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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/bears/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2026 21:20:38 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Bears</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/bears/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Nepal pushes for hydropower in protected areas through legal grey area</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepal-pushes-for-hydropower-in-protected-areas-through-legal-grey-area/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepal-pushes-for-hydropower-in-protected-areas-through-legal-grey-area/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Aug 2026 05:16:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rudra Pangeni]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/23104302/%C2%A9-Rocky-Prajapati-DNPWC-WWF-Nepal-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326743</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Cats, Conservation, Fish, Freshwater Fish, Mammals, National Parks, Pandas, Pangolins, Protected Areas, Snow Leopards, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU – Nepal’s government has allowed several private hydropower producers to develop projects inside protected areas and the buffer zones surrounding them, contravening a Supreme Court order, a Mongabay investigation reveals. In January 2025, the Supreme Court declared that a 2024 amendment to a key conservation law opening up protected areas to commercial projects was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU – Nepal’s government has allowed several private hydropower producers to develop projects inside protected areas and the buffer zones surrounding them, contravening a Supreme Court order, a Mongabay investigation reveals. In January 2025, the Supreme Court declared that a 2024 amendment to a key conservation law opening up protected areas to commercial projects was “invalid” as it was against the constitutionally defined state policy of environment-friendly development and the principle of intergenerational equity. As the court is yet to publish the full text of the verdict, the government has interpreted the law and issued permits for development, the investigation aided by a right to information request finds. “To issue permits [for hydropower projects] inside protected areas is a misinterpretation of the court verdict,” said senior lawyer Prakash Mani Sharma Bhusal, one of the petitioners who took the government to court on July 28, 2024, over its decision to open protected areas to infrastructure such as hydropower plants and hotels. Kaligandaki hydropower dam in Nepal. Image by Krish Dulal via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). The court’s 2025 verdict came in response to a petition filed by lawyers led by Dil Raj Khanal, who argued that the 2024 amendment to the parks and conservation act, which came into effect on July 8, 2024, violated Article 30 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to a clean and healthy environment, and contradicted Nepal’s obligations under international treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. Yet the Supreme Court has still not&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepal-pushes-for-hydropower-in-protected-areas-through-legal-grey-area/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepal-pushes-for-hydropower-in-protected-areas-through-legal-grey-area/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326743</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How to stitch a massive wildlife corridor through the Rocky Mountains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-to-stitch-a-massive-wildlife-corridor-through-the-rocky-mountains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-to-stitch-a-massive-wildlife-corridor-through-the-rocky-mountains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2026 12:07:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jane Palmer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/21180012/roadways-act-like-fences-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324243</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystem Engineers, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Fragmentation, Fragmentation, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Hope and optimism, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Mammals, Migration, Mitigation, Roadkill, Roads, Solutions, Transportation, Ungulates, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada — On a sunny Thursday in May, Kent Kebe had to scrape yet another bighorn sheep carcass off Highway 93/95 running through Radium, British Columbia. The necropsy confirmed what Kebe, the village’s protective service manager, already knew: A car collision killed the ram. Roadkill deaths hit this community hard. Residents love their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada — On a sunny Thursday in May, Kent Kebe had to scrape yet another bighorn sheep carcass off Highway 93/95 running through Radium, British Columbia. The necropsy confirmed what Kebe, the village’s protective service manager, already knew: A car collision killed the ram. Roadkill deaths hit this community hard. Residents love their sheep so much that the village center sports a huge steel sculpture of sheep horns that stands roughly 12-meters- (39-foot-) wide and 6-meters- (19-feet-) tall. The Big Horn Cafe on the main drag features artwork of bighorn rams and serves custom-blended “Headbanger tea.” In the 1990s, about 350 bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) milled around, drawn to the golf course and the grasses along the highway. “It’s like a candy store for them,” Kebe says. But by 2022, the herd’s numbers had dwindled to 140. While some sheep died from natural causes, vehicle collisions played a big role in the death toll. “There’s a tension where the sheep are the mascots of the village, but the traffic is killing them,” says wildlife scientist Clayton Lamb, who works with the nonprofit Biodiversity Pathways and the University of British Columbia. He helped bring attention to the issue in 2022. Habitat loss is a major threat to species, but highways, railways and towns impact how animals move to eat, meet and mate — and that can endanger their survival. A 2025 review in the journal Science warned that while the world aims to protect 30% of the planet by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-to-stitch-a-massive-wildlife-corridor-through-the-rocky-mountains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-to-stitch-a-massive-wildlife-corridor-through-the-rocky-mountains/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324243</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Bear-dar’ aims to give Arctic communities a heads-up on nearby polar bears</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/bear-dar-aims-to-give-arctic-communities-a-heads-up-on-nearby-polar-bears/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/bear-dar-aims-to-give-arctic-communities-a-heads-up-on-nearby-polar-bears/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2026 09:02:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/21131850/polar-bears-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323458</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Canada, Global, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Culture, Earth Science, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Polar Bears, Research, Science, Sea Ice, Technology, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How do you spot polar bears in the vast, and often dark, wilderness of the Arctic? Enter Bear-dar. This AI-driven radar system scans the landscape to spot approaching polar bears. The technology was developed by the nonprofit Polar Bears International in collaboration with U.S.-based security firm Spotter Global in a bid to mitigate encounters between [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How do you spot polar bears in the vast, and often dark, wilderness of the Arctic? Enter Bear-dar. This AI-driven radar system scans the landscape to spot approaching polar bears. The technology was developed by the nonprofit Polar Bears International in collaboration with U.S.-based security firm Spotter Global in a bid to mitigate encounters between the animals and people. “We wanted to add another tool to the polar bear safety toolbox,” Alysa McCall, director of science at Polar Bears International, told Mongabay in a video interview. “With an early-warning detection system, there’s less chance of a bear getting killed because it surprised somebody.” Climate change is the biggest threat to the survival and existence of polar bears (Ursus maritimus). As sea ice melts in the Arctic, these threatened species are rapidly losing their habitats. As a result, they move on to land in search of food, where they risk coming into close contact with humans. With Bear-dar, scientists and conservationists say they hope to help manage such encounters and conflicts. The early-warning system uses radars and cameras that keep a watch on the landscape, looking out for motion in its field of vision. The radar panels, each about the size of an iPad, look at a distance ranging from a few hundred meters to 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles). The AI algorithm in the radars was trained to detect polar bears from zoo-held animals at Assiniboine Conservancy Park in the Canadian city of Winnipeg. “There’s not a ton of polar bear&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/bear-dar-aims-to-give-arctic-communities-a-heads-up-on-nearby-polar-bears/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/bear-dar-aims-to-give-arctic-communities-a-heads-up-on-nearby-polar-bears/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323458</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Laos’s illegal wildlife shops keep growing despite enforcement, investigators find</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/laoss-illegal-wildlife-shops-keep-growing-despite-enforcement-investigators-find/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/laoss-illegal-wildlife-shops-keep-growing-despite-enforcement-investigators-find/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2026 01:34:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/14121851/baby-pagolin-in-market-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323316</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, Laos, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law Enforcement, Monkeys, Organized Crime, Pangolins, Poaching, Rhinos, Tigers, Tourism, Trade, Traditional Chinese Medicine, trafficking, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Rescues, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Schemes funneling Chinese tour groups through illegal wildlife shopping sites in Laos appear to be persisting and even expanding in spite of some law enforcement action by authorities, Mongabay has learned. In July 2025, a joint Mongabay investigation identified up to 21 illegal wildlife shopping sites embedded in package tours catering to Chinese [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Schemes funneling Chinese tour groups through illegal wildlife shopping sites in Laos appear to be persisting and even expanding in spite of some law enforcement action by authorities, Mongabay has learned. In July 2025, a joint Mongabay investigation identified up to 21 illegal wildlife shopping sites embedded in package tours catering to Chinese nationals in the Laotian cites of Luang Prabang and Vientiane. Typically masquerading as cultural centers, restaurants, jewelry stores and the like, or as stores embedded in such venues, the shopping sites typically only showcase their products to Chinese-language tours run by Chinese and Laotian operators, while barring entry to anyone else. Since then, the number of these shops appears to have nearly doubled, according to multiple groups investigating these operations on the ground. Mongabay has seen evidence suggesting that as many as 35 shops are now operating in Luang Prabang and Vientiane, with 22 in the former and the rest in the latter. When Mongabay asked the Laotian Department of Forestry about the first 21 shops in mid-2025, a spokesperson suggested that at least some of them were not registered as retail shops and that they would investigate. Since then, authorities have made seizures of suspected illegal wildlife products at several shopping sites in Vientiane and Luang Prabang, including of nearly 50 kilograms (110 pounds) during inspections of 17 unnamed locations In November and December, and of more than 57 kg (126 lbs) at an unnamed location on June 13, according to local media reports.