From the seafloor to turtle stomachs, scientists are finding plastic everywhere they look for it. Now, researchers in Japan have found plastic thermally adhered to coral rubble, an amalgamation they’ve termed “plasticoral,” according to a new study. The finding is raising concerns about potential ocean chemical leaching, habitat degradation and a new way for microplastics to enter the marine environment, they say.

Ifenna Ilechukwu, first author of the study with the University of Ryukyus in Japan, and his colleagues found five pieces of “plasticoral” on three different beaches during a routine marine litter survey on Japan’s Okinawa Island in August 2024.

“We did not set out to discover plasticoral,” Ilechukwu told Mongabay in an email. 

Researchers have previously described plastiglomerates, melted plastic debris fused with rocks, wood or other natural materials.

However, when the team found coral rubble with plastic not just stuck on the surface but permanently adhered to it, they knew they’d found something unusual.

Plasticoral is a subset of plastiglomerates, however, “plasticorals represent something different,” Ilechukwu said. “The melted polymers literally liquidized and conformed to the intricate, porous skeleton of the coral rubble.”

Researchers suspect the plastic was burned into the rubble by a beach fire, though further research is needed to confirm that, Ilechukwu said.

Laboratory analysis found that four of the plastic samples were polyethylene, commonly used for single-use bottles. One sample was polypropylene, a more rigid plastic used in food containers and bottle caps. Both are among the most common types of plastic found in oceans and can soften and deform when heated, the study notes.

Burning plastic can release a cocktail of chemicals including cancer-causing dioxins and fine particulates, which pose serious health risks for both people and wildlife. Burning can also cause plastic to quickly break down into microplastic, which can more easily enter the environment and food chain.

The team found the plasticoral on coral rubble on the beach, not living coral in the sea. However, rubble can provide habitat for tiny invertebrates that live in its nook and crannies, while algae and sponges can colonize coral surfaces, creating microhabitats used by fish and other larger organisms. When plastic is melted into the surface of rubble it “may not function effectively as natural substrates,” Ilechukwu said.

Estimates suggest upwards of 199 million tons of plastic are currently in the world’s oceans. Microplastics can be found nearly everywhere on the planet, leading scientists to suggest the Earth is in a new geological era referred to as the “Plasticene.”

Ilechukwu said plasticoral could “potentially represent an early stage in the transition from transient plastic litter to a more persistent, lithified sedimentary record of the Plasticene in tropical reef environments.”

The research team hopes to work with other researchers and the public to document litter of all kinds, including plasticoral.

“Let us keep protecting our environment, it is all we have,” Ilechukwu said.

Banner image: Plasticoral collected from Okinawa beaches. Image courtesy of Ilechukwu et al., 2026.

A case has been brought to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) over the Kenyan government’s plan to build a 2,000-5,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bondo, near the eastern shore of Victoria Lake, Africa’s largest freshwater lake. The project has been the source of numerous protests from residents since it was announced.

A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report produced in 2023 by Kenya’s nuclear power program noted that nuclear power should be avoided in the Victoria Lake region, citing volcanic hazards that could impair nuclear safety. However, the nuclear plant project is proceeding, despite the SEA finding.

“I filed a reference at the East African Court of Justice on two grounds,” Dickens Ochieng, told Mongabay in a phone call. Ochieng is a resident of Siaya County, where the facility is located, and a human rights lawyer with J. Henry and Company Advocates, the law firm that filed the case on Sept. 23.

“First, I want the court to determine if we should even have that nuclear power plant in Victoria Lake given the ecological and environmental risk that may be associated with it,” Ochieng said. “Then, I am asking for the project to have a transboundary environmental impact assessment, as Victoria Lake is not only a Kenyan matter.”

Victoria Lake is shared by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Roughly 40 million people across the three countries depend on the lake for their livelihoods, food security and drinking water. Millions more depend on the river that drains from Lake Victoria and meanders north to empty into Egypt’s Nile Delta and the Mediterranean Sea. If the lake and river were to become polluted, the 11 countries of the Nile Basin could be affected.

“I want to know if these countries have been consulted and, if so, if they agree with the project. If not, maybe they should be consulted first,” Ochieng said.

He said it’s also an issue of national security. “We have seen nuclear power plants being targeted in Ukraine, in Iran. Here, we have issues with Al-Shabaab; they are attacking facilities in Kenya. I want the court to determine if putting up a nuclear power plant in Victoria Lake is a regional security issue.”

