A recent study of dingoes in the Blue Mountains challenges the postcard image of dingoes as only being white pawed and sandy coloured.

Brad Purcell, a PhD candidate in the University of Western Sydney's School of Natural Sciences, closely followed dingoes using GPS tracking and infra red cameras in the remote Southern Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, approximately 80 kilometres from the centre of Sydney.

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Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) are making a major contribution of science, information and underwater images to the site – launched globally today – which is designed to enable internet users worldwide to explore more fully the two thirds of the planet covered by water.

The GBR is one of a number of focal locations chosen by Google to highlight different aspects of the ocean. Others include the Galapagos, the Antarctic, the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, Bermuda, the West Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.

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Lazy? Shy? Live in a cave? Those might not be positive attributes for the average human, but they sure are good for animals trying to survive in a changing environment. According to a new study in the journal The American Naturalist, beasts that hibernate, burrow, or crawl into holes in things are less likely to be listed as endangered than those that don’t.

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No more happy feet for Emperor Penguins. According to a new study, if Antarctic ice continues to shrink at its current pace, Emperor Penguins will face extinction within the next 100 years.

Emperor Penguins are one of only two open-sea Antarctic penguin species and depend on the sea ice for survival. After breeding, Emperor Penguins feed among the coastal pack ice where stretches of water are exposed. As a result of disappearing ice, the Emperor Penguins are being forced to retreat inward and could easily become displaced by other animals, losing out on nesting space.

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Bad news from Uganda: the mountain gorilla population in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is smaller than previously estimated. Until recently, environmentalists believed 336 gorillas resided in the park. Now it looks like the number has dropped to 302.

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An environmental study reports that polarized light from surfaces, such as asphalt and glass buildings, is adversely affecting wildlife behavior.

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If the Kenya Wildlife Service starts running up its text-messaging charges, it has 44 elephants to blame. Rangers in Kenya have outfitted elephants with cellphone- and GPS-equipped collars that send warning messages when the pachyderms are about to raid farms.

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CNN: It is an odd sensation. Lowering yourself into water teeming with great white sharks. There is a cage between you and the sharks, but its open on the top, and when the first shark emerges from the shadows, moving full speed toward you, its giant mouth open, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth, the cage is little comfort.

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It’s hard to imagine it raining in Riyadh. Less than five inches of water fall from the clouds above Saudi Arabia’s capital city each year. When the thermostat rises above 110°F, it’s not a heat wave—it’s midday. But it wasn’t always like this. A little over three million years ago, before climate-change cycles turned the area into a desert, the Arabian Peninsula’s empty riverbeds were overflowing valleys, and its dry expanses of shrubland were lush grasslands.

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Animals use camouflage to hide from and confuse predators and prey. For some such animals, their natural appearance mimics, matches, and fades into their surroundings. Others actively shift shape, texture or color to blend in. This amazing ability to hide in plain sight has evolved in parallel across thousands of species, and each animal’s cloaking technique is unique.

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He is greenish brown, has dragon scales for skin, grows up to 32 inches and is the world's last remaining lizard-like reptile that has a lineage dating back to about 225 million years when dinosaurs still roamed the earth—he's a tuatara and he's making a comeback. A species native to New Zealand, the tuatara was spotted nesting in a sanctuary close to Wellington last week, the first such sighting in 200 years. Staff at the 620-acre Karori Wildlife Sanctuary stumbled upon four white, leathery ping-pong sized tuatara eggs during routine maintenance work at the end of last week.

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If earwigs, centipedes or spiders give you the creepy crawlies, quit while you're ahead. Otherwise, meet "Chan's megastick" (Phobaeticus chani). Recently named the world's longest living insect, the thin, bamboo-looking stick insect—best known for its camouflaging abilities to deter predators—was discovered in Southeast Asia's island of Borneo.

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As human populations grow, pollution soils the environment and infrastructure develops, our natural habitat suffers. This may sound familiar, but scientists sent a resounding message today when they announced in a comprehensive five-year global wildlife review that these human-based causes and more are threatening one in four of the world's 5,487 known mammal species and have put 188 species in the critically endangered category.

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