Jaguars are widely believed to be solitary cats, only tolerating others when mating or raising cubs. However, a new study in the Brazilian Pantanal has found the jaguars there often pair up and are far more social than expected.

The Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland, has the world’s highest population density of jaguars (Panthera onca), where tourists are nearly guaranteed to spot them from a tour boat.

This jaguar abundance has also attracted researchers. Since 2013, scientists with the Jaguar ID project have conducted daily surveys during the Pantanal’s dry season, June to October. They collect photos and videos, and have identified 459 individual cats from their distinctive rosette patterns. Combined with citizen scientist data, the images provide a “treasure” of information about jaguars and their social interactions, according to Valeria Boron, lead author of the study and senior program adviser for Latin America with WWF UK.

Boron told Mongabay in a video call that most of what scientists previously knew about jaguars came from camera traps and genetic testing, which can’t accurately capture the full range of their interactions.

Analyzing 13 years of data, the team found that the Pantanal jaguars were much more social than expected, with significant differences between males and females. The researchers recorded 167 instances of jaguar pairs interacting: nearly half involved two males, 31% involved a male and a female, and just 17% involved two females.

Roughly a quarter of the interactions were aggressive, 36.5% were neutral — individuals resting or hunting independently in the same area — and nearly 39% were social, including playing, grooming, and hunting together. In one interaction, for example, the researchers saw two sisters from different litters grooming each other. In another, two related males moved and patrolled a territory together.

Among jaguars whose family history is known, related males had more positive interactions, but this wasn’t the case for females.

Boron said she suspects the females, often with cubs, behave more defensively to protect their offspring. “That’s the hypothesis that we have, because there was a record of infanticide in the area by another female,” Boron said.

Researchers say males likely tolerate each other because the Pantanal provides ideal habitat with abundant prey.

“All observations come from riverbanks in an area with very high prey and jaguar density, so the results don’t necessarily apply to jaguars elsewhere,” Stijn Verschueren, a conservation biologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, who wasn’t involved with the study, told Mongabay by email.

Researchers acknowledge that limitation but say similar studies could be done in other areas with high jaguar densities, like the Mamirauá reserve in the Amazon. The existing Pantanal data could also be used to examine specific behaviors in greater detail.

“That would be actually fascinating and a more descriptive paper … describ[ing] jaguar behavior more in a qualitative way,” Boron said.

Banner image: Unrelated male jaguars grooming each other. Image courtesy of Tom Schuler via Jaguar ID Project.

The U.S. government has published proposed rules to allow commercial fishing in an area more than double the size of California inside a Pacific marine reserve that encompasses a network of islands, atolls, seamounts and coral reef systems.

The proposed rules, published Nov. 9 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), or NOAA Fisheries, would lift fishing restrictions around Johnston Atoll, Wake Island, and Jarvis Island in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (PIH). Commercial fishing would be permitted between 50 and 200 nautical miles (93-185 kilometers) from these islands, while waters within 50 nmi would remain off-limits to protect species and habitats. The total affected area covers 1 million square kilometers (408,000 square miles).

In its proposal, NOAA says the rules would support the “long-term sustainability of U.S. fisheries,” and align with previous directives from the Trump administration to increase fishing in the Pacific, including a presidential proclamation in April calling for the “unleashing” of commercial fishing in the PIH. At the same time, NOAA also says fishing in the PIH may only have a “minor” beneficial impact on fisheries operations and management.

The proposed rules are open for public comment until Dec. 9.

Activists have criticized the proposal and NOAA Fisheries’ characterization of the potential harm to cultural resources and protected species as “negligible.”

“The ocean has always been a place of connection for Pacific peoples, and the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument has important historical and cultural ties,” William Aila, a Native Hawaiian fisherman and former chair of the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, said in a statement. “These same waters provide threatened and endangered wildlife a rare refuge where they can feed, breed, and recover. Many Pacific Islander descendants have answered the call to protect this special area, and we are hopeful that their comments will allow us to protect this place for generations to come.”

The PIH has 5,000-year-old coral reef systems, 165 known seamounts that serve as biodiversity hotspots, and hosts threatened species such as seabirds, sharks, rays, whales, and sea turtles, according to the Pacific Islands Heritage Coalition.

