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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?s=&#038;type=post&#038;topic=raptors" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/raptors/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 12 Sep 2026 14:31:28 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Raptors</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/raptors/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>To save Europe’s raptors, conservationists say, look to West Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/to-save-europes-raptors-conservationists-say-look-to-west-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/to-save-europes-raptors-conservationists-say-look-to-west-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2026 06:07:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/08110537/26665739020_70b432d5a3_o-Western-Marsh-Harrier-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329065</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Europe, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Migration, Monitoring, Raptors, Research, Tracking, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2020, a juvenile osprey was fatally shot in Ghana. The bird, one of hundreds of raptors killed in similar circumstances across West Africa every year, had been fitted with a leg ring by the British Trust for Ornithology in Scotland the previous year. Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) were locally extirpated in Scotland in the early [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2020, a juvenile osprey was fatally shot in Ghana. The bird, one of hundreds of raptors killed in similar circumstances across West Africa every year, had been fitted with a leg ring by the British Trust for Ornithology in Scotland the previous year. Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) were locally extirpated in Scotland in the early 1900s due to persecution, and the bird killed in Ghana was part of a population reintroduced to that part of the U.K. beginning in the 1990s. Tim Mackrill, an osprey expert and director of the Scotland-based Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, said the bird’s death points to the need for a conservation approach that spans migratory birds’ entire habitat. “If you&#8217;re not thinking of the whole flyway of migratory routes, connectivity, and then where the birds are actually wintering, then conservation efforts for that species are really not sufficient.” Many raptor species, such as ospreys, return to the same wintering site year after year. “They are literally faithful to the same tree, whether it&#8217;s in Ghana, whether it&#8217;s in Guinea, or whether it&#8217;s in Gambia,” Mackrill said. Raptors such as ospreys travel in large numbers from Europe to West Africa during the Northern Hemisphere winter. Image by Eileen Fonferko via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) Millions of birds travel from Europe to Africa each year, spending the Northern Hemisphere’s coldest months in warmer climates far to the south. “People put a huge amount of effort into restoring raptors and protecting them in Europe, and that is a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/to-save-europes-raptors-conservationists-say-look-to-west-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/to-save-europes-raptors-conservationists-say-look-to-west-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329065</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>West Africa’s plan to save its vultures struggles to take flight</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/west-africas-plan-to-save-its-vultures-struggles-to-take-flight/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/west-africas-plan-to-save-its-vultures-struggles-to-take-flight/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2026 07:58:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/03074809/HoodedVultureNecrosyrtes.monachus_JoshVanDerMeulenINaturalistCCBYNCND4.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328452</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Wildlife Trade]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Chad, Nigeria, Togo, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Poaching, Poisoning, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Togo’s vulture population is in crisis. Amid intense persecution for belief-based use and ongoing loss of habitat, surveys between 2021 and 2025 tracked a sharp decline in the numbers of critically endangered hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) around abattoirs — counting only a few hundred in total across the country. Palm-nut vultures (Gypohierax angolensis) are known [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Togo’s vulture population is in crisis. Amid intense persecution for belief-based use and ongoing loss of habitat, surveys between 2021 and 2025 tracked a sharp decline in the numbers of critically endangered hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) around abattoirs — counting only a few hundred in total across the country. Palm-nut vultures (Gypohierax angolensis) are known from only one protected area, and white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) are now presumed to be locally extinct, with the last bird in the country seen in 2019. “We’re now in a situation where it’s much harder to find vultures,” Nico Arcilla, president of the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP), said in an interview. “But if you go to the markets you’ll see them, and you know people are finding them.” In neighboring Benin, a major hub for the trade and use of vulture parts, unpublished market data collected by Abiola Chaffra, a research associate with the IBCP, counted 883 vultures for sale in nine markets surveyed in 2023. Surveys conducted between 2025 and 2026 found 535 for sale in 24 markets. “The fact that vultures continue to be sold, including in southern Benin where their numbers have declined sharply or they have even disappeared from the wild, shows that there is still significant pressure on these species,” Chaffra said. Following the surveys in Togo, the IBCP conducted awareness campaigns around slaughterhouses and worked with local authorities and site managers to protect vultures in 2024 and 2025. “During our awareness-raising activities, many people were unaware of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/west-africas-plan-to-save-its-vultures-struggles-to-take-flight/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/west-africas-plan-to-save-its-vultures-struggles-to-take-flight/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328452</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>David Johnson, the owl man of Umatilla</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/david-johnson-the-owl-man-of-umatilla/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/david-johnson-the-owl-man-of-umatilla/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2026 00:21:27 +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/20/2026/07/27202647/david-johnson-dj-owls-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324549</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, Oregon, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Birds, Conservation, Ex-situ Conservation, Obituary, Owls, Raptors, Species recovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the former Umatilla Chemical Depot in eastern Oregon, the weapons were gone, though their presence had shaped the land. Concrete bunkers stood among sagebrush and dry grass. Pronghorn moved through the open country. Badgers, once common there, had largely disappeared. Their absence mattered to the small owls that lived close to the ground. Burrowing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the former Umatilla Chemical Depot in eastern Oregon, the weapons were gone, though their presence had shaped the land. Concrete bunkers stood among sagebrush and dry grass. Pronghorn moved through the open country. Badgers, once common there, had largely disappeared. Their absence mattered to the small owls that lived close to the ground. Burrowing owls do not usually dig their own homes. They occupy tunnels made by mammals, especially badgers and prairie dogs. At Umatilla, the decline of those animals had removed much of the owls’ shelter. By the late 2000s, only a few breeding pairs remained. David H. Johnson, who died on June 15th, aged 69, decided that the shortage of burrows could be addressed. He and his collaborators buried plastic barrels and connected them to the surface with lengths of pipe. The structures were crude substitutes for badger burrows, intended to keep the population breeding while the recovery of its habitat remained a longer-term task. The owls accepted them. Within a year, the number of breeding pairs had risen. Over the following decade, the depot became home to one of the region’s most closely studied burrowing-owl populations. Researchers banded chicks, recorded calls, tested nest designs, and tracked the birds’ movements. By 2024, they were monitoring more than 100 nesting attempts and had banded nearly 500 chicks that season. Johnson had been interested in owls since childhood. At 11, while camping alone, he heard an eastern screech owl calling outside his tent. The bird landed close enough for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/david-johnson-the-owl-man-of-umatilla/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/david-johnson-the-owl-man-of-umatilla/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324549</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Belief-based use increasing threat to yellow-billed kite, an important African scavenger</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/belief-based-use-increasing-threat-to-yellow-billed-kite-an-important-african-scavenger/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/belief-based-use-increasing-threat-to-yellow-billed-kite-an-important-african-scavenger/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2026 14:52:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/07085501/Yellow-billed_Kite_Milvus_aegyptius_parasitus_--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322723</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Togo, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Crime, Culture, Hunting, Over-hunting, Poaching, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With West Africa’s vulture populations dwindling, poachers are increasingly turning to yellow-billed kites, a medium-sized, extremely adaptable raptor found in nearly every landscape across much of sub-Saharan Africa. And though they are listed as a “least concern” species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, they face a growing threat: They’re more frequently hunted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With West Africa’s vulture populations dwindling, poachers are increasingly turning to yellow-billed kites, a medium-sized, extremely adaptable raptor found in nearly every landscape across much of sub-Saharan Africa. And though they are listed as a “least concern” species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, they face a growing threat: They’re more frequently hunted for use as fetishes and for food. Like vultures, kites — both alive and dead — and their parts are used in rituals and as charms. They’re caught as bushmeat, supply fetish markets and are used as ingredients in local traditional medicine. A study by Abiola Chaffra, a research fellow at the International Bird Conservation Partnership, found that during November-to-March