- As heat waves hit all over the world, we’re bringing you environment and conservation videos you can add to your watchlist while you’re trying to stay cool in the shade.
- In the last month, Mongabay’s video teams have explored the intersection between tech and animal conservation, and community-led initiatives to protect natural spaces.
- Add these videos to your watchlist for the month — you don’t need a Netflix, Prime or Disney+ subscription; watch these for free on YouTube.
Tech advances in the last decades have given humans new tools for helping animals — whether it’s printing prosthetics on a 3-D printer or building robots that scientists can send into wombat tunnels. Tech also has the potential to shape a more sustainable future for the shipping industry. These are just some of the topics we’ve covered in the last month as part of Mongabay’s video program.
We also continued our covered conservation and environment stories from around the world. From Jamaica, we covered the story of Oracabessa Bay, where fishers are restoring coral reefs, bringing back fish and other marinespecies.
From Cambodia, we took a look at merit release practices, where humans release wild animals for personal karma. Researchers are concerned this could bring humans into contact with zoonotic diseases.
From India we covered the story of how a turtle species native to parts of the U.S.A. have researchers worried about the threat to 29 native freshwater turtles and tortoises in India. The turtle was illegally exported around the world between 1989 and 1997. The illegal trade between countries still continues and the red-eared slider has now become one of the world’s 100 worst invasive species.
From Brazil, members of the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous group documented how their community isolated themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic. The community is now vaccinated, and they told their story through this video for Mongabay.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to make sure you never miss a video, and in the meantime here are all the videos to add to your watchlist:
New ships designed for sustainable maritime trade
International shipping is one of the most polluting sectors in the world. Now, new ship designs are emerging to offer a more sustainable alternative.
Read about it here.
Jamaican divers bring Oracabessa bay back to life
When fishers in Oracabessa Bay, Jamaica, began to see their nets empty and corals dying eleven years ago, they decided to take action. In 2011, the Oracabessa Bay Marine Trust was formed in partnership with the GoldenEye Foundation to protect and conserve the marine area. After ten years of work, the fishermen now work as coral gardener divers and have managed to significantly increase the marine life in the bay.
Animal release practices and the risk of zoonotic diseases
Around 10 million animals are released each year in Cambodia for the Buddhist and Taoist practice of freeing animals back into the wild to enhance karma. Though the country has a forestry law prohibiting capture, trade and killing of native species, the trade of animals for merit release continues to thrive. Researchers are concerned, however, that the practice could bring humans into close contact with zoonotic diseases. A 2012 study found that in Phnom Penh, 1 in 10 birds at the merit release markets was carrying the influenza A virus.
Read more here.
Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon isolated themselves to avoid COVID-19
As of June 1, 2021, Brazil has confirmed more than 16.5 million COVID-19 cases and over 462,000 deaths, with devastation particularly severe among the Amazon’s Indigenous communities. But one Indigenous group has done an exceptional job protecting its people: The Uru-eu-wau-wau in Rondônia state sealed off their territory in March 2020 — no small feat considering that the federally demarcated territory suffers from an onslaught of invaders, including illegal miners, loggers and land grabbers.
Read more about it here.
Indonesian port construction in Makassar costs fishers their catch
Fishers in Makassar, Indonesia are concerned that the new Makassar port project is decimating their catch. The construction project is dredging up waters near the city, and sand mining further out at sea to reclaim some land where the port will be built. In an effort to get by, fishers and their families say they are forced to sell their jewellery to buy food and clothes.
Read more here.
How a popular pet turtle species, the red-eared slider, threatens India’s waterbodies
Unaware pet owners and weak wildlife trade regulations are facilitating the spread of the red-eared slider in water bodies across India.
Subscribe to Mongabay-India for science and environmental video stories from the country.
CANDID ANIMAL CAM
Have you had a chance to meet the marbled cat? The mini clouded leopards
How many times a day does a waterbuck need to drink?
Waterbucks are large antelopes native to sub-Saharan Africa. As their names indicate, they inhabit areas that are close to water in savanna grasslands, gallery forests, and riverine woodlands.
OTHER ANIMAL STORIES
How 3-D printing prosthetics can help save endangered species
When Söckchen the secretary bird broke her leg, she became depressed, her keepers at the Weltvogelpark Walsrode say. Then they had an idea. What if they could print her a 3-D leg? So they called Lars Thalmann, a mechanical engineer and volunteer at E-Nable. E-Nable is a group of volunteers that prints 3-D prosthetics for people all over the world. But Söckchen was the first time Thalmann was asked to print a prosthesis for a bird. There were challenges along the way, but Söckchen is now back to her usual self, Thalmann says.
Read more about it here.
Urbanization in South Africa’s Cape Town poses challenges for the city’s baboon management program
Cape Town’s baboons are closely watched – each troop is accompanied from dawn till dusk by baboon monitors who try to discourage them from entering businesses, homes, and gardens, or raiding bins. But the troops don’t always stay together. Young males wanting to disperse are the baboons most likely to stray from their troops and weary monitors, entering homes and gardens. The City’s baboon management programme tries to help dispersing males find and join troops elsewhere, but as urbanization expands, it’s getting harder and harder to do.
Read more here.
Bubble breath: How anole lizards ‘rebreathe’ underwater
Multiple species of semi-aquatic anole lizards can breathe underwater — or rebreathe oxygen from their lungs — for up to 18 minutes, researchers recently found. A new report observed that anoles have hydrophobic skin. This trait is key for allowing a thin layer of air to form around their bodies, which then allows them to form a bubble of air that they can rebreathe from.
Read more about them here.
Banner image of a baboon in South Africa by South African Tourism via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).