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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=dna&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/dna/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 07 Nov 2026 11:26:43 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on DNA</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/dna/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Preserving wildlife DNA for the future: Interview with the Frozen Zoo’s Katie Heineman</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/preserving-wildlife-dna-for-the-future-interview-with-the-frozen-zoos-katie-heineman/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/preserving-wildlife-dna-for-the-future-interview-with-the-frozen-zoos-katie-heineman/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Sep 2026 13:28:58 +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/20/2026/09/28132011/Banner-Image-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331055</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Conservation, DNA, Environment, Gender, Genetic Engineering, Genetics, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Plants, Research, Science, Solutions, Species, Species recovery, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Kurt, a Przewalski&#8217;s horse, was born at in Texas in August 2020. Less than three years later, Ollie followed. Out in the wild, their species had gone extinct in the 1960s. Both individuals, born of a surrogate mother — a domestic horse — were the first Przewalski&#8217;s horses (Equus ferus przewalskii) to be successfully cloned [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Kurt, a Przewalski&#8217;s horse, was born at in Texas in August 2020. Less than three years later, Ollie followed. Out in the wild, their species had gone extinct in the 1960s. Both individuals, born of a surrogate mother — a domestic horse — were the first Przewalski&#8217;s horses (Equus ferus przewalskii) to be successfully cloned from another of their species whose DNA had been preserved at the San Diego Zoo for 40 years. At the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen Zoo, the largest initiative of its kind in the world, genetic materials from animals and plants are stored — cryopreserved using liquid nitrogen at temperatures as low as -196° Celsius (-320° Fahrenheit) — for posterity. But the Frozen Zoo is only part of the alliance’s broader biodiversity banking initiative, which also includes a native plant gene bank and a tissue and DNA bank. “I think of it as saving DNA for the future,” Katie Heineman, conservation program leader for biodiversity banking at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA), told Mongabay in a video interview. “It really is an optimistic act to conserve biodiversity for a time where we&#8217;ve solved the threats facing nature.” Applications are aplenty. Biodiversity banking can help not just in the recovery of threatened species, but also in preserving genetic diversity. It’s also crucial for scientific research. However, given the pace of habitat degradation and biodiversity loss, Heineman said there’s an urgency to build capacity around the world to ensure more samples are collected and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/preserving-wildlife-dna-for-the-future-interview-with-the-frozen-zoos-katie-heineman/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/preserving-wildlife-dna-for-the-future-interview-with-the-frozen-zoos-katie-heineman/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331055</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A new cat species was just discovered. Several more may follow</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/a-new-cat-species-was-just-discovered-several-more-may-follow/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/a-new-cat-species-was-just-discovered-several-more-may-follow/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2026 19:53:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/24194331/tiger-cat-released-with-sattelite-collar-Mirador-St-Park-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=330733</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, DNA, Endangered Species, Genetics, Interviews, Mammals, Small Cats, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Editor&#8217;s note: Last week, the description of a “new” cat species from Bolivia made headlines around the world. The tilcayo (Leopardus tilcayo), a small spotted cat from Bolivia’s Yungas cloud forests, was described as the first new living cat species discovered in more than a century. Unlike several cats recognized as new species in recent [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Editor&#8217;s note: Last week, the description of a “new” cat species from Bolivia made headlines around the world. The tilcayo (Leopardus tilcayo), a small spotted cat from Bolivia’s Yungas cloud forests, was described as the first new living cat species discovered in more than a century. Unlike several cats recognized as new species in recent years through taxonomic revisions, the tilcayo had never been formally described by science. Genetic analysis indicates its lineage diverged from other tiger cats around 1.4 million years ago. The discovery comes amid a broader reassessment of cat taxonomy. Several populations once considered subspecies or regional forms are now recognized, or have been proposed, as separate species. And there may be considerably more to come, according to Tadeu Gomes de Oliveira, a Brazilian wildlife biologist and conservationist who has spent several decades studying the small wild cats of the Neotropics. Oliveira is one of the co-chairs