topic: Infectious Wildlife Disease

topic: Infectious Wildlife Disease

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The potential for tracking wildlife health & disease via bioacoustics is great (commentary)
- Bioacoustics is the passive, non-invasive recording of sounds emitted by a wide range of animals.
- Analysis of this information reveals the presence and behavior of wildlife, and can also be valuable indicator of animal health, which can then be used in ecosystem monitoring.
- “As disease prevalence skyrockets in wildlife, we are desperately in need of tools to remotely monitor ecosystem health,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Peru’s illegal pet monkey trade is also an infection superhighway
- A recent study has found that monkeys trafficked in Peru are spreading viruses, parasites and bacteria to humans all along the trafficking route.
- These pathogens can lead to tuberculosis, Chagas disease, malaria, gastrointestinal ailments, and other diseases in humans.
- Those directly involved in illegal wildlife trafficking are the most at risk of infection; however, climate change is increasing the chances of broader community transmission.
- After a brief lull during the COVID-19 pandemic, the illegal monkey trade is in full swing again in Peru, with most of the animals sold ending up as pets in local households.

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.

Dholes latest wild canids likely making comeback in Nepal, study shows
- Dholes and Himalayan wolves were extensively persecuted across rural Nepal for preying on livestock, leading to their decline in the region.
- But recent observations suggest a resurgence of both species, possibly due to the reclaiming of their former territories: Himalayan wolves may have followed yak herders from Tibet, while dholes are believed to be recolonizing areas they had been locally extirpated from.
- Camera trap surveys and literature reviews indicate the recolonization of areas like the Annapurna Conservation Area and the Tinjure–Milke–Jaljale forests by dholes.
- Despite some optimism among conservationists, challenges such as competition with other predators, habitat fragmentation and human-wildlife conflict persist, requiring further studies and monitoring efforts.

Cornell receives $35m gift for research at nexus of wildlife and health
- Our newfound global awareness that human health, animal health and the health of the planet are inextricably linked has underscored the importance of research at the interface of wildlife and health.
- Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine has announced a donation of $35 million to support its work in this burgeoning field of research.
- The Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health aims to use the funds to further its research on how disease interactions affect wildlife, domestic animal and human health, and translate its findings into policy and action to protect wildlife and wild places.

In Argentina, scientists scramble to study seal colonies hit hard by avian flu
- A powerful strain of the avian flu has swept through seal colonies in southern Argentina, wiping out many juvenile populations and raising concern about a spread to other species.
- The flu, also known as H5N1, appeared in Argentina in August 2023 and resulted in newborn mortality rates of over 90% in some seal colonies.
- Researchers are monitoring colony population trends and trying to better understand how the disease jumps from one species to another, which could affect other mammals like orcas.

‘All will be well’: Q&A with Kenyan fisher turned coral gardener Katana Ngala
- Once a fisherman, Katana Ngala has been restoring corals near his home in Kuruwitu, Kenya, for more than 20 years.
- Early on, the area’s coral was degraded due to destructive fishing practices and coral bleaching, and he and other fishermen were experiencing diminished catches.
- Now the coral and fish are flourishing in the area, which the local community set aside as a no-fishing zone.
- Ngala spoke about the changes he’s seen in the coral garden over time and how he shares his commitment to the sea with fishers, students, scientists and the wider community in an interview with Mongabay at his seaside coral workshop.

Kenyan fishers put new twists on an age-old marine conservation system
- Over the past two decades Kenyan fishing communities have been setting up no-fishing zones called tengefus, Swahili for “set aside.”
- The idea was inspired by the fishing habits of their forebears, who prior to colonization established seasonal fishing closures to ensure plentiful harvests.
- Today there are 22 tengefus in various stages of development in the country, some more successful than others.
- Successful tengefus have seen fish populations and coral cover increase, and they’ve established tourism enterprises that fund community initiatives. To work, experts say tengefus need support from communities, donors and the government.

Nepal’s climate change adaptation strategy needs One Health approach (commentary)
- It is expected that climate change will adversely affect Nepalese biodiversity, human well-being, and economy, from a retreat of glaciers, agricultural losses, and impacts on tourism.
- The spread of infectious diseases can also be fueled by rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns.
- “Given the simultaneous exposure of animal and human populations to climate change impacts such as floods and landslides, proactively preparing for and combating ensuing issues like epidemics are best tackled using an integrated One Health approach,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Prickly babies: A Jamaican nursery aims to restore sea urchins felled by disease
- The long-spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum) is a key algae grazer in the Caribbean. A disease outbreak in the 1980s killed off most of the urchins, resulting in the overgrowth of many Caribbean coral reefs with algae.
- Last year, a recurrence of the disease hampered the species’ slow recovery. This time, scientists were able to discover the culprit, which they revealed in a recent paper.
- The waters of Jamaica’s Oracabessa Bay Fish Sanctuary remained largely unaffected by the disease. Scientists there collected healthy long-spined sea urchins and started an urchin nursery in hopes of restoring the species on reefs around the island.
- This story was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center.

Parasites of the Caribbean: Study pinpoints cause of sea urchin die-off
- Once abundant in the Caribbean, long-spined sea urchins (Diadema antillarum) experienced a mass die-off in the early 1980s, contributing to coral reef deterioration.
- Another die-off occurred in 2022, leading to a further decline in coral reef health in some parts of the Caribbean.
- A new study has identified the culprit: a parasite called a ciliate that took over the sea urchins’ bodies and quickly killed them.
- While researchers are still trying to determine how this disease is transmitted, they say it’s possible that climate change played a role.

Conservationists unite to tackle Latin America’s dog threat to wild cats
- Across Latin America, free-ranging and domestic dogs pose a threat to endangered wildlife, including several small cat species, conservationists say.
- Dogs entering forests or protected areas can disturb wildlife, directly prey upon them, decimate prey populations, and also spread disease.
- Last year, small-cat conservationists from Mexico to Chile united to vaccinate dogs in multiple countries to raise awareness of the problem and mitigate the threat.
- A second phase of this international campaign is planned this May, potentially focused on other threatened species.

Vulture carrion potential boon and threat for endangered Iberian lynx: Studies
- Iberian lynx recovery in Spain has been hailed as a conservation success story. Said to be among the world’s most endangered feline species, Iberian lynx numbers fell to just 200 in the wild 20 years ago, but rose in successive years due to an intensive rehabilitation program. There are more than 1,300 today.
- In 2022, scientists researching vulture behavior laid out carrion for the meat-eating birds, only to make a surprising find: A few Iberian lynx scavenged the carrion too. The scientists suggested carrion may offer an added food resource when the cat’s natural prey, the endangered European rabbit, is depleted.
- In a response to that study, another group of researchers warn that vulture feeding stations, commonly used in the Iberian Peninsula to support scavenger populations, could pose a potential conservation threat to the lynx.
- Scientists worry about the possibility of disease transmission from carrion to the endangered wild cat, though they underline further research is needed to identify the full extent of this scavenging behavior to evaluate risk. Like so many of the world’s small cats, the Iberian lynx is elusive, and challenging to study.

DRC’s endangered bonobos face another threat to their survival: malaria
- Along with humans, great apes like gorillas and chimpanzees are known to get infected with malaria, but evidence about the parasite’s effects on bonobos has been scant.
- A recent study that analyzed the feces of bonobo across the species’ range found that one bonobo population showed evidence of both malaria infection and a genetic variation that would likely protect them against severe disease.
- This genetic variation was less common in other populations, suggesting that other bonobo groups could be in trouble if climate change brings malaria-carrying mosquitoes into their habitats.

Bearded pigs a ‘cultural keystone species’ for Borneo’s Indigenous groups: Study
- A recent study examined the impacts of ecological and sociocultural influences on bearded pig populations in Malaysian Borneo.
- The researchers found that the presence of pigs is “compatible” with Indigenous hunting in certain areas.
- The team’s findings point to the importance of a nuanced understanding of nearby human cultural values and local ecology in determining policies toward hunting.

Deforestation could pose disease threat to Amazon’s white-lipped peccaries
- White-lipped peccaries are vital ecosystem engineers and an important source of food for people living in the Amazon.
- Deforestation has reduced their habitat and, in addition, researchers highlight that disease is an understudied factor in their conservation.
- Scientists say it could represent an additional threat to an already vulnerable species, as continuing deforestation and expanding agricultural frontiers can bring greater contact between domestic animals and wildlife, potentially leading to spillover events.

