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topic: Citizen Science
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The race to document Indigenous knowledge to protect Philippines’ birds
In the forests of the Philippines’ Mindoro Island, an urgent effort is underway to record the vanishing ecological knowledge of the Indigenous Iraya Mangyan community. As elders age and fewer young people learn beside then, and deforestation and infrastructure development threaten the island’s endemic wildlife, traditional knowledge holders are partnering with conservationists to document wildlife, […]
Dragonflies help protect water and ancestral Indigenous languages in Colombia
- Researchers investigating Colombia’s remote region of Guainía have identified nearly 120 dragonfly and damselfly species, uncovering a biodiversity hotspot for these insects.
- Dragonflies rely on pristine freshwater ecosystems, but their aquatic habitats face growing pressure from regional deforestation, unmanaged waste and exponential tourism.
- By naming in their ancestral languages and monitoring local dragonflies, communities are deepening their understanding of ecosystem health and connecting biodiversity and ancestral wisdom with water protection.
Indigenous fishers rethink shark hunting & protect species on Colombia’s coast
- In the Colombian department of La Guajira, at South America’s northernmost tip, Indigenous Wayuu fishers from the community of Punta Gallinas are working with marine biologists to conserve and document shark populations.
- Despite a 2021 law banning targeted shark and ray fishing in Colombia, the meat remains a vital protein source in one of the country’s most remote and food-insecure regions.
- Colombian shark conservation initiative Proyecto Puyuii is working with Wayuu fishers to record shark species in the understudied waters of La Guajira, implementing sustainability measures such as larger-mesh nets, safe release techniques and avoiding longlines.
- With sustainable tourism touted as a potential economic alternative to shark fishing, some fishers argue that compensation will need to be offered before they can afford to stop.
Elders, conservationists race to record fading sacred ties to Philippines’ endemic birds
- The Iraya Mangyan ancestral forestland supports hundreds of plant and animal species, including many that are rare, threatened or found only on the Philippines’ Mindoro Island.
- Culturally important birds include the Mindoro racket-tail (Prioniturus mindorensis), Mindoro boobook (Ninox mindorensis) and Mindoro scops owl (Otus mindorensis), whose calls and behaviors guide weather preparation, farming decisions and spiritual practices.
- Iraya knowledge also links medicinal plants, wildlife and healing, showing how customary beliefs can regulate harvesting, discourage disturbance and protect forest habitats.
- Community-led documentation will help carry this knowledge into ancestral-domain planning, ecotrail interpretation and broader conservation of Mindoro’s endemic wildlife.
Social media images lead to first recording of parasitoid wasp species in Japan
Photos of a striking, iridescent wasp posted on social media by wasp enthusiasts in Japan have led to an unexpected discovery: The images are the first record of the species in Japan. The footage also helped scientists describe a male of the species for the first time. The images and a video of the wasps […]
A shy bird found only in Nepal is waiting for the world to notice
- First scientifically described in 1836, the spiny babbler has only ever been found in Nepal.
- Despite its uniqueness, the species remains poorly understood.
- The bird has typically been spotted in and around Kathmandu and Pokhara, but sightings have now been recorded in shrublands across all seven of Nepal’s provinces.
- Ornithologists have been unable to determine why the bird does not exist outside Nepal or document more information on its habitat and behavior owing to limited research and researchers are calling for more attention for the bird.
Nepal’s birdwatchers can fill gaps in conservation data
Nepal’s expanding birdwatching community offers a vital lifeline for both biodiversity monitoring and ecotourism, reports contributor Bibek Bhandari for Mongabay. According to a recent study, a growing interest in birdwatching, particularly among younger generations, is helping bridge gaps in ecological data while promoting Nepal as a birdwatching destination. Nepal is home to more than 900 […]
How birders in Chad ‘found’ the rusty lark, a bird lost to science for nearly a century
- In February, French ornithologists and their Chadian colleagues spotted a bird not seen, heard or recorded by scientists in nearly a century while surveying water birds in Chad’s wetlands.
- The team, which included birders Pierre Defos du Rau and Julien Birard, photographed the rusty lark, a wetland species native to the Sahel, producing the first images of this mysterious bird.
- Though known to science for more than a century, the bird has remained an enigma, with little known about its life cycle, habitat or the threats it faces.
- Bird enthusiasts say they hope this accidental rediscovery could help Chad secure the money it needs for conservation in a game reserve devoid of the charismatic megafauna associated with Africa.
Nepal’s birdwatchers help monitor wildlife and promote tourism
- Birdwatching is becoming increasingly popular in Nepal, contributing to biodiversity conservation through public engagement and ecological data collection.
- Despite its popularity, a lack of public participation and data-sharing practices affect record-keeping.
- Researchers say documentation provided by birdwatchers helps fulfill data gaps related to bird population and habitat.
- Birdwatching helps promote local destinations and generate economic activity, though Nepal as a birdwatching destination remains largely untapped.
Sightings off Southern Africa suggest blue and fin whales may be rebounding
Sightings of blue whales and fin whales off Southern Africa’s Atlantic coast have increased in recent years, according to a newly published study. This could signal recovery of the marine mammals after being virtually eliminated from the area by commercial whaling in the 20th century, the study authors say. Scientists estimate around 350,000 Antarctic blue […]
A year on, Australia’s biggest harmful algal bloom continues to wreak havoc
- The largest and longest-lasting harmful algal bloom in Australia’s history, which started in early 2025, has potentially affected more than 20,000 square kilometers of ocean waters and about a third of the coasts in the state of South Australia.
- The algal bloom has devastated marine ecosystems and caused significant economic losses in the local fishing, aquaculture and tourism industries.
- As officials, researchers and communities grapple with its ecological, health and social impacts, the bloom has exposed a lack of preparedness at all levels of government for responding to future HABs.
What the platypus can teach us about smarter conservation
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The platypus offers a useful lesson in conservation: before acting, it helps to know where the animal still lives, and where risks are growing. Australia’s best-known oddity is also difficult to count, reports contributor Paul Harvey for Mongabay. […]
Three new ‘planking’ praying mantis species found in Australia and Papua New Guinea
Researchers have identified three new-to-science species of snake mantises, two from Australia and one from Papua New Guinea, and figured out their distribution and behavior with the help of citizen scientists. Matthew Connors, a Ph.D. candidate at James Cook University in Australia, led the effort to revisit the taxonomy of Kongobatha, a little-studied group of […]
An Australian icon, the platypus is struggling — and scientists still lack answers
- Australia’s iconic platypus is under threat as climate change hits the country hard. Intense heat and longer droughts are parching waterways that platypuses live in; wildfires are more frequent and heavy rainfall events inundate their burrows.
- Platypuses are elusive animals, primarily active at dawn and dusk, making them difficult to locate and count, which hinders conservation efforts. Researchers are working to improve platypus population data.
- Without comprehensive information on their whereabouts, conservationists can’t intervene early in natural disasters to save platypuses.
- Australia’s intense three-year drought and the following 2019-2020 “Black Summer” bushfires led to new ways to manage wild platypus populations during natural disasters. Now, a new framework outlines ways to save populations in crisis: whether to help animals in situ or deciding to move them.
After nearly a century, Taiwan’s legless lizard gets its own identity
A new study has cleared up a century’s worth of identity confusion surrounding a secretive, legless lizard found in Taiwan’s forests. Researchers from National Taiwan Normal University confirmed the Formosan legless lizard (Dopasia formosensis) is a distinct species endemic to the island, separate from the more widespread Hart’s glass lizard (D. harti), under which it […]
Citizen science helps reconnect Singapore treetops for elusive leaf-eating langurs
- Singapore’s fragmented forests are home to a small population of Raffles’ banded langurs, one of the world’s most threatened primates.
- Citizen scientists are helping conservationists protect the arboreal species across the island’s densely urbanized landscape.
- By collecting long-term and consistent data in known strongholds, volunteers have identified langur food plants and movement corridors, boosting efforts to enrich and reconnect their habitats.
- The citizen science program has also built public awareness of the elusive species, one of only three primates left in Singapore, an outcome experts hope will rouse wider support for biodiversity protection amid intense development pressure.
How Namibia’s bird conservation projects build community resilience (commentary)
- Droughts and land degradation often erode communities’ social bonds, but in the Karas region of Namibia, bird conservation initiatives have become a rallying point.
- Women and youth are at the forefront of these initiatives, which has inspired confidence among peers and shown that conservation is not the domain of scientists alone, but also a practice of everyday community resilience.
- “It is time for policymakers, NGOs, and donors to support these initiatives not just as biodiversity projects, but as investments in community well-being,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Citizen science rediscovers rare South African moth
- Citizen scientists in South Africa have rediscovered an emerald-green moth that’s been missing for nearly one-and-a-half centuries.
- A dozen male moths had their photographs posted online from 2020 to 2023, providing proof-of-life for Drepanogynis insciata.
- Until now, scientists only knew of the moth from illustrations and two faded specimens, collected around 1875 in the Western Cape town of Swellendam, and kept in London’s Natural History Museum.
- Experts say websites like iNaturalist provide many additional eyes and a virtual workforce to produce the treasure trove of information aiding rediscoveries like this one.
An inventory of life in California
- California is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, yet much of its life—especially insects and fungi—remains undocumented, even in a state rich in scientific institutions.
- The California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI) is working to build a verifiable, statewide record of life, combining fieldwork, DNA analysis, and museum collections.
- By focusing on evidence that can be revisited and tested over time, the effort provides a baseline for understanding ecological change rather than prescribing solutions.
- Mongabay’s reporting follows how this foundational work underpins later decisions about protection, restoration, and management—showing why counting still matters.
How ‘Adventure Scientists’ provide pioneering data for conservation
Gregg Treinish didn’t start out as an outdoor enthusiast, but found solace and purpose in nature during his youth. After years of enjoying the outdoors, he was left feeling a need to give something back to the world. He found fulfillment by using his passion for outdoor adventures to gather critical data that researchers need […]
Statewide survey aims to put California’s fungi on the conservation map
- A state-funded survey has sampled and collected fungi species from across California, identifying hundreds of new-to-science species.
- It’s part of a statewide effort to protect biodiversity, which has yielded thousands of specimens and is the first of its kind in North America.
- Fungi are often neglected compared to the attention given to plants and animals, yet they play an important role in maintaining ecological health by supporting plant growth and storing carbon.
- Understanding fungi’s role in nature has implications for conservation and for forest restoration as wildfires grow larger and more frequent. Other researchers in California are working on putting fungi to use cleaning up polluted areas.
Turning adventure into data
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Gregg Treinish’s turning point came somewhere between mountain ranges and moral unease. Years of wandering through wilderness had left him restless. “I was spending years in the wilderness, doing long expeditions, and I began to feel selfish for […]
Turning outdoor exploration into environmental discovery: Gregg Treinish and the rise of Adventure Scientists
- Gregg Treinish, founder of Adventure Scientists, has built a global network of trained volunteers who collect high-quality environmental data for researchers, agencies, and conservationists. His organization bridges the worlds of outdoor adventure and scientific rigor.
- From microplastics and illegal timber to biodiversity mapping, Adventure Scientists’ projects have filled crucial data gaps and influenced policy, research, and corporate practices around the world.
- In California, Treinish’s team is partnering with the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI) to help catalog the state’s immense diversity through thousands of insect and soil eDNA samples collected by volunteers.
- Treinish spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in October 2025 about scaling trust-based citizen science, the value of human observation in nature, and why adventure remains a powerful gateway to environmental action.
First oarfish sighting in Sri Lanka highlights citizen science in marine protection
- Scientists have documented the first-ever record of an oarfish (Regalecus russellii) in Sri Lanka, a 2.6-meter (8.5-foot) specimen caught off the country’s western coast.
- The find expands the known distribution of oarfish into the Indian Ocean, offering a new baseline for studying this rarely seen deep-sea species.