of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Cat Specialist Group. He is also a professor in the biology department at Maranhão State University (UEMA) in São Luís and a researcher and scientific adviser with Brazil’s Instituto Pró-Carnívoros. He leads the Wild Cats Brazil/Americas Conservation Program and is founder and chair of the Tiger Cats Conservation Initiative. Much of Oliveira’s work has focused on the tiger-cat complex, including Leopardus tigrinus, L. guttulus, and L. pardinoides. He has also been involved for many years in IUCN Red List assessments and conservation planning in Brazil. “The tiger-cat group is undergoing a genetic revolution,” Oliveira&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/a-new-cat-species-was-just-discovered-several-more-may-follow/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-330733</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From one deer’s DNA, a road map emerges to save an endangered Philippine species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/from-one-deers-dna-a-road-map-emerges-to-save-an-endangered-philippine-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/from-one-deers-dna-a-road-map-emerges-to-save-an-endangered-philippine-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Aug 2026 02:18:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pippo Carmona]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/04094051/Visayan-spotted-deer-Rusa-alfredi-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325218</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Critically Endangered Species, DNA, Endangered Species, Environment, Genetics, Mammals, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Science, Solutions, Ungulates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The net fell with a dull thud. Abraham thrashed once, twice, then went still. A metal notcher clicked against the soft cartilage of his ear, snipping a tiny piece of tissue into ethanol. An antiseptic spray then hissed over the wound, sealing it from infection. Abraham is a Visayan spotted deer (Rusa alfredi), who was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The net fell with a dull thud. Abraham thrashed once, twice, then went still. A metal notcher clicked against the soft cartilage of his ear, snipping a tiny piece of tissue into ethanol. An antiseptic spray then hissed over the wound, sealing it from infection. Abraham is a Visayan spotted deer (Rusa alfredi), who was born, raised and ultimately died at Silliman University’s Center for Tropical Conservation Studies (CENTROP) in the Philippines. Named for the unique constellation of pale spots running across their flanks, the Visayan spotted deer once roamed across six islands in the central Philippines. Deforestation for agricultural expansion and hunting wiped them from four, leading them to be listed in 1988 as endangered by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Now, only the islands of Panay and Negros remain as their refuge.  The last count, from 2016, put the wild population at 700 mature individuals. By 2019, Philippine authorities had escalated the national listing to critically endangered. A decade on, with deforestation and hunting persisting throughout the deer’s refuge, conservationists find it hard to say whether that number has held, or slipped further. A few hundred more spotted deer live in captivity, cared for in facilities scattered across the two islands. Before their numbers dwindle even further, researchers from both Panay and Negros have sprung into action to restore deer population. Their first move: unlocking the deer’s genetic secrets. Using the sample taken from Abraham, researchers from  Silliman University, in Negros, and the Philippine Genome Center&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/from-one-deers-dna-a-road-map-emerges-to-save-an-endangered-philippine-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325218</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plenty of biodiversity data, but too few conservation answers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plenty-of-biodiversity-data-but-too-few-conservation-answers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plenty-of-biodiversity-data-but-too-few-conservation-answers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2026 13:52:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/25112058/car_6969z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316240</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, DNA, Environment, Monitoring, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; For decades, conservation has depended on a deceptively simple act: counting. Scientists tally birds along migration routes, measure forest cover from satellites, or track wildlife populations through camera traps. These numbers underpin the decisions that shape environmental policy, from protected-area planning to international biodiversity targets. Yet the system that produces them is changing quickly, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; For decades, conservation has depended on a deceptively simple act: counting. Scientists tally birds along migration routes, measure forest cover from satellites, or track wildlife populations through camera traps. These numbers underpin the decisions that shape environmental policy, from protected-area planning to international biodiversity targets. Yet the system that produces them is changing quickly, and not always coherently. A recent PNAS perspective led by William Sutherland and dozens of collaborators argues that biodiversity measurement is entering a pivotal moment. The tools used to monitor nature have expanded dramatically, while demand for reliable data has grown across governments, businesses and international agreements. The authors argue that making use of this expanding stream of biodiversity data will require changes not only in technology but also in how evidence is organized, shared, and interpreted. Nine changes needed to deliver a radical transformation in biodiversity measurement. Adapted from Sutherland et al (2026) The scale of data collection alone illustrates the shift. Global biodiversity databases now incorporate millions of observations from citizen scientists, museum collections, environmental DNA sampling and automated sensors. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), for example, adds hundreds of millions of species records each year, drawn from sources as varied as birdwatching apps and environmental impact assessments. In principle, this abundance opens new possibilities. Environmental DNA allows researchers to detect species from traces left in soil or water. Acoustic sensors can record entire soundscapes, with machine-learning systems identifying species calls automatically. Remote sensing tracks deforestation and habitat change in near real&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plenty-of-biodiversity-data-but-too-few-conservation-answers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316240</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DNA fingerprinting convicts Zimbabwe lion poachers in landmark case</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Mar 2026 13:55:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/05091917/lions-feasting-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315236</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Crime, DNA, Environment, Environmental Law, Lions, Mammals, Poaching, Technology, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A CSI-style investigation in Zimbabwe helped to successfully prosecute two people for killing a lion and trafficking its teeth, flesh and other body parts in February. Forensic specialists analyzed DNA collected from parts seized by authorities and matched it with a radio-collared lion that was killed two years ago. This conviction was historic: It’s the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A CSI-style investigation in Zimbabwe helped to successfully prosecute two people for killing a lion and trafficking its teeth, flesh and other body parts in February. Forensic specialists analyzed DNA collected from parts seized by authorities and matched it with a radio-collared lion that was killed two years ago. This conviction was historic: It’s the world’s first case to use a lion’s genetic material and trace it back to an individual to pin down wildlife criminals. The two defendants were sentenced to two years in prison for their crimes. The conviction is tied to a 2024 case in which poachers snared and killed a male lion near Hwange National Park, close to the world-famous Victoria Falls. Researchers knew this particular lion, as they’d tracked its movements as part of a study. When they captured and anesthetized the cat to fit it with a radio collar some years ago, biologists took blood samples and logged its genetic and health information into their database. Investigators used that DNA data to trace the origins of seized lion parts, which included three bags of meat, 16 claws and four teeth that were to be sold on the black market. Parts from captive-bred lions can be traded internationally and in Zimbabwe with the appropriate paperwork, but the sellers didn’t have permits, and proving these seized parts came from a wild lion and not a captive-bred one was key to this case. That would mean poaching, which is  illegal. African lions are the most-traded wildcats in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315236</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mummified cheetahs found in Saudi caves could shape rewilding plans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mummified-cheetahs-found-in-saudi-caves-could-shape-rewilding-plans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mummified-cheetahs-found-in-saudi-caves-could-shape-rewilding-plans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Feb 2026 13:46:31 +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/20/2026/02/26043549/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-9.52.46-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314833</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Middle East and Saudi Arabia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, DNA, Happy-upbeat Environmental, and Mammals]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers exploring a cave network in northern Saudi Arabia have made an unexpected find: seven naturally mummified cheetahs, along with the skeletal remains of 54 more, preserved for up to 4,000 years in arid underground chambers. &#8220;It was a big surprise,&#8221; lead author Ahmed Al Boug of Saudi Arabia&#8217;s National Centre for Wildlife told Scientific [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Researchers exploring a cave network in northern Saudi Arabia have made an unexpected find: seven naturally mummified cheetahs, along with the skeletal remains of 54 more, preserved for up to 4,000 years in arid underground chambers. &#8220;It was a big surprise,&#8221; lead author Ahmed Al Boug of Saudi Arabia&#8217;s National Centre for Wildlife told Scientific American. One of the mummified cheetahs as it was found in situ in a cave in northern Saudi Arabia. Photo courtesy of National Center for Wildlife &#8211; Saudi Arabia The discovery, published in the journal Communications Earth &amp; Environment, is already reshaping how scientists think about reintroducing the big cats to the