Studies & Research - Artensterben

Kleiner Fuchs (Aglais urticae) am Fichtelberg - Hilft Naturschutz dabei, dass der Bestandstrend stabil bleibt?

Small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)—The species showed a negative population trend across Europe between 2000 and 2021. For common butterflies as a whole, the models predict no reversal of the trend by 2050, even under the conservation scenarios examined. Image: Doreen Fräßdorf

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11. August 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Butterflies & Birds: Conservation Slows the Decline—but Is It Enough?

Europe aims to protect more nature and restore damaged ecosystems. But even if key conservation targets are met, the populations of many bird and butterfly species that are still common today could continue to decline through 2050. A Nature Ecology & Evolution modeling study published in July 2026 reached this

Zyklopenralle (Gallirallus mayri) - Kamerafallenaufnahme von 2023

A camera trap documented Mayr's forest rail (Rallicula mayri) in the Cyclops Mountains of New Guinea in September 2023. The arrow marks the bird on the forest floor. Image: Expedition Cyclops, from Kempton et al. (2026), Fig. 2D, CC BY 4.0; cropped

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1. August 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Western New Guinea: Mayr’s Forest Rail Recorded for the First Time Since 2007

Camera traps have photographed the rare Mayr’s forest rail (Rallicula mayri) in the Indonesian part of New Guinea. The poorly studied bird species had last been recorded in the Foja Mountains in 2007. The images were captured in September 2023 as part of Expedition Cyclops, an international research project led

Invasive Arten im Globalen Süden: Wasserhyazinthen auf dem Viktoriasee

Dense stands of water hyacinth cover part of Lake Victoria in Kenya. The floating mats alter habitats and can obstruct fishing, shipping, and access to the water. Image: Mwe17, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped

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30. July 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

New study: Invasive Species Cause Significantly Greater Damage in the Global South

Invasive alien species are considered one of the most important drivers of global biodiversity loss. Yet the regions for which particularly large numbers of scientific reports are available are not necessarily those where invasive species cause the most severe ecological damage. The journal Science published a study showing that many

Natural history collections often preserve the last known evidence of lost animal species. Without targeted, comprehensive searches, it is often impossible to say for sure whether some of them may still survive somewhere. Image: Doreen Fräßdorf

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29. July 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

7 Lost Animal Species—No One Knows Whether They Still Exist

There are numerous lost animal species, and to this day it remains unclear whether they still exist or have long since gone extinct. Some are known only from a single museum specimen or a few specimens collected decades or even centuries ago. There have been no further records—not always because

Mehr Pflanzenarten sind nicht automatisch gut

More greenery does not necessarily mean more intact nature: many of Europe’s plant communities are shifting in favor of robust generalists. Image: Doreen Fräßdorf

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8. July 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Biodiversity: When more plant species are not a good sign

At first glance, it sounds like good news: in many European habitats, there are now locally more plant species than in the past. An international study led by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg analyzed 57,390 vegetation time series from across Europe. In total, 199,282 individual vegetation surveys were included; some time

European goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) among dandelions: species of everyday landscapes are often right in front of us, yet not all of them are consciously noticed or named. Image: Depositphotos (Cooperation)

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30. June 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Nature on the doorstep: Why we hardly know many species anymore

Dandelions, daisies, stinging nettles or sparrows—many people can still name these species. But what about the plants and birds that are typical of meadows, pastures, field edges and arable fields? A new study by the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) on species knowledge shows that many characteristic species

Moorfrosch (Rana arvalis) - Moore als Lebensraum

The moor frog (Rana arvalis) is probably one of the most famous moor dwellers. It not only inhabits moors, but also other wet habitats such as swamp forests, wet meadows, swampy grassland and floodplains. Image: Depositphotos (Cooperation)

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11. June 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

More than just carbon sinks: Peatlands as habitats for endangered species

Peatlands have long been seen as mysterious, hard-to-reach landscapes. In stories and films, they often appear as dangerous places with unstable ground, dark water and fog—places where someone might sink or disappear without a trace. Ecologically, however, they are far more than this old image: they are among the most

Plant Blindness: Zwergkrug (Cephalotus follicularis)

The Albany pitcher plant (Cephalotus follicularis) from Western Australia belongs to an evolutionarily unique plant lineage with no close relatives. This carnivorous plant catches insects with pitcher-shaped pitfall traps—and perhaps for that very reason shows how often people only notice plants when they seem to have "animal-like" traits. Image: chum_, CC BY-NC 4.0, via iNaturalist

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17. May 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Plant blindness: Why plant extinction often goes unnoticed

Many people barely notice plants consciously. On a theater stage, they would in a sense be the backdrop, while animals would stand in the foreground as the actual actors. Plants often appear only as a “green mass”, not as living beings in their own right, with individual species, complex adaptations

Some of the rarest animal species in the world: from the nearly extinct vaquita to the red wolf, the Yangtze giant softshell turtle, the Okinawa spiny rat, and the northern white rhino. These species now survive only in tiny populations.

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8. May 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Fewer than 50 individuals: These animal species have almost disappeared

There are animal species worldwide whose populations have now shrunk to just a few dozen or even only single individuals. Many of them stand on the brink of extinction and survive only in small refuges or through elaborate conservation programs. The main cause of their decline is humans, for example

Blaubock: Colossal plant die Wiederauferstehung

One of the few known bluebuck specimens at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris—none is preserved intact, which makes genetic reconstruction considerably more difficult. Image: Doreen Fräßdorf

News

1. May 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

The resurrection of the Bluebuck?—New plans from Colossal Biosciences

More than 200 years ago, the bluebuck disappeared from southern Africa. Now the US biotech company Colossal Biosciences is working to bring this extinct species back to life, at least in part. The approach is known as de-extinction. The bluebuck (Hippotragus leucophaeus) was an antelope found exclusively in the open