<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=animal-intelligence&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/animal-intelligence/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2026 21:36:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Animal Intelligence</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/animal-intelligence/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>From small cats to pangolins: Detection dogs help track elusive species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/from-small-cats-to-pangolins-detection-dogs-help-track-elusive-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/from-small-cats-to-pangolins-detection-dogs-help-track-elusive-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Aug 2026 08:30:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[María de los Ángeles Orfila]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/06191544/MichelleSchroederWithLyka_BenfonteinNatureReserveSouthAfricaAug2021_VeerBills-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325496</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Namibia, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Environment, Habitat, Mammals, Small Cats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the grassy dwarf shrublands of South Africa&#8217;s Karoo, Michelle Marie Schroeder is looking for a very specific kind of poo. Black-footed cats spend most of the day hidden in burrows and emerge mainly under the cover of darkness, making them notoriously difficult to study. That&#8217;s why the conservation biologist relies unconventional assistants: Lyka and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the grassy dwarf shrublands of South Africa&#8217;s Karoo, Michelle Marie Schroeder is looking for a very specific kind of poo. Black-footed cats spend most of the day hidden in burrows and emerge mainly under the cover of darkness, making them notoriously difficult to study. That&#8217;s why the conservation biologist relies unconventional assistants: Lyka and Sebala, two German Shorthaired Pointers trained to detect the cats&#8217; scat by scent. When the dogs find a sample, they lie down and remain still to alert Schroeder, who works with the non-profit Canines for African Nature. Working on her own, Schroeder found just four scats in more than a year. Ten-year-old Lyka, by contrast, has located hundreds of samples in just a few months, providing the basis for non-invasive genetic monitoring of Felis nigripes. “I probably wouldn’t have found more than 90% of the scats without help,” she tells Mongabay. “And it’s also very difficult to distinguish them from those of other small carnivores. The dogs are much more accurate.” Lyka has located hundreds of black-footed cat scat samples, making non-invasive monitoring of the elusive species possible. Image courtesy of Veer Bills. On the trail of the black-footed cat Hal Brindley, a researcher at the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa at the University of Cape Town, also studies these small, cryptic predators. “Studying the black-footed cat is incredibly difficult without resorting to invasive methods like trapping and collaring,” he says. “More common non-invasive approaches, such as camera trapping, are often ineffective. Fecal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/from-small-cats-to-pangolins-detection-dogs-help-track-elusive-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/from-small-cats-to-pangolins-detection-dogs-help-track-elusive-species/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325496</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A chimpanzee’s rhythmic drumming with floorboards hints at origins of instruments</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-chimpanzees-rhythmic-drumming-with-floorboards-hints-at-origins-of-instruments/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-chimpanzees-rhythmic-drumming-with-floorboards-hints-at-origins-of-instruments/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 03:59:01 +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/20/2026/04/16035215/Screenshot-2026-04-15-at-10.45.40-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317617</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Drumming and singing at the same time is impressive, whether you’re Karen Carpenter, Ringo Starr or a chimpanzee. Japanese researchers report that Ayumu, a 26-year-old male chimpanzee and alpha of his group at Kyoto University&#8217;s Institute for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior (EHUB), has been spontaneously tearing floorboards from a walkway, fashioning them into [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Drumming and singing at the same time is impressive, whether you’re Karen Carpenter, Ringo Starr or a chimpanzee. Japanese researchers report that Ayumu, a 26-year-old male chimpanzee and alpha of his group at Kyoto University&#8217;s Institute for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior (EHUB), has been spontaneously tearing floorboards from a walkway, fashioning them into instruments and performing extended drumming displays while vocalizing. &#8220;I was surprised,&#8221; primatologist Yuko Hattori told Mongabay. &#8220;Chimpanzee drumming-like behavior has been reported before, for example when they throw stones or hit old tree trunks. However, behavior like this — using a stick in a way that closely resembled playing a drum — has not been reported before.&#8221; Over two years beginning in February 2023, Hattori and her team recorded 89 of Ayumu’s spontaneous performances across 37 days. Their study, published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, found that Ayumu&#8217;s drumming was rhythmically structured, not random, and bore a striking resemblance to the vocal calls chimpanzees use to communicate across long distances. Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are known to drum on the buttress roots of trees, producing low-frequency booms that can be heard more than a kilometer away. A 2025 study in Current Biology analyzed more than 370 drumming bouts across 11 wild chimpanzee communities and found that this percussion is rhythmic and varies by subspecies. Western chimpanzees drum with evenly spaced beats, while eastern chimpanzees alternate between shorter and longer intervals. Ayumu didn&#8217;t just drum, he pried loose floorboards from his&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-chimpanzees-rhythmic-drumming-with-floorboards-hints-at-origins-of-instruments/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-chimpanzees-rhythmic-drumming-with-floorboards-hints-at-origins-of-instruments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317617</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A bonobo named Kanzi could play pretend, challenging ideas about animal imaginations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-bonobo-named-kanzi-could-play-pretend-challenging-ideas-about-animal-imaginations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-bonobo-named-kanzi-could-play-pretend-challenging-ideas-about-animal-imaginations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Mar 2026 15:37:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/18152621/kanzi-700x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315915</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Charismatic Animals, Environment, Great Apes, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Primates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Imagine you&#8217;re at a tea party with a bonobo. What kind of tea are you serving? Are there cakes? What is the bonobo wearing? Is the ability to imagine things unique to humans? According to new evidence from Johns Hopkins University, it is not. A study published in the journal Science in February found that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Imagine you&#8217;re at a tea party with a bonobo. What kind of tea are you serving? Are there cakes? What is the bonobo wearing? Is the ability to imagine things unique to humans? According to new evidence from Johns Hopkins University, it is not. A study published in the journal Science in February found that a bonobo named Kanzi could identify and track pretend objects across a series of controlled experiments. This is the first time imagination has been demonstrated in a nonhuman animal under scientific conditions. The findings suggest that the cognitive machinery underlying imagination may date back 6 to 9 million years to the common ancestor shared by humans and other great apes. &#8220;It really is game-changing that their mental lives go beyond the here and now,&#8221; said co-author Christopher Krupenye, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins, in a press release. &#8220;Imagination has long been seen as a critical element of what it is to be human but the idea that it may not be exclusive to our species is really transformative.&#8221; Kanzi, a 43-year-old bonobo living in captivity at Ape Initiative taught scientists about the bonobo mind. Photo courtesy of Ape Initiative. Kanzi, a 43-year-old bonobo who lived at Ape Initiative, a nonprofit research center in Des Moines, Iowa, had been raised in a captivity and trained to communicate using more than 300 lexigrams (symbols linked to words). He could also respond to spoken English prompts. In the first&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-bonobo-named-kanzi-could-play-pretend-challenging-ideas-about-animal-imaginations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-bonobo-named-kanzi-could-play-pretend-challenging-ideas-about-animal-imaginations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315915</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rodent burrows offer unusual sanctuary to Africa’s smallest wildcat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/rodent-burrows-offer-unusual-sanctuary-to-africas-smallest-wildcat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/rodent-burrows-offer-unusual-sanctuary-to-africas-smallest-wildcat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 11:09:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[María de los Ángeles Orfila]]>
						</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/20/2026/02/09110116/black-footed-cat--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313961</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Namibia, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Environment, Habitat, Mammals, Research, Small Cats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Under cover of night, a black-footed cat moves almost invisibly through the grasses of southern Namibia, hunting small rodents, birds and insects. Barely a third the size of a domestic cat, its tawny coat speckled with dark spots helps it disappear into the darkened landscape. By day, the cat disappears underground, folding its small body [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Under cover of night, a black-footed cat moves almost invisibly through the grasses of southern Namibia, hunting small rodents, birds and insects. Barely a third the size of a domestic cat, its tawny coat speckled with dark spots helps it disappear into the darkened landscape. By day, the cat disappears underground, folding its small body into abandoned burrows and tunnels — a rare behavior among felines. Female Felis nigripes patrol territories covering anywhere from 10 to more than 80 square kilometers (4-31 square miles), depending on prey availability, while males roam areas between 15 and 90 km² (6 and 35 mi2). Their energy and activity, despite their small size, continue to surprise researchers. Alexander Sliwa, project leader for the Black-footed Cat Working Group, an international network monitoring wild populations, notes, “It’s really small, but very active and unique in its nocturnal behavior.” Newly published research, focused on the cats’ daytime activity, has uncovered their heavy reliance on burrows dug by springhares (Pedetes capensis), a large rodent, to raise their young. Female black-footed cats rotate among multiple dens, and once the kittens start moving, the mothers change shelters almost daily, likely to reduce predation risk and avoid leaving traces that predators could follow. Survival in this harsh, semiarid landscape depends not just on stealth and hunting skill, but also on these hidden interdependencies. Black-footed cats range extends across semi-arid landscapes in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. Image