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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=charismatic-animals&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/charismatic-animals/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Charismatic Animals</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/charismatic-animals/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>At Yerevan’s COP17 biodiversity summit, a steep climb ahead for ‘30 by 30’ target</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/at-yerevans-cop17-biodiversity-summit-a-steep-climb-ahead-for-30-by-30-target/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/at-yerevans-cop17-biodiversity-summit-a-steep-climb-ahead-for-30-by-30-target/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2026 16:37:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/10135023/QE3-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333848</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Armenia, Asia, Central Africa, Central America, Congo Basin, Eastern Europe, Europe, Global, Liberia, Oceania, Senegal, Southeast Asia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Environment, Marine Protected Areas, National Parks, Natural Resources, Parks, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GAYE TOWN, Liberia – Deep in the Liberian bush, there’s a dispute about what to do with a big swath of rainforest. The conservation group Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) and Liberia’s Forestry Development Authority (FDA), backed by the EU, are looking to establish a new 172,000-hectare (425,000-acre) national park. However, advocacy NGOs say they’re bypassing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GAYE TOWN, Liberia – Deep in the Liberian bush, there’s a dispute about what to do with a big swath of rainforest. The conservation group Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) and Liberia’s Forestry Development Authority (FDA), backed by the EU, are looking to establish a new 172,000-hectare (425,000-acre) national park. However, advocacy NGOs say they’re bypassing the land rights of nearby communities. It&#8217;s an argument with potentially serious repercussions for biodiversity in Liberia. The proposed Kwa National Park would be one of just a handful of strictly protected habitats for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) and pygmy hippos (Choeropsis liberiensis). The land it would protect is under real threat — commercial cocoa farming is destroying forests in the region at an accelerating pace. Some people from the surrounding villages have sent migrant workers inside Kwa’s proposed boundaries to build new cocoa farms. They now want the Liberian government to excise these areas from the park. “We want the [Forestry Development Authority] to push the boundary line back small,” said Tommy Yarkpawolo, an elder from the tree-ringed village of Gaye Town. He has a 600-hectare (1,482-acre) farm with 30 workers inside Kwa that just earned him more than $400 — enough to start building a new mud-brick house, he said. Cacao saplings underneath burned trees in the proposed Kwa National Park. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo / Mongabay. Many of his neighbors oppose the idea of moving the boundary back. They told Mongabay the negotiations with WCF and the FDA were&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/at-yerevans-cop17-biodiversity-summit-a-steep-climb-ahead-for-30-by-30-target/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/at-yerevans-cop17-biodiversity-summit-a-steep-climb-ahead-for-30-by-30-target/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333848</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka mourns iconic tusker amid renewed calls to address human-elephant conflict</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-mourns-iconic-tusker-amid-renewed-calls-to-address-human-elephant-conflict/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-mourns-iconic-tusker-amid-renewed-calls-to-address-human-elephant-conflict/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2026 14:59:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/24140644/3-Sri-Lanka-Tusker-death-Kavantissa-c-Sahan-GUnarathne-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333803</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Controversial, Development, Elephants, Encroachment, Endangered Species, Environment, Ex-situ Conservation, Extinction, Fences, Forest Destruction, Fragmentation, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Ivory, Land Use Change, Mammals, National Parks, Protected Areas, Protests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO – The death of Kavantissa, one of Sri Lanka’s most iconic wild tuskers (Elephas maximus maximus), following a gunshot injury triggered an extraordinary wave of public grief, political attention and criticism of wildlife authorities.The elephant’s final days brought together politicians, Buddhist monks, wildlife enthusiasts and veterinarians in a collective effort to save a giant [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO – The death of Kavantissa, one of Sri Lanka’s most iconic wild tuskers (Elephas maximus maximus), following a gunshot injury triggered an extraordinary wave of public grief, political attention and criticism of wildlife authorities.The elephant’s final days brought together politicians, Buddhist monks, wildlife enthusiasts and veterinarians in a collective effort to save a giant that had captured the hearts of many Sri Lankans. A photograph of Sri Lanka’s opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, an ardent elephant enthusiast kissing the elephant’s head went viral on social media as did the environment minister Dhammika Patabendi visiting the elephant amidst heavy rain. Buddhist monks chanted Pirith (traditional Buddhist verses to invoke blessings), while a prominent businessman Dudley Sirisena offered to fund treatment, including a foreign veterinary team being flown in. Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was among those who paid tribute to the magnificent tusker as well. Kavantissa’s death sparked widespread public attention as shown in this Google Trends results, showing heightened interest among Sri Lankans searching the term ‘Kavantissa’ since the day the elephant’s critical condition became public knowledge. Graph via Google Trends. Despite the intensive efforts of wildlife veterinarians, Kavantissa suffered cardiac arrest on the evening of Oct. 16. Senior wildlife veterinary surgeons were present, and one reportedly climbed onto his chest in an attempt to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Their efforts failed, and the tusker died at around 6:18 p.m. His death was followed by an outpouring of grief and anger, with many demanding accountability from the Department of Wildlife Conservation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-mourns-iconic-tusker-amid-renewed-calls-to-address-human-elephant-conflict/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-mourns-iconic-tusker-amid-renewed-calls-to-address-human-elephant-conflict/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333803</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Death of iconic elephant in Sri Lanka pushes authorities to fast-track protection efforts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/death-of-iconic-elephant-in-sri-lanka-pushes-authorities-to-fast-track-protection-efforts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/death-of-iconic-elephant-in-sri-lanka-pushes-authorities-to-fast-track-protection-efforts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2026 15:37:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kamanthi Wickramasinghe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/23151741/IMG_4528-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333688</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Charismatic Animals, Conflict, Ecology, Ecotourism, Elephants, Encroachment, Endangered Species, Environmental Policy, flagship species, Forest Destruction, Habitat Degradation, Human-wildlife Conflict, Ivory, Land Use Change, Mammals, Megafauna, National Parks, Poisoning, Regulations, Snares, Species, Threatened species, Tourism, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GALGAMUWA, Sri Lanka – Residents in Galgamuwa, a rural village in Sri Lanka’s North Western Province are mourning the death of an iconic wild, bull elephant that roamed the area. While Galgamuwa is on the frontlines of one of Sri Lanka’s worst human-elephant conflicts, people had a soft spot for this tusker, popularly known as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GALGAMUWA, Sri Lanka – Residents in Galgamuwa, a rural village in Sri Lanka’s North Western Province are mourning the death of an iconic wild, bull elephant that roamed the area. While Galgamuwa is on the frontlines of one of Sri Lanka’s worst human-elephant conflicts, people had a soft spot for this tusker, popularly known as Kavantissa. Named after a king who ruled the Kingdom of Ruhuna in ancient Sri Lanka in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.E, Kavantissa was known for its gentle nature. Galgamuwa residents say it never attacked a human in its lifetime. Rathnayake Mudiyanselage Jayathilaka Bandara is a resident in Galgamuwa and an ardent animal lover. Bandara and another local resident named Kumara dedicated their time and effort to protect Kavantissa and the large herd of elephants (Elephas maximus maximus) that became famous for crossing the railway tracks in Kasikote, a town located between Galgamuwa and Ambanpola in the north west. Soon, this crossing became a must see among elephant lovers and Kavantissa would often emerge at the tail end. Bandara tells Mongabay that the demise of Kavantissa is heartbreaking because the iconic tusker was gentle and disciplined. He recalls how Kavantissa would patiently wait for the herd of elephants to cross the railway line before it made its dramatic appearance. “Sometimes it would pause before crossing the road and journey toward the nearby Palukadawala tank,” he said. “Perhaps that was its way of greeting me and Kumara. Kavantissa would sometimes push the electric fence obstructing its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/death-of-iconic-elephant-in-sri-lanka-pushes-authorities-to-fast-track-protection-efforts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/death-of-iconic-elephant-in-sri-lanka-pushes-authorities-to-fast-track-protection-efforts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333688</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodia was told to clean up its monkey trade. Regulators say it still hasn’t</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/cambodia-was-told-to-clean-up-its-monkey-trade-regulators-say-it-still-hasnt/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/cambodia-was-told-to-clean-up-its-monkey-trade-regulators-say-it-still-hasnt/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2026 06:53:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/18065718/Battambang-LTMs-2020-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332680</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Governance, Habitat Loss, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Medicine, Monkeys, Poaching, Primates, Research, Science, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Global wildlife trade