hunting seasons in 2022 and 2023, hunters killed 20,200 yellow-billed kites (Milvus aegyptius) in southern Benin. They flock from across Africa to nest and breed in southern Benin each year, and as soon as they arrive, they’re in danger. “[These hunts occur] every year because the kites always come back,” Chaffra told Mongabay. The research will be published in the bulletin of the African Bird Club. Their loss could have broad impact: Yellow-billed kites are opportunistic predators that eat a wide range of small mammals, amphibians and insects that are considered pests. They play a key role in cleansing landscapes of disease and scavenging carcasses. Yellow-billed kites at a fetish market in Benin. Image by Abiola Chaffra. Belief-based demand Raptors have long been used in rituals in Benin, but it appears to be increasing, Chaffra&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/belief-based-use-increasing-threat-to-yellow-billed-kite-an-important-african-scavenger/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/belief-based-use-increasing-threat-to-yellow-billed-kite-an-important-african-scavenger/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322723</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nepal’s Central Zoo faces questions over its bird flu response</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/nepals-central-zoo-faces-questions-over-its-bird-flu-response/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/nepals-central-zoo-faces-questions-over-its-bird-flu-response/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2026 16:55:44 +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/20/2026/06/25161349/Sarus_Crane_Central_Zoo_Nepal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321835</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Diseases, Ex-situ Conservation, Health, Leopards, Owls, Wildlife, Zoonotic Diseases, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A dead crow was found inside Nepal’s Central Zoo around “mid-June,” the exact date remains unknown. Then birds including a barn owl (Tyto alba) tested positive for avian influenza (bird flu) in a rapid test. Zoo authorities then sent samples to the Central Veterinary Laboratory on June 15. The zoo and officials from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A dead crow was found inside Nepal’s Central Zoo around “mid-June,” the exact date remains unknown. Then birds including a barn owl (Tyto alba) tested positive for avian influenza (bird flu) in a rapid test. Zoo authorities then sent samples to the Central Veterinary Laboratory on June 15. The zoo and officials from the semi-government body running it have given conflicting accounts of when the first deaths were detected and when bird flu was suspected. The facility remained open for several days, raising questions over its disease response during a major outbreak in Kathmandu Valley, where infected crows and fowl had already been reported in nearby Kirtipur. Ganesh Koirala, spokesperson for the Central Zoo, said officials found a dead crow inside the zoo on June 13. “Although the rapid test had already indicated infection, laboratory confirmation was necessary,” Koirala said. “It took 72 hours for the lab to send the results.” That account differs from Rachana Shah, spokesperson for the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), the semi-government body that manages the zoo. She said a crow and a pigeon were found dead on June 12, a date also confirmed by a veterinary official. House crows make a nest on a tree in Kathmandu. Image courtesy of Dinesh Bhusal. “During summer, pigeons and crows can also die because of heat stress, so at that point we could not immediately conclude that it was bird flu,” she said. But Koirala’s timeline indicated the zoo had an early warning by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/nepals-central-zoo-faces-questions-over-its-bird-flu-response/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/nepals-central-zoo-faces-questions-over-its-bird-flu-response/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321835</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mitchell Byrd, ornithologist who helped bring bald eagles back from the brink in the Chesapeake area</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/mitchell-byrd-ornithologist-who-helped-bring-bald-eagles-back-from-the-brink-in-the-chesapeake-area/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/mitchell-byrd-ornithologist-who-helped-bring-bald-eagles-back-from-the-brink-in-the-chesapeake-area/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 00:58:37 +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/20/2026/04/03160558/Mitchell-Byrd-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316952</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hope and optimism, Obituary, Raptors, Reintroductions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the long arc of conservation, recovery is often slow enough to be mistaken for stasis. Populations dwindle, habitats shrink, and the work of reversal depends less on moments of triumph than on decades of patient observation, persuasion, and persistence. Progress is recorded not in headlines but in ledgers: nests counted, territories mapped, landowners convinced, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the long arc of conservation, recovery is often slow enough to be mistaken for stasis. Populations dwindle, habitats shrink, and the work of reversal depends less on moments of triumph than on decades of patient observation, persuasion, and persistence. Progress is recorded not in headlines but in ledgers: nests counted, territories mapped, landowners convinced, protections negotiated. For much of the late 20th century along the rivers and marshes of the Chesapeake Bay, that work took place in small planes flying low over rivers and marshes or on foot through stretches of shoreline that were steadily giving way to development. By the time bald eagles began to return in visible numbers, their recovery was already the product of many such accumulated efforts. The ban on DDT and the framework of the Endangered Species Act created the conditions for resurgence. But translating those conditions into viable populations required sustained attention to where birds lived, nested, and fed—and to the human pressures that continued to erode those places. Mitchell A. Byrd was among those who devoted a career to that task. Over more than half a century, much of it at the College of William &amp; Mary, he became closely associated with efforts to monitor and restore bird populations in Virginia and the wider Chesapeake region. He was widely credited with helping to bring the bald eagle back from the edge of disappearance in the state, though he was inclined to deflect such claims, attributing recovery to broader forces while emphasizing the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/mitchell-byrd-ornithologist-who-helped-bring-bald-eagles-back-from-the-brink-in-the-chesapeake-area/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/mitchell-byrd-ornithologist-who-helped-bring-bald-eagles-back-from-the-brink-in-the-chesapeake-area/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316952</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Staggering’ trade for belief-based use drives hooded vultures to near-extinction in Benin</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/staggering-trade-for-belief-based-use-drives-hooded-vultures-to-near-extinction-in-benin/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/staggering-trade-for-belief-based-use-drives-hooded-vultures-to-near-extinction-in-benin/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2026 16:38:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/24130527/1-Vautours_charognards_au_repos-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316180</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Illegal Trade, Poisoning, Raptors, Religions, Trade, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The hooded vulture, a small, scruffy-looking raptor native to sub-Saharan Africa, gets its name from a patch of beige feathers on its head: It appears to be wearing a hood. Unlike other vulture species, hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) love human hubbub more than forests. They’re often seen around villages, scavenging for meat and garbage near [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The hooded vulture, a small, scruffy-looking raptor native to sub-Saharan Africa, gets its name from a patch of beige feathers on its head: It appears to be wearing a hood. Unlike other vulture species, hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) love human hubbub more than forests. They’re often seen around villages, scavenging for meat and garbage near abattoirs and landfills. “They&#8217;ve always been close to people &#8230; they&#8217;re kind of like the pigeons of West Africa,” said Nico Arcilla, president and research director at the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP). Arcilla has studied many West African bird species, including hooded vultures. But that proximity to people has cost the birds a great deal. Since they don’t shy away from humans, they’re easily caught — often with poisoned or tobacco-laced bait on a fishhook — and sold. In parts of Nigeria, people eat hooded vultures. But the greatest demand comes from belief-based users such as practitioners of Vodún, a traditional religion that gave rise in the Western Hemisphere to voodoo. Many believers hold that vultures have magical superpowers that can influence luck, act as harbingers of rain, or signify misfortune. They use powdered vulture parts to make soaps to wash, and some display dried vulture carcasses or heads in their homes to bring good fortune, wealth and protection against witchcraft. Others say the birds have medicinal properties. There’s no recent estimate on the demand, but somewhere between 5,800 and 8,700 birds were traded illegally between 2008 and 2013 across West and Central Africa.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/staggering-trade-for-belief-based-use-drives-hooded-vultures-to-near-extinction-in-benin/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/staggering-trade-for-belief-based-use-drives-hooded-vultures-to-near-extinction-in-benin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316180</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>California condors nesting in Pacific Northwest for first time in a century, on Yurok territory</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/california-condors-nesting-in-pacific-northwest-for-first-time-in-a-century-on-yurok-territory/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/california-condors-nesting-in-pacific-northwest-for-first-time-in-a-century-on-yurok-territory/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2026 13:05:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/20041329/1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316022</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Raptors, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A pair of California condors reintroduced to the Pacific Northwest by the Yurok Tribe appears to have established the species’ first nest in the region in more than 100 years, program officials announced in early March. Based on shifts in behavior and satellite flight data, biologists with the Northern California Condor Restoration Program (NCCRP) determined [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A pair of California condors reintroduced to the Pacific Northwest by the Yurok Tribe appears to have established the species’ first nest in the region in more than 100 years, program officials announced in early March. Based on shifts in behavior and satellite flight data, biologists with the Northern California Condor Restoration Program (NCCRP) determined that the female condor, known by her Yurok name Ney-gem&#8217; Ne-chween-kah (&#8220;She carries our prayers&#8221;), likely laid an egg inside a hollow in an old-growth redwood tree along Redwood Creek drainage in early February. Her mate, called Hlow Hoo-let (&#8220;At last I fly&#8221;), has been sharing incubation duties. Both birds are roughly 6 years and 10 months old, right at the cusp of sexual maturity for the species, which typically begins breeding between the ages of 6 and 7. &#8220;This is a huge moment for our Northern California flock,&#8221; said Chris West, the NCCRP program manager and Yurok Wildlife Department senior biologist. &#8220;It is important to remember that these are wild birds. We trap them occasionally for health monitoring, but if they nest, and how successful they are, is totally up to them, with as little interference from us as possible.