According to the official petition reviewed by Mongabay, the law firm also accuses the Kenyan government of failing to properly consult local communities in Kenya and failing to propose mitigation measures for the Lake Victoria basin. The Kenyan government has 45 days to respond.

Mongabay contacted the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, which coordinates sustainable development for the basin, and Kenya’s attorney general, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Also referred to as “Darwin’s Dreampond,” Victoria Lake is home to hundreds of endemic species. However, roughly 76% of them are threatened with extinction.

Banner image: Of Lake Victoria. Image courtesy of valerossi via Pixabay (CCO 1.0)

PUERTO SAN CARLOS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Polo has made landfall in Baja California, Mexico, with powerful winds and flash flooding. The Category 2 hurricane struck early Tuesday near Las Barrancas, bringing maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. The U.S. National Hurricane Center reports Polo is crossing the Gulf of California and could bring heavy rain to parts of the U.S. Southwest later this week. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Rachel is moving parallel to Mexico’s coast. The Pacific storm activity is above average this season, consistent with El Niño patterns. Hurricane Nolo, still a Category 3, is moving away from Hawaii, where it caused flooding over the weekend.

By Martín Silva Rey and Megan Janetsky, Associated Press 

Banner image: Workers tow a boat ashore as Hurricane Polo approaches Puerto San Carlos in the Mexican state of Baja California on Monday, September 28, 2026. Image courtesy of Eduardo Verdugo, Associated Press

Giraffes living in the South Sudan’s war-torn savannas are genetically healthy and connected to nearby giraffe populations by gene flow, despite decades of conflict, recent research suggests.

These findings show that “regions of the world that have been affected by conflict can maintain a lot of biodiversity and should therefore not be overlooked by genetic studies and conservation efforts,” Sam van Giessen, study lead author and a conservation genomics researcher from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, told Mongabay by email.

The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, currently recognizes four species and seven subspecies of giraffes. South Sudan is home to two subspecies of the critically endangered northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis): the Nubian giraffe (G. c. camelopardalis) and the Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum).

Between the conflict years of 1985 and 2025, Nubian giraffes in Ethiopia and South Sudan declined by 95%. By 2025, researchers estimated roughly 235 Nubian giraffe survived across South Sudan in isolated pockets, down from an estimate of 15,000 individuals in 1995.

To find out the genetic health of these giraffe populations, researchers from the South Sudan government, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF), and conservation NGO African Parks analyzed DNA from skin biopsies collected from 30 Nubian giraffes in Boma and Badingilo national parks, run by African Parks. As the giraffe population in the region is small, there was some concern that inbreeding could be a problem for the subspecies’ long-term conservation.

However, their analysis showed the South Sudan Nubian giraffe population has relatively high levels of genetic diversity and low levels of inbreeding compared to others, such as Kenya’s Nubian giraffe population. This shows the South Sudan population is a genetic stronghold for the Nubian giraffe subspecies, van Giessen said.

Previously, the White Nile River was thought to be a barrier to movement and gene flow between the Nubian giraffes in South Sudan and Ethiopia and giraffe populations on the other side of the river. However, the study found evidence of historical gene flow between the populations.

Study co-author Axel Janke, a researcher of evolutionary genomics from Germany’s Goethe University, told Mongabay by email that he’s optimistic about the future of Nubian giraffes in South Sudan from a geneticist’s point of view. He added the population is surprisingly genetically healthy, despite the lack of active protection of the population and the prevailing political instability.

Julian Fennessy of GCF, also a study co-author, told Mongabay that the Boma–Badingilo savanna landscape is relatively untouched from human development and conflict, and thus remains stable for Nubian giraffes and other wildlife populations to increase. He added that political stability and associated security continues to be a concern, but that improved conservation efforts by the government are making a difference.

Banner image of Nubian (formerly Rothschild) giraffe in Uganda. Image by Julie Larsen ©Wildlife Conservation Society.

The World Health Organization has officially recognized Bhutan for eliminating dog-transmitted human rabies as a public health problem  — in time for World Rabies Day on Sept. 28.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Bhutan is the first country in the Southeast Asia region, and the second to be named globally after Mexico, to achieve this validation.

Nearly 99% of all human rabies cases globally are caused by the bite or scratch of an infected dog. Once symptoms appear, rabies is almost always fatal.

