BBC News

A hedgehog officer explains how to help hedgehogs in your garden

The world's biggest conference on species protection has opened in South Africa amid differing views on the survival of elephants.

Horses have joined a select club of animals that can communicate by pointing to symbols, say scientists.

The body tasked with managing trade in endangered species will oppose efforts to increase global protection for elephants, saying it could spark a new trade in ivory.

Flu carried by migratory birds poses a risk to penguins living in Antarctica, scientists warn.

Tropical dry forests are among the most threatened habitats on the planet, yet remain overlooked by scientists and conservationists, warn researchers.

The government is to outline its plans to strengthen collaborative research between the UK and China.

A British man who lived in the Swiss Alps as a goat for three days wins one of this year's Ig Nobel prizes.

Four rare white lion cubs have been born in a zoo in Poland.

Scientists bring singing fish into their lab to work out the biological secret of an aquatic creature that hums at night.

Scientists solve the bizarre mystery of the fish that hums at night.

The Duke of Cambridge has called on world leaders to do more to combat the illegal wildlife trade.

Evidence for an early exodus of modern humans from Africa may have been detected in living humans.

China's first space station is expected to fall back to Earth in the second half of 2017, amid speculation authorities have lost control of it.

How the government is trying to trace nests of invasive hornet which kills honey bees

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says trading ivory not verified as antique should be banned

The British Veterinary Association warns would-be dog owners to think twice before buying breeds with fashionably "flat-faced" features - because of growing concerns for their welfare.

Watching a tragic film could have an unexpected benefit in triggering a feel-good chemical, research suggests.

A park in Bangkok has been overrun by monitor lizards.

Meet the planet's hardiest animal - the tardigrade - that has just revealed a genetic secret that could help protect human cells.

A deer has been filmed bouncing along a beach in Poole Harbour.

An invasive hornet that kills honey bees is spotted in Britain for the first time, experts confirm.

Dr Peter Marra explains why pet cats should not be allowed to roam free.

A parliamentary inquiry recommends video monitoring to tackle abuses in abattoirs, after secretly filmed videos shocked the French public.

Physicists have set a new bar for quantum teleportation - transferring information from one place to another without anything physically travelling between the locations.

Archaeologists believe they have found a lost Anglo-Saxon royal palace about four miles (6km) from one of Britain's best known finds.

Outdoor exercise delivers an estimated £2.2bn of health benefits to adults in England each year, a study suggests.

China has been building two wind turbines every hour, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has told BBC News.

Allowing mangrove forests to recover naturally result in more resilient habitats that benefit both wildlife and people, say conservationists.

Engineer Naveen Rabelli has completed a 6,000 mile journey from India to the UK in a solar-powered tuk-tuk.

A BBC team finds rare Java hawks for sale, as environmentalists say more must be done to tackle Indonesia's illegal bird trade.

Some of the winning images from this year's competition.

Arctic ice cover in 2016 reached the second lowest minimum on record, tied with 2007.

Scientists have recreated the colour patterns of a dinosaur, revealing a camouflage used by animals today.

A large item of debris found off the coast of Tanzania belongs to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australian investigators confirm.

Nearly 500 horseshoe crabs wash up dead on Japan's southern beaches, near Kitakyushu City, mystifying experts.

China launches a second experimental space station, Tiangong 2, as it looks to have a crewed outpost by around 2022.

The company set up to manufacture Europe's next-generation rocket - the Ariane 6 - says it is open to orders.

Conservationists seek public help to protect the famously inquisitive birds.

Tesla has been criticised by a former business partner for "pushing the envelope" on car safety with its Autopilot technology.

Analysis of rocks in the Western Isles has provided "a tantalising clue" that Mars may contain habitats which can potentially support life.

Diego the tortoise, 100, has fathered around 800 offspring on his native Galapagos Archipelago.

A crow that survives only in captivity has been found to adapt and use tools to find food, according to scientists.

A crow that survives only in captivity has been found to adapt and use tools to find food, according to scientists.

Astronomers have discovered signs of a baby planet developing around another star.

The European Space Agency has released details of the position and brightness of more than a billion stars.

The health of the countryside varies depending on how it is measured.

The opening of data sources in agricultural research is needed to deliver the global goal of delivering zero hunger by 2030, say campaigners.

Europe's Gaia space telescope releases its first batch of data as it builds the most precise map ever made of the night sky.

One of Japan's most active volcanoes, Sakurajima, is due for a major eruption within the next 30 years, according to researchers examining new data.