Avian flu hits Peru, killing thousands of sea birds and infecting some marine mammals
- H5N1, a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus carried generally by wild birds, has arrived in Latin America, causing unprecedented mortality in sea bird colonies along the west coast.
- The virus has killed tens of thousands of sea birds in Peru alone, including some species that are considered endangered in the country, and scientists worry other vulnerable species like the Andean condor might also become infected.
- Hundreds of sea lions and a dolphin have also been infected, which raises concerns regarding transmission to humans and is especially worrisome if it is confirmed that mammals can infect each other.
- The outbreaks also threaten Peru’s guano industry, which provides affordable fertilizer to many small-scale farmers in the region, and could expose people harvesting guano to H5N1.

In Nepal, conservationists suspect link between canine distemper and human-leopard conflict
- A new study shows for the first time that leopards in Nepal are exposed to canine distemper virus.
- Researchers suggest the virus could make the big cats less fearful of humans and thus more likely enter settlements in search of food.
- Conservationists have long warned of the risk of feral dogs passing on diseases like canine distemper to wildlife in Nepal, including tigers and leopards.
- Other studies show that while initial infections may have come from dogs, multiple strains the virus are now circulating among wildlife, making the latter carriers too.

Ebola-like African primate viruses ‘poised for spillover’ to humans, study finds
- A family of viruses that causes Ebola-like symptoms in African primate populations is “poised for spillover” to humans, a new study shows.
- Researchers say these arteriviruses, already a threat to macaques, use a specific receptor to enter and invade the body; humans have a similar form of the receptor, called CD163.
- Although there is no evidence of these viruses infecting humans to this point, researchers say they found similarities to the viruses that gave rise to HIV.
- Conservationists say the risks of animal-human disease transmission increase as human populations continue to encroach on wild animal spaces.

Severe malaria cases in rescued orangutans raises concerns for wild populations
- Researchers in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, sampled orangutans and found a high prevalence of malaria.
- In some cases, malaria resulted in severe illness among the great apes, causing concern about the conservation implications for the animals.
- On the plus side, all of the orangutans inflicted with severe illness responded well to treatment and recovered.
- Some experts says these findings underline the need for a precautionary principle when translocating or reintroducing orangutans that test positive for malaria.

Study warns of risk from feline viruses to wild cats on the palm oil frontier
- A recently published study has found that wild felines are exposed to viruses common to domestic cats, such as feline coronavirus.
- Certain species that frequent oil palm plantations in Malaysian Borneo, such as the leopard cat and Malay civet, may act as carriers of viruses back into forest areas.
- These findings are of concern, conservationists say, due to the potential impact on threatened small cat species, such as the endangered flat-headed cat and the vulnerable Sunda clouded leopard.
- Integration of animal welfare into conservation action and oil palm management plans are potential solutions to mitigate the risks of transmission, the study authors say.

‘A risky business’: Online illegal wildlife trade continues to soar in Myanmar
- A new report from WWF shows that trade in protected wild animals and their body parts in Myanmar via the social media platform Facebook rose by 74% in 2021 compared to the previous year.
- The scale of the online trade, the purpose of the trade, and the species seen in the trade are all of major concern in terms of impacts on biodiversity and the potential risks to public health from disease transfer, according to the report.
- Posts advertising live civets and pangolins as wild meat, as well as posts referring to their commercial breeding potential are a particular concern, argue the report authors. Both species are considered to be potential vectors in passing zoonotic diseases to humans.
- The report calls on online platforms to do more to monitor their platforms and take swift action, and for greater involvement and collaboration from multiple sectors to strengthen enforcement, disrupt the illegal wildlife trade, and increase awareness of the health risks posed by illegally traded wildlife.

Call for COVID rules that reduced infections in gorilla parks to remain
- Respiratory infections recorded among mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park dropped from a pre-pandemic average of 5.4 outbreaks among family groups to just 1.6 per year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
- Conservation group Gorilla Doctors, whose Rwanda team recorded the decrease in infections, says the decline correlates with lower visitor numbers to the park as well as masking requirements and an increase in the distance tourists must stay from habituated apes.
- In a recent letter in the journal Nature, Gorilla Doctors and the park’s chief warden called for these stricter measures to be kept in place permanently.

Preventing the next pandemic is vastly cheaper than reacting to it: Study
- A new study emphasizes the need to stop pandemics before they start, stepping beyond the quest for new vaccines and treatments for zoonotic diseases to also aggressively fund interventions that prevent them from happening in the first place.
- Researchers estimated that based on Earth’s current population and on past pandemics, we can expect 3.3 million deaths from zoonotic diseases each year in future. COVID-19 pushed numbers in 2020-21 even higher. These outbreaks are now happening more frequently, and their cost is calculated in trillions of dollars.
- Addressing the main drivers — deforestation, the wildlife trade and burgeoning agriculture, especially in the tropics — could prevent future pandemics, save lives and catastrophic societal disruptions.

Lockdown underscores Uganda’s overreliance on tourism to fund conservation
- When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in March 2020, Uganda quickly shut down parks like Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to protect the gorillas and chimpanzees from getting infected.
- Tourism provides up to 60% of the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s operating revenue and is also an important source of income for communities living around Bwindi.
- Poaching in Bwindi rose sharply during lockdown in 2020 as some villagers entered the park to hunt for food or an income.
- One NGO reinforced its programs supporting public health and livelihoods in an attempt to reduce this pressure.

Uganda’s ‘Dr. Gladys’ honored by U.N. for work linking conservation and health
- The United Nations on Dec. 7 recognized Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka as one of its “champions of the Earth” for promoting the One Health approach to conservation in Africa.
- The Ugandan conservationist, a trained wildlife veterinarian, established the NGO Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) in 2003 to ensure better health care access for communities living around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and to lower the risk of human pathogens jumping to mountain gorillas.
- UNEP selected Kalema-Zikusoka for its science and innovation category; the other awardees were Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Kyrgyz youth activist Maria Kolesnikova, and the nonprofit Sea Women of Melanesia.
- “If you make the community feel that you care about them, then there’s less need to fight them,” Kalema-Zikusoka said.

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.

‘To change policies, insert yourself in them’: Q&A with biologist Liliana Dávalos
- Colombian biologist Liliana Dávalos has combined conservation research with evolutionary ecology from her laboratory at Stony Brook University.
- Dávalos was one of the first scientists to warn, in 2001, about the environmental risks that an eventual end to the civil war in Colombia would have — a scenario that is now playing out as Colombia’s forests are being opened up for commercial activity.
- Bats are another of Dávalos’s subjects of study: In addition to deciphering their genome to understand their evolution in space and time, more recently Dávalos has studied the relationship of these flying mammals with pathogens such as coronaviruses.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Dávalos, who is openly gay, also talks about attitudes in academia toward women and lesbians, and sends a message to young researchers not to be blinded by the awareness of obstacles.

COVID could wreak havoc on gorillas, but they social distance better than we do
- A new study models the potential impacts of a COVID-19 outbreak in mountain gorillas using 50 years of population data collected in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park with epidemiological variables gathered on COVID-19 infection in humans.
- In most of the scenarios modeled, gorilla populations were found to decline sharply within 50 years of an outbreak.
- Questions remain as to whether the human epidemiological variables used in the analysis are a good fit for gorillas, which spend all of their time outdoors and interact with non-family members far less frequently than humans do.

In harm’s way: Our actions put people and wildlife at risk of disease
- While global attention is currently focused on COVID-19 and other zoonotic diseases that jump from animals to humans, diseases that breach the species barrier also pass from people and domestic animals to wild species.
- Human alteration of the planet — the felling of forests, the legal and illegal wildlife trade, climate change, and other disruptions — is driving escalating unnatural interactions between species, allowing diseases to mutate and infect new hosts.
- Infectious disease poses a serious threat to tigers, chimpanzees, Ethiopian wolves, African wild dogs and a host of other threatened species. Viral diseases spread by humans, livestock and other domestic animals could serve as the knockout punch to endangered species already teetering on the edge of extinction.
- There’s growing support for a One Health strategy, which recognizes that human health, animal health and the health of the planet are inextricably linked — that protecting the planet is crucial to the health of all.

Biosurveillance of markets and legal wildlife trade needed to curb pandemic risk: Experts
- Almost 90% of the 180 recognized RNA viruses that can harm humans are zoonotic in origin. But disease biosurveillance of the world’s wildlife markets and legal trade is largely absent, putting humanity at significant risk.
- The world needs a decentralized disease biosurveillance system, experts say, that would allow public health professionals and wildlife scientists in remote areas to test for pathogens year-round, at source, with modern mobile technologies in order to help facilitate a rapid response to emerging zoonotic disease outbreaks.
- Though conservation advocates have long argued for an end to the illegal wildlife trade (which does pose zoonotic disease risk), but the legal trade poses a much greater threat to human health, say experts.
- Governments around the world are calling for the World Health Organization to create a pandemic treaty. Wildlife groups are pushing for such an agreement to include greater at-source protections to prevent zoonotic spillover.