- Meanwhile, another oarfish was recorded in India’s Tamil Nadu this year, while within 20 days, three oarfish have been recorded from Australia and New Zealand, puzzling naturalists.
- The importance of promoting citizen science and raising awareness among fishers is needed.
Bird-watching for nature connection & social justice
Wildlife biologist and ornithologist Corina Newsome of the U.S. NGO National Wildlife Federation joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss how bird-watching plays a role in environmental justice for underserved communities in urban areas, and provides an accessible way for people to connect with nature and drives impactful change. “Birding is an opportunity [for] people to fill […]
Funding is needed to save Samoa’s ‘little dodo’ from extinction (commentary)
- Since 2014, Samoa’s “little dodo” has been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List: related to the extinct dodo, an adult manumea, as it’s called locally, has not been photographed well in the wild, and its song has rarely been recorded.
- But an underfunded conservation effort led by the Samoa Conservation Society and the nation’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) could still snatch this fascinating species from the extinction list, a new commentary argues.
- “In my view, a large-scale, multiyear forest conservation project funded by the Global Environment Facility and led by the MNRE is essential,” the author writes.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
After 160 years, an old drawing leads scientists to a long-lost Sri Lanka orchid
- After 160 years, scientists in Sri Lanka have rediscovered Vanda thwaitesii, a delicate tropical Asian orchid, by referring to scientific drawings to make the connection.
- Sri Lanka’s rich array of orchids face threats from illegal collection and habitat loss, but climate change may pose an even greater risk by disrupting their growth, flowering and pollination.
- This rediscovery was made possible through citizen science, a common factor in many recent findings, but experts caution that social media can be a double-edged sword, as it may also encourage illegal harvesting.
- Conservationists also caution that this rediscovery does not mean recovery and call for urgent measures to safeguard the island’s fragile floral heritage.
Out-of-range albatross makes a highlight in the revival of seabird watching in Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka has recorded over 50 species of seabirds — birds that spend much of their lives at sea — within its territorial waters, including several long-distance migratory birds that travel thousands of kilometers across oceans.
- As observation of seabirds is challenging, only a small group of Sri Lankan birders have focused on this unique group. In the past decade, seabird studies in the island have seen a notable revival, led by enthusiastic young birders.
- Among last year’s remarkable observations is the sighting of a grey-headed albatross off Sri Lanka’s northern coast, marking the first-ever record of the species north of the equator, well beyond its usual Southern Ocean range near Antarctica.
- World Seabird Day, observed every year on July 3, commemorates the tragic extinction of the great auk, marking the last known pair of which was killed on that day in 1844 and highlighting the vulnerability of seabirds and the urgent need for their conservation.
In Colombia, bird-watching brings tourism and a love for conservation
- Every year, on the Global Big Day, thousands of bird-watchers across the world compete to record as many species of birds as possible.
- In Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, bird-watching is central to the conservation movement that has emerged in recent decades.
- Though the region has some of the richest bird life of any place on Earth, bird-watchers note that some species have become harder to come by.
- Birds in the Sierra Nevada are threatened by habitat loss as a result of encroaching agriculture, livestock ranching and deforestation, as well as wildlife trafficking and introduction of predators like feral cats.
In Nepal, northernmost sighting of Eurasian otter raises hope, concerns
- The northernmost Eurasian otter sighting in Nepal was recorded in the Karnali River, raising hopes for the species’ range expansion. But as the animal was found dead in a fishing net, conservationists highlight challenges to the species’ conservation.
- Researchers emphasize the rarity of such sightings in high-altitude, remote areas like Humla, where otters had been considered cryptic or absent for decades.
- The discovery builds on a series of recent sightings across Nepal, including in urbanized Kathmandu Valley, suggesting a wider distribution than previously known.
- Threats to otters include overfishing, poaching, hydropower projects, sand mining and net entanglement, all of which imperil not just the Eurasian otter but also Nepal’s two other otter species.
Young Rwandans support bird conservation through mobile app recordings
A young tour guide and his group of student mentees are helping monitor bird species in Rwanda with the help of a mobile app, Mongabay contributor Mariam Kone reported. Joseph Desiré Dufitumukiza, who enjoys bird-watching, felt moved to take action after he read about the decline of native bird species in Rwanda, including the Maccoa […]
Concrete sprawl in Buddha’s birthplace in Nepal threatens sarus cranes
- Sarus cranes, once abundant in Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, are rapidly declining due to unplanned urbanization, wetland loss and habitat degradation, with local elders recalling their disappearance from areas that were once full of ponds and farmland.
- A recent survey found that 59% of respondents believe the crane’s range has shrunk, citing habitat loss (44%), hunting (19%) and wetland degradation (16%) as key threats to the bird.
- Lumbini province hosts Nepal’s largest population of sarus cranes, but only four pairs remain within the 200-hectare (500-acre) Lumbini gardens that constitute a popular pilgrimage site and have seen a surge in the built-up area
Countries failing to stop illegal bird killings despite 2030 commitment: Report
Most countries that pledged to reduce the number of birds being illegally killed along an important migratory route in Europe and the Mediterranean region are failing to do so, a new report shows. For the report, conservation organizations BirdLife International and EuroNatur tracked the progress of 46 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, […]
Angling for answers, this saltwater fishing group boosts research for better conservation
- Though anglers aren’t generally thought of as environmentalists, many people who fish are conservation minded, whether because it’s an outdoor pursuit, or because they wish to ensure future harvests.
- Whatever their reasons, there aren’t many groups that help anglers advocate for sustainable fishing regulations based on solid science, nor ones that also work to generate new data that helps them argue for better conservation.
- “Until we came along, there was no voice for those saltwater anglers who cared about conservation, but didn’t have enough time to put into it to really understand it,” says American Saltwater Guides Association vice president Tony Friedrich.
- His team not only helps its members articulate the need for conservation and regulation, they actively participate in developing data that helps managers set better limits, through projects like their GotOne App.
A migrating flycatcher returning to the same Sri Lankan garden sparks interest in birders
- An Asian paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) with distinctive markings on its head that has returned to the same home garden in Colombo for four consecutive migratory seasons has sparked interest among bird enthusiasts in Sri Lanka.
- Many birds, especially migratory species, possess a remarkable ability to return to the same location year after year, sometimes to the exact tree or nest, which is a behavior known as site tenacity or site fidelity.
- World Migratory Bird Day is traditionally observed on the first Saturdays of May and October, aligning with bird migrations in the northern and southern hemispheres respectively.
- A online bird observation platform, eBird, is gaining popularity in Sri Lanka with over 4,000 birders listed with the platform, strengthening the role of citizen science in tracking bird movements.
North American birds are plummeting in areas where they’re plentiful
A newly published study has found that nearly 75% of bird species in North America are sharply declining across their ranges, and eight in 10 plummeting in the very areas where they’re thought to be thriving and plentiful. Nearly every species, 97%, had gains and losses in their populations depending on the location, the study […]
‘Trophies’ shared on social media reveal scale of mass bird slaughter in Lebanon
- Millions of migratory birds fly over Lebanon, which is on the African-Eurasian flyway, where hunters indiscriminately shoot them, often illegally, despite some of the species being threatened and/or protected.
- A first-of-its-kind study uses social media photos and posts to assess the level of illegal hunting in Lebanon, where studies show an estimated 2.5 million birds are killed each year.
- The study found that 94% of the hunted bird species, identified by assessing more than 1,800 photographs, were legally protected, and the poachers posed with their hunt in nearly half of these photos without fear of consequences for their illegal acts.
- Conservationists blame weak law enforcement and small penalties for poachers’ blatant disregard for regulations, and point to the growing trend of using social media to garner likes and views as a driving reason behind the carnage.
Africa’s growing cities are endangering birdlife (commentary)
- In Africa, urban land cover is expected to triple by 2030, and the potential impact on birds and biodiversity is particularly alarming, a new op-ed argues.
- A recently published study used citizen science data from Kenyan and Nigerian bird-mapping projects to uncover insights into how urbanization affects birds, their diversity and ecological functions in these nations.
- “As urbanization has intensified, the variety of bird species and their roles in the ecosystem shrinks, resulting in more uniform communities with generalist species,” author Bello Adamu Danmallam writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Study delves into increase in humpback whale sightings in UK and Ireland
Earlier this year, U.K. media reported an increase in humpback whale sightings in British and Irish waters. Between December 2024 and January, The Guardian reported some 17 sightings of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) from the Isles of Scilly in southwest England. Meanwhile, the nonprofit Sussex Dolphin Project reported more than 50 sightings from Sussex in […]
Maltese Falcon Poachers: European hunters endanger Egypt’s birds
- A 15-month-long investigation has exposed the cracks in international conservation efforts around the hunting of Maltese falcons and other species in Egypt.
- Millions of euros have flowed from EU conservation funds to protect these species, only for them to be gunned down by Europeans in Egypt.
- With exclusive accounts from conservationists and hunting trip organizers, alongside public records of raids and arrests, this investigation highlights the urgent need for international cooperation to uphold global conservation commitments.
Innovators battling wildfires with AI, drones & fungi get $50k grants to scale up
To address the devastating effects of wildfires in Western North America, the nonprofit Conservation X Labs (CXL) and its partners have awarded $50,000 each to 12 shortlisted teams seeking to scale up novel technologies and processes to lower wildlife risk and increase ecosystem and community resilience. CXL announced the 12 finalists of its first Fire […]
A century later, a rare mushroom with a curious shape emerges in Sri Lanka
- Documented just once in 1919 at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sri Lanka, an elusive mushroom has resurfaced more than a hundred years later, causing excitement among mycologists and nature lovers alike.
- The fungus is known for its phallic shape and foul-smelling spore mass, which attracts insects for spore dispersal — a unique strategy among fungi, which otherwise mostly use wind to disperse the spores.
- After the publication of a research paper, at least five separate observations from different parts of the country were reported highlighting that the mushroom may survive in many places.
- Mycologists call for greater attention to fungi in biodiversity research and conservation, as many species may remain hidden — or risk disappearing unnoticed.
One in five butterflies lost in the US since 2000, study finds
A study in the United States found a dramatic 22% decline in butterfly populations between 2000 and 2020. Previous research has focused on a specific butterfly species or regions of the country. For this study, researchers wanted to understand overall butterfly population trends across the U.S. They gathered records of 12.6 million individual butterflies across […]
How birds deepen our awareness of nature: Interview with Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok
- Thailand is home to more than 1,100 species of birds and is a crucial stopover location on global bird migration routes.
- However, the country’s protected area system focuses on mountainous forests, which risks overlooking the conservation of many other habitats, such as wetlands, mudflats and open farmlands that are nonetheless important for birds.
- While bird conservation efforts are well underway in many of these habitats, threats from hunting, wildlife trade and rapid development abound.
- Mongabay recently spoke with Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok, a bird conservationist, photographer and author, about what he perceives as the most pressing bird conservation issues in Thailand.
Better government policies could help as migratory birds lose habitat in Bangladesh
- Recent studies indicate a steady decline in the number of migratory water birds in Bangladesh over the last few years.
- Researchers said the key threats to migratory birds include habitat loss, cattle grazing in bird habitats, domestic duck farming and conservation mismanagement.
- They underscore the need for a coordinated effort among livestock, agriculture and environment ministries.
Underwater citizen science reveals the specter of ghost fishing in Thailand
- Teams of scientists and hobbyist scuba divers have assessed the extent of discarded fishing gear on Thailand’s marine wildlife, finding it poses a pervasive threat to a huge range of species.
- Discarded or “ghost” fishing gear comprises 10% of all marine plastic debris in the ocean, persisting for decades and passively catching and killing species from sea snails to whale sharks.
- Thailand is famed for its recreational diving, and efforts are underway to retrieve ghost gear from the ocean and rescue animals found entangled, as well as to work with fishers to help them recycle their old equipment.
- Experts say preventing gear from entering the ocean in the first place is paramount; solutions must extend beyond cleanup and recycling efforts to encompass policy reform, economic incentives, and improved infrastructure.
