Essays about endangered wildlife and the environment - Reading Room

Essays

Snake charms

Romulus Whitaker

The king cobra is the world’s largest venomous snake – and a ruthless snake-hunter. But it is also a surprisingly devoted parent, as Romulus Whitaker found out.

Here be giants

Sophie Stafford for BBC Wildlife magazine

How hard can it be to find a giant otter? They’re large and they hunt in packs, so they ought to be easy to study...

Find out more about the giant otter

Gentlemen biologists prefer redheads

Mark Bowler for BBC Wildlife magazine

With a bald, scarlet head and bright orange fur, the red uakari is the world's strangest-looking monkey...

A trumpeter’s tale

Joseph Tobias for BBC Wildlife magazine

Pale-winged trumpeters behave like monkeys, but sound like raspberry-blowing schoolchildren...

Find out more about the trumpeter bird

Lair of the ice-shark

Chris Harvey Clark for BBC Wildlife magazine

The Greenland shark has long been regarded as a sluggish scavenger, but could it be responsible for mysterious seal deaths in the Arctic?

Find out more about the Greenland shark

Earth Day: An economical way to save the world

Fred Pearce

love earth celebrates Earth Day 2008 by asking how America can best protect its iconic species and natural wilderness.

The wake-up call America needs

Earth Day: Saving America's bison a second time

Daniele Fanelli

The bison is an icon of the American wilderness. But having been saved once, is the species again heading toward the brink?

Why experts fear for the bison's future

Earth Day: The hunter becomes the hunted

Colin Barras

The grey wolf is once again in the sights of hunters, after a controversial decision to delist the species in the US.

Can the wolf survive?

Earth Day: Bald eagle

Colin Barras

A unique sub-species of eagle will remain protected.

Why the desert bald eagle has special status

Earth Day: Watching the wild burn