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.

Black-footed ferrets riding out COVID-19 with a vaccine and a lot of TLC
- Black-footed ferrets were nearly wiped out by plague in the 1980s, and were only saved by a last-ditch effort to pull the 18 remaining individuals into a captive-breeding program.
- The wild population now numbers about 300 individuals, but the species remains reliant on captive breeding and sensitive to disease outbreaks — a combination that proved especially nerve-wracking during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Luckily, black-footed ferret keepers are no stranger to disease-mitigating measures, and were able to successfully breed ferrets with the help of rigorous sanitation measures, dedicated staff, and even a vaccine.
- To date, no black-footed ferrets have tested positive for COVID-19, and after a 50% drop in the number of kits born last year, the program is back to producing its usual number of kits.

Borneo’s bearded pigs and traditional hunters adapted to oil palms. Then came swine fever
- Oil palm expansion and urbanization have altered the traditional hunting of bearded pigs by the Indigenous Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) community in Sabah, Malaysia, a new study has found.
- Researchers interviewed 38 hunters on changes in pig behavior and hunting practices before the African swine fever (ASF) epidemic hit Sabah in 2021.
- They found that even though pig hunting patterns have changed dramatically, the activity remains a cornerstone of KDM communal culture for food, sport, gift-giving, festivals and celebrations.
- As ASF devastates wild pig populations, the researchers’ findings highlight a need for long-term hunting management that conserves both the bearded pig and Indigenous cultural traditions.

Not just for humans — scientists turn to vaccines to save endangered species
- Vaccines developed for animals, including rabies or swine fever shots, have historically been aimed at protecting humans rather than the animals themselves.
- Scientists are now increasingly looking at animal vaccines as a means of saving wild populations of threatened species.
- As with vaccines for humans, development cycles can take a decade or more, and the challenge of administering doses is far more complex.
- But some initiatives have shown promise in protecting wildlife from infectious diseases that could otherwise lead to entire species being decimated.

Meet the kitten-sized, clown-faced monkey that’s leaping toward extinction
- The buffy-headed marmoset is down to no more than 2,500 individuals scattered across dwindling patches of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.
- It faces a range of threats, from yellow fever to climate change, but the biggest one is hybridization with other marmoset species released into its habitat from the pet trade.
- Conservationists working to save the species warn that populations are declining rapidly, with little funding for studies or captive-breeding programs, and a lack of political will under the current government to act urgently.
- One possible conservation solution is to establish “safe haven” forests for unmixed buffy-headed marmosets that will exclude hybrid animals, but this will difficult and costly, experts say.

Black Death aside, we know surprisingly little about rodents and disease
- Rodents make up 40% of all mammal species on the planet, and an estimated 10.7% of them are known hosts of zoonotic diseases, such as cat scratch disease, bartonella, hantavirus, Lyme disease, leishmaniasis, leptospirosis, and the plague.
- A recent letter in the journal Conservation Biology calls for more attention and funding to be directed toward studying small rodents, “the wildlife species most likely to be abundant, come into contact with humans, and be potential reservoirs in future zoonotic outbreaks.”
- Controlling and mitigating the risk of zoonotic diseases through rodent control is another area that lacks research, with the current approach of killing and poisoning rodents in urban areas actually posing the risk of causing more disease.
- Experts call for evidence-based, whole-system approaches to control rodents and champion the One Health approach to address zoonotic disease, acknowledging that human, environmental, and animal health are all interconnected.

New study finds that minority of animals host majority of zoonotic viruses
- After contracting COVID-19, a scientist in India delved into data on what mammal species pose the greatest risk for future pandemics.
- Researchers found that 26.5% of mammals in the wildlife trade housed 75% of known zoonotic diseases.
- The findings present an opportunity for greater risk management by governments more closely focusing on these species.

Address risky human activities now or face new pandemics, scientists warn
- The new, highly-contagious Delta variant — spread with the ease of chickenpox — is causing COVID-19 cases to skyrocket across the globe as health officials respond with alarm. “The war has changed,” said a recent internal U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) document.
- Globally, numerous infectious diseases are being transmitted between wildlife, livestock and humans at escalating rates, including outbreaks of COVID-19, Ebola, dengue, HIV and others, as the threat of new emergent zoonotic diseases grows ever greater. The cost is huge in lives lost and ruined economies.
- The driver: human activities, particularly intrusion into wild landscapes and eating and trading wild animals. Bringing people, domestic and wild animals into unnatural proximity exposes all to pathogens for which they lack immunity. International travel and a booming global wildlife trade quickly spread viruses.
- Experts say that a “One Health” approach is urgently needed to prevent future pandemics — simultaneously addressing human, animal and ecosystem health, protecting humanity and nature, and incorporating disease risk into decision-making.

Wealth inequality fuels flow of wildlife from poor countries to rich: Study
- Wealthier countries are the biggest importers of wildlife, which, more often than not, originates from poorer countries, a new analysis of legal trade data from a global wildlife treaty found.
- The U.S., France, and Italy are the largest importers, while Indonesia, Jamaica and Honduras are the biggest wildlife exporters.
- More than 4 million wild-caught individuals from 12 animal groups were legally traded across international borders between 1998 and 2018.
- The current system places greater responsibility on exporting nations to ensure the legal trade is sustainable, the study authors say, arguing that importing countries should share this burden and also contribute more toward reducing the trade.

Captive lions kept in ‘stressful conditions’ create perfect recipe for disease, experts say
- Researchers have identified that captive and wild lions carry 63 pathogens that could result in about 83 diseases and clinical symptoms.
- Drawing on this research, conservationists have named five diseases that have the potential to spill over into the human population and impact public health: human ehrlichiosis, human babesiosis, toxocariasis, trichinosis, and African sleeping sickness.
- Animal welfare advocates say that captive lion facilities in South Africa tend to keep lions in unsanitary, stressful conditions that provide the perfect environment for disease.
- With this in mind, conservationists are advocating for the South African government to shut down the captive lion industry.

Southeast Asian wild pigs confront deadly African swine fever epidemic
- A recent study in the journal Conservation Letters warns that African swine fever, responsible for millions of pig deaths in mainland Asia since 2018, now endangers 11 wild pig species living in Southeast Asia.
- These pig species generally have low populations naturally, and their numbers have dwindled further due to hunting and loss of habitat.
- The authors of the study contend that losing these species could hurt local economies and food security.
- Southeast Asia’s wild pigs are also important ecosystem engineers that till the soil and encourage plant life, and they are prey for critically endangered predators such as the Sumatran tiger and the Javan leopard.

First COVID-19 cases in zoo gorillas raise alarm about wild populations
- Gorillas at San Diego Zoo in California have tested positive for COVID-19, the first cases of the novel coronavirus infecting great apes.
- Gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans share more than 95% of the human genome and are known to be at risk from certain human diseases.
- Zoo authorities said an asymptomatic staff member might have infected the gorillas.
- The news is likely to send alarm bells ringing, especially in Africa, home to the only wild populations of gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos.

Can whales and dolphins catch COVID-19 from wastewater? It’s murky
- A new study identifies 15 marine mammal species, including whales, dolphins, seals and sea otters, that could be susceptible to the SARS-CoV-2 virus through contact with wastewater.
- According to the researchers, vulnerable populations of marine animals that congregate near wastewater discharge sites face elevated risks.
- To minimize these risks, the researchers suggest closely monitoring vulnerable populations for possible infection and vaccinating if necessary, and also restricting access to at-risk captive marine mammals.
- However, other experts say it is implausible for marine animals to get sick through contact with wastewater since virus transmission through water is unlikely.

Coronavirus risk grows as animals move through wildlife trade
- Animals consumed by people in Vietnam are increasingly likely to carry coronavirus as they move from the wild to markets to restaurants, a new study shows.
- The animals with the highest rates of infection are most likely to come into contact with humans.
- When animals are confined in crowded and stressful conditions, it makes it even easier for the virus to spread.

IPBES report details path to exit current ‘pandemic era’
- A new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) calls for a “transformative change” in addressing the causes of virus outbreaks to prevent future pandemics and their devastating consequences.
- Human-driven climate change, the wildlife trade, and conversion of natural ecosystems all increase the potential for the spillover of viruses that infect animals to people.
- The current COVID-19 pandemic is likely to cost the global economy trillions of dollars, yet preventive measures that include identification of the hundreds of thousands of unknown viruses that are thought to exist would cost only a fraction of that total.