courtesy of Hal Brindley. Surviving in borrowed burrows Famously more efficient hunters than lions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/rodent-burrows-offer-unusual-sanctuary-to-africas-smallest-wildcat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/rodent-burrows-offer-unusual-sanctuary-to-africas-smallest-wildcat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313961</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Risk-taking comes earlier in chimpanzees than in humans, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/risk-taking-comes-earlier-in-chimpanzees-than-in-humans-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/risk-taking-comes-earlier-in-chimpanzees-than-in-humans-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 09:07:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/05165444/32723637508_7c81338653_6k-resize-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313806</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Environment, Great Apes, Green, Psychology, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chimpanzees appear to be the biggest daredevils when they&#8217;re infants. Humans tend to take more chances and put themselves in the most danger in adolescence, so the expectation has been that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), among our closest evolutionary cousins, follow a similar pattern. But undergraduate researcher Bryce Murray&#8217;s observations of young chimps — and especially [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Chimpanzees appear to be the biggest daredevils when they&#8217;re infants. Humans tend to take more chances and put themselves in the most danger in adolescence, so the expectation has been that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), among our closest evolutionary cousins, follow a similar pattern. But undergraduate researcher Bryce Murray&#8217;s observations of young chimps — and especially infants — from video shot at the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project in Uganda didn&#8217;t quite jibe with that assumption, according to research published Jan. 16 in the journal iScience. &#8220;I kept seeing these behaviors that seemed very risky,&#8221; Murray, the study&#8217;s lead author and a recent graduate from the University of Michigan in the U.S., told Mongabay. Young chimps, he noticed, frequently leaped through tree branches or dropped from them, flying freely through the air without holding onto anything. An adult female chimpanzee leaping in the forest at Ngogo Chimpanzee Project. Image by Murray et al., 2026 (CC-BY-NC-ND). Chimpanzees are well-adapted to life in the trees, picking up the ability to climb and swing through them as early as 2 years old. That’s an important skill, as high branches offer safety and provide the fruit that makes up the bulk of their diet. Still, it’s hard not to ascribe a bit of ebullience to their looping swings through the canopy. But moving around 10 meters (33 feet) or more above the ground can also be dangerous, particularly in the &#8220;free flight&#8221; incidents that caught Murray’s attention. One study found that around a third of chimp skeletons&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/risk-taking-comes-earlier-in-chimpanzees-than-in-humans-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/risk-taking-comes-earlier-in-chimpanzees-than-in-humans-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://www.cell.com/cms/10.1016/j.isci.2025.114452/attachment/b4c3179f-a430-4aac-a6f1-d182eea6fa0a/mmc1.mp4" length="7424" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313806</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tsunami veteran rescue elephants mobilized for Indonesia cyclone disaster relief</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tsunami-veteran-rescue-elephants-mobilized-for-indonesia-cyclone-disaster-relief/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tsunami-veteran-rescue-elephants-mobilized-for-indonesia-cyclone-disaster-relief/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 04:56:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Junaidi Hanafiah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/18164055/Gajah-bantu-banjir4-2400x890-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311660</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Disasters, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Flooding, Orangutans, Rainforests, Storms, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PIDIE JAYA, Indonesia — A group of specialist Sumatran elephants have joined recovery operations in Aceh following the catastrophic landfall of Cyclone Senyar in late November — two decades after the veteran responders supported rescuers after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. “They’re guided by mahouts who know very well the characteristics of the elephants,” said [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PIDIE JAYA, Indonesia — A group of specialist Sumatran elephants have joined recovery operations in Aceh following the catastrophic landfall of Cyclone Senyar in late November — two decades after the veteran responders supported rescuers after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. “They’re guided by mahouts who know very well the characteristics of the elephants,” said Ujang Wisnu Barata, head of the Aceh conservation agency, the BKSDA. Rescuers in Indonesia’s westernmost region seconded the experienced squad of four to clear heavy debris in the coastal district of Pidie Jaya in semiautonomous Aceh, as recovery operations continued for a third week across much of the north and west of Sumatra Island. Many affected villages remain cut off due to extensive debris and landslides. Cyclone Senyar arrived over northern Sumatra in the early hours of Nov. 26 with 3-hour precipitation accumulation exceeding 130 millimeters (5 inches), meteorology data showed, which is more rain in three hours than the U.K. usually receives through its wettest month of the year. The number of people killed here in Pidie Jaya district stood at 29 on Dec. 18, with the total death toll rising to 1,059 people across three provinces (Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra) amid the worst disaster to hit Indonesia in years. Male elephants Abu, Ajis and Midok, working together with Noni, a female Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), received the assignment in Pidie Jaya district from their base at the Saree Elephant Training Center, which is located in nearby Aceh Besar district. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tsunami-veteran-rescue-elephants-mobilized-for-indonesia-cyclone-disaster-relief/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tsunami-veteran-rescue-elephants-mobilized-for-indonesia-cyclone-disaster-relief/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311660</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Octopus farming is a dangerous detour for marine conservation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/octopus-farming-is-a-dangerous-detour-for-marine-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/octopus-farming-is-a-dangerous-detour-for-marine-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Oct 2025 18:22:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Giulia Malerbi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/01/31144721/1200px-Octopus_vulgaris_2_1200px-cropped-768x470.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307189</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Intelligence, Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, Animals, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystems, Ethics, Fisheries, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Octopus populations across the globe are facing mounting pressures from overfishing, habitat loss and environmental change. In response, an unsubstantiated and misguided proposal has been introduced: farming octopuses in captivity to alleviate wild harvests. In fact, some recently proposed controversial plans claim that closed-cycle octopus farming initiatives aim to reduce fishing pressure on wild octopus [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Octopus populations across the globe are facing mounting pressures from overfishing, habitat loss and environmental change. In response, an unsubstantiated and misguided proposal has been introduced: farming octopuses in captivity to alleviate wild harvests. In fact, some recently proposed controversial plans claim that closed-cycle octopus farming initiatives aim to reduce fishing pressure on wild octopus populations by supplying the market through aquaculture, and even go so far as to suggest that these efforts could contribute to restocking wild populations in the future. But beneath the surface of this seemingly logical solution lies a cascade of ecological and ethical concerns demonstrating that industrialized octopus farming would harm both wild octopus populations and the broader environment. Drawing lessons from other forms of previously established industrial aquaculture practices, experts warn that farming octopuses is not only unsustainable — it could accelerate the very collapse it aims to prevent. Farming carnivores actually intensifies overfishing Octopuses are obligate carnivores, meaning they require a diet based on other marine animals, primarily fish. Farming them demands enormous amounts of wild-caught fish to produce feed, a practice that directly undermines marine biodiversity and resilience. Industrial salmon farming also follows this model and has repeatedly shown how feed demand can devastate forage fish populations — as well as the species that rely on them. Common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) illustration by Comingio Merculiano (1896). Image accessed via Wikimedia Commons. Octopuses also have one of the worst feed conversion rates, requiring protein-rich feed made from wild-caught fish, with estimates suggesting  that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/octopus-farming-is-a-dangerous-detour-for-marine-conservation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/octopus-farming-is-a-dangerous-detour-for-marine-conservation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307189</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Are crows really street smart? Science confirms the genius of corvids (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/are-crows-really-street-smart-science-confirms-the-genius-of-corvids-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/are-crows-really-street-smart-science-confirms-the-genius-of-corvids-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2025 10:04:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Deyatima Ghosh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/19095443/crow-eats-from-bowls-e1755598796265-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304489</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Research, urban ecology, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Corvus splendens — Corvus meaning ‘raven’ in Latin and splendens meaning ‘shining’ or ‘brilliance’ — is a fitting name for the strikingly intelligent birds that house crows are. Crows have long captured human imagination, perhaps most famously in Aesop’s classic fable The Thirsty Crow. In the story, a clever crow finds a pitcher with water [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Corvus splendens — Corvus meaning ‘raven’ in Latin and splendens meaning ‘shining’ or ‘brilliance’ — is a fitting name for the strikingly intelligent birds that house crows are. Crows have long captured human imagination, perhaps most famously in Aesop’s classic fable The Thirsty Crow. In the story, a clever crow finds a pitcher with water too low to reach and solves the problem by dropping pebbles into it, raising the water level until its beak can reach it. For centuries, this tale was seen as mere folklore with a moral: Persistence and intelligence are the key to success — an example of human storytelling rather than avian truth. But, the science of animal cognition, particularly through the pioneering work of researchers such as Sara Shettleworth, Canadian experimental psychologist and zoologist, began to challenge those assumptions. Shettleworth and others asked: what if these stories held a kernel of truth? Could animals like crows really think through problems, use tools, and even plan ahead? As research progressed, especially within the field of comparative cognition, scientists began to uncover astonishing evidence that corvids — like crows, ravens, jays and jackdaws — possess advanced mental abilities. Experiments inspired by the fable, in which real crows were presented with water-filled tubes and objects to drop in, showed that New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) dropped stones into water-filled tubes rather than sand-filled ones, chose sinking objects over floating ones, preferred solid to hollow materials, and even targeted tubes with higher water levels — choices that suggest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/are-crows-really-street-smart-science-confirms-the-genius-of-corvids-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/are-crows-really-street-smart-science-confirms-the-genius-of-corvids-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304489</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It’s time to update the language of human-wildlife interactions (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/its-time-to-update-the-language-of-human-wildlife-interactions-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/its-time-to-update-the-language-of-human-wildlife-interactions-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Aug 2025 22:28:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tracie McKinney]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/21070551/4-Kavanthissa-0-another-tusker-crossing-road-c-Gimantha-e1755210123630-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304321</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Commentary, Communication, Conflict, Conservation, Elephants, Environment, Ethics, Human-wildlife Conflict, Invasive Species, Language, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Language shapes the way we view our world. In the field of wildlife conservation, even very subtle word choices drive peoples’ perceptions around individual species or situations. These word choices can be illustrated by the language associated with wildlife value orientations (WVO). When asked about views toward wildlife, individuals often fall into one of two [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Language shapes the way we view our world. In the field of wildlife conservation, even very subtle word choices drive peoples’ perceptions around individual species or situations. These word choices can be illustrated by the language associated with wildlife value orientations (WVO). When asked about views toward wildlife, individuals often fall into one of two camps: domination or mutualism. Those with a domination perspective tend to view wildlife as a resource to be controlled and used according to human needs. People with a mutualism ideology see wildlife as an extended part of our community, and therefore deserving of our respect and protection. Words like “management” or “resources” are associated with a domination perspective, while those with a mutualism orientation are more likely to view wildlife in human terms, or focus on animal welfare. Wildlife value orientations are influenced by many social and economic factors, and they are not static. Attitudes in both the U.S. and the U.K. have moved from domination to more mutualism orientations, and this change is strongest in younger and more educated groups. As attitudes toward wildlife shift over time, the language we use to describe other animals will naturally change. Conservationists can actively encourage shifting perspectives toward more positive interactions with wildlife by choosing their language carefully. Some terms that should be replaced are “human-wildlife conflict,” “crop-raiding” and “pest,” because this language depicts humans and nonhumans as enemies. A chain-link fence erected to exclude wildlife from crops in Chanachen village, Chhukha district, Bhutan. Image by Norbu&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/its-time-to-update-the-language-of-human-wildlife-interactions-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/its-time-to-update-the-language-of-human-wildlife-interactions-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304321</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Orcas discovered making tools from seaweed to ‘massage’ each other</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/orcas-discovered-making-tools-from-seaweed-to-massage-each-other/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/orcas-discovered-making-tools-from-seaweed-to-massage-each-other/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2025 15:18:01 +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/20/2025/06/25150728/Two-whales-allokelping-with-a-small-length-of-kelp-stem-visible-between-them.-Center-for-Whale-Research-NMFS-NOAA-Permit-27038-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301376</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, North America, Pacific Ocean, United States, and Washington]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Cetaceans, Mammals, Marine, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Whales, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;We were amazed when we first noticed this behavior,&#8221; said Michael Weiss, research director at the Center for Whale Research in the U.S. state of Washington. What started as a puzzling observation in drone footage revealed something unexpected: killer whales are making tools from a type of seaweed called kelp. The behavior, dubbed &#8220;allokelping&#8221; (kelping [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;We were amazed when we first noticed this behavior,&#8221; said Michael Weiss, research director at the Center for Whale Research in the U.S. state of Washington. What started as a puzzling observation in drone footage revealed something unexpected: killer whales are making tools from a type of seaweed called kelp. The behavior, dubbed &#8220;allokelping&#8221; (kelping with another whale), represents the first evidence of toolmaking by marine mammals. The finding is detailed in a recently published paper in the journal Current Biology. Southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca ater) in Washington&#8217;s Salish Sea have been observed biting off the ends of bull kelp stalks, positioning the trimmed pieces between themselves and a partner, then rolling the kelp between their bodies for extended periods. &#8220;Bull kelp stalk is firm but flexible, like a filled garden hose, with a slippery outer surface,&#8221; Weiss said. &#8220;I suspect these features make it an ideal grooming tool.&#8221; Orca whale fashioning kelp stipes for allokelping. (Left) A grasps a kelp stalk by the holdfast end and (Right) detaches a short segment. Aerial images courtesy of Center for Whale Research, NMFS NOAA Research permit 27038. Figure from Weiss et. al. 2025 The discovery emerged when researchers upgraded their drone equipment in 2024, allowing them to capture high-quality, zoomed-in footage of the whales. Rachel John, a master’s degree student studying animal behavior at the University of Exeter, U.K., was the first to spot the unusual behavior. &#8220;I was watching one of those really close-up videos when I saw something that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/orcas-discovered-making-tools-from-seaweed-to-massage-each-other/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/orcas-discovered-making-tools-from-seaweed-to-massage-each-other/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301376</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Our responsibility for cetacean conservation grows with proof of their intelligence (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/our-responsibility-for-cetacean-conservation-grows-with-proof-of-their-intelligence-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/our-responsibility-for-cetacean-conservation-grows-with-proof-of-their-intelligence-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2025 17:38:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Avery Ancell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/08171641/GP04PW7-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298843</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean, Global, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Cetaceans, Commentary, Conservation, Dolphins, Environment, Ethics, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Research, Whales, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The search for intelligent life is looking in the wrong direction. There are billions of stars in our galaxy, some of them older than our sun and with Earth-like planets orbiting around them. Hypothetically, these other solar systems could have started their development of intelligent life billions of years before ours. So, why haven&#8217;t we [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The search for intelligent life is looking in the wrong direction. There are billions of stars in our galaxy, some of them older than our sun and with Earth-like planets orbiting around them. Hypothetically, these other solar systems could have started their development of intelligent life billions of years before ours. So, why haven&#8217;t we found evidence of any other advanced civilizations? Are the conditions on Earth so unique that life really could only arise here? Maybe. If that is the case, intelligent life is an anomaly that could only thrive under particular and coincidental conditions that Earth has supplied. Humans are not the only species that have formed intelligence in this “goldilocks melting pot” of conditions. Perhaps centuries of human-centered thinking have prevented us from beginning to understand the intelligence of other species here on Earth. We must look down into the ocean before we look to the stars: in recent years, scientists have questioned what have fundamentally been understood to be human traits. We are on the precipice of understanding modes of intelligence, consciousness and communication in species other than humans. But what does that mean for people and the assumptions of anthropocentrism? We as humans are less unique than we thought, and as we break down the barriers of what it means to be human, our responsibility for biodiversity conservation increases. Blue whale spouting off the coast of Kaikoura, Aotearoa (New Zealand) on February 11th, 2024. Image courtesy of Avery Ancell. Cetaceans — whales, dolphins and porpoises&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/our-responsibility-for-cetacean-conservation-grows-with-proof-of-their-intelligence-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/our-responsibility-for-cetacean-conservation-grows-with-proof-of-their-intelligence-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298843</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Meet the giant rats fighting wildlife trafficking</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/meet-the-giant-rats-fighting-wildlife-trafficking/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/meet-the-giant-rats-fighting-wildlife-trafficking/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Feb 2025 18:12:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lucia Torres]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/12064806/DSCF1073-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294215</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Videos, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MOROGORO, Tanzania — Often dismissed as pests, rats have long been misunderstood. But the African giant pouched rat (Cricetomys ansorgei), the world’s longest, is challenging that perception. With its intelligence and super sense of smell, this species has captured the interest of scientists in Tanzania, who now plan to use it as a crime fighter [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MOROGORO, Tanzania — Often dismissed as pests, rats have long been misunderstood. But the African giant pouched rat (Cricetomys ansorgei), the world’s longest, is challenging that perception. With its intelligence and super sense of smell, this species has captured the interest of scientists in Tanzania, who now plan to use it as a crime fighter against illegally trafficked wildlife parts. This story starts in the 1990s, when industrial engineer Bart Weetjens was looking for viable technologies to detect landmines in countries in the Global South. He then had a thought: Why not use rats? They’re cheap, possess remarkable olfactory systems, and are social and intelligent animals, contrary to popular