topic: Wildilfe

topic: Wildilfe

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Flocking together may create birds of a feather, study finds
- Surveys of several sites, including Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, show that the lesser necklaced laughingthrush may be physically mimicking a larger species, the greater necklaced laughingthrush, for benefit.
- Findings suggest the benefits for the smaller bird include no longer needing to be vigilant for predators when foraging for food, as the bigger bird does this job.
- Previous reports show the lesser necklaced laughingthrush is already known for vocal mimicry, where it produces the call of another bird.
- Mimicry among various species potentially serves as an evolutionary strategy for protection and foraging benefits.

Analysis of largest elephant surveys ever shows stable population, but disturbing trends
- New research comparing data from the two largest-ever elephant surveys reveals the overall population in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area is stable, but also uncovers some concerning local trends.
- Elephant numbers in Botswana, home to more elephants than any other country, are stable overall, but declining numbers in areas where hunting is permitted, and increasing numbers in protected areas, suggest underlying issues for Botswana’s elephants.
- Survey comparisons reveal that elephants have all but disappeared from the western Angolan section of the KAZA area, but a lack of local research, an issue across the region, means conservationists are unsure why.
- More research is needed across the transfrontier conservation area to ensure a safe future for the world’s largest elephant population.

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

Count, connect, conserve: Southern Africa elephant survey points the way (commentary)
- The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) is the largest transboundary terrestrial conservation area in the world – spanning five countries in southern Africa, it is home to Africa’s largest savanna elephant population.
- A 2022 survey of KAZA’s elephants revealed an estimated 227,900 individuals, but their movement is increasingly blocked by fences and human settlements, pointing to the need for better habitat connections and corridors.
- “Now that KAZA’s elephants have been counted, the landscape’s key wildlife areas must be connected, so that elephants and other species can be better conserved,” a new op-ed states.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Fisheries managers should act to protect swordfish this month (commentary)
- Between 1960 and 1996 swordfish declined more than 65%, the average size of fish caught shrank, and the species became severely overfished in the North Atlantic.
- A campaign led by consumer groups and chefs helped convince regulators like ICCAT to take action, to the point that the fishery is now considered ‘recovered.’
- Top chef and restaurateur Rick Moonen’s new op-ed argues that it’s time for a next step: “Now ICCAT has another opportunity to improve the long-term health of the swordfish population. This November, ICCAT members can adopt a new management approach for the stock and lock in sustainable fishing,” he says.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

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

A mega-highway threatens South America’s vulnerable Gran Chaco
- Dubbed the new Panama Canal, the 2,290-kilometer (1,423-mile) Bioceanic Corridor will connect Chile to Brazil via Argentina and Paraguay and aim to reduce freight transport costs.
- The highway crosses the Gran Chaco, one of the world’s most threatened biomes, which has already lost a fifth of its forest since 1985 due to agricultural expansion.
- Conservationists warn that the highway will lead to a surge in deforestation and an increase in the number of vehicle collisions, putting both people and wildlife at risk.
- Mitigating the environmental and social risks associated with the highway requires stronger political will and more robust implementation of protective regulations, experts say.

Chimpanzee nut cracking leaves telltale marks on stones, providing clues to human evolution
- Groups of chimpanzees in West Africa use stone tools in distinctly different ways to crack open nuts.
- Researchers used 3D scans to trace wear patterns on the tools, called “hammerstones” and “anvils.”
- The different tool uses may help archaeologists identify signs of early stone tool technology in human ancestors more than 3 million years ago.

With sea ice melting, glacial ice could be a lifeline for polar bears
- Scientists recently discovered a new subpopulation of polar bears living in southeast Greenland that is genetically and behaviorally distinct.
- While most polar bears depend upon sea ice for survival, the polar bears in Southeast Greenland use pieces of glacial ice as habitat and hunting platforms.
- Large numbers of polar bears are expected to decline as climate change accelerates, but small populations may persist in places like this, where the pace of melting is expected to be slower, experts say.

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

In Rio de Janeiro, a forest slowly returns to life, one species at a time
- Rio de Janeiro’s Tijuca National Park has become a laboratory for the reintroduction of locally extinct species.
- A study shows that, of the 33 species of large and medium-sized mammals that used to occur in the Tijuca National Park area, only 11 remain today.
- A forest full of large trees but empty of animals is a forest on its deathbed, conservationists say, because animals’ interactions with plants play a crucial role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem.
- In the severely degraded and fragmented Atlantic Forest, where Tijuca is located, forests devoid of large animals such as tapirs, woolly spider monkeys and jaguars are a common phenomenon with serious consequences for the plant life.

