Bears are not cats or dogs, and feeding them like they are likely shortens their lives.

In most of its habitats, the heavily trafficked pangolin's biggest threat comes from humans. But in Taiwan, the scaly mammals brave a different danger: a surging feral dog population.

People like beautiful things. This comes as no surprise: beauty underpins highly profitable businesses, from cosmetics and art to the illegal wildlife trade, which reaps up to US$23 billion (£20 billion) annually according to some estimates.

The koala was clinging to an old tree stag while stranded in the Murray River, on the border between New South Wales and Victoria. A team of students from La Trobe University noticed its predicament as they were paddling by in canoes.

Today's anxiety-ridden world is full of sweeping governmental policies meant to ease human suffering and protect the environment. A new study speaks to the value of the holistic look at people's everyday lives to reveal unexpected potholes in the best-laid policy paths.

New research suggests the extinction crisis may be even worse than we thought. More than half of species that have so far evaded any official conservation assessment are threatened with extinction, according to predictions by researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Not all species are created equal. Some are more important than others. So how do we choose what to protect?

Lumbering through the forested wetlands of Bulgaria around six million years ago, a new species of panda has been uncovered by scientists who state it is currently the last known and "most evolved" European giant panda.

Researchers from Leipzig published a gigantic digital map displaying the full diversity of life through thousands of photos. The so-called LifeGate encompasses all 2.6 million known species of this planet and shows their relationship to one another. The interactive map can now be accessed free of charge at lifegate.idiv.de.

Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve, a World Heritage Site, lies in the transition zone from the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the Sichuan Basin in Sichuan Province, China, and occupies an area of 651 km2. The reserve is covered with well-preserved original forests, and numerous alpine lakes. Beautiful and picturesque, it is home to some rare animals, such as the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and Golden Snub-nosed Monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana).