Young David Attenborough Records First Lemur Sounds

New York Harbor was a haven of incredible underwater biodiversity—until centuries of pollution turned it into a cesspool. Today, an alliance of architects, restaurateurs, scientists, and high school students is working to restore the harbor and protect the city from climate change. At the heart of the effort is a tiny creature with an outsized talent for cleanup: the extraordinary oyster.

At the Ft. Bragg Army base in North Carolina, an improbable alliance is giving the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker a new lease on life. After a clash between U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army revealed that low-grade forest fires sparked by artillery and tracers inadvertently created excellent woodpecker habitats, the two sides joined forces to monitor and protect the birds on the base.

The axolotl—an amphibian with incredible regenerative abilities—is ubiquitous in pet stores, science labs and pop culture, yet almost extinct in the wild. Now, scientists and farmers in Mexico City are using ancient Aztec farming techniques to secure the creature’s future. Meanwhile, another team is partnering with salamander-breeding Dominican nuns to save a closely-related species.