International Union for Conservation of Nature

And there's a little bit of background here on why pandas need so much paperwork.

Internationally, giant pandas were reclassified from endangered to vulnerable in 2016 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN.

However, under US law, giant pandas are still listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

Now, that act prohibits certain activities with listed species, including importing them, unless a federal permit is issued.

Earlier this year, in 2026, Singapore's National Parks Board, or NPARCS, announced that it is actively studying measures to control the population of otters.

Sterilization, habitat modification, and translocation are all on the table, but remember smooth-coated otters are considered a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List, and they are native to Singapore.

Singaporeans also celebrated their return after their local extinction.

The pivot toward population control now, not just for otters, but for other species, will define Singapore's conservation in the next coming years.

As scholars Koo and Lee ask in their work, quote, with many otter populations elsewhere in the world still at risk from the effects of urbanization, what lessons can cities learn from the success of Singapore to facilitate the return of otters into their own urban areas, unquote? If we think about the animals in the city as having a right to be there, then these interactions raise a host of important political questions.

If we have policies and protections in place for these residents and other residents, there is a potential to create more just and inclusive cities that account for the rights of many animals.

I really like that we brought in politics here and thinking about it and that you also mentioned the IUCN red list there.

When I spoke about compassionate conservation with Daniel Ramp, I was kind of surprised to learn that depending on where the animals are, they're treated differently, right? So the IUCN only counts populations of animals that are found within their traditional homelands, right? So if you find deer in one part of the world, exact same kind of species of deer in one part of the world, and they are native to that part of the world, then they are counted.

These big grown men, myself included, We're all crying.

White rhinos are classified as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and so African park success or failure is measured one animal at a time.

As fate had it, on the morning I joined Jost and Vickery outside Klerkstorp, the future of the entire endeavor suddenly narrowed to a single calf and the question of whether it would live or die.

Jost kept his ear pressed to the animal's side.

Their exceptionally long and stiff-tailed feathers are part of the show, waving like flags, spreading like fans, and slapping the water like paddles.

To witness white-headed ducks in courtship is to watch one of the avian world's most extraordinary performances, says Nikki Petko, a waterfowl expert with both the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds and and BirdLife International, an arm of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In Spain, wild-headed ducks also star in a spectacular conservation success story.

Decades of draining wetlands for agriculture and development in the past century shrank habitat and tanked numbers across the duck's range.