In March 2025, biologist Benito Wainwright and his colleagues were searching for katydids — leaf-mimicking insects related to crickets and grasshoppers — in the rainforest of Barro Colorado Island in Panama, when they came across an unexpected sight: a hot-pink katydid individual of the species Arota festae.

The researchers captured the katydid and raised her in captivity. Photographing her daily for 14 days, they chronicled her changing color from hot pink to a pastel pink and finally green, the researchers report in a recent study.

A. festae, found in Panama, Colombia and Suriname, are typically light green in color, resembling early-growth vegetation, the authors write. The discovery of the hot-pink katydid is very rare, Wainwright told Mongabay by email.

“I’ve spent a total of 8 months in the tropics and have only ever found one, and my collaborators who have spent 2+ years on BCI [Barro Colorado Island] have never seen one,” said Wainwright, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. “We do most of our sampling around research station lights so it could be that these immature pink adults are hiding in places we’re not looking. The green morphs are pretty common though so, at least on BCI, the pink morph is a real abnormality.”

Jeffrey Cole, an expert in katydid evolution, who wasn’t affiliated with the study, told Mongabay in an email: “The observation of this katydid changing colors within a single life stage is remarkable, as it is the first demonstration of this capability in a katydid.” 

The authors note that pink coloration in katydids has historically been considered disadvantageous for camouflage because it makes the individuals conspicuous to predators. However, they hypothesize that pink in the case of A. festae might actually be an advantage.

Many rainforest plant species have delayed greening, in which their leaves are pink or red when young, before turning green. On Barro Colorado, one-third of the plant species exhibit delayed greening, the authors write. For many of these species, the change from pink to green leaves happens over two weeks, the same duration it took the katydid to transform from hot pink to green. The researchers propose that the hot-pink A. festae individuals may be mimicking delayed greening in surrounding plants.   

However, Cole said this hypothesis “is tenuous,” especially with a sample size of just one individual. “We need to know if young adults routinely start out pink and change to green, or if this is rare or a fluke,” he said. “Is this strategy employed more during seasons when new growth is abundant, pink, and transitioning to green? Does color change in the katydids and the plants proceed at similar paces?”

Banner image: Hot pink individual of Arota festae. Image courtesy of Benito Wainwright.

For decades, the research community thought that the small, olive-green songbirds found on two Japanese islands were identical. But a new study has revealed these birds are actually two distinct species, ones that have been evolutionarily isolated for millions of years and are now facing the risk of extinction.

Researchers discovered a population of the newly named Tokara leaf warbler (Phylloscopus tokaraensis) on the remote Tokara archipelago in 1988. Back then, it was considered to be Ijima’s leaf warbler (Phylloscopus ijimae), found in the Izu Islands, some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away.

An international team of researchers, led by Per Alström from Uppsala University in Sweden and Takema Saitoh of the Yamashina Institute of Ornithology in Japan, has now analyzed the genetic data and songs of the birds on the two islands.

Genetic analysis showed that a “deep split” between the two lineages occurred approximately 3.2 million years ago, the authors write.

The researchers also found that while the two bird populations are virtually indistinguishable in appearance, their songs say otherwise.

In an email to Mongabay, Saitoh said the Tokara species’ songs are lower in pitch and faster in pace than those of its Izu relatives. This acoustic divide is so distinct that the researchers were able to correctly classify 100% of Tokara recordings based solely on their vocal patterns.

The recognition of the Tokara and Ijima’s leaf warblers as separate species means they’re even rarer than previously realized.

The Tokara leaf warbler is known to breed only on the island of Nakanoshima in the Tokara archipelago. “Its range is confined to a very limited area on a global scale,” Saitoh told Mongabay.

Genomic data also showed that both species exhibit low genetic diversity and signs of past population declines. This is consistent with small, isolated populations, the authors say.

Both the Tokara and Ijima’s leaf warblers face threats typical for island species. These include natural disasters, invasive predators like introduced weasels, and habitat modification by feral goats, Saitoh noted.

He added the birds are also vulnerable to forest decline caused by pine wilt disease and the constant threat of volcanic eruptions in the geologically active region.

Ijima’s leaf warbler is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. By formally describing the Tokara leaf warbler as a separate species, the researchers say they hope to ensure it receives an independent assessment of its own conservation status and the targeted monitoring it needs.

“The discovery that species which appear identical at first glance actually encompass cryptic species suggests that this research plays an important role in identifying hidden biodiversity and ensuring that these species are monitored and conserved so that they do not go extinct unnoticed,” Saitoh said.  

Banner image: A Tokara leaf warbler photographed in Nakanoshima in June 2017, when it was still thought to be a separate population of Ijima’s leaf warbler. Image courtesy of Per Alström.

The end of China’s export tax rebates for solar panels and associated equipment could prompt a rush by power developers in African to secure supplies at the previous lower prices.