Arabian Peninsula. The mummies were found during surveys of 134 caves spanning an area the size of New York City (1,211 square kilometers, or 468 square miles) near the city of Arar. Five of the caves contained cheetah remains, with one sinkhole-accessed cave alone yielding 41 specimens. &#8220;The fact that they went into over one hundred caves and were able to find mummies — that&#8217;s highly unusual outside of permafrost,&#8221; Liz Kierepka, a wildlife geneticist at North Carolina State University in the U.S., who wasn’t involved in the study, told Science News. The hot, dry microclimate of the limestone caves created ideal conditions for natural preservation, inhibiting bacterial decay and keeping soft tissue intact for centuries. An above ground view of one of the caves where a mummified cheetah was found. Photo courtesy of David Chancellor/Ahmed Boug et al./Communications Earth &amp; Environment CT&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mummified-cheetahs-found-in-saudi-caves-could-shape-rewilding-plans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314833</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Drone-mounted eDNA hints at richness of life in the rainforest canopy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/drone-mounted-edna-hints-at-richness-of-life-in-the-rainforest-canopy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/drone-mounted-edna-hints-at-richness-of-life-in-the-rainforest-canopy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jan 2026 10:28:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/29101518/amazon_201482-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313495</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, DNA, Drones, Environment, Habitat, Rainforests, Technology, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[What’s lurking in and around the rainforest canopy? That’s a hard question to answer, especially in tall and dense forests. Traditional tracking methods, like camera traps, often miss out on elusive species that live high in the canopies. Acoustic monitoring might help detect some species, but not the relatively quiet ones. Scientists are now using [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[What’s lurking in and around the rainforest canopy? That’s a hard question to answer, especially in tall and dense forests. Traditional tracking methods, like camera traps, often miss out on elusive species that live high in the canopies. Acoustic monitoring might help detect some species, but not the relatively quiet ones. Scientists are now using a combination of drone technology and environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis to unravel the mysteries unfolding in the treetops. A team at the Environmental Robotics Lab at ETH Zürich collaborated with nonprofit organization Wilderness International to deploy drones to collect eDNA samples from rainforest canopies in Peru. Environmental DNA is the genetic material left behind in the environment by animals via their hair, fur or saliva. These flow into water or float around in the air before settling on leaves, branches and canopies. For a long time, scientists have focused on extracting genetic material from water samples to detect the animals living in a forest or ecosystem. However, this often left out arboreal, or tree-dwelling, species. “We have researchers who cover the ground level when it comes to traditional biodiversity research,” Marie Schreiber, head of science communication at Wilderness International, told Mongabay in a video interview. “But what is going on in the treetops is very difficult to understand and assess.” A team of scientists collaborated to deploy a combination of drone technology and environmental DNA analysis to collect DNA samples from treetops in the Peruvian Amazon. Image courtesy of Matthis Weber. It was to fill&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/drone-mounted-edna-hints-at-richness-of-life-in-the-rainforest-canopy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/drone-mounted-edna-hints-at-richness-of-life-in-the-rainforest-canopy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An inventory of life in California</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jan 2026 23:50:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/06234519/ca_huddart_park_180107197-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312680</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Citizen Science, Conservation, DNA, Ecology, Environment, Fungi, Green, Insects, Invertebrates, and Plants]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; Why Mongabay is reporting on California’s biodiversity Mongabay’s coverage of biodiversity has long been associated with tropical forests and far-flung frontiers. Yet California—wealthy, populous, and intensively studied—presents a different kind of challenge. It is one of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots, and yet much of its life remains undocumented, unnamed, and unaccounted for. That contradiction [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; Why Mongabay is reporting on California’s biodiversity Mongabay’s coverage of biodiversity has long been associated with tropical forests and far-flung frontiers. Yet California—wealthy, populous, and intensively studied—presents a different kind of challenge. It is one of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots, and yet much of its life remains undocumented, unnamed, and unaccounted for. That contradiction sits at the heart of the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI), a statewide effort to catalogue life before it disappears. Over the past several months, Mongabay has reported on CalATBI and