topic: Endangered

topic: Endangered

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On the trail of Borneo’s bay cat, one of the world’s most mysterious felines
- The bay cat, named for its brownish-red coat, is arguably the most elusive of all the world’s wildcats. And among the most endangered.
- The bay cat is the only feline endemic to Borneo. Researchers — some of whom have never seen the cat in the wild — say it is potentially threatened by habitat loss and killings by locals, with accidental snaring another possible major cause of loss.
- But the biggest threat may be ignorance. In order to better protect this species, researchers urgently need to figure out: Why is it so rare? And why is it vanishing?
- Jim Sanderson, the world’s leading expert on wildcats, suggests research on the bay cat should focus on why it’s so uncommon, what is causing its decline, and how to reduce those threats. Then conservationists can make a viable plan to protect it.

A tiger cat gains new species designation, but conservation challenges remain
- Two Latin American tiger cat species were previously recognized by science in 2013: the southern tiger cat (Leopardus guttulus) and northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus). Both are considered vulnerable according to the IUCN Red List.
- But a paper published in January 2024 described a third, new tiger cat species; Leopardus pardinoides. Dubbed the clouded tiger cat, the species is found in high-altitude cloud forests in Central and South America. This taxonomic reshuffling has major conservation implications for the group as a whole, said experts.
- In addition to proposing the new species, the authors reassessed the tiger cats’ distribution and current status. New data indicate that the small wildcats are not present in areas where they were previously assumed to be, which has slashed their remaining habitat considerably.
- Experts warn that these little-known wildcat species have long flown under the conservation radar. Urgent action is required to protect them in the long term against a litany of threats, including habitat loss, persecution and disease transmission from domestic animals.

Cambodian official acquitted in trial that exposed monkey-laundering scheme
- A U.S. court has acquitted a senior Cambodian official accused of involvement in smuggling wild-caught and endangered monkeys into the U.S. for biomedical research.
- Kry Masphal was arrested in November 2022 and has been detained in the U.S. since then, but is now free to return to his job as director of the Cambodian Forestry Administration’s Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity.
- Evidence presented at his trial in Miami included a video of him appearing to acknowledge that long-tailed macaques collected by Cambodian exporter Vanny Bio Research were in fact being smuggled.
- The Cambodian government has welcomed news of the acquittal, while animal rights group PETA says that despite the ruling, “the evidence showed that countless monkeys were abducted from their forest homes and laundered with dirty paperwork.”

Impunity for Cambodia’s exotic pet owners as trade outpaces legislation
- High-profile interventions by Cambodia’s former leader and weak legislation have allowed the illegal wildlife trade to persist largely in the open.
- The case of a gas station menagerie in western Cambodia is emblematic of the ease with which even endangered species can be bought and sold.
- The collection, owned by a police officer, includes cockatoos from Indonesia, marmosets and parakeets from South America, and a native gibbon.
- Authorities said they were aware of the collection, but were “following the format” set in the wake of their 2023 seizure of peacocks from a breeder, which culminated in them having to return the birds after then-prime minister Hun Sen criticized their actions.

Maluku farmer turns guardian of eastern Indonesia’s threatened parrots
- Jamal Adam, a former farmer, began volunteering with forest rangers on Indonesia’s Halmahera Island before joining the region’s largest bird sanctuary when the rehabilitation facility opened in 2019.
- The Halmahera center admits mostly parrots on site and rehabilitates numerous species before later releasing them back into the wild.
- Indonesia’s North Maluku province historically saw relatively low tree cover loss compared to the rest of the country, but groups have raised concerns that a local nickel mining boom will threaten bird habitat in the medium term.

After 50 years of the U.S. Endangered Species Act, we need new biodiversity protection laws (commentary)
- The U.S. Endangered Species Act marked 50 years at the end of 2023 and has achieved some notable successes in that time, like helping to keep the bald eagle from extinction, but the biodiversity crisis makes it clear that more such legislation is needed.
- “As we welcome 2024 and celebrate the strides made in biodiversity legislation, let’s draw inspiration to forge even more robust laws this new year,” a new op-ed argues.
- “In the face of the urgent biodiversity crisis, our new legislation must match the immediacy of this threat.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Conservationists aim to save South America’s super tiny wild cat, the guina
- The Americas’ smallest wild cat, the guina (Leopardus guigna), is superbly adapted to its home range in Chile and Argentina. But the region is severely affected by deforestation and increasing human population, putting the cat’s future at risk.
- The increase in people in the guina’s habitat has particularly severe consequences, including roads, fences, fires, cattle and, especially, attacks by dogs. The cats are also hunted by people due to their reputation as chicken killers.
- Conservation experts and authorities agree that solutions to save the guina must include local people. They have turned their attention to the people living outside protected areas to help conserve one of South America’s most endangered cats.
- New, groundbreaking environmental legislation in Chile hopefully will also help the cause of the guina and other species impacted by deforestation.

Western hoolock gibbon conservation in Bangladesh urgently needs funding (commentary)
- Western hoolock gibbons play an important role in seed dispersal for forest regeneration in northeastern India, western Myanmar, and eastern Bangladesh.
- But the species is among the world’s most threatened primates, and faces a host of threats in Bangladesh ranging from deforestation for agriculture to the illegal wildlife trade.
- These animals “urgently require a comprehensive program that not only focuses on habitat conservation but also on scientifically sound translocations of isolated groups and individuals….Without significant financial support, the survival of Bangladesh’s gibbons remains in jeopardy,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Let’s give the wary wolverine some space (commentary)
- Wolverines are extremely solitary animals that purposefully avoid humans, so seeing one in the wild is typically a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.
- This makes planning for their conservation very tricky.
- “Three ways we can best support wolverines into the future are to connect large areas of habitat, close seasonal use areas to create disturbance-free zones, and actively manage their populations,” a new op-ed states.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

In 2023, Nepal’s ‘uncelebrated’ wildlife continued wait for attention
- From hispid hares to otters and a critically endangered lizard, Nepal’s lesser-known wild animals live under the shadow of the iconic tiger.
- Officials and conservation stakeholders are yet to come up with concrete plans to save many of these species even as they face the threat of extinction due to habitat loss and fragmentation.
- Other flora and fauna deserve the government’s attention amid these myriad growing threats, researchers told Mongabay in 2023.

Shining a spotlight on the wide-roaming sand cat ‘king of the desert’
- The sand cat (Felis margarita) is a small, elusive wildcat exquisitely adapted to thrive in the deserts of northern Africa, Southwest and Central Asia — some of the hottest, driest habitat on the planet. These felids are near-impossible to see in the daytime and difficult to track at night. As a result, little is known about the species.
- Despite being challenged by limited resources, two European experts have repeatedly traveled to southern Morocco to study the sand cat. Their efforts, along with the rest of the Sand Cat Sahara Team, have led to the gathering of scientifically robust data that is lifting the lid on the secretive life of this tiny felid.
- The sand cat’s status is listed by the IUCN as “least concern” because there is little evidence to indicate its numbers are declining. But data across regions remain scant. New findings from southern Moroccan sand cat study sites beg for this conclusion to be reassessed, with possibly fewer sand cats existing than past estimates indicate.
- Tracking the sand cat’s changing conservation status is important because that data can indicate changes and trends in the ecologically sensitive environments in which they live. In addition, how they adapt, or fail to adapt, to climate change can give us clues to the resilience of species facing today’s extremes, especially desertification.

Traditional healers push for recognition and licensing of age-old Himalayan practice
- Traditional healers from Nepal’s Himalayas are trying to preserve Sowa Rigpa, an ancient medicinal system based on ethnobotany, which has been gradually disappearing as youths move to urban areas and the species used in medicinal formulas are at risk.
- Sowa Rigpa includes traditional knowledge of the properties of hundreds of endemic species and local varieties of plants, fungi and lichens, as well as dozens of types of minerals.
- Two associations of Sowa Rigpa healers are trying to get the medicinal practice officially recognized by the Nepali government as a way to protect it, and are seeking official medical licenses for new practitioners.
- The healers, known as amchi, are partnering with a university, NGO and the government to further research, conserve and find potential substitutes for threatened plant and animal species used in Sowa Rigpa.

Meet Japan’s Iriomote and Tsushima cats: Ambassadors for island conservation
- Two rare subspecies of leopard cat, the Iriomote cat and Tsushima cat, can be found only on the Japanese islands they’re named after. With populations hovering around 100 individuals each, the cats are the focus of Ministry of the Environment-led conservation measures.
- The Iriomote cat has adapted to its isolated ecosystem by developing a more diverse diet than other felids. Following its well-publicized discovery in the 1960s, the cat has become an enduringly popular symbol of the island’s nature, and locals eagerly assist in conservation efforts.
- The Tsushima cat has faced habitat degradation caused by deforestation, canal construction and, most recently, ravenous deer. As the islands’ human population declines, local farmers are working to preserve the wet rice fields that help support the cat population.
- On both Iriomote and Tsushima, roadkill accidents are a major threat to the low wildcat populations. Conservation centers on the islands aim to raise driver awareness by providing crowdsourced info on cat sightings, posting cautionary signs at cat crossing hotspots, and educating locals and tourists.

Defending a forest for tree kangaroos and people: Q&A with Fidelis Nick
- The Tenkile Conservation Alliance (TCA) has worked for more than two decades now with communities in the Torricelli Mountains of northwestern Papua New Guinea to benefit the three species of tree kangaroo that reside in the region.
- Several dozen communities signed on to a moratorium on hunting tree kangaroos, and today, species numbers are substantially higher than they were before the TCA’s work began.
- The communities have also benefited from the TCA’s economic development projects, which have included rabbit rearing, rainwater catchment systems, and solar-powered lighting installations.
- The TCA has also been working toward official government recognition of the proposed Torricelli Mountain Range Conservation Area. However, progress toward gazetting the protected area appears to have stalled, and mostly foreign logging companies continue to operate in the area, putting pressure on the forests of the Torricellis.

Sumatran rhino birth is rare good news for species sliding to extinction
- On Sept. 30, the Indonesian government announced the birth of a female Sumatran rhino at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary.
- The new birth brings the captive population of the species to 10; estimates put the wild population at 34-47 individuals, making Sumatran rhinos one of the world’s most endangered species.
- Each new calf born in captivity signals hope that the species will persist for another generation, but serious problems remain: All of the captive males are closely related, plans to capture more rhinos have stalled, and the existing wild populations are slowly disappearing.

Endangered Formosan black bears caught in Taiwanese ‘snaring crisis’ (commentary)
- The snaring of Formosan black bears is a much worse situation than many realize, a new op-ed says.
- This species is endemic to Taiwan and considered endangered, with about 200 to 600 of them left.
- “Do national park and forestry officials have a grasp on just how serious the snaring situation is in this country, of how many snares are out there, who is setting them, and how to combat it?” the op-ed asks.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Barely making it: A conversation with ‘Eight Bears’ author Gloria Dickie
- Gloria Dickie is an award-winning journalist who has documented the state of the world’s eight remaining bear species in a compelling new book, “Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future.”
- Despite the conservation gains made by iconic bear species like the giant panda and the brown bear, most bear species remain at risk.
- In this podcast conversation, the author shares the context behind why some bear species, such as the Andean bear and the polar bear, which face climate-related threats, are much harder to protect.
- “It’s quite tricky for bears threatened by climate change and not just habitat loss,” she says on this episode.

PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ harming wildlife the world over: Study
- While the health impacts of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, or PFAS, are well known in humans, a new study reports how they affect a wide range of wildlife species.
- In this survey of published studies, the authors found and mapped wildlife exposures worldwide, including impacts on animal species in remote parts of the planet, including the Arctic.
- Researchers documented serious PFAS-triggered conditions in wildlife, including suppressed immunity, liver damage, developmental and reproductive issues, nervous and endocrine system impacts, gut microbiome/bowel disease and more. PFAS pose yet another threat to already beleaguered global wildlife.
- National governments have done little to restrict use of PFAS or remediate pollution, despite growing evidence of increased harm to both humans and wildlife. The study authors call for immediate action to remediate PFAS-contamination sites and regulate industrial chemicals to help protect threatened and endangered species.

For Vietnam’s rare reptiles, lack of captive populations may spell doom
- As an epicenter of biodiversity, Vietnam hosts a wide array of reptile species. But new research shows that many species that occur nowhere else on the planet are poorly known and lacking protection.
- The researchers also found that many of Vietnam’s rarest species are absent from the world’s zoo collections and conservation breeding programs, risking their disappearance forever should their wild populations collapse.
- They call on conservationists and authorities to focus on conservation measures to protect the country’s most vulnerable reptiles, including establishing assurance populations that could be used in the future to repopulate areas of wild habitat from which they have been lost.

Taking up the cause of red pandas: Q&A with actor and activist Dayahang Rai
- Dayahang Rai, a popular Nepali actor, shares his passion and challenges for red panda conservation, as an ambassador for the Red Panda Network, an NGO working to save the endangered animal in Nepal.
- Rai says he’s been inspired by nature since childhood, and that working on red panda conservation is his way of giving back to nature by reaching out to a wide audience to convey the urgency of the situation.
- He adds that while he has limited scientific knowledge of the species, he understands that red pandas are at risk of disappearing due to human activity, such as illegal hunting for their pelts, and unplanned road construction through their habitats.
- In an interview with Mongabay ahead of International Red Panda Day, Rai talks about prospective avenues for getting the conservation message out, and his plans to visit red panda habitat areas soon to see them in the wild.