Some hummingbird females display male coloring to avoid being harassed
- Hummingbirds with brightly colored feathers typical of males are harassed by other birds less frequently than those with drab female-colored feathers.
- Male coloring in one species of hummingbird gives a social advantage to females displaying that color pattern.
- This study is the first to show these behaviors in action with live hummingbirds.

Is it time to rethink jaguar recovery in the U.S.? (commentary)
- Lands in central Arizona and New Mexico provide a huge potential for jaguar habitat: stretching as far north as the Grand Canyon, the area contains vast expanses of forests and an abundance of whitetail deer, one of their favorite prey.
- The co-authors of two recent jaguar studies found that the 20-million-acre area is 27 times larger than the critical habitat designated by the U.S. government and provides habitat that could support 100 or more jaguars.
- Yet, this area was overlooked by a 2018 jaguar recovery plan by the U.S. government. Scientists are now calling for the U.S. government to rethink their jaguar recovery policy.
- The views expressed are of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

It’s time to scrutinize who’s in the room when conservation decisions are made, says Laly Lichtenfeld
- Worldwide concern about injustice and inequity, the impacts of the pandemic, and the worsening effects of global environmental degradation has accelerated change in the conservation sector, a field that has historically been relatively slow to evolve.
- But for the shifts underway to be more than just a passing fad, many would argue that conservation requires fundamental structural changes that put more decision-making power in the hands of people who’ve been traditionally sidelined or ignored and recognize the importance of contributions from a wide range of stakeholders in achieving conservation outcomes.
- African People & Wildlife, a Tanzania-based NGO, has been working on these issues since its founding in 2005 by Laly Lichtenfeld and Charles Trout. Lichtenfeld says that conservation now must take “concrete action” to move forward.
- “Currently, there are big questions out there as to whether organizations and the global conservation culture will truly change or whether things will revert to the status quo,” she told Mongabay during a recent interview. “If the much-needed challenge is really taken on, well then again, we have a lot of work ahead on this—particularly in terms of scrutinizing who is in the room when conservation decisions are made, understanding and overcoming the power dynamics at play, and considering how we can better communicate with and listen to one another.”

Color-changing robo-chameleon showcases promising camouflage tech
- A robot modeled on a chameleon and developed by South Korean researchers can change colors to match its surroundings.
- Like real chameleons, the robo-chameleon collects information from its environment in real time, but the way it reproduces the colors on its artificial “skin” is different.
- The researchers say they hope the system will in future be able to read and mimic patterns as well.
- If colors and patterns can both be replicated in real time, it could pave the way for clothing that essentially makes the wearer invisible.

Study warns of impacts of unregulated trade in Indonesian porcupines
- The unmonitored illegal trade in porcupines across Indonesia has prompted calls from conservationists for stricter protection of the species’ population in the wild.
- A new study examining seizure data of porcupines, their parts and derivatives in Indonesia has found more than 450 of the animals in nearly 40 incidents between January 2013 and June 2020
- Indonesia is home five porcupine species, but only one is currently protected by under the law.
- The study’s author has recommended that all porcupines be categorized as protected species under Indonesian wildlife laws and listed under CITES to monitor the impacts of the trade on the wild population.

Graham Sibley leads new podcast celebrating endangered species
- On Endangered Species Day, May 21st, a group of award-winning actors, the Los Angeles Zoo, the University of Montana, and Mongabay will release a new podcast, “Endangered: Short Tales for The Nearly Forgotten.” Endangered, a podcast anthology that celebrates species that are on the verge of extinction, was created, written, directed and produced by Emmy-nominee Graham Sibley, the actor who starred in Dark Web and Sully, among many other projects.
- The podcast includes a diverse set of guests, each of whom donated their time to represent a little-known endangered species. They include Nik Dodani, Ana Claudia Talancon, Juan Pablo Espinosa, Emmy-nominee Scott Turner Schofield, Sydney Vienglaung, Noah Watts and Tuli Amakali. Emmy-Award winning sound designer and mixer Kyle O’Neal is designing and producing the series.
- Species featured in the first seven episodes include the fairy possum, the black-footed ferret, the saola, the African white-backed vulture, the axolotl, the humphead wrasse, and the golden dart frog.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Sibley said his inspiration for starting the podcast was raising his kids amid the pandemic.