authorities say Cambodia has made little progress in cleaning up its monkey export industry, a year after the country was flagged as needing major reforms in how it manages the capture, breeding, and export of monkeys used in biomedical research. In November 2025, following years of controversies, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Global wildlife trade authorities say Cambodia has made little progress in cleaning up its monkey export industry, a year after the country was flagged as needing major reforms in how it manages the capture, breeding, and export of monkeys used in biomedical research. In November 2025, following years of controversies, the secretariat of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, issued a series of recommendations to Cambodia. In a document released Oct. 5, CITES stated that limited improvements to Cambodia’s monkey farm governance mean it “cannot confirm or rule out the occurrence of fraud or corruption” in the country’s trade of long-tailed macaques, a species listed as endangered. The statement comes ahead of the Nov. 2-6 CITES Standing Committee meeting in Geneva, where parties to the convention will assess progress made by countries placed under review. Countries unable to meet CITES standards can face trade bans. Monkey poaching has reportedly declined in Cambodia as the populations and habitats of long-tailed macaques are believed to have declined in recent years. Images supplied by source. Cambodia has faced widespread condemnation since a five-year United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) investigation found substantial evidence of Cambodian monkey farms laundering wild-caught monkeys as captive-bred. This, experts have warned, heightens the risk of zoonotic disease spillover — the transmission of pathogens from wildlife to humans — while also posing a threat to Cambodia’s wild population of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis), which dropped between 50% and 70% in the last three decades.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/cambodia-was-told-to-clean-up-its-monkey-trade-regulators-say-it-still-hasnt/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/cambodia-was-told-to-clean-up-its-monkey-trade-regulators-say-it-still-hasnt/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332680</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘A few are afraid of the chicks’: Preparing Thailand’s rescued leopard cats for life in the wild</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-few-are-afraid-of-the-chicks-preparing-thailands-rescued-leopard-cats-for-life-in-the-wild/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-few-are-afraid-of-the-chicks-preparing-thailands-rescued-leopard-cats-for-life-in-the-wild/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2026 17:30:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana Norman Bermúdez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/07165523/leopard-cat-release-25-of-26-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331841</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Cats, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Cute, Environment, Governance, Habitat, Mammals, Research, Science, Small Cats, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rehabilitation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KHON KAEN, Thailand &#8211; A wildlife officer holds a leopard cat cub in one hand, its entire body small enough for her fingers to wrap around its torso. With the other hand, she feeds it formula milk from a syringe. This is the latest rescue at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife’s rescue center [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KHON KAEN, Thailand &#8211; A wildlife officer holds a leopard cat cub in one hand, its entire body small enough for her fingers to wrap around its torso. With the other hand, she feeds it formula milk from a syringe. This is the latest rescue at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife’s rescue center in Khon Kaen, northeastern Thailand, which rehabilitates and ultimately releases dozens of lost and injured leopard cat cubs every year. Behind the officer, 15 larger leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis), rescued as young cubs months earlier, pace around inside their cages. They look a lot like domestic cats, only slightly more slender and with sharply defined markings on their fur; unlike domestic cats, they bare their teeth and growl whenever a human walks past. Nine of the cats, between 8 and 9 months old, will be released in the forest that afternoon. The other six, a younger cohort, will take their place in the center’s specialized behavioral rehabilitation pens, where they will spend two months practicing their climbing and hunting skills in preparation for life in the wild. Leopard cats are small wild felines common across much of Asia. The IUCN classes them as least concern, though experts believe populations are increasingly vulnerable to hunting and habitat loss. Highly adaptable to changing landscapes, leopard cats often live close to farms and villages. In northeastern Thailand, females are frequently found raising their litters in sugarcane fields. The tall leaves offer shelter from the sun, but proximity to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-few-are-afraid-of-the-chicks-preparing-thailands-rescued-leopard-cats-for-life-in-the-wild/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-few-are-afraid-of-the-chicks-preparing-thailands-rescued-leopard-cats-for-life-in-the-wild/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331841</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous knowledge x tech in the search for a tiny Amazon monkey</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-x-tech-in-the-search-for-a-tiny-amazon-monkey/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-x-tech-in-the-search-for-a-tiny-amazon-monkey/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2026 10:40:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/11083700/Pygmy_marmoset_Peter_Kerrawn_B-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329438</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Animals, Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Business, Camera Trapping, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Culture, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Education, Environment, forest degradation, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, Monitoring, Monkeys, Pet Trade, Pets, Primates, Technology, Trade, Traditional Knowledge, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How do you search for the world&#8217;s smallest monkey? Earlier this year, Nicolás Schuldt Durán took on this task after he was approached by members of an Indigenous community in Ecuador. Ever since, he’s been tapping into the knowledge of the Siekopai people and combining it with passive acoustic monitoring technology to look for pygmy [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How do you search for the world&#8217;s smallest monkey? Earlier this year, Nicolás Schuldt Durán took on this task after he was approached by members of an Indigenous community in Ecuador. Ever since, he’s been tapping into the knowledge of the Siekopai people and combining it with passive acoustic monitoring technology to look for pygmy marmosets. Spoiler alert: They’re still looking for this elusive species. Working in the Siekoya Remolino community in Ecuador, Durán is collaborating with Indigenous community members to track pygmy marmosets (Cebuella pygmaea), locally called leoncillo, and gather data on where they live and how they’re faring. “The community has already been setting up camera traps and running a territorial monitoring program to catch hunters and loggers,” Durán, founder of conservation technology organization Neblina Labs, told Mongabay in a video interview. Non-profit Equitable Origin&#8217;s CEFO program was working in the community along with the Keñao women association and the Kënapu&#8217;tiyo climbers. As part of their work, they were using technology and territorial monitoring to protect the forests. Durán joined the program to incorporate bioacoustics to their toolkit. “This is just adding one more tool to their toolkit to monitor biodiversity,” he said. Pygmy marmosets are threatened by the illegal pet trade as well as deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. Image by David Reece via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). Pygmy marmosets, native to the western Amazon Basin, are so small that an adult weighs only 140-150 grams (about 5 ounces), or the weight of a small apple. They&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-x-tech-in-the-search-for-a-tiny-amazon-monkey/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329438</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Javan rhinos survive eruption in Indonesia, but single habitat leaves species vulnerable</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/javan-rhinos-survive-eruption-in-indonesia-but-single-habitat-leaves-species-vulnerable/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/javan-rhinos-survive-eruption-in-indonesia-but-single-habitat-leaves-species-vulnerable/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2026 01:33:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/06081629/Fk7E_IMG_20231005_174838-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329426</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Asian Rhinos]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, In-situ Conservation, Javan Rhinos, Mammals, Megafauna, Rhinos, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s critically endangered Javan rhinos appear to be safe despite an ongoing eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau near their last remaining habitat, conservation authorities said. Ardi Andono, head of Ujung Kulon National Park, home to the world’s only wild population of Javan rhinos (Rhinoceros sondaicus), said on Sept. 7 that the rhinos’ habitat had been [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s critically endangered Javan rhinos appear to be safe despite an ongoing eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau near their last remaining habitat, conservation authorities said. Ardi Andono, head of Ujung Kulon National Park, home to the world’s only wild population of Javan rhinos (Rhinoceros sondaicus), said on Sept. 7 that the rhinos’ habitat had been minimally affected by vibrations and noise from Anak Krakatau, which began erupting on Sept. 4. Mount Anak Krakatau, an active volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, lies about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the park on Java’s southwestern tip, and its recent eruption sent ash across parts of both islands, disrupting air travel and prompting some schools and fishing activities to halt. “The Javan rhinos remained safe and still appear normal,” Ardi told Mongabay in a WhatsApp message, adding that his park rangers continue to stand on guard. A female calf of the Javan rhinoceros with her mother. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The number of Javan rhinos remaining in the wild is disputed. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates the current minimum population of Javan rhinos at about 50, a figure used by conservation groups such as Save the Rhino International, while Indonesia’s forestry ministry puts the population at 87 to 100. The government’s figures have previously faced scrutiny after a 2023 investigation by Indonesian environmental group Auriga Nusantara found that rhinos not seen by camera traps for years, including some later&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/javan-rhinos-survive-eruption-in-indonesia-but-single-habitat-leaves-species-vulnerable/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/javan-rhinos-survive-eruption-in-indonesia-but-single-habitat-leaves-species-vulnerable/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329426</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The conservation population of Australia’s endangered eastern quoll welcomes joeys</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/the-conservation-population-of-australias-endangered-eastern-quoll-welcomes-joeys/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/the-conservation-population-of-australias-endangered-eastern-quoll-welcomes-joeys/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2026 12:35:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Paul Harvey]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/28015007/eastern-quolll-nighttime-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327711</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Global, and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Cute, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Marsupials, Research, Science, Solutions, Species, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SYDNEY — The endangered eastern quoll, one of Australia’s species of quoll, is a nocturnal carnivorous marsupial that is small in stature with a ferret-like pointed face and a bushy tail. The mammal has two primary color variants: Light fawn and blackish-brown, with white spots on the body. Once so widespread along the eastern coastal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SYDNEY — The endangered eastern quoll, one of Australia’s species of quoll, is a nocturnal carnivorous marsupial that is small in stature with a ferret-like pointed face and a bushy tail. The mammal has two primary color variants: Light fawn and blackish-brown, with white spots on the body. Once so widespread along the eastern coastal fringe of Australia, the eastern quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) was described as being in “plague abundance” and was occasionally kept as a pet and prized by farmers for its skills in hunting rodents. It was even called a native cat in the 1800s due to its resemblance in both size and hunting behavior to the domestic feline, brought by settlers from Europe.  Despite its onetime abundance on the Australian mainland, by the 1960s the last known remaining eastern quoll population was lost. Disease, habitat loss, car strikes and predation by cats, dogs and invasive foxes led to the demise of the species.  However, a taxidermied specimen of an eastern quoll emerged in 2016, purportedly originally picked up as roadkill in the Barrington Tops, northwest of Sydney, in 1989 and handed over to the National Parks and Wildlife Service nearly three decades later. This could mean that the species survived for decades longer than official records suggest.  Although now considered extinct in the wild on the mainland, the eastern quoll has not been lost entirely. The southern Australian island of Tasmania, free of the predatory invasive foxes, is home to a number of wild populations of eastern&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/the-conservation-population-of-australias-endangered-eastern-quoll-welcomes-joeys/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/the-conservation-population-of-australias-endangered-eastern-quoll-welcomes-joeys/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327711</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On ivory, follow the trafficking networks and not the headlines (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-ivory-follow-the-trafficking-networks-and-not-the-headlines-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-ivory-follow-the-trafficking-networks-and-not-the-headlines-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2026 22:47:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mary Rice]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/25133056/image1-e1786130110289-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325640</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Global, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Charismatic Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Environment, Governance, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Mammals, Organized Crime, Poaching, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In early March 2026, acting on intelligence shared by my organization, the Environmental Investigation Agency UK, Zambian authorities seized a consignment of more than 500 kg (over 1,100 pounds) of ivory and arrested a suspect with long-standing links to regional ivory trafficking operations. One of the suspects involved in the case was convicted in 2019 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In early March 2026, acting on intelligence shared by my organization, the Environmental Investigation Agency UK, Zambian authorities seized a consignment of more than 500 kg (over 1,100 pounds) of ivory and arrested a suspect with long-standing links to regional ivory trafficking operations. One of the suspects involved in the case was convicted in 2019 for possession of more than 200 kg (almost 441 lbs) of ivory and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2020. He was released after a matter of months and has continued trading ivory ever since. So, Zambia, which has been exploited by criminal networks operating with relative impunity since at least 2002, is under the spotlight once again. Of particular concern is the involvement of Congolese criminal groups, which continue to operate across Zambia and the wider region, sourcing and moving wildlife products including elephant ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales and big cats along complex transnational routes toward Asia, with Vietnam often serving as a key transit hub to other destinations. Exploiting the lack of political will, weak enforcement, corrupt officials and marginalized communities to facilitate their trade, these networks have been orchestrating poaching expeditions into neighboring countries, using Zambian intermediaries to supply their illicit trade chains. This recent interception in Zambia — alongside two other large-scale seizures made in Tanzania and Botswana in April and May respectively — brings the minimum total of ivory seized globally since 2023 to approximately 29 tons, nearly 64,000 pounds. That’s the equivalent of at least 4,000&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-ivory-follow-the-trafficking-networks-and-not-the-headlines-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-ivory-follow-the-trafficking-networks-and-not-the-headlines-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325640</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Meme-face Pallas’s cat traverses a complex conservation landscape</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/meme-face-pallass-cat-traverses-a-complex-conservation-landscape/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/meme-face-pallass-cat-traverses-a-complex-conservation-landscape/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2026 17:43:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/08101628/1-Pallass-cat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322829</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Central Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Cute, Ecosystems, Environment, Habitat, Mammals, Small Cats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many already know Zelenogorsk — a manul, or Pallas’s cat, from Russia’s Novosibirsk Zoo — who became an internet sensation in 2022 after a video of him warming his paws on his tail was posted on YouTube. That clip has garnered more than 14 million views. Many of the world’s 30-plus small cat species are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many already know Zelenogorsk — a manul, or Pallas’s cat, from Russia’s Novosibirsk Zoo — who became an internet sensation in 2022 after a video of him warming his paws on his tail was posted on YouTube. That clip has garnered more than 14 million views. Many of the world’s 30-plus small cat species are relatively unknown, but thanks to its online fame as the world’s grumpiest cat, the manul bucks this trend. “Pallas’s cats are known for being these really cranky-looking animals,” said Jan Janecka, a professor of biology at Duquesne University in the U.S. “It&#8217;s almost like a meme, how the facial expression they have is just really unique and funny.” But while the manul’s oft-miffed visage is well known, perhaps less so is the complex conservation picture it faces rangewide. Its “least concern” status on the IUCN Red List somewhat obscures troubling declines at the national level. It inhabits a huge expanse of territory across South and Central Asia, including the Himalayas and on into the Caucasus and Caspian Sea region. Some countries — such as Mongolia and China — are considered strongholds, with healthy, if patchy, populations. But in the south and west, little is known about them. “A lot of what we know is focused on these strongholds,” said Katarzyna Ruta, conservation manager at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and coordinator with the Pallas’s Cat International Conservation Alliance (PICA). Elsewhere in their range, populations are often small, isolated and “very clearly understudied,” she added.