Anticipated new restrictions on wildlife trade in Vietnam fall short of a ban
- Earlier this year, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called for the drafting of a ban on wildlife trade and consumption by April 1.
- After a delay of several months, on July 23, the government finally released a directive aimed at strengthening enforcement of existing rules governing the wildlife trade, but not banning the trade outright, as conservationists had hoped.
- Conservationists expressed support for the directive as a major step forward, but cautioned that much work remains, particularly in terms of enforcement.

Podcast: Hellbenders, super-spreaders, and other salamanders face uncertain futures
- The United States is home to the world’s greatest diversity of salamanders, so experts are worried about another pandemic that is headed for the country, one that has salamanders in its sights.
- Hellbenders are North America’s largest salamanders, living in rivers and growing to an incredible length of over two feet. Eastern newts are tiny and terrestrial, but both are susceptible to the fungal pathogen called Bsal.
- On this episode we speak with Dr. Becky Hardman from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Dr. Anna Longo of the University of Florida about these fascinating and unique species, and discuss what is being done to prepare for a Bsal invasion that experts say is inevitable.
- This is the sixth and final episode of the “Mongabay Explores” series about salamanders, published during alternate weeks from our flagship podcast, the Mongabay Newscast.

What funds are needed to prevent another pandemic? Just 2% of COVID-19’s estimated cost
- The authors of a new research-based opinion piece in the journal Science estimate that the total cost of COVID-19 could reach $16 trillion, but spending between $20 billion and $30 billion every year to stem deforestation and regulate the wildlife trade could drastically lower the risk of another pandemic.
- COVID-19 has already claimed nearly 650,000 lives and could wipe out $5 trillion in global GDP this year alone.
- Zoonotic diseases that jump from animals to humans are emerging with increasing frequency in recent decades, but investments in preventing these spillover events are paltry, the authors argue.
- The rapid rate of forest loss and incursions into previously untouched woodlands, especially in the tropics, and a poorly regulated global wildlife trade, have exposed humans to a host of novel viruses.

Podcast: Can policy prevent a North American salamander pandemic?
- The United States is home to the world’s greatest diversity of salamanders, so experts are worried about another pandemic that is headed for the country, one that has salamanders in its sights.
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service imposed a ban on the trade of 201 salamander species in 2016. However, the recent discovery that frogs can also carry Bsal has led scientists to urge the American government to ban the import of all salamander and frog species.
- On this bonus episode of the podcast we speak with two experts about animal trade policy, differences in the way the United States conducts this policy from other nations, and what the U.S. might do to more effectively combat the threat.
- Former Program Manager for the Association of Fish and Wildlife agencies, Priya Nanjappa, and Tiffany Yap, a Staff Scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, share their thoughts on how policy and regulation could head off the looming salamander pandemic.

Podcast: International task force unites North America to protect salamander diversity
- The U.S. is home to the world’s greatest diversity of salamanders, so experts are worried about another pandemic that is headed for the country, one that has salamanders in its sights.
- Researchers think that about half of these species may be susceptible to the deadly fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (or ‘Bsal’), and believe it is only a matter of time before it gets to North America.
- On this bonus episode of the podcast we speak with Dr. Jake Kerby who is the former chair of the task force, and details how the group works with federal entities in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to manage and mitigate the damage of the potential pandemic.
- Dr. Kerby also describes what citizens can do to help.

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.

Audio: Will U.S. scientists find a silent salamander killer in time?
- The U.S. is home to the world’s greatest diversity of salamanders, so experts are worried about another pandemic that is headed for the country, one that has salamanders in its sights.
- On this episode of the podcast we speak with a wildlife disease ecologist with U.S. Geological Survey, Daniel Grear, and with reporter Benji Jones about the programs that are pooling resources to search for any appearance of the dangerous fungus, called Bsal.
- This is a huge task that Jones describes as “searching for a needle in a haystack except the needle is invisible and the hay stretches for thousands of miles.”
- Grear shares how testing efforts are focused on areas of the U.S. that have the greatest concentration and biodiversity of salamanders, and that 11,000 tests have already been recorded, all negative, though experts like him believe it’s just a matter of time before the fungus makes landfall in North America.

One-two punch of drought, pandemic hits Madagascar’s poor and its wildlife
- Because of the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, for the first time in years poverty is rising in Madagascar, already one of the poorest countries in the world.
- Near Tsimanampesotse National Park in the southwest of the country, the loss of tourists has coincided with a disastrously dry rainy season, and restrictions associated with the pandemic are adding to rural distress; an estimated half a million people will need food aid in the coming months.
- Erratic rainfall patterns and food scarcity don’t just affect humans but also the lemurs living in the park, according to Lemur Love, a nonprofit that works in Tsimanampesotse National Park.
- The hunger crisis created by the drought and compounded by the pandemic could force people to lean even more heavily on nature; to impinge on forests and consume more wild meat to survive.

Mystery ailments, asymptomatic individuals: Spotlight on monkeypox in chimps
- In 2017 and 2018, monkeypox viral outbreaks struck three chimpanzee communities in Taï National Park in Côte d’Ivoire.
- Researchers investigating the outbreaks found that very few individuals actually showed the characteristic smallpox-like skin rashes on their bodies associated with monkeypox; many chimps that only exhibited respiratory symptoms like coughing with few or no rashes also had high viral loads of monkeypox virus DNA in their feces.
- Detecting monkeypox viral DNA in individuals with only respiratory symptoms suggests that the same might be true in humans, researchers say, which could mean that monkeypox cases could be going undiagnosed.
- This study is the first-of-its kind deep dive into monkeypox virus transmission among wild primates.

Vietnam wildlife trade ban appears to flounder amid coronavirus success
- In March, responding to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested a draft of measures to restrict the trade and consumption of wildlife in Vietnam by April 1.
- That date has come and gone, but no information on the requested draft has been made public since March.
- Some conservationists are concerned that Vietnam’s thus far successful containment of the coronavirus outbreak means the government is no longer prioritizing wildlife regulations.
- NGOs are still working, both behind the scenes and in public, to press the issue.

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 island locked down, but its mine didn’t — and infections mounted
- Activists, clergy and politicians have demanded an investigation into the continued coal-mining activity on the Philippine island of Semirara while the region was supposed to be under strict quarantine.
- The first case on the island, and in the province of Antique, came from mine operator SMPC’s hospital and was confirmed on April 7; as of May 12, there are nine cases believed to have come from Semirara.
- Between the first case and May 15, when Semirara was under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and mining activity was therefore not permitted, SMPC reportedly continued operating, including loading a foreign vessel with coal for export.
- The company says it acted in accordance with the government’s COVID-19 protocols and in coordination with the relevant agencies.

As COVID-19 pandemic deepens, global wildlife treaty faces an identity crisis
- The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is a global environmental agreement of great consequence: it regulates the global trade in some of the most threatened species on Earth.
- While many conservation groups jumped at the chance the COVID-19 pandemic offered to highlight the link between pandemics and wildlife exploitation, the CITES Secretariat appeared to distance itself from the crisis, drawing criticism and scrutiny.
- The treaty, one of the few binding environmental conventions, should be part of the solution, many believe, but it would need to expanded and strengthened to respond to new challenges like COVID-19.
- Doing this and tackling larger issues of biodiversity and habitat loss would require leadership from the countries that are party to this and similar conventions, experts say.

What’s in a name? ‘Wet markets’ may hide true culprits for COVID-19
- The term “wet market” is typically used to describe places in China and other Asian countries that sell fresh vegetables, fruits, seafood and meat from domesticated animals.
- Only a small minority of Asian wet markets sell wildlife, including illegally trafficked wildlife, although wet markets are unduly conflated with the wildlife trade, experts say.
- Wet markets, or their equivalents, are found in many places around the world, including the U.S.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released new hygiene and sanitation guidelines for food markets around the world.

Madagascar’s president promotes unproven herbal cure for COVID-19
- Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina, unveiled an unproven cure for COVID-19 that is derived from a plant, Artemisia annua.
- His comments at a launch of the herbal remedy on April 20 suggested that the remedy, called COVID-ORGANICS, would act both as a cure and a vaccine.
- No evidence from any clinical trials was shared to back up the claims.
- The World Health Organization did not respond to Mongabay’s questions about COVID-ORGANICS, but the agency has warned against the spread of misinformation and purported miracle cures.