Birdwatchers rally behind endemic hummingbird, spurring conservation movement in Mexico
- In Veracruz, the charismatic Mexican sheartail, one of the 58 hummingbird species in the country, is threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation for agriculture and urbanization.
- Chavarillo, an important spot for migratory birds, located in central Veracruz, has leveraged income gained from birdwatching to create a natural reserve for the Mexican sheartail.
- One local in Chavarillo donated land to establish the Doricha Natural Reserve, which provides the sheartail with much needed habitat and helps promote biodiversity conservation more widely.
- Birdwatchers, local landowners and conservationists have come together here to protect a habitat and ecosystem important for many endemic species.
Photos: Top new species from 2024
- Scientists described numerous new species this past year, from the world’s smallest otter in India to a fanged hedgehog from Southeast Asia, tree-dwelling frogs in Madagascar, and a new family of African plants.
- Experts estimate that fewer than 20% of Earth’s species have been documented by Western science, with potentially millions more awaiting discovery.
- Although such species may be new to science, many are already known to — and used by — local and Indigenous peoples, who often have given them traditional names.
- Upon discovery, many new species are assessed as threatened with extinction, highlighting the urgent need for conservation efforts.
Counting Crows (and more) for Audubon’s Christmas bird count
One of the longest-running citizen science projects in the world has kicked off its 125th annual event. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC), administered by the U.S.-based nonprofit National Audubon Society, takes place each year from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5. The annual bird census collects valuable data that scientists use to track the health and […]
Citizen scientists can boost IUCN species assessments, but need better guidance from ecologists
- More than 100,000 Australian citizen scientists are contributing crucial biodiversity data about species at risk, helping improve conservation efforts in ways that can enhance IUCN Red List decisions.
- Citizen science projects like Fungimap and FrogID showcase how such observations have influenced threat assessments and conservation outcomes.
- Researchers stress the need for clear goals, standardized protocols, and expert oversight to maximize the impact of citizen science.
Lesser noddy sighting stirs up birding community in Bangladesh
- In September, near Bangladesh’s Sonadia Island, an ornithologist and a birdwatcher recorded the sighting of lesser noddies, a seabird species never seen in Bangladesh before.
- Lesser noddies are tropical terns known to be confined to the Indian Ocean.
- Experts say it is unknown why lesser noddies traveled to Bangladesh, and predict that they will soon return to their original habitats after this temporary stopover.
Bird-watching with drones? Might want to watch your distance, study says
As researchers and wildlife enthusiasts increasingly use drones to watch birds, a new study has come out with guidelines for best drone operating practices that minimize disturbance. “This study represents an important first step in understanding wildlife responses to drones and promoting ethical considerations in the use of new technologies in wildlife monitoring,” Meredith Palmer, […]
Fishers & scientists unite to restore seaweed populations on Chilean coast
- Scientists and fishers in Chile are repopulating a coastal area exposed to high levels of pollution with two species of seaweed that were once abundant in the area.
- The disappearance of the seaweed has formed ocean deserts. Its absence has not only reduced biodiversity but also deprived the area of the ecosystem services that these plants provide.
- Despite considerable challenges, the project already shows signs of hope.
‘Mermaids’ dive to study and protect Mexican fishing grounds
- For more than 20 years, a fishing cooperative in the community of Isla Natividad, in Baja California Sur, Mexico, has been working to adapt and to be more resilient to climate-change impacts like tropical storms, marine heat waves, hypoxia and loss of kelp forests; these latter shelter species that help feed the community but have experienced mass mortality, such as the abalone.
- The community has invested in diversifying their economic activities and have established volunteer-run marine reserves. Their aim is to help affected fish stocks recover.
- A group of citizen scientist divers known as the Sirenas de Natividad was founded in 2019; this all-women team is made up of five homemakers, all wives and daughters of fishers, who are monitoring fishery resources and the volunteer-run marine reserves.
Celestún refuge fights illegal fishing & helps revive species in Mexico’s Yucatán
- In 2019, the Celestún fishing community in Yucatán, Mexico, established a 324-square-kilometer (125-square-mile) Fishing Refuge Zone (FRZ), the largest in the Gulf of Mexico.
- The area was created in response to the overfishing of sea cucumbers, a species that had been in rapid decline, which caused social strife in the community.
- Local fishers have been trained to monitor the refuge to help the species recover and protect other species of commercial interest, like octopus and lobster. The participation of women has been an important part of the process, as they help lead community monitoring efforts.
‘Dream birds’ in the mist: First photo of ‘lost’ bird in DRC mountains
- The mountainous forests of the eastern DRC are home to a strikingly beautiful bird: the yellow-crested helmetshrike.
- The species was considered lost to science until late last year, when an expedition of U.S. and DRC scientists spotted flocks of the birds gliding through the forests of the Itombwe mountains and snapped the first photo.
- Their observations will help to fill in some key knowledge gaps on this little-known species, which faces threats from habitat destruction and climate change.
Environmentalists empowering women and citizen science win 2024 Heinz Awards
Two pairs of environmentalists are being awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment this year. Each duo will receive an unrestricted, shared cash award of $250,000 and the Heinz Awards medallion. Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler received the award in 2022. Among the 2024 winners are Amira Diamond and Melinda Kramer, co-founders of […]
Bats & bees help ni-Vanuatu predict storms — but will climate change interfere?
- In disaster-prone Vanuatu, Indigenous ni-Vanuatu people traditionally rely on plants and animal species as indicators that predict extreme weather events and help them prepare.
- But climate change is affecting weather patterns, and species’ behavior may impact the accuracy of this knowledge and predictions, elders say.
- Government, national organizations and scientists launched a national booklet and a mobile app to both document these traditional knowledge indicators and assess how climate change is impacting their accuracy.
- Researchers use a citizen science approach that encourages youth and community people’s hands-on participation in documenting species and changes.
How a fun women’s gathering led to small wildcat conservation in Peru’s Andes
- Habitat loss due to deforestation of Polylepis forests is increasing the incidence of human-wildlife conflict between communities and threatened feline species such as the Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita), puma (Puma concolor) and pampas or Peruvian desert cat (Leopardus garleppi) in the central Andes of Peru.
- A pioneering new Indigenous women-led citizen science conservation project in the Ayacucho region of Central Peru aims to obtain baseline data on wildcats and mitigate human-wildlife conflict.
- At first, local women were quite bemused by the project, but they’ve slowly began to weave it into their lives, and find it enjoyable community space they can claim ownership over where men do not dominate.
- Since the start of the project, there’s been a reduction in puma and wildcat attacks on livestock and attitudes toward the animals are changing within the community.
First-ever video of Amazon weasel recorded in Bolivia
Coffee growers in Bolivia recently chanced upon an incredibly elusive animal on their farm: the rarely seen Amazon weasel. This is the first time this species has been reported in Bolivia, researchers write in a new study. “What a brilliant discovery,” Kristofer M. Helgen, chief scientist and director of the Australian Museum Research Institute, who […]
In Rwanda, science is the weapon of choice for protecting birds
MUSANZE, Rwanda — At just 19, Joseph’s love for birds led him to establish the Rugezi Ornithology Center. Now, twice a week, he ignites this passion in students by guiding them through the forest to observe and record local avian species, including the endangered Grey Crowned Crane. This initiative aims to leverage a mobile app […]
Reintroduction project brings golden parakeets back to the skies of Brazil’s Belém
- The golden parakeet (Guaruba guarouba), highly sought after in the illegal pet trade for its striking yellow plumage, is at risk of extinction in the Brazilian Amazon.
- After being locally extinct for a century in Belém, the host city of next year’s COP30 climate summit, it’s being reintroduced by conservationists who have so far released 50 individuals into the wild since 2018.
- The golden parakeet plays an important role in ecosystem services, especially in seed dispersal of the popular açaí berry and up to 22 other plant species native to the Amazon.
- Conservationists say the project is an ongoing success, as the released golden parakeets have adapted well to life outside captivity and have even reproduced in the wild; the goal is to reintroduce another 50 birds over the next two years.
Road paving in a Peruvian bird paradise threatens wildlife and ecotourism
- In the Manu Biosphere Reserve of Southeastern Peru, one of the world’s most biodiverse protected areas, a winding dirt road has historically been the only route from the Andes into the Amazon. Now that road has been paved from top to bottom.
- The resulting increase in vehicle speed is causing concerns among conservationists about road-killed wildlife and damage to eco-tourism, while raising the specter of expanding extractive industries in the region.
- However, poor construction may have ensured that any impacts are short-lived; the thin asphalt is expected to erode quickly and may leave the road worse than it was before.
- Critics say such shoddy construction is a consequence of endemic corruption in the Peruvian road-building sector, which fuels an unsustainable development model that fails to meet local people’s needs.
We’re losing species faster than we can find them, study shows
- Researchers compiled a database showing the number of lost species is increasing faster than rediscovered species: since 1800, more than 800 amphibian, bird, mammal and reptile species have not seen by scientists in at least a decade.
- Reptiles as well as small, nocturnal or underground species tend to stay lost longer than larger, more widespread mammals and birds.
- Once found, many lost species remain threatened with extinction as their populations are often small and fragmented due to habitat loss.
- New technologies like camera traps and environmental DNA are aiding rediscovery efforts, but the involvement of local communities is also key to finding lost species.
Hong Kong as a reef fish haven? These scientists want to get the word out
- For the past 10 years, marine biologist and conservationist Stan Shea has been leading a citizen-science program called the 114°E Hong Kong Reef Fish Survey to compile data on local reef fish species and raise awareness about the marine environment.
- The program relies on a core network of around 50 volunteer divers, who assist Shea with his mission to raise awareness about Hong Kong’s aquatic life.
- There are likely about 500 reef fish species in Hong Kong, but only about 460 have been identified so far; Shea and his team aim to find and document as many of the other overlooked as possible.
- Shea is also working on a photographic book about Hong Kong’s reef fish, which will be published in 2026.
Small, secretive & highly venomous snake seen for first time in Nepal’s hills
- In July 2022, a lesser black krait (Bungarus lividus), a small, secretive and highly venomous snake, was discovered in Dhankuta, Nepal’s eastern hills.
- The snake, previously documented only in Nepal’s plains, was identified by veteran herpetologist Karan Bahadur Shah.
- A study documenting the findings highlights the need for urgent measures, including the establishment of antivenom quick-treatment centers in local hospitals, raising awareness through campaign, and addressing potential human-snake conflicts in the wake of this discovery.
In eastern Indonesia, a child adventurer discovers a new giant stick insect
- In March 2021, a 14-year-old boy discovered a new species of stick insect on Indonesia’s Timor Island while hiking with his father.
- Two years later, scientists published the first description of the new species in the March 2023 edition of the journal Faunitaxys.
- Davis Marthin Damaledo, now 17, a co-author on the paper, named the foot-long stick insect after a 19th-century king who ruled over his native Timor.
Photos: Top species discoveries from 2023
- Scientists described a slew of new species this past year, including an electric blue tarantula, two pygmy squid, a silent frog, and some thumb-sized chameleons.
- Experts estimate less than 20% of Earth’s species have been documented by Western science.
- Although a species may be new to science, it may already be well known to local and Indigenous people and have a common name.
- Many new species of plants, fungi, and animals are assessed as Vulnerable or Critically Endangered with extinction as soon as they are found, and many species may go extinct before they are named, experts say.
New AI model gives bird’s-eye view of avian distribution at vast scale
- An artificial intelligence model is helping researchers use bird-sighting data to estimate their presence at a given time and location.
- Developed by researchers at Cornell University, the model makes predictions on when and where species of birds in North America might occur throughout the year, providing information that could be vital for conservation purposes.
- The model was trained using billions of data points from eBird, an online portal and database where birders can record the observations they make in the field.
- The researchers are now working to train the model to get estimates on abundance of species as opposed to only getting information on their presence or absence.