African Parks to rewild 2,000 rhinos from controversial breeding program
- African Parks, which manages national parks in several countries across the continent, announced it has purchased Platinum Rhino, John Hume’s controversial intensive rhino breeding project
- The conservation organization plans to rewild all 2,000 southern white rhinos in Hume’s project, following a framework to be developed by independent experts.
- The biggest challenge African Parks will face is finding safe spaces to translocate 300 rhinos to every year, as poaching the animals for their horns shows little sign of diminishing.

Nepali researchers yet again photograph snow leopard, leopard in same place
- Nepali researchers capture images of a snow leopard and a common leopard in the same location in the Gaurishankar Conservation Area, adding to the evidence of habitat overlap between the two species.
- The recently analyzed images were taken by camera traps at an altitude of 4,260 meters (13,976 feet) in January 2023.
- Researchers say that climate change is likely to increase interactions between snow leopards and common leopards, as the latter move northward in search of suitable habitat and prey, encroaching on the territory of the former.
- They also warn that habitat overlap could pose a threat to snow leopards, which are smaller and less agile than common leopards, and call for more long-term data and research to understand the impacts of climate change on both species.

Cambodia approves, then suspends, marble mine in Keo Seima REDD+ project
- The Cambodian government has suspended a planned marble mine inside a wildlife sanctuary that it had approved just months earlier.
- It’s not clear why this commercial extractive concession inside a protected area was approved in the first place, or why it’s now been suspended (but not canceled).
- The mine would have threatened an important REDD+ project in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary that benefits both local communities and the area’s biodiversity.
- The REDD+ project is also a bulwark against deforestation; satellite data show it suffers far less forest loss than other parts of the wider wildlife sanctuary and surrounding areas that overlap with concessions.

World’s largest private rhino herd doesn’t have a buyer — or much of a future
- Controversial rhino breeder John Hume recently put his 1,999 southern white rhinos up for auction as he can no longer afford the $9,800 a day running costs — but no buyers have come forward so far.
- Hume’s intensive and high-density approach is undoubtedly effective at breeding rhinos, but with the main issue currently a shortage of safe space for rhino rather than a shortage of rhino, the project’s high running costs and concerns over rewilding captive-bred rhino make its future uncertain.
- Platinum Rhino’s financial issues reflect a broader debate around how to move forward with rhino conservation and the role that private owners have to play when the financial costs of rhino ownership far outweigh the returns.
- Update: The nonprofit conservation organization African Parks has moved to buy the rhinos and reintroduce them to the wild.

Translocation is a viable option for Brazil’s threatened porcupines: Study
- Brazil’s thin-spined porcupine (Chaetomys subspinosus) is a picky eater that lives only in dense coastal habitats with well-developed canopies that allow the animals to move between trees; however, these habitats are increasingly under threat due to coastal development.
- Researchers used radio telemetry to monitor three porcupines that had been translocated to a new, permanent preservation area, as well as one local resident; they determined that translocation is a viable conservation tool for protecting these animals.
- The research also highlights the importance of conserving the porcupines’ restinga forest habitat and its unique features.

Study: More than 900 at-risk species lack international trade protections
- A recent study reveals concerning gaps in trade protections for the most at-risk animal and plant species.
- To identify potential gaps, researchers compared species on the IUCN Red List with those covered by the CITES, the global wildlife trade convention.
- Two-fifths of the species considered at risk due to international wildlife trade, 904 species, aren’t covered by CITES, the study found.
- The researchers suggest steps that the CITES committees can take to incorporate these findings, including both strengthening protections for overlooked species and relaxing trade controls for species that have shown improvement in their conservation status.

Amid government inaction, Indonesia’s rhinos head toward extinction (analysis)
- The Sumatran and Javan rhinos, arguably the world’s two most endangered large mammals, are in worse shape than widely reported, according to expert interviews and a recent report.
- The Sumatran rhino is down to fewer than 50 animals in the wild and a much-touted capture program has only caught a single female, which still hasn’t been put into a breeding program.
- Meanwhile, new evidence points to overcounting of the Javan rhino population, putting in doubt the health of its population.
- Experts say the rhinos’ predicament is in part due to a lack of will or a willingness to take risks by the Indonesian government.

Small wildcats pose big challenges, but coexistence is very much possible
- Small cat species can come into conflict with people across the globe, and though this plays out differently than big cat conflict, it can be devastating for farmers’ livelihoods.
- When these cats are seen as pests, they can become targets for retaliatory killings, which threatens their conservation.
- But experts say coexistence can be achieved if the appropriate action is taken to mitigate conflict.
- Popular strategies include supporting farmers and communities to construct reinforced predator-proof chicken coops, or ensuring compensation for losses, among other tailored solutions.

Bangladesh ramps up freshwater fish conservation in bid for food security
- Bangladesh is reviving 39 native freshwater fish species through hatchery breeding, in an effort to secure stocks of commercially important fish.
- A quarter of the freshwater fish found in Bangladesh are threatened with extinction, according to a 2015 assessment, largely as a result of habitat loss, overfishing and pollution.
- In response to the decline, the Bangladesh government is breeding several species in captivity and distributing the fry for free to fish farmers.
- Bangladesh produces 4.6 million metric tons of fish a year, and is the No. 3 producer of freshwater fish globally.

Nepal’s rhinos are eating plastic waste, study finds
- A study found plastic waste in the dung of one-horned rhinos in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, which could harm their health and survival.
- The plastic waste comes from the rivers that flood the park during monsoon season, as well as from visitors who litter the park.
- The study suggested that the government and its conservation partners should conduct clean-up programs and implement sustainable waste management plans to protect the rhinos, which are a vulnerable species.

Volunteers, First Nations work to bring back a disappearing oak prairie
- The rain-shadow regions of North America’s Pacific Northwest, stretching from British Columbia to Oregon, are home to a unique carbon-rich oak-prairie ecosystem dominated by Garry oaks and several species of grasses and shrubs, including endemic plants.
- The ecosystem also holds a special significance in the way of life for the Indigenous peoples in the region, who have stewarded it for millennia and depended on it for food.
- In the past few centuries, however, rapid urbanization, agricultural expansion, development along the coast and proliferation of invasive plants have destroyed more than 95% of the ecosystem, pushing it toward near-extinction.
- Communities, partnering with different national and regional agencies, First Nations and nonprofits, are working to restore and preserve the remnants using various strategies, many of which have borne fruit.

Several reef sharks at greater threat of extinction than thought, study shows
- A new study found that five key reef shark species — gray, blacktip, whitetip and Caribbean reef sharks, and nurse sharks — declined by 60-73% worldwide.
- It also indicated that all five species would qualify as endangered on the IUCN Red List.
- Early results from the study were used to escalate the status of two of the five species to endangered, but the others are still considered to have a lower extinction risk.
- The study also showed that well-governed or protected reefs had healthier shark populations.

Global study of 71,000 animal species finds 48% are declining
- A new study evaluating the conservation status of 71,000 animal species has shown a huge disparity between “winners” and “losers.” Globally, 48% of species are decreasing, 49% remain stable, and just 3% are rising. Most losses are concentrated in the tropics.
- Extinctions skyrocketed worldwide with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, especially since World War II, when resource extraction and consumption rates soared, and the planet saw exponential growth in human population to 8 billion by 2022.
- Habitat destruction, especially in the tropics, is the major driver. But a confluence of human activities, ranging from climate change, to wildlife trafficking, hunting, invasive species, pollution and other causes, are combining to drive animal declines.
- The research also revealed that one-third of non-endangered species are in decline. These data, say the researchers, could provide an early warning for preemptive conservation action by spotlighting species slipping downhill, but where there’s still time to act — and prevent extinction.

Mating game: Survival of some small wildcats at risk due to housecat hybrids
- Small wildcat species suffer from habitat loss, hunting and human conflicts, just like better-known big cats. But some small wildcat populations also face threats from other felines: hybridization.
- Interbreeding with domestic cats (Felis catus), and also with other wildcat species, can alter the outward appearance, behaviors and genetic profiles of wildcats, and create conservation dilemmas about how best to define and protect a species.
- In Scotland, hybridization caused the functional extinction of a subpopulation of European wildcat (Felis silvestris), but scientists and conservationists are collaborating to rebuild the genetically distinct wild population with kittens reared from selectively bred wildcats.
- To protect the African wildcat (Felis lybica) in South Africa, international partners are working to reduce interbreeding by sterilizing domestic and feral cats near the borders of Kruger National Park. Hybridization can also occur between wildcat species and raises questions about preserving genetic purity vs. ecosystem function.

As tourism booms in India’s Western Ghats, habitat loss pushes endangered frogs to the edge
- India’s Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot, is home to many endemic and endangered species of amphibians, some of which are new to science and others suspected of lying in wait of discovery.
- Deforestation due to infrastructure and plantation expansion in the southern Western Ghats threaten the region’s amphibian species, many of which have highly restricted habitats.
- Adding to their woes is an increased risk of landslides in parts of Kerala due to erratic, heavy monsoon rains and erosion due to loss of forest.
- To save them, experts are calling for a systematic taxonomic survey of amphibians in the region and for legal protection of endangered species.

‘Anthill tiger’: Putting one of Africa’s rarest wildcats on the radar
- Black-footed cats (Felis nigripes) are the smallest and also one of the rarest wildcat species in Africa. They’re very reclusive, extremely hard to find, and are among the least-studied nocturnal mammals on the continent.
- Data-scarce species like the black-footed cat are difficult to conserve because the most basic knowledge — of their home ranges, territories, habitat, and reproductive, dietary and other behaviors — is often lacking. Without these many life-cycle details, the targeting of effective preservation strategies is near impossible.
- German ecologist Alexander Sliwa has made it his life’s mission to research the elusive black-footed cat. Establishing and working with a small team, he eventually led the way to the formation of the Black-footed Cat Working Group. Thanks largely to those efforts, a substantial database on Felis nigripes now exists.
- This work led to the black-footed cat being listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Though the species’ survival remains far from secure, the design and implementation of conservation strategies will no longer have to start from scratch, and can be built on valuable, already accumulated baseline data.

Death of last female Yangtze softshell turtle signals end for ‘god’ turtle
- The last known female Yangtze giant softshell turtle died in April of unknown causes, leaving only two males as the final known living members of a species that has for years been teetering on the brink of extinction.
- “We are devastated,” says the Asian Turtle Program, an NGO working to protect the Yangtze turtle and its habitat.
- The only hope for the species lies in the possibility that a few of these giant creatures may still roam, unknown, in lakes and rivers in Vietnam or Laos.

Kelp forests contribute $500 billion to global economy, study shows
- New research suggests that kelp forests generate up to $562 billion each year by boosting fisheries productivity, removing harmful nutrients from seawater, and sequestering carbon dioxide.
- The findings suggest that kelp forests are about three times more valuable than previously believed, contributing the equivalent of Sweden’s entire GDP to the global economy.
- However, experts say that kelp forests are generally overlooked and undervalued, and that many of these ecosystems are under threat worldwide.

Small cats face big threats: Reasons to save these elusive endangered species
- Though lesser known than big cats, such as tigers or snow leopards, more than 30 species of small cats roam the world. They’re well adapted to drastically different habitats, as varied as South America’s high Andes and Asia’s coastal wetlands. Though stealthy and largely unseen, they have value to ecosystems and humanity.
- Generalist small felid species, such as the jungle cat and leopard cat, can thrive in disturbed or agricultural landscapes. There, researchers say, they can significantly aid farmers by reducing rodent populations.
- Small cats also play a key role in maintaining ecosystem health by controlling small mammal populations in the wild.
- Many species, such as the fishing cat and Andean cat, are specialists, thriving in specific habitats, making them potentially important indicators of ecosystem health. Conservationists believe small cat species could make ideal candidates for both conservation and restoration in the global push for the rewilding of nature.

Roads, human activity take a toll on red pandas: Q&A with researcher Damber Bista
- Damber Bista is a Nepali conservation scientist studying the country’s population of red pandas, an endangered species.
- He says there needs to be much more work done to protect the species, given that 70% of their habitat falls outside of protected areas.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Bista talks about the added stress that habitat fragmentation is putting on juvenile red pandas, the need for landscape-level conservation measures, and the importance of long-term studies.

Last chance: Study highlights perilous state of ‘extinct in the wild’ species
- A study published in the journal Science highlights that “extinct in the wild” species, those that cling on in captivity or as part of conservation efforts outside their natural habitat, are at serious risk of disappearing entirely.
- The researchers found that 33 animals and 39 plants have no wild population remaining, and at least 15 of these animals are down to fewer than 500 individuals.
- The researchers found that out of the 95 species classified as extinct in the wild since 1950, 11 have gone extinct since the 1990s. On the flip side, 12 of these species have been successfully reintroduced, brought back from the brink of extinction.
- The study highlights the challenges associated with maintaining genetic diversity in captivity and the need for more support of as well as greater coordination and communication among conservation institutions.

For tigers in Nepal, highways are a giant roadblock best avoided
- A new study indicates that the presence of roads, and vehicle traffic, in tiger habitats could take a toll on the big cats’ behavior and long-term fitness and survival.
- A tiger fitted with a GPS collar in Nepal’s Parsa National Park was found to avoid crossing roads by day, but to cross more often during the country’s 2021 COVID-19 lockdown.
- This suggests the animals can adapt quickly when traffic volume eases, pointing to measures that can be taken to mitigate road impacts not just on tigers, but on wildlife in general.
- Researchers say the findings should give planners in Nepal something to consider as they look to double the number of lanes on the East-West Highway that runs through both Parsa and Bardiya national parks.