Across Africa, a lack of reliable access to grid electricity is driving the adoption of mini-grids and off-grid solar applications, especially in rural areas. Solar currently accounts for only 3% of electricity generation on the continent, but solar capacity is expanding rapidly, and the end of the 9% value-added tax rebate on Chinese exports of photovoltaic modules, cells and inverters as of April 1 could hasten adoption across Africa.

“There’s a big acceleration of people trying to buy panels at the current reduced price with the rebate, which is why you’re seeing many projects rushing to start construction so they can procure panels at a lower cost,” Gerrit Jan Cronselaar, engineering project manager at GameChange Solar, a U.S.-based solar energy company, said at a March webinar organized by the Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA), ahead of the end of the rebate.

“Over the course of 2026, we are likely to see a wave of projects coming online as a result of this early push.”

China is the world’s dominant producer and exporter of solar panels, and African countries depend heavily on the country for solar components. China is also phasing out export tax rebates for batteries, reducing them from 9% to 6% this month. They will be fully eliminated by January 2027. Storage systems including batteries ensure a more reliable supply of solar power so electricity is available even after sunset or on cloudy days.

“We don’t expect there to be a massive price spike,” Cronselaar said. “We expect there to be a step-by-step increase in panel prices that is not as catastrophic as some people might think, certainly not for utility-scale projects.”

Ha added that the segments most affected by the end of the rebate will be smaller commercial and industrial users, “as well as the off-grid and mini-grid sectors, where price sensitivity is much higher.”

Another factor that could boost demand for solar is the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has throttled oil and gas exports from the Persian Gulf and driven up global energy prices. Facing an oil shock, some experts say African countries might view solar as a more attractive alternative despite the increased upfront costs.

“The VAT removal will slow, but not reverse Africa’s clean energy transition,” Basil Abia, co-founder of Nigerian energy research company Truva Intelligence told the Associated Press.

The increased cost of solar installations is bringing renewed scrutiny to global dependence on China for critical components and has spurred calls for other countries to increase their domestic manufacturing capacity.

“Countries that use this moment to accelerate local manufacturing will emerge stronger. Those that do not will remain exposed to Beijing’s next industrial policy adjustment,” Abia said.

Banner Image: A solar installation in Mali. Image ©Curt Carnemark/World Bank via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

The kākāpō is a flightless bird endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand, and one of the heaviest parrots in the world. It’s also critically endangered; after the introduction of predators to the islands off New Zealand, the adult kākāpō population plummeted to just 235 today.

But this year, following a standout harvest of rīmu (Dacrydium cupressinum) berries, a staple of the kākāpō diet, at least 95 chicks are now growing. The previous record, in 2019, produced 73 fledglings.

“2026 is now officially the biggest on record,” New Zealand’s Department of Conservation wrote on its kākāpō recovery Instagram account.

In the photo above, kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus) siblings Tīwhiri-A3 and Tīwhiri-A4, both named after their mother, are pictured on Pukenui Anchor Island in southern New Zealand, a predator-free island chosen as a kākāpō sanctuary. The photo was taken by Sarah Manktelow, a kākāpō recovery program ranger at the Department of Conservation.

The chicks will be officially added to the species’ population count once they reach 150 days old, after which they’re considered fledglings. Not all the chicks are expected to make it to this stage.

Ten chicks have died so far, and three more are currently receiving veterinary care.

Every Friday, the Department of Conservation released data on the progress of the eggs, with an uploaded photo of the tally written in marker on the department’s refrigerator. This year, 80 nests produced at least 256 eggs. Of these, 148 were fertile, and 105 hatched.

“Infertility and low hatching success is a key obstacle for the program, and not every chick will survive through to fledging,” Deidre Vercoe, the Department of Conservation’s operations manager for kākāpō, told Mongabay by email. “[B]ut each successful hatching is a reminder of how far we have come.”

The kākāpō breeding season still involves heavy human involvement; some birds are artificially inseminated at the beginning of the breeding season, and many eggs are placed in incubators to increase the likelihood of a successful hatch.

According to the Department of Conservation, the goal is to gradually step away so that the population can naturally self-sustain without as much intervention.

“As the population grows, we will begin to step back on some of the more hands-on management so we can begin to understand what a more natural level of survival looks like,” Vercoe said.

• 
  Siblings Tīwhiri-A3 and Tīwhiri-A4 on Pukenui Anchor Island, New Zealand. Image courtesy of Sarah Manktelow/DOC.
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  An adult kākāpō named Alice and her chick Rupi. Image courtesy of Jake Osborne/DOC.
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  Bella with her chicks Hera-A3 and Margaret-Maree-A1. Image courtesy of Mahina Welle/DOC.
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  Tīwhiri-A1-2026 was the first kākāpō to hatch in four years. Image courtesy of Lydia Uddstrom/DOC.
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  Hatching season numbers were updated weekly in marker on the department’s fridge. Image courtesy of DOC.
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  Siblings Tīwhiri-A3 and Tīwhiri-A4 on Pukenui Anchor Island, New Zealand. Image courtesy of Sarah Manktelow/DOC.

Banner image: Siblings Tīwhiri-A3 and Tīwhiri-A4 on Pukenui Anchor Island, New Zealand. Image courtesy of Sarah Manktelow/New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC).