&#8221; The nest site is too remote for direct visual confirmation, so staff are relying on wing-mounted transmitters and field observations to monitor the pair&#8217;s progress. The program is exploring the use of drones to get a look at the nest. The egg, if present, would take 55-58 days to hatch, with both parents taking&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/california-condors-nesting-in-pacific-northwest-for-first-time-in-a-century-on-yurok-territory/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/california-condors-nesting-in-pacific-northwest-for-first-time-in-a-century-on-yurok-territory/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316022</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Satellite images identify vulture breeding colonies by their droppings</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/satellite-images-identify-vulture-breeding-colonies-by-their-droppings/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/satellite-images-identify-vulture-breeding-colonies-by-their-droppings/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Mar 2026 19:21:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/05140548/Vulture_11.NestingColony_BomaPlateauSouthSudan_MeganClaase-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315248</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Chad, East Africa, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Populations of Rüppell’s vultures have fallen by more than 90% over the past four decades. Knowing exactly where these critically endangered birds breed can allow conservationists to put protective measures in place. But Rüppell’s historically occupied a vast swathe of West, Central and East Africa; finding their remaining colonies is a daunting task. A team [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Populations of Rüppell’s vultures have fallen by more than 90% over the past four decades. Knowing exactly where these critically endangered birds breed can allow conservationists to put protective measures in place. But Rüppell’s historically occupied a vast swathe of West, Central and East Africa; finding their remaining colonies is a daunting task. A team of researchers says it has successfully tested a way to find vulture colonies remotely, pinpointing dozens of potential sites across seven countries using open-access satellite imagery. The vultures helped. Like other cliff-nesting birds, their droppings lavishly daub cliff faces below their nests with whitewash. Bulgarian ornithologist Ivaylo Angelov, zoomed in on satellite images of mountainous areas across more than 6 million square kilometers (2.3 million square miles), seeking out cliffs over 20 meters (65 feet) high as well as sites documented in old bird atlases of the region. Ivaylo Angelov studies a Rüppell’s vulture nesting colony in Ethiopia in 2009. Image courtesy of Nikolay Terziev. Angelov and his colleagues pinpointed 232 previously undocumented nesting sites. Most of these were in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad, but they found others in the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. The work took weeks but was “immensely satisfying.” “I love geography, I love travel, and it was an absolute joy for me to zoom in and check all these incredible mountains,” Angelov says. “I had the feeling that I’m there.” In the region surrounding Sudan’s Jebel Marra mountains, in the southwest of the country, the team located&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/satellite-images-identify-vulture-breeding-colonies-by-their-droppings/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/satellite-images-identify-vulture-breeding-colonies-by-their-droppings/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315248</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Africa’s vulture safe zones face tough test across vast landscapes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Feb 2026 10:39:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/19102209/white-backed-vulture-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314481</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, Southern Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Protecting vulture populations in Africa presents some unique challenges for conservationists. These slow-breeding and ecologically vital scavengers range over vast territories and are vulnerable to poisons targeting other species and expanding infrastructure like power lines. Creating “vulture safe zones” has emerged as a way to address these broad and varied threats, but putting them into [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Protecting vulture populations in Africa presents some unique challenges for conservationists. These slow-breeding and ecologically vital scavengers range over vast territories and are vulnerable to poisons targeting other species and expanding infrastructure like power lines. Creating “vulture safe zones” has emerged as a way to address these broad and varied threats, but putting them into practice is proving difficult. South Africa’s oldest vulture safe zone is centered in Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, in the southern Kalahari Desert. Since the 114,000-hectare (282,000-acre) safe zone was established in 2019, on land owned by the wealthy Oppenheimer family, its managers have taken steps to protect critically endangered white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) and endangered lappet-faced vultures (Torgos tracheliotos) nesting there. Establishing the reserve as a safe zone involved things like covering reservoirs with nets to prevent drowning, and halting the use of lead ammunition. Wendy Panaino, an ecologist at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, told Mongabay that, ultimately, the aim is to make this 120,000-hectare (296,000-acre) reserve a safe haven for threatened species like the white-backed, lappet-faced and white-headed vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis). “Tswalu was a massive success,” says Linda van der Heever, species project manager at BirdLife South Africa. “It really is, in many senses, a textbook vulture safe zone.” A vulture in Tswalu-Kalahari Reserve, South Africa. This reserve was designated as vulture safe zone in 2019. Image courtesy of Duncan MacFadyen / Tswalu-Kalahari Reserve. In the past decade, several safe zone projects of this kind have kicked off in Africa, each adopting a variety of measures&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314481</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How are California&#8217;s birds faring amid ever more frequent wildfires?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 14:33:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30150019/13-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312309</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, Sierra Nevada, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Air Pollution, Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Monitoring, Owls, Research, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the forests of the Sierra Nevada, the black-backed woodpecker is without parallel. The bird appears almost born of fire, thriving on the flames that flicker through California’s coniferous forests every few years. Swooping in shortly after a blaze subsides, this woodpecker species, Picoides arcticus, nests in the hollowed-out trees the burn has left behind, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the forests of the Sierra Nevada, the black-backed woodpecker is without parallel. The bird appears almost born of fire, thriving on the flames that flicker through California’s coniferous forests every few years. Swooping in shortly after a blaze subsides, this woodpecker species, Picoides arcticus, nests in the hollowed-out trees the burn has left behind, gorging on an abundance of longhorn and bark beetles. Throughout the forest, a steady whack-whack can be heard from the birds&#8217; bills drilling into charred wood. The relationship between wildlife and wildfire is a complicated one. Many bird species, like the black-backed woodpecker, need the occasional inferno to create new habitat by opening up the forest canopy and increasing available food by kicking off a boom in insect populations. “While it’s ephemeral, it’s a native habitat of California that many species rely on and have evolved with over millions of years,” says ornithologist Morgan Tingley, whose research at the University of California, Los Angeles, focuses on the interplay of fire and bird populations. The black-backed woodpecker thrives on fires that burn through California’s coniferous forests every few years, opening the forest and creating an abundance  of insects they feed on. Image by Morgan Tingley/UCLA. But historically, this dynamic rested on moderate or mixed-severity fire — not the raging “megafires” that now scorch through the American West and leave little behind. In California, fires have burned more than 5.3 million hectares (13 million acres) over the past decade. In 2020 alone, blazes ripped through more than&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312309</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Artificial incubation gives Colombia’s threatened Andean condor a new lifeline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2025 12:23:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Christina Noriega]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/02111525/Banner-Martin-Brogger-aaMIA_3117-Andean-Condor-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310429</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Captive Breeding, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Invasive Species, Raptors, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Threatened species, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In an isolated backroom of a nature reserve near Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, Wayra, a recently hatched condor chick, is a symbol of hope for Fernando Castro, a wildlife specialist. Castro, 33, says he sees in the small fluff of gray down the future of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) in Colombia. Wayra is the latest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In an isolated backroom of a nature reserve near Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, Wayra, a recently hatched condor chick, is a symbol of hope for Fernando Castro, a wildlife specialist. Castro, 33, says he sees in the small fluff of gray