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/laoss-illegal-wildlife-shops-keep-growing-despite-enforcement-investigators-find/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/laoss-illegal-wildlife-shops-keep-growing-despite-enforcement-investigators-find/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>George Schaller: The field biologist who helped redefine conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/george-schaller-the-field-biologist-who-helped-redefine-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/george-schaller-the-field-biologist-who-helped-redefine-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2026 12:08:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/13210433/Art31_52830005-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317452</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Brazil, China, Global, India, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Bears, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Books, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Philosophy, Endangered Species, Environmental Heroes, Gorillas, Great Apes, Jaguars, Lions, Mammals, Pandas, Primates, Protected Areas, Research, Snow Leopards, Tigers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some lives seem to belong less to a nation or a profession than to a disposition. George B. Schaller’s was one of them. He belonged, above all, to animals—gorillas, lions, tigers, snow leopards, pandas—and to the landscapes that still made room for them. In Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some lives seem to belong less to a nation or a profession than to a disposition. George B. Schaller’s was one of them. He belonged, above all, to animals—gorillas, lions, tigers, snow leopards, pandas—and to the landscapes that still made room for them. In Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller, Miriam Horn attempts something both straightforward and unusually difficult: to write a full biography of a man who spent most of his life turning his attention away from himself. Schaller is not obscure. He is widely regarded as the most important field biologist of the twentieth century, a figure whose work reshaped zoology, conservation biology, and the way humans think about animal lives. Yet he remains oddly resistant to biography. He disliked introspection, avoided publicity, and wrote sparingly about his own emotions even when describing moments of extreme danger or revelation. Horn’s achievement is to take this reticence seriously rather than try to overcome it. The result is a book that is expansive without being intrusive, admiring without being reverential, and alert to ambiguity even when recounting an extraordinary career. The arc of Schaller’s life has the shape of an adventure story, though Horn is careful not to write one. Born in Berlin in 1933 to an American mother and a German diplomat father, Schaller’s early years were marked by displacement, war, and a persistent sense of not quite belonging. His childhood moved across Nazi Germany, occupied Europe, and eventually the United States. These experiences&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/george-schaller-the-field-biologist-who-helped-redefine-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/george-schaller-the-field-biologist-who-helped-redefine-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317452</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Saving polar bears and beluga whales: Interview with Alysa McCall</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/saving-polar-bears-and-beluga-whales-interview-with-alysa-mccall/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/saving-polar-bears-and-beluga-whales-interview-with-alysa-mccall/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2025 11:44:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/24100407/beluga-whale-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303115</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic Ocean, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Endangered Species, Environment, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Polar Bears, Research, Technology, Whales, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Before pivoting her focus to the Arctic, Alysa McCall worked extensively in the grassland ecosystem. There, the interventions required for ecosystem restoration and wildlife protection were much less complicated. You could introduce more water in case of a scarcity. Or put up a fence to protect animals. The Arctic, however, was a whole other ballgame. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Before pivoting her focus to the Arctic, Alysa McCall worked extensively in the grassland ecosystem. There, the interventions required for ecosystem restoration and wildlife protection were much less complicated. You could introduce more water in case of a scarcity. Or put up a fence to protect animals. The Arctic, however, was a whole other ballgame. “We can&#8217;t grow more ice. We can&#8217;t put a fence up,” McCall, director of conservation outreach and staff scientist at the nonprofit Polar Bears International, told Mongabay in a video interview. “The conservation approaches, management and planning are just so different.” Since then, McCall has worked with her colleagues to study and protect the Arctic and its native species, such as polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas). One of the organization’s long-running projects, called Beluga Cam, uses boats in the Churchill River in Hudson Bay, Canada, to gather footage of the annual migration of about 57,000 beluga whales. The initiative is part of a larger citizen science project that brings people from around the world to help researchers identify belugas from the visuals and make observations about them. This year, the project got an upgrade with the use of a new boat that houses the cameras and other equipment during the course of the migration season. Beluga whales as captured on the Beluga Cam in 2025. Image courtesy of Kieran Mclver. “We have also been able to, over time, actually identify individuals,” McCall said. “To see that whale come year after year&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/saving-polar-bears-and-beluga-whales-interview-with-alysa-mccall/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/saving-polar-bears-and-beluga-whales-interview-with-alysa-mccall/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303115</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The forest guardians along Nepal-India border leading red panda conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/the-forest-guardians-along-nepal-india-border-leading-red-panda-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/the-forest-guardians-along-nepal-india-border-leading-red-panda-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jul 2025 13:53:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Deepak Adhikari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/04112441/Wildlingz-20240512-RedPandaNetwork-FabianMuehlberger-8-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301922</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Cute, Environmental Heroes, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, Pandas, Reforestation, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TAPLEJUNG, Nepal — In the misty hills of eastern Nepal near the border with India, 48-year-old farmer Surya Bhattarai patrols the steep slopes of Sudap Community Forest in Taplejung district. Braving remoteness, treacherous terrain and wild animals, he is tracking red pandas, an elusive and endangered species native to the eastern Himalayas. Trained in field [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TAPLEJUNG, Nepal — In the misty hills of eastern Nepal near the border with India, 48-year-old farmer Surya Bhattarai patrols the steep slopes of Sudap Community Forest in Taplejung district. Braving remoteness, treacherous terrain and wild animals, he is tracking red pandas, an elusive and endangered species native to the eastern Himalayas. Trained in field data collection, Bhattarai, one of 128 Forest Guardians, carries a GPS tracker, a mobile phone, a notebook, a pen, a measuring tape and a vernier scale to document signs of the animal. Forty-four Forest Guardians operate within the Panchthar–Ilam–Taplejung (PIT) Corridor, a vital 11,500-square-kilometer (4,440-square-mile) habitat that shelters roughly a quarter of Nepal’s red panda (Ailurus fulgens) population. In Taplejung, Bhattarai monitors designated forest blocks, walking transects to look for scat, claw marks or other signs of red panda. Monitoring takes place four times a year — in February, May, August and November — timed around key stages in the red panda’s life cycle, like breeding and mating seasons. Patrolling during the summer months also helps deter poaching, says Bhattarai. Globally, fewer than 10,000 red pandas remain across India, Bhutan, China and Nepal, which hosts between 500 and 1,000 in its temperate bamboo forests across 25 districts. The shy, elusive species is quietly slipping toward extinction due to rapid development like road building and hydropower expansion and habitat degradation from human activities that are fragmenting the bamboo forests they depend on. Red panda photographed on a tree in eastern Nepal. Image courtesy of Fabian Muehlberger/&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/the-forest-guardians-along-nepal-india-border-leading-red-panda-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301922</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Manage people more and bears less, say Indigenous elders in world’s ‘polar bear capital’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/manage-people-more-and-bears-less-say-indigenous-elders-in-worlds-polar-bear-capital/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/manage-people-more-and-bears-less-say-indigenous-elders-in-worlds-polar-bear-capital/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2025 12:41:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gabe Allen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/29122527/Kt-Miller-1-1-e1748522157918-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299838</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, Polar Bears, and Tourism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A few years back, a particularly imaginative young boy came into Georgina Berg’s kindergarten class in Churchill, Canada, full of excitement. Launching into his story, he said that moments earlier, on his way to school, he and his siblings had turned a corner and come face-to-face with a polar bear. Before the boy had time [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A few years back, a particularly imaginative young boy came into Georgina Berg’s kindergarten class in Churchill, Canada, full of excitement. Launching into his story, he said that moments earlier, on his way to school, he and his siblings had turned a corner and come face-to-face with a polar bear. Before the boy had time to react, his mother took hold of his backpack and swung it square into the bear’s nose. The bear took off running, and the family, a little shaken up, continued to school. “This was one of my little guys that could tell a