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/meme-face-pallass-cat-traverses-a-complex-conservation-landscape/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/meme-face-pallass-cat-traverses-a-complex-conservation-landscape/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322829</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How snow leopards, wolves and leopards share the same Himalayan valley, study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-snow-leopards-wolves-and-leopards-share-the-same-himalayan-valley-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-snow-leopards-wolves-and-leopards-share-the-same-himalayan-valley-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jun 2026 15:54:22 +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/20/2023/11/10052813/himalayan-wolf-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321933</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Nepal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Camera Trapping, Cats, Cattle, Charismatic Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Leopards, Livestock, Mammals, Snow Leopards, Threatened species, Ungulates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Three of Asia’s most formidable predators share territory in a remote Nepal valley by eating different prey, according to a new study. Researchers found that diet, not time or space, is what keeps snow leopards (Panthera uncia), common leopards (Panthera pardus), and Himalayan wolves (Canis lupus chanco) from coming into direct conflict. The study, published [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Three of Asia’s most formidable predators share territory in a remote Nepal valley by eating different prey, according to a new study. Researchers found that diet, not time or space, is what keeps snow leopards (Panthera uncia), common leopards (Panthera pardus), and Himalayan wolves (Canis lupus chanco) from coming into direct conflict. The study, published in PLOS One, drew on more than six years of camera-trapping and scat analysis in the Lapchi Valley of the Gaurishankar Conservation Area in Nepal’ s central Himalayas. Researchers set 26 cameras across the landscape over three survey periods between 2018 and 2025 and identified each predator&#8217;s diet by analyzing fecal DNA and examining prey hair under a microscope. Blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) are an important food source for the snow leopards in Nepal. Photo courtesy of Narayan Koju. Snow leopards, they found, fed mainly on wild ungulates, including blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur), musk deer (Moschus leucogaster), Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus), and Himalayan serow (Capricornis sumatraensis). Blue sheep alone made up nearly half their diet. Himalayan wolves ate a mix of wild prey like blue sheep and musk deer as well as livestock such as goats, horses, and yaks (Bos grunniens). Leopards relied heavily on livestock and animals associated with human settlements, including dogs, though barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak) and goral (Naemorhedus goral) also appeared in their scats. Snow leopards and wolves shared roughly three-quarters of their prey, far more than either shared with leopards. Of the three, snow leopards had the narrowest diet, concentrating&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-snow-leopards-wolves-and-leopards-share-the-same-himalayan-valley-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-snow-leopards-wolves-and-leopards-share-the-same-himalayan-valley-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321933</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>Decades after poaching drove them extinct, rhinos are back in the wild in Uganda</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/decades-after-poaching-drove-them-extinct-rhinos-are-back-in-the-wild-in-uganda/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/decades-after-poaching-drove-them-extinct-rhinos-are-back-in-the-wild-in-uganda/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 07:15:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Benjamin Jumbe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30123308/RhinoByCrate_ZiwaUganda_UWA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316524</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Extinction, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rhinos, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, White Rhino, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forty-three years after the last free-ranging rhinos were seen in the country, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has welcomed four southern white rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park, in the country’s north, from a breeding sanctuary designed for the species’ reintroduction. “We are glad and privileged to be taking back rhinos much as it is a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forty-three years after the last free-ranging rhinos were seen in the country, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has welcomed four southern white rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park, in the country’s north, from a breeding sanctuary designed for the species’ reintroduction. “We are glad and privileged to be taking back rhinos much as it is a different subspecies from that that used to exist, because the northern white rhino is the one which used to exist there but was hunted to extinction,” UWA executive director James Musinguzi said at the Ziwa sanctuary on Mar. 17. According to the wildlife authority, a total of eight rhinos will be released in the park by May this year, marking the beginning of a longer process aimed at establishing a viable free-ranging rhino population in Kidepo Valley National Park. Kidepo Valley National Park. Image by Rod Waddington via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). Uganda was once home to around 300 northern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) and 400 eastern black rhinos (Diceros bicornis michaeli). But these populations were devastated by intense poaching that flourished amid the civil war that began in the late 1970s. The last of the country’s wild rhinos was killed in 1983. In 2005, a breeding program for rhinos was established at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. Six southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum) — four from Kenya and two from a sanctuary in the U.S. — were introduced the following year, and by 2023, that herd had grown to 42, according to the sanctuary’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/decades-after-poaching-drove-them-extinct-rhinos-are-back-in-the-wild-in-uganda/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/decades-after-poaching-drove-them-extinct-rhinos-are-back-in-the-wild-in-uganda/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316524</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Laos, ancestral spirits are helping save one of the world&#8217;s rarest crocodiles</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-laos-ancestral-spirits-are-helping-save-one-of-the-worlds-rarest-crocodiles/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-laos-ancestral-spirits-are-helping-save-one-of-the-worlds-rarest-crocodiles/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2026 13:36:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/24223626/Monks-at-Crocodile-release--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316206</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Laos, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Indigenous Peoples, Tropical Forests, Water, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When village conservation teams find a Siamese crocodile nest in the Xe Champhone wetlands of central Laos, they move fast, collecting eggs within 24 hours before poachers, predators or floods can reach them. But before they touch the eggs, there’s a ritual, and offerings are made to the spirits. With the spirits appeased, villagers carry [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When village conservation teams find a Siamese crocodile nest in the Xe Champhone wetlands of central Laos, they move fast, collecting eggs within 24 hours before poachers, predators or floods can reach them. But before they touch the eggs, there’s a ritual, and offerings are made to the spirits. With the spirits appeased, villagers carry the eggs to hatch in the village, where the baby crocs&#8217; chances of hatching are nearly five times higher than in the wild. Oudomxay Thongsavath, program manager at Wildlife Conservation Society and a native of the region, has been involved with the program since its start. He told Mongabay that locals make an offering and explain to the spirits, “We collect the egg, we incubate it in the village, and we return your children back to your area … Please take care of them. Make sure they are safe in the future when they go back to their habitat.&#8221; Fewer than 1,000 though Siamese crocodiles (Crocodylus siamensis) are estimated to survive in the wild.  Photo courtesy of WCS. Of the world&#8217;s 27 crocodilian species, the Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) is among just four classified as critically endangered. Fewer than 1,000 are thought to survive in the wild. Locals say that to harm a Siamese crocodile is to risk illness, misfortune or death. Not because the crocodiles are particularly dangerous (as crocodiles go), but because these scaly beings are the living embodiment of their ancestors. That spiritual connection to crocodiles, upheld for generations in a landscape&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-laos-ancestral-spirits-are-helping-save-one-of-the-worlds-rarest-crocodiles/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-laos-ancestral-spirits-are-helping-save-one-of-the-worlds-rarest-crocodiles/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316206</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>Poaching down but threats remain for forest elephants, recent population assessment finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jan 2026 15:06:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312624</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Elephants, Endangered Species, Forests, Ivory, Mammals, Megafauna, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 145,000 African forest elephants roam the rainforests of Africa, according to a recent population assessment. Published in December by the African Elephant Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, the survey relies on improved DNA-based techniques to provide the first estimate for these critically endangered pachyderms since they were recognized [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 145,000 African forest elephants roam the rainforests of Africa, according to a recent population assessment. Published in December by the African Elephant Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, the survey relies on improved DNA-based techniques to provide the first estimate for these critically endangered pachyderms since they were recognized as a distinct species in 2021. African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are found primarily in the dense rainforests of Central Africa, with significant but dwindling numbers remaining in West Africa, and small populations in East and Southern Africa. Hybrids with their close cousins, savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), also occur infrequently where both forest and savanna elephants are found. Counting these shy and elusive giants is a challenge for researchers as they blend into their surroundings or vanish into the dense understory of their forest habitat. A forest elephant with calf in Gabon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Some 153 population surveys, carried out between 2016 and 2024 across roughly three-quarters of L. cyclotis’s known range, counted 135,690 forest elephants. The IUCN’s assessment included 22 elephant populations, mostly in Central Africa, that had not previously been surveyed. The researchers estimate there are as many as 11,000 more elephants in the remaining parts of the species’ range, pushing the total to just over 145,000 individuals. “This report is the first one that shows forest elephant numbers,” report author Fiona Maisels, a conservation scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), told Mongabay by email. “In previous iterations, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312624</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>IUCN upholds long-tailed macaques’ endangered status after complaint</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-upholds-long-tailed-macaques-endangered-status-after-complaint/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-upholds-long-tailed-macaques-endangered-status-after-complaint/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2025 