down the future of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) in Colombia. Wayra is the latest Andean condor chick hatched through an artificial incubation program run by the Jaime Duque Park Foundation, a Colombian nonprofit working to conserve the species. At Jaime Duque Park, a theme park a 30-minute drive from Bogotá, which includes two nature reserves, conservationists are working to breed the species at a faster pace than would happen naturally, in a bid to give the Americas’ largest flying bird a better chance at recovery. Over the past two centuries, Andean condor populations have been steadily declining across the seven countries they inhabit: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The population plunged in the 20th century as people settling in the Andean highlands killed the scavenging birds because of the mistaken belief that they were to blame for livestock deaths. Habitat loss and lead contamination from ammunition left in animal carcasses further devastated the species. Today, the Andean condor is classified on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable to extinction. The IUCN assessment, carried out in 2020, estimates there are about 6,700 individual condors remaining across the species’ range. But their situation varies across countries. In Venezuela, the species is believed to have gone locally extinct, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310429</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists slam Canada-US proposal to lower trade protections for peregrine falcons</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/scientists-slam-canada-us-proposal-to-lower-trade-protections-for-peregrine-falcons/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/scientists-slam-canada-us-proposal-to-lower-trade-protections-for-peregrine-falcons/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2025 18:59:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/19003302/Peregrine_Falcon_male2-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309692</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Arctic, Canada, Global, North America, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forests, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Pet Trade, Politics, Raptors, Regulations, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The crow-sized, slate-blue-backed peregrine falcon, with its bright yellow feet, soars across the skies from Greenland’s Arctic tundra to the steppe plains of Patagonia in South America. Falco peregrinus is one of the most widespread birds on the planet, with 19 subspecies that call coasts, mountains, deserts and river valleys home. These eye-catching raptors are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The crow-sized, slate-blue-backed peregrine falcon, with its bright yellow feet, soars across the skies from Greenland’s Arctic tundra to the steppe plains of Patagonia in South America. Falco peregrinus is one of the most widespread birds on the planet, with 19 subspecies that call coasts, mountains, deserts and river valleys home. These eye-catching raptors are best known for their hunting skills. They can dive at lightning speeds of 320 kilometers per hour (200 miles per hour) — more than three times as fast as a cheetah, the swiftest land animal — to scoop their prey. Falconers prize peregrine falcons and have traded them for centuries, sometimes stealing eggs and young chicks from clifftop nests to breed them in captivity and train them. But it wasn’t falconry, an ancient sport where raptors are trained to hunt specific prey, that caused their near-extinction. It was pesticides: After World War II, chemicals like DDT, aldrin and others became ubiquitous, used in neighborhoods, backyards and on crop fields to kill mosquitoes and agricultural pests. That proved deadly to peregrine falcons. The pesticides poisoned their prey and bioaccumulated in their bodies, impairing their ability to reproduce. The eggs that females were thinner and more fragile, leached of calcium by DDT, and would break in the nests before the chicks could hatch. Peregrine falcon populations crashed across North America and Europe. They completely disappeared from the eastern U.S. and were on the brink of extinction in the West. Then, in 1962, U.S. biologist Rachel Carson published&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/scientists-slam-canada-us-proposal-to-lower-trade-protections-for-peregrine-falcons/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/scientists-slam-canada-us-proposal-to-lower-trade-protections-for-peregrine-falcons/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309692</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colony of world’s highest-flying bird under threat in Uganda</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize-2/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize-2/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2025 11:51:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Musinguzi BlansheRyan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/28122547/Masai_Mara_National_Reserve_03_-_Ruppells_vulture_Gyps_rueppelli-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308411</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUKU CENTRAL FOREST RESERVE, Uganda — Ornithologist Ivan Oruka stops suddenly near the foot of a cliff that’s streaked with the telltale whitewash of bird droppings. He quickly presses his binoculars to his eyes. Against the clear blue sky, on a bright September morning, at least 29 large birds circle effortlessly above on broad, dark [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUKU CENTRAL FOREST RESERVE, Uganda — Ornithologist Ivan Oruka stops suddenly near the foot of a cliff that’s streaked with the telltale whitewash of bird droppings. He quickly presses his binoculars to his eyes. Against the clear blue sky, on a bright September morning, at least 29 large birds circle effortlessly above on broad, dark wings. “Can you see them?” Oruka says. “Observe clearly, see how they move? Can you see that bird is carrying nest construction materials?” The birds are Rüppell’s vultures (Gyps rueppelli), a critically endangered species, and the cliff is their nesting colony. Across their former strongholds in West, Central and East Africa, Rüppell’s vulture numbers have declined by more than 90% over the past 40 years or so. Once common across Uganda’s national parks, the birds, whose dark feathers edged with silver give them a handsome scaled appearance, and which also have the reputation for being the world’s highest fliers, are now rarely seen. Luku Central Forest Reserve, covering just over 4,000 hectares (nearly 10,000 acres) in Uganda’s West Nile region, is an exception. It’s the only place in Uganda where the vultures are known to breed. But for how much longer is uncertain. Luku is under threat, in part due to its location. Vultures, Luku forest reserve, Uganda. Image by Musinguzi Blanshe for Mongabay. A cliff in the Luku reserve hosts the only known nesting colony of critically-endangered Rüppell’s vultures in Uganda. Image courtesy of Ivan Oruka. A threatened refuge Arua district shares its western&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize-2/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308411</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mass vulture poisonings expose need for cross-border action in Southern Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 16:15:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/18122618/Image_2-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306186</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A cluster of mass vulture poisonings earlier this year has drawn attention to an alarming, ongoing problem in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. According to the African Wildlife Poisoning Database, more than 2,400 vultures have died from poisoning in the GLTFCA, including in South Africa’s famed Kruger [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A cluster of mass vulture poisonings earlier this year has drawn attention to an alarming, ongoing problem in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. According to the African Wildlife Poisoning Database, more than 2,400 vultures have died from poisoning in the GLTFCA, including in South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park, in the past decade. As wide-ranging, slow-breeding keystone species of this landscape’s ecology, vultures need urgent action to protect them, conservation authorities say. Other raptors, as well as mammal carnivores like hyenas, leopards and lions, have also been poisoned. The Endangered Wildlife Trust, which operates the poisoning database in cooperation with the Peregrine Fund, says approximately 53 lions have been killed by poison in this vast cross-border protected area since 2015. In just the past two years, 14 lions are known to have died from poisoning and a further 10 more caught in snares and then killed by poachers. John Davies, project coordinator of raptor conservation and research at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, says the series of mass poisonings in May and June triggered meetings involving South Africa National Parks (SANParks), conservation NGOs and other authorities to assess where systems were lacking and could be improved. “I think that&#8217;s a big positive,” Davies tells Mongabay. André Botha, co-chair of the Vulture Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, also expresses cautious optimism. “We have witnessed similar meetings in the past, with limited results, but I trust that the current high&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306186</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mozambican reserve harbors largest documented breeding population of rare falcon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 09:59:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/17093302/d25f31ec-d6f1-4fb4-a754-cf3fe5cd5233-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306111</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Protected Areas, Raptors, Research, Surveying, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study reports that the Niassa Special Reserve, a 4-million-hectare (10-million-acre) wilderness in northern Mozambique, harbors the largest documented breeding population of Taita falcons. A survey that focused on 35 of the reserve’s towering granite inselbergs found 14 pairs of the birds. The study authors estimate the entire reserve could harbor up to 76 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study reports that the Niassa Special Reserve, a 4-million-hectare (10-million-acre) wilderness in northern Mozambique, harbors the largest documented breeding population of Taita falcons. A survey that focused on 35 of the reserve’s towering granite inselbergs found 14 pairs of the birds. The study authors estimate the entire reserve could harbor up to 76 pairs. It&#8217;s an astonishing number for a species whose other known breeding sites host fewer than 10 pairs. Taita falcons (Falco fasciinucha) are stocky birds with russet chests, white throats, and black facial stripes. One of the world’s rarest birds of prey, they survive in isolated, fragmented populations scattered along the eastern side of Africa, from southern Ethiopia to northeastern South Africa. The IUCN estimates their total number at up to 1,000 mature individuals, but this estimate is uncertain due to a scarcity of data from regions north of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. A young Taita falcon, recently fledged from a nest in Blyde River Canyon, South