few stories,” Berg said. “I said, ‘Oh yeah…’ thinking he was embellishing it.” Seeing a polar bear from your car window is not an usual sight outside the town of Churchill during the fall polar bear season. Visitors are encouraged to remain inside their vehicles for the safety of both people and bears. Image by Kt Miller / polarbearsinternational.org. But later that day, when the boy&#8217;s mother came to pick him up, she confirmed the story — right down to her backpack attack. It’s a memory that Berg has become fond of recounting to outsiders to convey the defining aspect of life in Churchill, Manitoba — coexistence with polar bears (Ursus maritimus). As the Arctic warms, roughly four times faster than the global average, loss of sea ice means the bears can spend more time on land, near humans, each summer. Community members, most of them Indigenous, are largely in support of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/manage-people-more-and-bears-less-say-indigenous-elders-in-worlds-polar-bear-capital/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299838</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coexistence with Europe’s carnivores is possible (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/coexistence-with-europes-carnivores-is-possible-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/coexistence-with-europes-carnivores-is-possible-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2025 20:30:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Linnell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/23080616/MLU-20230814-165155-16SQ8-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297465</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Carnivores, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Ethics, Predators, Restoration, Rewilding, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Few people working in wildlife conservation in the 1980s could have imagined a future where breeding wolf packs roam the Netherlands and Denmark — but this is now part of Europe’s new reality. Over the last 30 to 40 years, European wildlife has undergone a dramatic transformation. Conservation laws, like the Bern Convention and the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Few people working in wildlife conservation in the 1980s could have imagined a future where breeding wolf packs roam the Netherlands and Denmark — but this is now part of Europe’s new reality. Over the last 30 to 40 years, European wildlife has undergone a dramatic transformation. Conservation laws, like the Bern Convention and the Habitats Directive, provided vital breathing space for many species to begin the long process to recovery. Among the most striking and iconic comebacks are large carnivores — brown bears, wolverines, Eurasian lynx, and especially the wolf — returning to landscapes from where they had been absent for decades or even centuries. From a conservation perspective, this is a remarkable success. Because of large carnivores’ position at the top of the food chain, conserving them in the modern European landscape requires that most of their populations live outside protected areas (such as national parks and nature reserves). This means that we need to share the landscapes where we live, work and play with new neighbors. In most cases, these new neighbors live quiet and invisible lives. But there is no escaping the fact that have the capacity to be very challenging cohabitants. A lynx being released in Poland as part of a rewilding project. Image courtesy of Fabien Quetier/Rewilding Europe. The return of these species has also led to a resurgence of age-old conflicts, such as livestock depredation and fears for personal safety, while also sparking new debates about how our modern society views nature and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/coexistence-with-europes-carnivores-is-possible-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297465</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rare polar bear cub footage offers crucial conservation insights</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/rare-polar-bear-cub-footage-offers-crucial-conservation-insights/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/rare-polar-bear-cub-footage-offers-crucial-conservation-insights/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2025 10:16:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/02092355/Photo2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296895</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Norway]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Bears, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Polar Bears, Research, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[To a layperson, it’s footage of adorable polar bear cubs with their moms against the backdrop of endless Arctic snow. For researchers who study the animals, however, it’s a rare and incredibly important observation that could potentially inform conservation strategies. Scientists have captured rare footage of female polar bears emerging from maternal dens with their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[To a layperson, it’s footage of adorable polar bear cubs with their moms against the backdrop of endless Arctic snow. For researchers who study the animals, however, it’s a rare and incredibly important observation that could potentially inform conservation strategies. Scientists have captured rare footage of female polar bears emerging from maternal dens with their cubs for the first time. The clips give them a glimpse into a rarely observed life stage that has critical implications on the survival of polar bear cubs and, therefore, the species. A study published in the Journal of Wildlife Management details how researchers combined data from satellite collars and remote cameras to understand den emergence behaviors and trends among polar bear families in Svalbard, a remote archipelago in Norway. The work was done as a collaboration between the nonprofit organization Polar Bears International, the Norwegian Polar Institute, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and the University of Toronto Scarborough. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) give birth in dens that they dig up deep beneath the snow. After birth, the cubs remain in the den for many months and grow as much as 20 times their birth weight. The dens, typically about 20° Celsius (36° Fahrenheit) warmer than the external ambient temperature, keep the cubs warm in the first few months of their life. “It&#8217;s almost like an extension of the womb where you have this very stable environment that allows cubs to develop,” Louise Archer, lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at the University&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/rare-polar-bear-cub-footage-offers-crucial-conservation-insights/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296895</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mysterious sloth bear deaths raise alarm at Sri Lanka’s largest national park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/mysterious-sloth-bear-deaths-raise-alarm-at-sri-lankas-largest-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/mysterious-sloth-bear-deaths-raise-alarm-at-sri-lankas-largest-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Mar 2025 05:26:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/29044423/B48A9084-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296681</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Photos, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Wilpattu, SRI LANKA – After a fruitful safari at Wilpattu National Park, wildlife photographer Rohan Fonseka and his colleagues ventured toward the Maradanmaduwa area, hoping to catch a glimpse of a sloth bear. Their luck held as a full-grown bear emerged from the dry zone forest, offering rare and memorable photo opportunities. But what seemed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Wilpattu, SRI LANKA – After a fruitful safari at Wilpattu National Park, wildlife photographer Rohan Fonseka and his colleagues ventured toward the Maradanmaduwa area, hoping to catch a glimpse of a sloth bear. Their luck held as a full-grown bear emerged from the dry zone forest, offering rare and memorable photo opportunities. But what seemed like a rewarding end to the day turned tragic the next morning, when the same bear’s lifeless body was found near the corridor of the Maradanmaduwa wildlife circuit bungalow. It was the second sloth bear death reported in Wilpattu in March, as just two weeks prior, a cub had been discovered dead, park warden Suranga Rathnayake confirmed. In January, another cub was also found dead, bringing this quarter’s death toll of sloth bears within the park to three. A sloth bear family in Wilpattu National Park in northern Sri Lanka. Image courtesy of Riaz Cader. These consecutive deaths have raised alarm among conservationists, particularly as sloth bears (Melursus ursinus inornatus) are elusive and rare in Sri Lanka. The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) had warned in December 2024 of an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) among wild boars. As opportunistic feeders, sloth bears are known to scavenge carrion, which causes concern of possible zoonotic transmission of ASF to these sloth bears. Wildlife veterinarian Chandana Jayasinghe, who oversees Wilpattu for the DWC, told Mongabay, “So far, we have no evidence of African swine fever transmission to other species.” However, the bear carcasses were heavily infested&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/mysterious-sloth-bear-deaths-raise-alarm-at-sri-lankas-largest-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296681</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New brown bear ‘stronghold’ in Nepal redraws species’ range map</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-brown-bear-stronghold-in-nepal-redraws-species-range-map/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-brown-bear-stronghold-in-nepal-redraws-species-range-map/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2024 16:30:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/26082129/Tibetan-brown-bear-6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289510</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, cameras, Conservation, DNA, Genetics, Mammals, Mountains, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Researchers have discovered brown bears in a part of Nepal not previously known to host the species, prompting a call to protect this area as a bear “stronghold.” The finding, based on camera-trap images, also expands the known range of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Asia. It could also mark out the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Researchers have discovered brown bears in a part of Nepal not previously known to host the species, prompting a call to protect this area as a bear “stronghold.” The finding, based on camera-trap images, also expands the known range of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Asia. It could also mark out the Limi Valley, in northwestern Nepal, as a “contact zone” between two subspecies of this apex predator, the researchers write in a newly published study. “The bears weren’t the species we primarily set up the camera traps for,” study lead author Naresh Kusi, from the Himalayan Wolves Project, told Mongabay. As part of their research, Kusi and his project team have since 2021 run a network of 61 camera traps across an area in the Limi Valley that’s half the size of London. Since then, they’ve recorded images of species never before confirmed outside Nepal’s protected areas, such as the steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanii), Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). A brown bear image from a camera trap in Limi valley in western Nepal. Image courtesy of Naresh Kusi This time around, it’s the brown bear — a species found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but