belief. And so Weetjens founded APOPO, a nonprofit rat training organization based in the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania, home to the largest and longest-living rat species. Some of the African giant pouched rats trained by APOPO can live up to a decade, while typical domestic rats typically live only two to four years. This longer lifespan, along with their exceptional sense of smell, has made the African giant pouched rat of invaluable service for many years in various projects. Previous generations of these giant rats have successfully assisted in landmine detection, which was Weetjens&#8217;s initial goal, and in detecting tuberculosis. Now, the rats have been trained for a new project, focusing on tackling the illegal wildlife trade. In its final trial stages, trainers have worked with the first cohort of wildlife detection rats. A wildlife detection rat looks&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/meet-the-giant-rats-fighting-wildlife-trafficking/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/meet-the-giant-rats-fighting-wildlife-trafficking/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294215</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Birds guide honey-hunters to most of their harvest in Mozambican reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/birds-guide-honey-hunters-to-most-of-their-harvest-in-mozambican-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/birds-guide-honey-hunters-to-most-of-their-harvest-in-mozambican-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Feb 2025 09:16:17 +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/20/2025/02/07084021/IahaiaBuanachique.CarvalhoIssaNanguar_NiassaSRMozambique_ClaireSpottiswoode-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294059</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Mutualism, Natural Resources, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Honey-hunters in northern Mozambique rely on honeyguide birds to locate three-quarters of their harvest each year, a new study says, underscoring the economic value these wild birds play in the lives of one of the country’s remotest communities. Honey-hunters in all 47 villages in the 4.2-million-hectare (10.4-million-acre) Niassa Special Reserve get help from the birds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Honey-hunters in northern Mozambique rely on honeyguide birds to locate three-quarters of their harvest each year, a new study says, underscoring the economic value these wild birds play in the lives of one of the country’s remotest communities. Honey-hunters in all 47 villages in the 4.2-million-hectare (10.4-million-acre) Niassa Special Reserve get help from the birds to find wild bees’ nests, says study lead author and behavioral ecologist Jessica van der Wal. “It’s quite a vital income and an addition to other livelihood options they have, such as fishing and farming,” Van der Wal says. The honey-hunters use unique calls to attract greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator), small brown birds a little bigger and leaner than sparrows, that lead them to the nests of African honey bees (Apis mellifera scutellata). The hunters then subdue the bees with smoke and prise open the nests to extract the honeycombs, leaving beeswax and larvae as a reward for their honeyguide companions. The researchers interviewed 141 honey hunters in 13 villages in Niassa in 2019, and combined that data with figures on honey hunting collected by community wildlife guardians in 46 of the reserve’s 47 villages. For nearly 20 years these guardians, who include both men and women recruited in the villages where they were born and raised, have collected information ranging from baboon raids on people’s crops, to the size and type of fish caught in Niassa’s rivers. But they have also, since 2021, documented quantities of honey collected by honey-hunters with help from honeyguides. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/birds-guide-honey-hunters-to-most-of-their-harvest-in-mozambican-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/birds-guide-honey-hunters-to-most-of-their-harvest-in-mozambican-reserve/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294059</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Orangutan conservation and communication: Gary Shapiro’s half-century journey from zoos to the wilds of Borneo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/orangutan-conservation-and-communication-gary-shapiros-half-century-journey-from-zoos-to-the-wilds-of-borneo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/orangutan-conservation-and-communication-gary-shapiros-half-century-journey-from-zoos-to-the-wilds-of-borneo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Oct 2024 16:19:57 +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/20/2024/10/06211346/Gary-and-Rinnie-Brindamour-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288231</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, Animals, Apes, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Great Apes, Green, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mammals, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Primates, Rainforest Destruction, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Orangutans have long captured the human imagination, their expressive eyes and human-like behaviors drawing parallels with our own species. Yet few individuals have had the opportunity to dive as deeply into the minds and lives of these great apes as Gary L. Shapiro.  A pioneer in primate communication, Dr. Shapiro’s work spans five decades, encompassing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Orangutans have long captured the human imagination, their expressive eyes and human-like behaviors drawing parallels with our own species. Yet few individuals have had the opportunity to dive as deeply into the minds and lives of these great apes as Gary L. Shapiro.  A pioneer in primate communication, Dr. Shapiro’s work spans five decades, encompassing not only groundbreaking studies in orangutan cognition but also a lifelong commitment to their conservation. Now, as his book Out of the Cage: My Half Century Journey from Curiosity to Concern for Indonesia&#8217;s “Persons of the Forest” prepares to hit the shelves, Shapiro reflects on the unique journey that brought him from the academic study of animal behavior to the jungles of Borneo, where he lived among and communicated with ex-captive orangutans. Shapiro’s foray into the world of orangutan communication was almost serendipitous. As a graduate student in the 1970s, he was inspired by the pioneering work of Drs. Allen and Beatrix Gardner, who had famously taught a chimpanzee to use American Sign Language. Shapiro soon found himself at Fresno City Zoo, where a juvenile orangutan named Aazk became the first of her kind to be taught an artificial symbolic language. This initial research planted the seeds of what would become Shapiro’s lifelong fascination with orangutan cognition and communication, leading him to a remote part of Indonesian Borneo in the late 1970s, where he conducted the first study of sign language in great apes living in their natural environment. Ex-captive orangutans at Camp Leakey in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/orangutan-conservation-and-communication-gary-shapiros-half-century-journey-from-zoos-to-the-wilds-of-borneo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/orangutan-conservation-and-communication-gary-shapiros-half-century-journey-from-zoos-to-the-wilds-of-borneo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288231</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From prison psychologist to wildlife whisperer: Interview with Susan Eirich</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/from-prison-psychologist-to-wildlife-whisperer-interview-with-susan-eirich/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/from-prison-psychologist-to-wildlife-whisperer-interview-with-susan-eirich/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2024 14:54:34 +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/20/2024/09/11172430/Screenshot-2024-09-11-at-12.23.59-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287276</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Pet Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, Wildlife Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ramble Bear, a 23-year-old rescued Hokkaido brown bear, acts more like a poodle than a predator. He blinks and licks my hand through the protective fence, very demure. His tongue is surprisingly soft. “He’s a big show off,” Susan B. Eirich, licensed psychologist, biologist, and founder of Earthfire Institute Wildlife Sanctuary &#38; Retreat Center, tells [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ramble Bear, a 23-year-old rescued Hokkaido brown bear, acts more like a poodle than a predator. He blinks and licks my hand through the protective fence, very demure. His tongue is surprisingly soft. “He’s a big show off,” Susan B. Eirich, licensed psychologist, biologist, and founder of Earthfire Institute Wildlife Sanctuary &amp; Retreat Center, tells me during my visit to the center just west of Grand Teton National Park in the U.S. state of Idaho. Eirich has a biology degree, but after getting a Ph.D. in psychology decided to work with people in maximum-security prisons. Then, in the late 1990s, her life took an unexpected turn when she was invited to help raise seven wolf puppies rescued from a movie set. “When you get an offer like that, you drop everything,” Eirich says. “Holding those puppies close to your heart while you&#8217;re feeding them and feeling their heart beating and feeling their vitality — I just fell hopelessly, totally, completely in love.” Susan Eirich with the foundling wolf pups that inspired the Earthfire Institute. Photo courtesy of Earthfire Institute. That love was a catalyst for action, and in 2000, Eirich and her late partner, Jean Simpson, who was a professional wild animal trainer, founded the Earthfire Institute. The now 165-acre (67-hectare) property connects to the Yellowstone-to-Yukon migration corridor, protecting critical habitat for the biodiversity in the region. Eirich has shared this wildlife sanctuary with bears, bison, bobcats, chickens, cougars, coyotes, deer, donkeys, foxes, horses, lynx, porcupines, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, turkeys,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/from-prison-psychologist-to-wildlife-whisperer-interview-with-susan-eirich/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/from-prison-psychologist-to-wildlife-whisperer-interview-with-susan-eirich/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287276</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ants perform life-saving amputations on injured nestmates, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/ants-perform-life-saving-amputations-on-injured-nestmates-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/ants-perform-life-saving-amputations-on-injured-nestmates-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Aug 2024 18:11:33 +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/20/2024/08/02165543/230427_Camponotus_fellah_026-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285619</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Florida and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Ants, Biodiversity, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Insects, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ants perform amputations on injured nestmates to save their lives, according to a new study. The research published in the journal Current Biology found that Florida carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus) can assess wound locations and adjust their treatment accordingly —a level of medical intervention previously only observed in humans. “The fact that the ants are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ants perform amputations on injured nestmates to save their lives, according to a new study. The research published in the journal Current Biology found that Florida carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus) can assess wound locations and adjust their treatment accordingly —a level of medical intervention previously only observed in humans. “The fact that the ants are able to diagnose a wound, see if it&#8217;s infected or sterile, and treat it accordingly over long periods of time by other individuals — the only