Bangladesh’s ‘bird restaurant’ serves up snacks with a side of conservation
- Shomour Kumar Ghosh, a sweetmeat maker living in western Bangladesh, began feeding a flock of mynas gathered outside his shop in 2012.
- Since then, he hasn’t stopped, and today feeds an estimated 2,000-2,500 of the birds each morning, at a cost of around $28 daily.
- Ghosh’s “bird restaurant,” as it’s become known, is one of several efforts initiated by individual bird lovers across Bangladesh trying to do their part for avian conservation.
- Ghosh’s love for birds and his feeding efforts have been widely lauded across Bangladesh, and in 2020 he was awarded the best “Bird Lover” in the country by the Forest Department.
Study: Women, youths can be more effective at driving sustainable farming changes
- A study in a farming community on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island shows that women and younger farmers can be more influential than older men in persuading peers to adopt new technologies and practices.
- The findings could have significant implications for conservation organizations trying to implement sustainable agriculture programs within communities.
- The study looked at two groups — one made up of older men perceived as “opinion leaders,” and the other of mostly women and younger men — and how effective they were at convincing fellow farmers to try out a new pair of cacao pruning scissors.
- Experts say the findings don’t mean older men no longer carry any weight when it comes to influencing community members, and that they should still be consulted and engaged with when introducing development initiatives.
Jashodhon Pramanik: The farmer guardian of birds in Bangladesh
- Jashodhon Pramanik, a farmer from Natore, Bangladesh, has initiated a bird conservation movement.
- His 23 years of activism led to the banning of air guns, the creation of bird sanctuaries in every district and the creation of watering holes for birds.
- His one-man initiative Pokkhikuler Asroy O Khaddo Nischitkaron Prokolpo (Project for Ensuring Food and Shelter for Birds) influenced the government to make more than 30 decisions in favor of protecting birds.
Lost bird found: Dusky tetraka seen in Madagascar after 24-year absence
- The dusky tetraka, a small yellow songbird that had eluded ornithologists for 24 years, has been found again in the tropical forests of northeastern Madagascar.
- The bird was found at a lower elevation than expected, in thick underbrush near a river. The team plans to search for the dusky tetraka again during the breeding season to learn more about its ecology and biology.
- The dusky tetraka is listed as one of the top 10 most-wanted lost birds, an initiative that aims to locate bird species that have not been seen and recorded for a minimum of 10 years.
- More than 90% of the species found in Madagascar are endemic, with the island yielding at least 150 new-to-science species in the last 30 years.
Bird strike warnings resurface amid probe into deadly Nepal plane crash
- A bird strike by a plane approaching Nepal’s Pokhara International Airport the day after the deadly Yeti Airlines crash has focused attention on the possible cause of the accident.
- Mongabay has previously reported about conservationists’ concerns over the large number of birds, especially vultures, that frequent the area near the airport, and the risks posed to both aviation safety and wildlife conservation.
- Pilots familiar with the route have highlighted the last-minute change of approach by the pilot of Flight 691, suggesting it may have been prompted by a bird strike.
- A nearby landfill site that attracted birds was relocated before the airport’s opening, but a polluted river close by still draws scavenging birds, and will continue to do so in ever larger numbers, a conservationist warns.
Top 15 species discoveries from 2022 (Photos)
- A resplendent rainbow fish, a frog that looks like chocolate, a Thai tarantula, an anemone that rides on a back of a hermit crab, and the world’s largest waterlily are among the new species named by science in 2022.
- Scientists estimate that only 10% of all the species on the planet have been described. Even among the most well-known group of animals, mammals, scientists think we have only found 80% of species.
- Unfortunately, many new species of plants, fungi, and animals are assessed as Vulnerable or Critically Endangered with extinction.
- Although a species may be new to science, it may already be well known to locals and have a common name. For instance, Indigenous people often know about species long before they are “discovered” by Western Science.
In PNG, researchers find a large pigeon lost to science for 140 years
- After 140 years, a lost-to-science pigeon subspecies has been spotted once again on Fergusson Island, off eastern Papua New Guinea.
- After following tips from a local hunter, researchers photographed the black-naped pheasant-pigeon, a large, ground-dwelling bird, for the first time using a remote camera trap.
- Ornithologists believe the pheasant-pigeon is extremely rare and these forests on Fergusson island in the D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago could likely be the only place they exist.
- The expedition was part of the Search for Lost Birds program, a collaboration between BirdLife International, the American Bird Conservancy, and Re:wild.
Raising awareness one bird post at a time: Q&A with Burungnesia’s Swiss Winasis
- Swiss Winasis launched the bird-spotting app Burungnesia in 2016, aiming to engage the wider public in reporting bird sightings and to raise awareness about the importance of bird conservation.
- Indonesia is a hotspot of avian biodiversity, but also a global hub of the illegal bird trade, with many species captured for the lucrative songbird market.
- To date, Burungnesia’s users have recorded some 1,300 species from around 32,000 locations, including the rediscovery of the critically endangered black-browed babbler — a species that hadn’t been seen in 170 years.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Swiss acknowledges the powerful economic incentives driving the bird trade, but says change can start at the individual level by spreading awareness.
No time to keep vultures out of danger as new Nepal airport set to open
- With Nepal’s newest international airport set to open at the start of 2023, there’s still no concrete plan to relocate a nearby waste landfill site.
- The site attracts a host of birds, including several threatened vulture species, and conservationists warn there’s a high risk of bird strikes once flights begin.
- They also say it’s too late to relocate the landfill now, with the vultures expected to continue returning to the site for months or even years to come.
- The civil aviation authority says it will take measures to keep the birds away from the airport and out of danger, including with the use of lasers, reflectors and loud noises.
An emerald-green hummingbird lost to science reemerges in Colombia
- In the Santa Marta mountains of Colombia, an experienced bird-watcher unexpectedly spotted a Santa Marta sabrewing hummingbird.
- This was only the second time the critically endangered hummingbird has had a documented sighting since 1946. The last bird was spotted in 2010, and the species had long been considered “lost to science.”
- Ornithologists have been on high alert for the Santa Marta sabrewing, which is listed as one of the top 10 most-wanted lost birds by the Search for Lost Birds.
- Only around 15% of forests in the Santa Marta mountains are still standing, and the Santa Marta sabrewing was found in an area of forest with no protection. Experts are calling for more study and protection of this rare bird.
Winter sanctuary in Nepal proves a killing field for yellow-breasted buntings
- Tens of thousands of yellow-breasted buntings are being killed and eaten in Nepal every winter, according to an ornithologist.
- The critically endangered species is already severely threatened in its range countries, where it’s also consumed as a delicacy, and now runs the same risks along its migratory route.
- The popularity of the bird’s meat stems from a myth that it warms the body in winter and has an aphrodisiac effect.
- Conservationists have called for a wide-scale community-based awareness campaign to dispel the myths related to the bird.
Wonder on wings: The fierce nature and enduring beauty of birds
- This is a busy time of year for birds, so on today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast we’re talking about why they deserve your care and attention, plus some recent research findings and conservation measures.
- We welcome back to the program author Sy Montgomery, whose two most recent books are all about our avian comrades. The Hawk’s Way: Encounters With Fierce Beauty is out this week, and The Hummingbird’s Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal On Wings came out last year. Montgomery tells us why these books speak to our current pandemic times, what she learned from her experiences with falconry and hummingbird rehabilitation, and why she finds birds so fascinating.
- We also speak with Mongabay staff writer Abhaya Joshi about the birdlife of Nepal, a new bird-counting app that’s sparking greater interest in Nepal’s rich avian life, and some of the most recent conservation actions being taken in the country to protect birds.
Q&A with Whitley Award winner Sonam Tashi Lama
- Nepali conservationist Sonam Tashi Lama has been named one of six recipients of the Whitley Awards, known as the “Green Oscars,” for his grassroots work conserving the endangered red panda.
- He says the £40,000 cash prize will be invested in improving the animal’s habitat and increasing awareness about poaching.
- It’s estimated one red panda is killed every 10 days, mostly for its pelt, even though research shows there’s no market demand for it.
Amateur naturalists deserve more support and fewer barriers (commentary)
- In the age of iNaturalist when tools are reopening the hallowed tradition of the amateur naturalist, it is perhaps time to address the ways institutions can encourage–rather than discourage–this growing movement.
- With the world faced with a decline in trained, salaried naturalists and biodiversity institutes, we desperately need to elevate and champion the amateurs who are willing to interpret and speak up for wildlife, a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Big Apple birding is set to take flight: Here’s how to get started this Spring
- New York City is home to some of the most competitive bird watchers in the world, says avid birder Rochelle Thomas.
- Perhaps unrivaled in their intensity, NYC bird watchers have become driven by what we would otherwise perceive to be a leisure activity.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Thomas shares her tips on where and when to get in on the action starting in mid April.
‘Sharing the air’ proves a challenge for new Nepal airport in bird paradise
- Conservationists and aviation officials have raised concerns about the potential for bird strikes at a new international airport set to open in Pokhara, Nepal, later this year.
- The flight path to the Chinese-funded airport crosses the habitat of vultures and eagles.
- A landfill site close to the airport also draw these birds of prey, increasing the risk of bird strikes.
- Municipality authorities tasked with relocating the landfill site have still not done so, even as construction of airport nears completion by July.
Bird-counting app kindles interest in Nepal’s rich avian life
- Nepali bird enthusiasts used a mobile app in February to record sightings of birds in their neighborhoods, in an initiative inspired by the Great Backyard Bird Count.
- In addition to being a tool for citizen engagement, initiatives like this help scientists assess bird population across the country, conservationists say.
- The success of the February campaign has encouraged organizers to conduct another round in May.
Nepal’s first bird sanctuary takes flight, raising hope for conservation
- The Ghodaghodi lake complex in western Nepal has been declared the country’s first official bird sanctuary.
- Conservationists and local officials have welcomed the move, which protects a Ramsar wetland that’s home to more than 360 bird species.
- Among the birds found at the site are globally threatened species such as the great hornbill, the lesser adjutant stork, and the Indian spotted eagle.
Grounded by conflict and COVID, Colombia’s bird tourism struggles to soar
- In Colombia, the landmark 2016 peace accords with the FARC heralded hopes of ushering in bird-watching tourism in previously inaccessible, biodiverse regions.
- Birding tourism has unique advantages, including dedicated bird-watchers who will pay good money to go to remote locations.
- But the pandemic, protests, and the persistent perception of insecurity has stymied the country’s bird tourism industry from reaching its full potential.
Top 15 species discoveries from 2021 (Photos)
- Science has only just begun to find and describe all of the species on Earth; by some estimates, only 20% have been described.
- This year, Mongabay reported on newly described species from nearly every continent, including an Ecuadoran ant whose name broke the gender binary, an acrobatic North American skunk, an Australian “killer tobacco,” a fuzzy orange bat from West Africa, tiny screech owls from Brazil, and more.
- Though a species may be new to science, that doesn’t mean it has not yet been found and given a name by local and Indigenous communities.
Camera trap study shows conservation efforts ‘are working’ on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula: Video
- The largest-ever camera trap study in Central America, on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, has revealed how human disturbance affects where animals live and how they’re grouped.
- Protected areas and healthy forests held a greater diversity of animals as well as larger species like tapirs, jaguars and pumas, while places with more human activity had fewer species, which tended to be smaller, more common animals like opossums and agoutis.
- The camera trap study, begun in early 2018, shows many species have recovered completely in the forest reserves around Corcovado National Park, indicating that conservation efforts over the past 30 years have been largely effective.
- Local conservation groups are now focused on creating wilderness corridors so larger species like jaguars can rebound in neighboring forests.
Despite deals, plans and bans, the Mediterranean is awash in plastic
- The Mediterranean is considered to be one of the world’s most polluted bodies of water due to waste disposal problems in many countries bordering the sea, as well as the intensity of marine activity in the region.