which is so vanishingly rare in Nepal, at an estimated 20 individuals, that it’s considered critically endangered here. Yet Kusi’s team managed to capture dozens of independent images of brown bears in their camera-trapping surveys. “Although we didn’t estimate the size of the population in Limi Valley, based&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-brown-bear-stronghold-in-nepal-redraws-species-range-map/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289510</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Local reps should lead Nepal’s conservation education: Interview with Anil Adhikari</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-reps-should-lead-nepals-conservation-education-interview-with-anil-adhikari/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-reps-should-lead-nepals-conservation-education-interview-with-anil-adhikari/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2024 02:40:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/29022845/Students-of-Mustang-after-setting-up-Camera-trap-in-Mustang-2023-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289328</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Education, Environment, Mammals, Pandas, and Snow Leopards]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — When discussing conservation in Nepal — home to iconic species such as the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and red panda (Ailurus fulgens) —awareness-raising among local communities often takes center stage. Many conservation projects conduct awareness programs through media including documentaries, books and pamphlets focusing on adults. However, journalist [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — When discussing conservation in Nepal — home to iconic species such as the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and red panda (Ailurus fulgens) —awareness-raising among local communities often takes center stage. Many conservation projects conduct awareness programs through media including documentaries, books and pamphlets focusing on adults. However, journalist and writer Anil Adhikari takes a different approach, engaging with school children. For Adhikari, who was working as a freelance environmental journalist, it all began in 2003 with a writing contract from WWF Nepal to produce a play book for school-based environmental clubs. The book, now in its fourth edition, has provided valuable lessons to students about different aspects of the environment they live in and the role they can play in saving it. Over the past two decades, his conservation efforts have transcended species boundaries. He played a pivotal role in the Red Panda Network’s publication of two books now used in more than two dozen schools in eastern Nepal, supporting the protection of this endangered species. Similarly, his work is used by schools in snow leopard habitats to teach students about coexistence with the big cat. Storyteller Anil Adhukari interacts with children at a school in Nepal. Image courtesy of Anil Adhikari. Adhikari, who is also one of the editors of The Snow Leopard Magazine, says his experience has taught him the power of visuals when it comes to reaching out to schoolchildren. That’s why his books incorporate colorful illustrations and photos, making&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-reps-should-lead-nepals-conservation-education-interview-with-anil-adhikari/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289328</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sweden&#8217;s &#8216;nature friendly&#8217; reputation is being shot to pieces (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/swedens-reputation-as-nature-friendly-is-being-shot-to-pieces-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/swedens-reputation-as-nature-friendly-is-being-shot-to-pieces-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Sep 2024 17:19:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Misha Istratov]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/04163436/fg4_9903_c_f-g_grandin_mnhn-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286922</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Sweden]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bears, Commentary, Conservation, Ecotourism, Environment, Ethics, Forestry, Governance, Hunting, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The majority of foreign visitors, and even most Swedish inhabitants, consider their country to be one that values nature. The image is also continually used in popular culture, for example, in the most recent Netflix adaptation of renowned author Astrid Lindgren&#8217;s novel Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter, in which stunning forests full of animals are shown. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[The majority of foreign visitors, and even most Swedish inhabitants, consider their country to be one that values nature. The image is also continually used in popular culture, for example, in the most recent Netflix adaptation of renowned author Astrid Lindgren&#8217;s novel Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter, in which stunning forests full of animals are shown. This may have been the case in the past, but the same forests — and that one specifically, in fact — are either being deliberately destroyed or mercilessly felled right now. Things are far worse when it comes to wildlife, since, if one digs a little deeper, the nation has become a trophy hunter&#8217;s paradise that routinely flouts the European Union&#8217;s own Habitats Directive, which was put in place to safeguard endangered species. The European Union has been monitoring Sweden&#8217;s activities since 2010, when a number of environmental organizations lodged a complaint against the country&#8217;s hunt of protected species, particularly wolves. A letter to the European Commission, co-signed by 29 NGOs, was sent last year asking for the reopening of the infringement procedures against Sweden over its wolf management policy. In response, the commission stated that it is still keeping an eye on Sweden&#8217;s activities, 13 years after it began. Over those years, Sweden has killed hundreds of red-listed large carnivores every year, including wolves, bears, wolverines, and lynxes, who are the nation&#8217;s most adored creatures. Detail from the Rovdjurskampanjen (predator campaign) website. The influential Swedish hunting lobby, which has been essentially allowed to act&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/swedens-reputation-as-nature-friendly-is-being-shot-to-pieces-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286922</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nepal’s first community-based red panda conservation area sparks hope </title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/nepals-first-community-based-red-panda-conservation-area-sparks-hope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/nepals-first-community-based-red-panda-conservation-area-sparks-hope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2024 15:08:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/28085228/Red-panda-c-ZSL-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286701</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bamboo, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Endangered Species, Mammals, and Pandas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A hilly town close to Nepal’s eastern border with India has declared an area under its jurisdiction as the country’s first community-based red panda (Ailurus fulgens) conservation area, fueling hope for the endangered species’ long-term survival. The Puwamajhuwa area, spread over 116 hectares (287 acres) of lush-green temperate broad-leaved trees, incorporates two community-managed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A hilly town close to Nepal’s eastern border with India has declared an area under its jurisdiction as the country’s first community-based red panda (Ailurus fulgens) conservation area, fueling hope for the endangered species’ long-term survival. The Puwamajhuwa area, spread over 116 hectares (287 acres) of lush-green temperate broad-leaved trees, incorporates two community-managed forests in Ilam Municipality, which shall now be dedicated to the conservation of the small mammals. “Red pandas are one of the most endangered and beautiful wildlife species in the world,” said Kedar Thapa, mayor of Ilam Municipality. “In the context of Nepal, this conservation area can become a significant milestone in promoting ecotourism,” he added. Map shows Ilam in eastern Nepal. The declaration came a year after the municipality prepared and published the procedure needed to give legal recognition to the conservation area. According to the procedure, the declaration was made in accordance with the municipality&#8217;s forest laws to boost conservation efforts of red pandas and their natural habitat, and to contribute to the livelihood and prosperity of the local communities. Red pandas, found in India, Nepal, Bhutan and China, face a host of threats such as habitat loss and degradation, illegal trapping and poaching and snaring. The construction of unplanned roads in Nepal’s eastern hills and development of hydropower projects has also fragmented the habitats of these peace-loving animals. The species, listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, is also included in Appendix I of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, making&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/nepals-first-community-based-red-panda-conservation-area-sparks-hope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286701</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Innovative Nepali PSA seeks emotional connection to save red pandas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/innovative-nepali-psa-seeks-emotional-connection-to-save-red-pandas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/innovative-nepali-psa-seeks-emotional-connection-to-save-red-pandas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 May 2024 13:33:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/24132858/ILCE-7M3-43898-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282470</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Arts, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Film, Infrastructure, Mammals, Pandas, Poaching, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — During the COVID-19 lockdown in Nepal, red panda conservation campaigner and researcher Sonam Tashi Lama came across a public service announcement on African rhinos, featuring action superstar Jackie Chan. “I was blown away by the concept and the performance,” Lama said. It got him wondering whether a similar PSA could be produced by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — During the COVID-19 lockdown in Nepal, red panda conservation campaigner and researcher Sonam Tashi Lama came across a public service announcement on African rhinos, featuring action superstar Jackie Chan. “I was blown away by the concept and the performance,” Lama said. It got him wondering whether a similar PSA could be produced by Nepali artists, depicting Nepali culture, to save the red panda (Ailurus fulgens), an endangered species. He approached actor and filmmaker Dayahang Rai, who had recently been appointed a conservation ambassador for the red panda. “We didn’t have access to the technology used in the Jackie Chan video, but we had good actors and good concepts that we could make use of,” Lama, a recipient of the prestigious Whitley Award in 2022, told Mongabay. Rai was busy with numerous other projects at the time, but was sold on the concept. “He instantly agreed to the idea,” Lama said. A red panda being collared in Nepal. Image courtesy of Damber Bista Red pandas, found in India, Nepal, Bhutan and China, face threats ranging from habitat loss to illegal trapping and poaching, to accidental snaring in traps set for other animals. The species is categorized as endangered