medical system that can rival that would be the human one,” said Erik Frank, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Würzburg in Germany and lead author of the study. The research team observed that when a carpenter ant&#8217;s leg was injured at the thigh (femur), other ants would bite off the entire limb at the base. This radical procedure prevented life-threatening infections from spreading through the injured ant’s body. Remarkably, about 90% of the amputated ants survived the treatment and resumed their full range of duties in the nest despite losing one of their six legs. &#8220;Our study proves for the first time that animals also use prophylactic amputations in the course of wound treatment. And it shows that the ants orientate the treatment to the type of injury,&#8221; said Laurent Keller, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and senior author of the study. https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/02180759/4mbvid.mp4 A Florida carpenter ant amputating the leg of a nestmate in a laboratory experiment. Video by Dany Buffat. When&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/ants-perform-life-saving-amputations-on-injured-nestmates-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/ants-perform-life-saving-amputations-on-injured-nestmates-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/02180759/4mbvid.mp4" length="3858137" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285619</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Know your salamander: To conserve amphibians, study their intelligence (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/know-your-salamander-to-conserve-amphibians-study-their-intelligence-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/know-your-salamander-to-conserve-amphibians-study-their-intelligence-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2024 08:06:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Deyatima Ghosh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/13073340/pawel-sroka-NFdCv-35V3I-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283184</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Ethics, Global Environmental Crisis, Herps, Research, Salamanders, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“We (humans) are trying to get under the skin of other species, trying to understand them on their terms. And the more we succeed, the more we discover a natural landscape dotted with magic wells.” — Frans de Waal. After years of questioning, skepticism and denial, we are finally ready to embrace the beauty of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“We (humans) are trying to get under the skin of other species, trying to understand them on their terms. And the more we succeed, the more we discover a natural landscape dotted with magic wells.” — Frans de Waal. After years of questioning, skepticism and denial, we are finally ready to embrace the beauty of the animal mind. Primates have contributed enormously to the understanding of mental abilities mostly for their “human-like” behaviors or close links to humans which made ethologists keen to study cognition in other animals such as birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes as well as invertebrates such as cephalopods. Although, initially, cognition has been compared on a single scale where humans occupy the top tier and moves downwards to other mammals, the more we started discarding our human standards of understanding capacities in animals, the more the scale was broken into bushes with several branches. Each such branch is unique and is occupied by a group of animals that expresses mental capabilities at their finest level. Salamanders are of interest, and here’s why Amphibians occupy one such branch which is least explored. Among the amphibians, Caudata, including salamanders, still remain a mystery at large. The etymology comes from Greek which means “fire lizard.” Salamanders, which occur in North America, Europe, Asia, northern parts of South America and north Africa, resemble lizards without scales. Around 60% of salamander species are threatened with extinction and are in urgent need of conservation. A California tiger salamander, which is listed as &#8216;Vulnerable&#8217;&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/know-your-salamander-to-conserve-amphibians-study-their-intelligence-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/know-your-salamander-to-conserve-amphibians-study-their-intelligence-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283184</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No joking: Great apes can be silly and playfully tease each other, finds study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/no-joking-great-apes-can-be-silly-and-playfully-tease-each-other-finds-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/no-joking-great-apes-can-be-silly-and-playfully-tease-each-other-finds-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Mar 2024 17:07:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/08154758/happy-chimps-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279679</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Bonobos, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Mammals, Primates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Being silly and indulging in humor may sound easy, but our brains need to do a lot of heavy lifting to pull it off. Landing a joke requires recognizing what’s socially acceptable, being spontaneous, predicting how others may react, and playfully violating some social expectations. Until now, research on the complex cognitive abilities that underpin [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Being silly and indulging in humor may sound easy, but our brains need to do a lot of heavy lifting to pull it off. Landing a joke requires recognizing what’s socially acceptable, being spontaneous, predicting how others may react, and playfully violating some social expectations. Until now, research on the complex cognitive abilities that underpin humor has focused primarily on  humans, while other species are understudied. In a recent study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers present the first evidence of playful teasing behavior in great apes. Thought to be a precursor to joking, playful teasing involves the teaser performing provocative actions such as poking, hitting or pulling on a body part with playful rather than aggressive intent. Although primatologists in the past, including Jane Goodall, have anecdotally described great apes as being silly and pestering others, this is the first study to systematically describe the behavior in zoo-housed chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans. Two gorillas playing. Image by Max Block. “Playful teasing is interesting because it&#8217;s really getting at that teasing component — an individual motivated behavior that is trying to create something akin to joking or being silly,” said primatologist Ammie Kalan from the University of Victoria, Canada, who was not involved in the study. “One of the things that I think is cool with this paper is that they&#8217;re purposely trying to set [playful teasing] apart from play.” The researchers studied videos of social interactions between the members of each ape group&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/no-joking-great-apes-can-be-silly-and-playfully-tease-each-other-finds-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/no-joking-great-apes-can-be-silly-and-playfully-tease-each-other-finds-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279679</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Male dominance isn’t the default in primate societies, new study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/male-dominance-isnt-the-default-in-primate-societies-new-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/male-dominance-isnt-the-default-in-primate-societies-new-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2024 17:01:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tina Deines]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/04065808/Mullers_Gibbon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279417</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Bonobos, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Gibbons, Great Apes, Mammals, Monkeys, Primates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s a man’s world when it comes to ape societies — at least, that’s been the prevailing assumption for years. But some recent research is shaking up how we think about this group of primates to which humans belong. Rebecca Lewis, a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, is the lead [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s a man’s world when it comes to ape societies — at least, that’s been the prevailing assumption for years. But some recent research is shaking up how we think about this group of primates to which humans belong. Rebecca Lewis, a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, is the lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Animals in November. She and her research team reviewed previous literature on 79 primate species, including nine ape species, and grouped them into one of three categories: male-dominant, female-dominant, and co-dominant. The conclusion? “Non-male biased power is not uncommon,” Lewis says. Of the species surveyed, 58% were found to have male-biased power structures, but female- or co-dominant structures were found within every major primate group, including gibbons (lesser apes) and great apes. All five species of gibbons that were evaluated — lar (Hylobates lar), Müller’s (H. muelleri), agile (H. agilis) and pileated gibbons (H. pileatus), and siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus) — were classified as non-male-dominant. Among the great apes, bonobos (Pan paniscus), which are known for their matriarchal societies, are the only species to live in non-male-dominant groups. According to Lewis, a good indicator for a female- or co-dominant species is similar size in body and canine teeth between the sexes. The smaller the difference, or sexual dimorphism, the more level the playing field between males and females. For instance, siamangs only have a slight degree of sexual dimorphism, with males weighing just a few kilos&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/male-dominance-isnt-the-default-in-primate-societies-new-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/male-dominance-isnt-the-default-in-primate-societies-new-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279417</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bonobos and chimps recall friends and family even after years apart: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/bonobos-and-chimps-recall-friends-and-family-even-after-years-apart-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/bonobos-and-chimps-recall-friends-and-family-even-after-years-apart-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jan 2024 06:42:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/12143111/bonobos-and-chimps-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277627</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Bonobos, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Mammals, Primates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Louise hadn’t seen Loretta in at least 26 years. But when a photo of her sister flashed before her, she seemed drawn to the image. This recognition of a family member might seem unremarkable, but Louise is a bonobo, and her apparent ability to reach into memory and direct attention to Loretta could be evidence [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Louise hadn’t seen Loretta in at least 26 years. But when a photo of her sister flashed before her, she seemed drawn to the image. This recognition of a family member might seem unremarkable, but Louise is a bonobo, and her apparent ability to reach into memory and direct attention to Loretta could be evidence of the “longest-lasting nonhuman social memory” on the scientific record. Louise participated in an experiment that tested the social memory of bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) based on how much attention they paid to photos of social mates and kin versus images of strangers. It suggested the great apes seem to remember their friends and family even after years apart. “It&#8217;s not surprising that they remember others for years. What was surprising