04:50:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/30071210/long-tailed-macaque-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307660</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Monkeys, Pet Trade, Poaching, Population, Primates, Protected Areas, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — The long-tailed macaque will remain on the Red List of the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, despite objections from the biomedical industry arguing the designation hampers research that relies on the primate to test vaccines and drugs. The IUCN escalated the conservation status of the species, Macaca fascicularis, from vulnerable to endangered in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — The long-tailed macaque will remain on the Red List of the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, despite objections from the biomedical industry arguing the designation hampers research that relies on the primate to test vaccines and drugs. The IUCN escalated the conservation status of the species, Macaca fascicularis, from vulnerable to endangered in 2022 after macaques poached from the wild were found to have been laundered into breeding farms in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam supplying laboratories abroad. The National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR), a U.S. lobby group, challenged the listing, but the latest assessment, published Oct. 10, found that wild populations of the macaque had declined by 50-70% over the past three decades. That led the IUCN to reaffirm the species’ endangered listing. “I’m happy to see science prevail, but I’m not happy to see the long-tailed macaques endangered,” Malene Friis Hansen, co-author of the assessment and a leading researcher on the species at Aarhus University in Denmark, told Mongabay by phone. “This is a species of primate that shouldn’t be in this situation — that we’ve pushed such an adaptive synanthrope to this stage should be an eye-opener.” The NABR filed its complaint in 2023, alleging conflicts of interest and scientific errors had influenced the original endangered listing. But last week, the IUCN announced an internal investigation had found no breach of its conflict-of-interest policy. While the IUCN acknowledged that the original assessment contained some “emotive, value-laden language,” it deemed this had no impact on the listing.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-upholds-long-tailed-macaques-endangered-status-after-complaint/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-upholds-long-tailed-macaques-endangered-status-after-complaint/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307660</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Losing Nemo: In the Red Sea, clownfish vanish as anemones bleach</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2025 20:16:33 +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/20/2025/10/14195038/SAD_MorganBennetSmith-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307639</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Fish, Green, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Morgan Bennett-Smith descended to a familiar reef in the central Red Sea in September 2023, he expected to find the same tagged anemones and resident clownfish he had been monitoring for months. Instead, he found a ghostly landscape: every anemone had turned white, and most of the bright-orange fish that had been sheltering in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Morgan Bennett-Smith descended to a familiar reef in the central Red Sea in September 2023, he expected to find the same tagged anemones and resident clownfish he had been monitoring for months. Instead, he found a ghostly landscape: every anemone had turned white, and most of the bright-orange fish that had been sheltering in protective tentacles just weeks earlier were gone. By the following spring, the reef looked even worse. Of the 168 clownfish Bennett-Smith and his colleagues had counted in December 2022, only seven remained. A juvenile Red Sea Clownfish looks out from a bleaching anemone.When sea temperatures remain high, anemone expel their symbiotic algal partners, which can result in death.  Photo courtesy of Morgan Bennett-Smith. A new study, published in npj Biodiversity, documents the effects of a marine heat wave across three reefs in the Red Sea. First, all the anemones bleached. Then, 94-100% of the clownfish disappeared. Finally, 66-94% of the anemones died. The events represent the near-total local collapse of a mutualism that had endured for millions of years. Between 2022 and 2024, researchers tracked 168 Red Sea clownfish (Amphiprion bicinctus) and 143 host magnificent sea anemones (Radianthus magnifica) through a 2023 marine heat wave that peaked at approximately 22 degree heating weeks, a measure of accumulated heat stress. The findings challenge a long-held belief that the Red Sea might be a thermal refuge, or safe haven, from the impacts of climate change. Scientists thought that because Red Sea organisms already live in naturally hot&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307639</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists warn of targeted poaching behind Sri Lanka’s leopard killings</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/conservationists-warn-of-targeted-poaching-behind-sri-lankas-leopard-killings/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/conservationists-warn-of-targeted-poaching-behind-sri-lankas-leopard-killings/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2025 13:38:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/13130202/3-A-leopard-killed-in-28th-of-July-at-Gampola-c-DWC.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304223</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Bushmeat, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Crime, Habitat, Human-wildlife Conflict, Leopards, National Parks, Photos, Poaching, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[POLONNARUWA, Sri Lanka — Wildlife conservationists have sounded the alarm that leopard poaching in Sri Lanka is being carried out more systematically than previously thought, following the arrest in early August of a group of suspected hunters carrying a freshly skinned carcass in Maduru Oya National Park. Conservation activist Sethil Muhandiram says there’s specific demand [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[POLONNARUWA, Sri Lanka — Wildlife conservationists have sounded the alarm that leopard poaching in Sri Lanka is being carried out more systematically than previously thought, following the arrest in early August of a group of suspected hunters carrying a freshly skinned carcass in Maduru Oya National Park. Conservation activist Sethil Muhandiram says there’s specific demand for skin, teeth, claws and even the flesh of leopards (Panthera pardus). He tells Mongabay this belies the prevailing conventional wisdom, echoed even by some conservation authorities, that leopards aren’t deliberately targeted by poachers in Sri Lanka, and that their killing is done opportunistically, when they succumb to traps set for wild boars or deer. Another common scenario for leopard deaths is retaliatory killing by farmers who blame the big cats for the loss of their livestock, says Muhandiram from LEOPOCON Sri Lanka, a nonprofit that focuses exclusively on the conservation of leopards and their ecosystems. But even then, there’s no intent to profit from the animal’s body parts, he adds. The recent case in Maduru Oya, and a string of other alleged poaching incidents, strongly suggests there’s more than just opportunistic killing going on, he says. “There is no reason for poachers to skin and carry an entire carcass unless they see value in it,” Muhandiram says. “This incident points to some other intent, either to extract meat, sell the pelt, or harvest body parts.” The arrest of suspected poachers with a skinned leopard carcass inside Maduru Oya National Park in Sri Lanka has&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/conservationists-warn-of-targeted-poaching-behind-sri-lankas-leopard-killings/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/conservationists-warn-of-targeted-poaching-behind-sri-lankas-leopard-killings/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304223</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The forest guardians along Nepal-India border leading red panda conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/the-forest-guardians-along-nepal-india-border-leading-red-panda-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/the-forest-guardians-along-nepal-india-border-leading-red-panda-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jul 2025 13:53:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Deepak Adhikari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/04112441/Wildlingz-20240512-RedPandaNetwork-FabianMuehlberger-8-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301922</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Cute, Environmental Heroes, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, Pandas, Reforestation, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TAPLEJUNG, Nepal — In the misty hills of eastern Nepal near the border with India, 48-year-old farmer Surya Bhattarai patrols the steep slopes of Sudap Community Forest in Taplejung district. Braving remoteness, treacherous terrain and wild animals, he is tracking red pandas, an elusive and endangered species native to the eastern Himalayas. Trained in field [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TAPLEJUNG, Nepal — In the misty hills of eastern Nepal near the border with India, 48-year-old farmer Surya Bhattarai patrols the steep slopes of Sudap Community Forest in Taplejung district. Braving remoteness, treacherous terrain and wild animals, he is tracking red pandas, an elusive and endangered species native to the eastern Himalayas. Trained in field data collection, Bhattarai, one of 128 Forest Guardians, carries a GPS tracker, a mobile phone, a notebook, a pen, a measuring tape and a vernier scale to document signs of the animal. Forty-four Forest Guardians operate within the Panchthar–Ilam–Taplejung (PIT) Corridor, a vital 11,500-square-kilometer (4,440-square-mile) habitat that shelters roughly a quarter of Nepal’s red panda (Ailurus fulgens) population. In Taplejung, Bhattarai monitors designated forest blocks, walking transects to look for scat, claw marks or other signs of red panda. Monitoring takes place four times a year — in February, May, August and November — timed around key stages in the red panda’s life cycle, like breeding and mating seasons. Patrolling during the summer months also helps deter poaching, says Bhattarai. Globally, fewer than 10,000 red pandas remain across India, Bhutan, China and Nepal, which hosts between 500 and 1,000 in its temperate bamboo forests across 25 districts. The shy, elusive species is quietly slipping toward extinction due to rapid development like road building and hydropower expansion and habitat degradation from human activities that are fragmenting the bamboo forests they depend on. Red panda photographed on a tree in eastern Nepal. Image courtesy of Fabian Muehlberger/&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/the-forest-guardians-along-nepal-india-border-leading-red-panda-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/the-forest-guardians-along-nepal-india-border-leading-red-panda-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301922</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tabby’s