How to prevent the next COVID-19? Conservationists weigh in
- As the death toll from COVID-19 crosses 140,000 and cases surpass the 2 million mark there are growing calls for a permanent ban on trade in wild animals for human consumption.
- The available evidence suggests that a wet market in Wuhan, China, where live animals were bought and sold, was the site where the novel coronavirus jumped to human hosts from animals.
- Conservationists, however, are urging for a broader examination of the factors that led to the emergence of COVID-19 and a careful evaluation of measures that could prevent the next zoonotic pandemic.
- One Health, the idea that the well-being of humans is inextricably linked to the health of the planet, is gaining currency and could emerge as the guiding principle for international agencies and national governments in their fight to avert another COVID-19-like crisis.

The frog that wasn’t there: Survey shines a light on Uganda’s amphibians
- A field survey by herpetologists has failed to find any signs of the Mt. Elgon torrent frog in its native Uganda, raising concerns about the degradation of wetland habitats.
- There are 80 to 100 amphibian species in Uganda, but their habitats are being drained to create farmland and livestock pasture, or to build residential areas and industrial parks.
- Many of the country’s wetlands are also affected by water pollution caused by fertilizer and pesticide runoff from both large- and small-scale farming, as well as industrial effluent and sewage from growing urban centers.
- Scientists say it’s important to keep tabs on frogs and other amphibians because their presence — or absence — serves as a key indicator of ecosystem health.

Chinese ban on eating wild animals likely to become law: Q&A with WCS’s Aili Kang
- Wildlife Conservation Society’s China program director, Aili Kang, spoke to Mongabay about an ongoing review of wildlife legislation in China in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, which would permanently ban the consumption of wild animals.
- The current debate in China is not about whether there should be such a ban, which could come in as soon as two months, but what shape the ban should take, according to Kang.
- Businesses that breed wild species are pushing for these species to be excluded because they are raised in captivity and can be considered livestock.
- While conservationists are calling for the permanent ban to apply to all species, the public health risk from interacting with reptile and amphibian species is lower than from birds and animals, so there is still uncertainty about whether the former would be included.

For Philippines’ displaced indigenous students, COVID-19 is one of many threats
- Students from indigenous communities in Mindanao who moved to Manila to evade armed conflict that forced their schools shut now face a new threat from the lockdown imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
- Access to adequate health services has always been a challenge for indigenous communities in their homelands but displacement puts them at higher risk of contracting diseases like COVID-19.
- Despite the pandemic, displaced indigent students remain focused on their education, seeing it as a way to protect their ancestral lands no matter how far they are from home.
- Land disputes have abounded amid an escalation in armed conflict between government security forces and rebel groups in Mindanao, placing local communities and indigenous schools in the crossfire and forcing them to flee from their ancestral lands.

National parks in Africa shutter over COVID-19 threat to great apes
- Wildlife authorities in some parts of Africa have effectively locked down parks that are home to gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, amid concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic could make the jump to great apes.
- Humans and great apes share more than 95% of the same genetic material, and are susceptible to many of the same infectious diseases, ranging from respiratory ailments to Ebola.
- Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo shut its doors to tourists this week, while in Rwanda all parks hosting gorillas and chimpanzees were also shut; Uganda is considering doing the same, with its parks de facto closed because of a drop in tourist arrivals.
- Even if the apes avoid COVID-19, the loss of tourism revenue for the parks and potential loss of income for people who work to protect these species could cause enduring damage to conservation efforts, experts say.

Vietnam considers wildlife trade ban in response to coronavirus pandemic
- Last month, conservation organizations sent an open letter to Vietnam’s prime minister recommending action against the wildlife trade as a means of preventing future outbreaks of disease, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
- In response, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc tasked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with drafting a ban on the trade and consumption of wildlife by April 1.
- The COVID-19 outbreak has been relatively contained in Vietnam, with 75 confirmed infections at the time of writing, but the economic impact is severe.
- Conservationists hope to see strong enforcement on both the supply and demand sides of the wildlife trade.

Conservationists set the record straight on COVID-19’s wildlife links
- The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been characterized by the World Health Organization as a pandemic. As the virus spreads, so too does misinformation about its origins.
- Rumors that COVID-19 was manufactured in a lab or that we know with full certainty which animal host passed the disease to humans are unfounded.
- Given the clear risks to animals as well as to human health, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Global Wildlife Conservation are calling for a permanent ban on wildlife trafficking and live animal markets.

Western lowland gorillas may be territorial, a new study finds
- A new study presents evidence of territoriality among western lowland gorilla groups in the Republic of Congo.
- Camera trap images revealed that groups avoided one another and also stayed away from the central area of each other’s home ranges — evidence that the species may be more territorial than previously thought.
- An estimated 80% of western lowland gorillas live outside of protected areas, where shrinking territory due to forest loss and habitat fragmentation is a big problem.
- This new information on their territoriality, combined with their shrinking habitat, means gorillas may experience increased competition for food as well as for the limited space.

Coronavirus outbreak may spur Southeast Asian action on wildlife trafficking
- Illegal wildlife trafficking remains a perennial problem in Southeast Asia, but with the ongoing spread of the new coronavirus, there’s added impetus for governments in the region to clamp down on the illicit trade.
- The coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, has infected more than 90,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,000, according to the World Health Organization.
- Initial findings, though not conclusive, have linked the virus to pangolins, the most trafficked mammal on Earth and one of the mainstays of the illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia that feeds the Chinese market.
- Despite having a regional cooperation framework designed to curb wildlife trafficking, Southeast Asian governments have yet to agree on and finance a sustainability plan to strengthen efforts against the illegal trade.

The wildlife trade threatens people and animals alike (commentary)
- Princeton University professor of ecology, evolutionary biology, and public affairs David S. Wilcove argues that the coronavirus outbreak in China shows that the wildlife trade imperils more than animals: It puts people at risk of zoonotic diseases.
- What do the coronavirus, HIV, and the impending extinction of the world’s rhinoceroses have in common? The answer is that they are all a result of the wildlife trade, a rapidly growing, multi-billion-dollar enterprise that is driving species to extinction, damaging ecosystems, and—increasingly—threatening human health.
- What is most urgently needed is a change in cultural norms in cities around the world, especially in Asia and Africa: a recognition that keeping wild animals as pets or selling them for products (apart from sustainably caught seafood) is both a threat to the environment and to human health.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Answers in excrement: Fecal analysis yields insight about wild primates
- Wildlife researchers can obtain information from fecal samples on animals’ reproductive status, parentage, genetic relationships, and presence of parasites or viruses, such as Zika.
- Scientists studying wild primates in South America in the 1990s developed techniques to help them understand how hormones, steroids and other compounds related to the animals’ reproductive behaviors.
- More recently, scientists are testing whether fecal sampling can help identify parasites carrying diseases such as Zika virus or detect changes in the microbiome that could improve its contributions to host energy balances and nutrition and help them survive nutritionally stressful periods.
- Fecal sampling is a noninvasive method of capturing this information but getting and keeping the equipment and materials needed to process the samples is challenging.

Conservationists welcome China’s wildlife trade ban
- In an effort to curb further spread of the deadly Coronavirus, China has temporarily banned the sale of wildlife.
- The virus outbreak that has killed 56 people in China has been traced to a market that sells wildlife.
- NGOs have embraced the move, and are calling for it to be made permanent.
- This comes as China prepares to host the 2020 Convention on Biological Diversity, a major conservation congress that aims to curb the current extinction crisis, in October.

Mountain gorilla census reveals further increase in numbers
- A census of one of the two populations of mountain gorillas living in eastern Africa revealed an increase from 400 to at least 459 individuals, bringing the total count for the subspecies to 1,069 gorillas.
- Teams conducted the survey in the Bwindi-Sarambwe ecosystem straddling the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018.
- An earlier survey of the other population living in the Virunga Mountains of DRC, Uganda and Rwanda showed that gorilla numbers there are also on the rise.
- That led to a change in the subspecies status on the IUCN Red List from critically endangered to endangered.

Breaking down barriers: Cattle and wildlife compete in Southern Africa
- Thousands of kilometers of fencing designed to keep cattle away from disease-carrying wildlife such as buffalo now cover many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
- These disease-control fences have a devastating impact on wildlife by blocking migration routes and isolating populations.
- Global food safety rules that require that beef be produced in areas free of disease such as foot-and-mouth disease have historically made it difficult for regions with wildlife populations to trade in beef.
- Southern African nations are exploring a new approach to trade that may reduce the reliance on fences, in the process also allowing key migration routes to be restored.

