Biodiversity

Environmental groups have issued a new report listing top U.S. species threatened by climate change.

"The Department of Natural Resources' efforts to combat chronic wasting disease -- an illness that threatens Wisconsin's entire deer herd -- have had little effect after seven years and nearly $41 million in state and federal spending, data and interviews indicate."

A rapidly invading plant called Buffelgrass is changing the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona. By causing an increase in fires, it could endanger the iconic saguaro cactus there.

"The Obama administration is lagging behind the pace set by its predecessor for listing endangered species, and some environmentalists are not happy."

"Fish that have the potential to devastate the Great Lakes ecosystem may be just a few miles from Lake Michigan."

"The Catalina Island Conservancy has been rounding up the herd so females can get a reversible contraceptive vaccine. The goal: Control the size of the herd to keep it and the environment healthier."

"With its gleaming red, blue and green feathers, the painted bunting is often described as the most beautiful migratory songbird in North America. After a 30 year decline and extirpation from parts of its U.S. range, the species appears to be recovering."

"One of the great mysteries about North America is what killed off woolly mammoths and other exotic animals that roamed the land after the last ice age. Ideas have ranged from a comet impact and climate change to human hunters. A study published Friday in Science Magazine provides new clues about this — cleverly deduced from samples of a fungus that grew on the animals' dung."

"Japanese whaling ships left port Thursday for Antarctic waters for their annual hunt of the ocean giants, Greenpeace said, setting the stage for high-seas confrontations with anti-whaling activists."

Discovery of a fungus associated with "White Nose Syndrome," which is killing millions of bats in the easter US, is just the beginning of an unravelling mystery, a Boston University bat biologist says.