On Sept. 4, the WHO confirmed that Bhutan has recorded zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies since June 2023 and has demonstrated that it has the resources and systems in place to prevent the disease’s re-emergence.

Bhutan’s achievement comes as organizations including the WHO, World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) mark World Rabies Day with the theme of “Stronger Together”, advancing a global goal to eliminate human rabies deaths worldwide by 2030 under the “Zero by 30” initiative.

To eradicate rabies, Bhutan has persistently invested in a comprehensive “One Health” approach, which recognizes that animal, human and environmental health are interconnected, the WHO said in a press release.

A 2021 Royal Decree by the King of Bhutan launched the Nationwide Accelerated Dog Population Mangement and Rabies Control Programme, implemented jointly by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.

WHO said field health teams and veterinarians supported by civilian volunteers achieved 100% sterilization coverage of the country’s free-roaming dog population. They also vaccinated more than 90% of free-roaming dogs against rabies, exceeding the 70% threshold recommended by the WHO to break transmission chains.  

Additionally, post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) treatment, given after exposure to rabies to prevent the virus from reaching the central nervous system and causing death, is universally free across all of Bhutan’s 20 districts. It is funded by the Bhutan Health Trust Fund.

“I congratulate Bhutan on this historic achievement, which is another step towards our goal to end human deaths from dog-transmitted rabies by 2030,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, the WHO press release. “Bhutan’s success shows that the health of humans, animals and the environment we share is inextricably linked.”

The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) said in a statement that WHO validation is a major milestone, but not the end of the journey. “Continued vigilance will be essential to maintain surveillance, sustain high vaccination coverage, strengthen wildlife rabies surveillance, enhance cross-border collaboration and ensure long-term financing for rabies prevention and control activities,” it added.

On Sept. 14, the WHO announced that Chile had also been validated for eliminating dog-transmitted rabies — the first South American country to do so, having recorded no human cases since 1972.

Banner image: A dog in Nobding village in Wangdue Phodrang district in Bhutan. Image courtesy of Gerd Eichmann via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.

In 2022, poachers had taken 14 white rhinos from private farms in Namibia in six weeks, so owners started removing their horns. One cow had a horn 86 centimeters (34 inches) long. Jaco Muller said he was nearly in tears when it was removed. “It is such a magnificent animal,” he said. “But for the animal’s sake, it is for the best.”

Dehorning gave poachers less reason to kill a rhino. For Muller, the sight of a dehorned rhino was preferable to finding a dead one.

The idea for breeding rhinos came from his son, then 15, as a school project. In 2010, Muller converted the family’s antelope-breeding operation into what became the Rhino Momma Project in Namibia’s Kunene region.

Muller believed that breeding more white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum), keeping them secure enough to reproduce, and then replenishing populations across Africa could help save the species. So he built a breeding program with a rhino-custodianship farm and the nonprofit Help Our Rhinos Now, or HoRn.

The first calf was born in 2013; by 2025, the project had become one of Namibia’s larger privately run rhino-breeding operations.

Kifaru Lodge, which Muller opened in 2018, brought in money from tourists to help cover security and rhino care.

Muller also supported legalizing the trade in rhino horn. His argument was that prohibition let criminals collect the profits while farm owners and conservation groups paid for security. He compared harvesting horn to shearing sheep: the animal would survive, the horn would grow back, and a regulated market might finance protection.

“Right now, only poachers make money from horns,” he said in 2025.

That was, and remains, a controversial argument. Opponents question whether a legal trade would enable laundering of poached rhino horns or increase demand. For Muller, the case came from the economics of a breeding program: horns were valuable, and protecting the animals was expensive.

He believed rhinos needed populations outside Namibia as well. In a controversial move in 2024, 42 white rhinos from Kifaru Lodge were exported to Texas. He cited the Arabian oryx, which survived through captive breeding and reintroduction, as an example.

Muller often used a gyrocopter to survey the reserve from the air, looking for signs of intrusion and checking on rhinos spread across the property. On Sept. 19, Muller, 53, was killed when the gyrocopter crashed while he was monitoring rhinos and wildfire flare-ups near Outjo. By then, the school-project idea had become a herd of rhinos: the project had recorded 197 births since its first calf arrived in 2013.

Banner image: Jaco Muller. Image courtesy of the Rhino Momma Project.