EXPLORE WILD HOPE

In Iceland's Vestmannaeyjar, local children and families have formed the Puffling Patrol. Their mission: to rescue lost puffins and guide them safely to the ocean, protecting a species that depends on the dark to find its way.

Seabirds like puffins have evolved the ability to locate the ocean by following the moon and stars. As towns expand and the night sky fades under artificial light, that navigation system is breaking down.

When newly fledged young puffins confuse artificial lights for moonlight and fail to find their way to sea, this Iceland town gets their schoolchildren to help collect and rehab the “pufflings” — and then toss the young birds off seaside cliffs!

Light pollution can confuse and disorient wildlife that uses the moon and stars to navigate.

Kim Cupples rescues and rehabilitates puffins at THE SEA LIFE TRUST Beluga Whale Sanctuary.

Lucas Canas is a research assistant at the South Iceland Nature Research Center, where he studies local seabird colonies on the Westman Islands. His work includes sampling and banding pufflings from the largest Atlantic puffin nesting colony in the world. Lucas has previously studied seabird populations in the Canary Islands and the Azores. He holds […]

The Osage nation has a cultural connection to bison going back countless generations, but their connection to the bison was severed by the species' near-extermination in the 1800s.

Bison are a keystone species that shape the prairie ecosystem through their grazing and wallowing. That’s why Bob Hamilton, a researcher with The Nature Conservancy, calls them the “kings of the prairie.”

First Nation tribes and conservationists join forces to rescue the species from extinction and return these mighty giants to their home on the prairie.

Bob Hamilton is the Director of the Tallgrass Initiative for The Nature Conservancy in Oklahoma.