding raised mercury in fish, with a forested island under a cloudy sky

In northern Quebec’s La Grande hydroelectric complex, flooding pushed mercury in fish to 2 to 8 times natural lake levels, and the Cree health board now says most local fish can be eaten safely

By ECONEWS

—

October 21, 2026 at 11:31 AM

Close-up of one of the snow-Tanner hybrid crabs from the Bering Sea, showing its rounded mouth

In Alaska’s Bering Sea, snow-Tanner hybrid crabs became 13.4 times more abundant after a marine heatwave wiped out billions of snow crabs, and in 2025 they made up 41.7 percent of commercial-sized males

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 21, 2026 at 9:24 AM

Milu deer, including an antlered stag, wading and drinking in a pond at Beijing Wildlife Park in China

On the Yangtze River in China’s Hubei province, 36 Milu deer escaped a flooded nature reserve in May 1998, and by the end of 2009 the escapees and their descendants numbered more than 500

By ECONEWS

—

October 20, 2026 at 6:31 PM

Thermal camera of the type used to record seabird collisions, mounted on an offshore wind turbine with turbines behind it

Off England’s Kent coast, a 2018 study reviewed 606,554 videos from cameras on Thanet Offshore Wind Farm turbines and counted 6 seabird collisions, and 96.8 percent of recorded seabirds flew between the turbine rows

By ECONEWS

—

October 20, 2026 at 12:32 PM

Lowland tapirs reintroduced at the Guapiaçu Ecological Reserve: a tapir looks out from forest undergrowth beside a wire fence in Rio de Janeiro state

In Brazil’s Guapiaçu Ecological Reserve, a restoration project rooted in one family’s old farm has planted 1 million native seedlings, and lowland tapirs missing from Rio de Janeiro since 1914 now number around 25

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 20, 2026 at 11:31 AM

Clay robber frog near Brazil's Boracéia Biological Station, where museum frogs revealed the chytrid fungus behind a decades-old die-off

Smithsonian scientists swabbed 327 museum frogs and tied a mysterious die-off in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest to the chytrid fungus, but the declined species still common enough to collect tested clean

By ECONEWS

—

October 19, 2026 at 8:01 PM

Beaver dam of sticks holding back a pond on the former Pine Grove Massachusetts golf course in Northampton

Crews on a closed Massachusetts golf course in Northampton pulled out a failed culvert and installed human-built beaver dams, and the city now has $2.8 million to finish rewilding the site

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 19, 2026 at 5:31 PM

Hundreds of hats pulled from Yellowstone hot springs and thermal areas in 2026 laid out in front of a National Park Service pickup truck

Yellowstone hot springs, geysers and boardwalks gave up more than 20,100 pieces of trash, 5,600 rocks and sticks and over 280 hats by early September, including six Invisalign retainers and a single Uno card

By ECONEWS

—

October 19, 2026 at 12:31 PM

Four Asiatic wild asses drinking side by side at a waterhole in Israel's Negev desert

Israel released 28 Asiatic wild asses into the Negev from 1982 to 1987, and DNA from their dung now shows a herd eating native plants and inbreeding less after managers added three water points

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 19, 2026 at 10:16 AM

Rangers supported by Angelina Jolie's foundation planting a tree seedling in the Samlaut forest in northwestern Cambodia

Angelina Jolie’s foundation has spent 20 years in a 150,720-acre Cambodian forest where elephants and pangolins still roam, and its rangers pulled about 4.8 miles of wire snares out in 2025

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 19, 2026 at 6:31 AM

The calving front of Thwaites Glacier's ice shelf in West Antarctica above dark open water, seen from a NASA aircraft

In West Antarctica, a Thwaites Glacier model checked against 27 years of satellite records projects it could add up to about 1.2 inches to global seas by 2100, and that is roughly double earlier estimates

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 18, 2026 at 9:31 PM

Bluebanded snapper swimming over submerged peat reefs in Mozambique's Bazaruto Archipelago

Off Mozambique, divers surveyed three peat reefs made of forest peat up to 5,000 years old, and each held 26 to 36 kinds of small fish with no living coral

By ECONEWS

—

October 18, 2026 at 8:01 PM

European hedgehog in garden grass, the animal whose hedgehog poop is often mistaken for rat droppings

In gardens across Britain and Europe, a dark dropping up to 2 inches long can be hedgehog poop rather than a rat sign, and the Mammal Society says shiny insect fragments give it away

By ECONEWS

—

October 18, 2026 at 6:31 PM

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Environment

In Sydney’s Homebush Bay, the SS Ayrfield, a 1911 collier abandoned at a scrapyard, has become a floating forest of mangroves, and the bay it sits in needed a dioxin cleanup that ran until 2010