Kew Gardens joins local partners to save tropical plants from extinction
- The U.K.’s Kew Gardens does far more than preserve and display 50,000 living and 7 million preserved specimens of the world’s plants; it also educates the public about the importance of plant conservation via its famous London facility.
- In 2022, Kew Gardens identified 90 plants and 24 fungi completely new to science. They include the world’s largest giant water lily, with leaves more than 3 meters across, from Bolivia; and a 15-meter tree from Central America, named after the murdered Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres.
- The institution is working actively with local partners in many parts of the world, and especially in the tropics, to save these species in-situ, that is, where they were found. When Kew can’t do this, it saves seeds in its herbarium, carrying out ex-situ conservation.
- Kew researchers, along with scientists from tropical nations, are also working together to ensure that local communities benefit from this conservation work. The intention is to save these threatened plants for the long term, helping slow the pace of Earth’s current extinction crisis — the only one caused by humans.

Saving Masungi, a last green corridor of the Philippines: Q&A with Ann Dumaliang
- The Masungi Georeserve is an important geological region about 30 miles from Manila, within a watershed and conservation area that is home to more than 400 species of flora and fauna, several of which are rare and threatened.
- Ann Dumaliang is a co-founder of the foundation that manages conservation and geotourism in the reserve, which is threatened by illegal quarrying, logging and development.
- Masungi’s rangers have faced violent attacks in recent months, but Dumaliang, her family and colleagues are working with numerous organizations and individuals to reforest and preserve the area.

Restore linked habitat to protect tropical amphibians from disease: Study
- Amphibians across the tropics are facing a global decline, with disease caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) playing an especially significant role in losses.
- According to recent research, “habitat split” — when different types of habitat, such as terrestrial and freshwater areas, become separated — could play a role in exacerbating disease, potentially altering species’ microbiomes and weakening amphibian resistance.
- According to the study, an amphibian’s journey through altered habitat to complete its life cycle can change the composition of its microbiome (the bacterial makeup of the skin); induce chronic stress; and reduce immune gene diversity — all of which can impact disease resistance.
- Though further studies are needed, this research may offer another persuasive reason to actively restore and reconnect habitats, helping to “prime” amphibian immune systems against disease. There is also a possibility that habitat split findings among amphibians could extend to other families of animals.

Logging threats loom over tree kangaroo refuge in Papua New Guinea
- Logging is threatening the Torricelli Mountains, a biodiversity-rich forested range in Papua New Guinea known for its tree kangaroos and other threatened species of birds and mammals.
- Community conservation efforts have helped to increase the numbers of tree kangaroos, once nearly pushed to extinction by hunting and logging, in conjunction with development projects for the people of the Torricellis.
- The Tenkile Conservation Alliance, a Papua New Guinean NGO, has led an effort to protect the area, but the government has yet to officially designate what would be the Torricelli Mountain Range Conservation Area.
- Satellite imagery shows the loss of forest and an increase in roadbuilding over the past two years. And residents of the Torricellis say that representatives of logging companies have been trying to secure permission to log the region’s forests.

Proximity to humans both boon and bane for Egyptian vultures in Nepal’s Pokhara
- Egyptian vulture populations have declined drastically across much of their range, with their status in Nepal’s Pokhara Valley looking no less dire.
- The species has long benefited from breeding and nesting near human settlements, where food in the form of dead livestock was previously abundant.
- But with the decline of livestock farming in the region, and an increase in other, unsafe, sources of food, the vultures’ proximity to humans is growing into a threat to their survival.
- A new study that highlights this threat also calls on stakeholders in the Pokhara Valley to strengthen measures to protect the species.

Illegal orchid trade threatens Nepal’s ‘tigers of the plant world’
- Roughly 500 orchid species grow in Nepal’s forests, including a rare pale purple beauty that attracts thousands of pilgrims each April.
- Orchids are among the most diverse and charismatic plant groups in the world, and they are threatened by illegal and unsustainable trade, largely for Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine.
- Kathmandu-based NGO Greenhood Nepal has a project that outlines key steps for government agencies to take in efforts to curb illegal and unsustainable trade in Nepal’s orchids.

Of Yetis and extinct turtles: Top wildlife discoveries in Nepal in 2022
- Throughout 2022, Mongabay reported on new species discoveries in Nepal, some of them new to science and others spotted for the first time in the country.
- From busting the Yeti myth to highlighting important biodiversity hotspots in need of conservation, the stories helped bring the Himalayan country’s little-known wildlife to a wider audience.
- These are the top six stories related to important scientific discoveries in Nepal this past year.

Strong marine protected areas credited with manta ray surge in Indonesia
- Manta ray populations are thriving in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, a new population assessment shows, highlighting the importance of marine protected areas to the species’ conservation.
- The study showed that reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) populations saw up to 10.7% compound annual increase from 2009-2019 in the region, even as global ray and shark populations undergo a sweeping decline.
- The study authors attribute this to well-planned and -implemented conservation measures by Indonesian authorities, conservation groups and local communities.
- The finding chimes with the discovery earlier this year that manta ray populations are also flourishing in Komodo National Park, another tightly regulated protected area in Indonesia.

Island shopping: Cambodian officials buy up the Cardamoms’ coast
- A buying spree by Cambodia’s wealthy and politically connected elites has put the fate of a string of small islands in the balance, affecting the livelihoods of local fishers.
- Resort developments threaten the Koh S’dach archipelago’s seagrass and coral ecosystems, which harbor rare and threatened marine life.
- Local fishers have also found themselves locked out of their traditional fishing grounds by the developers, leading to a loss of earnings.
- This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn is a fellow.

Alleged macaque-smuggling ring exposed as U.S. indicts Cambodian officials
- U.S. federal prosecutors have charged eight people, including two Cambodian forestry officials, for their alleged involvement in an international ring smuggling endangered long-tailed macaques.
- The indictment alleges forestry officials colluded with Hong Kong-based biomedical firm Vanny Bio Research to procure macaques from the wild and create export permits falsely listing them as captive-bred animals.
- One of the officials charged was arrested in New York City on Nov. 16, en route to Panama for an international summit focused on regulating the global trade in wildlife.
- This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn is a fellow.

Nepal’s wild yaks ‘need more conservation than research’: Q&A with Naresh Kusi
- In July, researchers Naresh Kusi and Geraldine Werhahn spotted three wild yaks in Nepal, where sightings are rare and the animal was once thought to have gone extinct.
- Kusi spoke with Mongabay about the significance of the sightings of this iconic bovine’s distribution in the region and the need for conservation.
- Wild yaks (Bos mutus) are considered the ancestor of the domesticated yak (Bos grunniens) and hold an important place in the region’s culture and history.

Should more wildlife trade be legal and regulated? It’s complicated, say scientists
- As the global international trade treaty approaches its half century anniversary, some scientists say it needs an overhaul to make its structures fit for 21st century.
- Allowing for legal, regulated trade could be better than banning it for many species, they argue, referring to successful case studies where local communities were involved in sustainable trade.
- But some conservationists are worried that changing the way CITES operates will be bad news for endangered wildlife and point out it has been a significant factor in the survival of species such as elephants and tigers.

More than half of palm species may be threatened with extinction, study finds
- Using novel machine-learning techniques, researchers found that of the 1,889 species of palms with enough data to investigate, more than half (56%) may be threatened with extinction.
- Researchers hope that the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, paired with data from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, can speed up preliminary evaluations of a species’ conservation status, reduce costs, and avoid bias toward vertebrate animals.
- The study found that nearly half of the functionally distinct species were threatened, as well as nearly one-third of species used by humans (at least 185 palm species). The study also identified high-priority regions for palm conservation including Borneo, Hawai‘i, Jamaica, Madagascar, New Caledonia, New Guinea, the Philippines, Sulawesi, Vanuatu, and Vietnam.
- Like many other threatened plant and animal species, the greatest risk to palms is habitat destruction from agricultural and urban expansion.

Meet the Millennium Forest: A unique tropical island reforestation project
- A two-decade reforestation project on the tropical island of St. Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean has not only restored trees found nowhere else in the world, but has also involved nearly every member of the island community in the effort.
- The Millennium Forest, as it’s called, has struggled with invasive species and irregular funding, but has still managed to thrive, adding new plant species — several of them threatened and two thought to have gone extinct. The growing forest is attracting animal species to its habitat, including St. Helena’s only endemic bird.
- Ocean islands pose special challenges for forest restoration, since many plant species evolved in isolation on remote islands, and saw drastic population crashes to the point of extinction, or near-extinction, when people and invasive species arrived.
- As a result, island reforestations typically can’t match original forest composition, but must mix both native and non-native species. The Millennium Forest project has now become a legacy that the current generation is handing down to upcoming ones, according to project founder Rebecca Cairns-Wicks.

Fish eggs return to Bangladesh’s Halda River following conservation efforts
- The Halda River, considered the world’s only natural gene bank for several pure Indian carp species, as well as home to dozens of endangered Ganges River dolphins, has made a comeback after fish eggs all but disappeared from the river several years ago.
- Historical records say around 4,000 kilograms (8,818 pounds) of fish eggs could be found in the river in 1941, but that number nearly hit zero in 2016 due to overexploitation and industrial pollution.
- Since 2018, the Bangladesh government has made robust conservation efforts, including steps to declare the river an Ecologically Critical Area and fish heritage site.
- In 2020, about 424 kgs (935 lbs) of fish eggs were found in the river; however, yields have since fallen after an unexpected tropical cyclone, Amphan, triggered salinity intrusion and there was low rainfall during the monsoons.

To save threatened Amazon primates in Brazil, turn them into the main attraction
- Primates along the southern portion of Brazil’s Amazon frontier, a region known as the Arc of Deforestation, are being pushed to the brink of extinction as vast swaths of their habitats are cleared.
- A recent assessment places the Vieira’s titi monkey, whose conservation status was previously unknown, now as critically endangered; researchers say other primates face a similarly perilous situation.
- Conservationists say investing in primate-based ecotourism, based on the established model of the bird-watching industry and making use of the existing agroindustry infrastructure, could provide an effective conservation solution.
- Some point to the city of Sinop, in the state of Mato Grosso, as a potential “hotspot” for primate-watching ecotourism.

Plastic impacts a grossly underestimated ‘one-two punch’ for seabirds: Study
- That plastic pollution is harmful to marine life, including seabirds, is well known, but recent research finds that the impacts may be “grossly underestimated” and that plastics can affect multiple organs.
- A new study investigated plastic ingestion by flesh-footed shearwaters and found that — as was determined in past research — initial consumption can harm the stomach. New evidence also showed that impacts are far more expansive, and may cause ongoing health problems distributed throughout body organs.
- Some forms of tissue damage detected by the new research suggest that plastic particles may also act as chemical pollutants, though this requires further study.
- Plastic pollution is a massive growing problem for the world’s oceans and marine life. Earlier this year, researchers announced that the global planetary boundary for novel entities — including plastics — has been surpassed, threatening Earth’s operating systems and life as we know it.

Habitat loss, climate change threaten Bangladesh’s native freshwater fishes with extinction
- There were at one time more than 300 native freshwater fish species in Bangladesh, but many have disappeared while others are on the verge of extinction due to habitat loss, overfishing, pollution and climate change.
- Open rivers and other bodies of water in Bangladesh are dwindling fast due to development interventions, unplanned urbanization, encroachment and siltation, which are destroying the habitats of indigenous fish species.
- According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the statuses of 64 freshwater fish species in Bangladesh range from vulnerable to critically endangered while 30 have become extinct in the wild during the last 30 to 40 years.
- Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) has so far revived 37 out of 67 species that disappeared from the wild through captive breeding programs and conservation efforts.

Local coverage of Nepal’s ‘Himalayan Viagra’ harvest lacks eco focus, study says
- Yarsa gunbu, better known outside Nepal as the Himalayan Viagra, accounts for two-fifths of the country’s non-timber exports.
- Every year, hundreds of thousands of Nepalis head for the hilly regions to harvest this fungus-mummified caterpillar larvae from the wild, leaving schools, farms and entire villages deserted.
- A new study analyzing domestic news coverage of yarsa gunbu has found that much of the reporting focuses on the scale of the harvest and the exorbitant prices that the commodity can fetch.
- The study authors have called on the media to emphasize other aspects of the yarsa gunbu trade, including the ecological cost from harvesting, and the social cost when schools are bereft of teachers.

Poaching surges in the birthplace of white rhino conservation
- Poaching has more than doubled this year in South Africa’s Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, the birthplace of white rhino conservation.
- Conservationists say poaching syndicates have turned their attention to this and other parks in KwaZulu-Natal province because rhino numbers in Kruger National Park, the previous epicenter of rhino poaching, have been drastically reduced, and private reserves around Kruger are dehorning their animals.
- Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is a very challenging game reserve for anti-poaching patrols to defend, exacerbated by leadership issues in Ezemvelo, the government body responsible for managing KwaZulu-Natal’s conservation areas.
- Unless more is done to tackle the wider issue of the illegal wildlife trade, the future looks bleak for the rhinos of HIP.

