Island Press Field Notes

In fall, about 21 mammal and bird species worldwide, mostly in northern regions, change their coat or plumage colors from brown to white. White provides camouflage against predators as snow covers the landscape in winter. In spring, these same animals shed their white colors and return to brown, which provides similar camouflage when next to the brown leaf litter on the ground. Some animals can turn white and some remain brown year round.

A few weeks ago the world learnt of the disappearance of the Bramble Cay melomys, a small Australian rodent only known to occur on a tiny coral cay off the northern tip of Australia. The finding is noted in a government report that documents how a comprehensive search for the species in 2014 had failed to detect a single animal.

Reposted from Cristina Eisenberg's Huffington Post blog with permission. The Endangered Species Act (ESA), created in 1973 to prevent extinction, is one of the most powerful environmental laws on Earth. The U.S. federal government designed it to function like Noah's Ark: you bring aboard species that risk extinction, a process called listing, and then use the best science to save them.

A snowy owl at an airport in British Columbia.