- There are several existing policies and treaties in place aimed at regulating plastics and reducing plastic pollution in the Mediterranean, but experts say more international cooperation is needed to tackle the problem.
- Citizen science organization OceanEye has been collecting water samples to measure the amount of microplastics present in the surface waters of the Mediterranean.
Women on storm-hit Philippine island lead Indigenous effort to restore mangroves
- Residents of low-lying coastal areas in archipelagic countries like the Philippines are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including the increase of powerful storms like 2013’s Typhoon Haiyan.
- Mangrove forests can buffer the impact of storm surges and high winds, but many of the Philippines’ mangrove ecosystems are severely degraded and efforts to restore them often fail.
- Busuanga Island, in the western province of Palawan, has a particularly effective mangrove restoration program, one that is spearheaded by Indigenous women who play a key role in planting, monitoring and protecting the forests.
When North America locked down, birds filled the gap left by people
- Of the 82 bird species considered in an analysis, the distribution of 66 changed during pandemic-related shutdowns, and most of them grew in abundance in and around human settlements.
- The researchers gathered more than 4 million records from eBird, a community science program that relies on contributions from volunteers, both amateur and specialist birders.
- The study in Science Advances captured how sensitive birds are to human activities and highlighted how small adjustments could make areas used by humans welcoming to other species.
When COVID shut Broadway, award-winning actress Jane Alexander went birding
- When the COVID-19 pandemic shut theatres across North America and beyond in March 2020, acclaimed film and stage actress Jane Alexander embraced her love of nature by spending the unexpected time off to enjoy the wild landscapes of Nova Scotia.
- Though Alexander is best known for her long acting career, writing, and service as the chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1990s, she has been an active advocate for nature and wildlife for decades, including serving on the boards of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the National Audubon Society, and the Centre Valbio in Madagascar.
- Alexander spoke of her love of the natural world, her conservation efforts, and more during a recent conversation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.
Scientists describe new tree frog in push to catalog Indonesia’s amphibians
- A recent study by researchers from Indonesia and Japan describes the molecular, morphological and acoustic traits of a new frog species from Java: Chirixalus pantaiselatan.
- Scientists recommend further research be conducted to evaluate the breeding traits, distribution and population size to determine IUCN and Indonesian national conservation status of the new species.
- Of the more than 400 frog species in Indonesia, only one amphibian, the bleeding toad (Leptophryne cruentata), is currently listed as an Indonesian protected species.
- Citizen science program Go ARK (Gerakan Observasi Amfibi Reptil Kita) is using the iNaturalist scientific data-sharing platform to contribute to a national database for amphibian and reptile research across the Indonesian archipelago.
Sri Lankans find a digital helping hand for baby birds fallen from nests
- Nesting season for Sri Lanka’s birds, which runs from February to May and coincides with the start of the monsoon, often sees chicks falling out of nests, being orphaned, or attacked.
- Sri Lanka also has a long and strong tradition of goodwill toward birds, with many households setting up feeders and bird boxes in their gardens.
- This year’s nesting season has seen people locked down at home by the COVID-19 pandemic turning to online sources for help caring for fallen, injured or displaced chicks.
- Bird-watching has also increased in popularity, aided by digital platforms and apps such as eBird and Merlin that help register bird sightings and identify different species.
The birds of Zoom (commentary)
- This Earth Day, let’s forget for a moment the concerns of the pandemic and politics, and pay attention to that natural soundscapes of cities … and the little birds of the Zoom calls, says Enrique Ortiz, Senior Program Director at the Andes Amazon Fund.
- The Spanish version of this piece originally appeared in RPP.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Two new species of endangered screech owls identified from Brazil
- Two new species of tiny screech owls from the Amazon and Atlantic rainforests in Brazil have been described by science.
- Prior to the discovery, the new owl species were grouped together with two other South American species, but by closely examining their calls, DNA, and appearance, scientists determined that there were enough differences to classify two new species.
- Although the owls are new to science, they are at risk of extinction, and will likely be classified as critically endangered.
Sri Lanka’s budding biologists get their science on with iNaturalist
- iNaturalist, a global citizen science platform where users collaborate to identify uploaded photos of fauna and flora, saw its observations from Sri Lanka hit the 50,000 mark, the second-highest in South Asia and 14th in Asia.
- Sri Lanka’s first observation was uploaded in 2011, but it was only in the past two years that a significant increase in observations were recorded, with more young naturalists getting involved in the global initiative.
- The country’s iNaturalist observations have already led to the identification of a range of overlooked species, proving the tool’s successful use in processing field observations.
Mystery bird not seen in 172 years makes surprise reappearance in Borneo forest
- The black-browed babbler was recently sighted in Indonesia’s South Kalimantan province, on the island of Borneo, after being lost to science for 172 years.
- There is only one specimen of the species, collected sometime between 1843 and 1848.
- While little is known about the species, researchers are concerned that it might already be threatened with extinction.
What does a great argus pheasant sound like? Candid Animal Cam listens to birds
- 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.
The promise of ‘bird-friendly’ cities: Q&A with author Timothy Beatley
- University of Virginia professor Timothy Beatley lays out a case for building cities that are better hosts to birds and the broader natural world in The Bird Friendly City: Creating Safe Urban Habitats.
- His case rests on the benefits that birds provide, and he discusses the need for equal access to nature for all city-dwelling communities.
- From small home improvements to skyscrapers covered in greenery, Beatley covers the adaptations necessary for more “natureful” cities around the world.
A new conservation project is created in Costa Rica thanks to COVID-19
- Hugo Santa Cruz is a photographer contributing to a new Netflix documentary about nature and coping with COVID-19.
- A Bolivian currently stuck in Costa Rica due to the pandemic, he has turned his camera lens on the local landscape, which has helped him deal with his separation from family and friends.
- Many hours spent in the rainforest have given him solace and also an idea to aid the rich natural heritage that he is currently documenting.
- Santa Cruz is now a co-founder of the new Center for Biodiversity Restoration Foundation, which will work to restore and connect natural areas in the region.
‘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.”
Ornithologists discover more rare hornbills than thought on Philippine island
- A new study of the endemic and rare Visayan tarictic hornbill (Penelopides panini) on Negros Island in the Philippines shows that the population of the endangered bird may be double the previous estimate of the IUCN.
- A 2001 assessment by the IUCN estimated the total number of tarictic hornbills on the islands of Negros and Panay at 1,800; this new study finds nearly 3,600 hornbills in Negros alone.
- Hornbills are among the most threatened bird species in the Philippines; a subspecies of the taritic hornbill was the first first hornbill in the country to be declared extinct, in 2013, after it disappeared from the island of Ticao.
- The study is the first to establish an existing population of tarictic hornbills for the island of Negros and the first to identify bird populations in each remaining forest area on the island.
App harnesses citizen power to keep tabs on Philippines’ coral reefs
- A series of coral bleaching events have affected reefs across the Philippines in previous years, and this year alone 11 such incidents have been reported.
- But bleached reefs aren’t necessarily dead, with some still able to recover if they are resilient enough and if no further stressors come into play.
- Given that the Philippines has an estimated 33,500 square kilometers (nearly 13,000 square miles) of reefs, a volunteer group is relying on a small but growing army of citizen scientists to keep track of these bleaching incidents by submitting photos online or through an app.
- Citizen science could also help identify other threats to coral reefs, including crown-of-thorns infestation and disease outbreaks, as well as identify corals that are more resilient.
‘Our life is plasticized’: New research shows microplastics in our food, water, air
- Microplastics, plastic pieces smaller than 5 millimeters, have become increasingly prevalent in the natural world, and a suite of studies published in the last three years, including several from 2020, shows that they’ve contaminated not only the ocean and pristine wildernesses, but the air, our food, and even our bodies.
- Past research has indicated that 5.25 trillion plastic pieces are floating in the ocean, but a new study says that there are 2.5 to 10 times more microplastics in the ocean than previously thought, while another recent study found that microplastic “hotspots” could hold 1.9 million pieces per square meter.
- Other emerging research suggests that 136,000 tons of microplastics in the ocean are being ejected into the atmosphere each year, and blowing back onto land with the sea breeze, posing a risk to human health.
- Microplastics are also present in drinking water, and edible fruits and vegetables, according to new research, which means that humans are ingesting microplastics every day.
Conservationists find opportunity and community amidst current crises
- On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast we look at how the environmental crises we’re currently facing intersect with two other major crises: the Covid pandemic and the systemic racism and police brutality that have sparked protests around the world in recent weeks.
- We welcome two guests onto the Mongabay Newscast today. Leela Hazzah, founder and executive director of Lion Guardians, joins us to discuss conservation as an essential service, how the Covid pandemic has impacted Lion Guardians’ community-based conservation work, and what she sees as opportunities for transformative change in conservation due to the pandemic.
- We’re also joined by Earyn McGee, a herpetologist and science communicator who helped organize the first-ever Black Birders Week, a week-long celebration of black birders and outdoor enthusiasts. McGee tells us how Black Birders Week came together so quickly and why it is necessary to celebrate black nature lovers.
Think you’ve seen a mermaid? This Sri Lankan scientist sets the record straight
- Sri Lankan herpetologist Ruchira Somaweera has launched a YouTube series where he aims to debunk myths about nature and wildlife that continue to hold sway in the Indian Ocean island.
- From his home in Australia, Somaweera hosts virtual discussions with fellow scientists in Sri Lanka, each an expert in their respective field, to tackle the myths in easy-to-understand language.
- He tells Mongabay he has long wanted to do something like this but was too busy for it, until the COVID-19 lockdown gave him the time and opportunity to finally get the project off the ground.
- Among the most misunderstood groups of animals in Sri Lanka are snakes, many of which are falsely believed to be venomous or aggressive, and as a result are often killed on sight.
Yehimi Fajardo: A voice for the birds of Putumayo
- She has made censuses of the birds of her department and established bird-watching routes.
- Around 500 hundred people have attended the association’s courses and workshops.
Overworked, underpaid and lonely: Conservationists find a new community online
- Created by a 26-year-old Australian, a new online community called Lonely Conservationists is bringing together young and struggling conservationists.
- Members post about their experiences, including unpaid jobs, financial woes, mental health issues, and, of course, loneliness.
- The community has succeeded in creating a space for candid, sympathetic conversations about the difficulties of working in conservation.
A celebratory kind of revolution: Peruvian villagers hold a bird festival (commentary)
- A recent bird festival in Loreto, Peru was the culmination of three years of teaching and outreach focused on Amazonian bird studies, which resulted in such concern for birds and their habitat that a kind of revolution is building among the thousands of students involved.
- It’s a celebratory kind of revolution, raising spirits and enhancing cultural arts. Children are showing excitement for the natural world, and their parents are following suit.
- At a time when both the president of Peru and the president of Brazil view the Amazon as a huge, untapped extractive industry basin — whether it’s logging, gold mining, or gas and oil drilling — for rural people to come together to talk about birds and conservation is nothing short of miraculous.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Facebook and Instagram posts help locate pygmy seahorses in Taiwan
- By contacting underwater photographers and divers and searching for photos and posts on Facebook and Instagram, researchers have confirmed the presence of five species of pygmy seahorses in Taiwan.
- This makes Taiwan one of the world’s pygmy seahorse diversity hotspots, the researchers say.
- Green Island and Orchid Island, in particular, were hotspots for pygmy seahorse diversity, the researchers found, and they hope that these discoveries will help inform conservation planning.
‘Fantastic grandmothers’ snorkel, help uncover large sea snake population
- A group of seven women in their 60s and 70s, who call themselves the “fantastic grandmothers,” have helped uncover a surprisingly large population of the venomous greater sea snake in the waters surrounding Nouméa, the capital of the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.
- By November 2018, the women, all Nouméa residents and expert swimmers and snorkelers, and the researchers had collectively taken nearly 300 photographs of more than 140 individual greater sea snakes — much more than researchers had long believed to occur in the area.