Wild cats threatened by ‘underrecognized’ risk of spillover disease
- Researchers warn that disease spillover from livestock and domestic animals represents a serious conservation threat to wildlife, including felids in tropical areas around the world. Spillover is most likely to occur on rapidly advancing forest-agricultural frontiers or within fragmented habitats.
- Tracking the spillover and spread of diseases from humans and domestic animals to wildlife is extremely challenging, particularly among wild felid species, which tend to be secretive and solitary, making ongoing observation difficult.
- Possible cases of disease spillover have been documented in wild cats in India, Malaysian Borneo, Thailand, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Russia and Nepal. These are likely the tip of the iceberg, say scientists, who believe much disease among wild species is going undetected, with case numbers and outbreaks unknown.
- Scientists stress the need for greater health monitoring of wildlife to reduce this “invisible threat.” But funding for health testing is often scant, and treatment difficult. One researcher sees disease transmission from domestic animals to wildlife as perhaps the most “underrecognized conservation threat today.”

Trouble in the tropics: The terrestrial insects of Brazil are in decline
- New research from Brazil shows terrestrial insects there are declining both in abundance and diversity, while aquatic insects are largely staying steady.
- Given a dearth of long-term data on tropical insects, the scientists took creative means to collect data, including contacting 150 experts for their unpublished data.
- Scientists believe the usual global suspects are behind Brazil’s insect decline: habitat destruction, pesticide use, and climate change.
- Experts say tropical countries need more resources, including long-term funding, to discover with greater certainty what’s happening to insects there. Large-scale insect loss threatens many of Earth’s ecological services, including waste recycling, helping to build fertile soils, pollinating plants, and providing prey for numerous other species.

New estimate of less than 50 Sumatran rhinos shows perilous population drop
- The official population estimate for Sumatran rhinos has for years been pegged at “fewer than 80,” but a new estimate compiled by rhino experts from the IUCN and TRAFFIC concludes the number is more likely between 34 and 47 rhinos left in the wild.
- Another nine rhinos currently live in captive-breeding centers in Indonesia, where three calves have been born since 2012.
- A survey by the same groups estimated the population at 73 animals in 2015, which indicates a population decline of 13% per year. Experts say the drop likely indicates both dwindling numbers and previous overestimates.

World’s smallest primate is fading into extinction, scientists fear
- The Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur (Microcebus berthae) could soon disappear as the human imprint on its forest habitat in western Madagascar grows.
- Another team of researchers warned that the Milne-Edwards’s sifaka (Propithecus edwardsi), a species native to the tropical rainforests of eastern Madagascar, could vanish in 25 years.
- “The risk of extinction accelerates dramatically when we take into account deforestation and climate extremes,” said Eric Isai Ameca y Juárez, a specialist in biodiversity loss and climate change at Beijing Normal University, but added that deforestation alone could wipe out the sifaka.
- About a third of the tree cover inside Menabe Antimena National Park, where the Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur is found, has disappeared since 2015.

Rare turtles hatch from eggs rescued from flood-prone Nepal riverbank
- Conservationists in Nepal successfully rescued and hatched hundreds of Indian narrow-headed softshell turtles (Chitra indica) from a riverbank in Chitwan National Park.
- The nesting sites were hit by a flash flood three weeks after the eggs were removed; 375 of the 496 eggs hatched successfully at Chitwan’s gharial breeding center after nearly seven weeks.
- Narrow-headed softshell turtles are an endangered species, threatened by hunting for their meat and consumption of their eggs, as well as degradation of their habitat, but aren’t the subject of any dedicated conservation programs in Nepal.
- Conservationists have called on the government to focus more attention on the species, saying it wouldn’t cost much and would require only the will to act.

Greenland’s sustainable halibut fishery may threaten newfound corals, sponges
- Industrial trawling for halibut in the Davis Strait off western Greenland is currently done in a certified sustainable manner, but new studies suggest it may be doing long-term harm.
- The studies describe assemblages of unique marine life on the seafloor both inside and near the halibut fishing zones that could potentially be considered “vulnerable marine ecosystems.”
- Scientists have called for protection of these potential VMEs, but acknowledge that ending bottom trawling altogether isn’t a viable option when fishing accounts for 93% of Greenland’s exports.
- Fishing industry stakeholders say they’re confident that existing rules designed to help the halibut fishery meet sustainability requirements will be sufficient to spare these potential VMEs, and point to a new management plan for the entire Greenlandic seabed that is in development as a way to strengthen protections.

In Nepal, endangered tiger kills critically endangered gharial. What does it mean?
- A tiger entered the Kasara gharial breeding center in Chitwan National Park and killed three critically endangered gharials.
- The incident raised concerns that as the tiger population in Nepal increases, the animals could turn to the crocodiles for easy food.
- Conservationists, however, say that is unlikely as tigers have other animals to feed upon.

Video: Biodiversity underpins all, as California is finding out the hard way
- A new episode of “Mongabay Explains” delves into the biodiversity crisis in California, which is known to be one of the most biodiverse states in the U.S., hosting about 6,500 animal species, subspecies and plants.
- California has been bearing the brunt of climate change in recent years as wildfires and drought transform the land.
- The film focuses on three species that are being negatively affected by the climate crisis: California tiger salamanders, acorn woodpeckers, and monarch butterflies.
- The filmmaker says California is the “poster child of what’s happening to our ecosystems around the world.”

Indigenous lands, knowledge are essential for saving primates from extinction, says new study
- A new study in Science Advances finds that primate species found on Indigenous people’s land face significantly less threats to their overall survival compared to species found on non-Indigenous lands. To guarantee the survival of primates, we must guarantee Indigenous people’s autonomy over their territory, says the paper.
- The population of non-human primates – like monkeys, apes, tarsiers or prosimians – are declining rapidly around the world. At least 68% are in danger of extinction, while 93% have declining populations globally.
- Traditional Indigenous beliefs, practices and knowledge systems reflect the need to exploit resources in the environment, but in sustainable ways that do not also deplete resources primates depend on.
- The largest threat to primates is their loss of habitat due to large-scale deforestation for the sake of large infrastructure projects, roads and rail lines as well as the expanding agriculture frontier that decreases forest cover.

No critical examination of flawed environmental assessments in Nepal, experts say
- Nepal has for decades required an environmental impact assessment (EIA) be conducted for development projects, but their quality and monitoring has been largely ineffective, experts say.
- The issue came to light earlier this year when the top court canceled an airport project in part because of its flawed EIA, which included entire passages lifted directly from a hydropower project’s EIA.
- Experts say the laws and monitoring mechanisms are in place to ensure the EIA process is effective in mitigating harm to the environment, but that the political will is lacking.

White rhino conservation project attempts paradigm shift by including local community
- A project to reintroduce white rhinos in western Zimbabwe has been launched for the first time on community-owned land.
- Two rhinos have so far been released in a small sanctuary comprising grazing land voluntarily donated by villages located near the southern boundary of Hwange National Park.
- A key pillar of the rhino protection strategy has been to recruit scouts from the local community and compensate them fairly.
- As it grows, it’s hoped the sanctuary will raise tourism dollars for community development, and also create a buffer zone to protect farmers’ crops and livestock from Hwange’s elephants, lions and hyenas.

Experts fear end of vaquitas after green light for export of captive-bred totoaba fish
- After a 40-year prohibition, international wildlife trade regulator CITES has authorized the export of captive-bred totoaba fish from Mexico.
- Conservationists say they fear this decision will stimulate the illegal fishing of wild totoabas and that this will intensify the threats facing the critically endangered vaquita porpoise.
- Only around eight individual vaquitas remain alive; they regularly drown in nets set illegally for totoabas in the Upper Gulf of California, where the two species overlap.
- The swim bladders of totoabas are sold in Asian markets at exorbitant prices because of their value as status symbols and their supposed medicinal properties.

To win island-wide conservation, Indonesia’s Talaud bear cuscus needs to win hearts
- The Talaud bear cuscus is a secretive species believed to inhabit only four islands in Indonesia.
- Listed as critically endangered, the animal has been driven to the brink of extinction by overhunting and habitat loss.
- Conservationists are working with local youths, traditional and religious leaders, and community members on Salibabu Island to change the perception of the species.

Proposed copper and gold mine threatens the world’s ‘second Amazon’ in PNG
- A proposed copper and gold mine threatens the biologically and culturally diverse Sepik River Basin in western Papua New Guinea, according to community leaders and conservationists.
- They’ve raised concerns about the impact that potentially toxic waste from the mine would have on the region’s forests and waterways, which are critical to sustaining human, animal and plant life in this region.
- Proponents of the mine say it would bring jobs, infrastructure and development to the region’s communities.
- Today, a renewed campaign to list the Sepik River Basin as a UNESCO World Heritage Site is gaining momentum and would permanently keep projects like the mine at bay, say organizers of the movement.

Ray care center: Indonesia’s Raja Ampat a key nursery for young reef mantas
- Scientists have published new evidence confirming that Wayag Lagoon in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago is a globally rare nursery for juvenile reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi).
- Visual observations from 2013 to 2021 show that juvenile reef manta rays are repeatedly encountered in the small, shallow and sheltered lagoon, without the presence of adult individuals; the young rays spend months at a time inside the lagoon, never venturing out.
- The findings have prompted marine authorities in Indonesia to start revising the management of the lagoon to safeguard the manta nursery zone, with regulations being drawn up to limit disturbances to the young rays.
- Both oceanic and reef manta rays are protected species under Indonesian law, which prohibits their catch and the trade of any of their body parts.

For 20 years, Comoros had only 1 national park. It’s now creating 5 more
- Comoros, an archipelagic nation in the western Indian Ocean, is dramatically expanding its network of protected areas (PAs) from one to six, including three new marine protected areas (MPAs).
- The idea is to replicate the co-management approach at Mohéli National Park, the country’s first and currently only national park, created in 2001 as an MPA.
- However, Comoros’s experience with Mohéli provided no clear blueprint for supporting communities whose traditional rights are curtailed because of the protected areas, or for sustainably funding for such a vast PA network.

Nepal’s key habitat could lose 39% of its tigers in 20 years, study says
- Nearly two-fifths of adult tigers in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park could be killed over the next 20 years as a result of vehicle strikes on the roads near the park, a new study says.
- The projection is based on tiger movement data going back to the 1970s, and shows that the addition of a proposed railway line would result in an additional 30 tiger deaths.
- Chitwan is home to 133 tigers, and the large number of projected losses would be devastating to the population, which is already increasingly cut off from its range in neighboring India as a result of human-made obstacles, including roads.
- The study authors say this worst-case scenario should be a wake-up call to authorities to plan infrastructure projects with wildlife mobility as a key concern.

Can we save the spiky yellow woodlouse, one of the most endangered isopods? (commentary)
- Saint Helena Island’s spiky yellow woodlouse is a striking, critically endangered isopod that lives on tree ferns and black cabbage trees, high up in the peaks of Saint Helena’s cloud forests.
- The flax industry destroyed and fragmented most of the forests that the woodlouse depends on. Invasive species and climate change continue to affect them.
- The population of spiky yellow woodlouse is estimated to be at 980 individuals, so the Saint Helena National Trust is working to restore the forests on the island by clearing away the flax plants that were left behind and replanting more native flora.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

For reef mantas, Indonesia’s Komodo National Park is a ray of hope
- A new study has found that Komodo National Park in Indonesia has an aggregation of 1,085 reef manta rays, currently classified as a vulnerable species.
- Experts say that locations such as Komodo will play an important role in safeguarding the species from extinction.
- Manta rays are under pressure from fishing activity, including targeted fishing and bycatch.
- However, experts say the species is also impacted by tourism and the changing dynamics of the ocean.

Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ 60 years on: Birds still fading from the skies
- Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” catalyzed the modern environmental movement and sparked a ban on DDT in the U.S. and most other nations, though DDT has since been replaced by a growing number of other harmful biocides.
- Now, 60 years later, birds may face more threats than any other animal group because they live in — or migrate through — every habitat on Earth. Birds are impacted by land-use changes, pollution (ranging from pesticides to plastics), climate change, invasive species, diseases, hunting, the wildlife trade, and more.
- The 2022 update to the “State of the World’s Birds” report notes winners and losers amid increasing human alteration of the planet, but documents a continuing downward trend.

Ecotours aimed at saving monkeys are likely stressing them out, study finds
- A recent study reveals that tourist boats approaching troops of proboscis monkeys in Malaysian Borneo cause the animals stress, even when the boats travel at slow speeds.
- The research reveals something of a universal response, closely tracking similar findings from ecotourism operations focused on other animals such as birds and whales.
- Wildlife tourism is increasingly seen as a way to raise awareness around conservation issues and provide local communities with a source of income that’s contingent on the protection of ecosystems.
- Scientists say this type of research can form the basis for guidelines aimed at minimizing the effects of ecotourism on animals, especially as its role in conservation grows.

As tiger numbers in Nepal and India grow, their freedom to roam shrinks
- Nepal is one of the few countries on track to double its tiger population this year from a 2010 baseline.
- But a growing sense of “animal nationalism” threatens to mar this success, with local media playing up the tigers’ travels across the border into India.
- The big cats, which don’t recognize political boundaries, have always roamed a wide range in this region, yet even this behavior is under threat as key corridors are restricted or cut off entirely by infrastructure projects by both countries.
- Conservationists have called for keeping nationalism out of planning and implementation of conservation efforts, for the sake of this iconic species.

