Scientists are getting creative to save this muppet-faced, flightless parrot

The New Zealand’s Department of Conservation and the Ngāi Tahu, the Māori tribe whose people are the traditional guardians of the critically endangered kākāpō bird, are slowly relocating the birds to predator-free sanctuary to give them a chance to thrive.

Aided by advanced GPS collar technology, scientists in Wyoming are mapping herd animal movement as they migrate across the state. Such efforts have helped planners and conservationists remove barriers and weigh development projects in accordance with the data, and such efforts are spreading to other areas in the Western United States.

A cheetah conservation project in South Africa has helped the cat population rebound over the years by securing them in wildlife reserves. The Cheetah Metapopulation Project started in 2011 when there were 217 cheetahs, but a decade later, there are now 419 across the reserves. While there is debate about whether the focus should be on the quantity of cheetahs or the quality of their enclosures, the project has been successful and they’re looking to share their cheetahs and conservation lessons with other countries.

At a decommissioned chemical depot, a lone biologist has been building artificial homes for burrowing owls. To date, he's installed some 182 burrows. Not only have his efforts helped bring a declining species back across the region, but his studies have gone a long way to better understanding the birds.

Rwanda’s Akagera National Park, once a conservation failure, has been revitalized with fences, patrols, and new technology to become a successful wildlife park. The government partnered with conservation group African Parks to manage the national park, which has led to an increase tourists, patrols, and even lions and black rhinos. Akagera also became the world first “Smart Park” after it installed a telecommunications network called LoRaWAN to securely track, monitor, and communicate between rangers, vehicles, equipment, and animals.

As conservationists around the world grapple with saving endangered species, many have turned to the tech sector. Initiatives like The Zooniverse, a citizen science platform for people-powered research, are helping expand over 90 different projects. Even more, scientists have started directly collaborating with technologists to develop products, like weather-resistant cameras for capturing penguins in Antarctica, specially for their work.

New Zealand has an ambitious initiative in place to eradicate millions of evasive species by 2050, but that doesn't mean researchers have halted short-term actions to stabilized species and avoid extinction. The kakapo, a parrot-type of bird, is a prime example. While efforts have been taken for over a century to save the bird, most recently researchers have succeeded in not only moving the kakapos to three predator-free islands around the country, but also in aiding breeding efforts by monitoring the growth of chicks.

As climate change, human encroachment, and habitat loss increasingly threaten the existence of numerous species around the world, some scientists are turning to a controversial and complex method to try and bring populations back from the brink. Genetic rescue is the method of reintroducing biodiversity into the reproductive pool of an endangered species - either by relocating individuals from one area to another or even directly editing their genetic material - and has been successful in preventing the extension of animals like the Florida panther and prairie chicken.

Threatened wildlife co-exists with poverty stricken communities who inhabit the Arizona-Mexico border region. Borderlands Restoration's conservation scientists are hoping to alleviate poverty while repairing the local environment by providing jobs that help preserve and renew the environment.

Concerned with colony collapse syndrome in honey bees worldwide, scientists, farmers and tech companies teamed up in Australia to create a micro-sensor that collects data on the bee's environment.