Take a pause and float peacefully with us for Manatee Awareness Month. 

Today, we filed suit to challenge the unlawful sellout of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge – an essential and irreplaceable home for caribou, brown bear and global populations of Pacific brant and Emperor geese among many other species. Read more: dfnd.us/4pcuoq0  

Make some room in the jacuzzi please! Did you know that Florida manatees cannot tolerate waters below 68° F for extended periods, as cold water can stun and even kill them? Whether natural or man-made, manatees depend on warm waters to survive the coldest days of winter. dfnd.us/47BCcLT

If we let the extinction crisis go unchecked and wildlife go unprotected, we will lose more than just animals. We will lose our greatest teachers, our furry friends and neighbors, and our ties to the natural world – all in our lifetime. But with the Endangered Species Act, we can keep them safe.

Picture a mother polar bear and her cub, curled up in a den beneath the snow when...BOOM! The sounds and vibrations of machinery shatter their peace. Confused and scared, the mother abandons her cub. If seismic testing takes place in the Arctic Refuge, this could be their reality. dfnd.us/4nHBbqx

#DYK polar bears are only found in the Arctic? In fact, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain is the most important land habitat for denning polar bears in the U.S. Yet that’s exactly where disruptive seismic testing for oil and gas is set to take place. dfnd.us/3IYVq4Q

Us hitting the snooze as Daylight Savings ends...

Take a few deep breaths with our national mammal for National Bison Day. 

When you spend a lot of time hiking, snorkeling and working with wildlife, you may cross paths with some scary animals. But on a closer look, these fear-inducing animals are cool AND essential to their environment. Read more to see 13 “creepy” animals as seen in the field!  dfnd.us/4oemwEj

Don’t call pest control! #DYK: Little brown bats are natural pest control experts? A single bat is capable of eating up to 1,000 insects in just one hour! That’s hundreds of mosquitoes, moths, beetles and agricultural pests taken out of the air without a single drop of pesticide. dfnd.us/4nANyoo

In “The Lorax,” the Once-ler chops down all the Truffula trees, ignoring the Lorax’s warnings until the land is barren and the animals are gone. What was meant as a cautionary children’s tale now feels more like a prophecy coming true. Read more from our op-ed featured in USA Today. dfnd.us/4qvvbUo

It wasn’t enough to bulldoze the White House, now they’re selling out two of our largest national wildlife refuges to private interests in a move that threatens treasured biodiversity hotspots and imperiled wildlife habitat in Alaska’s Arctic and Izembek National Wildlife Refuges. dfnd.us/474Eram

The story of wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone is a story of hope. Hope for wolf recovery and for what we can achieve when animals we care about are protected. Yellowstone gives us hope, not only for wolves, but also for the countless other species that deserve protection. dfnd.us/4o2gsyr

#DYK: we’ve been fighting for wolves since 1947? In the 60s, we called for reintroductions in Yellowstone. In the 80s, we conducted public education campaigns to garner support. In the 90s, we were there when Yellowstone reintroduced wolves and we established Wolf Awareness Week! dfnd.us/3JjUhVk

They patrol the conifer forests and meadows of northern California. They roam through the glacier-scoured canyons and around giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada. Gray wolves are no strangers to the Golden State. Get to know these wolves with our California Program Director! dfnd.us/47f4tXd

A new program would let people purchase a stake in improvements to the grasslands bison call home on the Great Plains – creating a way to ensure that our national mammal has a sustainable future, where the indigenous tribes that care for them can give them the best habitat possible. dfnd.us/3L00B4X

AWOOOOOO!!! For some (likely rabbits, moles, and other small mammals) hearing that famous wolf howl will send shivers down their spine, but for us, it’s nothing short of magic. Happy Wolf Awareness Week! 🐺 Check out our website for more about wolves: dfnd.us/47t9EnH ⬅️

Sometimes balancing life’s activities – working, traveling or giving back to your community – can get overwhelming, but sometimes you can do it all at the beach! See what it’s like to volunteer at Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, helping collect data on baby sea turtles. dfnd.us/3KPJ6nX

#DYK: Female fall-run Chinook salmon travel hundreds of miles without eating to spawn until they’re literally falling apart? By the time they get to their historic spawning grounds, their internal organs & bones may be exposed, giving them a zombie-like appearance. Read more: dfnd.us/4h05AP0

The walking dead are among us…but they aren’t zombies! They’re ESA-protected species! There are many animals that almost went extinct but thanks to the Endangered Species Act and public support from people like you, now they live to see another day!

In the Texas Hill Country, the stars’ light fights its way through a soft, unnatural glow. The night feels thinner and emptier. And we’re not the only ones noticing, wildlife who depend on darkness are struggling to keep their rhythms. So, where did the night go? dfnd.us/3VTBmn7

#DYK: There’s a fish with no eyes that lives 900 feet underground with the nickname: the Prince of Darkness? AKA the widemouth blindcat! It lives underwater in aquifers below Texas with a big mouth that allows it to feed on fine organic debris and tiny invertebrates that drift through groundwater.

Hey Curtis Cownose! It’s me, Fuzzy Frogface! What’s your freshwater mussel name?

Bee 🐝 careful with your decorations!

In this country, we care about our wild lands and the animals that live on them. Any effort to undo protections and sell out public lands in the Arctic and beyond are wildly unpopular with the American people. Tell elected officials to #StopTheArcticSellOff before it’s too late: dfnd.us/48eKxWD

A lot of animals get a bad rap for being “scary” either in myths, fables, or movies but the frightening expectation is usually a lot different than the reality we know. Bears are nurturing, alligators sunbathe, bats eat fruit nectar. That’s what these animals are really like. Not so scary huh?