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

‘Godfather of Peruvian falcons’ uncovers peregrine’s epic journey from the Arctic
- A recently published study in the Journal of Raptor Research links the breeding sites of North American peregrine falcons in Canada and the U.S. to their wintering sites in Peru.
- The farthest-flying peregrine recorded in the study migrated from Alaska to Peru — 10,671 kilometers (6,630 miles).
- Nearly three-fourths of the wintering peregrines captured in coastal Peru were male, supporting the idea that these species practice differential migration, with the larger females wintering closer to their breeding grounds.
- The study was co-authored by the late Oscar Beingolea (1959-2019), a lifelong citizen scientist and renowned Peruvian falconer, known by some as the “the godfather of falcons in Peru.”

David Attenborough’s ‘witness statement’ for the planet (commentary)
- By the time Sir David Attenborough had reached his 50s, the human population had doubled in size from when he was born, multiplying our species’ impacts on the planet.
- Famed for documentary films that reveal the natural world in startling detail and beauty, he’s also received criticism for these depictions, which some see as hiding the true level of the global environment’s startling decay.
- In a new documentary, A Life on our Planet, Attenborough expresses the dire status of the planet and points to solutions.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Marmosets trafficked as pets now threaten native species in Atlantic forest
- Decades of illegal trafficking have led to the movement of marmosets from Brazil’s Cerrado and Caatinga biomes into the southeastern Atlantic rainforest, where they now threaten the survival of native species.
- According to a study, the invasive marmosets crossbreed with native species, producing a hybrid population that could lead to the extinction of the endemic species.
- One of the native Atlantic rainforest species, the buffy-tufted-ear marmoset (Callithrix aurita), is one of the world’s 25 most endangered primate species.

Fire burns Pantanal’s upland heart and threatens nature’s fragile balance
- After spreading for 9 months across the biodiverse Brazilian Pantanal wetlands, fires have reached the Amolar Mountains. This upland area is at the heart of the ecosystem and shelters traditional communities like Barra de São Lourenço.
- Humans and animals, who thrive on the Pantanal’s seasonal cycle of rising and ebbing floods, now see their way of life menaced by an unprecedented wave of drought and fire.
- The region’s inhabitants are already suffering from air and water contamination due to smoke and soot, and dread the fires’ aftermath. With the uplands devastated by the blazes, jaguars, other mammals and birds won’t have anywhere to flee during the next cycle of annual floods.
- “For me, being a ‘pantaneira’ is loving each stick, each tree, each bird. Is feeling part of it,” says resident Leonida Aires de Souza. But now that much of this remote area has burned, the future is uncertain.

Why the health of the Amazon River matters to us all: An interview with Michael Goulding
- Like the rainforest which takes its name, the Amazon is the largest and most biodiverse river on the planet. The river and its tributaries are a critical thoroughfare for an area the size of the continental United States and function as a key source of food and livelihoods for millions of people. Yet despite its vastness and importance, the mighty Amazon is looking increasingly vulnerable due to human activities.
- Few people understand more about the Amazon’s ecology and the wider role it plays across the South American continent than Michael Goulding, an aquatic ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) who has worked in the region since the 1970s studying issues ranging from the impact of hydroelectric dams to the epic migration of goliath catfishes. Goulding has written and co-authored some of the most definitive books and papers on the river, its resident species, and its ecological function.
- In recognition of his lifetime of advancing conservation efforts in the Amazon, the Field Museum today honored Goulding with the Parker/Gentry Award. The Award — named after ornithologist Theodore A. Parker III and botanist Alwyn Gentry who were killed in a plane crash during an aerial survey of an Ecuadorian cloud forest in 1993 — is given each year to “an outstanding individual, team or organization in the field of conservation biology whose efforts have had a significant impact on preserving the world’s natural heritage and whose actions and approach can serve as a model to others.”
- In a September 2020 interview ahead of the prize ceremony, Goulding spoke with Mongabay about his research and the current state of the Amazon.

The other Corona: Rescued pangolin is a rehabilitation success story
- In February, a 2-year-old female pangolin named Cory was rescued in a sting operation led by the African Pangolin Working Group.
- Cory was in poor condition immediately after her rescue, but she responded well to rehabilitation, likely due to her young age.
- She was released on Manyoni Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, where pangolins have been ecologically extinct for the past 30 to 40 years.

Spying on fear in the wild: Q&A with ecologist Meredith Palmer
- Meredith Palmer uses camera traps to study the dynamics of predator-prey relationships in the wilds of Africa and North America.
- Her work is crucial to informing conservation management by ensuring that the reintroduction of predators contributes to a self-regulating ecosystem.
- Building largely on networks of camera traps that churn out hundreds of thousands of images, she must rely on citizen scientists who help her review them.
- Palmer also advocates for greater collaboration between the technology and conservation communities: “My cellphone does a billion things I wish my camera traps would do,” she states in this interview with Mongabay.