Africa: Falco fasciinucha has been recorded across a wide expanse of East and Southern Africa, but limited systematic surveys means its distribution and population numbers are uncertain. Image courtesy of Anthony van Zyl. Taita falcons hunt small, fast insect-eating birds such as flycatchers, swifts and bee-eaters. Hunting from Niassa’s inselbergs that rise above surrounding woodlands appears to give the raptors an edge over larger peregrine (Falco peregrinus) and lanner falcons (Falco biarmicus), which occupy this same territory in smaller numbers but must fly further in search of grain-eating prey&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306111</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Poisoning crisis could drive vulture extinction in South Africa’s Kruger region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/poisoning-crisis-could-drive-vulture-extinction-in-south-africas-kruger-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/poisoning-crisis-could-drive-vulture-extinction-in-south-africas-kruger-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 08:53:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15151612/Image_1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305978</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A spate of poisoning events this year has killed more than 400 vultures in and near South Africa’s Kruger National Park. In May, 49 vultures died after feasting on a poisoned giraffe carcass. A similar incident soon afterward killed 123 vultures, the vast majority critically endangered white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus). Later that same month, another [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A spate of poisoning events this year has killed more than 400 vultures in and near South Africa’s Kruger National Park. In May, 49 vultures died after feasting on a poisoned giraffe carcass. A similar incident soon afterward killed 123 vultures, the vast majority critically endangered white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus). Later that same month, another incident, in the nearby Lionspruit Game Reserve, claimed the lives of more than 100 vultures. In late June, a further 127 vultures along with seven crocodiles and a black-backed jackal died after a buffalo was laced with poisoned in Kruger. These events caused a media stir, but they also only tell part of the story, says André Botha, co-chair of the Vulture Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Since 2015, more than 2,000 vultures have been poisoned in Kruger National Park and the wider Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA). “The media spin placed on the most recent of these incidents seems to totally ignore this fact and the lack of coordinated action to address this challenge by the statutory institutions, especially on the South African side,” Botha says. A mass poisoning incident claimed the lives of 120 vultures in Kruger National Park in May this year. Image courtesy of the Endangered Wildlife Trust. The GLTFCA spans a conservation area of roughly 35,000 square kilometers (13,500 square miles) — an area that straddles the borders of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and includes protected areas like Kruger, Limpopo and Gonarezhou national parks.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/poisoning-crisis-could-drive-vulture-extinction-in-south-africas-kruger-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/poisoning-crisis-could-drive-vulture-extinction-in-south-africas-kruger-region/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305978</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal’s Pokhara, a lone rooftop vigil helps keep vultures and planes safe from harm</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-nepals-pokhara-a-lone-rooftop-vigil-helps-keep-vultures-and-planes-safe-from-harm/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-nepals-pokhara-a-lone-rooftop-vigil-helps-keep-vultures-and-planes-safe-from-harm/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2025 12:02:39 +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/20/2025/07/16100833/IMG_2457-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302621</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Corruption, Development, Drones, Governance, Infrastructure, Raptors, Tourism, Travel, and Vultures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[POKHARA, Nepal — On a May morning in Pokhara, Nepal’s tourist town in the lap of the world-famous Annapurna range, 40-year-old Hemanta Dhakal climbs to the terrace on the roof of his home, a few hundred meters away from the newly constructed international airport. Armed with his binoculars, he scans the sky and then the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[POKHARA, Nepal — On a May morning in Pokhara, Nepal’s tourist town in the lap of the world-famous Annapurna range, 40-year-old Hemanta Dhakal climbs to the terrace on the roof of his home, a few hundred meters away from the newly constructed international airport. Armed with his binoculars, he scans the sky and then the runway, looking for vultures — particularly one with a yellow face and a slender, grayish-white body. As the sun’s rays beat down on the tarmac, a constant buzz from turboprop airplanes landing and taking off and occasional cawing is interrupted by a blast echoing through the valley. “That’s the air gun they fire to drive the vultures away from the runway,” Dhakal says calmly. “They’re scaring away the vultures again.” A flock of Himalayan griffon vultures photographed on the runway of the Pokhara International Airport. Image courtesy of Hemanta Dhakal. Unlike most researchers who need to travel to remote and often hostile terrain to observe birds and animals of interest, all Dhakal has to do is climb a few flights of stairs to get to his own lookout tower. When he’s not mentoring his undergraduate students or spending time with family and friends, the seasoned ornithologist and conservation campaigner spends time observing the vultures in and around the airport. “This vantage point lets me observe how the birds and the airport interact every single day,” he tells Mongabay at his home in Pokhara’s Majheriatan area. Dhakal’s hometown, which was recently officially anointed Nepal’s “tourism capital,”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-nepals-pokhara-a-lone-rooftop-vigil-helps-keep-vultures-and-planes-safe-from-harm/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-nepals-pokhara-a-lone-rooftop-vigil-helps-keep-vultures-and-planes-safe-from-harm/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302621</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Without vultures, carcasses are slow to rot and disease-carrying flies abound</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2025 15:46:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/22144809/COVERCreditAndrewWhitworth-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299508</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Diseases, Environment, Forests, Green, Insects, Rainforests, Raptors, Vultures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Absolutely disgusting, so grim, the worst fieldwork of my life, but also extremely rewarding in a very odd way,&#8221; said Julia Grootaers, describing her three months collecting data among rotting pig carcasses in Costa Rica&#8217;s Osa Peninsula. For her master&#8217;s thesis at the University of Exeter, U.K., Grootaers was part of a study examining how [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Absolutely disgusting, so grim, the worst fieldwork of my life, but also extremely rewarding in a very odd way,&#8221; said Julia Grootaers, describing her three months collecting data among rotting pig carcasses in Costa Rica&#8217;s Osa Peninsula. For her master&#8217;s thesis at the University of Exeter, U.K., Grootaers was part of a study examining how vultures affect carrion (decaying flesh) decomposition in neotropical ecosystems. Their findings, published recently in the journal Ecology and Evolution, reveal that in the absence of vultures, carcasses take twice as long to decompose, and fly populations double, with significant implications for ecosystem health and potential disease transmission. &#8220;There&#8217;s a reason why carcasses smell bad. We&#8217;re not meant to be near them,&#8221; Grootaers told Mongabay. The fieldwork involved spending day after day amid decomposing pig carcasses, some weighing up to 130 kilograms (nearly 290 pounds). &#8220;We&#8217;d have to obviously wear gloves and a mask, because you have so many flies flying around and they are trying to get into any orifice at all.&#8221; King vultures and black vultures descend upon a carcass in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. In the absence of vultures, carcasses took twice as long to decompose. Photo courtesy of Andrew Whitworth. The experiment consisted of 32 pig carcasses deployed in the southern Pacific region of Costa Rica, half in grassland and half in forest habitats. Eight carcasses were covered with exclusion cages for each habitat to prevent vulture access, while eight control carcasses remained uncovered. Half the experiment took place during the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299508</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cape vulture conservation offers hope, but challenges remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2025 07:26:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/13102051/CapeVulture.Gyps_.coprotheres_JanRoseFlickrBYNCSA2.0-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298994</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, Namibia, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, the vulture conservation organization Vulpro hailed the return of Cape vultures to a farm in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, near Mountain Zebra National Park. That marked the first time this species has been seen in the area for 30 years, according to the organization. “There&#8217;s more and more movement and foraging [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, the vulture conservation organization Vulpro hailed the return of Cape vultures to a farm in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, near Mountain Zebra National Park. That marked the first time this species has been seen in the area for 30 years, according to the organization. “There&#8217;s more and more movement and foraging of the birds, and they are now finding these historical areas that they used to occur in and that it&#8217;s now safe again, which I think is incredibly exciting,” says Kerri Wolter, CEO of Vulpro. The Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres) is Southern Africa’s largest and only endemic vulture species. Beginning in the 1970s, Cape vulture colonies across the region shrank and many disappeared. It’s estimated that between 1992 and 2007, the species’ population in South Africa dropped by as much as 70%. But in 2021, the Cape vulture’s conservation status improved from endangered to vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. An assessment that finds a vulture species is at decreased risk of extinction is “borderline unheard of,” says John Davies, senior field officer in the birds of prey program at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, a South African conservation NGO. Seven of the nine vulture species found across Southern Africa, included the Cape vulture, fall into one of the threatened categories in the IUCN; three of them — the white-backed (Gyps africanus), white-headed (Trigonoceps occipitalis) and