likely ancestor &#038; Earth’s most widespread wildcat is an enigma</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tabbys-likely-ancestor-earths-most-widespread-wildcat-is-an-enigma/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tabbys-likely-ancestor-earths-most-widespread-wildcat-is-an-enigma/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2025 15:06:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/28103028/2-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299742</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Genetics, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Predators, Research, Small Cats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Afro-Asiatic wildcat (Felis lybica) is the world’s most widely distributed wildcat, but experts and information on the species are scarce. The species’ range is immense, stretching across most of Africa, Southwest and Central Asia, India, China and Mongolia. But Arash Ghoddousi, lead author for F. lybica’s 2022 IUCN species conservation assessment, says the study [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Afro-Asiatic wildcat (Felis lybica) is the world’s most widely distributed wildcat, but experts and information on the species are scarce. The species’ range is immense, stretching across most of Africa, Southwest and Central Asia, India, China and Mongolia. But Arash Ghoddousi, lead author for F. lybica’s 2022 IUCN species conservation assessment, says the study team found “few people [who] knew anything about the cats.” That seeming lack of human curiosity is surprising, considering the domestic tabbies we keep as pets and lavish billions of dollars on annually are descended, and still closely related to, the Afro-Asiatic wildcat. One researcher who has shown intense interest is Marna Herbst, now a regional ecologist for South African National Parks. Previous research on F. lybica had been based on opportunistic sightings and scat and stomach analysis. Herbst changed that, spending roughly four years and 10-12 hours nightly observing the cats in the harsh unforgiving landscape of the southern Kalahari Desert for her Ph.D. research, published in 2009. She was the first (and remains the only) scientist to conduct such a long-term study on the species documenting its behaviors and population genetics. The Afro-Asiatic wildcat (Felis lybica) is the world’s most widely distributed small wildcat, and an ancestor of the domesticate cat. Pictured is a female of the subspecies F. lybica cafra in South Africa’s arid Kalahari. Image courtesy of Marna Herbst. In search of the common wildcat nobody knows Herbst carried out her study in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, a known African wildcat&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tabbys-likely-ancestor-earths-most-widespread-wildcat-is-an-enigma/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tabbys-likely-ancestor-earths-most-widespread-wildcat-is-an-enigma/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299742</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Without vultures, carcasses are slow to rot and disease-carrying flies abound</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2025 15:46:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/22144809/COVERCreditAndrewWhitworth-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299508</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Diseases, Environment, Forests, Green, Insects, Rainforests, Raptors, Vultures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Absolutely disgusting, so grim, the worst fieldwork of my life, but also extremely rewarding in a very odd way,&#8221; said Julia Grootaers, describing her three months collecting data among rotting pig carcasses in Costa Rica&#8217;s Osa Peninsula. For her master&#8217;s thesis at the University of Exeter, U.K., Grootaers was part of a study examining how [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Absolutely disgusting, so grim, the worst fieldwork of my life, but also extremely rewarding in a very odd way,&#8221; said Julia Grootaers, describing her three months collecting data among rotting pig carcasses in Costa Rica&#8217;s Osa Peninsula. For her master&#8217;s thesis at the University of Exeter, U.K., Grootaers was part of a study examining how vultures affect carrion (decaying flesh) decomposition in neotropical ecosystems. Their findings, published recently in the journal Ecology and Evolution, reveal that in the absence of vultures, carcasses take twice as long to decompose, and fly populations double, with significant implications for ecosystem health and potential disease transmission. &#8220;There&#8217;s a reason why carcasses smell bad. We&#8217;re not meant to be near them,&#8221; Grootaers told Mongabay. The fieldwork involved spending day after day amid decomposing pig carcasses, some weighing up to 130 kilograms (nearly 290 pounds). &#8220;We&#8217;d have to obviously wear gloves and a mask, because you have so many flies flying around and they are trying to get into any orifice at all.&#8221; King vultures and black vultures descend upon a carcass in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. In the absence of vultures, carcasses took twice as long to decompose. Photo courtesy of Andrew Whitworth. The experiment consisted of 32 pig carcasses deployed in the southern Pacific region of Costa Rica, half in grassland and half in forest habitats. Eight carcasses were covered with exclusion cages for each habitat to prevent vulture access, while eight control carcasses remained uncovered. Half the experiment took place during the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299508</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study unveils mystery of monkey yodeling — and why humans can&#8217;t compete</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-unveils-mystery-of-monkey-yodeling-and-why-humans-cant-compete/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-unveils-mystery-of-monkey-yodeling-and-why-humans-cant-compete/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 May 2025 14:11:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/16135413/Screenshot-2025-05-16-at-8.50.57-AM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299192</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Environment, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Monkeys, Rainforests, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the rainforest, the monkeys are yodeling. Their wild calls echo across the foliage, sending signals of sex and survival. For decades, scientists have studied why they make these sounds, but are just beginning to understand how. A new study asks how monkeys make calls with abrupt frequency jumps, which sound like human yodeling. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the rainforest, the monkeys are yodeling. Their wild calls echo across the foliage, sending signals of sex and survival. For decades, scientists have studied why they make these sounds, but are just beginning to understand how. A new study asks how monkeys make calls with abrupt frequency jumps, which sound like human yodeling. Scientists were curious about the role of vocal membranes, thin ribbons of tissue that sit above monkeys’ vocal folds. Humans have vocal folds (vocal cords), but monkeys have both folds and membranes. &#8220;We knew about these vocal membranes,” Jacob Dunn, an evolutionary biologist at Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K., who co-authored the study, told Mongabay. “We knew that they were in all the primates that we studied, but nobody had really studied their actual function.&#8221; To answer this question, researchers used a combination of acoustic recordings, electroglottographs (EGGs) — which measure contact area between vocal folds during use — and modeling. They confirmed that voice production in monkeys from the Americas is made possible by two sets of vocal structures, allowing the monkeys to jump back and forth between frequencies. Vocal folds produce low-frequency sounds, and vocal membranes create higher tones. Switching between the two produces an effect similar to yodeling. However, monkeys have a much wider range and can oscillate between notes much more rapidly than human yodelers, who rely solely on vocal cords. A tufted capuchin (Sapajus apella), found in the Neotropics, is among the yodeling monkey species. Image courtesy of Joan&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-unveils-mystery-of-monkey-yodeling-and-why-humans-cant-compete/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-unveils-mystery-of-monkey-yodeling-and-why-humans-cant-compete/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/16133221/A-tufted-capuchin-call-in-real-time-and-slowed-down-with-Dr-Christian-Herbst-explaining-the-frequency-jumps-made-during-the-call.wav" length="1891768" type="audio/wav" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299192</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Kumana, a historic national park in eastern Sri Lanka, emerges as leopard stronghold</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/kumana-a-historic-national-park-in-eastern-sri-lanka-emerges-as-leopard-stronghold/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/kumana-a-historic-national-park-in-eastern-sri-lanka-emerges-as-leopard-stronghold/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2025 15:08:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/05141004/4-A-Kumana-leopard-resting-on-a-log-c-Shanaka-Kalubowila-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298625</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat, Leopards, Mammals, National Parks, Protected Areas, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Located along Sri Lanka’s southeastern coast, Kumana National Park is renowned for its large waterbird colonies and its vital role in supporting diverse birdlife. However, the park is also emerging as an important habitat for the Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya). A recent study has confirmed the park’s significance as a stronghold [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Located along Sri Lanka’s southeastern coast, Kumana National Park is renowned for its large waterbird colonies and its vital role in supporting diverse birdlife. However, the park is also emerging as an important habitat for the Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya). A recent study has confirmed the park’s significance as a stronghold for this elusive predator. Conducted by scientists from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJ) and the Department of Wildlife Conservation DWC), the study found 41 leopards per 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles) in the park&#8217;s eastern region, making Kumana one of the top leopard hotspots globally. A relaxed leopard family in Kumana. Sightings like this have boosted the popularity of Kumana National Park in eastern Sri Lanka among wildlife tourists seeking leopard encounters. Image courtesy of Shanaka Kalubowila. The research used advanced camera trap techniques and random encounter models (REMs), a method for estimating animal density. The study recorded more than 90 leopard encounters, including 34 identified individual leopards, during a 16-month survey. According to lead researcher Dulan Jayasekara of the USJ Department of Zoology, &#8220;This is the first time REM technique has been used to estimate leopard density in Sri Lanka.