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.

Video: As COVID-19 curbs patrols in Nicaragua, turtle eggs risk being poached
- Conservation organization Paso Pacifico, which monitors Nicaragua’s Pacific beaches where thousands of threatened sea turtles lay their eggs every year, recently had to stop its activities due to the COVID-19 crisis.
- Park rangers fear that the lack of surveillance could lead to massive poaching of turtle eggs.
- Poaching has previously increased when the country’s political crises left the beaches unprotected.

What is a dhole? Candid Animal Cam takes you to Asia
- Every Tuesday, Mongabay brings you a new episode of Candid Animal Cam, our show featuring animals caught on camera traps around the world and hosted by Romi Castagnino, our writer and conservation scientist.

A Sri Lankan rescue center races to save wild patients during lockdown
- The Hiyare wild animal rescue center in southern Sri Lanka has reported a significant increase in the number of injured and orphaned animals brought in during the COVID-19 lockdown.
- Conservationists attribute this both to the onset of the breeding season for several species, and an increase in farming activity as the lockdown forced people to find other means of livelihood.
- Caretakers at the rescue center faced multiple challenges securing sufficient supplies of fresh milk and fodder for the animals, many of which they hope to be able to release back into the wild once they are rehabilitated and trained.
- Initiated in 2008, the Hiyare center has saved and released many animals, but now faces funding uncertainty as a result of the economic impact of the lockdown.

Wildlife conservation needs a post-COVID recovery plan (commentary)
- Despite news stories about nature benefiting from the COVID-19 crisis, one funder of conservation projects worldwide is skeptical that there really are significant improvements in the status of wildlife.
- Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund recently surveyed its grantees and 67% said the pandemic negatively affected their organization, and 40% said it negatively affected their job or career.
- Conservationists are nature’s first responders, security detail, and scientists searching for a cure to the extinction crisis, but most are not afield now due to the pandemic. Support for their work needs heavy stimulus as soon as possible to recover ground lost so far this year.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

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.

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.

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.

Bouncing back: The recovery of the tenkile tree kangaroo
- The tenkile tree kangaroo population in Papua New Guinea’s Torricelli mountains has tripled since 1996 to more than 300 animals.
- The Tenkile Conservation Alliance has improved conditions for both the critically endangered species and the local communities.
- The tenkile is still imperiled by deforestation, illegal logging and climate change.

‘Like spaghetti’: Worm-slurping, hopping rats discovered in the Philippines
- The highly biodiverse island of Luzon in the Philippines has yielded up two species of rats new to science.
- Both are found high up on Luzon’s mountains, where they’ve evolved to feed on the earthworms that abound in the lush, wet habitat.
- Researchers say they hope the new discoveries, the latest of dozens made here since 2000, will help shine a spotlight on the importance of conserving Luzon’s unique habitats and wildlife.

Photos: What are vipers?
- This photo post comes via Mongabay’s partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Wild View blog.
- Under this partnership, we publish occasional original contributions from Wild View that highlights an animal species or group.
- In this post, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Herpetology Collection Manager Kevin Torregrosa writes about vipers.
- Photos by WCS Staff Photographer Julie Larsen Maher.

Tear down the dams: New coalition strives to enshrine rights of orcas
- A new coalition of scientists, indigenous peoples, community groups and lawyers is pushing for legal recognition of the rights of an endangered orca population living in the Salish Sea.
- The population, known as the Southern Resident Killer Whales, numbers just 75 individuals, down from 98 in 1995.
- The orcas are imperiled by noise and chemical pollution, the impending construction of Canada’s Trans-Mountain pipeline, and, most of all, severe salmon shortages caused by the damming of the rivers that feed into the sea.

Can jaguar tourism save Bolivia’s fast dwindling forests?
- Few countries in the tropics have seen trees chopped down as quickly as Bolivia did between 2001 and 2017.
- Within Bolivia, nearly two-thirds of that loss occurred in just a single state—Santa Cruz—as agribusiness activity, namely cattle ranching and soy farming, ramped up.
- This loss has greatly reduced the extent of habitat for some of Bolivia’s best known species, including the largest land predator in the Americas, the jaguar. On top of habitat loss, jaguars in Santa Cruz are both persecuted by landowners who see them as a danger to livestock, and targeted in a lucrative new trade in their parts, including teeth and bones.
- Duston Larsen, the owner of San Miguelito Ranch, is working to reverse that trend by upending the perception that jaguars necessarily need be the enemy of ranchers.