hooded (Necrosyrtes monachus) vultures — are considered critically endangered by the IUCN. Against this general decline, the story of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298994</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In West Africa, hooded vultures vanish as abattoirs modernize</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2025 06:49:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/23105351/HoodedVulture.Necrosyrtus.monachus_Gambia2017_PeteRichmanFlickrBY2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298043</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Critically endangered hooded vultures in Nigeria that once fed on the carcasses of wild animals are now largely dependent on scraps discarded by people. But changes in the way waste is disposed of at slaughterhouses has left them desperately short of food, researchers say. In the 1970s, hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were among at least [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Critically endangered hooded vultures in Nigeria that once fed on the carcasses of wild animals are now largely dependent on scraps discarded by people. But changes in the way waste is disposed of at slaughterhouses has left them desperately short of food, researchers say. In the 1970s, hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were among at least seven different vulture species that soared across Nigerian skies, according to historical records; now only they and palm-nut vultures (Gypohierax angolensis) persist, and numbers of both are dropping drastically. Food scarcity is playing a significant role in driving this decline, says ornithologist Michael Manja Williams, a Ph.D. candidate at Nigeria’s Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University. In the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, vultures could find carcasses in the wild to feed on, he says. But overhunting of wild mammals depleted that vital food source, leaving the birds increasingly reliant on humans. A hooded vulture in The Gambia: Across West Africa, hooded and palm-nut vultures have a long association with human communities’ waste. Changes in abattoir practices are now depriving these species of a vital source of food. Image by Pete Richman via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) “In the early ’80s and ’90s, abattoirs were the central places that you could find [hooded] vultures,” Williams says, while noting that the birds face fierce competition at these sites from feral dogs and people. “The vultures fear the dogs; they won’t come where there are canines. So, you see the vultures hovering around.” The implications for the vultures are stark.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298043</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Trophies’ shared on social media reveal scale of mass bird slaughter in Lebanon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/trophies-shared-on-social-media-reveal-scale-of-mass-bird-slaughter-in-lebanon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/trophies-shared-on-social-media-reveal-scale-of-mass-bird-slaughter-in-lebanon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2025 14:10:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/17051926/kestrel-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297740</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Lebanon, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birding, Birds, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Illegal Trade, Over-hunting, Poaching, Raptors, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every year, during the Northern Hemisphere spring and autumn, the skies over Lebanon are dotted with millions of birds on their epic migrations. From soaring Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus) to charismatic white storks (Ciconia ciconia), more than 500 species of birds traverse the African-Eurasian flyway, which funnels over Lebanon, as they migrate between their breeding [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Every year, during the Northern Hemisphere spring and autumn, the skies over Lebanon are dotted with millions of birds on their epic migrations. From soaring Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus) to charismatic white storks (Ciconia ciconia), more than 500 species of birds traverse the African-Eurasian flyway, which funnels over Lebanon, as they migrate between their breeding grounds in Europe and their wintering grounds in Africa. “It&#8217;s an incredible spectacle,” says seabird biologist Andre Raine, science director at Archipelago Research and Conservation in Hawai‘i. “You can see thousands of storks, huge flocks of eagles, honey-buzzards, sparrowhawks … they&#8217;re just coming through in waves and waves and waves.” But this avian spectacle draws in a darker element. As large flocks of migratory birds fly over Lebanon and other countries in the region, they become an easy target for poachers, who fire indiscriminately at them, sometimes killing almost every bird in a single flock. Across the Mediterranean, people shoot dead an estimated 11 million to 36 million birds each year, and in Lebanon, one of the worst countries in the region for bird poaching, that number stands at 2.6 million birds a year. “The scale of it is intense … you have to see it to believe it,” Raine says. “You can go to mountaintops … and it&#8217;s just littered with snowdrifts of feathers of raptors, where you&#8217;re wading through, sometimes up to your knees, in dead birds.” What’s also harrowing is that many dead birds don’t end up as food on the table,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/trophies-shared-on-social-media-reveal-scale-of-mass-bird-slaughter-in-lebanon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297740</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Maltese Falcon Poachers: European hunters endanger Egypt’s birds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/maltese-falcon-poachers-european-hunters-endanger-egypts-birds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/maltese-falcon-poachers-european-hunters-endanger-egypts-birds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2025 19:59:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mahmoud ElsobkyWael El-Sayegh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/02172057/illustration-Malta-Bird_Smuggling-v1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296943</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Egypt, Malta, and North Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birding, Birds, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Illegal Trade, Over-hunting, Poaching, Raptors, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The New Arab and The Shift co-published a set of edited versions of this investigation. As the sun hung low over the Nile, casting golden ripples across the water, we navigated Lake Nasser. The air carried whispers of wings overhead, the soft rustle of migratory birds seeking refuge during their epic winter journey from Europe [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The New Arab and The Shift co-published a set of edited versions of this investigation. As the sun hung low over the Nile, casting golden ripples across the water, we navigated Lake Nasser. The air carried whispers of wings overhead, the soft rustle of migratory birds seeking refuge during their epic winter journey from Europe to Africa. In January 2024, it was here, in these seemingly tranquil landscapes, that we began unraveling the tangled web of illegal bird hunting — a world where beauty and brutality collide. Evidence was everywhere. In Malta, freezers filled with bird skins and carcasses were confiscated in raids, many tied directly to hunting expeditions in Egypt. The scenes were grotesque: a clash of cultures, politics and conservation. Hashim Morsi, an Egyptian bird-watcher, recalled a shocking find in 2017. He discovered around 7,000 dead birds along an approximately 15-kilometer (9-mile) stretch near Port Said. Many bore the hallmarks of Maltese poaching: plastic wrapping bearing text in Maltese. In a call with Mahmoud*, a veteran hunting guide, he told us that “Italian hunters usually want ducks. Maltese hunters are the ones who want different kinds. The Maltese hunters take everything in sight … even stray dogs if they get the chance. In Aswan, I had Maltese clients, and we did what we could there.” From Aswan, our investigation took us deeper into Egypt’s rural heartlands, tracing a shadowy trail to Fayoum and beyond. There, The New Arab (TNA) uncovered the digital footprints of Maltese hunters flaunting their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/maltese-falcon-poachers-european-hunters-endanger-egypts-birds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296943</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Kathmandu’s birds get used to humans, biodiversity suffers, studies show</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-kathmandus-birds-get-used-to-humans-biodiversity-suffers-studies-show/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-kathmandus-birds-get-used-to-humans-biodiversity-suffers-studies-show/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Oct 2024 14:35:27 +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/20/2024/10/28142938/4011a1ea-82ee-406c-ac5e-1101f9bc981b-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289246</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Cities, Conservation, Green Design, Parks, Raptors, and urban ecology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Birds living in Nepal’s capital may be losing their fear of humans in response to rapid unplanned urbanization — with potential ramifications for the diversity of birdlife in the Kathmandu Valley, two recently published studies indicate. Both studies show that city birds are increasingly becoming tolerant to human presence in the rapidly expanding [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Birds living in Nepal’s capital may be losing their fear of humans in response to rapid unplanned urbanization — with potential ramifications for the diversity of birdlife in the Kathmandu Valley, two recently published studies indicate. Both studies show that city birds are increasingly becoming tolerant to human presence in the rapidly expanding urban sprawl devoid of trees (let alone native ones), suggesting that some generalist species may proliferate massively while more specialist species may lose out and eventually disappear. “The results of the studies are positive if you look at it through the lens of human-bird coexistence,” researcher Kamal Raj Gosai, who wasn’t involved in either of the studies, told Mongabay. “However, one of the many downsides to this is that native birds that can’t live close to humans may find it hard to survive.” Kathmandu lies in a valley that was once an ancient lake. In recent decades, the city has witnessed unprecedented growth in its built-up area, primarily at the expense of its green spaces and trees. A settlement in Lalitpur town in Kathmandu Valley. Image by Ashmita Paudel Between 1989 and 2019, the urban built-up area expanded by 112% to 189.2 square kilometers (73.1 square miles). It’s projected the built-up area in the Kathmandu Valley will continue to grow to 301 km2 (116 mi2) by 2030 and 352 km2 (136 mi2) by 2050. Nepal’s parliament recently passed a nationwide land-use law, but it hasn’t been implemented yet in the capital. Here, residents can