This isn’t the first time the government has attempted to allow commercial fishing in the PIH. In April 2025, NOAA Fisheries issued a letter calling for the authorization of fishing in parts of the protected area. However, U.S. conservation groups represented by environmental law organization Earthjustice won a lawsuit to stop it from moving forward. Now, David Henkin, an attorney at Earthjustice, says the group is prepared to sue again.

“We prevailed in court the last time this happened,” he said in a statement, “and we’ll head back to court again to defend the pristine waters of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.”

Banner image: Coral at Jarvis Island in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. Image by USFWS/Jim Maragos via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

More than 50 Mennonites have been deported from Suriname following years of controversy over plans to establish agricultural settlements for large-scale farming in the Amazon Rainforest.

Authorities removed the Mennonites, members of a conservative Christian group that rejects modern technology, from state land in Suriname’s Sipaliwini district. They had been staying in the area with expired residency permits, according to a statement from the president’s office. On Oct. 31, they were reportedly flown to Bolivia, from where they originally came.

“The point is essentially that the primary Amazon Rainforest is not being cut down for large-scale agriculture. I am opposed to that,” Suriname President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons told local media in an Oct. 4 interview, per a statement published by her office.

In 2023 and 2024, Mongabay exposed plans to transfer hundreds of thousands of hectares of rainforest to Suriname’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (LVV). The plan involved relocating Mennonites from other areas in Latin America, including Belize and Bolivia, to Suriname to help develop large-scale farming projects that could boost the country’s domestic food production.

Mennonites have a track record of rapid, profitable agribusiness development across the Americas — but often at the expense of forests. In some cases, their expansion has resulted in illegal deforestation.

Roughly 93% of Suriname is covered in forest. Some of the Mennonite agriculture projects were cancelled following backlash over protecting the country’s forest cover and net-negative carbon emissions status. But in 2024, one of the projects continued through a public-private partnership between the agriculture ministry and Suriname Green Energy Agriculture N.V., a private company working in agriculture and bioenergy.

Representatives for Suriname Green Energy Agriculture N.V. asked a court to stop the Mennonites’ recent deportation, arguing the government had agreed to work toward providing them with permits so the company could develop agricultural land and produce biofuel.

“The expulsion of the foreign workers will have serious consequences for the business activities of the [company],” a court summary said.

The court rejected the claim on Oct. 29, saying the Mennonites must follow residency and work permit regulations.

Also in October, authorities used drones to track down and remove more than 63 Mennonites who had arrived from Bolivia and Mexico. The operation was part of a task force to remove illegal settlements in the rainforest, announced in August by Geerlings-Simons.

On Oct. 31, at least 55 Mennonites were reportedly returned to Bolivia on a charter flight and banned from entering Suriname for one year. The other eight evicted Mennonites weren’t sent to Bolivia because they’re Mexican nationals.

It’s unclear how many more Mennonites remain in Suriname or whether they have permits to live and work there.

Banner image: An illegal road is visible in Suriname’s Amazon Rainforest. Image by AP Photo/Ivan Valencia.

Canadian extractive industries have been linked to the displacement of at least 300,000 people in Africa over the past 30 years, the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) said in an October report. The York University-based group reviewed media reports, court documents and other sources to compile the 193-page report, which analyzed the Canadian government’s response to allegations of corruption and human rights abuses against 23 firms since 1996.

The report said that Canadian officials repeatedly lent diplomatic support to companies accused of serious human rights abuses or lapses in worker safety.

In 2017, for example, Canada’s High Commissioner to Tanzania met with the country’s Minister of Mines to advocate for Barrick Mining Corporation’s local subsidiary during a dispute over taxes and export policy, per the report. The meeting came just a year after a government inquiry heard reports that police guarding Barrick’s North Mara gold mine had killed dozens of people on its premises.

“They always take the side of the company,” said report co-author Shin Imai, a professor at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, in an interview with Mongabay. “I have not seen an instance when they didn’t lobby [on their behalf].”

In 2024, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said that police guarding the North Mara mine were involved in a “growing number of unaccounted for killings.”

The report’s annex included a 12-page response from Barrick that said it had been “targeted and criticized by irresponsible NGOs.”

Canada’s enforcement of laws meant to prevent corporations from engaging in bribery and corruption have been sparsely enforced, the report said.

It described a 2018 case where the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settled with Canada’s Kinross Gold Corporation for a $950,000 fine over violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in its Mauritanian and Ghanaian operations. Despite the SEC’s investigation, the firm faced no penalties in Canada and was provided with up to $850 million in loans by a Canadian state-owned lender.

