📬 Mailbox
Updates on the animals you've been learning about — we hope it's always good news, but every so often there's a setback too — plus what's new here on the site.
Animal pages now show where that animal fits in its food web — what it eats, what eats it, and links to other animals on the site that share the same web. We're starting with fear animals and working our way through the rest.
See it on the Spider page →From now on, good news about the animals you've been learning about — plus anything new here on the site — will land right here. Check back whenever you like; new letters arrive often.
The latest count in Land of the Leopard National Park puts the wild Amur leopard population at over 100 adults — up from barely 30 just a couple of decades ago.
Meet the Amur leopard →Press ⌘K (or just /) anywhere to pull up search and jump straight to any animal, category, or page.
Researchers in the Gulf of California spotted a calf swimming alongside its mother — a hopeful sign for the world's rarest marine mammal.
Meet the vaquita →We added a whole new section exploring the official national animals of countries around the world, from the familiar to the surprising.
Explore National Animals →Patrol teams pulled several illegal gillnets from the vaquita's last refuge this month — a reminder of how fragile the recovery still is. Net-removal patrols continue, and conservationists are pushing for tougher enforcement.
Meet the vaquita →Divers off the African coast filmed a coelacanth swimming peacefully in deep water — the latest sighting of a fish once thought to have gone extinct alongside the dinosaurs.
Meet the coelacanth →A new collection of short videos showing feared and unknown animals doing what they actually do — usually a lot less scary than you'd think.
Go watch →The latest survey counted more wild giant pandas than ever before — the payoff from decades of habitat restoration and protected reserves.
Meet the giant panda →Reach Conservation Ranger rank (13 stars) in the Conservation Quest to unlock deep-dive expert facts on some of our fear animals.
Open the Quest →The wild mountain gorilla population has slowly climbed past 1,000 — making it one of the only great ape populations in the world that's growing, not shrinking.
Meet the mountain gorilla →Some of the wildest animals on Earth aren't related at all — they just evolved the same tricks independently. Find them in The Unknown.
Explore The Unknown →A camera trap high in the Himalayas captured rare footage of a snow leopard mother with two cubs — a quiet but encouraging sign for one of the world's most elusive cats.
Meet the snow leopard →An unusually dry stretch has shrunk water sources across part of the African wild dog's range, forcing packs to travel farther between hunts. Reserve teams are monitoring the packs closely and have set up emergency water points.
Meet the African wild dog →A gentler version of the Conservation Quest, built for younger explorers — same animals, same hope, an easier ramp.
Try Kids Quest →Another group of captive-bred Spix's macaws was released into the Brazilian caatinga, growing the small but steadily increasing wild flock.
Meet the Spix's macaw →Collect a card every time you read about an animal, and earn badges for exploring, quizzing, and questing along the way.
See your collection →Conservationists confirmed a new African wild dog pack denning successfully inside a protected reserve — a good sign for a species that depends on tight-knit packs to survive.
Meet the African wild dog →Two new sections: animals that vanished from view decades ago and might still be out there, and familiar animals you already knew — seen in a new light.
See Lost Species →Possible saola footprints were found in Vietnam's Annamite Mountains — the first sign in years of one of the rarest, most elusive mammals on Earth.
Meet the saola →