Shrinking sea ice in the Arctic opens new pathways for animal disease
- Scientists have discovered that periods of minimal sea ice in the Arctic between 2001 and 2016 were followed by spikes in a deadly disease that affects seals, sea lions and sea otters.
- The team used satellite imagery showing decreases in sea ice combined with GPS collar data tracking animal movements over the 15-year study period.
- After periods of sea ice contraction, the odds that a sampled animal would be affected by the disease were more than nine times higher than typical years.

Rapid genetic test traces spread of fungus that kills frogs, reveals new strain in Southeast Asia
- The chytrid fungus has devastated frog populations worldwide, but some variants are especially dangerous.
- Researchers collected 222 frog skin swabs from six continents to map the global distribution of these strains.
- A new and targeted genetic screen uncovered an unknown lineage in Southeast Asia and regions where co-existing variants could combine into deadly hybrids.
- Rapid skin swabs could help scientists unravel how the fungus became so deadly in recent decades, leading to tighter laws restricting the international transport of frogs.

Can camera traps diagnose the severity of a mystery giraffe skin disease?
- Giraffe skin disease, a mystery condition that inflicts crusty lesions on the world’s tallest animal, has been recorded in 13 giraffe populations in seven African countries. It is particularly widespread in Tanzania.
- Researchers used camera trap images to quantify how severe the disease was among giraffe populations in Tanzania’s Serengeti and Ruaha national parks.
- They found that most cases of the infections that the camera traps detected were “mild” or “moderate” according to a scale they devised, suggesting that the disease, although widespread, is likely not life-threatening at the moment.
- The researchers have, however, observed that giraffes with more severe infections tend to move with difficulty, which could make them more vulnerable to lion predation — a hypothesis they are now investigating with data from Ruaha National Park.

Malaria surges in deforested parts of the Amazon, study finds
- A recent study found that deforestation significantly increases the transmission of malaria, about three times more than previously thought.
- The analysis showed that a 10 percent increase in deforestation caused a 3.3 percent rise in malaria cases.
- The study’s authors analyzed more than a decade of data showing the occurrences of malaria in nearly 800 villages, towns and cities across the Brazilian Amazon.
- They also controlled for the “feedback” from malaria, by which a rise in the incidence of the disease actually slows deforestation down.

West Nile virus lingers longer in birds exposed to light pollution
- House sparrows exposed to light at night had higher levels of West Nile virus in their blood for two days longer than sparrows that were exposed to darkness, according to a new study.
- The research sought to mimic the effects of light pollution common to urban environments on virus levels in a known reservoir of West Nile virus, which can cause a flu-like fever in humans.
- The team’s research suggests that an outbreak could be 41 percent more likely to happen as a result of the persistence of the virus in this host.

Deadly virus detected in wild frog populations in Brazil
- Researchers have detected the first case of ranavirus infection in both native frog species as well as the invasive American bullfrog in the wild in Brazil.
- While the study cannot attribute ranavirus as the cause of death for the observed American bullfrog tadpoles, the findings suggest that ranavirus is spread in the wild, the researchers say.
- Ranavirus infections could be far more widespread in Brazil, and may have simply gone unnoticed until now, the researchers add.

Public education could curb bushmeat demand in Laos, study finds
- A recent survey of markets in Laos found that the demand for bushmeat in urban areas was likely more than wildlife populations could bear.
- The enforcement of Laos’s laws controlling the wildlife trade appeared to do little to keep vendors from selling bushmeat, but fines did appear to potentially keep consumers from buying bushmeat.
- The researchers also found that consumers could be turned off of buying bushmeat when they learned of specific links between species and diseases.

Virus may have caused mysterious foot disease in Chile’s rare huemul deer
- Researchers say they believe they have identified the potential cause of a foot disease that affected 24 huemul deer in Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins National Park between 2005 and 2010.
- Preliminary results from tests on tissue samples taken from an infected fawn suggest that a parapoxvirus, a group of viruses that commonly infect and cause lesions in livestock, could have been the main cause of the foot disease.
- If the pox virus is indeed the disease agent, then it’s an additional threat to the endangered species because these viruses are highly contagious, researchers say.
- The study’s authors say they suspect the parapoxvirus may have come from cattle that was illegally introduced in the national park in 1991.

Peru’s first autonomous indigenous gov’t strikes back against deforestation
- The Wampis is an indigenous group comprised of thousands of members whose ancestors have lived in the Amazon rainforest of northern Peru for centuries.
- Mounting incursions by loggers, miners and oil prospectors, as well as governance changes that favored industrial exploitation, left the Wampis increasingly worried about the future of their home. Representatives said they realized that only by developing a strong, legal organizational structure would they have a voice to defend their people and the survival of their forest.
- After numerous meetings among their leaders, representatives of 27 Wampis communities, with a combined population of 15,000 people, came together in 2015. They invoked international recognition of the rights of indigenous people and on Nov. 29 declared the creation of an autonomous territorial government called the Wampis Nation to defend its territory and resources from the growing pressures of extractive industries.
- Wampis Nation territory covers an area of rainforest one-third the size of the Netherlands along northern Peru’s border with Ecuador. Leaders say their newfound autonomy and authority has allowed them to directly expel illegal deforestation activities from their land.

Deadly fungal disease has devastated more than 500 amphibian species
- In 2007, the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, was implicated in the decline or extinction of up to 200 species of frogs.
- Now, by scanning through evidence, researchers have found that in all, chytrid fungus-linked deaths have contributed to the decline of at least 501 amphibian species — that’s 6.5 percent of all amphibian species described by science so far.
- Of these, some 90 species are presumably extinct and another 124 are suffering severe declines, researchers say.

A plea to Botswana: Please rethink a “Not Enough Fences” approach (commentary)
- The Government of Botswana is considering significant changes to the country’s approach to wildlife management.
- The proposed policy reflects a worrying lack of recognition of the habitat and migration route requirements that the future of southern Africa’s wildlife fundamentally depends upon.
- Now is not the time to cut-off migratory corridors or build new fences. Instead, it is time to make land-use decisions that will be socially, ecologically and economically sustainable for generations to come.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

We know why zebras got their stripes, but how do they work?
- Scientists have long wondered why zebras wear striped coats and a 2014 study might have finally supplied the answer: biting flies like glossinids (tsetse flies) and tabanids (horseflies) appear to be the “evolutionary driver” of the zebra’s stripes.
- Finding the answer to how zebras got their stripes led to another question: How exactly do stripes help zebras avoid biting insects?
- Tim Caro, a professor of wildlife biology at the University of California, Davis in the US, and Martin How, a researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK, led a new study to examine how stripes might deter biting flies as they attempt to land on zebras.

Research into chimp health benefits human, ecosystem well-being too
- Decades of research at Tanzania’s Gombe National Park have identified two major threats facing the park’s chimpanzees: habitat loss and disease.
- The two factors are linked, with human incursions into chimpanzee habitat increasing the risk of exposure to disease.
- Given the close genetic relationship between chimps and humans, diseases can flow both ways.
- Established 15 years ago, the Gombe Ecosystem Health Project aims to improve the health of chimps, humans and the wider ecosystem in the Gombe area.

Deadly disease and warming ocean are wiping out a key starfish species
- The mysterious sea star wasting disease has caused massive declines of the sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides), a major predator within kelp forests in the Northeast Pacific.
- The widespread decline of the starfish, especially in deeper waters, has been particularly shocking, researchers say, because it means that the animals have not been able to take refuge in deep waters as people had expected.
- The study found that the occurrence of the largest declines in the sunflower sea star numbers coincided with abnormally high sea surface temperatures, suggesting that warming oceans due to climate change could have exacerbated the disease’s impact.
- The collapse of the sunflower sea star could have cascading effects on the ecosystem: the sea star is a major predator of sea urchins, and without the sea stars to keep a check on the urchin population, the latter would feast on the kelp forests, leaving behind a barren seascape.

As a pandemic looms, researchers rush to test salamander vulnerability
- Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), the “salamander-eating” fungus, was first described in 2013 after it had almost entirely killed off several populations of fire salamanders in Europe. Researchers believe it spread there from Asia via the pet trade.
- Researchers have yet to detect it in North America, but are very worried about its impacts if it arrives. The U.S. is home to more salamander species than any other country, many of which belong to families that are known to be particularly susceptible to the disease.
- Biologists are racing to figure out how different species react to Bsal in an effort to know how it may spread and where best to target conservation efforts.
- So far, all salamander species tested at one lab have been susceptible to Bsal infection.