Canadian policymakers have expressed rhetorical support for ethical corporate conduct, the report noted, but it described an environment of impunity for firms linked to human rights abuses. As reported by The Globe and Mail in Toronto, at the height of Ethiopia’s brutal campaign in the northern Tigray region, two Canadian mining companies sought gold concessions in the conflict zone.

JCAP’s data showed that Canada’s National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises has heard 22 complaints over the conduct of extractive companies, but none have led to meaningful sanctions or penalties.

“If we let drivers self-report whether they’re meeting all the driving standards and had no checkup and no way of enforcing [the rules], it would be chaos because everyone would be self-reporting that they’re doing great,” Imai said.

Mongabay reached out to Global Affairs Canada for comment, but the agency did not respond by our deadline.

Banner image: Tanzanian police at Barrick Gold’s North Mara mine. Image courtesy Catherine Coumans/Mining Watch.

In the high-altitude Alishan mountain region of central Taiwan, tea growers cultivating prized oolong tea face mounting environmental crises: Between 2014 and 2023, local tea production dropped by 13.5% due to severe climate pressures and soil degradation. In response, a group of farmers is abandoning chemical inputs for nature-based solutions and wild cultivation, reports contributor Aylin Ho for Mongabay.

Alishan has warmed by 0.7° Celsius (1.26° Fahrenheit) over the past decade, nearly triple Taiwan’s average rate. The hotter weather has caused mist to dissipate, which otherwise blocks sunlight and helps tea leaves stay moist. Warming has also intensified spring droughts.

“Over the past five years, tea growers have experienced two or three spring droughts, at a time when they need water the most,” said Huang Cho-ying, chair of the Department of Geography at National Taiwan University in Taipei. Huang added that heavy winter rainfall and landslides further exacerbate crop damage.

The use of chemical fertilizers over the years “has made the soil more acidic and has reduced the availability of certain nutrients to plants,” said Jiang Hong, an associate professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Lin Kuang-li, 60-year-old sixth-generation grower, transitioned away from pesticides to natural farming 30 years ago in Longyanlin village. Lin grows alfalfa to make “green manure,” and uses cut branches as ground cover to retain topsoil moisture.

“My soil has a better capacity to absorb and drain water than soil treated with chemical fertilizers,” Lin said, adding that crops must build climate resilience. “You have to let the tea plant adapt to the climate. If it does not have the ability to withstand stress, it can easily become diseased and die.”

In nearby Taihe village, tea growers Chang Chih-tsung, 51, and Yeh Hsin-wen, 45, practice a different yefang (wild-grown) method, allowing Jhin-hsüan oolong bushes to naturally under forest canopy.

“We don’t prune them, we don’t water them, and we don’t add any products,” Chang said.

Yeh said wild cultivation forces plants to develop deep root systems. “Our plants have to search for water and nutrients deep underground: They grow downward, and their roots are deeper,” Yeh said. These deep roots enabled their wild tea plants to survive recent severe droughts that killed crops on conventional farms, especially those without access to irrigation.

Fewer than 10 growers in Alishan have adopted natural farming due to lower yields, according to Jiang Hong. Chang and Yeh harvest just 24-36 kilograms (53-79 pounds) annually, requiring alternative income streams like renting out a guesthouse.

“All of them are committed to a model of degrowth; they produce less and therefore have lower incomes, which goes hand in hand with producing in an environmentally friendly way,” Jiang said.

Read the full story by Aylin Ho here.

Banner image: Lin Kuang-li stands among his oolong tea plants in Taiwan’s Alishan tea-growing region. Image by Aylin Ho for Mongabay.

DESTIN, Fla. (AP) — An ocean liner that once was the fastest on the seas is headed to its final home on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico as the world’s largest artificial reef. Officials on Florida’s panhandle coast were scuttling the SS United States on Wednesday about 25 miles southwest of Destin, between Panama City and Pensacola. The $13.5 million project is designed to attract more divers and fishing enthusiasts to the area while creating a home for tuna, marlin and swordfish. The project will keep what had been a technological marvel from becoming scrap metal. The 990-foot ship set a speed record on its first voyage in 1952.

By John Hanna and Stephen Smith, Associated Press

Banner image: The SS United States is towed down the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, from Philadelphia, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. Image courtesy of Matt Rourke, Associated Press