is how long their memory seems to last,” Laura Simone Lewis, lead author of a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, told Mongabay. Lewis’s curiosity about great apes’ ability to recall known individuals stemmed from her own experience studying them and accounts from other great ape researchers. Their subjects appeared to recognize them even after gaps of months, sometimes years, said Lewis, a biological anthropologist at Harvard University at the time of the study, and now with the University of California, Berkeley. The ability to remember other individuals isn’t unique to humans. Scientists have shown that dolphins can identify other dolphins’ vocal signatures even after 20 years of separation. This research in cetaceans provided proof&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/bonobos-and-chimps-recall-friends-and-family-even-after-years-apart-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/bonobos-and-chimps-recall-friends-and-family-even-after-years-apart-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277627</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study on evolution of same-sex animal behaviors underscores stigmas in research</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/study-on-evolution-of-same-sex-animal-behaviors-underscores-stigmas-in-research/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/study-on-evolution-of-same-sex-animal-behaviors-underscores-stigmas-in-research/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2023 01:30:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Swati Thapa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/12152721/mallard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276622</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Evolution, Fellows, Research, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The study of animals has always been a point of curiosity for many scientists across disciplines and has contributed to our understanding of the world. While many scientists in evolutionary biology have questioned different animal behaviors, same-sex sexual behavior in animals is a topic that is seeing increasing interest. This growing field of research has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The study of animals has always been a point of curiosity for many scientists across disciplines and has contributed to our understanding of the world. While many scientists in evolutionary biology have questioned different animal behaviors, same-sex sexual behavior in animals is a topic that is seeing increasing interest. This growing field of research has amassed a list of 1,500 animal species exhibiting same-sex sexual behavior. Now, a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications has traced the evolution of same-sex sexual behavior in all mammals, using phylogenetic analysis, a method that traces evolutionary relationships among biological entities. Such behavior, which is common in mammals, may have evolved in part “to establish, maintain and strengthen social relationships that may increase bonds and alliance between members of the same group,” the authors write. &#8220;Our study has tested for the first time two adaptive hypotheses on the origin and maintenance of same-sex sexual behavior using a large group of animals, the class Mammalia,” says José Maria Gómez, an evolutionary biologist at the Experimental Station of Arid Zones in Almería, Spain, and an author of the study. “In this sense, our study provides strong evidence that this sexual behavior is functional and plays an important role, at least in this group of animals.” In their study, Gómez says the scientists conclude that social behavior that helped maintain positive social relationships and mitigate intrasexual aggression were two factors shaping the evolution of these behaviors. The former factor did so for both males and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/study-on-evolution-of-same-sex-animal-behaviors-underscores-stigmas-in-research/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/study-on-evolution-of-same-sex-animal-behaviors-underscores-stigmas-in-research/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276622</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How wild elephants solve puzzles may help humans resolve wildlife conflicts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/how-wild-elephants-solve-puzzles-may-help-humans-resolve-wildlife-conflicts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/how-wild-elephants-solve-puzzles-may-help-humans-resolve-wildlife-conflicts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2023 10:58:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/23135332/wild-elephant-2744258_1920-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274517</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Research, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Opening doors may not seem that hard, but when you have a trunk instead of hands, things can get complicated. Researchers tested the problem-solving skills of wild elephants for the first time by tasking the jumbos with doing just that. Elephants are brainy. An adult elephant’s brain weighs 5 kilograms (11 pounds), the largest of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Opening doors may not seem that hard, but when you have a trunk instead of hands, things can get complicated. Researchers tested the problem-solving skills of wild elephants for the first time by tasking the jumbos with doing just that. Elephants are brainy. An adult elephant’s brain weighs 5 kilograms (11 pounds), the largest of any terrestrial animal (and three times the size of the human brain). From living in complex social groups mourning their dead to finding elusive water sources, pachyderms display a range of intelligent behaviors. “In other species that have been tested for innovation, bigger brains have been correlated with more innovation,” said Sarah Jacobson at the City University of New York’s Comparative Cognition for Conservation Lab. “We wanted to come up with a way to measure this in wild elephants.” To find out if more gray matter actually translates to better problem-solving skills, Jacobson and her team designed an experiment engaging Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) at Thailand’s Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary in an open-air puzzle. They came up with a contraption with three small compartments that had doors that opened in three different ways: push, pull, and slide. Inside each nook lay a morsel of juicy jackfruit, their favorite snack. Five of the 44 elephants that engaged with the box managed to open all three doors. Eight managed to open two, and another 11 opened just one. The number of doors they opened captured their ability to innovate under the experiment, with the findings recently published in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/how-wild-elephants-solve-puzzles-may-help-humans-resolve-wildlife-conflicts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/how-wild-elephants-solve-puzzles-may-help-humans-resolve-wildlife-conflicts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274517</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ground-nesting chimps hold lessons for conservation — and for human evolution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/ground-nesting-chimps-hold-lessons-for-conservation-and-for-human-evolution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/ground-nesting-chimps-hold-lessons-for-conservation-and-for-human-evolution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Apr 2023 14:42:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ini Ekott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/27114302/Pan-troglodytes-schweinfurthii-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267952</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Chimpanzees, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Great Apes, Mammals, Primates, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chimpanzees tend to sleep more on the ground than previously thought, a behavior that has implications for their conservation and could help explain how and when early humans abandoned trees to set up home on the ground, a new study says. Until now, nesting on the ground was considered rare in most populations of chimpanzees. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Chimpanzees tend to sleep more on the ground than previously thought, a behavior that has implications for their conservation and could help explain how and when early humans abandoned trees to set up home on the ground, a new study says. Until now, nesting on the ground was considered rare in most populations of chimpanzees. It’s known to be typical of gorillas, in part because of their weight. Fully grown gorillas can weigh more than 200 kilograms (440 pounds), making it difficult to find trees that will support a nest. A new study found that relatively small-bodied eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in northern Democratic Republic of Congo frequently build nests and sleep overnight on the ground. The study also found this behavior continued even when the chimps share their territory with humans, or with powerful predators like lions, leopards or hyenas; what does keep them off the ground is human hunting. The findings have implications for the conservation of chimpanzees. More profoundly, the researchers say their findings suggest that humankind&#8217;s ancestors could have moved from the trees to the ground earlier than previously believed. “We have shown that ground nesting is not only common in gorillas, but also in our closer cousins chimpanzees, across a large part of their range (Northern DR Congo),” said study lead author Toni Romani, a researcher at the University of Warsaw. “This has relevance to our understanding of the factors that drove our own ancestors to become fully terrestrial.” A flimsy chimpanzee ground nest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/ground-nesting-chimps-hold-lessons-for-conservation-and-for-human-evolution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/ground-nesting-chimps-hold-lessons-for-conservation-and-for-human-evolution/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267952</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Understanding reptile intelligence can aid conservation and safeguard ecosystems (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/reptile-intelligence-can-help-conservation-and-safeguard-ecosystems-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/reptile-intelligence-can-help-conservation-and-safeguard-ecosystems-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jan 2023 07:51:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Deyatima Ghosh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/19073604/hasmik-ghazaryan-olson-N_GrR8c2EMk-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264715</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Herps, Reptiles, Research, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Deep inside the skull of every one of us there is something like a brain of a crocodile” &#8211; Carl Sagan, Cosmos. In science, reptiles have been considered to be of lower intelligence compared to birds and mammals. Dimwitted, even. But over the last decade, significant research has been out in reptile cognition, and the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Deep inside the skull of every one of us there is something like a brain of a crocodile” &#8211; Carl Sagan, Cosmos. In science, reptiles have been considered to be of lower intelligence compared to birds and mammals. Dimwitted, even. But over the last decade, significant research has been out in reptile cognition, and the results have been truly exhilarating. Mammals and birds are generally considered the intelligent class of animals. However, the basic brain structure in both these classes is similar to that of the reptilian brain, which diversified 280 million years ago. Reptiles and mammals are the only vertebrates to have a cerebral cortex with a clear, though simple, three-layered structure, similar to that of the mammalian allocortex. The reptilian ventral pallium gives rise to the dorsal ventricular ridge, which contributes to the complex cognitive abilities of birds. Although the reptilian cortex contains fewer subdivisions than mammals, the fundamental parts remain the same. It is subdivided into a medial cortex, better known as the hippocampus; a lateral