build&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-kathmandus-birds-get-used-to-humans-biodiversity-suffers-studies-show/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289246</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The tribal leader dedicating his life to protect Philippine&#8217;s critically-endangered national bird</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/the-tribal-leader-dedicating-his-life-to-protect-philippines-critically-endangered-national-bird/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/the-tribal-leader-dedicating-his-life-to-protect-philippines-critically-endangered-national-bird/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2024 14:30:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bong S. Sarmiento]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/15131215/philippine-eagle-1-e1729002592535-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288732</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Raptors, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DAVAO CITY, Philippines — To his fellow tribal members, Datu Julito Ahao is jokingly called matanglawin, which literally means “having an eye of an eagle.” Aptly so. Under the watch of the 64-year-old chieftain, more than a dozen critically endangered Philippine eagles, the country’s national bird, have hatched and survived in the wild since the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DAVAO CITY, Philippines — To his fellow tribal members, Datu Julito Ahao is jokingly called matanglawin, which literally means “having an eye of an eagle.” Aptly so. Under the watch of the 64-year-old chieftain, more than a dozen critically endangered Philippine eagles, the country’s national bird, have hatched and survived in the wild since the mid-1980s. He was in his 20s when he first encountered a pair of Philippine eagles (Pithecophaga jefferyi) within Mount Apo Natural Park on the island of Mindanao, home to his people, the Obu Manuvu, and the Philippines’ highest peak. “It was fascinating to see the majestic bird,” he tells Mongabay at his home in the remote village of Salaysay. The blue-and-gray-eyed bird can grow to almost 1 meter (3 feet) in height, with an impressive wingspan of 2 m (nearly 7 ft). It was a love-at-first sight affair for the raptors, Ahao says, one that continues today. The skinny elder wears many hats. He earns a living planting corn and vegetables, but continues to regularly scour the forests for eagle nests and protect them from logging and hunting. He founded a group of forest guards, known as Bantay Bukid, to protect the species’ diminishing habitat. And as a pastor, he preaches biblical verses about the protection of living beings to push his advocacy. To conservationists, he’s an “unsung hero.” Although he reached only Grade 1 school level, Ahao can read and also uses the bible to push his advocacy. Image by Bong S. Sarmiento. There&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/the-tribal-leader-dedicating-his-life-to-protect-philippines-critically-endangered-national-bird/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288732</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Dream birds’ in the mist: First photo of ‘lost’ bird in DRC mountains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/dream-birds-in-the-mist-first-photo-of-lost-bird-in-drc-mountains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/dream-birds-in-the-mist-first-photo-of-lost-bird-in-drc-mountains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Sep 2024 12:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/20124426/YCHE-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287629</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and East Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birding, Birds, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Extinction, Forests, Owls, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Michael Harvey recalls the moment he first saw a flock of yellow-crested helmetshrikes flitting through a cloud forest in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: the first confirmed sighting by scientists of the species in 16 years. “It was more bizarre and exciting than I could have imagined,” says Harvey, an ornithologist and assistant professor [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Michael Harvey recalls the moment he first saw a flock of yellow-crested helmetshrikes flitting through a cloud forest in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: the first confirmed sighting by scientists of the species in 16 years. “It was more bizarre and exciting than I could have imagined,” says Harvey, an ornithologist and assistant professor at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). In December 2023, he and a team of U.S. and DRC ornithologists and herpetologists trekked for weeks in cars, on motorbikes and on foot to reach the Itombwe massif, on the western edge of the Albertine Rift, a vast ecoregion of mountains, valleys and forests spanning five countries in East Africa. Harvey and a DRC assistant had left their camp to hike up a ridge to look for cloud forest birds. When they reached a fern meadow in a natural forest clearing, rain clouds swept in, and thick swirling mist reduced visibility to around 10 meters (33 feet). The first views of the high-elevation forests of Itombwe upon reaching the edge of intact forest. Image by Mike Harvey. “I’m in the meadow, and inside the cloud forest, I start hearing these wild, snapping sounds and squeals that sounded like wind-up toys,” Harvey says. “Then, out of this pea-soup fog, I see these jet-black shapes, almost blacker than black, starting to emerge in the fog, and I raise my binoculars and that’s when I can see these brilliant, bright, whitish-yellow crests on the birds, the yellow eyes,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/dream-birds-in-the-mist-first-photo-of-lost-bird-in-drc-mountains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287629</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hooded vultures in Ghana and South Africa on the brink, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/hooded-vultures-in-ghana-and-south-africa-on-the-brink-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/hooded-vultures-in-ghana-and-south-africa-on-the-brink-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2024 09:49:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/13095546/Image-2-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287401</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, South Africa, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[High rates of inbreeding among hooded vultures in Ghana and South Africa spell trouble for their future, according to a newly published study. The study found that despite wide differences in the population size of the birds in the two countries, both face similar risks associated with low genetic diversity. It underlined the need to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[High rates of inbreeding among hooded vultures in Ghana and South Africa spell trouble for their future, according to a newly published study. The study found that despite wide differences in the population size of the birds in the two countries, both face similar risks associated with low genetic diversity. It underlined the need to protect hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) in both countries from hunting and habitat loss. Researchers gathered molted feathers from vulture nests in Ghana, where this species is considered highly endangered due to rapid population declines but remains abundant for now, and in South Africa, where it’s estimated that only 100-200 mature adults remain, mostly in Kruger National Park. Despite the variance in their overall population size, the birds in both countries showed high levels of inbreeding and low genetic diversity — a “troubling” finding, according to the authors. The study showed that while the number of hooded vultures in South Africa is dwindling, there’s still a basis for their population to recover. “It still does have some unique genetic components which are important to conserve,” said study co-author Sandi Willows-Munro, an associate professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Hooded vultures play a critical ecosystem role in both countries, scavenging on carcasses and thus removing disease and potentially harmful bacteria. Low rates of genetic diversity would mean that these populations are vulnerable to threats, such as disease outbreaks, and less adaptable to environmental change. Researchers had initially thought that Ghana’s relatively large population of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/hooded-vultures-in-ghana-and-south-africa-on-the-brink-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287401</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Itombwe owl: Two birds and an identity crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/the-itombwe-owl-two-birds-and-an-identity-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/the-itombwe-owl-two-birds-and-an-identity-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2024 06:17:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/06073450/1_Butynski-Phodilus-prigoginei-Itombwe-DRC-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286996</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Conservation, Endangered Species, Owls, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A lost bird Everything we know for certain about the Itombwe owl comes from just two individuals: one dead for more than 70 years, and the other also most likely dead by now. The second, a small, chestnut-colored owl, was netted by Tom Butynski’s team in 1996; a wild owl can expect to live 10 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A lost bird Everything we know for certain about the Itombwe owl comes from just two individuals: one dead for more than 70 years, and the other also most likely dead by now. The second, a small, chestnut-colored owl, was netted by Tom Butynski’s team in 1996; a wild owl can expect to live 10 years. Butynski tells Mongabay they held onto the bird for just about an hour, releasing it after measuring, weighing and tagging it. Little did they realize back then the significance of this fleeting encounter: It was the last confirmed sighting of the species to date. Yet experts say they’re hopeful the Itombwe owl (scientific name Tyto prigoginei, but also commonly referred to as Phodilus prigoginei) flies on quietly — beyond researchers’ radar — in the face of possible extinction. Out in the wild, researchers say a few thousand may survive in a tiny pocket of Central Africa. Itombwe Nature Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the bird’s last known location, and the 1996 expedition was one of the last expansive surveys of the Itombwe massif, a mountainous mosaic of grassland, bamboo vegetation and forests. Butynski’s team also took photos of the owl, which they sent to Michel Louette at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (now AfricaMuseum) in Tervuren, Belgium. Louette, who was in charge of the museum’s bird collection, confirmed it was the Itombwe owl. Photograph of the Itombwe owl captured by Tom Butynski and colleagues in 1996. Image Courtesy of Tom&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/the-itombwe-owl-two-birds-and-an-identity-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286996</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Time to highlight South Asia’s less-studied vultures: Interview with Krishna Bhusal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/time-to-highlight-south-asias-less-studied-vultures-interview-with-krishna-bhusal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/time-to-highlight-south-asias-less-studied-vultures-interview-with-krishna-bhusal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Aug 