AFP - Greenpeace said Thursday that it had uncovered an embezzlement ring within Japan's "scientific" whaling hunt, with crew allegedly selling stolen meat on the black market.

AFP - The US government Wednesday listed polar bears as a threatened species owing to a drastic reduction in Arctic sea ice, but insisted the step did not mark a policy shift to attack global warming.

AP - The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species Wednesday because of the loss of Arctic sea ice but also cautioned the decision should not be viewed as a path to address global warming.

Reuters - Polar bears were listed on Wednesday as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because their sea ice habitat is melting away.

Reuters - Officials at the Calgary Zoo remained baffled on Tuesday as they tried to puzzle out just why 34 of their stingrays suddenly died.

AP - All the pandas at the world's most famous panda preserve were reported safe late Tuesday, more than a day after China's worst earthquake in three decades closed off the remote, mountainous area.

AFP - More than 80 giant pandas at China's most famous panda park, the Wolong centre, were safe and well following a huge earthquake that struck the area, state press said Tuesday.

AFP - As China scrambled to cope Tuesday with the death and devastation from a massive earthquake that hit the country's southwest, the government made an important announcement - Pandas in the quake zone are safe

Reuters - A rare species of red deer found only in Indian Kashmir is on the verge of extinction, with only 160 animals in existence, a preliminary census by India's wildlife authorities showed on Monday.

AFP - Philippines President Gloria Arroyo has rejected an appeal by animal rights activists to convert to a vegetarian diet to help fight rising food prices, her spokesman said Thursday.

AFP - Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith held talks Thursday on resolving a dispute with Japan over whaling, but he said Canberra was still considering taking the row to international courts.

AFP - Arguably the oddest beast in Nature's menagerie, the platypus looks as it if were assembled from spare parts left over after the animal kingdom was otherwise complete.

AFP - Animal rights activists on Wednesday urged Japan to reject visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao's offer of two pandas, saying the crowd-pleasing animals would be miserable in a zoo.

Reuters - Fourteen tiger cubs have been spotted in Ranthambore National Park, a rare piece of good news in the country's fight to protect its dwindling population of big cats from poachers and habitat destruction.