Himalayan musk deer talk to each other through poop, but poachers are also listening
- A new study has indicated to scientists what poachers in Nepal may have long known: that Himalayan musk deer use their defecation sites as a sort of message board to communicate with one another.
- The endangered species is typically solitary and has limited vocalization, but its varied behavior at latrine sites — defecating, browsing, sniffing, scrapping and covering, and ignoring — appear to show efforts to convey messages to the other deer using the sites.
- Poachers may have long known about this behavior, and accordingly set their snares near latrine sites, where they target the male deer for their scent glands — prized for making perfume and traditional medicine.
- The authors of the new study say this finding could help improve conservation activities, including ensuring mating success for captive-breeding efforts.

Can celebrities and social media influencers really ‘rewrite extinction’?
- A new conservation fundraising group, Rewriting Extinction, aims to increase awareness about the biodiversity crisis by reaching out to new audiences.
- The group has raised about $180,000 for a range of different schemes in South and Central America, Europe and Asia.
- Critics accuse it of misleading supporters as to how conservation really works and making exaggerated claims on what its fundraising can achieve.
- The real cost of tackling wildlife declines runs into the tens of billions of dollars, and some experts say Rewriting Extinction is selling a false narrative, while others support Rewriting Extinction’s efforts to raise awareness among people who would otherwise be indifferent to the issue.

Q&A with Whitley Award winner Sonam Tashi Lama
- Nepali conservationist Sonam Tashi Lama has been named one of six recipients of the Whitley Awards, known as the “Green Oscars,” for his grassroots work conserving the endangered red panda.
- He says the £40,000 cash prize will be invested in improving the animal’s habitat and increasing awareness about poaching.
- It’s estimated one red panda is killed every 10 days, mostly for its pelt, even though research shows there’s no market demand for it.

Wildlife don’t recognize borders, nor does climate change. Conservation should keep up
- A set of studies focused on the China-Vietnam border demonstrates that the impacts of climate change will make transboundary conservation even more important for endangered species like the Cao-Vit gibbon and tiger geckos.
- Conservation in transboundary areas is already challenging because of physical barriers, like fences and walls, as well as non-physical ones, such as different legal systems or conservation approaches between countries on either side.
- Changes in climatic factors such as temperature and rainfall are likely to mean that, for many species, suitable habitat may be in a different place than it is now — and in many cases, this could be in a different country

Côte d’Ivoire’s chimp habitats are shrinking, but there’s hope in their numbers
- Despite a decade of uncontrolled poaching, researchers have found what they describe as a “healthy” population of 200 chimpanzees in Côte d’Ivoire’s Comoé National Park.
- With the help of camera-trap footage, researchers found that the Comoé chimps display unique types of behaviors not found in other chimp populations in West Africa.
- Like elsewhere in West Africa, the chimps’ habitat remains under pressure from farming and herding.

Shining a light on Sri Lanka’s little-studied pangolins: Q&A with Priyan Perera
- Sri Lanka’s small population of Indian pangolins has long been threatened by hunting for domestic bushmeat consumption, but conservationists have identified an emerging trend of the animals being captured for trafficking abroad.
- Efforts to protect the species here have failed to take off as a result of poor general awareness about the animal, persistent myths about eating its flesh, and a dearth of scientific studies into Sri Lanka’s pangolins.
- Priyan Perera, a globally recognized expert on the species, says he hopes to change that, starting by first filling in the knowledge gaps about the pangolins and their behavior, while also raising awareness in communities and schools to discourage hunting.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Perera talks about the importance of better understanding Sri Lanka’s Indian pangolins, incidents pointing to the nascent trafficking trend, and how to care for seized or injured pangolins.

Online trade in rare silvery pigeon is cause for concern, researchers say
- Little is known about the silvery pigeon, a critically endangered bird endemic to western Indonesia and Malaysia that may number anywhere between 50 and 1,000 individuals.
- Yet despite being rare and a protected species, the silvery pigeon continues to be offered for sale online in the international pet trade.
- Researchers say there needs to be swift conservation action to prevent the currently low-level trade from growing out of control.

Indigenous Comcáac turtle group saves sea turtles in Mexico’s Gulf of California
- The Grupo Tortuguero Comcáac, the Sea Turtle Group of the Comcáac people, in El Desemboque de los Seris is fighting to increase the population of sea turtles, a sacred animal, in the Gulf of California.
- In the past five years they have managed to release more than 8,000 olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) hatchlings along 14 kilometers (9 miles) of the Mancha Blanca and El Faro beach.
- State funding for the project is limited, however the turtle rescue group does not see this as a stumbling block, at times working 12 hour shifts to guard turtles, monitor the area and manage logistics.

The small cats nobody knows: Wild felines face intensifying planetary risks
- Around the world, there are 33 species of small wild cat that often fly under the conservation and funding radar. Out of sight, and out of mind, some of these species face the risk of extreme population declines and extinction.
- But small cat species are reclusive and notoriously difficult to study. In some cases, basic ecological knowledge is lacking, hindering conservation efforts. Their failure to garner the public attention achieved by the more charismatic big cats has left small cat research severely underfunded.
- These species, many of them habitat specialists with narrow ecological niches, face a wide array of threats including habitat degradation and loss, poaching, human-wildlife conflict, and increasingly, pollution and climate change.
- Despite these global challenges, many conservationists and researchers, hampered by low funding, are fighting to conserve small cats by partnering with traditional communities to build public awareness and reduce immediate threats.

Technology and tradition team up to watch over a sacred island’s sea turtles
- Uninhabited Poilão Island in Guinea-Bissau is Africa’s most important nesting ground for green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas).
- Local people have long regarded the island as sacred and have limited access to it, which has kept its environment in a near-pristine state.
- The island is now protected as part of a marine national park, a compromise in which local people granted researchers and some other outsiders access to the island in an exchange that included employment monitoring turtles.
- Researchers and local people now work together to study the turtles with the aim of better protecting them.

In Sumatra, a snare trap costs a baby elephant her trunk, then her life
- A female elephant calf in Indonesia has died days after her rescue and an emergency amputation by conservation authorities in Aceh province.
- Authorities link the elephant’s death to the severe wounds on her trunk believed to have been inflicted by a snare trap set by wildlife poachers.
- Veterinarians amputated half of her trunk, and reported that the elephant appeared to be recovering from the procedure. She died on Nov. 16.
- Snare traps, typically made of steel or nylon wire and usually set for bushmeat like wild boar, are indiscriminate in what they catch, resulting in the capture of non-target species, as well as females and juvenile animals.

Starving and injured Sumatran tiger dies in captivity, Indonesian officials report
- A severely injured and emaciated Sumatran tiger has died in captivity after being captured from the wild, Indonesian conservation authorities reported.
- The adult female tiger was caught following a series of deadly tiger attacks on villagers living near Kerinci Seblat National Park.
- Conservation authorities speculate an outbreak of African swine fever that has affected the area’s population of wild boars likely forced the tigers to roam farther from the forests and into human settlements in search of food.
- Fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild, with the big cat’s population plunging in line with widespread destruction of its forest habitat, primarily due to logging and expanding oil palm and pulpwood plantations.

‘Acts of poaching and other crimes’: Cameroon plans a new road in Lobéké National Park
- Cameroon has notified UNESCO of plans to build a road in Lobéké National Park, part of the World Heritage listed Sangha Tri-National protected area.
- The country’s Minister for Forestry and Wildlife says the road will help to secure the area against cross-border poachers and others engaged in criminal activities, but conservationists are concerned it could facilitate deforestation.
- A study of Gabon’s Minkébé National Park linked heavy poaching in the north of the park to easy access via a highway just across its border with Cameroon.

Indonesia investigates alleged abuse of Sumatran tigers at city zoo
- Indonesian conservation authorities have launched an investigation into alleged abuse of Sumatran tigers at a municipal zoo in North Sumatra province.
- The zoo’s tigers appear emaciated, with their bones protruding, raising concerns that they’re being underfed.
- The zoo management has denied the allegation, saying one of its tigers was ill while the others were healthy and properly fed.
- Zoos in Indonesia are notorious for their negligence, mismanagement and corruption, with animals dying of malnutrition or ill treatment, or sold off into the illegal wildlife trade.

New study shows where to focus efforts to save long-neglected small mammals
- Two small mammal groups — Rodentia (like mice, beavers, squirrels) and Eulipotyphla (like shrews, moles and hedgehogs) — together contain nearly half of all known mammal species.
- A new study provides an updated picture of where all of the globally threatened species from the two groups occur.
- The study also identified regions that are home to rodents and eulipotyphlans currently classified as data deficient or DD — species whose conservation status we simply don’t know.
- The authors say they hope the study will not just get people excited about working with small mammals, but also encourage funders to invest in conservation or research projects focusing on these long-neglected but species-rich animal groups.

Plantations and roads strip away Papua’s forests. They’re just getting started
- Indonesia’s Papua region, comprising the western half of the island of New Guinea, lost an area of rainforest five times the size of London since 2001, according to a new study.
- Deforestation in Papua has ramped up in the past two decades as companies clear forests to make way for large-scale plantations and the government embarks on a massive push for infrastructure development.
- More forests are set to disappear in the future as the government has allocated millions of hectares of land to be developed into industrial plantations and the development of new roads, exacerbating the risk of deforestation, the study warns.
- The study authors call for giving Indigenous Papuans greater autonomy to manage their forests, given that some communities have been able to maintain their forests in near-pristine condition even though government oversight has largely been absent.

For Malagasy trapped in poverty, threatened lemurs and fossas are fair game
- Half of nearly 700 households surveyed in a recent study in Makira National Park in Madagascar reported eating lemur meat and a quarter had consumed fossa meat.
- The research conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society relied on indirect questioning and revealed unusually high levels of consumption of meat from the fossa, Madagascar’s top predator.
- Hunting pressure combined with shrinking habitats could lead to the local extinction of the indri, a critically endangered species and the largest living lemur, along with three other lemur species in the park.
- WCS’s current research will feed into a “behavior change campaign” to promote alternatives to hunting like poultry and fish farming, and harvesting of edible insects.

African wild dogs return to southern Malawi for the first time in 20 years
- Fourteen endangered African wild dogs were recently translocated to Malawi in an attempt to reestablish populations in Liwonde National Park and Majete Wildlife Reserve.
- There are currently only about 6,600 African wild dogs, including 700 breeding pairs, left on the African continent.
- Experts say the success of the translocation will hinge upon whether the dogs reproduce and form a larger population, and also if they manage to stay away from danger if they wander outside the reserve.

There’s still room to save Asia’s hoolock gibbons, study says, but only just
- Hoolock gibbon habitat has declined in the past few decades, but enough suitable patches exist today to guarantee the long-term survival of the genus if properly conserved.
- Particular populations are at greater risk of local extinction and should be translocated, including scattered western hoolock populations in Bangladesh.
- Researchers have also identified strongholds where a relatively high number of hoolock gibbons have been estimated, and which are currently highly threatened, to be prioritized for conservation.
- Hoolock gibbons are particularly vulnerable to forest fragmentation and degradation due to certain behavioral traits, which makes protecting large patches of habitat much more effective than conserving many small and fragmented areas.

Philippine forest turtles stand a ‘good chance’ after first wild release
- Researchers released a pair of Philippine forest turtles (Siebenrockiella leytensis) on the island of Palawan in February, they announced this month, part of a batch of only 17 to have been successfully bred under human care in the Philippines since 2018.
- After tracking the turtles for three months following the release, the researchers say there are indications the animals can mature and reproduce if released within guarded and protected areas.
- The turtles are notoriously difficult to breed in human care and the conservation group that carried out the breeding program took 10 years before recording its first successful hatchling in 2018.
- Endemic to the Philippines, the forest turtle is threatened by poaching for the exotic pet trade, with wild-caught specimens often passed off as captive-born ones by private traders, despite the great difficulty in breeding this species in captivity.

Camera trap pics of rare species in Vietnam raise conservation hopes
- Camera traps recently captured images of several different highly endangered species in Vietnam’s Phong Dien Nature Reserve.
- These include the Annamite striped rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi) and Owston’s palm civet (Chrotogale owstoni), which are only found in the Annamite Range of Laos and Vietnam.
- The sightings have confirmed the high biodiversity value of Phong Dien, and the importance of strengthening protection from threats such as snare hunting and hydropower development.

Madagascar’s vanishing trees
- Madagascar has a documented 2,900 endemic species of trees, but a new report shows that almost two-thirds of them are in danger of disappearing.
- Of the 3,118 species covered, more than 90% had never been systematically evaluated before, and one in 10 fell in the IUCN’s critically endangered category, a step away from going extinct in the wild.
- Though the island nation’s protected area network has expanded to more than 7 million hectares (17 million acres), a tenth of the tree species are found outside this safety net.
- Scientists are racing against the extinction clock to document this mind-boggling biodiversity and determine just how imperiled individual species are.

Latest mass stranding raises concerns for endangered Caspian seals
- About 170 endangered Caspian seals were found dead on Russia’s Dagestan coast near the city of Makhachkala from May 4-6, with fishing activities most likely to blame.
- People harvest Caspian seals for their skin and even their blubber, which is made into an oil and promoted as a cure for COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, according to experts.
- An expert says more than 15,000 Caspian seals are killed each year through fishing activities and then filtered into the wildlife trade.
- With only about 68,000 mature individuals left in the wild, experts say international cooperation by countries bordering the Caspian Sea is urgently needed to protect the imperiled species.

Unrelated adoptions by bonobos may point to altruistic traits, study says
- Two wild bonobos in the Luo Scientific Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were observed to adopt infants from different social groups, according to a new study.
- These are said to be the first recorded cases of great apes adopting unrelated individuals.
- While the researchers do not know why these bonobos chose to adopt unrelated infants, they speculate that it could be to strengthen current and future alliances within their own groups as well as with other social groups.