&#8221; He added that it provides valuable insights despite limited resources. The Sri Lankan leopard is now tagged as a species “vulnerable” to extinction, according to the IUCN Red List criteria. Researchers of Wilderness and Wildlife Conservation Trust (WWCT) estimate the leopard population in Sri Lanka is about 1,000 individuals, based on past estimates.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/kumana-a-historic-national-park-in-eastern-sri-lanka-emerges-as-leopard-stronghold/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/kumana-a-historic-national-park-in-eastern-sri-lanka-emerges-as-leopard-stronghold/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298625</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Top new species from 2024</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2024/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2024/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2024 22:47:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/01222118/Image-1-Leopardus-tigrinus-pardinoides-Cuenca-3-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292398</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Atlantic Forest, Australia, Cameroon, Central America, Chile, China, Global, India, Indonesia, Latin America, Malaysia, Mekong Basin, Pacific Ocean, Peru, South America, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birding, Birds, Botany, Charismatic Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Cryptic Species, Culture, Deforestation, DNA, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Flowers, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Insects, Islands, Lizards, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, New Discovery, Oceans, Oil Drilling, Plants, Rainforests, Reptiles, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Snakes, Solutions, Species Discovery, Traditional Knowledge, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A giant anaconda, a vampire hedgehog, a dwarf squirrel, and a tiger cat were among the new species named by science in 2024. Found from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the mountaintops of Southeast Asia, each new species shows us that even our well-known world contains unexplored chambers of life. This year, in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A giant anaconda, a vampire hedgehog, a dwarf squirrel, and a tiger cat were among the new species named by science in 2024. Found from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the mountaintops of Southeast Asia, each new species shows us that even our well-known world contains unexplored chambers of life. This year, in Peru&#8217;s Alto Mayo Landscape alone, scientists uncovered 27 new-to-science species, including four new mammals, during a two month expedition. Meanwhile, the Greater Mekong region yielded 234 new species, and scientists from the California Academy of Sciences described 138 new species globally. The ocean depths continued to surprise, with more than 100 potentially new species found on an unexplored underwater mountain off Chile&#8217;s coast. Two new mammal species were found in India this year, including the world’s smallest otter. Scientists estimate only a small fraction of Earth&#8217;s species have been documented, perhaps 20% at best. Even among mammals, the best-known group of animals, researchers think we’ve only found 80% of species.  Most of these hidden species are likely bats, rodents, shrews, moles and hedgehogs. Members of Indigenous Awajun communities in Peru&#8217;s Alto Mayo assist scientists with their research, such as throwing cast nets to capture fish.  68 fish species were collected, including eight that are new to science. Photo courtesy of Trond Larsen/Conservation International. However, while species may be new to Western science, many have been well known to Indigenous peoples and local communities for generations. These communities often maintain sophisticated classification systems and deep ecological&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2024/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2024/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292398</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Droughts could change bird songs, creating new species, says study on Darwin&#8217;s finches</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/droughts-could-change-bird-songs-creating-new-species-says-study-on-darwins-finches/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/droughts-could-change-bird-songs-creating-new-species-says-study-on-darwins-finches/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Nov 2024 15:25:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/08145235/finch-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289890</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Charismatic Animals, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the sunbaked Galápagos Islands, a male finch perches on a branch, hearing what sounds like another bird&#8217;s song. But something&#8217;s not quite right. The song is slower and simpler, like a familiar tune played at the wrong speed. The bird cocks its head, ruffles its feathers, but stays put. It&#8217;s just been fooled by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the sunbaked Galápagos Islands, a male finch perches on a branch, hearing what sounds like another bird&#8217;s song. But something&#8217;s not quite right. The song is slower and simpler, like a familiar tune played at the wrong speed. The bird cocks its head, ruffles its feathers, but stays put. It&#8217;s just been fooled by a scientific experiment that&#8217;s helping reveal how ecological changes might drive the evolution of new species. A new study published in Science offers insights into how Darwin&#8217;s famous finches evolved into different species. The study used an innovative experiment to understand a fundamental question: how do new species form? While the answer is never simple, this research reveals one way it might happen: through small changes in beaks that lead to changes in song, eventually causing birds to no longer recognize each other as the same species. The research began with fieldwork on the Galápagos Islands in 1999, where lead author Jeff Podos, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has studied these famous birds, specifically Darwin&#8217;s medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis), over many field seasons. https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/08153158/Darwins-medium-ground-finch-song.wav Song of the Darwin&#8217;s medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis). Darwin&#8217;s finches helped inspire Darwin&#8217;s theory of evolution by natural selection, as their different beak shapes across different Galápagos islands demonstrated how species could adapt to varied food sources over time. Photo of female Darwin&#8217;s medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis) courtesy of Andrew Hendry. Despite their historic significance, Darwin&#8217;s finches are rather clumsy. “They&#8217;re actually terrible flyers,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/droughts-could-change-bird-songs-creating-new-species-says-study-on-darwins-finches/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/droughts-could-change-bird-songs-creating-new-species-says-study-on-darwins-finches/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/08153158/Darwins-medium-ground-finch-song.wav" length="3211730" type="audio/wav" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289890</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With rare mammal tourism, observing means conserving (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/with-rare-mammal-tourism-observing-means-conserving-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/with-rare-mammal-tourism-observing-means-conserving-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Nov 2024 00:27:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles FoleyJon Hall]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/10/03142525/FEATURED-echidna-444x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289522</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Indonesia, Latin America, New Guinea, Oceania, South America, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Funding, Mammals, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the turn of this century, seeing a wild jaguar was exceptionally difficult. People driving through the Jaguar Ecological Reserve in the Pantanal in Brazil would very occasionally get a glimpse of one crossing the road, but photographing them in the wild was considered almost impossible. The same was true for other large iconic cat [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the turn of this century, seeing a wild jaguar was exceptionally difficult. People driving through the Jaguar Ecological Reserve in the Pantanal in Brazil would very occasionally get a glimpse of one crossing the road, but photographing them in the wild was considered almost impossible. The same was true for other large iconic cat species including snow leopards and puma, but just 20 years later all three species can be easily seen in a few days, in the right areas. Visitors to the Pantanal can now see multiple jaguars in just one day, and behaviors previously seldom witnessed or photographed, like hunting and mating, or mothers interacting with their cubs, are now regularly recorded. And excellent puma sightings are practically guaranteed in Chile, while snow leopards – once named the ‘grey ghost’ – are regularly seen in various locations in the Indian Himalayas, Mongolia and China. What changed? The answer is tourism. Wildlife-based tourism has long been an important income earner for many governments: think of Africa’s safari industry centered around viewing iconic large mammals or visitors to Borneo seeking mammals including orangutans, while in Madagascar, lemur watching is a vital part of the  poor country’s tourism industry. But, today, many other places – and mammals – are starting to get in on the act. The Onçafari Project in the Pantanal of Brazil caters to visitors eager to see jaguars, even in mundane places like outside of this caiman farm. Image by Onçafari Project guide Mario Nélson Cleto, who&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/with-rare-mammal-tourism-observing-means-conserving-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/with-rare-mammal-tourism-observing-means-conserving-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289522</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>DRC’s golden-bellied mangabeys: A little-known but much-threatened monkey</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/drcs-golden-bellied-mangabeys-a-little-known-but-much-threatened-monkey/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/drcs-golden-bellied-mangabeys-a-little-known-but-much-threatened-monkey/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jul 2024 19:18:53 +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/20/2024/07/23184207/GBMFace_EdwardMcLester-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284879</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Mammals, Monkeys, Protected Areas, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the Congo rainforest, Edward