Sure, 2024 wasn’t what you’d call a “feel-good” year for the natural world. But if your heart sank at each new blow to conservation (hello fast track bill, goodbye Jobs for Nature funding, looking at you, conservation and science budget cuts), let these despite-the-odds success stories lift your spirits.

Three pilot whales died on Sunday, including one euthanised by volunteers, after a group of 30 whales of a range of ages and sizes re-stranded near the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island

Three pilot whales died on Sunday including one euthanized by volunteers after a group of 30 whales of a range of ages and sizes re-stranded near th