Marine mammals, with pollutants particularly high in the youngest whales, according to information released Wednesday by U.S. scientists who have studied them for the past decade.

Biologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration summarized a compilation of research findings that reveal the mysterious lives of a small population of endangered killer whales that frequent the Puget Sound off the northwestern U.S. coast.

Iran is rushing to try to save one of the world's critically endangered species, the Asiatic cheetah, and bring it back from the verge of extinction in its last remaining refuge.

The Asiatic cheetah, an equally fast cousin of the African cat, once ranged from the Red Sea to India, but its numbers shrunk over the past century to the point that it is now hanging on by a thin thread — an estimated 50 to 70 animals remaining in Iran, mostly in the east of the country. That's down from as many as 400 in the 1990s, its numbers plummeting due to poaching, the hunting of its main prey — gazelles — and encroachment on its habitat.

Wildlife webcam operators around the world are grappling with a problem: Viewers don't want to see any harm come to critters they've grown to love.

Officials caved in to protests about the grittier side of nature last month in Minnesota, attempting to rescue a baby eagle with a broken wing. In coastal Maine, a struggling eaglet died last weekend after wildlife experts decided to let nature take its course, triggering outcry from viewers across the country.

Climate change is likely to exact enormous costs on U.S. regional economies in the form of lost property, reduced industrial output and more deaths, according to a report backed by a trio of men with vast business experience.

The report, released Tuesday, is designed to convince businesses to factor in the cost of climate change in their long-term decisions and to push for reductions in emissions blamed for heating the planet.

An Arizona company said Tuesday it has successfully completed the first small-scale test flight of a high-altitude balloon and capsule being developed to let tourists float 20 miles (32 kilometers) above the earth.

World View Enterprises of Tucson said it launched the flight last week from Roswell, New Mexico.

The North American monarch butterfly uses the Sun as well as Earth's magnetic field as navigational tools for its famous long-distance migration, scientists said Tuesday.

The insects with their characteristic orange-and-black wings flutter thousands of kilometers each year from the United States and southern Canada to the Michoacan mountains in central Mexico, where they overwinter.

If Europe adopted a style of farming that abstains from plowing after a harvest, local temperatures could drop as much as two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), researchers said Monday.

The reason lies in the color of the soil: untilled land is lighter and reflects sunlight, making the area cooler than it is when dark surfaces are present, according to scientists.

Neurotoxic pesticides blamed for the world's bee collapse are also harming butterflies, worms, fish and birds, said a scientific review that called Tuesday for tighter regulation to curb their use.

Analysing two decades of reports on the topic, an international panel of 29 scientists found there was "clear evidence of harm" from use of two pesticide types, neonicotinoids and fipronil.

The world's oceans need saving from pollution and overfishing, and an independent panel warned Tuesday that urgent action was needed within five years.

The Global Ocean Commission said cutting down on single-use plastics products, restricting fishing on the high seas, and establishing binding regulations for offshore oil and gas exploration are key parts of the rescue plan.

The United Nations on Monday launched a week-long global environment conference aimed at tackling challenges from poaching to marine pollution and boosting the "green economy".

The meeting in Nairobi, the first ever United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), comes amid tight security in the Kenyan capital, after a series of warnings of the threat of attack by Somalia's al-Qaida-linked Shebab.