on the IUCN Red List and is included in Appendix I of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, making its trade illegal. It’s estimated that of the fewer than 15,000 individuals that remain in the wild, around 500 roam in Nepal’s hills, where they thrive in bamboo forests. Research shows that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/innovative-nepali-psa-seeks-emotional-connection-to-save-red-pandas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282470</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In 2023, Nepal’s ‘uncelebrated’ wildlife continued wait for attention</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/in-2023-nepals-uncelebrated-wildlife-continued-wait-for-attention/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/in-2023-nepals-uncelebrated-wildlife-continued-wait-for-attention/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Dec 2023 13:44:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/02/25192423/DholeAsiatic_wild_dog-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277152</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bears, Biodiversity, Canids, Carnivores, Conservation, Endangered Species, Governance, Herps, Infrastructure, Mammals, Tigers, and Year-end review]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepal’s much-lauded achievement of nearly tripling its tiger population between 2010 and 2022 made headlines all over the world. Officials hailed the milestone as proof that with concerted efforts by all stakeholders and availability of resources, conservation challenges can be overcome. However, the focus on the charismatic big cat has left other species [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepal’s much-lauded achievement of nearly tripling its tiger population between 2010 and 2022 made headlines all over the world. Officials hailed the milestone as proof that with concerted efforts by all stakeholders and availability of resources, conservation challenges can be overcome. However, the focus on the charismatic big cat has left other species overlooked — and in some cases has even been to their detriment. Many of these species, just like the tiger (Panthera tigris), are threatened to some degree, yet aren&#8217;t getting enough attention, researchers and conservationists say. Throughout 2023, Mongabay reported extensively on different “uncelebrated” animals across the country that require urgent attention. Here are the top five stories looking at the issue Rare hispid hares feel the heat from Nepal’s tiger conservation measures Every year, Nepal’s protected area managers set fire to the grasslands in key tiger habitats across the country to maintain prime conditions for different prey species. However, these actions could have adverse consequences for the elusive and little-known hispid hare Caprolagus hispidus), research shows. Intact grasslands have been found to be important habitats for hispid hares, which need dense ground cover for resting, feeding and mating. Researchers say the annual grassland burning should be done selectively and outside of the hare’s breeding season to protect the species. They also call on authorities to prepare plans to take urgent action to save the hare from extinction. On Nepal’s day to honor dogs, wild canines face mounting threats Every year, Nepal’s Hindus celebrate their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/in-2023-nepals-uncelebrated-wildlife-continued-wait-for-attention/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277152</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No safe space for Nepal’s sloth bears outside protected areas, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/no-safe-space-for-nepals-sloth-bears-outside-protected-areas-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/no-safe-space-for-nepals-sloth-bears-outside-protected-areas-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Nov 2023 15:26:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/30102252/EwhzQQHVcAA-A29-e1701339825306-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276131</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Mammals, Mining, Protected Areas, Sloths, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Hari Prasad Sharma recalls being astonished when he visited the Chure region in Nepal’s southern Madhesh province to study sloth bears. Sharma, an associate professor of zoology at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, had planned to install camera traps in the region to study the bears, Melursus ursinus, in what was believed to be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Hari Prasad Sharma recalls being astonished when he visited the Chure region in Nepal’s southern Madhesh province to study sloth bears. Sharma, an associate professor of zoology at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, had planned to install camera traps in the region to study the bears, Melursus ursinus, in what was believed to be their prime habitat. But the human footprint in the area was overwhelming, he says. “The extraction of resources in the area is so massive that we didn’t find any fallen trees or twigs in the forests on which termites that bears feed on live,” Sharma tells Mongabay. Chure hills seen from the Gangetic plains in Nepal. Image by Biplab Anand via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). This observation is echoed in a recently published study documenting Sharma and his team’s work. It suggests that overexploitation of forest resources outside protected areas in Nepal could be pushing the population of sloth bears inside protected areas in search of adequate food. The camera trap-based study was carried out in the subtropical forests of the Chure region, which covers 9,661 square kilometers (3,730 square miles) between Parsa National Park and Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (known as the Parsa-Koshi Complex, or PKC), excluding human settlements and farms. The team placed 152 cameras throughout the study area, and collected data between December 2022 and March 2023. “We recorded a total of 46 detections of sloth bears across 30 of the total 152 sites,” Sharma says. The Chure, also known as the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/no-safe-space-for-nepals-sloth-bears-outside-protected-areas-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276131</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists look to defy gloomy outlook for Borneo’s sun bears</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/conservationists-look-to-defy-gloomy-outlook-for-borneos-sun-bears/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/conservationists-look-to-defy-gloomy-outlook-for-borneos-sun-bears/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2023 13:08:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/31114315/Banner-2-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274826</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Ecotourism, Education, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, GPS, Green, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Palm Oil, Pet Trade, Poaching, Rainforests, Rehabilitation, Reintroductions, Research, Snares, Sun Bears, Tracking, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, Wildlife Rescues, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SABAH, Malaysia — The 3-year-old sun bear sits teddy bear-like in a secluded grassy glade in its rainforest enclosure. Its soft, densely furred belly vibrates as it sucks on one of its front paws, emitting a series of strange, guttural whimpers. Its head downturned, the young bear looks up at us shyly with deep brown [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[SABAH, Malaysia — The 3-year-old sun bear sits teddy bear-like in a secluded grassy glade in its rainforest enclosure. Its soft, densely furred belly vibrates as it sucks on one of its front paws, emitting a series of strange, guttural whimpers. Its head downturned, the young bear looks up at us shyly with deep brown eyes, penetrating our human instinct to care for the vulnerable. “This is a rather sad behavior,” Siew Te Wong, CEO and founder of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC), tells Mongabay during a visit to the pioneering rescue and education facility in the Malaysian state of Sabah. Wong says the bear, named Kipaku, was brought to the center as an orphaned cub, and what we’re witnessing is the little bear’s trauma response. “As with all infant mammals, this bear has an urge to suckle,” Wong says. “But he has no mother; his mother was brutally killed by poachers, so he’s had no opportunity to suckle … in the end, he’s developed this self-soothing behavior.” Like Kipaku, most of the 44 sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) Wong and his colleagues currently care for at the BSBCC were brought to them as orphaned cubs illegally taken from the wild and subsequently confiscated by authorities. One of the goals of the BSBCC is to return some of the rescued bears back into the wild to bolster flagging local populations. Since it was launched in 2008, the center has rewilded 12 bears into remote forest reserves in Sabah. But&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/conservationists-look-to-defy-gloomy-outlook-for-borneos-sun-bears/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Endangered Formosan black bears caught in Taiwanese ‘snaring crisis’ (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/endangered-formosan-black-bears-caught-in-taiwanese-snaring-crisis-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/endangered-formosan-black-bears-caught-in-taiwanese-snaring-crisis-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2023 15:47:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gregory McCann]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/02145718/20210315105611668941602-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273772</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Bears, Commentary, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Illegal Trade, Mammals, Poaching, Snares, Trade, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2020 a report titled “Wildlife-snaring crisis in Asian Forests” was published by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), estimating that over 12 million snares engulf Indochinese forests (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) alone, mostly in ‘protected’ areas. By contrast, it is difficult to know how many snares blanket Taiwan’s mountainous forests, but it is safe [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2020 a report titled “Wildlife-snaring crisis in Asian Forests” was published by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), estimating that over 12 million snares engulf Indochinese forests (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) alone, mostly in ‘protected’ areas. By contrast, it is difficult to know how many snares blanket Taiwan’s mountainous forests, but it is safe to assume that based on recent cases involving officially protected Formosan black bears (Ursus thibetanus formosanus), that the number is very high. According to local media, two young black bears were snared in the past few weeks alone in Hualien County in eastern Taiwan, and other cases were reported in Hualien, including the successful rehabilitation and release of one bear. In Taichung County in central Taiwan, another snaring case occurred in which the bear died.  