Here’s a brief roundup of news from the Animal Kingdom:

Bad news for the Monarch butterfly. The Mexican population alone may be down as much as 50% from last year.

An advocacy group is encouraging the public to create monarch habitats by planting milkweed in home gardens. They’re also encouraging schools, zoos, farmers, and anyone else with access to unused land to grow the perennial plants. For more info, check out MonarchWatch.org

This is also not a good time to be a sea turtle. Six out of the seven different species of sea turtle are already endangered. And a recent global survey found that millions of marine turtles have been killed over the past two decades through entrapment in fishing gear. More sad info here.

A new lizard was recently discovered in the Philippines. The monitor lizard is a cousin of the Komodo dragon and is nearly as big, measuring 6.5 feet in length.

The fruit-eating lizard is probably endangered. More details here.

Another critter was just discovered in the forests of central China. Dubbed “the Oriental yeti”, the creature is hairless. It looks to us like either a giant rodent, or a rather small marsupial. Check it out here.

Us Newlygreens wish to congratulate a couple of Santa Cruz Island Bald Eagles, who recently hatched two new babies! There’s a solar-powered bald eagle camera where you can watch the bald eagle family.

That’s all the animal news that’s fit to reprint!