Friday, May 15

Welcome to Your Daily Dot where Dot will share tips, advice, and stories on how we can make our world better.

Dear Reader,

Today is Endangered Species Day, and despite this current administration’s attempts to roll back protections, there’s good news thanks to a court ruling reversing those rollbacks. “For more than 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has been one of the most successful conservation laws we have,” said Joanna Zhang, an endangered species advocate with WildEarth Guardians. “This victory gives vulnerable species and the ecosystems we all rely on a chance to recover in the face of the climate crisis and relentless pressure from extractive industries.” 

But there’s more good news from around the world.

Mongabay reports that, “In 2025, birders and scientists found five ‘lost’ bird species that had gone undocumented for a decade or more. … these findings have helped reduce the total number on the global ‘Lost Birds List’ from 163 in 2022 to 120 today.” And there’s hope among researchers that the number might someday be zero.

In Vietnam, sightings of a rare (and endangered) monkey have inspired relief. “A new population census of one of the world’s most endangered primates, the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey, has confirmed that numbers are stable in a small forest area known as Khau Ca in northern Vietnam — a stronghold for the rare animal,” reads a report.

In Indonesia, The Guardian tells us that “the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan has been filmed for the first time using a canopy bridge to cross a road.” Researchers waited for two years, following construction of a wildlife bridge, for one of the orangutans, whose population had been fragmented by the building of a road, to use the canopy bridge (check out the video!). There was much rejoicing, given fears that the species would become extinct if the population remained sequestered in one part of the forest. 

Closer to home, we can help turtles cross the road. The notorious slow-pokes are at particular risk in the spring when they’re seeking spots to lay their eggs. Dot was taught to keep a wooden ice scraper in the backseat of my car in the event that I come across a big snapping turtle, ubiquitous in the area where my family has a cottage. The turtle will grab onto the handle with its mouth, allowing me to drag it to safety (dragging it across the road is preferable to losing a finger to its powerful jaws). 

But here’s a story offering some alternative approaches — including putting the turtle on a car mat to pull it to safety, or picking it up like a hamburger (never by the tail, and always near its back end). 

And of course, make sure you’re safe to stop on the road and make the rescue. 

(Check out these heroes for half-shells, who volunteer as turtle crossing guards.)

Positively,

Dot

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