its partners as they attempt something unusually comprehensive: to build a verifiable, statewide baseline robust enough to support decades of future decisions. What follows draws on Mongabay’s reporting on insects, fungi, museum collections, and field science in California. It is not a catalogue of threats, nor a tour of charismatic species. It is a portrait of an infrastructure project—scientific, institutional, and human—designed to answer a basic question that turns out to be surprisingly hard to settle: what lives here? Discovering what still lives here &nbsp; California has never lacked for ambition. Its 20th-century infrastructure projects—like dams, aqueducts, and freeways—are known for their scale and confidence. CalATBI belongs to that lineage, though its raw material is not concrete or steel, but beetles, spores, DNA fragments, and pinned moths. The premise is straightforward. California cannot protect what it has not documented. Despite centuries of natural history, thousands of species remain undescribed, particularly among insects, fungi, and soil organisms. Many exist only as fleeting presences, active for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312680</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Top new species from 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 14:22:20 +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/20/2025/12/29141103/Screenshot-2025-12-28-at-5.12.22-PM-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312133</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Angola, Atlantic Ocean, Brazil, Cerrado, Global, Himalayas, India, Peru, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deep Sea, Deforestation, DNA, Ecosystem Services, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Farming, Forests, Fungi, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Invasive Species, Marine, Mining, Oceans, Old Growth Forests, Pollution, Protected Areas, Ranching, Research, Science, Snakes, Species, Species Discovery, Swamps, Threatened species, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world still holds its secrets. Hidden under wet rocks, in the ocean&#8217;s twilight crevices, and in the minutiae of the genetic code are creatures unknown and unnamed by the human species. Every year, scientists find hundreds of new animals, insects, plants and fungi. This year, researchers described a tiny new marsupial, a new Himalayan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world still holds its secrets. Hidden under wet rocks, in the ocean&#8217;s twilight crevices, and in the minutiae of the genetic code are creatures unknown and unnamed by the human species. Every year, scientists find hundreds of new animals, insects, plants and fungi. This year, researchers described a tiny new marsupial, a new Himalayan bat, an ancient tree, a bright blue butterfly, a parrot snake, and a fairy lantern plant, among others. &#8220;I think most people believe that we know most species on Earth,&#8221; Mario Moura, a professor at the Federal University of Paraíba in Brazil, told Mongabay, &#8220;but in the best-case scenario, we know 20% of Earth&#8217;s species.&#8221; Some estimate that only 10% of all the species on the planet have been described. Unfortunately, many species may be threatened with extinction before they’re even formally named — victims of human activities like development and climate change. Some of these species could be food or medicine for humans, but each plays a unique role in Earth’s interconnected web of life. “We’re understanding more and more that every species on the planet has a role, and in one way or another, is linked to our well-being through the part they play in ecosystems,&#8221; said Boris Worm, a marine conservation biologist who co-authored a study that quantifies the number of undescribed species on land and in the ocean. “We can’t protect them … if we don’t know them.&#8221; Atlantic manta ray (Mobula yarae) with a diver off the coast of Mexico. Originally&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312133</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Statewide survey aims to put California’s fungi on the conservation map</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2025 13:08:41 +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/20/2025/12/19121458/Image_2-LAPTOP-7JODAAGR-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311724</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Citizen Science, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, data, DNA, Drought, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Fungi, Nitrogen Cycle, Plants, Soil Carbon, Species, Species Discovery, Surveying, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Getting to The Cedars, an ecological preserve in California’s Sonoma county, is a slog. Multiple rivers and creeks must be crossed, and it can be tough going on an often storm-destroyed road. But it’s home to a rich diversity of species found nowhere else on Earth that are uniquely adapted to serpentine soil, composed of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Getting to The Cedars, an ecological preserve in California’s Sonoma county, is a slog. Multiple rivers and creeks must be crossed, and it can be tough going on an often storm-destroyed road. But it’s home to a rich diversity of species found nowhere else on Earth that are uniquely adapted to serpentine soil, composed of decomposed rock and rich in heavy metals. If you’re a fungi collector, it’s well worth the trip. Over the past two years, a dedicated team of mycologists — specialists in the study of fungi — and experienced mushroom collectors have combed California’s forests, rivers and mountains in often remote