One casualty in the battle for Timbuktu is the city's library, which was designated a world heritage site because of a treasure of rare books and manuscripts about precolonial Africa, a South Africa professor told CNN on Monday.

CNN: , for

The first large-scale survey revealed a treasure trove of rare species, including Siamese crocodiles, previously thought extinct in the wild.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | 'There Was Method to My Madness'

The RNLI is warning treasure hunters to take care after a rare piece of whale vomit was found on Morecambe beach.

BBC: Warning follows whale vomit find on Morecambe beach

Environmentalists treasure Plum Island as a home to rare plants, a site where seals rest on rocks in large numbers, a stopover point for migratory birds and a habitat for endangered species like the roseate tern.

WSJ: Long Island Town Lays Strategy to Protect Plum Island

But morels are the treasure everyone's really looking for, rare as gold and priced much like it.

NPR: Morel Satisfaction: Stalking the Wild Mushroom