Activists make the case that bigger is better to protect Galápagos reserve
- A group of scientists, conservationists and NGOs are campaigning to expand the current Galápagos Marine Reserve to protect an additional 445,953 square kilometers (172,183 square miles) in the exclusive economic zone of the Galápagos Islands.
- According to a scientific proposal, the marine reserve expansion would help protect threatened migratory species, deter unsustainable and illegal fishing practices, and even bolster the legal Ecuadoran fishing industries.
- While the proposal has garnered both national and international support, Ecuador’s fishing sector is largely opposed to the expansion of the reserve.

For Sumatran elephant conservation, involvement of local people is key (commentary)
- For critically endangered Sumatran elephants, a long-term conservation strategy must include community involvement in mitigating human-elephant conflict, in addition to securing viable habitats.
- Any successful conflict mitigation should raise the awareness of–and gain acceptance from–the local community, requiring adequate support from governments and conservation NGOs.
- Only when viable habitats and community involvement are both ensured will the well-being of the local people, as well as the conservation of Sumatran elephants, be secured.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Conservation must be primary goal of great ape tourism, despite COVID-driven recessions (commentary)
- The months-long closure of national parks and continued travel restrictions due to COVID-19 has disrupted a critical revenue source for great ape conservation: sustainable tourism.
- Countries which rely on tourism as a significant source of their GDP must continue to place biodiversity principles at the heart of recovery efforts, and explore alternative livelihood options for local communities.
- Where great ape tourism is concerned, conservation must always be the primary goal of any endeavor.
- This article is a commentary, the views expressed are not necessarily those of Mongabay.

Does trophy hunting hurt giraffe populations? A planned lawsuit says it does
- Conservation groups are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to respond to a petition seeking protection for giraffes under the nation’s Endangered Species Act, a move that would severely limit the import and trade of giraffe trophies and other giraffe products.
- Between 2006 and 2015, trophy hunters legally imported 3,744 giraffe hunting trophies, as well as thousands of giraffe parts and products such as skin pieces, bones and bone carvings.
- While some conservationists say trophy hunting is having a large impact on the global giraffe population, others say it is not a major threat, especially when compared to other issues such as poaching, human-wildlife conflict, and habitat loss and fragmentation.

Brazilian frog believed ‘extinct’ for 50+ years, found with eDNA testing
- A Brazilian frog species, Megaelosia bocainensis, thought to have gone extinct in 1968 has been found with eDNA testing, which picks up the traces of environmental DNA that are left behind by living organisms in soil, water and air.
- The missing frog’s eDNA was detected in the Atlantic Forest biome in Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina, its last known habitat in São Paulo state, Brazil.
- The researchers used metabarcoding — a form of rapid DNA sequencing — in order to monitor entire communities, rather than only specific rare target species.
- The innovative highly sensitive eDNA sampling technique provides a valuable tool for conservation scientists to evaluate the status of threatened species and to confirm the presence of species that are difficult to monitor and often go undetected using traditional methods.

Don’t cross this tiger mom: Close encounter in Russia’s Far East
- A researcher working for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Russia had a close encounter with an Amur tiger and her cub in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve in mid-September.
- Amur tigers are considered to be endangered species, with fewer than 600 believed to be living in China and Russia.
- The biggest threat to Amur tigers is poaching, although conservationists say that recent changes in Russian law have made is easier to convict hunters and traffickers.

Rangers on the run: Half-marathon aims to raise funding for front-liners
- Wildlife ranger groups across Africa are struggling to maintain operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic drying up funding sources, which has resulted in ranger redundancies and salary reductions.
- Tusk, a U.K. nonprofit, is spearheading the Wildlife Ranger Challenge, a race and fundraiser that aims to help keep wildlife rangers employed.
- $2 million has already been distributed as emergency funding to several wildlife ranger groups.

In bid to protect a Philippine pangolin stronghold, little talk of enforcement
- Provincial and municipal authorities on the Philippine island of Palawan are drawing up management plans aimed at boosting protection for the Victoria-Anepahan Mountain Range, a key habitat of the Philippine pangolin.
- The 165,000-hectare (408,000-acre) is not a formally protected area, and suffers from deforestation driven by illegal logging, as well as massive poaching and illegal trade of its wildlife, including pangolins.
- The critically endangered Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis), found only in Palawan, is one of the most trafficked animals on Earth, with its population declining by up to 95% between 1980 and 2018.
- Critics of the management plan say it will be a bureaucratic waste of resources without efforts to step up enforcement measures to curb the illegal trade of pangolins and other wildlife in the mountain range.

Philippine wildlife reporting app promises to upgrade fight against trafficking
- The Philippines’ environment department plans a year-end rollout of an app, currently being tested, that should make it easier for citizens and enforcement officials to report wildlife crimes.
- Illegal wildlife trafficking is the fourth-biggest transnational crime in the world, following the trafficking of drugs, people, and weapons; in the Philippines, the trade is estimated at $1 billion a year, and threatens the country’s unique wildlife, of which many species are found nowhere else.
- The WildALERT app is designed to overcome one of the main problems with reporting any kind of crime from remote areas — patchy internet reception — by using an offline mode that allows users to enter photographic and location data on-site and upload it when they get reception.
- The app also has a library feature, essentially a Facebook for endangered species, to allow users to quickly identify and report species they encounter; the lack of specialist knowledge is currently one of the big gaps in the existing campaign against the illegal wildlife trade.

Fight rages on to save centuries-old giant Philippine rosewood tree
- Officials in the southern Philippines have decided to cut a centuries-old Philippine rosewood tree (Petersianthus quadrialatus) that’s believed to be the oldest and tallest of its species.
- The decision comes after assessments showed extensive fungal rot and termite damage in the trunk, presenting a risk of the 56-meter (184-foot) tree falling over onto a nearby highway.
- Experts, however, say there is still hope for the giant tree through a regimen of tree surgery, fungicide treatment and regular checkups, which they accuse officials of failing to do in the past.

Rangers protecting Philippine tamaraws go hungry as pandemic bites
- Rangers tasked to protect the critically endangered Philippine tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis) are facing a different kind of threat: hunger, as budget cuts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic bite into their already meager salaries.
- The tamaraw, also known as the dwarf buffalo, is a critically endangered species found only on the island of Mindoro, with an estimated population of just 480.
- The tamaraw’s island stronghold is Mounts Iglit-Baco Natural Park, which is protected by 24 rangers and Indigenous volunteers.
- But the tamaraw program has been chronically underfunded, and diversion of funds to help fight the pandemic has left some of the rangers unemployed and the rest going hungry, even as they continue to do their jobs.

Indonesia dam builder refuses new study to assess impact on orangutans
- A dam developer in Indonesia has rebuffed calls for an independent study to assess the impact of the project on the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan.
- The species, numbering fewer than 800, is found only in the Batang Toru forest in Sumatra, which is also the site of a hydropower project that conservationists say threatens the survival of the great ape and livelihoods of local communities.
- The IUCN has led calls for an independent assessment, citing a litany of inaccurate and misleading claims stemming from the project developer’s various statements and publications.

Scientists urge reassessment of threatened species after Australian bushfires
- A new paper suggests that the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires impacted critical habitats of more than 800 native species, with 70 species losing more than 30% of their natural range.
- The bushfires may have led to a 14% increase in threatened species, according to the study.
- The researchers recommend an urgent assessment of threatened species via the Australian government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, which classifies threatened species and provides legal protection for them.
- Other actions may be needed to help preserve native wildlife populations, such as invasive species management, captive-breeding programs, and the protection of fire-burned regions to aid recovery, the researchers suggest.

Cameroon halts logging plans in Ebo Forest, home to tool-using chimps
- The Cameroon government announced that a logging concession for Ebo Forest, which was approved three weeks ago, has been cancelled.
- Ebo Forest is a large, intact forest system in southwestern Cameroon that is a refuge for a number of endangered and critically endangered species, including a population of Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees with a unique repertoire of tool use.
- While conservationists are optimistic about this news, they are also concerned that the future of the forest still remains uncertain.

Illegal plant trade, tourism threaten new Philippine flowering herbs
- Scientists have described a new ornamental plant species in the biodiverse region of Palawan, a province in the western Philippines.
- The new species, Begonia cabanillasii, is the 25th begonia species found on the island and the 133rd recorded in the Philippines.
- Begonias are flowering perennial herbs popular in the ornamental plant trade. The new species grows in a shady and rocky undergrowth habitat in Palawan and is assessed to be critically endangered.
- The illegal plant trade and tourism, a driver of deforestation in the province, pose the biggest threat to this new plant species and other Palawan-endemic flora, researchers say.

Ornithologists discover more rare hornbills than thought on Philippine island
- A new study of the endemic and rare Visayan tarictic hornbill (Penelopides panini) on Negros Island in the Philippines shows that the population of the endangered bird may be double the previous estimate of the IUCN.
- A 2001 assessment by the IUCN estimated the total number of tarictic hornbills on the islands of Negros and Panay at 1,800; this new study finds nearly 3,600 hornbills in Negros alone.
- Hornbills are among the most threatened bird species in the Philippines; a subspecies of the taritic hornbill was the first first hornbill in the country to be declared extinct, in 2013, after it disappeared from the island of Ticao.
- The study is the first to establish an existing population of tarictic hornbills for the island of Negros and the first to identify bird populations in each remaining forest area on the island.

‘Criminalizing’ dissent, martial law fuel attacks on Philippine environmental defenders
- Attacks on environmental and land defenders in the Philippines have escalated under President Rodrigo Duterte, with at least 43 deaths in 2019, watchdog group Global Witness says in its latest report.
- It recorded a total of 119 defender deaths in the Philippines since Duterte took office in mid-2016.
- Martial law in Mindanao, which was only lifted last December, combined with Duterte’s counterinsurgency campaigns and wide-scale anti-drug war, exacerbated the threats against defenders, local groups say.
- A plurality of the casualties in the global tally are in mining and agribusiness; the Philippines registered the most number of deaths in both sectors, the report says.

Sea turtles often lose their way, but always reach their destination
- A new study found that green sea turtles rely on a “crude map” to navigate the ocean, often going several hundred kilometers off course before successfully arriving at their destination.
- Using GPS tracking devices, the research team tracked the migrations of female green turtles from nesting grounds on Diego Garcia Island in the Indian Ocean to foraging grounds on isolated oceanic islands.
- Green turtles demonstrate a particularly high fidelity to foraging grounds, which made them an ideal species to study.
- The researchers say they hope their findings will help inform conservation efforts to protect green turtles, which are an endangered species.

New study quantifies impact of hunting on migratory shorebird populations
- Hunting might be a major threat for thousands of migratory shorebirds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), one of the major corridors for migratory birds in the world.
- A new study shows that hunting has contributed to the demise of at least a third of migratory shorebirds in the flyway since the 1970s.
- The flyway, which spans 22 countries from the Arctic to Australia, is the most threatened flyway among the nine migratory bird corridors in the world, with habitat loss and climate change the main drivers of the plummeting population.
- Around 50 million waterbirds pass through the flyway on an annual basis, but recent data shows a 61% decline in migrating waterbird species.

Pandemic or not, the mission to save the rare Philippine eagle grinds on
- A critically endangered Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) was rescued in the Zamboanga Peninsula in the southern Philippines during the height of the country’s COVID-19 lockdown, when all land, sea and air travel were barred.
- Despite the mobility limitations, various groups were able to exchange information and provide the much-needed proper first aid and rehabilitation for the rescued eagle, which was released back into the wild on May 20.
- There are currently seven known and identified Philippine eagles in the Zamboanga Peninsula, where there are ample protection mechanisms to support breeding eagle pairs.
- Deforestation, hunting and poaching are still the biggest threats to Philippine eagles, but recent collective efforts by various stakeholders have helped strengthen their conservation, experts say.

Gray areas and weak policies mar lucrative Asian trade in live reef fish
- High demand for wild-caught reef fish from Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia to stock upscale restaurants in East Asia could be driving overfishing and depletion of fish stocks, export trends indicate.
- To ease the strain on wild fish populations, countries started adopting fish-farming practices in which they raise wild-caught grouper species in pens — a practice that is far from sustainable, a marine expert says.
- Government attempts to regulate the trade by imposing size limits and closed fishing seasons have largely fallen short, experts say.
- The COVID-19 pandemic and the civil unrest in Hong Kong, the prime market for the live reef food fish trade, have driven demand down, providing a window to aid the recovery of species like the leopard coral trout.

That coconut oil you love? Species have gone extinct over it, study says
- A new study found that coconut oil production, by some measures, is more destructive than palm oil production, with coconuts affecting 20 threatened species per million liters of oil produced, and palm oil only affecting 3.8 species per million liters.
- Globally, coconut farms occupy 12.3 million hectares (30.4 million acres) of land, about two-thirds the area of oil palm plantations, with most farms located in Indonesia and the Philippines.
- Instead of positioning coconut oil as a product that should be avoided, the study aims to demonstrate that most consumable oils, such as olive, soy and rapeseed oil, have a negative impact on the environment, although these impacts are not all well known or publicized.
- Since this story was published, a substantive rebuttal to the findings on coconut oil was published by Mongabay, see below for a link to that.

