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A disease that is killing greenfinches (Carduelis chloris) and chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) in the UK has now spread to Europe, scientists report. A paper in the journal Ecohealth confirms that the disease has been found in Finland, Norway and Sweden and is at risk of moving further afield. The disease, called trichomonosis, is caused by a parasite and was first seen in finches in the UK in 2005. Since then, the country's greenfinches have declined by 35% and chaffinch populations have fallen by 7%.

Among the most endangered birds in North America is the Florida grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus). The prairie is home to the last wild population of the Florida grasshopper sparrow. Fewer than 150 are believed to remain of the tiny sparrow, which is found only on the prairie of central Florida. The Florida grasshopper sparrow would be the first confirmed bird extinction in the continental United States since the Dusky seaside sparrow, also found in Florida, died out in 1987.

Experts have created a shortlist of environmental factors that may contribute to our risk of developing dementia, which affects 55,000 people in Ireland. The list includes exposure to air pollution and a lack of vitamin D - but researchers caution that the evidence is not yet sufficient to draw solid conclusions. It comes as the HSE today launches a new campaign 'Understand Together' aimed at inspiring people to stand together with the 500,000 whose lives have been touched by dementia.

Monarchs are going missing by the hundreds of millions. The butterflies are disappearing and habitat loss, pesticide use and extreme weather are being blamed. America's most recognizable butterfly is being considered for Endangered Species Status because the monarch is in danger of becoming "quasi-extinct." That means its numbers are dwindling so low there’s a possibility it may not be able to rebound. John Dromgoole, owner of The Natural Gardener, created an urban oasis to give the butterflies a way to survive their fall migration. "They've got food here. They've got habitat here.

Systemic neonicotinoid (neonic) exposure is associated with reductions in colony size and changes in foraging behavior, according to a recent field study done by a team of scientists at Imperial College London.

To investigate interactions among disease, pesticides, water quality, and adjacent land cover, we collected samples of water, sediment, and frog tissue from 21 sites in 7 States in the United States (US) representing a variety of amphibian habitats. All samples were analyzed for >90 pesticides and pesticide degradates, and water and frogs were screened for the amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) using molecular methods. Pesticides and pesticide degradates were detected frequently in frog breeding habitats (water and sediment) as well as in frog tissue.

University of Wisconsin-Madison ecologists have played a key role in a petition filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Friday seeking emergency Endangered Species Act protection for the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). The petition was written and signed by a national group of experts in conservation and ecology, including Waller and Tom Gibson of UW-Madison. The unique carnivorous plant captures flies and captivates nature lovers, but in the wild is found only in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Fields across the state were speckled with orange today as thousands of hunters enjoyed the official start of pheasant season. While it is a day to celebrate, a report says South Dakota's pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) population may be a problem for hunters this season. "This is a big thing for all of South Dakota," said LaRee Rumbolz, general manager of Super 8 in Mitchell. Pheasant season brings thousands of hunters from all over the country to the Mount Rushmore State. But this year, opening weekend is a little different for the Super 8.

The prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) once numbered about 3 million across an area that stretches through eastern New Mexico, eastern Colorado, western Kansas, western Nebraska, northwest Oklahoma, and in parts of the Texas Panhandle and South Plains. Estimates show their population now at 30,000 to 40,000. In some places that used to be native range, estimates show a 97 percent decline. In many other former ranges, these birds are gone, probably never to return. Today, these birds currently occur in parts of only 10 states.

It is the blizzard of moths that Michael McCarthy remembers most vividly. As a boy growing up in post-World II England, his family would take summer nighttime drives to the coast for holidays, and the car headlights and windshield would soon be so splattered with moths that they would have to stop to clean them off. "That phenomenon has gone. It’s disappeared,” says McCarthy. “It’s disappeared because there has been a horrendous crash in moth numbers in the U.K.”