Disappearing salamanders: New research aims to solve a decades-old mystery
- Southern dusky salamanders used to be abundant in Georgia, Florida and parts of Alabama. But that all changed in the 1970s when researchers started noticing sudden declines throughout their distribution.
- Today, southern duskies are found in less than 1 percent of their former range.
- Researchers are conducting the first range-wide study of the species to try to figure out why exactly so many have vanished and what their disappearance has meant to the surrounding environment.
- The researchers say they hope their results can be used to prevent the southern dusky from becoming extinct, as well as help save other declining salamander species.

‘Snot otters’ threatened by disease and stress
- Growing more than two feet in length, the hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) is the largest salamander species in North America.
- Hellbenders have been on the decline for at least 30 years, and in some parts of their range have disappeared completely. Researchers think this may be because they require cool, clean water, and much of their habitat has been degraded by human activity.
- There’s another cause of alarm for hellbender researchers: a pathogenic fungus that stands to devastate salamander populations if it gets to North America.
- So far, research indicates hellbenders can survive this fungus. But they are less able to if they’re already stressed by environmental degradation.

Essential ubiquity: How one tiny salamander species has a huge impact
- Red-backed salamanders are little lungless salamanders that live in the deciduous forests of eastern and central U.S. and up into Canada. They have one of the biggest distributions of any North American salamander.
- Their secretive nature means they can be hard to find. However, they’re some of the most abundant leaf-litter organisms in the forests within their range.
- Research indicates that because of their abundance, red-backed salamanders hold pivotal roles in their ecosystems, influencing a forest’s fungal communities. Fungi break down organic matter like fallen leaves, logs, and dead organisms. If nothing were to rot, the forest would soon starve. Red-backed salamanders feed on a wide variety of invertebrates like ants, spiders, centipedes, beetles, snails, and termites — many of which graze on fungus.
- But while red-backed salamanders are still relatively common, they are facing a number of threats. Logging in the southern Appalachian Mountains has reduced their numbers an estimated 9 percent (representing a loss of around 250 million individuals). And a salamander-eating fungus may soon invade North America, which researchers are worried could decimate salamander populations across the continent.

‘Death by a thousand holes’: Scientists race to avert a salamander crisis
- A deadly fungus called Bsal decimated salamander populations in Europe, and scientists are very worried that it will soon invade North America.
- North America – and the U.S. in particular – is the world’s hotspot of salamander diversity, hosting about a third of all species. Researchers think half of U.S. species may be susceptible to Bsal.
- Scientists say it may be only a matter of time before Bsal gets to North America. And when it does, they warn that it could mean devastation for salamanders and even drive some species to extinction.
- In an effort to head off the threat, scientists and government officials created the Bsal Task Force in 2015. Next month they intend to release their strategic plan, the culmination of years of collaboration and research, which provides a roadmap for what to do in the event Bsal is detected in North America.

Super-spreaders: How the curious life of a newt could ignite a pandemic
- The eastern U.S. is the world’s salamander hotspot, with more species per area than anywhere else on the planet. Often superabundant, salamanders hold important ecological roles in their habitats.
- Eastern newts (Notophthalmus viridescens) are the second most widely distributed salamander species in the U.S. They’re also incredibly mobile and are able to transition to a toxic, terrestrial form to move between ponds.
- Like many other U.S. salamander species, eastern newts are highly susceptible to a fungal pathogen called Bactrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). While Bsal has yet to make an appearance in North America, it has wreaked havoc on salamander populations in Europe, and biologists worry its impact in the U.S. will be even worse.
- Their susceptibility to Bsal coupled with their mobility mean eastern newts could act as “super-spreaders” of Bsal if the fungus gets to North America. Researchers worry that not only would the newts themselves face massive die-offs, but also they could quickly spread the disease to other salamander species.

Deadly parrot virus found in native birds from Asia and Africa
- Researchers have found beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) in wild parrots from eight new countries.
- BFDV spreads through captive parrots worldwide, but its prevalence in wild species is unknown. Infected escapees could threaten native parrots, especially small populations.
- Parrots in West Africa carried viruses that probably spread from other countries, showing that the human pet trade market has made the BFDV epidemic worse.
- New regulations of live parrot trades are essential to protect susceptible species, researchers say.

Tsetse fly numbers dwindle in the warming Zambezi Valley
- Tsetse flies carry the microorganism that causes sleeping sickness in humans and livestock, but a recent study reveals that their numbers have dropped at a site in the Zambezi Valley as temperatures have climbed.
- Sleeping sickness, known also as trypanosomiasis, is a debilitating and potentially deadly disease to humans that also kills perhaps 1 million cattle each year.
- The study’s authors say that the decline of the tsetse in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi Valley might be accompanied by a rise in their numbers in cooler locales where they once weren’t as prevalent.

Audio: Racing to save the world’s amazing frogs with Jonathan Kolby
- On this episode, we discuss the global outbreak of the chytrid fungus, which might have already driven as many as 200 species of frogs to extinction.
- Our guest is biologist and National Geographic explorer Jonathan Kolby, who founded the Honduras Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Center, or HARCC for short, to study and rescue frogs affected by the chytrid fungus. Tree frogs in Cusuco National Park in Honduras, some of which are found nowhere else on Earth, are being decimated by the aquatic fungal pathogen.
- In this Field Notes segment, Kolby plays for us some recordings of the frog species he’s working to save from the deadly fungal infection in Honduras and says that there might be hope that frogs and other amphibians affected by chytrid can successfully cope with the disease.

Frogs coping with fatal fungus in Panamanian forest, study finds
- Scientists discovered that frogs in the El Copé forest appear to have found a way to live with chytrid (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis), a fungus that is still devastating amphibian populations in other parts of the world.
- The team found that surviving frog species had similar survival rates whether they were infected with chytrid or not.
- The results offer the possibility that frog communities, though altered, can stabilize after these catastrophic events.

Audio: How an African bat might help us prevent future Ebola outbreaks
- On this episode, we look at research into an African bat that might be the key to controlling future Ebola outbreaks.
- Our guest is Sarah Olson, an Associate Director of Wildlife Health for the Wildlife Conservation Society. With Ebola very much in the news lately due to a recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Olson is here to tell us how research into hammer-headed fruit bats might help us figure out how Ebola is transmitted from animals to humans — and potentially control or prevent future outbreaks of the viral disease.
- The bats don’t contract the disease, but there is evidence that they carry the virus. Olson is part of a study in the Republic of the Congo that seeks to understand how the Ebola virus is transmitted from carriers like hammer-headed fruit bats to other wildlife and humans.

Leprosy prevalent among Amazon’s armadillos, study finds
- Researchers have found a high prevalence of leprosy among nine-banded armadillos in Brazil’s western state of Pará.
- They also surveyed 146 people in the region and found that people who ate armadillos more than once a month showed higher signs of exposure to leprosy infection compared to people who consumed armadillos less frequently or not at all.
- Overall, the study found that frequently handling armadillos, such as hunting or cleaning or cooking armadillo meat, puts people at higher risk of getting infected with leprosy.

Study links malaria to deforestation in the Amazon
- A study published recently adds evidence to the argument that deforestation aids the spread of malaria.
- Researchers compared deforestation patterns to malaria rates in nine states in the Brazilian Amazon. They found that places with the highest incidences of malaria were impacted forest patches between 0.1 and 5 square kilometers in size.
- The researchers write that these forest patches contain the shaded, watery, forest-edge habitat preferred by the mosquitos that transmit malaria.
- To keep malaria from becoming an even bigger threat, the authors call for better monitoring of mosquito populations, land planning, and income generation schemes for forest-dwelling communities.

Scientists find ‘ground zero’ of deadly frog pandemic
- First observed by scientists in the 1970s, the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) had spread around the world by the early 2000s. The fungus kills frogs by colonizing their skin and impairing their ability to absorb water and electrolytes.
- By 2007, Bd infection had led to the decline or extinction of around 200 species of frogs, and today is considered one of the biggest single threats to amphibians worldwide.
- For a new study, researchers genetically analyzed hundreds of Bd samples; their results suggest that the fungus is from the Korean peninsula and began spreading between 50-120 years ago with the expansion of international trade.
- The researchers say the pet trade needs much stronger regulations if the spread of Bd – as well as the emerging salamander-killing fungus B. salamandrivorans – is to be stopped before it causes more devastation.