Treetop cameras capture first known video of a wild roloway monkey
- Treetop cameras in Côte d’Ivoire’s Tanoé-Ehy forest recently captured the first known video of a wild roloway monkey, a critically endangered species that spends most of its time high up in trees.
- There are only about 300 roloway monkeys left in the wild, and 36 individuals living in captivity, so conservation efforts are paramount to preserve the species, according to experts.
- Conservationists are also hoping to capture video of the critically endangered Miss Waldron’s red colobus monkey, which hasn’t been spotted in 42 years.

The first modern-day marine fish has officially gone extinct. More may follow
- The smooth handfish (Sympterichthys unipennis), an unusual species that could “walk” on its pectoral and pelvic fins, is the first marine bony fish to go extinct in modern times, likely due to habitat loss and destructive fishing practices.
- There was only ever one specimen of the smooth handfish known to scientists, which became the holotype for the entire species.
- The other 13 species of handfish are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss, pollution, destructive fishing practices, and other human-linked causes, and conservationists are stepping up efforts to protect them.
- Only four species of handfish have been spotted in the past 20 years, which has raised serious concerns for the future survival of these species.

Indonesia resumes release of captive wildlife amid COVID-19
- Indonesia has allowed the release of captive animals back in to the wild to continue, after freezing the activity to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus to wildlife populations.
- Orangutan rescue centers in Indonesia have welcomed the decision as they struggle with crowded facilities and rising operational costs.
- But the centers say they won’t release any orangutans anytime soon, as the great apes are likely vulnerable to the coronavirus.
- Experts have recommended that the apes also undergo COVID-19 testing prior to being released back into the wild.

38 endangered Brazilian tree species legally traded, poorly tracked: Study
- A recent study found that 38 tree species officially listed by Brazil as threatened with extinction were traded between 2012 and 2016. Though prohibited from being harvested, the timber of the threatened trees was traded within Brazil and exported.
- Of the 38 threatened tree species traded, 17 were classified as Vulnerable, 18 as Endangered, and three as Critically Endangered.
- To end this exploitation, scientists urge that the timber no longer be tracked only at the genus level, but at the species level. They also recommend better coordination between IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, which designates threat levels, and the Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) which tracks wood products.
- Another systemic problem: of the 38 threatened species, some are not included on the IUCN Red List or on the CITES species checklist. The study urged IUCN and CITES update their lists to include all 38 of the species found to be threatened by IBAMA.

An armada of turtles, caught on drone cam, flocks to the Great Barrier Reef
- New drone video shows thousands of endangered green turtles swimming ashore to Raine Island on the outer edges of the Great Barrier Reef.
- Researchers captured this video to help survey the nesting turtle population, and in the process demonstrated that this technique is more effective than manually counting turtles from boats. They recorded 64,000 turtles nesting on Raine Island this season.
- There’s been an increase in the number of nesting green turtles around the world, including Raine Island, likely due to conservation efforts and fishing moratoriums.
- Team members at the Raine Island Recovery Project are working to restore the island’s beaches to ensure that green turtles can continue to safely nest there.

Less than a thousand remain: New list of animals on the brink of extinction
- More than 500 vertebrate species are on the brink of extinction, with populations of fewer than a thousand individuals, a new study says.
- According to the authors, the Earth is experiencing its sixth mass extinction, extinction rates accelerating, and human activity is to blame.
- The authors call the ongoing extinction perhaps “the most serious environmental threat to the persistence of civilization, because it is irreversible.”
- “The conservation of endangered species should be elevated to a national and global emergency for governments and institutions, equal to climate disruption to which it is linked,” they say.

When the world’s rarest primate couples up, it’s a win for the species
- The Hainan gibbon, the rarest primate in the world, nearly went extinct in the 1970s, but the species is slowly rebounding, with a population of about 30 individuals in Hainan, an island off southern China.
- Conservationists recently discovered that a male and female formed a new “family” unit that’s living outside the species’ current range in the Hainan Bawangling National Nature Reserve, with a baby potentially due later this year.
- The species’ recovery is attributed to conservation efforts, which have included local monitoring teams, a tree-planting program, and community education.
- One of the biggest concerns over the Hainan gibbon is lack of genetic diversity, given the small gene pool, which can lead to poor health and fertility problems.

For Indonesia’s captive wildlife, lockdown measures may prove deadly
- Zoos have been shuttered and wildlife rehabilitation centers barred from releasing animals into the wild as a result of measures imposed in Indonesia to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Without revenue from visitor fees, zoos in the country, long notorious for the egregious conditions in which they keep the animals, are looking at the possibility of killing some of their animals to feed the others.
- Wildlife rehab centers, which mostly care for orangutans and other apes, have been ordered to keep taking in rescued animals but not to release them for fear of spreading the virus to wild populations.
- This has raised concerns about overcrowding at rescue centers, many of which are also under financial pressure as donations decline.

A Philippine village on lockdown delivers nearly 300 turtle hatchlings to sea
- A village in the southern Philippines known as a nesting haven for critically endangered hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) has managed to protect and oversee the successful hatching of hundreds of eggs amid a community lockdown.
- The community released 299 hatchlings into the sea in the first two weeks of May and anticipate another 100 to be hatched before the end of the month, making it their most successful month in recent years.
- It’s a welcome resurgence for the town of Magsaysay, where the number of hatchlings has decreased significantly over the past few years, in part due to rising sea levels causing the eggs buried on the beach to spoil.
- The town has been under lockdown, known locally as a community quarantine, since March 17 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Endangered bats are evolving to fight off an exotic fungal disease
- Little brown bats, an endangered species, have declined by more than 90% due to white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that causes bats to wake up from hibernation, and consequently drains their essential fat reserves.
- A new study uses genetics to determine that little brown bats with certain genetic traits are more likely to survive the disease.
- Research on genetically resistant bats could help inform conservation efforts to save the little brown bat and other bat species affected by the syndrome.

Chinese boat that dumped Indonesian crews at sea was also shark-finning: Reports
- A Chinese fishing company under scrutiny for the deadly labor abuses of its Indonesian boat crews was likely also engaged in illegal fishing, conservationists say.
- Jakarta has demanded answers for the slavery-like conditions under which the crew members worked on board a tuna boat belonging to the Dalian Ocean Fishing Co. Ltd.
- Four of the crew members died of illness, with three of them dumped at sea; photos provided by the surviving crew indicate the boat was engaged in the illegal finning of threatened shark species.
- “[Illegal] fishing and modern slavery practices at sea are two sides of the same coin,” said Greenpeace Indonesia oceans campaigner Arifsyah Nasution.

Pandemic lockdown gives Philippine province time to rethink planned split-up
- The coronavirus pandemic has halted a planned vote on whether to split up the biodiverse province of Palawan into three smaller ones.
- Those in support of the proposal say breaking up the country’s biggest province into more manageable constituencies will allow officials to better address poverty and development issues.
- But critics say it will exacerbate bureaucratic bloat, allow the ruling elites to grab more power, and harm both the management of natural resources and welfare of indigenous peoples.
- They say the argument that the province is too big to properly manage is flawed, given how officials have largely been able to execute pandemic responses, and that the real issue is political will.

Authorities seize record 26 tons of illegal shark fins in Hong Kong
- Hong Kong customs officials have discovered a shipment of 26 tons of shark fins from CITES-protected species, the largest of its kind ever to be seized in the region.
- Officials identified the fins as belonging to 31,000 thresher sharks and 7,500 silky sharks, which are both listed as vulnerable species by the IUCN.
- Conservationists are concerned by the large volume of thresher and silky sharks in this consignment, especially as these species are slow to reproduce in the wild.
- More than 73 million sharks enter the global shark fin trade each year, primarily to make a luxury food item called shark fin soup, although conservationists believe the demand for this soup is waning in China and Hong Kong.

Young Nigerian researcher goes to bat against forest fires
- The discovery in 2016 of a rare bat never before seen in Nigeria sparked a campaign to protect its habitat from the threat of forest fires, typically started by farmers clearing land or hunters dropping lit cigarettes in the vegetation.
- Through their Small Mammal Conservation Organization (SMACON) and its Zero Fire Campaign, biologists Iroro Tanshi and Benneth Obitte worked with local communities around the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary to end the burning and educate on bat conservation.
- No fires were recorded in the region in the past three years, except for a single incident last month, as the campaign continues to instill “the consciousness of how big a deal this is,” Tanshi says.
- In recognition of her work and dedication, Tanshi was named among the winners of this year’s Future for Nature Foundation’s awards for young conservationists; she says the prize money will go toward protection and further studies of the short-tailed roundleaf bat.

For world’s rarest great ape, COVID-19 is latest in a litany of threats
- Scientists have called for all projects in the only known habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan in Sumatra to be halted to prevent the possible transmission of COVID-19 to the great apes.
- The orangutans wouldn’t necessarily have to come into direct contact with humans to catch the virus; they could catch it indirectly via other primate species.
- The species already faces pressure from the construction of a hydropower project in its only known habitat and the expansion of nearby oil palm plantations.
- A new study finds the hydropower project developer cleared an area of forest larger than New York City’s Central Park, and that the orangutan population density in the affected area has declined, suggesting the apes are being driven out of their habitat.

Flamingos form lasting friendships, a new study finds
- Flamingos, like humans, form social bonds that can last for years and appear to be important for survival in the wild, a new study shows.
- Researchers studying the bird’s social interactions at a captive center in the U.K. found they tended to make long-standing friendships rather than loose, random connections.
- In addition to the friends they tend to “hang out” with, flamingos also actively avoid some individuals.
- The findings could prove useful in managed breeding programs, to ensure that bonded flamingos aren’t separated from each other.

In the Philippines’ Boracay, flying foxes are going, going, gone
- A recent survey counted just 30 resident bats on the Philippine resort island of Boracay, down from 15,000 in 1988.
- Boracay has been subject to a massive rehabilitation effort after pollution and runaway development prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to close the island to tourism for six months in 2018.
- The closure does not seem to have benefited the bats, including the endemic golden-crowned flying fox (Acerodon jubatus), one of the world’s largest fruit bat species, which is classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.
- Bat conservationists have persistently recommended declaring the island’s remaining forest cover as critical habitats for threatened bats, but formal recognition hangs in the balance as rehabilitation efforts end this May.

Poachers kill 3 near-extinct giant ibises amid pandemic pressure in Cambodia
- A recent poaching incident in Cambodia’s northern plains took the lives of three giant ibises, a critically endangered bird species.
- There’s been an upsurge in poaching, deforestation and other destructive activities in Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries since the start of the COVID-19 crisis.
- The Wildlife Conservation Society in Cambodia is looking for ways to help community members get reliable sources of income during the pandemic so they don’t need to resort to poaching.

Malaysian authorities seize record 6 tons of African pangolin scales
- On April 1, authorities seized more than 6 tons of African pangolin scales in Port Klang, Malaysia. This is the biggest shipment of pangolin scales ever to be discovered in this particular port.
- The exact origins of this shipment are unknown, especially since traffickers frequently change their routes.
- Pangolins are the most trafficked animal in the world, with over 1 million animals taken from the wild and traded since 2000.
- Wildlife trafficking continues despite the pandemic, and smugglers may be trying to take advantage of the lockdowns.

Scientists call for independent review of dam project in orangutan habitat
- A controversial hydropower project being built in the only known habitat of the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan has been put on hold indefinitely over the coronavirus outbreak.
- Conservationists say this is the perfect time to carry out an independent scientific assessment of the project’s impacts on the environment, and in particular on the world’s rarest and most threatened great ape species.
- But the project developer has refused to do so, claiming other developments in the Batang Toru ecosystem of northern Sumatra also pose a threat yet haven’t been asked to cease operations pending a study.
- The $1.6 billion project is also at risk of not getting the funding it needs, thanks to studies and campaigns highlighting its potentially devastating environmental impact and virtual redundancy in a region that already has sufficient electricity.

Turning the tide for an endangered crab species in the Philippines
- The tourism boom that swept through the province of Batanes, a group of islands at the northernmost tip of the Philippines, from 2014 has driven a decline in coconut crabs there.
- Coconut crabs are hunted by locals to serve for tourists, the majority of whom come to the province to sample the rare delicacy.
- Overharvesting of coconut crabs has become the norm in the province, even after the species was placed on the IUCN Red List and despite measures to preserve the remaining population in the wild.
- Slow to mature, coconut crabs can live up to 60 years and propagate in very specific environments.

Burning and bullets: Forest fires push Bornean orangutans into harm’s way
- Last year, a female orangutan in Indonesian Borneo was rescued after leaving her burned habitat.
- Experts later found signs of a recent pregnancy and also injuries to the animal.
- Wildfires in Indonesian Borneo last year led to an increase in the number of human-orangutan conflicts and wildlife rescues.
- Conservationists have called for stronger efforts to end forest fires and protect orangutan habitats.

Philippine fruit bats may be entirely new species of their own, DNA suggests
- A recently published genetic study on fruit bats found in the Philippines revealed high genetic difference among island groups and compared to the Southeast Asian region, which could mean they either need to be reclassified as subspecies or be elevated as new species.
- The study covered 19 of the 27 fruit bat species native to the Philippines, which were assessed using a DNA barcoding technology in a six-year study.
- Five of the species were revealed to have 6 to 7% genetic distance from specimens elsewhere in Southeast Asia, possibly justifying the need to name them distinct populations of their own, the researchers say.
- DNA barcoding is part of a growing international effort to create a genetic database to improve wildlife forensics, aid in curbing wildlife trafficking and help implement more efficient species-focused conservation efforts.