Jaigaon, a densely populated town on India’s border with Bhutan, is facing a crisis of poor waste disposal, reports contributor Chandrani Sinha for Mongabay India.

Much of the town’s plastic, construction and medical waste gets dumped along the banks of the Torsa River. The river originates in the Chumbi Valley in the eastern Himalayas and flows through Bhutan before entering India at Jaigaon.

Locals say they worry the rampant river pollution could impact the image of Jaigaon, a key tourist and trade point between India and Bhutan.

“Our towns share an international border and a lot of tourist footfall takes place every year, as the town is growing population-wise, we demand a municipality facility to manage the solid waste and also other issues of Jaigaon,” Jayant Mundra, convenor for the Joint Forum of Business Association Jaigaon and vice president of the Jaigaon Merchant Association, told Mongabay India.

Mundra added that during rains, much of the waste enters the river, and ends up in homes and public places.

Environmental activists said the dumped waste is often openly burned, which releases toxic pollutants into the air. Downstream, the Torsa flows through ecologically sensitive floodplains that serve as habitat for Indian rhinos, elephants, and various migratory bird species.

“River life depends on three things: flow, silt and oxygen in the water,” Dipankar Saha, former additional director of India’s Central Pollution Control Board, told Mongabay India. “But we excavate the river, pollute it. So, if we don’t manage the river system, then the river will also not manage its wetlands, flora, fauna, agricultural fields, and groundwater systems in the plains.”

Residents living near the river also told Mongabay India that the air and water pollution from the waste disposal is affecting their health.

“Staying here amidst the foul smell of waste is very frustrating,” said Fatima Khatun, 34. “Sometimes we fall sick and have nausea, a cold and a headache. With little kids, it’s more difficult because they constantly fall sick.”

Dumping waste along a riverbank is a violation of Indian laws, said Sabyasachi Chatterjee, senior advocate of the Kolkata High Court. “The law is effectively ‘geography-blind,’” he said. “It doesn’t matter if the dumping happens in a bustling city or a quiet border village; if the water is being poisoned, the crime is the same.”

“India does have a fairly strong policy framework,” Swati Singh Sambyal, an international circular economy and waste expert, told Mongabay India. “However, the challenge today is not policy absence but implementation.”

Jaigaon’s riverside pollution gained widespread public attention following an Instagram reel by a 24-year-old local content creator Rock Lama. Now, each Sunday, residents of Jaigaon join Rock and other content creators on cleanup drives in the community.

The Jaigaon Development Authority declined to comment.

Read the full story by Chandrani Sinha here.

Banner image: Cattle forage through plastic and household waste at an open dumping site in Jaigaon. Image by Chandrani Sinha.

Antarctic fur seals are the smallest of the polar seals and live almost exclusively on the island of South Georgia. The latest assessment by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the global conservation authority, upgraded fur seal extinction threat from least concern to endangered. The last assessment was carried out in 2014.

Recent research found that Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) populations have more than halved over the last 25 years, plummeting from nearly 2.2 million adult seals in 1999 to 944,000 in 2025.

That’s a huge population loss in just three generations, Jaume Forcada, who has been studying fur seals at the British Antarctic Survey for more than 20 years, wrote in a statement. “Unless we address the root causes of climate change, we risk losing even more,” he added.

The IUCN attributed the 50% population loss to reduced food availability: Warmer temperatures and shrinking sea ice caused by fossil fuel emissions led large schools of krill, the seal’s main prey, to move into deeper and colder waters.

Fur seals are also competing with large fishing vessels, harvesting krill mostly for use as feed in aquaculture. In October 2025, Norway proposed doubling the krill catch limit in the Southern Ocean.

Young seal pups under the age of 1 year are the most impacted by the habitat change; many are unable to survive to adulthood without sufficient food.

The southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) was also listed as vulnerable in the IUCN’s April 9 announcement. An outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza in 2023 killed an estimated 17,000 elephant seal pups on southern Argentina’s Valdés Peninsula, the species’ largest die-off ever recorded.

On the other side of the Earth, in the Arctic, temperatures are rising four times faster than the global average, and Arctic seals are also feeling the impacts of a changing climate. In October 2025, three more seal species were relisted, moving closer to extinction due to climate change and melting sea ice.

The hooded seal (Cystophora cristata), which lives in the Arctic region between Canada, Greenland and Norway, went from vulnerable to endangered.

Similarly, the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) and harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus), which both live across the Arctic region, were moved from least concern to near threatened.

“These assessments sound an alarm,” Kit Kovacs, co-chair of the IUCN Pinniped Specialist Group, wrote in a statement. “We are concerned about how environmental changes are affecting all ice-dependent species.”

The emperor penguin, one of Antarctica’s most iconic species, was also listed as endangered in the IUCN announcement, following ice losses that threaten the survival of baby chicks.

Banner image: Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella). Image courtesy of Kit Kovacs & Christian Lydersen/Norwegian Polar Institute.