McLester witnessed a spectacle few scientists have seen: a troop of golden-bellied mangabeys (Cercocebus chrysogaster) causing a ruckus, their vibrant underbellies flashing through the understory. &#8220;Walking through the forest dozens of kilometers from the nearest person and surrounded by 70-odd large monkeys on the ground all screaming and whooping [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the Congo rainforest, Edward McLester witnessed a spectacle few scientists have seen: a troop of golden-bellied mangabeys (Cercocebus chrysogaster) causing a ruckus, their vibrant underbellies flashing through the understory. &#8220;Walking through the forest dozens of kilometers from the nearest person and surrounded by 70-odd large monkeys on the ground all screaming and whooping and heading in the same direction was an incomparable experience,&#8221; McLester, a conservation biologist at the University of Southampton in the U.K., told Mongabay. Golden-bellied mangabeys are one of Africa&#8217;s least-known and most threatened monkeys. As their name suggests, these monkeys sport a striking golden-yellow to orange-gold belly, a feature unique among mangabeys. Adults typically weigh between 8 and 15 kilograms (18 and 33 pounds), with males being larger than females. A group of golden-bellied mangabeys (Cercocebus chrysogaster) in the wild, near Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo courtesy of Edward McLester / Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. In 2020, and McLester and his team set out to conduct one of the first detailed studies of these primates in the wild at the LuiKotale study site in the buffer zone of Salonga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although outside the official protected area, the four villages that inhabit the area have committed to not hunt south of the Lokoro River to protect the bonobos (Pan paniscus) and other animals there. Golden-bellied mangabeys form extraordinarily large troops of dozens of individuals. McLester&#8217;s observations reveal a complex social structure&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/drcs-golden-bellied-mangabeys-a-little-known-but-much-threatened-monkey/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284879</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Explorer elephants’ in transfrontier conservation area offer solution to tree damage</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2024 12:52:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/28121018/ElephantsRundeRiver_Gonarezhou_AndrewAshtonFlickrBYNCND2.0-TIGHT-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283859</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Elephants, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Migration, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Elephants are known to be “ecosystem engineers,” altering habitats to suit their own needs, but this sometimes comes at a cost to other species. Hedging, or stem snapping, is the term used to describe how elephants (Loxodonta africana) reduce dominant trees to low-level shrubs, bringing the trees’ leaves within easy reach of mother-and-calf herds while [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Elephants are known to be “ecosystem engineers,” altering habitats to suit their own needs, but this sometimes comes at a cost to other species. Hedging, or stem snapping, is the term used to describe how elephants (Loxodonta africana) reduce dominant trees to low-level shrubs, bringing the trees’ leaves within easy reach of mother-and-calf herds while depriving other animals of homes and food. “They [elephant bulls] do work an area over time [and] reduce all the trees to a certain sort of height,” says Tim O’Connor, lead author of a recent study that shines a light on the hedging of dominant hardwood trees known as mopanes (Colophospermum mopane) in Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park, in the southeastern corner of the country. “They snap the stems; [the trees] grow as a thicker, smaller plant and therefore give it a hedge appearance.” Mopane hedging by hungry, constrained elephants has been well documented in other national parks in Botswana, South Africa and Zambia. The Chilojo Cliffs in Zimbabwe&#8217;s Gonarezhou National Park. Image by Richard Droker via Flickr ((CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) A blue-tailed skink (Mabuya quinquetaenia) in Gonarezhou. Image by Brian Gratwicke via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) At the study site in the north of Gonarezhou, near to where the Runde River flows beneath ancient sandstone cliffs, O’Connor and colleagues found that elephants had snapped more than half of all the trees measuring some 10 meters (33 feet) in height. Although the canopy volume of the coppiced mopanes remained healthy, it severely compromised living conditions for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283859</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Icelandic government grants new license to whaling company to hunt 128 fin whales</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/icelandic-government-grants-new-license-to-whaling-company-to-hunt-128-fin-whales/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/icelandic-government-grants-new-license-to-whaling-company-to-hunt-128-fin-whales/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2024 20:59:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/01143205/whaling-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283134</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Iceland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Cetaceans, Charismatic Animals, Hunting, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Whales, and Whaling]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Icelandic government has granted a whaling license to commercial whaling company Hvalur, despite previously suspending its operations due to animal welfare concerns. On June 11, the government announced that Bjarkey Olsen Gunnarsdóttir, Iceland’s minister of food, agriculture and fisheries, had granted a license for the 2024 whaling season, permitting Hvalur to hunt 99 vulnerable [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Icelandic government has granted a whaling license to commercial whaling company Hvalur, despite previously suspending its operations due to animal welfare concerns. On June 11, the government announced that Bjarkey Olsen Gunnarsdóttir, Iceland’s minister of food, agriculture and fisheries, had granted a license for the 2024 whaling season, permitting Hvalur to hunt 99 vulnerable fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) in the waters around Greenland and West Iceland. The license also permits the hunting of 29 whales in the waters around East Iceland and the Faroe Islands, but experts say it&#8217;s unlikely Hvalur will sail its whaling vessels to this region. Kristján Loftsson, the CEO of Hvalur, actually requested a 5- or 10-year whaling license in his application that he submitted to the Icelandic government in January. However, the license he ultimately received will only allow his company to whale for the remainder of 2024 without a possibility of renewal. In June 2023, the Icelandic government suspended Hvalur’s whaling operations after a 2022 report conducted by the Icelandic government’s Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) found that many whales suffer immensely after being harpooned. However, the ban was lifted in September of the same year, and Loftsson recommenced whaling for several weeks. Hvalur’s license subsequently expired in 2023, prompting speculation about whether whaling would continue in the Nordic nation. The harpoon ship Hvalur 8 arriving at the whaling station in Hvalfjörður, West Iceland. Two fin whales are tied to the starboard side of the ship. Image by Arne Feuerhahn / Hard to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/icelandic-government-grants-new-license-to-whaling-company-to-hunt-128-fin-whales/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283134</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Analysis of largest elephant surveys ever shows stable population, but disturbing trends</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/analysis-of-largest-elephant-surveys-ever-shows-stable-population-but-disturbing-trends/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/analysis-of-largest-elephant-surveys-ever-shows-stable-population-but-disturbing-trends/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2024 10:26:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jim Tan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/08192723/2Elephants_MoremiNPBotswana_serena_tangFlickrBYNCND2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280753</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Southern Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Elephants, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Migration, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ten years ago, says Mike Chase, the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area was one fluid contiguous elephant habitat. “An elephant could be in Botswana in the morning, midday in Zimbabwe and in the evening cross over into Zambia or Namibia,” Chase, founder of the conservation NGO Elephants Without Borders, tells Mongabay. “It appears that that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ten years ago, says Mike Chase, the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area was one fluid contiguous elephant habitat. “An elephant could be in Botswana in the morning, midday in Zimbabwe and in the evening cross over into Zambia or Namibia,” Chase, founder of the conservation NGO Elephants Without Borders, tells Mongabay. “It appears that that vision of an interconnected landscape is now being compromised.” The 520,000-square-kilometer (201,000-square-mile) area known as the KAZA stretches across Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was established in 2006 with a vision of the region’s megafauna roaming free, unencumbered by the constraints of political borders. More than half the world’s savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) live in this transfrontier area. Chase’s EWB, based in Botswana, has just published an analysis comparing the two largest-ever aerial elephant surveys ever completed: the Great Elephant Census, a pan-African survey led by Chase spanning 18 countries and conducted in 2014 and 2015; and the 2022 KAZA Elephant Survey commissioned by the KAZA Secretariat, covering the five countries of the transfrontier conservation area with additional data from a 2018 EWB survey in Botswana. Elephants in the Okavango Delta. Image by Michael Levine-Clark via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Aerial shot of a river in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. Image by Mark W Atkinson/WCS via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) “It is critical to have up-to-date information on the size and status of elephant populations to understand the status of the species,” says George Wittemyer, a professor at Colorado State University&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/analysis-of-largest-elephant-surveys-ever-shows-stable-population-but-disturbing-trends/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280753</doi>				</item>
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