cortex, equivalent to the mammalian piriform cortex; and a dorsal cortex which receives multimodal inputs (like the visual inputs in turtles). Perhaps there is no reason to not acknowledge the cognitive abilities in reptiles, as, since they evolved, there has been enough time for further evolution of the cognitive mechanisms. Besides, the basic brain structure of reptiles should also share behavioral and morphological similarities with mammals and birds. Charles Darwin, in his second book &#8220;The Descent of Man and Selection in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/reptile-intelligence-can-help-conservation-and-safeguard-ecosystems-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/reptile-intelligence-can-help-conservation-and-safeguard-ecosystems-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264715</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tuning in to the world of nonhuman sound: Q&#038;A with author Karen Bakker</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/tuning-in-to-the-world-of-nonhuman-sound-qa-with-author-karen-bakker/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/tuning-in-to-the-world-of-nonhuman-sound-qa-with-author-karen-bakker/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Oct 2022 11:05:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/18105740/elephants-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261581</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Books, Communication, Conservation, Environment, Interviews, Oceans, Plants, Rainforests, Technology, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In her new book, Karen Bakker relates a story from Brazilian researcher Rafael José de Menezes Bastos that crystallizes how differently some humans process and respond to the sounds around them. Bastos has spent time living and traveling with the Kamayurá Indigenous people in Brazil. Once, a Kamayurá friend named Ekwa had asked Bastos if [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In her new book, Karen Bakker relates a story from Brazilian researcher Rafael José de Menezes Bastos that crystallizes how differently some humans process and respond to the sounds around them. Bastos has spent time living and traveling with the Kamayurá Indigenous people in Brazil. Once, a Kamayurá friend named Ekwa had asked Bastos if he could “hear the fish singing” as the two glided across the surface of a lake in a canoe. Bastos didn’t know what Ekwa was talking about. Years later, when the anthropologist heard recordings of actual fish songs, he realized Ekwa had been perceiving something more than a whimsical “flight of imagination.” “Bastos’s ears had been closed, but Ekwa’s ears were open,” Bakker writes in The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants, published by Princeton University Press. The book explores what nonhuman sound can teach us about our changing world — and ourselves. Bastos’s experience led him to appreciate the value of deep listening as practiced by Indigenous cultures like the Kamayurá and, as he put it, to see Ekwa as “more like a diligent ichthyologist than an inspired poet, a victim of hallucination or holy rapture.” Karen Bakker, author of The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants. Images courtesy of Paul Joseph/UBC Brand &amp; Marketing (left) and Princeton University Press (right). Later in The Sounds of Life, Bakker quotes bioacoustician Michel André&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/tuning-in-to-the-world-of-nonhuman-sound-qa-with-author-karen-bakker/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/tuning-in-to-the-world-of-nonhuman-sound-qa-with-author-karen-bakker/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/18101330/humpback-whale-2.mp4" length="414200" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261581</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Easygoing bonobos accepting of outsiders, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/easygoing-bonobos-accepting-of-outsiders-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/easygoing-bonobos-accepting-of-outsiders-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2022 13:24:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/07130703/bonobo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261276</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Bonobos, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Mammals, Primates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bonobos, sometimes referred to as the &#8220;hippies&#8221; of the ape kingdom, have long been known for their relatively peaceful relations within core family groups. But there’s been less consensus about how amicably bonobos (Pan paniscus) interact with individuals outside of their family structure. A recent study set out to measure how much tolerance bonobos extend [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bonobos, sometimes referred to as the &#8220;hippies&#8221; of the ape kingdom, have long been known for their relatively peaceful relations within core family groups. But there’s been less consensus about how amicably bonobos (Pan paniscus) interact with individuals outside of their family structure. A recent study set out to measure how much tolerance bonobos extend to individuals perceived as members of an outside group — a behavior that has been routinely challenged due to a lack of data on the species’ group dynamics. Researchers followed habituated bonobo groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo&#8217;s Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve and compared their behavior to chimpanzee groups in Uganda&#8217;s Kibale National Park. According to their research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, bonobos form distinct and stable core groups, but also exhibit flexible associations and frequent tolerant and cooperative between-group interactions. Shared grooming among bonobos is indicative of their group dynamics, which includes tolerance and cooperation. Image courtesy of Martin Surbeck. Frequent and peaceable interactions Liran Samuni, lead author of the study, told Mongabay in an email that while bonobos do appear to be tolerant of unfamiliar individuals, research is limited as to whether bonobos perceive these unknown individuals as belonging to a socially distinct &#8220;out-group&#8221; or simply as part of a large, looser group of bonobos. “This is the main question we wanted to tackle — do bonobos form groups that are socially distinct from one another? Or is what we see in bonobos simply tolerance between ‘neighborhoods’&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/easygoing-bonobos-accepting-of-outsiders-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/easygoing-bonobos-accepting-of-outsiders-study-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261276</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Examining cooperation in nature: Q&#038;A with author Kristin Ohlson</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/examining-cooperation-in-nature-qa-with-author-kristin-ohlson/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/examining-cooperation-in-nature-qa-with-author-kristin-ohlson/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Sep 2022 10:27:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/23094737/bee-and-flower-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260621</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Books, Ecosystems, Interviews, Symbiotic Relationships, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Nature, red in tooth and claw.” According to Alfred Tennyson&#8217;s poem, “In Memoriam A.H.H.,” that line describes &#8220;Creation&#8217;s final law.&#8221; Scholars say it captures the sometimes ruthless nature of … well, nature. Tennyson&#8217;s assessment of existence is that survival is driven by competition, where the scrappy and the clever and the strong are the winners. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Nature, red in tooth and claw.” According to Alfred Tennyson&#8217;s poem, “In Memoriam A.H.H.,” that line describes &#8220;Creation&#8217;s final law.&#8221; Scholars say it captures the sometimes ruthless nature of … well, nature. Tennyson&#8217;s assessment of existence is that survival is driven by competition, where the scrappy and the clever and the strong are the winners. The species that can&#8217;t muster the ability to grab what they need, using tooth and claw if necessary, fall by the wayside. Indeed, economists like Thomas Malthus saw the value of human struggle in driving progress. One can draw a line from that thinking to Charles Darwin and his On the Origin of Species, in which the power of that struggle instigates the development and differentiation of life on Earth. Darwin&#8217;s theory of evolution is an example of &#8220;how science can reflect the ideas of the time,&#8221; says author Kristin Ohlson. Ohlson turns that idea on its head, seeking out instead the collaborative elements of existence in her new book, Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World, published Sept. 6 by Patagonia. In the present time, science has begun to illuminate the myriad connections and bonds that different forms of life have with each other and how critical they are to survival. It&#8217;s cooperation that&#8217;s responsible for the interlinkages of species firing off signals to each other in an otherwise quiet forest. Such mutually beneficial relationships are also responsible for the emergence of complex, eukaryotic cells, without which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/examining-cooperation-in-nature-qa-with-author-kristin-ohlson/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/examining-cooperation-in-nature-qa-with-author-kristin-ohlson/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260621</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chimps digging wells shows learned behavior that may help amid climate change</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/chimps-digging-wells-shows-learned-behavior-that-may-help-amid-climate-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/chimps-digging-wells-shows-learned-behavior-that-may-help-amid-climate-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jul 2022 08:40:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Manon VerchotSanshey Biswas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/28082810/well-digging-chimps-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258653</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Chimpanzees, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Mammals, Primates, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There are moments in researchers’ lives when they realize the significance of something they hadn’t paid much thought to in the past. For primatologist Catherine Hobaiter and her team, one such moment came when they watched a subadult female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) they call Onyofi digging in the mud of her rainforest habitat in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There are moments in researchers’ lives when they realize the significance of something they hadn’t paid much thought to in the past. For primatologist Catherine Hobaiter and her team, one such moment came when they watched a subadult female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) they call Onyofi digging in the mud of her rainforest habitat in western Uganda. Hobaiter, who works at the University of St. Andrews in the U.K., says she initially thought Onyofi was digging for roots. But then she saw that Onyofi was peering into the hole she had just made. “She was clearly kind of waiting afterwards,&#8221; Hobaiter says. &#8220;And the other part that sort of drew my attention to it was that there were other chimps around and they seemed fascinated by her behavior. And you don&#8217;t get that so often.” Hobaiter watched as the hole began to fill with water and Onyofi drank from it. She had noticed these holes in the ground before but never imagined that these were chimp-made wells. Previous examples of chimps digging wells have been observed in areas where water is a limited resource, like in a savanna. Onyofi’s well digging was the first time this behavior was observed in rainforest-dwelling chimps. Researchers suspect the behavior was picked up by many chimps because they also face some water shortages, mostly during the dry season when their seasonal river dries into a muddy pool. And Onyofi may have brought this