In yet another case earlier this year in Pingtung County at the very south of the island, hunters were filmed driving around on their scooter with a dead bear on the seat, waving its limp paw around as if it was a cute teddy bear. Nine suspects have been indicted for poaching an additional four black bears over a three year period in Pingtung. Two years ago, a group of timber poachers snared, shot, skinned, and ate a black bear in Guanwu National Forest Recreation Area in Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range and posted their activity on social media; they were later arrested. Formosan black bear footprint found at low elevation in Taitung, with cigarette lighter for scale. Image courtesy of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/endangered-formosan-black-bears-caught-in-taiwanese-snaring-crisis-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273772</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘We will decide their future’: Q&#038;A with “pro-bear” environmental journalist Gloria Dickie</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/we-will-decide-their-future-qa-with-pro-bear-environmental-journalist-gloria-dickie/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/we-will-decide-their-future-qa-with-pro-bear-environmental-journalist-gloria-dickie/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jul 2023 18:05:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/11140051/Polar-bear-skull-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270800</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Books, Conservation, Education, Endangered Species, Environment, Interviews, Interviews With Environmental Journalists, Mammals, Pandas, Polar Bears, Sun Bears, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Journalist and author Gloria Dickie, in an exclusive Mongabay interview, recounts her global journey of discovery culminating in her new book, Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bears and humans have a lot in common and it’s not just that we’re mammals. We can both be ruthless hunters but also gorge ourselves on berries, nuts and junk food. Both can stand on our hind legs. And both can be gentle and playful — and deadly. Bears have an uncanny ability to remind humans of ourselves, our favorite subject. So maybe it’s no surprise that bears play such a large role in human myths, and are one of the few animals most people can recognize on sight. But not all bears are the same — and not all bears are treated equally. In her enlightening and entertaining new book, Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future, veteran environmental journalist Gloria Dickie explores the bears we adore (think pandas, Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and those we treat worse than cattle for slaughter (think moon bears, Ursus thibetanus, in the bear bile industry). “In Chengdu [China] near where you have the panda breeding base, you [also] have one of the rescue centers for the bile bears. That cruel juxtaposition,” Dickie points out in an interview with Mongabay. “Pandas are not hunted, they&#8217;re not used for anything, they&#8217;re worshiped next to what is arguably one of the most cruelly treated animals in the world, living side by side. That&#8217;s where the people element gets in. What is it about human psychology that we treat one bear like this, and this other bear is basically enslaved into these cruel factory farms?” If it’s not clear&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/we-will-decide-their-future-qa-with-pro-bear-environmental-journalist-gloria-dickie/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/we-will-decide-their-future-qa-with-pro-bear-environmental-journalist-gloria-dickie/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270800</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Learning to live with — and love — bears and eagles in Colombia’s cloud forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/learning-to-live-with-and-love-bears-and-eagles-in-colombias-cloud-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/learning-to-live-with-and-love-bears-and-eagles-in-colombias-cloud-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2023 13:55:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[James Hall]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/07160630/2.-spectacled-bear-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269507</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Bears, Biodiversity, Cloud Forests, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Education, Endangered Species, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Islands, Raptors, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mayra Parra presses play on her laptop, and the video on the screen comes to life for the Perez family in the town of Abriaquí, Colombia. As a spectacled bear ambles into view, scratching its back against a towering roble tree, the smiles on the faces of three generations of the family quickly burst into [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mayra Parra presses play on her laptop, and the video on the screen comes to life for the Perez family in the town of Abriaquí, Colombia. As a spectacled bear ambles into view, scratching its back against a towering roble tree, the smiles on the faces of three generations of the family quickly burst into laughter. The camera trap footage was taken a mere 10 minutes&#8217; walk away, in the dense cloud forest that surrounds the family&#8217;s modest home. But three years ago, the notion of them reacting with such warmth to the sight of a bear would have been unimaginable. Spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus) had long been their sworn enemies, to be hunted and killed with barely a second thought. The Perez family’s change of heart is testament to the transformation in attitudes toward wildlife in this cluster of rural communities in the Western Cordillera mountains of Colombia’s Antioquia department. Thanks to a small but dedicated group of conservationists, local people have begun to reconcile with the wildlife on their doorstep and forge a new relationship based on coexistence and conservation. A view of a fragment of cloud forest in the Western Cordilleras of Antioquia. Image by Mayra Parra. Cloud forest in the Western Cordilleras of Antioquia. Image by Mayra Parra. Social workers of the cloud forests A global biodiversity hotspot, the cloud forests of Colombia’s northern Andes house an extraordinary array of plant and animal species found nowhere else. But the region is also a hotspot for human-wildlife&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/learning-to-live-with-and-love-bears-and-eagles-in-colombias-cloud-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/learning-to-live-with-and-love-bears-and-eagles-in-colombias-cloud-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269507</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Montana cannot be trusted with grizzly bear &#038; wolf management (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/montana-cannot-be-trusted-with-grizzly-bear-wolf-management-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/montana-cannot-be-trusted-with-grizzly-bear-wolf-management-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 May 2023 22:52:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lara Birkes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/17040402/WOLF-cropped-e1682981335598-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268143</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Montana, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Carnivores, Commentary, Conservation, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Hunting, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Whether you live in Big Sky country, have enjoyed its natural wonders as a tourist, or marveled at the iconic imagery of Yellowstone National Park’s bears and wolves from afar – what’s happening to wildlife in the American West should concern you. Montana’s state legislature has proposed a litany of extreme anti-wildlife bills despite widespread, diverse, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Whether you live in Big Sky country, have enjoyed its natural wonders as a tourist, or marveled at the iconic imagery of Yellowstone National Park’s bears and wolves from afar – what’s happening to wildlife in the American West should concern you. Montana’s state legislature has proposed a litany of extreme anti-wildlife bills despite widespread, diverse, and credible opposition. The onslaught began in 2021 and continues in this legislative session with the introduction of bills that go from bad to worse. Last session those included snaring, night shooting and baiting wolves, and approving bounties to encourage more killing. It targeted black bears too, allowing the use of hounds after Montana had banned that for a century. And it opened up unlimited wolf take along Yellowstone’s border, despite the fact that those wolves spend 96% of their time in the Park and provide incredible research data that helps us manage them everywhere. A grizzly bear cub in Montana. Image by Marshal Hedin published to the Creative Commons. This year that effort continues, and the Legislature is making it clear that the next species it wants to target is grizzly bears. They are still protected under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), which has led to a remarkable comeback for a species that was almost wiped out before we began strong conservation work. That helped us get back to where we are today, with more than 2,000 grizzlies in the northern Rockies. But now, Montana lawmakers and Gov. Greg Gianforte are pushing measures that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/montana-cannot-be-trusted-with-grizzly-bear-wolf-management-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/montana-cannot-be-trusted-with-grizzly-bear-wolf-management-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268143</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Roads, human activity take a toll on red pandas: Q&#038;A with researcher Damber Bista</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/roads-human-activity-take-a-toll-on-red-pandas-qa-with-researcher-damber-bista/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/roads-human-activity-take-a-toll-on-red-pandas-qa-with-researcher-damber-bista/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2023 15:34:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/13112503/RedPanda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267336</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bamboo, Biodiversity, Conservation Technology, Endangered Species, Forest Fragmentation, GPS, Habitat, Mammals, Pandas, Roadkill, Roads, Trees, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The spring season in the Northern Hemisphere is a critical time for red pandas, particularly in Nepal. This is the period when these furry, tree-dwelling animals spend a lot of time on the ground to look for food. It’s also the time when breeding adults of the species, Ailurus fulgens, start to reproduce, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The spring season in the Northern Hemisphere is a critical time for red pandas, particularly in Nepal. This is the period when these furry, tree-dwelling animals spend a lot of time on the ground to look for food. It’s also the time when breeding adults of the species, Ailurus fulgens, start to reproduce, and when cubs born the previous year explore their habitat in search of a new home. These are some of the findings conservationist Damber Bista made while working on his Ph.D. at the University of Queensland, Australia. As part of the study, Bista and his team fitted 10 red pandas in eastern Nepal with GPS collars, so that they could track them to look at the effects of human disturbances on the species. Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi spoke to Bista recently over video call to learn about his work. The following interview has been translated from Nepali and lightly edited for length and clarity. Mongabay: Could you please describe the main objectives of your study? Damber Bista: My main overall objective was to look at the effects of human disturbance and habitat fragmentation on red pandas. I tried to look at these issues from different indicators such as their space use pattern, daily movement and behavior while close to a road. Also, as we didn’t have previous studies on how cubs disperse after leaving their mother, I also looked into it. The other objective was related to their recursive behavior under which they spend a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/roads-human-activity-take-a-toll-on-red-pandas-qa-with-researcher-damber-bista/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/roads-human-activity-take-a-toll-on-red-pandas-qa-with-researcher-damber-bista/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267336</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous funding model is a win-win for ecosystems and local economies in Canada</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/indigenous-funding-model-is-a-win-win-for-ecosystems-and-local-economies-in-canada/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/indigenous-funding-model-is-a-win-win-for-ecosystems-and-local-economies-in-canada/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Mar 2023 16:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/29113353/humpback-2-e1678463226339-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266336</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[British Columbia, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bears, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Environment, Finance, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Land Rights, Logging, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Solutions, Temperate Forests, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past 15 years, First Nations in Haida Gwaii and central and northern coastal British Columbia, Canada, have turned the tables around: once subjected to massive economic, social and cultural damages due to the extractive logging industry, they have now successfully built a sustainable economy that focuses on protecting sensitive ecosystems, while increasing communities’ [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past 15 years, First Nations in Haida Gwaii and central and northern coastal British Columbia, Canada, have turned the tables around: once subjected to massive economic, social and cultural damages due to the extractive logging industry, they have now successfully built a sustainable economy that focuses on protecting sensitive ecosystems, while increasing communities’ well-being, a recent report shows. The report was released by Coast Funds, an Indigenous-led conservation finance organization set up in 2007 as part of a historic land-use planning agreement negotiated between First Nations, environmental organizations, and the provincial and federal governments. Named the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement, it aimed to prevent logging in 85% of the approximately 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of temperate rainforests — the largest of its kind in the world — stretching up Canada’s west coast and home to the iconic spirit bears (Ursus americanus kermodei) and coastal sea wolves (Canis lupus crassodon). With an initial fund of C$120 million ($87 million) — half of it financed through money raised by First Nations and philanthropic partners toward conservation and the rest matched by provincial and federal governments toward economic development — Coast Funds began providing funds directly to First Nations in the region to use on projects they deem necessary in their territories. Its funding model allowed it to avoid the typical issues surrounding conservation finance and Indigenous communities, and, according to the report, delivered a long list of successes. Spirit bear in the Great Bear Rainforest. Image by Andrew&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/indigenous-funding-model-is-a-win-win-for-ecosystems-and-local-economies-in-canada/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/indigenous-funding-model-is-a-win-win-for-ecosystems-and-local-economies-in-canada/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266336</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Of Yetis and extinct turtles: Top wildlife discoveries in Nepal in 2022</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/of-yetis-and-extinct-turtles-top-wildlife-discoveries-in-nepal-in-2022/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/of-yetis-and-extinct-turtles-top-wildlife-discoveries-in-nepal-in-2022/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2022 15:19:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/26081030/Tibetan-brown-bear-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264114</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bears, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Extinction, Herps, Mammals, Mountains, New Discovery, Species Discovery, and Year-end review]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Throughout 2022, Mongabay reported on important biodiversity-related scientific discoveries in Nepal. The stories, some of them republished by different media outlets in Nepal and abroad, brought the country’s little-known by rich biodiversity to a wider audience, and shed light on crucial regions in the country awaiting conservation.    Here are some of the most [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Throughout 2022, Mongabay reported on important biodiversity-related scientific discoveries in Nepal. The stories, some of them republished by different media outlets in Nepal and abroad, brought the country’s little-known by rich biodiversity to a wider audience, and shed light on crucial regions in the country awaiting conservation.    Here are some of the most significant stories from the past year: The Tibetan brown bear spotted in Nepal&#8217;s the mountains. Image courtesy of Madhu Chetri. It’s no Yeti, but Tibetan brown bear’s presence in Nepal is no longer a myth A study offered the first clear photographic evidence of the presence of Tibetan brown bears (Ursus arctos pruinosus) in Nepal. The camera-trap images were taken in 2013, but the study around them was only recently published because researcher Madhu Chetri was busy with other studies on snow leopards. For Chetri, the photos put to rest folklore he heard from villagers 20 years earlier about a Yeti-like creature prowling Nepal’s Himalayan region. Other studies have also shown, through genetic analysis, that hair and other samples attributed to the Yeti come from bears. A steppe polecat photographed in Nepal’s Limi Valley. Image courtesy of Naresh Kusi/Himalayan Wolves Project/Resources Himalaya Foundation.  Carnivore sightings highlight richness of Nepal’s Trans-Himalayan region Scientists recorded images of the steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanii), Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Nepal’s Trans-Himalayan region. This was the first time these species had been spotted outside the country’s protected areas, and the first confirmation that they occurred&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/of-yetis-and-extinct-turtles-top-wildlife-discoveries-in-nepal-in-2022/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/of-yetis-and-extinct-turtles-top-wildlife-discoveries-in-nepal-in-2022/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264114</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Who let the dogs out? Feral canines pose a threat to Nepal’s wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/on-kukur-tihar-growing-calls-to-address-dog-risk-to-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/on-kukur-tihar-growing-calls-to-address-dog-risk-to-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2022 14:12:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/31134552/kukur-tihar-nepal-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261977</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Canids, Conservation, Diseases, Human-wildlife Conflict, Pandas, Predators, Snow Leopards, Tigers, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Four of the five days of the Nepali Hindu festival of Tihar, which occurs at the same time as the better-known Deepavali, are dedicated to animals. Kukur Tihar, the second day of the five-day festival, was celebrated on Oct. 24 this year, and venerated all dogs, seen as protectors and loyal companions to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Four of the five days of the Nepali Hindu festival of Tihar, which occurs at the same time as the better-known Deepavali, are dedicated to animals. Kukur Tihar, the second day of the five-day festival, was celebrated on Oct. 24 this year, and venerated all dogs, seen as protectors and loyal companions to humans. On the day, adherents seek out dogs, including strays, and adorn them with garlands and give them delicacies to eat. It’s seen as a way of seeking blessings from Yama, the god of death and justice, who in Hindu lore has dogs as his vahana, or assistants. For conservationists, however, the day is a stark reminder of the serious threats that feral and stray dogs pose to wildlife across the country. Part of the problem is people simply abandoning a dog once they tire of keeping them, said Babu Ram Lamichhane from the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), a semigovernmental body. “These dogs are habituated to human food, but their natural instinct is to attack and kill wild animals such as spotted deer when they see them,” he told Mongabay. “They have been seen to hunt in packs like the way they did in the wild before they were domesticated.” The most pressing concern related to dogs is that they’re known to carry various pathogens that could potentially infect wild animals, said Lamichhane, co-author of a soon-to-be-published study on the prevalence of disease among domestic dogs in areas bordering Chitwan National Park. As&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/on-kukur-tihar-growing-calls-to-address-dog-risk-to-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/on-kukur-tihar-growing-calls-to-address-dog-risk-to-wildlife/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261977</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It’s no Yeti, but Tibetan brown bear’s presence in Nepal is no longer a myth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/its-no-yeti-but-tibetan-brown-bears-presence-in-nepal-is-no-longer-a-myth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/its-no-yeti-but-tibetan-brown-bears-presence-in-nepal-is-no-longer-a-myth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2022 08:25:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/26081030/Tibetan-brown-bear-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261843</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, South Asia, and Tibetan Plateau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Since time immemorial it has inspired the legend of the Yeti. Said to be massive, ferocious and voracious — especially for horse flesh — it’s a creature you hope never to encounter, nomadic families in Nepal’s Mustang region told conservation researcher Madhu Chetri 20 years ago. It was 2002, and Chetri had been [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Since time immemorial it has inspired the legend of the Yeti. Said to be massive, ferocious and voracious — especially for horse flesh — it’s a creature you hope never to encounter, nomadic families in Nepal’s Mustang region told conservation researcher Madhu Chetri 20 years ago. It was 2002, and Chetri had been posted in the region by the National Trust of Nature Conservation (NTNC), a semi-governmental body. Residents showed him hair samples and footprints they said belonged to the Mithe, this Yeti-like creature. “When showing me the footprints, they told me that the animal doesn’t have heels,” Chetri tells Mongabay. “They told me that the heels went missing after the horse of Guru Padmasambhava, the Buddhist master who traveled across Tibet, stepped on the heels of a sleeping Mithe.” During the following summer, villagers showed him pits, some of them more than 2 meters (7 feet) deep — dug, they said, by the creature in search of its favorite food, the Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana). Foorprint of a brown bear, which villagers thought belonged to Mithe, a Yeti-like