- The citizen science project isn’t just revealing numbers, it’s also helping uncover detailed information on the ecology of greater sea snakes, such as their breeding patterns and changes in population structure over seasons.
‘Holy grail’: Nest of extremely rare bird captured on video in Russia
- In a remote part of the Russian Far East, researchers have for the first time filmed a nesting Nordmann’s greenshank, a bird that researchers know very little about.
- While the Nordmann’s greenshank forages along the coast where it can be seen more easily from boats, it goes deep into larch forests in very remote locations to nest.
- While the observed nest failed, the team managed to tag seven adult greenshanks and eight chicks with unique leg bands, which will help them track each individual bird as they fly across Asia and back.
- There are believed to be fewer than 2,000 Nordmann’s greenshanks living in the wild today, with the species facing different threats in the various countries and territories through which it passes on its winter migration.
“Part of something bigger”: the social movement around New Zealand’s Predator-Free 2050 goal
- Trapping for invasive mammals that prey on New Zealand’s endemic, often flightless, native birds has been part of the country’s rural life for a long time.
- Through the national Predator-Free 2050 program, which aims to wipe out three particularly troublesome predators from the country by 2050, multiple projects are ramping up protective activities to rid areas of these predators and encourage people’s participation in enabling bird populations to recover.
- Apps and other technological developments have already made trapping easier and more efficient, allowed over 1,500 community trapping groups to record and share trap and bait station information with others, and record birdsong to monitor impacts of pest control efforts.
- Support for the Predator-Free 2050 goal isn’t universal, so involving indigenous Māori tribes, who now hunt the invasive predators instead of native birds, and other communities — through technologies and other means of engagement — will remain integral to the ambitious program’s success.
Volunteers find bones of new species of extinct heron at Florida fossil site
- Two volunteers assisting researchers of the Florida Museum of Natural History have found bones that belong to a previously undescribed species of extinct heron, according to a new study.
- The Montbrook site, a large fossil excavation site located a 45-minute drive south of Gainesville, Florida, where the volunteers were working, is estimated to be 5 million to 5.5 million years old.
- Researchers have named the now-extinct heron species Taphophoyx hodgei or Hodge’s tiger heron, after property owner Eddie Hodge, who contacted the Florida Museum of Natural History and allowed them to excavate the site after his granddaughter discovered fossils there in 2015.
- Based on their examination of the bones, the researchers say the extinct species is likely closely related to today’s tiger herons (Tigrisoma spp.), which live in Mexico and Central and South America.
Models, maps, and citizen scientists working to save the Great Barrier Reef
- As global warming drives more events that impact coral reefs, managing the Great Barrier Reef’s resilience demands comprehensive and detailed mapping of the reef bed.
- Available surveys and maps with geographically referenced field data have been limited and fragmented.
- A diverse research team recently demonstrated a successful approach, applying statistics to image data to build predictive models, integrate diverse datasets on reef conditions, and provide a comprehensive map of the Reef that informs reef management decisions.
Trekking the boreal forest for biodiversity
- Sweden is widely considered to be the world’s greenest country, but its surprisingly lax forestry laws often leave decisions about logging to timber companies, and large swaths of biologically-rich boreal forest are being lost.
- Federal agencies and certifying bodies such as the Forest Stewardship Council have tried to improve the situation, but activists charge that they are unable to prevent forestry companies from cutting even the most valuable and the oldest forest tracts. I traveled there in 2011 to investigate their claims.
- These forest watchdogs have trained themselves to identify rare and endangered species of fungi and lichens, whose presence prevents cutting of those richest tracts, a successful but rugged tactic requiring long days of trekking, climbing, and lifting or turning of many logs.
- This post is insider content, which is available to paying subscribers.
Panamanian indigenous people act to protect the forest from invading loggers
- The Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia has long been known as an impregnable stretch of rainforest, rivers and swamps inhabited by indigenous peoples as well as guerrillas, drug traffickers and paramilitaries.
- Today the area is undergoing steady deforestation as timber colonists and oil palm entrepreneurs advance across the region, bringing strife and violence to the area’s indigenous residents.
- In Panama, some of the Darién’s indigenous communities are working to reverse this situation. Mappers, a drone pilot, a lawyer, bird-watchers, a journalist and reforesters are carrying out ambitious projects to stop the degradation of the Darién Gap.
Combining artificial intelligence and citizen science to improve wildlife surveys
- Migratory species play a key role in the health of the Serengeti ecosystem in East Africa, but monitoring their populations is a time- and labor-intensive task.
- Scientists studying these wildebeest populations compared expert observer counts of aerial imagery to corresponding counts by both volunteer citizen scientists and deep learning algorithms.
- Both novel methods were able to produce accurate wildebeest counts from the images with minor modifications, the algorithms doing so faster than humans.
- Use of automated object detection algorithms requires prior “training” with specific data sets, which in this case came from the volunteer counts, suggesting that the two methods are both useful and complementary.
Latam Eco Review: Scandal rocks famed Easter Island park and a freshwater crab discovery
Scandal surrounds indigenous management of a major Easter Island protected area, a newly described freshwater crab species in Colombia, declines in Central America’s peccaries, and a man who can recognize more than 3,000 birdsongs were among the recent top stories from our Spanish-language service, Mongabay Latam. Nepotism in Easter Island: Fraud scandal rocks famous park […]
Bans on the bird trade in South America yield mixed results
- After decades of rampant exports, several South American countries banned the international trade of wild-caught birds.
- In some cases, in concert with conservation, the bans have helped bird populations recover, leading several countries to invest in birdwatching tourism.
- However, the bans have also led to a significant illegal trade on the continent and a shift of the economic benefits from the wild bird trade to other countries.
Top camera trapping stories of 2018
- Camera traps, remotely installed cameras triggered by motion or heat of a passing person or animal, have helped research projects document the occurrence of species, photograph cryptic and nocturnal animals, or describe a vertebrate community in a given area.
- Camera trapping studies are addressing new research and management questions, including document rare events, assess population dynamics, detect poachers, and involve rural landowners in monitoring.
- And with projects generating ever-larger image data sets, they are using volunteers and, more recently, artificial intelligence to analyse the information.
10 ways conservation tech shifted into auto in 2018
- Conservation scientists are increasingly automating their research and monitoring work, to make their analyses faster and more consistent; moreover, machine learning algorithms and neural networks constantly improve as they process additional information.
- Pattern recognition detects species by their appearance or calls; quantifies changes in vegetation from satellite images; tracks movements by fishing ships on the high seas.
- Automating even part of the analysis process, such as eliminating images with no animals, substantially reduces processing time and cost.
- Automated recognition of target objects requires a reference database: the species and objects used to create the algorithm determine the universe of species and objects the system will then be able to identify.
Drone 3D models help assess risk of turtle nesting beaches to sea level rise
- In a recent study, researchers took drone-based images to map the structure of sea turtle nesting beaches in northern Cyprus to determine their susceptibility to flooding from sea level rise.
- Automated drone flights with on-board cameras can record sequences of photos of the surface below, which can be merged in a process called photogrammetry to construct three-dimensional models of the survey area.
- The fast pace of innovation and versatility of drones can improve sea turtle conservation efforts through cheaper, more efficient monitoring.
Gardens with too many nonnative plants threaten populations of insect-eating birds, study finds
- Researchers teamed up with community scientists to explore how nonnative plants in yards and gardens affect the breeding success of chickadees, a common insect-eating bird in the U.S.
- In gardens with less than 70% of native plants by biomass, chickadee populations crashed, because the insects they usually eat cannot live on nonnative trees and flowers.
- Landscaping with native plants helps resident animals thrive by sustaining balanced populations of their prey.
Bird business: The man who taught his tribe to profit from conservation
- Indi Glow, a revered member of the Bugun indigenous group in Arunachal Pradesh, India, has been instrumental in making conservation community-friendly.
- When astronomer-turned-ecologist Ramana Athreya approached the Buguns in 2003 with an idea for a community bird ecotourism venture, Indi agreed to give it a go, taking on the management of the business over the next few years.
- Today, the bird tourism venture is profitable and has sparked other conservation initiatives on the Bugun community lands.
Photos highlight evolving roles of AI, citizen science in species research
- A recent observation by an amateur naturalist of a fiddler crab species hundreds of kilometers north of its known range challenged the complementary strengths of computer vision and human expertise in mapping species distributions.
- The naturalist uploaded this record to the iNaturalist species database used by amateurs and experts to document sightings; expert input correctly identified the specimen after the platform’s computer vision algorithms did not acknowledge the species outside its documented range.
- Citizen naturalist observations can be used to document rapid changes in species distributions. They also can improve modeling and mapping work conducted by researchers and play an increasing prominent role in building environmental databases.
Pod-cast: New app streams whale songs for web users in real time
- Researchers have developed a web application to enable citizen scientists to listen for the sounds of a population of killer whales off North America’s northeast Pacific coast in real time.
- A network of underwater microphones will stream sounds from under the sea to citizen scientists, who can then report any unusual noises and help decode orca language.
- The researchers have found that human listeners can readily detect unusual sounds amid a stream of underwater noise, and their participation can complement machine-learning algorithms being developed.
The Osa Camera Trap Network: Uniting people to monitor biodiversity
- The Osa Camera Trap Network monitors big cats and their prey on public and private lands across Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula.
- Concern about connectivity for apex predators between Corcovado National Park and mainland Costa Rica has encouraged the participation of a diverse cadre of stakeholders that has broadened the scale of the project.
- Clear communication, together with a few photos of resident jaguars, have allowed the network’s 23 institutions and communities to install and maintain more than 200 cameras providing the baseline data needed for long-term monitoring of the area’s mammals.
The iNaturalist species data sharing platform reaches one million users
- The iNaturalist species data-sharing platform reached a milestone earlier this month with its one millionth observer.
- The 10-year-old platform and mobile app use several smartphone technologies, crowd-sourced data, and artificial intelligence to help observers identify the species of plants and animals they see.
- Co-founder Scott Loarie highlighted the rapid progress in computer vision technology as a surprisingly helpful technology that complements crowdsourcing to speed the image identification process for a large number of photos, though it has also introduced other concerns, including how to maintain high data quality.
Tiny tags and a broad research network help track small animal movements
- Despite great advances in radio-telemetry technology, tracking small animals still presents challenges due to the weight of tracking equipment.
- The Motus Wildlife Tracking System uses nano-tags as light as 0.2 grams to track even small birds and insects.
- Based on a collaborative deployment of automated telemetry receivers, Motus can track animals over a broad geographical region to help answer fundamental questions about animal movements, leading to insights that can help protect migratory species as they traverse the landscape.
Satellites and citizen science pinpoint migratory bird refueling stops
- Researchers used satellite images to assess the effectiveness of financial incentive programs for farmers in creating habitat for waterbirds, including ducks, geese, and shorebirds, in California’s Central Valley, where nearly all natural wetlands have been converted to agriculture.
- Observations of 25 waterbird species by hundreds of citizen scientists helped to identify the target zones for water management and to verify the birds’ use of managed areas.
- The satellite data indicated that a severe drought substantially reduced the birds’ open-water habitat and that the incentive programs created more than 60 percent of available habitat on specific days during the migrations.
- The researchers state that remotely sensed data can be used effectively to track water availability and regularly update water and wetland managers on how much habitat is available and where, so they can coordinate water management activities.
Cheap prices lead to more exotic pets in the wild, research finds
- New research shows that exotic amphibians and reptiles sold inexpensively as pets are more likely to end up in the wild, where they can pose problems for native wildlife.
- The authors of the study believe that many pet owners may not fully understand the responsibility of owning these animals, some of which can grow to large sizes and live for decades.
- They suggest that limiting the numbers of certain species popular as pets could help limit their often-destructive impact on ecosystems.
Bird watchers of the West Bank navigate a fraught political climate
- In the challenging climate of the West Bank, one regionally prominent conservationist named Anton Khalilieh says there is a general lack of conservation knowledge among residents about birds in the area.