behavior to the group. Onyofi is an immigrant female who joined&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/chimps-digging-wells-shows-learned-behavior-that-may-help-amid-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/chimps-digging-wells-shows-learned-behavior-that-may-help-amid-climate-change/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258653</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World is losing ‘magical’ tradition of human-animal mutualism, study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/world-is-losing-magical-tradition-of-human-animal-mutualism-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/world-is-losing-magical-tradition-of-human-animal-mutualism-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2022 13:05:05 +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/20/2022/06/13130035/3-Maasai-Tanzania-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257140</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Mutualism, Natural Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Gcina Dlamini blows through a whistle fashioned from a piece of dried fruit in the forest near his home in the town of Lavumisa in Eswatini, the Southern African kingdom previously known as Swaziland. The whistle is called ingongolo in siSwati, and Dlamini is using it to summon the inhlava bird, or greater honeyguide (Indicator [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Gcina Dlamini blows through a whistle fashioned from a piece of dried fruit in the forest near his home in the town of Lavumisa in Eswatini, the Southern African kingdom previously known as Swaziland. The whistle is called ingongolo in siSwati, and Dlamini is using it to summon the inhlava bird, or greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator), so they can hunt for honey together. “We enjoy honey hunting — just going in the forest and following the honeyguide, eating a little and leaving the rest,” Dlamini tells Mongabay. He says there are only four honey hunters left in his hometown on Eswatini&#8217;s southern border with South Africa. “Some of the grandfathers are alive. They know something about these [honey-hunting] cultures, but they stay in their houses,” he says. “It is something that is perishing.” Dlamini, 26, learned this skill as a boy from his older brothers. On weekends and public holidays, he still hunts in the forest near Lavumisa, often taking one of his younger relatives along. Gcina Dlamini and his nephew honey hunting outside Lavumisa, Eswatini. Image courtesy of Jessica van der Wal. Human-animal cooperation once more common Interactions like Dlamini’s with the honeyguides — and similar cooperation between humans and wild dolphins in Brazil and in Myanmar to find fish — are at risk of dying out in the few places where they still persist, a team of international scientists warns. “There’s a realistic chance of loss of this unique part of our relationship with the natural world,” says&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/world-is-losing-magical-tradition-of-human-animal-mutualism-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/world-is-losing-magical-tradition-of-human-animal-mutualism-study-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257140</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Spotted hyenas adapt to climate change in famed Tanzanian park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/spotted-hyenas-adapt-to-climate-change-in-famed-tanzanian-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/spotted-hyenas-adapt-to-climate-change-in-famed-tanzanian-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 May 2022 12:01:55 +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/20/2022/05/18114705/hyenas-Tanzania-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255954</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environment, Food, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Migration, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Spotted hyenas appear to be adapting to climate change in Tanzania’s famous Serengeti National Park, surprising researchers who expected changing rainfall patterns would force the carnivores to spend more time searching for prey than tending to their cubs. It’s getting wetter in the Serengeti, according to rainfall figures gathered over the past 30 years. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Spotted hyenas appear to be adapting to climate change in Tanzania’s famous Serengeti National Park, surprising researchers who expected changing rainfall patterns would force the carnivores to spend more time searching for prey than tending to their cubs. It’s getting wetter in the Serengeti, according to rainfall figures gathered over the past 30 years. The timing of migrations of large herds of herbivores like blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), well known for their mass movement across the length of the park, is also changing. That means dinner for the hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) isn’t always where it should be, according to a new study. “In the last decade the migratory herds have been arriving later than previously in our studied hyena clan territories,” said Morgane Gicquel, lead author of the study published in the journal Ecosphere. Climate change is affecting the timing of migrations of large herds of herbivores, in turn changing the feeding behaviors of predators like hyenas. Image by Bryan Scott via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Hyenas prey on wildebeest and other migratory species in the Serengeti, like zebra (Equus quagga) and Thomson’s gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii). When those herds are absent, the hyenas target non-migratory animals, including buffalo (Syncerus caffer), and antelopes like impala (Aepyceros melampus) and topi (Damaliscus lunatus). As the dry season sets in around June, the wildebeest migrate to the northwest of the park in search of fresh grazing and water. When the rains begin to fall in October, they begin their return journey to the Serengeti’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/spotted-hyenas-adapt-to-climate-change-in-famed-tanzanian-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/spotted-hyenas-adapt-to-climate-change-in-famed-tanzanian-park/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255954</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What’s popping? Humpbacks off South Africa, new acoustic study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/whats-popping-humpbacks-off-south-africa-new-acoustic-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/whats-popping-humpbacks-off-south-africa-new-acoustic-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 May 2022 17:43:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/09152225/humpback-whale-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255604</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, New Discovery, Oceans, Research, Technology, Whales, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, researchers sailed to a sprawling seamount off the coast of South Africa, and lowered hydrophones to the seafloor. They picked up all kinds of noises: waves, the crackling of the reef, dolphin clicks and whistles, and an assortment of humpback whale calls. Mixed in with the humpback sounds were noises reminiscent of gunshots. Right [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, researchers sailed to a sprawling seamount off the coast of South Africa, and lowered hydrophones to the seafloor. They picked up all kinds of noises: waves, the crackling of the reef, dolphin clicks and whistles, and an assortment of humpback whale calls. Mixed in with the humpback sounds were noises reminiscent of gunshots. Right whales are known to make gunshot sounds, but none were around at the time of recording. So were these mysterious sounds coming from humpbacks? “We&#8217;ve never really heard about it being made by humpbacks or seen anything in the literature,” Erin Ross-Marsh, the researcher who first detected the calls and the lead author of a new paper about this finding, told Mongabay. “We&#8217;ve been studying humpback whale vocal communication since the early ’70s, and even after decades of study, we&#8217;re still discovering completely new and unexpected things.” The recordings were made during an expedition led by Greenpeace International and Sea Search Research and Conservation. One aim of the expedition was to learn more about two populations of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) that migrate through the Vema Seamount, a biodiversity hotspot about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Cape Town, South Africa. It’s believed that humpbacks use Vema as a foraging ground as well as navigational beacon as they make their way toward Antarctica. At the same time, very little is known about humpback behavior in this part of the ocean, said Kirsten Thompson, study co-author and scientist at the University of Exeter, U.K., and Greenpeace International&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/whats-popping-humpbacks-off-south-africa-new-acoustic-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/whats-popping-humpbacks-off-south-africa-new-acoustic-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/09154809/humpback-whale-call-2.mp4" length="130294" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255604</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The chimp doctor will see you now: Medicating apes boost the case for conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/the-chimp-doctor-will-see-you-now-medicating-apes-boost-the-case-for-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/the-chimp-doctor-will-see-you-now-medicating-apes-boost-the-case-for-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Feb 2022 11:52:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Manon Verchot]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/16120211/Chimps-applying-insects-to-wounds-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252759</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Gabon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Charismatic Animals, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Great Apes, Mammals, Medicine, Research, Videos, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Alessandra Mascaro first recorded a video of a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) catching something in the air, putting it in its mouth, and then putting it on the wound of another chimp, she and her colleagues had to watch the footage multiple times to make sense of it. At the time, in November 2019, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Alessandra Mascaro first recorded a video of a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) catching something in the air, putting it in its mouth, and then putting it on the wound of another chimp, she and her colleagues had to watch the footage multiple times to make sense of it. At the time, in November 2019, Mascaro was a volunteer for the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project in Gabon’s Loango National Park, and no one on her team had ever seen anything like it. “At the moment I didn&#8217;t realize what was going on, but I noticed that there was something very cool because other chimpanzees came to observe,” Mascaro told Mongabay over video call. “This is the way [chimps] learn behavior.” Mascaro felt that she was watching something like a “chimp doctor” at work, much like how humans go to doctors when they’re sick. She added that if this was the case, then it would illustrate that humans aren’t as unique as we may think. But there were still unanswered questions: Was this just a one-time thing? And what was it that the chimp had caught from the air and applied to the wound? The team only had to wait one week before they saw it happen again. Mascaro said she was closely observing another chimp with an injury. The chimp, which the researchers had named Freddy, appeared to catch something on a branch, put it in his mouth and then reapplied it to his wound three times. After these two incidents,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/the-chimp-doctor-will-see-you-now-medicating-apes-boost-the-case-for-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/the-chimp-doctor-will-see-you-now-medicating-apes-boost-the-case-for-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252759</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>