Dr Clay's reasoning is that changes made to the vegetation of the eastern United States over the past century have created a habitat that is ideal for cicadas.

ECONOMIST: The 17-year cicadas are about to emerge in force

Concerned by the continuing slaughter of pachyderms, authorities have finalised a plan to protect elephant habitat.

BBC: Sri Lanka's jumbo war

The Maryland researchers concluded that while many fish launch out of the water into the air to capture prey, migrate, or avoid predators, the guppies have a different evolutionary motive: to reach all the available habitat in Trinidad's mountain streams.

CNN: After a swimming start, guppies jump, researchers find

Over 20, 000 sq m of foraging habitat have been planted in Sheffield back gardens using a seed mix created for the project.

BBC: Two million honeybees introduced to Sheffield hives

Now if you too want to turn your back garden into a haven for our feathered friends, the RSPB is holding its Feed the Birds event on Saturday and their local teams have lots of advice on transforming your garden into a wildlife-rich habitat.

BBC: NEWS | UK | How your garden can be a haven for birds

For some species, such as the Lao newt, smuggling can have a devastating effect, but most amphibians face the much greater threat of habitat destruction.

BBC: Should the location of newly discovered species be hidden?

Environmental Program said the wetlands, which had been regarded as "a key natural habitat for people, wildlife and fisheries, " have bounced back to about 40 percent of the area they covered in the 1970s.

CNN: U.N.: Iraq's marshlands recovering

The conservation effort at Lewa -- which is a mixture of classic habitat preservation, stringent security measures (the rhinos have their own security guards at all times) and the use of the latest technology to enhance the knowledge of a species and its breeding patterns -- has been astounding.

BBC: The future of conservation in Kenya

The researchers say the toolmakers at Jebel Faya may have reached the Arabian Peninsula at a time when changes in the climate were transforming it from arid desert into a grassland habitat with lakes and rivers.

BBC: Humans 'left Africa much earlier'