locations such as this, searching for and collecting fungi. Those making the arduous journey out to The Cedars have identified more than 100 new species, 25 of which are only known from the area. They snapped photos, which were then uploaded with all pertinent data to iNaturalist, a citizen scientist biodiversity database. Collections have been sent to labs where scientists extracted DNA for sequencing. Dried specimens are stored for safe keeping at California State University, East Bay, and the University of California, Los Angeles. This is part of an expansive effort to map the state’s fungal diversity, which has yielded thousands of specimens and is the first of its kind in North America, says Harte Singer, who heads genetic research at the California Fungal Diversity Survey (CA FUNDIS). The CA FUNDIS team collected thousands of fungi species from across California. Many of those collected are undescribed.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311724</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The lab-in-a-backpack busting illegal shark fins: Interview with Diego Cardeñosa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-lab-in-a-backpack-busting-illegal-shark-fins-interview-with-diego-cardenosa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-lab-in-a-backpack-busting-illegal-shark-fins-interview-with-diego-cardenosa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2025 03:38:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/30123813/hammerheads-771x434-1-768x434.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311551</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Law Enforcement, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, shark finning, Sharks, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Diego Cardeñosa always knew he wanted to study sharks. But when he started his Ph.D., he had to make a choice: tagging sharks in the field — the “fun,” typically more-sought-after path — or studying their DNA in a lab. “I went for maybe not the most attractive in the sense of field trips, because [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Diego Cardeñosa always knew he wanted to study sharks. But when he started his Ph.D., he had to make a choice: tagging sharks in the field — the “fun,” typically more-sought-after path — or studying their DNA in a lab. “I went for maybe not the most attractive in the sense of field trips, because it was getting stuck in a little tiny stinky lab in Hong Kong full of dried fins,” he told Mongabay. “But I knew what the science we were doing was going to produce.” His efforts paid off. After years of research, Cardeñosa pioneered a forensic tool that can quickly and cheaply detect if a dried shark fin comes from a protected species. Like a rapid COVID-19 test, the device has helped inspectors in Hong Kong, the world’s largest shark fin trade hub, crack down on an illegal trade that has helped pushed many shark species — there are more than 500 — to the brink of extinction. The tool empowers inspectors who previously had to wave through suspicious shipments because they didn’t have enough time to wait for a DNA lab test. “It solves that very key early-detection step that until now was difficult,” Cardeñosa said. Now he’s rolling it out in other countries, from Brazil, Peru and Ecuador, to the U.S., Sri Lanka and Tanzania, with, he hopes, more to come. Data produced by Cardeñosa’s shark fin identification kit has also informed measures to list dozens of shark species under the protection of CITES,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-lab-in-a-backpack-busting-illegal-shark-fins-interview-with-diego-cardenosa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-lab-in-a-backpack-busting-illegal-shark-fins-interview-with-diego-cardenosa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311551</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Turning outdoor exploration into environmental discovery: Gregg Treinish and the rise of Adventure Scientists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/turning-outdoor-exploration-into-environmental-discovery-gregg-treinish-and-the-rise-of-adventure-scientists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/turning-outdoor-exploration-into-environmental-discovery-gregg-treinish-and-the-rise-of-adventure-scientists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2025 22:25:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/11173751/gregg-okavango-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308688</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Citizen Science, Conservation, DNA, Environment, Insects, Interviews, Invertebrates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some revolutions begin not with technology, but with a feeling. For Gregg Treinish, that feeling was guilt. He was spending years on long wilderness expeditions—crossing ranges, sleeping rough, watching the world’s edges—and began to wonder what any of it added up to. “I was spending years in the wilderness, doing long expeditions, and I began [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some revolutions begin not with technology, but with a feeling. For Gregg Treinish, that feeling was guilt. He was spending years on long wilderness expeditions—crossing ranges, sleeping rough, watching the world’s edges—and began to wonder what any of it added up to. “I was spending years in the wilderness, doing long expeditions, and I began to feel selfish for being out there without making a difference,” he says. “I wanted to stay in the outdoors, but I also wanted my time to matter and to contribute to something bigger than myself.” Gregg Treinish in the Oakavango. National Geographic Society’s Okavango