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Off South Africa’s west coast in December 2025, observers documented 299 humpback whales gathered in a single feeding “supergroup.” Once hunted to fewer than 10,000 in the Southern Hemisphere, humpbacks now number more than 100,000 — a landmark conservation comeback.
At the 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid, golfer Rory McIlroy was named Comeback of the Year for his 2025 Masters victory, which completed the career Grand Slam and ended an 11-year wait since his last major title.
Kazakhstan’s saiga antelope population has surpassed 4.6 million animals, up from fewer than 25,000 in the early 2000s. Anti-poaching measures, expanded protected areas and the Earthshot Prize–winning Altyn Dala Initiative have fueled one of the great wildlife comebacks.
At the 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid on 20 April, Rory McIlroy was named Comeback of the Year, honouring his 2025 Masters victory that ended an 11-year major drought and completed the career Grand Slam.
Bald eagles have staged a striking comeback in the Connecticut River Valley, with New Hampshire reaching 128 nesting pairs and Vermont 38 by 2025. Once driven to near-extinction by DDT and habitat loss, the national bird is now a familiar sight over New England rivers.
On April 11, 2026, an Indian-born female cheetah gave birth to four cubs in the wild at Kuno National Park — the first time a cheetah born in India has reproduced in a natural setting since the species was reintroduced in 2022. A Namibian female also had five cubs in March, lifting India’s cheetah count to 53.
Rescued from the brink after the last wild individual was shot in 1927, the European bison now numbers roughly 7,000 free-roaming animals across at least seven countries. Beyond their comeback, the giant herbivores boost biodiversity and even help capture carbon.
The California condor population has reached 1,000 individuals — a remarkable recovery from just 22 birds in 1982, making it one of the most successful endangered species recovery programs in history.
The large tortoiseshell butterfly, absent from Britain since the 1960s, has been reclassified as a resident species after sightings across Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, Cornwall, and the Isle of Wight. Britain's native butterfly count has risen to 60 with the species' return.
Lindsey Vonn, the winningest female skier in history, made an incredible comeback to the 2026 Winter Olympics at age 41 after retiring in 2019 and undergoing a partial knee replacement in 2024.
Uganda Wildlife Authority has begun the historic reintroduction of rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park, where the species went extinct in 1983 due to poaching. The first two Southern white rhinos arrived from Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary.
Two southern white rhinos have been reintroduced to Kidepo Valley National Park in Uganda, the first to roam there in over 40 years after being poached to extinction. More reintroductions are planned.
K-pop supergroup BTS held a massive comeback concert at Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square with 260,000 fans, marking their first new album in three years after completing military service. The show was streamed to 190 countries on Netflix.
Several humpback whale populations have recovered to near pre-commercial whaling numbers, with some groups removed from endangered lists, marking one of the greatest conservation comebacks in wildlife history.
On 19 February 2026, Alysa Liu won the women figure skating gold at Milano Cortina 2026, becoming the first American woman to win the singles title in 24 years, after stepping away from the sport and launching a comeback.
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A 37-year study published in Nature Communications found that Indigenous lands delivered the strongest long-term forest restoration in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, outperforming private properties. Across 1.9 million territories, restoration gains outweighed losses roughly tenfold — a hopeful sign for one of Earth's most threatened biomes.
The first lynx reintroduced to Scotland in 500 years are thriving, with the pilot population successfully establishing territories and producing cubs.
After being absent for 140 years, wolves have naturally returned to the Netherlands and are now successfully breeding, marking a remarkable wildlife comeback.
After years of budget cuts, school theater programs are experiencing a renaissance as research confirms their powerful impact on student mental health and social skills.
Large-scale seagrass restoration projects are succeeding worldwide, reviving underwater meadows that capture carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests.
The reintroduction of bison to Yellowstone National Park has sparked a striking ecological recovery, demonstrating the powerful ripple effects of rewilding keystone species.
Knurr-and-spell, an ancient English ball game similar to golf that had nearly died out, is being revived in the villages where it was born centuries ago.
A previously unknown jaguar was identified in southern Arizona through remote cameras, suggesting that conservation efforts are helping the endangered species expand its range northward.
The Saving Wildcats project has released 46 captive-bred European wildcats into the Cairngorms National Park, with 95 percent surviving their first ten months and females raising litters in the wild in both 2024 and 2025. Conservationists say it proves a critically endangered cat can be brought back.
Hunted to roughly 2,000 animals a century ago, sea otters have rebounded to nearly 100,000 across the Pacific, with about 95,000 in Alaska. As keystone predators that keep urchins in check, the otters have become the single strongest predictor of healthy kelp forests along the coast.
After suffering a devastating crash in the Giant Slalom, the most decorated Alpine skier in history is back and ready for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The saiga antelope, an Ice Age survivor with a distinctive trunk-like nose, has rebounded from roughly 48,000 individuals in 2005 to about 1.9 million today. The dramatic recovery, driven largely by conservation in Kazakhstan, led the IUCN to move the species from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened.
Common cranes have made a remarkable comeback in Scotland, returning to breed in areas where they were hunted to extinction centuries ago.
Conservation group Aussie Ark announced in June 2025 that at least ten Tasmanian devil joeys had been born in its mainland breeding program, with more on the way. The births strengthen an “insurance population” safeguarding a species devastated by a contagious facial cancer.
