Below: A European bison in Ukraine’s Zalissia National Nature Park. Photo by Dustin Patar
Conservation is challenging work even in the most ideal conditions. When the same work takes place amid the chaos and devastation of war, it can feel downright impossible. This week’s feature story, “Saving Bison as Bombs Fall,” highlights the efforts of a small group of Ukrainian conservationists who are steadfast in their drive to rebuild one herd of European bison that lost a third of its animals when Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The work is both practical and symbolic. Bison persist in Ukraine only because conservationists have rallied behind the animals following other periods of conflict. And though the country has a handful of other European bison herds, saving this one small population is a pledge to the nation’s (hopefully peaceful) future.
The story is a reminder that conservation-oriented work is and always has been subject to the machinations of geopolitics and current events. That reality is also evident in another European landscape more than 1,600 kilometers away that’s likewise shaped by artillery and ballistics. As our recent story “Bombs for Biodiversity” explains, military bases like Germany’s Grafenwöhr Training Area are often havens for rare species. Counterintuitively, some disturbance from training activities can benefit certain plants and animals. But in response to global insecurity, Germany—along with other European nations—is building its military and ramping up use of its training grounds. Conservationists are watching to see what that increased pressure will mean for Grafenwöhr and similar ecosystems, and how funding for environmental protection and access to field sites might shift.
And stay tuned for another story we have underway about the “Sophie’s choice” Ukrainian conservators are faced with while trying to save information about important museum artifacts as they simultaneously grapple with a personal dilemma: What’s more important, to protect irreplaceable artifacts for the benefit of science and future generations, or to step into battle to protect your country?
One of our jobs at bioGraphic is to help readers bear witness to what conservation work means in our modern, complicated, often-volatile world. We hope you find these stories impactful.
A curious calf with an atypical birthday suit is a good sign for southern right whales.
by Adrienne Mason • 600 words / 3 mins
Ten Stories from 10 Years of bioGraphic
To celebrate bioGraphic’s 10-year birthday in April 2026, we’re sharing 10 stories that are beloved by people who have helped produce the magazine during its first decade.
For 10 weeks, we’ll be sharing one story selected by a bioGraphic editor, past or present. Here’s why audience engagement editor Vanessa Minke-Martin chose “City of Glass,” originally published in 2023.
I love when a story narrows in on the tiniest details of a world that was previously unknown to me, changing how I see something forever. In “City of Glass,” Ben Goldfarb deftly describes how windows look to birds and why the glittering skyscrapers and convention centers of Chicago—situated along the Mississippi flyway, on the shores of Lake Michigan, with their reflective mid-century aesthetic—are particularly lethal. The story is heart-wrenchingly illustrated by Christy Frank and Patricia Homonylo’s close-up portraits of birds that have been killed flying into windows.
Meet the dedicated cadre of experts and volunteers working to protect birds from glass in the window-strike capital of the United States.
by Ben Goldfarb • 3,600 words / 18 mins
What We’re Reading
The Trump administration is dismantling a network of instruments that monitors coastal ecosystems and marine environments. The former chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who served during Trump’s first term, said that the move reflects a “lack of understanding that the current administration has of scientific value and scientific merit.” (The New York Times, Hakai Magazine)
When a reporter arranged a call with a billionaire to talk about the latter’s donations to a conservation organization, he thought it would be a feel-good story about redistributing wealth to help wildlife. Instead, it turned into an exploration of the darker side of environmental philanthropy. (Vox)
For the first time, researchers in Wyoming have quantified exactly how much room migrating large animals need to navigate between houses and other structures in the region. It’s useful information for planners at a time when open space in the western United States is being increasingly carved into subdivisions. (High Country News, bioGraphic)
How, exactly, migratory birds detect the magnetic fields that they use for navigation is one of biology’s biggest mysteries. A new study posits that iron-rich immune cells found in the birds’ livers may be key: When such cells were removed from homing pigeons, the birds struggled to find their way. But while some scientists suggest this may illustrate an intriguing link between immunity and animals’ perception of their physical environment, others are unconvinced. (Scientific American)
Rhyme Time is a weekly puzzle exclusively for our newsletter readers. Each week, we provide a cryptic clue and you guess the answer, which will be two rhyming words with the same number of syllables. For example, the clue “The hour of the day for writing couplets” has the answer “rhyme time.”
Last newsletter’s clue was “A charitable gift of lobster,” and the answer is “crustacean donation.” Congrats to Glen H., Ellen J., Arlin W., Brittany B., Caroline W., Eugene W., Merrilee H., Soren C., Joe A., and Kurt I. for being the first to guess correctly.
This week’s clue is “A Brazilian dance performed by a venomous snake.” Send your guess, just for fun, by replying to this email. The answer will be revealed in our next newsletter.
Wendy Feltham visits a lagoon near Port Townsend, Washington, to survey for European green crabs. Photo by Eileen Cooney.
Soon after I retired and moved to Washington State, the invasive European green crab began spreading along our coasts and destroying marine ecosystems. Ten years ago, I started volunteering with a small team that was trained by the Sea Grant program at the University of Washington to trap for this crab in a lagoon six months of the year. We’ve trapped, measured, and determined the sex of thousands of native crabs, mostly hairy shore crabs, and identified hundreds of native fishes, mostly staghorn sculpins, before carefully releasing them. Only twice have we trapped a European green crab, but other sites have trapped thousands. Our data is important for the statewide effort to detect and remove the crabs and to understand how they impact different habitats and native species.
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