Across New Zealand, a vast conservation effort is under way to wipe out invasive species and enable various native and endangered birds to rebound.

The country’s Predator Free 2050 project, documented here by photographer Robin Hammond, has the bold aim to completely eradicate three species introduced to the island nation by humans: rats, stoats and possums. These have decimated populations of birds, such as the ground-dwelling kiwi (pictured above). The work involves controversial aerial drops of sodium fluoroacetate poison to target the mammals, in addition to setting traps (main image).

“It’s conservation through killing. Like, mass killing,” says Hammond. “It’s kind of a grim choice. But doing nothing has a consequence, and that would be the loss of these [bird] species.”

Efforts to raise kiwi and other birds in captivity until they are big enough to stand a chance against these mammals are also under way (pictured above).

A kiwi egg laid in the wild has a 5 per cent chance of making it to adulthood. But adult birds, such as the flightless takahē (pictured above and below), have a far higher chance of survival.

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It is already too late for some birds, such as the Auckland Island merganser (pictured above), relegated to a museum exhibit since vanishing in 1902. But Hammond says that the efforts are paying off for those that remain, and he now sees populations of native birds like never before. “I see flocks of birds flying around Wellington, which I never even knew existed as a kid,” he says. “And you can hear the bird song, which wasn’t there before.”

A newly described species of pitcher plant, one of the largest and furriest ever found, has been identified on a wild mountain in Borneo, Malaysia.

The underside of the leaves of Nepenthes pongoides are covered in thick, rust-coloured fur, inspiring the team who found the plant in May 2023 to name it after the local Borneo orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) who share the Meliau range in central Sabah.

“Admittedly it’s not quite as hairy as an orangutan, it’s more like a really hairy-chested man,” says at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. “But the colour is almost the same as orangutan fur.”

He is proposing that the plants have the common name of orangutan pitcher plants. Robinson and his colleagues found just 39 plants over two expeditions, making it extremely vulnerable to extinction if it isn’t protected from poaching by collectors.

Robinson says even before they reached the site, there was evidence that poachers had been into the area and stolen specimens because plants had been posted online for sale.

Nepenthes is a genus of carnivorous pitcher plants, found throughout the tropics of South-East Asia and in parts of the Pacific, comprising over 160 species. They are highly sought after by the black-market horticultural industry because their leaves form spectacular containers of water. In the wild, animals fall into these pitchers and drown before being consumed by digestive enzymes produced by the plants.

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Robinson says the mountain is “essentially a pile of boulders” so there is no running water above 300 metres, which means the pitcher plants are often the only source of water for local wildlife.

Their pitchers can reach lengths of 45 centimetres and hold well over 2 litres of water. They are “like a little ecosystem of their own”, says Robinson.

The new species had first been photographed in 2004, but was misidentified as a known variety. “I have been studying Nepenthes in Borneo for years and this particular species is the hairiest I have ever encountered,” says team member at the Forest Research Centre in Sandakan, Malaysia. “Naming it after the orangutan is a perfect tribute.”

A scan of a California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) egg has revealed a rarely seen embryonic world. The chick is the 250th condor hatched at a facility helping to bring back the threatened birds from the brink of extinction.

Like each condor egg laid in the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s breeding program, this one was closely monitored by veterinary staff to ensure it was growing normally. As part of these regular check-ups, experts “candle” the developing eggs by placing a light against the shell to check the position of the chick inside.

All eggs have an air pocket inside, but this one was in an unusual position, which suggested the chick was contorted. Such a position can harm its chance of hatching successfully. The team decided to do a computed tomography (CT) scan to peek inside the shell – something they have had to do for previous eggs, too.

“We can see the skeleton and air pockets in the egg,” says Nora Willis at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “I’m still blown away by it.”

To their relief, the scan revealed that the chick inside was doing just fine. The condor chick even started “pipping” – one of the early stages of breaking through the shell. The team returned the egg to its nest, where its parents helped the young bird hatch on the morning of March 16. The team named the chick Emaay (pronounced “eh-my”), a word for “sky” from the language of the Kumeyaay, an Indigenous people of California.

The hatch of the new chick, whose sex is not yet determined, marks a notable milestone for the species, which narrowly evaded extinction. The chick’s father, Xol-Xol (pronounced “hole-hole”), was one of just 22 condors surviving in the 1980s that was brought into the breeding program. “It’s kind of like a full circle moment,” says Willis.

Hundreds of migratory species – from humpback whales to wandering albatrosses – are under threat because of human activity, according to the first United Nations report on the animals. The report, released today, concludes that almost half of the migratory animals on a UN list of vulnerable species are seeing population declines. About a quarter of the listed species are at risk of extinction.

Billions of animals, belonging to more than 2000 species, travel vast distances every year for a variety of reasons, such as to find food or a place to breed. They include some of the world’s most iconic animals, says at the UN’s Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Elephants, whales, dolphins and turtles are all migratory.

As a result of their wandering nature, though, these animals encounter a range of perils across their migratory routes, says at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, who wasn’t involved in the report. “A stork can be endangered in central Europe by an electrocution risk that comes from wrongly built electricity pylons, in the Mediterranean region by environmental poisoning and habitat loss and in North Africa by illegal hunting.”

In 1983, an international UN treaty came into effect that aimed to protect these animals. Under the agreement, known as the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), 1189 species were identified as being of particular interest, partly because they regularly cross national borders during their migrations.

“These are species that really require international cooperation for their survival and conservation,” says Fraenkel.

To understand how these migratory animals are faring today, Fraenkel and her colleagues conducted a comprehensive analysis of the conservation data for all the species.

Since 1990, 70 CMS-listed species – including the steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis) and the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) – have seen a rise in their risk of extinction. Significant population declines have hit 44 per cent of CMS-listed species, and 22 per cent are in danger of being wiped out entirely.

Fish have been hit especially hard: 97 per cent of CMS-listed fish, including scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) and pelagic thresher (Alopias pelagicus) sharks, are either endangered or critically endangered.

The team also identified a further 399 migratory animals – including many species of albatross – that are vulnerable to extinction but that are not currently listed under CMS. About half of these are fish species.

Human activity is the biggest factor behind these alarming trends. Overfishing, pollution and habitat loss from deforestation and urbanisation all put species at risk. Climate change is a problem too.

“But there are solutions to these challenges,” says team member at the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

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“Tangible things include reducing light pollution or changing fishing gear to help reduce bycatch,” she says. “We also need to continue identifying these really important regions that species need in order to migrate and make them protected areas.”

“Such declines and conservation concerns may not seem unique, given the loss of natural areas and global biodiversity at large, but what is unique is the challenges in conserving migratory species, especially those that migrate long distances or travel across continental, national and cultural boundaries,” says at Princeton University, who wasn’t involved in the report. “To make the conservation of migratory species successful, most, if not all, of these threats need to be addressed at the right times at the right sites, during which large-scale coordination and collaboration is usually the key.”