In Suffolk, England, five moon bears rescued from a South Korean bile farm after more than 20 years in cages finished a 5,500-mile journey, and 219 bears were still on Korean farms in June

In South Australia’s opal town of Coober Pedy, about half of residents live in underground homes that stay between 66 and 77°F, and SA Water takes over the town’s aging water system before 2027

In Princeton, New Jersey, NOAA forecaster Nat Johnson ranked the 2026 El Niño the second strongest on record through August, and the agency now gives a very strong event through early winter its highest odds

In Brazil’s Chapada dos Guimarães, Asian elephant Sandro, about 54, walked out of a crate after 44 years at the Sorocaba Zoo, and on his second night he chose to sleep outside under the stars

Across Switzerland, 1,000 volunteers buried over 2,000 pairs of cotton underwear, and within two months gardens broke down about 58 percent of the fabric in soils holding roughly four times the phosphorus of farm fields

On Lake Nasser behind Egypt’s Aswan High Dam, an estimated 3.2 trillion gallons evaporate each year, more than the Seine carries through Paris, and a 1959 treaty budgeted for 2.6 trillion gallons in storage losses

In northern Quebec’s La Grande hydroelectric complex, flooding pushed mercury in fish to 2 to 8 times natural lake levels, and the Cree health board now says most local fish can be eaten safely

In Alaska’s Bering Sea, snow-Tanner hybrid crabs became 13.4 times more abundant after a marine heatwave wiped out billions of snow crabs, and in 2025 they made up 41.7 percent of commercial-sized males

On the Yangtze River in China’s Hubei province, 36 Milu deer escaped a flooded nature reserve in May 1998, and by the end of 2009 the escapees and their descendants numbered more than 500

Off England’s Kent coast, a 2018 study reviewed 606,554 videos from cameras on Thanet Offshore Wind Farm turbines and counted 6 seabird collisions, and 96.8 percent of recorded seabirds flew between the turbine rows

In Brazil’s Guapiaçu Ecological Reserve, a restoration project rooted in one family’s old farm has planted 1 million native seedlings, and lowland tapirs missing from Rio de Janeiro since 1914 now number around 25

Smithsonian scientists swabbed 327 museum frogs and tied a mysterious die-off in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest to the chytrid fungus, but the declined species still common enough to collect tested clean

Crews on a closed Massachusetts golf course in Northampton pulled out a failed culvert and installed human-built beaver dams, and the city now has $2.8 million to finish rewilding the site

Yellowstone hot springs, geysers and boardwalks gave up more than 20,100 pieces of trash, 5,600 rocks and sticks and over 280 hats by early September, including six Invisalign retainers and a single Uno card

Israel released 28 Asiatic wild asses into the Negev from 1982 to 1987, and DNA from their dung now shows a herd eating native plants and inbreeding less after managers added three water points

Angelina Jolie’s foundation has spent 20 years in a 150,720-acre Cambodian forest where elephants and pangolins still roam, and its rangers pulled about 4.8 miles of wire snares out in 2025

In West Antarctica, a Thwaites Glacier model checked against 27 years of satellite records projects it could add up to about 1.2 inches to global seas by 2100, and that is roughly double earlier estimates

Off Mozambique, divers surveyed three peat reefs made of forest peat up to 5,000 years old, and each held 26 to 36 kinds of small fish with no living coral

In gardens across Britain and Europe, a dark dropping up to 2 inches long can be hedgehog poop rather than a rat sign, and the Mammal Society says shiny insect fragments give it away

A comet nearly 3 miles wide feeds the Taurid meteor shower every fall, and a high school student’s telescope search has put a size limit on the comet that may have spawned it

Geologists drilled through 2,860 feet of Antarctic ice shelf hoping to bring up mud and their camera found sponges living on a boulder in total darkness, and the team could not say what they eat

Gravel workers in Austria reported a heap of rusty metal that could have ended up as scrap, and its 500 Iron Age iron bars probably went down in a Danube shipwreck

A man reported a carved stone on his land in Egypt, and archaeologists dug up the head of a Ramses II statue once about 28 feet tall and a second royal face awaiting a name

Antarctic sea ice spread across 6.79 million square miles this winter, its third-lowest peak since satellites began watching, and less than three weeks later it was setting record lows for the date

Chinese astronomers searched 33 star systems for alien signals using the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, and one narrow signal survived the early filters before the clues started pointing back toward Earth

Seychelles now has more giant tortoises on a single remote atoll than people in the whole country, almost 183,000, and the new count finally accounts for the animals surveyors walk past without seeing

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