Yellow fever may threaten biophilia in São Paulo city (commentary)
- Reconciling biodiversity conservation and urban development is one of the biggest challenges for humanity, considering that by 2030, 60 percent of people globally are expected to live in cities.
- There are currently numerous forest fragments rooted in an urban matrix. On the one hand, these remnant forests confer many benefits on human society. One the other hand, forests may cause biophobias related to human fear and avoidance of some animals, misconceptions about animals’ risks, and the association of forest with dangerous and unsafe areas.
- A recent increase of yellow fever cases in highly urbanized cities in Brazil’s Atlantic forest – a tropical hotspot of biodiversity – can threaten the balance between biophilia and biophobia.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

A saiga time bomb? Bad news for Central Asia’s beleaguered antelope
- In May 2015, more than 200,000 saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) suddenly died in Kazakhstan, reducing the global population of the critically endangered species by two-thirds.
- Research indicates the saigas were likely killed by hemorrhagic septicemia caused by a type of bacteria called Pasteurella multocida. But P. multocida generally exists harmlessly in healthy saigas and other animals, so the question remained: Why did so many saigas become infected so suddenly and severely by a normally benign type of bacteria?
- A new analysis may have solved part of this mystery, linking the spread of P. multocida to unusually high humidity levels and temperatures.
- The results indicate that saigas may be particularly sensitive to climate change, which stands to increase both temperature and humidity in Kazakhstan.

Seychelles home to new species of caecilian, a legless amphibian
- The Petite Praslin caecilian (Hypogeophis pti) is the world’s newest — and possibly the smallest — caecilian, a type of legless amphibian.
- Scientists discovered the animal on the island of Praslin in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
- The new species is the seventh caecilian species found in the Seychelles, where the amphibians have been evolving for 64 million years.

Nearly one-third of bat species in North America are on the decline
- Scientists with NatureServe, an international biodiversity conservation NGO, looked at the conservation status of the 45 species of bat that occur in North America north of Mexico.
- Using a methodology for assessing conservation status developed by NatureServe, the researchers determined that, as of 2015, more than 30 percent of the 45 bat species included in the study qualified as vulnerable, imperiled, or critically imperiled.
- The authors of the study say that the rapid spread of a deadly fungal disease called white-nose syndrome has killed several million cave-dwelling bats of multiple species in eastern North America over the past decade.

Going viral: How advancements in Ebola disease detection in wild apes can help to prevent dangerous outbreaks
- Research using a non-invasive method of detecting Ebola virus antibodies from wild ape dung has shown that non-human great apes can survive the disease.
- Early detection and disease monitoring in wildlife populations can prevent the transmission of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola from being transmitted to humans.
- A more comprehensive assessment of health threats to wild great apes can help to determine whether the Ebola virus is of primary concern in a given gorilla or chimpanzee population.

Illegal bushmeat trade threatens human health and great apes
- Hunting for bushmeat impacts over 500 wild species in Africa, but is particularly harmful to great apes — gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos — whose small, endangered populations struggle to rebound from over-hunting. Along with other major stressors including habitat loss, trafficking and climate change.
- Bushmeat brings humans into close contact with wildlife, creating a prime path for the transmission of diseases like Ebola, as well as new emerging infectious diseases. Disease spread is especially worrisome between humans and closely related African great ape species.
- Bushmeat consumption today is driven by an upscale urban African market, by illegal logging that offers easy access to remote great ape habitat, plus impoverished rural hunters in need of cash livelihoods.
- If the bushmeat problem is to be solved, ineffective enforcement of hunting quotas and inadequate endangered species protections must be addressed. Cultural preferences for bushmeat must also change. Educational programs focused on bushmeat disease risk may be the best way to alter public perceptions.

Yellow fever is killing howler monkeys in Brazil
- Brown howler monkeys are extremely susceptible to yellow fever, and an outbreak can cause local extinctions.
- Hundreds of brown howler monkeys are estimated to have died at the RPPN-FMA reserve due to yellow fever.
- Fortunately, the critically endangerd muriquis (also found in the reserve) seem less susceptible to yellow fever than the howler monkeys.

Breakthrough boosts hope for treating contagious cancer in Tasmanian devils
- The devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) has spread across most of the Tasmanian devil’s range and has wiped out more than 80 percent of these animals in Tasmania.
- In a new study, researchers could successfully trigger the devil’s immune system to recognise and destroy established DFTD tumours.
- The findings show that a DFTD vaccine is feasible, researchers say.

Cars and STDs killing koalas in Queensland
- Scientists analyzed more than 20,000 hospital records of koala disease and death from 1997 to 2013.
- Car accidents seem to be the major cause of koala death.
- Chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease that also affects humans, is the second most frequent cause of koala death in southeast Queensland.
- Koalas in the state are also frequently killed by domestic dogs.

Global wildlife populations on pace for two-thirds decline by 2020
- The World Wildlife Fund monitors trends in 14,152 populations of 3,706 vertebrate species around the globe for its biennial Living Planet Report.
- The group found that there was a 58 percent overall decline in global wildlife population sizes between the years 1970 and 2012.
- According to the report, food production is the leading cause of habitat destruction and over-exploitation of wildlife across the globe.

Tasmanian devils are rapidly evolving resistance to deadly cancer
- Scientists used tissue samples collected from 360 devils across Tasmania between 1999 and 2014 to look for genes that might have changed with the arrival of devil facial tumor disease (DFTD).
- The study found that two small genetic regions in the devils’ DNA, linked to cancer in other mammals, appear to have changed considerably in response to DFTD.
- These genetic changes have occurred in just four to eight generations of devils since the outbreak of DFTD, suggesting that Tasmanian devils are rapidly evolving resistance to the disease.

Bat mortality no longer sustainable, global review finds
- The authors of a recent study observed a dramatic shift in bat mortality at the turn of the 21st century to deaths by wind turbine collisions and white-nose syndrome.
- Though human travel between North America and Europe is believed to be responsible for the introduction of white-nose syndrome to North America, the study did not attribute death by this fungal infection to human activity.
- Close and frequent contact between bats and people or other animals can lead to spillover events, in which disease is transmitted from the reservoir species to the species it comes in contact with.

Disease prevention a boost to human health and great ape conservation
- Africa’s booming agribusiness — especially oil palm production — and tourism are bringing people into ever-closer contact with gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, creating greater chances for diseases to cross between species.
- A “One Health” approach is helping human communities in Africa improve public health and sanitation to decrease infectious diseases, which in turn helps protect neighboring great apes. Thus, the reduction of rural poverty also enhances great ape conservation.
- Researchers are also regularly monitoring the world’s apes to identify viruses harbored by great apes that might jump to humans the way that simian immunodeficiency virus crossed species and evolved into human AIDS viruses.

The week in environmental news – April 01, 2016
- A study recently published by Nature Climate Change, suggests that sea-level rise could disrupt the lives of more than 13 million people in the United States.
- Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration for failing to consider all of the environmental risks involved with the approval of GMO salmon.
- Scientists and environmental groups have asked the Obama administration to designate the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean.

Deadly bat disease has now reached Washington state
- In March, experts confirmed that a little brown bat had died of white-nose syndrome near North Bend in Washington State.
- This is the first record of the disease in U.S’s west coast.
- Experts say that the discovery of the disease almost 1,300 miles from the previous westernmost detection suggests that humans are most likely responsible for the spread of the disease.

Deforestation increasing cases of ‘monkey malaria’ in humans, study says
- Since 2004, an increasing number of human Plasmodium knowlesi malaria cases have been identified throughout Southeast Asia, according to study.
- Researchers found that between 2008 and 2012, forest loss around villages in Kudat and Kota Marudu districts in Sabah, Malaysia, was strongly correlated to the number of P. knowlesi malaria cases in the villages.
- Study concludes that deforestation is resulting in “distinct public health consequences” in the region, which need to be urgently addressed.

Success! Biologists may have found a way to eliminate amphibian-killing fungus in the wild
- For the first time, scientists say that they have succeeded in treating fatal chytrid fungal disease in a wild toad species.
- Study found that treating tadpoles with antifungal drug itraconazole, and applying agricultural disinfectant Virkon S on toad habitat, managed to rid the toads of infection for continued period of time.
- But the cure may not be applicable over other vast, complex landscapes, other researchers warn.

Tracking the tiny: Harmonic direction finders aid study of small amphibians
- Research into small amphibians has been stymied by limited means of tracking their movements, hindering conservation efforts.
- Harmonic direction finding technology, adapted from avalanche rescue systems, is being used to track some of the world’s smallest amphibians.
- It has helped improve scientists’ understanding of chytridiomycosis, a disease causing massive decline of amphibians around the world.

‘Act before it is too late’: scientists urge ban on salamander imports to avert pandemic

Amphibian experts recommend an immediate ban on salamander imports to the U.S. to prevent the spread of a deadly salamander fungus that is wreaking havoc on European salamanders.

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