Endangered migratory birds on collision course with Philippine airport project
- The ongoing construction of an international airport north of Manila may displace at least 12 endangered and threatened bird species, a bird-watching group says.
- Among these species is the endangered black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor), 24 of which were spotted last month as part of the Asian Waterbird Census — the biggest flock recorded so far in the Philippines.
- The “aerotropolis” project, a 2,500-hectare (6,200-acre) airport complex located 25 kilometers (16 miles)from Manila, will encroach on one of the largest intact coastal wetlands in Manila Bay.
- Every year, more than 50 million waterbirds, including 32 globally threatened species, travel through the Philippines by the East Asian Australasian Flyway, one of the world’s biggest migratory bird flight paths.

Controversial dam gets green light to flood a Philippine protected area
- The environment department has issued an environmental compliance certificate that allows the contested Kaliwa Dam project in the Sierra Madre mountain range to go ahead, part of a wider push to secure water supplies for Manila and surrounding areas.
- The certificate is one of the last sets of documents required by the developers for the project being funded by a $238.3 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China.
- Yet its issuance comes despite a government-conducted environmental impact assessment showing that the dam’s reservoir alone will endanger endemic wildlife and plants, drive massive species migration, and pose risks to lowland agricultural and fishing communities with a history of flash flooding.
- The site of the planned dam falls within the Kaliwa watershed forest reserve, which has been designated a natural wildlife park sanctuary and game refuge, and an IUCN Category V Protected Landscape/Seascape.

For Indonesia’s newest tarsier, a debut a quarter century in the making
- Scientists first spotted a previously unknown type of tarsier on the Togean Islands off Sulawesi, Indonesia, in 1993, and it’s taken 25 years of further studies to describe the diminutive primate species as new to science.
- Niemitz’s tarsier (Tarsius niemitzi) is named after Carsten Niemitz, one of the scientists on that initial visit to the Togean islands, whom the authors of the new paper call “the father of tarsier field biology.”
- There are now 12 known tarsier species found in Sulawesi and surrounding islands, but the paper’s authors say the region could be home to at least 16, with more research needed.
- They warn that loss of habitat makes it “quite plausible” that some tarsier species may go extinct before scientists have a chance to identify them.

New lease on life beckons for Arroceros, Manila’s hidden jungle
- Arroceros Forest Park in the heart of Manila is one of the few green spaces left in the bustling Philippines capital.
- Successive governments have tried to get rid of it for new developments, but the city’s newly elected mayor has announced plans to retain and rehabilitate it as part of his “green city” proposal.
- The park is home to more than 3,000 trees, including 60 native species, and serves as a rest stop for migratory birds.
- Often dubbed the “lung” of Manila, Arroceros has been shown to mitigate the city’s notorious air pollution, and plays a key role in minimizing flooding, another of the capital’s litany of problems.

Campaigners push for reform of outdated CITES wildlife trade system
- CITES, the international treaty that regulates the trade in wildlife products, dates back to 1975, but some of the systems it uses have not changed in that time.
- Campaigners say this lack of modernization has allowed the illegal wildlife trade to proliferate to the tune of more than $250 billion a year.
- Better regulation would reduce the scale of the illegal wildlife trade and ensure legal commerce is truly sustainable, they say.

Saving Guatemala’s vanishing macaws: Q&A with veterinarian Luis Fernando Guerra
- The northern subspecies of the scarlet macaw (Ara macao cyanoptera) has disappeared from much of its former range in Mexico and Central America due to habitat loss and wildlife trafficking. Researchers estimate there are between 150 and 200 scarlet macaws remaining in Guatemala.
- Fire, used to clear land for agriculture, is the biggest driver of habitat loss in Guatemala. So far this year, NASA satellites have detected more than 40,000 fires in Guatemala, many occurring in scarlet macaw habitat.
- The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is trying to protect Guatemala’s macaws through a program that monitors nest sites and places lab-hatched chicks in adoptive nests.
- Mongabay caught up with WCS Lead Medical Veterinarian Luis Fernando Guerra as he was working in the field in Laguna del Tigre National Park to chat about his work and the outlook for scarlet macaws.

Sea otters leave behind unique archaeological traces, study finds
- Sea otters are the only marine mammals known to use stone tools. Now, a new study has found that by striking shells on rocks, sea otters leave behind distinct archaeological signatures.
- These marks can be used to trace sea otters in locations where they are now extinct.
- The study also found clear damage patterns on mussel shells left around the stationary rocks. These shell break patterns provide a new way to distinguish the evidence of sea otter food consumption from that of humans, researchers say.

Bid to protect Borneo’s wild cattle hinges on whether it’s a new species
- The Bornean banteng is considered to be a subspecies of the banteng found on Java, but some scientists are arguing the animal should be recognized as its own species.
- Local indigenous communities are trying to protect the banteng, invoking customary law to fine their own members and outsiders who hunt it. Community planning has spaced rice fields farther apart so that the banteng have room to travel.
- In the headwaters region of the Belantikan River in central Borneo, only 20 or 30 Bornean banteng are known to remain.

Study identifies climate-resilient trees to help orangutan conservation
- Once written off as lost cause for conservation, Indonesia’s Kutai National Park supports one of the last intact forest canopies on Borneo’s eastern coast, a habitat for the critically endangered East Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus morio).
- An IUCN study funded through the Indianapolis Zoological Society has identified tree species native to Kutai National Park that are resilient to climate change and support orangutan populations.
- Climate change has become an emerging threat that is likely to intensify drought conditions and wildfires. Currently, land settlement and human-caused fires pose the greatest existential threat to the park’s ecosystem functions and biodiversity.
- The study authors recommended that the fire-resistant native trees they identified in the study be planted in buffer zones around fire-prone areas. They hope the study will help spur research to enable forest restoration in other parts of the world.

Tiny subterranean Texas salamanders could be extinct in 100 years
- A recent study has revealed the existence of three previously undescribed species living underground within an aquifer system in Central Texas.
- The authors say one of these species is critically endangered due to human over-use of the aquifer. In all, they say that this unsustainable use could mean the extinction of all aquifer salamanders in the next century.
- The researchers urge the creation of policies that would regulate groundwater usage, as well as greater protection of particularly at-risk species through the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Protests flare as pressure mounts on dam project in orangutan habitat
- Activists in Jakarta and cities around the world staged protests outside Bank of China branches and Chinese diplomatic missions on March 1.
- They called on state-owned BOC to end its funding for a hydroelectric project in Sumatra that threatens the only known habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s rarest great ape.
- A lawsuit is pending in an Indonesian court, and a verdict due on March 4 could see the developer’s environmental permit rescinded, essentially halting the project.
- The protests come amid a revelation, first reported by Mongabay, that the signature of a scientist involved in the environmental impact analysis was forged to obtain the permit.

Allegation of forged signature casts shadow over China-backed dam in Sumatra
- A researcher has claimed that his signature was forged in a document used to obtain a permit for a Chinese-backed $1.6 billion hydropower project in Indonesia.
- If his claim is proven true, the project’s environmental permit would presumably be rendered invalid, raising questions about the project’s future.
- Environmentalists say the cancellation of the project is crucial for the future survival of the Tapanuli orangutan, a newly described great ape that is already at risk of extinction due to habitat fragmentation.

Indonesia confiscated some 200 pet cockatoos. What happened to them?
- As Indonesia cracks down on the illegal wildlife trade, it is struggling to deal with the influx of animals confiscated from traffickers.
- Birds are among the most trafficked creatures. Due to a lack of rehabilitation centers, where they would slowly be prepared for life in the wild, many birds are released prematurely.
- That seems to have been the case with a group of cockatoos that were handed into the state after the infamous “water bottle bust” of 2015, in which a smuggler was caught with 23 yellow-crested cockatoos stuffed into plastic water bottles in his luggage.

In eastern Indonesia, a bird-trafficking hotspot flies under the radar
- Indonesia, one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth, is a major hub of the illegal bird trade. Demand comes from both inside and outside its borders.
- Aru, a remote archipelago near the giant island of New Guinea, is a major supplier of cockatoos and other exotic birds.
- The relevant government agency is too understaffed to keep up with traffickers, officials say.

Group helps illegal bird traders transition into different lines of business
- Instead of focusing on putting bird poachers and illegal traders behind bars, an NGO in Indonesian Borneo is creating incentives for them to stop.
- It’s a unique approach in the Southeast Asian country, where conservation efforts have tended to focus on calls for tighter law enforcement and more rigorous punishment.
- The group, Planet Indonesia, has identified more than 100 small bird shops in and around Pontianak, the biggest city in western Borneo, and says many of them are pondering changing professions. It’s know-how and capital that’s holding them back.

‘Not all hope is lost’ as outlook for mountain gorillas brightens
- The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) changed the status of mountain gorillas from Critically Endangered to Endangered today.
- The new assessment cites the subspecies’ growing numbers, now at around 1,000 individuals, and the conservation efforts on its behalf.
- Scientists say that, while this is an important milestone, mountain gorillas’ survival depends on continued conservation.

Indonesia’s Aceh sees harshest penalty yet for a wildlife crime
- Two men who tried to sell a tiger pelt received four-year sentences in Indonesia’s Aceh province earlier this month.
- Sentences for wildlife traffickers have typically been low. Activists are pushing to revise the law to increase the maximum five-year penalty for wildlife crimes, but courts have tended to impose even lower sentences.
- Just a few hundred Sumatran tigers remain in the wild. The big cat is one of a number of rare species sought after by poachers in Indonesia.

Fires tear through East Java park, threatening leopard habitat
- Authorities in East Java, Indonesia, are trying to stop a wildfire from spreading into core zone of the Coban Wisula forest, home to Javan leopards.
- The fire is burning within Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, a major tourist attraction. An iconic landscape in the park, known as Teletubbies Hill, has already gone up in flames.
- A local NGO is monitoring the situation to make sure none of the leopards are flushed out of their habitat and into contact with humans, which could turn violent.

Komodo protesters say no to development in the dragons’ den
- Two private developers are set to build a restaurant and accommodation on islands that are home to the rare and threatened Komodo dragon in Indonesia.
- Residents have protested the plans, however, saying the giant lizards’ island habitat should be kept in pristine condition.
- They have also questioned the government’s commitment to the conservation of the dragons and their own livelihoods.
- For its part, the government says the developments will have a minimal footprint and will boost tourism revenue.

Lab-grown embryos raise hope of saving near-extinct rhino
- For the first time ever, scientists have successfully used IVF techniques to combine sperm from the near-extinct northern white rhino with eggs from the more abundant southern white rhino to create viable hybrid embryos.
- The researchers hope to implant the embryos into surrogate female southern white rhinos to produce hybrid baby rhinos that can then ensure that at least some of the northern white rhino DNA is preserved.
- Such IVF techniques can also be used to rescue populations of other endangered rhino species, such as the Sumatran rhino, researchers say.
- But other experts say that while the science is promising, the underlying threat to the survival of all rhino species remains the insatiable demand for the animals’ horns.

Indonesian activists protest China-funded dam in orangutan habitat
- The Chinese government plans to fund a massive hydroelectric power dam in the Batang Toru ecosystem in North Sumatra, Indonesia, where the newly described Tapanuli orangutan lives.
- Activists staged a protest outside the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta on May 8, coinciding with a state visit by Premier Li Keqiang, to condemn Beijing’s involvement in the project.
- In a letter submitted by the demonstrators to the embassy, they demanded China withdraw its support for the project due to the massive environmental threats posed by the endeavor.

Know your ESA: an online resource for Endangered Species Act docs and data
- The ever-increasing number of species needing protection, inadequate funding, and poor understanding of how and where the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been implemented have made it difficult to assess the law’s success.
- A free, online platform offers access to and analyses of troves of ESA-related documents and data—including otherwise unavailable materials—on species, agency consultations, decisions, and effectiveness.
- By making these data more accessible, the platform aims to help the conservation community better understand how the ESA is implemented and where it can improve.

Indonesia to kick off 10-year plan to save critically endangered helmeted hornbill
- The Indonesian government is currently drafting a 10-year master plan to protect the endangered helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil), set to be launched in 2018.
- The program will comprise five action plans: research and monitoring; policies and law enforcement; partnerships; raising public awareness; and funding.
- The helmeted hornbill has been driven to the brink of extinction by poaching for its distinctive scarlet casqued beak, which is pound-for-pound three times as valuable as elephant ivory.

80% of Bornean orangutans live outside protected areas
- The finding is part of a new report led by the Indonesian government.
- The study confirms that orangutan populations have plunged over the past decade.
- It recommends several strategies for protecting the primates, including working with plantation companies to preserve forests within lands they have been licensed to develop.

Indonesia is running out of places to put rescued animals
- The head of the state conservation agency in North Sumatra says both of her rescue centers are over capacity. She is having to send animals to zoos.
- The glut is due to an increase of people handing over protected species to the government, in line with efforts by authorities and NGOs to raise awareness of the law.
- Dedicated facilities exist to receive some species, but for others, authorities have had to improvise.

Fire a rising threat to Sulawesi’s black macaques
- Almost half of the black macaques on Sulawesi island live in the Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve, which is still home to ancient forest.
- Hunting of the macaques has declined, and the local population is showing signs of a rebound.
- But fires set by local people to clear land for planting is seen as a major threat to the species.

Scientists mull risks of freeing rare albino orangutan in Borneo
- Caregivers are nursing the animal back to health at a rescue center in Central Kalimantan.
- Biologists worry that releasing it into the wild will introduce its genetic defect into the population at large.
- No data exists on the prevalence of albinoism among orangutans.

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