- In an effort to change that, in 2017 Khalilieh founded a non-profit conservation organization called Nature Palestine.
- Khalilieh is also working to build a comprehensive database of the birds who specifically live in the West Bank.
Online citizen science data platforms help scientists predict species ranges
- Researchers paired museum collection information for two species of spiders, dating back several decades, with more recent information from online citizen science databases and compared them to climate data to find areas with conditions suitable for each species.
- They developed maps of predicted geographic distributions for each species and, despite limited data, their findings suggest ranges of both species have shifted northward over time.
- The researchers highlight the importance of citizen science data in generating long-term data sets on species distributions.
Tracking tools identify regional hubs of whale shark activity
- Researchers tracked 17 juvenile whale sharks tagged at three sites in the Philippines to understand how their movements related to food sources and fishing grounds in Southeast Asia.
- They found that juvenile sharks moved quickly and widely through the Bohol and Sulu seas but remained near their feeding sites within Philippine waters.
- In combination with other studies, these findings suggest that locally focused whale shark conservation efforts are critical and must consider the movements juvenile whale sharks make within zones of several hundred square kilometers.
Implicit gender, racial biases may hinder effectiveness of conservation science, experts warn
- Implicit gender and racial biases are just as prevalent in the conservation science community as elsewhere, experts say, and could be harming the effectiveness of the work being done, particularly in developing countries.
- The mostly male and Western scientists working in this field may be shutting out important contributions from local researchers and practitioners in tropical developing countries, as well as preventing a diversity of perspectives in the scientific literature.
- Having a diverse team and being inclusive at every step, especially in the decision-making process for a conservation project, are some of the ways to resolve these biases, the researchers suggest.
Citizen science makes easy work of penguin time-lapse image bounty
- A multinational research team has deployed time-lapse cameras at various penguin breeding colonies to enable a widespread, long-term study of these top predators in the Antarctic ecosystem.
- Volunteers have played a critical role in processing the millions of images resulting from the multi-year study to better understand reproductive behavior and nest success rates across the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands, and South Georgia.
- Citizen scientists can help produce large data sets needed to train artificial intelligence algorithms.
Cities worldwide use photo app technology to compete in nature observation challenge
- The third-annual City Nature Challenge takes place this weekend, April 27-30, 2018, giving nature lovers in cities around the globe a chance to compete against other cities to see who can make the most observations and find the most species of local plants and animals.
- Residents and visitors from nearly 70 cities will use their smartphones and the iNaturalist app to share photos of their findings over the 4-day period; experts will verify the identifications in early May.
- Organizers hope the event will connect more people to their local urban biodiversity and uncover threatened and invasive species in new locations, to assist local resource managers.
Powering cameras and empowering people
- Keeping equipment running in harsh field conditions can challenge any tech project, as can working successfully with volunteers.
- Mongabay-Wildtech spoke with leaders of one project, wpsWatch, that deploys connected camera traps to monitor wildlife and people in reserves and employs volunteers to monitor image feeds from afar.
- Powering equipment for field surveillance and “making it part of everyone’s day” enable the rapid image detection, communication, and response by ground patrols needed to successfully apprehend wildlife poachers using cameras and other sensors.
New app hopes to reduce wildlife deaths on India’s roads, railway lines
- Roadkills, a newly launched Android app, lets users in India record information on deaths of animals — both domestic and wild — on roads or railway lines, and upload geotagged photos.
- Such roadkill data can be useful for both researchers and people planning infrastructure projects across the country, conservationists say.
- The app data can help identify what sections of roads and railway lines animals use the most, for instance, which could in turn help guide measures that would reduce or prevent wildlife deaths.
- Warning: Some photos may be disturbing or graphic.
10 top conservation tech innovations from 2017
- The increased portability and reduced cost of data collection and synthesis tools have transformed how we research and conserve the natural world.
- Devices from visual and acoustic sensors to DNA sequencers help us better understand the world around us, and they combine with online mapping platforms to help us monitor it.
- New online and mobile apps have democratized data collection, inspiring a brave new world of citizen scientists to learn about the species around them, contribute to conservation and scientific discovery, and feel part of a learning community.
- Here, we present 10 tech trends we covered in 2017, in no particular order, that have helped us better understand nature, monitor its status, and take action to protect it.
Mammal diversity may increase carbon storage in rainforests
- Having a diverse mix of mammals may play a more pivotal role than expected in the carbon cycle of tropical forests, by feeding microbes that lock the carbon from food scraps in the soil.
- Hundreds of indigenous research technicians collected data for this study across an area roughly the size of Costa Rica.
- Conserving mammal species will become increasingly important in efforts to protect the health of rainforest ecosystems, researchers suggest.
Citizen scientists around the world are monitoring elephants in Gabon via camera traps — and you can too
- Camera traps have proven to be a powerful tool in conservationists’ arsenal for monitoring forests and wildlife. But the mountains of data they capture need to be sifted through in order to be useful, which often presents a significant challenge for cash-strapped conservationists and researchers.
- To meet this challenge, a team led by Anabelle Cardoso, a PhD candidate at Oxford University in the UK, has turned to another promising new method that is reshaping the way research is done in modern times: citizen science.
- Slow population growth and the ivory poaching crisis have driven down the numbers of African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) in recent years. “We want to conserve these beautiful creatures, but to do that effectively we need to know where these elephants are and how many of them there are, so we can pick the best places to focus our efforts,” Cardoso and her colleagues write.
Crowdsourcing the forest for the trees
- A pair of drones and the efforts of nearly 3,000 volunteers are helping scientists study tree canopies within a Peruvian rainforest, representing a new paradigm of crowdsourced research.
- Citizen scientists in the Amazon Aerobotany project helped analyze over 5,700 aerial images to count trees and monitor their leafing, flowering, and fruiting cycles.
- Ensuring the quality of data collected using citizen science takes planning, effort, and time but can harness the experience of a world of new collaborators.
Birdwatching poised to take flight in Colombia, study reveals
- A new study identifies 67 communities with high potential for developing birdwatching ecotourism in Colombia.
- The country is home to more than 1,900 bird species, including 443 rare birds ‘highly valued by bird watchers.’
- The authors present ecotourism as an alternative to mining and logging as rural communities look for ways to develop economically after a decades-long conflict.
Citizen scientists use mobile apps to help “green” the ocean
- Marine debris litters beaches and underwater habitats across the globe, even in remote areas, where it harms hundreds of animal species, from corals to whales.
- Mobile phone apps have launched to encourage and assist volunteers in cleaning up marine habitats by facilitating the recording and sharing of their efforts via social media.
- Volunteers also become citizen scientists, as the apps compile data from thousands of clean-ups into global databases to permit analysis of trends in trash composition and distribution and to bring to light the damage being done by debris to marine creatures and systems.
App combines computer vision and crowdsourcing to explore Earth’s biodiversity, one photo at a time
- The nearly 500,000 users in the iNaturalist network have uploaded over 6.5 million photo observations of more than 120,000 species of plants, animals, insects and fungi.
- The network provides a platform for collaboration and discussion among users, while also generating a stream of research quality biodiversity data.
- A recent update to the smartphone app utilizes computer vision to provide immediate taxonomic identifications for user-submitted photos, with varying degrees of specificity.
- The computer vision network requires a large database of identified images to learn the distinctive features of each species; every photo observation uploaded to iNaturalist and identified by the community helps to improve the coverage and accuracy of the automatic identification feature.
Scientists combine crowd-sourced field observations with land-use and climate models to identify steps for migratory bird protection
- Scientists used crowd-sourced data from the eBird platform to model how the distributions of 21 migratory bird species change throughout the year and to determine how these distributions overlap with protected areas and projected changes in climate and land-use.
- They found that the conversion of natural forest to agricultural and/or urban land uses will eliminate habitat in the near term, particularly in the birds’ tropical overwintering areas, while rising temperatures and diverse changes in rainfall would affect all points of the species’ ranges over the longer term.
- The researchers suggest that enhanced management of less strictly protected reserves in the birds’ wintering grounds could mitigate the near-term forest habitat losses where the birds spend nearly 60% of their time and perhaps give species time to respond to longer-term climate-related changes in food and habitat availability.
Open-source species location data supports global biodiversity analyses
- The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is now the largest biodiversity database in the world with records of hundreds of millions of occurrences of over 1.7 million species, ranging from bacteria to blue whales.
- Institutions from over 50 countries contribute species occurrence and related data to the open-access platform, which make possible regional or global-scale analyses of data ranging from global distributions to invasive species and climate change impacts.
- As GBIF and other collaborative, open-source data bases continue to expand and mature, so will their usefulness to a greater range of scientific studies.
Low-tech challenges to high-tech forest monitoring: lessons from Ugandan parks
- Remote sensing technology can provide useful intelligence to park managers but must be combined with an understanding of its limitations, as well as the tools and training needed for its use.
- An assessment by park rangers in Uganda of satellite image-based deforestation alerts found that the alert locations at 30 m x 30 m resolution were sufficiently accurate to support reserve management.
- The near real-time alerts of likely deforestation could make forest patrols more efficient and effective, but rangers must still have proper training, incentives, and resources to properly integrate alerts into their regular functions.
Story-telling app and website help communities improve their ‘backyards’
- The TIMBY reporting platform applies the wide range of knowledge and experience of journalists, scientists, technologists, designers and security experts.
- Originally developed in Liberia to curb some of the impacts of illegal logging, the design and function of the TIMBY platform has been customized to fit the needs of the people facing conservation issues other locations.
- TIMBY has been used across the globe to address a wide array of issues, including environmental conservation in Chile, women’s health in Kenya, and information dissemination in Liberia.
Soil research aided by citizen scientists, boots and all
- Researchers in England tested a novel approach to detect pathogens in the environment, combining citizen science and lab analysis.
- They related the presence of Campylobacter bacteria, consistently detected through boot socks worn by volunteers walking outdoors, to environmental variables and probable sources.
- Their findings highlight the potential for using field data collected by citizen scientists to assess the presence and transmission of pathogens and other particles in the environment.
An evolving IUCN Red List needs to be both innovative and rigorous (commentary)
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species guides conservationists in their race against extinction by assessing the threats faced by species around the globe. Over 86,000 have been assessed so far.
- A recent Biological Conservation study suggested that using citizen science data in Red List assessments could help estimate the range bird species inhabit more accurately. When it comes to the importance of citizen science, IUCN couldn’t be more in agreement with the authors of the study.
- But just as it is important to embrace cutting-edge technologies, it is also fundamental to respect the rigorous system for assessing extinction risk for the Red List. Ramesh et al. made a fundamental error by confusing two definitions normally used in assessments.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Over the bridge: The battle for the future of the Kinabatangan
- Proponents of the project contend that a bridge and associated paved road to Sukau would have helped the town grow and improve the standard of living for its residents.
- Environmental groups argue that the region’s unrealized potential for high-end nature tourism could bring similar economic benefits without disturbing local populations of elephants, orangutans and other struggling wildlife.
- The mid-April cancellation of the bridge was heralded as a success for rainforest conservation, but bigger questions loom about the future of local communities, the sanctuary and its wildlife.
Mexican ecologist José Sarukhán wins 2017 Tyler Prize
- Sarukhán co-founded Mexico’s biodiversity agency, CONABIO, in 1992
- CONABIO is the largest national biodiversity database in the world, with over 11.2 million specimens
- He accepts the award at a ceremony in Washington, DC, May 4, 2017
Overestimated range maps for endemic birds in India’s Western Ghats lead to underestimated threats, study finds
- In a paper published earlier this week in the journal Biological Conservation, researchers detail their findings that suggest the IUCN has “vastly” overestimated the geographic range sizes for 17 of 18 endemic birds studied in the Western Ghats.
- In some cases, the researchers write in the study, the range maps supplied by BirdLife International (BLI) and used by the IUCN for its threat assessments of birds in the Western Ghats included “large areas of unsuitable habitat” and were so off that the threat status should be changed “for at least 10 of the 18 species based on area metrics used by the IUCN for threat assessment.”
