Conservation | Good Nature Travel Blog

Small Things about Big Issues: Elephant Trophies Now Again Allowed into the U.S.

Sometimes, it’s the small, quiet things that rightly should command our utmost attention. Such a situation occurred on March 1, 2018, when the U.S. Fish and...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Fossil Finds and Penguin Packs: Final Frontiers Still Found on Earth

When you look at the immense footprints humans have left on this planet, it might lead you to conclude that we’ve trod, explored and exploited almost every...

Natural Habitat Adventures

World Wildlife Day 2018—Big Cats: Predators Under Threat

Today is World Wildlife Day 2018, and this year's international conservation event will be celebrated with the theme, “Big cats: predators under threat."...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Video: When Whales Walked

In our imaginations, nothing symbolizes our seas more than whales. These bigger-than-life creatures imbue our oceans with life, with song and with majesty,...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

No More Wild Horses

Whenever I hear that a little piece of the wild has slipped away forever, it saddens me. And another small bit of it vanished recently. Or you could say,...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Saiga Antelope Now Victims of Climate Change

In 2015, on the steppes of Kazakhstan, at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, more than 200,000 critically endangered saiga antelope suddenly died in a span of...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Videos: The Sun Bear, “He Who Likes to Sit High”

It’s ironic that an animal whose name includes the word sun would be a creature of the night. But once darkness descends, the Malayan sun bear (Helarctos...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Video: Yellowstone Bear Bathtub

It seems that the snow monkeys of Japan aren’t the only animals that seek out baths. In 2016, National Geographic set up some camera traps at the “bear...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Eastern Cougars Declared Extinct. Will It Help Reintroduction Efforts?

Eastern cougars (Puma concolor couguar) were officially declared extinct last week, on January 22, 2018. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has now...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Video: Starling Shapes in the Sky

European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are now common birds in the United States; and sometimes, as they say, familiarity breeds contempt. Loud, boisterous and...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

When Playing, Native American Children Are More Likely to Pretend to Be Wildlife

I read about something today that may seem like a small thing to know in the midst of all the news in our lives. But perhaps, deep down inside it, you’ll find...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Video: Walking on Clouds in Grand Canyon National Park

The Grand Canyon in Arizona is a natural wonder without equal in the world. Here, erosion has crafted both beautifully graceful and strikingly sharp forms,...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Despite Cold Temperatures, the Earth Burns and the Arctic Is Lost

It’s the day after New Year’s, and we’re just entering into 2018. In Times Square last night, according to the Associated Press, it was the second-coldest New...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Video: A Post-Holiday, Hot-Springs Retreat with Japan’s Snow Monkeys

The Christmas holiday is over—just barely. Feeling a little exhausted after all the preparations, family gatherings and parties? Then, a nice soak in a hot...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Video: The Reverence of Zion National Park

It was love at first sight when I met Utah's Zion National Park. With its massive, rock behemoths and soothing-sounding, dripping-water canyons that sprout...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

“Bird Years” and the Year of the Bird, 2018

Wildlife science has many measurements; for example, “carrying capacity,” “depredations” or “translocations.” But there’s a new scale I recently came across:...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

106-Year-Old Fruitcake Found in Antarctica

For a food that has been around at least since the Middle Ages, fruitcakes certainly have their share of detractors. The long list of jokes about fruitcakes—a...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

2017: Warm Fall, Cold Winter. It’s Still Climate Change.

Fall 2017 will officially come to a close in just about two weeks. It was probably one of the warmest falls that you can remember. That’s why it may be hard...