Our 2024 Impact Report is live!
Island Conservation
Paula Castaño, an Island Restoration Specialist for Island Conservation and a trained wildlife veterinarian, shares with National Geographic how she is changing the world of conservation. Why I became a wildlife veterinarian, and how that gave me power to change the world Often as veterinarians, we tend to focus on the immediate impact we can […]
Conservationists are systematically surveying atolls in search of invasive and native ant species. Ants are some of the best hitchhikers in the world. – Conservation biologist Dr. James Russell In an age of increasing globalization and mobilization, transportation of invasive species–intentional or not–has become an urgent problem. Even the smallest of invasives can cause profound […]
A newly-discovered spider found only on a single island in the Azores Archipelago is on the brink of extinction. Eight years ago, researchers discovered a new spider species on an island in the Azores, a mid-north Atlantic archipelago. The researchers have just determined that the spider lives nowhere else in the world–its range is restricted […]
Once a species is extinct, there’s no going back…right? Conservationists in the Galapagos are not so sure. The highly publicized 2012 death of “Lonesome George,” the last Pinta Island native Giant Tortoise in existence, represented a major loss for conservationists and wildlife lovers. The death of Lonesome George marked the fourth extinction of fifteen distinct […]
The New Zealand Department of Conservation has successfully eradicated invasive ants from Tiritiri Matanga Island, New Zealand. If ants have ever invaded your home, you know what a nuisance they can be–it can be very difficult to completely get rid of these persistent pests. Now imagine trying to eradicate ants from an entire island. Sound impossible? It’s […]
In the beginning, Tromelin Island, a small, remote land mass off the coast of Madagascar, was a healthy home for a variety of bird and plant species. The island was beautiful and thriving until one day when people accidentally introduced rats. The island’s ecosystem began to collapse–six of the eight bird species native to the island could not cope […]
National Geographic recently covered a study on the impacts of invasive species eradication on biodiversity. The study, conducted by 30 scientists, one of them Island Conservation’s Director of Science Nick Holmes, appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Global Ecology and Conservation. The study found 596 populations of 236 native species on 181 islands benefited from these eradications. […]