- The head of the IUCN Red List says that the study’s authors made a “fundamental error” in applying threat assessment criteria to their datasets, however, adding that just two of the 10 birds identified in the study need to be examined more closely.
- The key to the updated range maps created by the researchers behind the Biological Conservation study is citizen science. In particular, the researchers used data from eBird, an online checklist program created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. And on the point of the usefulness of citizen science, the researchers and the IUCN are in full agreement.
The March for Science makes its stand: “There is no Planet B”
- On Saturday, April 22nd tens of thousands of protestors defied bone chilling rain to march on Washington D.C., while fellow marchers protested at “March for Science” events across America and around the world.
- The D.C. march, attended by prominent scientists and supporters of science, was held in opposition to the anti-science policies of Congress and the Trump administration — which has proposed draconian cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency, and a virtual shutdown of U.S. climate research.
- Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, summed up the purpose of the march: “to insure that policy is informed by an objective assessment of scientific evidence.“
- Caroline Weinberg, co-founder of the U.S. March for Science, noted that: “Science extends our lives, protects our planet, puts food on our table [and] contributes to the economy.… [P]olicymakers threaten our present and future by ignoring scientific evidence.”
Wildbook: a social network for wildlife
- Wildbook is an open-source software platform that helps collaborative projects store and manage wildlife data. The user-friendly interface makes it easy for citizen scientists to contribute animal photos to be used as data for scientific studies.
- Wildbook uses the Image Based Ecological Information System (IBEIS) to semi-automatically analyze the photos and determine, based on an animal’s unique markings, if it is a new individual or an animal already in the database.
- The compiled images can help scientists assess species distributions, movement patterns and human-wildlife interactions, which, in turn, can support management and conservation decisions.
The changing face of Amazon development: from land grab to eco-lodge
- Ariosto da Riva was often described as “the last of the bandeirantes”, the violent adventurers who first penetrated the Brazilian Amazon in the 16th century in search of gold. Working with Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985), he owned a million hectares of forest, pushed indigenous people from their lands, and brought in settlers.
- His daughter, Vitória da Riva Carvalho, though wealthy, did not buy into his legacy. She is noted instead for her strong defense of the rainforest and for her world-renowned ecotourism destination, the Cristalino Jungle Lodge, located outside the town of Alta Floresta — which her father settled — in northernmost Mato Grosso state.
- The evolution of the relationship between father and daughter helps trace the unfolding land conflicts that have smouldered and exploded in the Amazon between indigenous and traditional peoples on one side; and land speculators, land grabbers, loggers, settlers and soy growers on the other.
- Today, most of the indigenous people who lived in the region where the Cristalino Jungle Lodge entertains its wealthy guests are gone — dead, pushed into indigenous reserves, or retreated elsewhere. But for now, the rainforest and much extraordinary biodiversity remains, with people like Vitória da Riva Carvalho as its stewards.
How citizen science is transforming river management in Malaysian Borneo (commentary)
- For thousands of years Sabah’s Kinabatangan River has wound its way down from the hills of Borneo’s northern interior through some of the planet’s richest lowland rainforests before flowing into the Coral Triangle.
- Crises in ecosystems unfold over time. In the late twentieth century, events up-river brought massive change in the Kinabatangan’s catchment.
- It is the growth of citizen science around systematic water quality measurement, carefully targeted (by indigenous knowledge) in the places and moments that matter in complex rapidly changing watersheds, that appears to offer the best way to identify and tackle the causes and to guide river restoration.
- This post is a commentary based largely on presentations at Sabah’s International Heart of Borneo and Ramsar conferences in November 2016 — the views expressed are those of the author.
KEDR: Watching over the cedar forests of the Russian Far East
- KEDR uses an algorithm to automatically analyze real-time satellite images for various canopy changes to provide forest managers precise logging intelligence so they can quickly counteract violations.
- The technology could help conserve the critically endangered Amur tiger and leopard that inhabit these forests.
- KEDR is now being implemented in two provinces and has been recommended for use throughout the country. The tool will continue to be developed with technological upgrades, high-precision satellite imagery, new algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Beyond data collection — the social and political effects of environmental sensor proliferation
- Sensors are increasingly collecting data everywhere, changing how we relate to and manage the environment.
- These data answer researchers’ scientific questions but can also generate social, cultural and political effects, reinforcing the need for more data.
- In a new book, “Program Earth: Environmental Sensing Technology and the Making of a Computational Planet,” Dr. Jennifer Gabrys suggests that the future of environmental management is a question of how and whether to “program” the Earth.
Citizen science leads to snail rediscovery in Vietnam
- Scott Trageser took pictures of several species of invertebrates he encountered on Hon Cau island, part of an archipelago off the southeast coast of Vietnam, and posted them on citizen science website iNaturalist, hoping that an expert somewhere in the world might be able to identify the specimens and benefit from his observations.
- Then, in November 2015, that’s exactly what happened. Trageser was contacted by Junn Kitt Foon, a Malaysian malacologist who specializes in the snails of Southeast Asia.
- Junn had identified one of the species captured on film by Trageser as Myxostoma petiverianum, a snail that had not been seen in over a hundred years. No photo of a live specimen had ever even been taken before.
A World of Tings
- Created in 2012, Latest Sightings is a mobile app and social network with a community between 450,000 and 500,000 people.
- Latest Sightings allows app users to report real-time sightings within South African parks and promotes conservation and education through online platforms.
- Wildlife sighting apps have faced recent criticism, but Latest Sightings CEO and Founder Nadav Ossendryver explains that these apps are saving wildlife and globally educating millions of wildlife enthusiasts.
Empowering smartphone users to bear witness to illegal wildlife trade
- The Wildlife Witness app allows travelers and locals to anonymously and securely report wildlife trafficking they observe in Southeast Asia.
- As the first app for global community action against illegal wildlife trade, it allows tourists and regional residents to assist wildlife law enforcement and endangered species conservation.
- The app encourages people to use the internet and other avenues to speak up against and learn more about wildlife trafficking and their own role in countering it.
Want to identify that bug or beetle in your photo? Ask the crowd.
- The iSpot web application allows users to post photos of plants and animals and receive crowdsourced help in identifying the species they’ve captured in photos
- The network connects novices with experts and allows users to gain and improve their reputation for familiarity with a group of species.
- The project aims to increase biodiversity knowledge through informal learning and community input while expanding information on species distributions.
These little-known, colorful birds are latest victims of Indonesia’s caged-bird trade
- In Indonesia, pittas are protected by law.
- Yet, pitta trade in Indonesia’s markets is widespread, study has found, suggesting that the law is not enforced.
- Between 2014 and 2015, researchers found 81 pittas belonging to four species being sold openly in Indonesia’s caged-bird markets.
iBats: Emerging tools for acoustic surveys and species identification
- Bats pollinate trees, disperse seeds, and eat insects, but most populations are declining due to hunting, spreading disease, and habitat loss.
- Scientists typically identify bats by their calls and want to standardize monitoring techniques to help reduce the natural variation in calls by the caller’s age, gender, and activity.
- iBats offers a free app that records, geo-locates, and uploads bat vocalizations to its web portal for use by scientists and others interested in exploring bat distributions and population trends.
Studying the unloved through the wisdom of crowds
- Crowdsourcing for conservation generally involves collecting information, opinions, or labor from groups of people rather than from individual employees or experts.
- The technique is being applied in dozens of studies on fish, amphibians, invertebrates, birds, mammals, and other life forms, as well as landscapes, and is increasingly being accepted into the scientific literature and conservation databases.
- Nevertheless, doubts about the quality of crowdsourced data persist.
Hunters and birdwatchers make good conservationists in the U.S.
A male pileated woodpecker, a species found in New York. Photo by: Joshlaymon/Creative Commons 3.0. What do hunters and birdwatchers have in common? Both groups are much more likely to support conservation than the average rural American, according to new research published in the Journal of Wildlife Management. Looking at rural landowners in upstate New […]
Citizen scientists help demystify Serengeti’s wildlife with photos
Africa’s Serengeti conjures up romantic images of millions of migrating wildebeest and zebras, prides of lions feasting on their prey, and hyenas prowling in the background. But not everyone is fortunate to see them up close. Snapshot Serengeti, a citizen science project, is changing that. It lets anyone, with or without a background in science […]
Meet Biofaces: the Facebook for wildlife enthusiasts
New website provides online public space for wildlife lovers Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) in Brazil. Photo by: Leonardo Avelino Duarte. Love wildlife? Wish you had a place online to share your photos, videos, and stories with other wild enthusiasts—kind of like a Facebook for wildlife lovers? Well, look no further than Biofaces, a new website meant […]
Citizen scientist site hits one million observations of life on Earth
This is what a million observations of species in nature look like mapped out over the world. Image courtesy of iNaturalist. On Friday, Jonathan Hiew from Singapore took a photo of several insects and uploaded them on the citizen scientist site, iNaturalist. Little did he know that one of the photos, of a butterfly, would […]
Rare Birds of North America – book review
Rare Birds of North America, written by renowned birders Steve N. G. Howell, Ian Lewington, and Will Russell, is a technical tour de force. Its technical expertise is exact and passionate. Reading Rare Birds of North America will simply make you a better birder and better naturalist. Birding books generally fall into two categories—books that […]
The Warbler Guide – book review
Written by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle, with illustrations by Catherine Hamilton, The Warbler Guide by Princeton University Press is the “go-to” guide for identifying the 56 species of warblers in the United States and Canada. Warblers are notoriously difficult to identify. These champion singers are small, hidden amongst the tree top canopy, flighty and […]
Amazonian students help monitor threatened frog populations
The 2013 Zoos and Aquariums: Committing to Conservation (ZACC) conference runs from July 8th—July 12th in Des Moines, Iowa, hosted by the Blank Park Zoo. Ahead of the event, Mongabay.com is running a series of Q&As with presenters. For more interviews, please see our ZACC feed. Forest bromeliad treefrog (Osteocephalus cabrerai). Photo by: Marcy Sieggreen. […]
All the world’s rarest birds in one book: photo contest enlivens new guide
The World’s Rarest Birds is an extraordinary bird book. 590 different bird species are classified as Endangered or Critically Endangered, with many species only existing in captivity. A new book, The World’s Rarest Birds, catalogs all of these species. Each species is shown with remarkable color-photography and illustrations. Threats to species habitat are described, population […]
Proposed coal plant threatens Critically Endangered Philippine cockatoo
One kilometer off the Philippine island of Palawan lies the Rasa Island Wildlife Sanctuary; here forest grows unimpeded from a coral island surrounded by mangroves and coral reefs. Although tiny, over a hundred bird species have been recorded on the island along with a major population of large flying foxes, while in the waters below […]
Turkey’s rich biodiversity at risk
Turkey’s stunning landscapes and wildlife are under threat due to government ambivalence. Here, the sun sets outside Igdir, Turkey. Photo by: Cagan Sekercioglu. Turkey: the splendor of the Hagia Sophia, the ruins of Ephesus, and the bizarre caves of the Cappadocia. For foreign travelers, Turkey is a nation of cultural, religious, and historic wonders: a […]
Tourism for biodiversity in Tambopata
Map, Bahuaja Sonene National Park, Grasshopper Mimicking a Wasp. Photo by: David Johnston. Research and exploration in the Neotropics are extraordinary, life-changing experiences. In the past two decades, a new generation of collaborative projects has emerged throughout Central and South America to provide access to tropical biodiversity. Scientists, local naturalists, guides, students and travelers now […]
Into Colombia’s Sierra Nevada
A birders’ paradise with a violent past. A motmot in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada. Photo by: Miguel Hernandez . The highest coastal mountain on the planet rises 18,942 feet (5,775-meters) above the Caribbean Sea; it’s snow-capped peaks piercing through the clouds some 24 miles from an idyllic tropical beach. But to the casual visitor, the Sierra […]
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