Today, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Jane Goodall. From Texas to Tanzania, everyone knew who she was and what she stood for. In the decades she worked, she inspired new generations by spreading the message of conservation and the urgent need to protect our planet. dfnd.us/3KtEu6M

Did you know that Gila monster venom helped develop medications like Ozempic? Their saliva contains a useful hormone for treating diabetes! 💊 Nothing monstrous about these lizards, if anything, they’re valuable members of the medical community, but I wouldn’t ask them to take your temperature.

We’re not actually THAT obsessed with public lands. Unless “obsessed” means that we think about public lands all the time, love them with our whole hearts and slide public lands into every conversation, then yeah, we are a bit obsessed. But aren’t all of you too? Happy Public Lands Day!

These little ferrets are facing extinction, but with emerging technologies, the tools to fight against their extinction are expanding. Read more on our blog to see the state-of-the-art world of wildlife protection. Happy Black-Footed Ferret Day! #[dfnd.us/4nKpaRs

Despite the constant attacks, the time we have with sea otters, humpback whales, manatees, dolphins and countless other marine animals is a luxury. So many of these species should be extinct, but thanks to the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act we still have them today.

Just below the surface in Monterey Bay is a vast forest – of kelp! You can find sea otters resting in these coastal kelp forests, draping the kelp over their bodies to keep them from drifting away. If we were otters, we’d certainly lounge in kelp forests too!

I’m so hungry I could eat like a sea otter. If you weigh 160 pounds, that’d be 40 pounds of food! That’s right, a sea otter eats approximately 25% of their weight in food each day. With male southern sea otters weighing up to 65 pounds, that’s a lot of seafood! Learn more: dfnd.us/3Ip5cNb

It begins… Let the fattest bear win – Fat Bear Week STARTS TODAY!

Cuddling while drifting on their backs, paws folded across their chests, a raft of sea otters bobs in the cold Alaskan water. Whether seen from a research plane or tracked by satellite, sea otters are telling us important stories about Alaska’s coasts. Now it’s up to us to listen. dfnd.us/46k5le6

Millions of acres of national forests are on the chopping block – lands that belong to all of us. These are the backcountry places where we sit around a campfire under a sea of stars and pass our traditions down to the next generation. Without the Roadless Rule, we could lose them. dfnd.us/4lTa8HL

Just followed? Meet our pack! We are scientists, biologists, policy-shapers, advocates, and lawyers. While our days look a lot different, from field work to research to map-making, one thing is true: at Defenders, we give it our all to advocate, educate, and fight for wildlife across the country. 🐾

We aren’t the only animal that goes “goo goo ga ga” as a baby! In the piñon pine forests in the American Southwest, you may hear beeps, toots, whistles and clicks during a young pinyon jay’s first summer – all very non-jay-like sounds like a baby babbling. Learn more: dfnd.us/4prvRJT ⬅️

We are on Capitol Hill right now sharing our message to protect the Marine Mammal Protection Act – join us at home and tell your representatives: don’t betray marine mammals by voting to gut the MMPA! ➡️ dfnd.us/4nzaCUN ⬅️

There’s a hidden world out there just like ours all waiting to be discovered – and you’ve likely already dipped a toe in it before. Covering two-thirds of our planet, our oceans are a vast and deep habitat that we often overlook. See how similar "other world" is to ours here on land…

We’re kicking off #LatinoConservationWeek2025! Join us this week for community, cultura & conservation. Whether you’re at an in-person event or tuning in from home, there are many ways to celebrate while staying safe. ➡️ bit.ly/LCW25-Events 🌱 #LCW2025Kic#LCW2025KickOff

Sometimes a beluga can look just like a wave! But the moment you spot one is certainly a cool one. Just ask the residents of Alaska’s Cook Inlet! Each year Cook Inlet hosts Belugas Count!, an annual event to engage and inform residents about Cook Inlet belugas and count as many as they can.

Can you imagine every time you go to the kitchen there’s a rock concert? Or every time you go on a walk, there’s a jackhammer on every block? That doesn’t sound very pleasant, but it can be the norm for a Cook Inlet beluga. Learn more about how sound affects Cook Inlet belugas: dfnd.us/45UDIrK ⬅️

When we say take a walk on the wild side with us, we mean: In Texas, checking out field sites, In California, lobbying for aquatic species, In Colorado, checking trail cameras for gray wolves, In Alaska, watching for belugas, In D.C., making this video and much more!

You don’t have to feel wild to feel like an animal. If you’ve ever explored, played, traveled, protected, or loved, then you’re a lot closer to wildlife than you think. 🐾

You don’t want our last wild places to be paved over, do you? This administration is putting the Roadless Rule, which protects America’s national forests from industrial logging and roadways, on the chopping block. So, if they want roads, we’ll give them a roadblock. dfnd.us/4gjzOfL

Could you spend your whole life in one spot? How about underwater? If yes, you could be a Barton Springs salamander! This salamander lives only in the spring outflows of Barton Springs where it relies on clear, clean, flowing water and lives an entirely aquatic life. Learn more: dfnd.us/4lzgsE5

We’re taking deep breaths now that Congress is in recess, but we aren’t taking any breaks. Before they return to their war on wildlife, we’re building an emergency defense. Now until Aug. 31, every $ we receive will be 8X MATCHED to stop Congress from cashing out wildlife’s future. dfnd.us/41pZvF7

Just a day in the life of a ✨showgirl✨, and showgrouse, and showwhale, and showowl, and a–

Did you know that there are new Red Wolf pups? Yes! Five Red Wolf pairs are currently spread across the Albemarle Peninsula, with an estimated wild population around 18 adults and 10-12 pups. With public support and open space to roam, we know they can flourish! dfnd.us/45cZwi3