creature. Image courtesy of Madhu Chetri. Pits, some of them more than 2 meters (7 feet) deep — dug by the bears in search of marmots. Image courtesy of Madhu Chetri. “It was in September 2007 when I was in the Damodar Kunda area in Mustang that I first saw the animal with my own eyes,” Chetri says. “I used a scope and mounted a camera on it to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/its-no-yeti-but-tibetan-brown-bears-presence-in-nepal-is-no-longer-a-myth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/its-no-yeti-but-tibetan-brown-bears-presence-in-nepal-is-no-longer-a-myth/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261843</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How bears “make” a forest (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/how-bears-make-a-forest-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/how-bears-make-a-forest-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2022 03:29:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Enrique Ortiz]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/29025939/Oso-6-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260797</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Carnivores, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Mammals, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Andean region the ageless story of Juan Oso, a half-human and half-bear character, has been heard throughout generations. It is said that Juan lived all sad and alone in a dark cave, until the day he met and fell in love with a shepherdess of the paramos, the alpine seasonally flooded grassland found [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Andean region the ageless story of Juan Oso, a half-human and half-bear character, has been heard throughout generations. It is said that Juan lived all sad and alone in a dark cave, until the day he met and fell in love with a shepherdess of the paramos, the alpine seasonally flooded grassland found in the Andes. Seeing that her parents did not approve of the relationship, they both ran away to live happily together on top of a mountain. And, like any true love story, this one also had a tragic ending: Years later, a mob still inflamed by the family of the missing bride, chased the couple to a cave and killed them, finding only afterwards their love nest full of gold bars. Most curiously, this story is repeated throughout the whole Amazonian Andes, the territory that is home for the spectacled bear, or ukuku, as the Quechuas of southern Peru call it. View of the Kosñipata valley from the outlook at the Wayqecha Biological Station in Cuzco-Peru. Photo: Photo credit: Maxime Alliaga Andean bear “Ukuku” in a Andean grasslands ecosystem at 3500 meters above sea level close to the community Juan Velasco Alvarado. Photo credit: Conservación Amazónica ACCA. Paddington, “from the darkest of Peru” Perhaps due to its size or almost human habits, the ukuku has always fascinated people. It is represented in the iconography of ancient pre-Columbian cultures, and for the mountain dweller, it is a symbol of the cloud forests, equivalent to the condor,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/how-bears-make-a-forest-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/how-bears-make-a-forest-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260797</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Enigmatic binturong photographed in Nepal for the first time</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/enigmatic-binturong-photographed-in-nepal-for-the-first-time/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/enigmatic-binturong-photographed-in-nepal-for-the-first-time/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Sep 2022 16:06:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/29154456/1280px-Schlafriger_Binturong-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260904</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bears, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Mammals, New Discovery, Photos, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — This past July 20, Radha Krishna Rijal noticed a strange animal struggling in the drainage channel of his house in the Parshyang neighborhood of western Nepal’s Pokhara Valley. He’d never seen such an animal before, he tells Mongabay: it was small, with a long tail and a furry body. “It had rained continuously [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — This past July 20, Radha Krishna Rijal noticed a strange animal struggling in the drainage channel of his house in the Parshyang neighborhood of western Nepal’s Pokhara Valley. He’d never seen such an animal before, he tells Mongabay: it was small, with a long tail and a furry body. “It had rained continuously for over a day, and I saw this animal, which was the size of a baby cat in the drainage of my house,” Rijal says. He called his neighbors, who took photos of the animals and tried to guess what it was, but coming up blank. “Many of the elders of the settlement said it was an otter, but we couldn’t reach a conclusion even after googling,” Rijal says. So he sent the photos to a friend who might know, conservationist Tulasi Prasa Dahal at the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC). Dahal passed on the photo to an NTNC colleague, Madhu Chetri, who duly identified it as the rare bearcat, or binturong, Arctictis binturong, and circulated the image among experts to get their opinion. The bearcat, which looks like the hybrid that its name invokes, had long been thought to roam the forests of eastern Nepal, but there have been no confirmed sightings of this species that’s categorized as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. According to the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, the binturong is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/enigmatic-binturong-photographed-in-nepal-for-the-first-time/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260904</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With sea ice melting, glacial ice could be a lifeline for polar bears</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/with-sea-ice-melting-glacial-ice-could-be-a-lifeline-for-polar-bears/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/with-sea-ice-melting-glacial-ice-could-be-a-lifeline-for-polar-bears/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jun 2022 18:24:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/16181235/Ursus_maritimus_mother_with_cub-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257354</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Greenland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Glaciers, Ice Shelves, Mammals, Polar Bears, Predators, Tracking, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Kristin Laidre began working on a long-term project to study polar bears in eastern Greenland, she didn’t expect to find a new subpopulation of the species — and she certainly didn’t expect to find the most genetically isolated polar bears on the planet. There are 19 recognized subpopulations of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) living throughout [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Kristin Laidre began working on a long-term project to study polar bears in eastern Greenland, she didn’t expect to find a new subpopulation of the species — and she certainly didn’t expect to find the most genetically isolated polar bears on the planet. There are 19 recognized subpopulations of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) living throughout the Arctic, including the subpopulation found living on the eastern coast of Greenland. But on the southeastern edge of the island, Laidre and her colleagues found a group of several hundred polar bears that were both behaviorally and genetically unique. While most polar bears depend on sea ice to hunt seals, the southeast Greenland polar bears had found ways to hunt using pieces of ice that had broken off from glaciers. “We were not expecting to identify a unique group like we found in the southeast,” Laidre, a polar bear expert at the University of Washington and Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, told Mongabay in an email. The dots on the left map show the locations where samples from Greenland polar bears were collected. The new Southeast Greenland population, shown as red dots, is located between 60 and 64 degrees north. The map at the right shows the 19 current polar bear subpopulations, with colored dots showing the location of other samples used in the analysis. Image courtesy of Laidre et al. / Science. A new report published in Science by Laidre and her colleagues suggests that the glacial ice, known as “marine-terminating glaciers,” could&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/with-sea-ice-melting-glacial-ice-could-be-a-lifeline-for-polar-bears/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257354</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>First Nation reclaims territory by declaring Indigenous protected area in Canada</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/first-nation-reclaims-territory-by-declaring-indigenous-protected-area-in-canada/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/first-nation-reclaims-territory-by-declaring-indigenous-protected-area-in-canada/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2022 21:52:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erica Gies]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/06202014/BUC_6080-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256843</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Conservation, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Parks, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Persistent rain couldn’t dampen the high spirits of Mamalilikulla First Nation members and their guests on a dark day in May. As lowering clouds played hide-and-seek with soaring mountains, the Nation shared lunch and performed traditional songs and dances in their remote territory on British Columbia’s Central Coast, some 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Persistent rain couldn’t dampen the high spirits of Mamalilikulla First Nation members and their guests on a dark day in May. As lowering clouds played hide-and-seek with soaring mountains, the Nation shared lunch and performed traditional songs and dances in their remote territory on British Columbia’s Central Coast, some 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of Vancouver. The festive event was to dedicate this place as the Gwa̱xdlala/Nala̱xdlala (Lull Bay/Hoeya Sound) Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area. Chief Councilor John Powell (Winidi) said it was the first time in more than a century that these songs, these dances had been performed here. Humpback whales off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. Image courtesy of Anthony Bucci. The Mamalilikulla people lived in this rugged area and parts of the Broughton Archipelago for millennia before Europeans arrived. Over the course of the 20th century, band members, who now number around 441, moved from their land to cities and towns throughout western Canada, including Victoria and Vancouver. In 1972, the last people left the last village of ‘Mimkwa̱mlis on Village Island, about 40 minutes by boat from Gwa̱xdlala/Nala̱xdlala. Meanwhile, the government of British Columbia leased the land to logging companies, which clear-cut forests, causing landslides that silted up streams and harmed salmon. The government of Canada issued fishing permits in the coastal waters, allowing damaging practices such as trawling and long trap lines, which continue today. The Nation declared the Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) in November at the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/first-nation-reclaims-territory-by-declaring-indigenous-protected-area-in-canada/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256843</doi>				</item>
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