Wilderness Project carried out extensive exploration and data-collection across the Okavango River Basin — from the Angolan highlands through Namibia to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, producing one of the most detailed scientific baselines ever gathered for the ecosystem. Photo courtesy of Adventure Scientists. That reckoning became Adventure Scientists, an organization that mobilizes outdoor enthusiasts to collect data for research and conservation. Founded more than a decade ago, it has since grown from an idea scribbled between treks into an operation that partners with agencies, universities, and businesses to fill data gaps in biodiversity, climate, forests, and freshwater. Its volunteers—hikers, climbers, divers, paddlers—now deliver samples and observations that influence policy, corporate practices, and scientific understanding. Treinish insists the success of the project has little to do with personal brilliance. “I have no special skills as a scientist or as an adventurer,” he says. “That’s exactly why I believed this idea&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/turning-outdoor-exploration-into-environmental-discovery-gregg-treinish-and-the-rise-of-adventure-scientists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/turning-outdoor-exploration-into-environmental-discovery-gregg-treinish-and-the-rise-of-adventure-scientists/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308688</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>California’s grand insect census</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/californias-grand-insect-census/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/californias-grand-insect-census/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2025 00:20:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/28235544/desert_20240416_102834-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308312</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Conservation, DNA, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Insects, Interviews, Invertebrates, Surveying, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[California has a way of exaggerating things—mountains, deserts, and egos. But its insects? They take excess to another level. Somewhere between the redwoods and the Salton Sea live perhaps 60,000, maybe over 100,000 species. Nobody really knows. That’s the problem—and the provocation—behind the California Insect Barcode Initiative, a monumental effort to document them all, one [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[California has a way of exaggerating things—mountains, deserts, and egos. But its insects? They take excess to another level. Somewhere between the redwoods and the Salton Sea live perhaps 60,000, maybe over 100,000 species. Nobody really knows. That’s the problem—and the provocation—behind the California Insect Barcode Initiative, a monumental effort to document them all, one DNA sequence at a time. Austin Baker, a postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, is leading the charge. His brief is almost absurdly ambitious: to collect, sequence, and catalog every insect species in the state. Every fly, ant, and beetle that hums, crawls, or burrows across the Golden State. “You could visit any vegetated area across that state and potentially collect several new (undiscovered and unnamed) insect species,” he says. Insect collection locations across California for the barcoding initiative. Points are colored by the ecoregion where the collection occurred. The task sounds Sisyphean. California’s habitats are diverse—fog-draped coasts, alpine forests, and blistering high deserts. Baker and his colleagues, working under the umbrella of the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI), are sampling every ecoregion recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency. Each biome gets its turn. “We’ve decided to try to sample every ecoregion within the state using as many collecting techniques as we can,” Baker explains. And not just once. Many insects emerge only for a few fleeting weeks each year, so the team deploys passive traps that can sit in place for months, quietly filling with wings, legs, and data.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/californias-grand-insect-census/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/californias-grand-insect-census/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308312</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amid challenges, Nepal plans its latest tiger &#038; rhino counts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-challenges-nepal-plans-its-latest-tiger-rhino-counts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-challenges-nepal-plans-its-latest-tiger-rhino-counts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2025 02:04:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/14071213/4106094460_bd6180bd5f_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306858</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, DNA, Elephants, Endangered Species, Mammals, National Parks, One-horned Rhinos, Poaching, Population, Protected Areas, and Tigers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; &#160; KATHMANDU — After delays, Nepal is set to conduct its tiger survey and rhino count starting between December and March next year. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), in collaboration with partner organizations, aims to conduct the count in five tiger-bearing and four rhino-bearing national parks of Nepal, including Parsa, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; &nbsp; KATHMANDU — After delays, Nepal is set to conduct its tiger survey and rhino count starting between December and March next year. