Conservation

One of Australia's most important wetlands will be better protected under a new land acquisition by the New South Wales government.

Alan Carle was hunting otherworldly fruit with fluorescent tentacles and bubbly flesh that folks back home had never even heard about, much less tasted — and he was willing to risk his life to find it.

A mouse once presumed extinct in New South Wales has been tracked down in the west of the state, much to the surprise of ecologists.

The appearance of the small mammal was attributed to consistent rainfall over the past three years.   

The ABC is given access to pastoral Comeroo Station in remote NSW, soon to be converted to national parkland, protecting a healthy and unique river system. 

How a tin miner living in remote Tasmania helped discover what may be the world's oldest and most mysterious clone that has excited scientists for years.

The facility will be able to rescue an entire catchment of platypuses, and prepare them to be released back into the wild when conditions improve.

Despite flooding rains across most of the state last year, parts of NSW this year are in drought. Animal conservationists are concerned about the impact these dry conditions could have on monotremes.

A researcher monitoring oysters and razorfish in Adelaide's Port River has noted the return of a resident not seen in the area for 10,000 years.

Nearly half a million tourists visit the World Heritage-listed island every year hoping to see a dingo lazing on the beach — but a recent spate of dingo attacks has sharpened debate about the risks when humanity and nature collide.

The giants of the sea give up their secrets to citizen scientists as tiny microphones capture the songs of humpback whales in the Great Barrier Reef.

Baby loggerhead turtles washed ashore after winter storms blew them off course need plenty of TLC before they can get back to their globe-crossing journey to Africa.

One of Australia's last marine tourism facilities with dolphins has entered voluntary administration, but its founder hopes the community will help save the park. 

Fishing is all Queensland's Clint Waldon has ever known, but he's worried new regulations banning the use of gillnets will see the end of his business and decimate the industry.

Around 380 endangered White's seahorses were released at Chowder Bay after a successful breeding program by the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.

Marine scientists were able to find perfect conditions to raise the enchanting creatures, resulting in three pregnant males producing hundreds of babies.

Scientists and Indigenous rangers are studying why humpback whales are returning to waters off the Northern Territory after decades of being largely absent. 

The plant collection made by an amateur Mallee botanist in the 1950s helps scientists rediscover a plant thought to be extinct in Victoria.

While numbers of this tiny endangered bird are on the rise elsewhere, Gouldian finches are nowhere to be seen in this Kimberley environmental buffer designed to protect them.

Australia has a wide variety of plants and animals but protecting that bio-diversity requires another eight per cent of the continent to be set aside for conservation, including private land.

Traditional owners celebrate the federal government's decision to establish the Crocodile Islands archipelago off Arnhem Land as an Indigenous Protected Area.

Tony Rowland has given 20 hectares of his bushland block to a conservation project so the land will never be logged and remain a wildlife sanctuary forever.

The death of a platypus found in a city suburb may reflect the fate of the entire species if we don't pay closer attention to how this Australian animal is faring.

A seafood industry advocate says increases to the protected marine national park area off Queensland's coast will drive up the price of seafood and open the door to imported products.

Fiordland penguins rarely make landfall on the Australian continent, so a recent influx has a researcher concerned about tough feeding conditions.