2024 09:53:30 +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/20/2024/08/23094041/39022906415_54d083557d_5k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286462</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Poisoning, Raptors, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Scavengers, Solutions, and Vultures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The story of South Asia’s vultures has been a tragedy played out at warp speed, especially for griffon vultures, characterized by a slim head and long, slender neck, and belonging to the genus Gyps. Populations of these raptors are believed to have collapsed by as much as 99% between the 1990s and early [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The story of South Asia’s vultures has been a tragedy played out at warp speed, especially for griffon vultures, characterized by a slim head and long, slender neck, and belonging to the genus Gyps. Populations of these raptors are believed to have collapsed by as much as 99% between the 1990s and early 2000s. Until 2004, the cause of this precipitous decline was a mystery. That year, U.S. veterinarian J. Lindsay Oaks and his team reported a high correlation between the kidney failure that they found was killing vultures, and residues of diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug given to livestock. The vultures, essentially, were being poisoned by feeding on carrion that had been fed the drug. The finding sent shockwaves across the Indian subcontinent, and governments started testing the hypothesis among their own vulture populations. After finding strong evidence that this was indeed the case, countries across the region and beyond started taking active measures to save the birds of prey. Autopsies showed that when an animal treated with diclofenac died, traces of the medicine remained in carcass for up to a week. Vultures that fed on the carcasses experienced a spike uric acid level in the blood and developed visceral gout, preventing the kidney from filtering out uric acid, and eventually leading to the death of the bird. A single contaminated cow carcass could kill around 350-800 vultures, researchers found. Krishna Prasad Bhusal has been at the forefront of vulture conservation and research in Nepal since the diclofenac&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/time-to-highlight-south-asias-less-studied-vultures-interview-with-krishna-bhusal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286462</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shooting of Philippine eagle renews calls to boost enforcement, wildlife protection</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/shooting-of-philippine-eagle-renews-calls-to-boost-enforcement-wildlife-protection/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/shooting-of-philippine-eagle-renews-calls-to-boost-enforcement-wildlife-protection/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2024 20:22:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jhesset O. Enano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/29201137/The-lifeless-gaze-of-Philippine-eagle-Mangayon-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285302</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Hunting, Raptors, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MANILA — Calls for greater protection of threatened wildlife in the Philippines have intensified following the fatal shooting of a critically endangered Philippine eagle, the national bird, earlier this month. Wildlife experts said stronger enforcement of the country’s wildlife law is needed to further prevent the persecution of the iconic apex predator. Current estimates indicate [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MANILA — Calls for greater protection of threatened wildlife in the Philippines have intensified following the fatal shooting of a critically endangered Philippine eagle, the national bird, earlier this month. Wildlife experts said stronger enforcement of the country’s wildlife law is needed to further prevent the persecution of the iconic apex predator. Current estimates indicate only 392 breeding pairs of Philippine eagles (Pithecophaga jefferyi) remain in the wild. The Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF), a rescue and rehabilitation center, reported the death of the eagle “Mangayon,” named after the village where it was found, on July 8. The case is the first recorded death by gunshot wound by the foundation in the past five years. More recent eagle deaths were mainly due to disease. PEF senior animal keeper Dominic Tadena assessing the unresponsive PE Mangayon. Image courtesy of the Philippine Eagle Foundation. The raptor was reportedly found injured by a member of an Indigenous group in the mountains of Davao de Oro province in the southern Philippines. On the same night of its rescue, Mangayon was pronounced dead due to severe blood loss and possibly infection. Jayson Ibañez, the PEF research and conservation director, noted that Mangayon was at least 3 to 4 years old, and was dehydrated but otherwise healthy. The bones of his left wing, however, were shattered, presumably by a marble, commonly used as a projectile in improvised guns in the country. “A marble will not penetrate the body, but it will shatter the immediate surface,” Ibañez told&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/shooting-of-philippine-eagle-renews-calls-to-boost-enforcement-wildlife-protection/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285302</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Action plan to save West African vultures targets threat from belief-based use</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/action-plan-to-save-west-african-vultures-targets-threat-from-belief-based-use/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/action-plan-to-save-west-african-vultures-targets-threat-from-belief-based-use/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2024 11:41:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/13115356/White-headedVulture.TrigonocepsOccipitalis_MoleNPGhana_NikBorrowFlickrBYNC2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283192</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation organizations and international bodies have launched a 20-year action plan to save vultures in West Africa, specifically targeting the threat of belief-based use. The West African Vulture Conservation Action Plan (WAVCAP) spans 16 countries, with the aim to bring trade of the scavengers, identified as the primary driver of a rapid decline, to a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation organizations and international bodies have launched a 20-year action plan to save vultures in West Africa, specifically targeting the threat of belief-based use. The West African Vulture Conservation Action Plan (WAVCAP) spans 16 countries, with the aim to bring trade of the scavengers, identified as the primary driver of a rapid decline, to a halt. Raptors and vultures are in decline across the whole continent due to habitat loss, electrocution, loss of food sources, intentional and unintentional poisoning, human-wildlife conflict, and more. A paper published earlier this year underlined a precipitous collapse in vulture numbers, finding that most vulture species are increasingly holed up in protected areas. The decline is particularly severe in West Africa, says study co-author Umberto Gallo-Orsi, who coordinates raptor conservation for the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). In 2020, more than 2,000 critically endangered hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were found poisoned at several sites in Guinea-Bissau over a two-week period. “Because birds were found without their heads and other parts, it is obvious that the reason behind the incident was the trade, and probably international trade, of vulture parts for belief-based use,” Gallo-Orsi says. The mass killings prompted conservationists to investigate the threat and laid the groundwork for the multiyear action plan for West Africa to save dwindling vulture populations, he adds. “Belief-based use” is a catchall term that includes demand for a wide range of traditional medicine practices, “fetish” beliefs, and cultural practices. Raptor experts have long been aware of the hunting of vultures&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/action-plan-to-save-west-african-vultures-targets-threat-from-belief-based-use/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283192</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Black days for black kites in Bangladesh&#8217;s growing capital city</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/black-days-for-black-kites-in-bangladeshs-growing-capital-city/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/black-days-for-black-kites-in-bangladeshs-growing-capital-city/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2024 12:47:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sadiqur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/10124417/black-kite-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283071</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Cities, Conservation, Environment, Raptors, urban ecology, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every dusk in the University of Dhaka campus, in Bangladesh’s busy capital city of Dhaka, the canopies of the taller trees like Gogon sirish (Albizia richardiana), or Raj koroi, trees shake as flocks of black kites (Milvus migrans) descend onto the branches. Before their final landing for the day in their roosts, the communal raptors [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every dusk in the University of Dhaka campus, in Bangladesh’s busy capital city of Dhaka, the canopies of the taller trees like Gogon sirish (Albizia richardiana), or Raj koroi, trees shake as flocks of black kites (Milvus migrans) descend onto the branches. Before their final landing for the day in their roosts, the communal raptors soar high in circles over the canopies, declaring their roosting territories together. However, the sight of soaring black kites over some Gogon sirish trees has become a rare sight across the vast 306-square-kilometer (118-square-mile) expanse of Dhaka city, which has become urbanized in an unplanned manner at the cost of wetlands and numerous mature trees. This transformation also indicates the degrading habitats of all urban raptors. In April and May this year, the Bangladesh Forest Department’s wildlife inspectors rescued at least 35 black kites, exhausted and collapsing midair during their flights, from several localities in Dhaka. According to rescuers, it is mostly the juvenile black kites that become sick while searching for suitable perches between their common foraging and roosting sites. “Commonly, a young bird that has just completed its fledgling stage hones its flying skills by completing short trips from one tree branch to nearby ones. When it struggles to find trees amidst a jungle of concrete and eventually loses the minimum energy to fly, it may collapse,” Ashim Mallick, a wildlife inspector, told Mongabay. Before their final landing in their roosts, the communal raptors soar high in circles over the canopies, declaring their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/black-days-for-black-kites-in-bangladeshs-growing-capital-city/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283071</doi>				</item>
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