Giant river toad. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler. It's no secret that vital biodiversity hotspots in Southeast Asia are under threat from logging and the spread of oil palm plantations.…
Lianas, climbing woody vines, can harm rainforest trees, particularly young saplings. Credit: Alex eflon. Since the 1970s, research into climbing woody vines called lianas has focused primarily on the harm…
The Sunda gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii) looks like "just an odd crocodile" according to Robert Stuebing. He would know. Stuebing and his team have recently published an article in the International…
A bird's eye view of speciation in the Neotropics How long does it take for a new species to develop? Not long, it turns out. In fact, only a few…
A ground-breaking bat call library is released from one of India’s biodiversity hotspots The Western Ghats is one of the world’s eight richest biodiversity hotspots. A UNESCO World Heritage site,…
Study finds chimps at high risk for epidemics The year was 1854, and cholera outbreaks had rendered London terrified and British anesthesiologist Dr. John Snow fascinated. In what is thought…
Regnskogfondet (the Rainforest Foundation of Norway) recently released a 52-page report entitled “Human Rights and Resource Conflicts in the Amazon.” The report took over six months to complete and gives…
Tapirs are notoriously hard to find and directly observe in the wild. Because of this, little is known about how species behave in their natural habitats. But in a study…
Deforestation is destroying forests around the world, but its effects are especially obvious in the Amazon Basin. Due to cattle ranching, soybean farming, logging, and slash-and-burn agriculture, the rainforest is…
The term "marsupial frog" might sound like a hoax, but, believe it or not, it's real. Recently, herpetologists welcomed a new species, known as Gastrotheca dysprosita and described in the…
Scientists discover clear temporal patterns between the ocelot and its agouti prey. The early bird might get the worm, but, as scientists have discovered, the bird is also quite likely…
The Sunda clouded leopard has always been shrouded in mystery. Only declared a separate species from its mainland cousin, the Borneo clouded leopard, in 2006, the IUCN lists the cat…
A recent study from the Biological Conservation journal brings shocking news: every year across the globe, an estimated 400,000 seabirds are killed by gillnets. Gillnets, a common term for any…
A major premise of biology, as any high-schooler can tell you, is the study of the connections between organisms. Perhaps nowhere is there a better example of this than in…
Warning: Rob Shirkey wants to change the world, one gas pump at a time. In a video spot for his organization, Robert Shirkey stands on a highway overpass behind speeding…
A comprehensive survey of the wildlife sold in the markets of Tuensang has resulted in a stunning record of the wildlife trade in the state of Nagaland in northeast India,…
The tenkile, or the Scott’s tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus scottae) could be a cross between a koala bear and a puppy. With it’s fuzzy dark fur, long tail and snout, and…
Over the past 30 years, amphibians worldwide have been infected with a lethal skin disease known as the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). "The disease can cause rapid mortality, with…
Inside Moby-Dick's stomach, there's a lot more than Ahab's leg. What do children's toys, balloons, mattresses and plastic bags have in common? They can, along with more non-biodegradable pollutants, be…
England's dropping hog population begins to look dire. European hedgehog. Photo by: Gaudete. As hedgehogs all over the United Kingdom wake up from their winter hibernation, activists will be carefully…