Latam Eco Review: Seeing red over pink dolphins and flamingos

The most popular stories published recently by our Spanish-language news service, Mongabay Latam, featured endangered pink Amazon river dolphins, the world’s rarest flamingos, palm oil plantations in Nicaragua, impunity in Peru, and mansions in Colombia. Mercury and accidental capture endanger Amazon river dolphins The Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) was recently categorized as endangered in […]
Inspiration from frogs (insider)
- Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler explains how his love for frogs spurred his interest in tropical rainforests, eventually leading him to start the web site.
- Here he explains why frogs are important and what’s happening to them worldwide.
- This post is insider content, which is available to paying subscribers.

Two suspected poachers arrested for killing of Sumatran elephant
- Indonesian authorities have arrested two of four suspects alleged to have killed a rare Sumatran elephant and hacked off one of its tusks.
- The arrest took place about a month after the elephant was found dead in the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra’s Aceh province. News of the killing garnered widespread attention and calls to solve the case.
- There are only an estimated 2,400 Sumatran elephants left in the wild, scattered across 25 fragmented habitats on the island.

Poachers blamed in second Sumatran elephant death this year
- Forest rangers in northern Sumatra have found one of their patrol elephants dead and missing a tusk inside a protected forest.
- Authorities have cited poisoning by poachers as the cause of death, making it the second such poaching-related elephant killing in Sumatra this year.
- The local conservation agency has called on law enforcers to bring the perpetrators to justice, but past cases suggest this will be slow in coming.

Poachers blamed as body of Sumatran elephant, missing tusks, found in protected forest
- Farmers in southern Sumatra found the body of a young male elephant inside a protected forest and missing its tusks.
- No external injuries were found that could point to a cause of death, leading wildlife activists to suspect it was killed by poisoning, a common tactic used by poachers.
- The discovery comes less than a month after a pregnant elephant was found poisoned to death in northern Sumatra — although in that case the tuskless female appeared more likely to have been killed for encroaching on farms than by poachers.

4 sperm whales dead after mass stranding in Sumatra
- A pod of 10 sperm whales beached earlier this week in shallow waters in western Indonesia.
- Despite attempts by authorities and residents to push the animals back out into deeper water, four of the whales died after being stranded overnight.
- Experts are looking into what caused the whales to swim so close to shore.

Two Indonesian soldiers found to be smuggling dozens of porcupines
- The Indonesian conservation agency caught a pair of army officers trying to smuggle dozens of porcupines across provincial borders in Sumatra.
- The animal’s stomach produces a stone used in traditional Chinese medicine.
- The soldiers were questioned by civilian authorities, and then turned over to the military.

Fossil discovery in Indonesia reveals ‘lost world’ of beasts
- On the Indonesian island of Sumba, scientists unearthed the bones of tiny elephants, giant rats and other extinct creatures.
- They also found Komodo dragon fossils, confirming the lizard’s existence outside the islets off of nearby Flores island.
- Sumba remains little researched. The scientists hope more can be done.

Malaysia’s East Coast Rail Link a double-edged sword for environment, wildlife
- Work on the East Coast Rail Link, a Chinese-backed cargo and passenger rail project that will connect Peninsular Malaysia’s east and west coasts, commenced August 9.
- The project aims to shift traffic from roads to rails, but will also lead to habitat loss and fragmentation in the peninsula’s forested heart.
- Developers have adopted mitigation measures, but areas of ecological significance will still be affected.

Audio: Bill Laurance on the “infrastructure tsunami” sweeping the planet
- We recently heard Bill argue that scientists need to become more comfortable with expressing uncertainty over the future of the planet and to stop “dooming and glooming” when it comes to environmental problems.
- We wanted to hear more about that, as well as to hear from Bill about the “global road map” he and his team recently released to help mitigate the environmental damage of what he calls an “infrastructure tsunami” breaking across the globe.
- We also welcome to the program Michelle LaRue, a research ecologist with the University of Minnesota’s Department of Earth Sciences. Her current work is focused on using high-resolution satellite imagery to study the population dynamics of Weddell seals in Antarctica’s Ross Sea.
- In this Field Notes segment, Michelle will also play for us some of the calls made by adult Weddell seals and their pups, which couldn’t be more different from each other and are really quite remarkable, each in their own way. But you really have to hear them to believe them.

A farewell to the Yangtze’s ghost, the Baiji
- The Baiji, the Yangtze River dolphin, was officially declared ‘functionally extinct’ this month.
- The Baiji is survived by other river dolphins, all themselves threatened.

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