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), in collaboration with partner organizations, aims to conduct the count in five tiger-bearing and four rhino-bearing national parks of Nepal, including Parsa, Banke, Bardiya, Chitwan, and Shuklaphanta. “Given the numerous delays for the census this year, we are planning to begin the tiger survey in December and rhino count in March,” said Haribhadra Acharya, information officer and senior ecologist at DNPWC. Despite a budget crunch caused by the USAID funding pullout this year and recent political unrest, Acharya said the department and partner organizations are in the planning phase and have formed advisory, technical and field task committees for effective and impact-driven surveys. While the tiger count is estimated to cost around 15 million rupees ($105,000), the rhino census is expected to cost 20 million rupees ($140,000). Although the censuses faced delays due to budget constraints, Acharya said the government plans to conduct the population counts through financial support received from different agencies and organizations, including the WWF Nepal, Zoological Society of Nepal and National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC). Rhinos in Chitwan National Park. Image by John Nabelek/OSU via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). “We also plan to update the Tiger and Prey Base Monitoring Protocol 2017, which ensures two weeks of camera trapping duration for survey and sampling purposes. But the update would extend the duration&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-challenges-nepal-plans-its-latest-tiger-rhino-counts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306858</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To track a unicorn: Laos team goes all out to find the last saolas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/to-track-a-unicorn-laos-team-goes-all-out-to-find-the-last-saolas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/to-track-a-unicorn-laos-team-goes-all-out-to-find-the-last-saolas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2025 04:49:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/02105213/8-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306770</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Laos, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cattle, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Critically Endangered Species, DNA, Environment, Forests, Green, Innovation, Mammals, Snares, Tracking, Ungulates, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Few people have the opportunity to meet near-mythical beasts in real life — but Rob Timmins has. He’s one of the few biologists ever to spend time with a saola, a wild ox once known as the “Asian unicorn,” and arguably the most threatened large mammal on the planet. First described by science in 1993, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Few people have the opportunity to meet near-mythical beasts in real life — but Rob Timmins has. He’s one of the few biologists ever to spend time with a saola, a wild ox once known as the “Asian unicorn,” and arguably the most threatened large mammal on the planet. First described by science in 1993, the species, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, has only ever been recorded alive a handful of times: five camera-trap detections, and a few individuals briefly held in captivity. Timmins met one of those captive animals, a female named Martha, in 1996 after she was captured by villagers in Laos and taken to a nearby facility. She survived there only a few weeks before passing away. Martha was “truly beautiful amidst all the sadness of her captivity,” says Timmins, who is now chief technical adviser of the Saola Foundation for Annamite Mountain Conservation. “In behavior, [she] was very unlike any other ungulate I’d ever seen. Very docile, seemingly very calm.” The saola’s peaceful nature has in fact earned it a nickname in a Lao dialect: Saat Supphap, which means “polite animal.” The species is considered so evolutionarily distinct it’s placed in a genus of its own. Sporting a hefty pair of dark horns, a sloping back and bold flashes of white across the face, saolas resemble antelopes, yet their closest living relatives are wild cattle like gaur and buffalo. Yet the world is on the cusp of losing this gentle, one-of-a-kind mammal forever, before scientists have even begun to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/to-track-a-unicorn-laos-team-goes-all-out-to-find-the-last-saolas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/to-track-a-unicorn-laos-team-goes-all-out-to-find-the-last-saolas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306770</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rainwater reveals the hidden life of rainforest canopies, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rainwater-reveals-the-hidden-life-of-rainforest-canopies-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rainwater-reveals-the-hidden-life-of-rainforest-canopies-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2025 17:45:33 +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/20/2025/09/09172519/fouquet_IMG_3248_Trachycephalus_hadroceps-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305681</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, French Guiana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Climate Change, Community Development, Conservation, Deforestation, DNA, Ecology, Forests, Insects, Monitoring, Planetary Boundaries, Plantations, Rainforests, Sloths, Species, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the rainforest, much of life dwells in the tree canopy. But getting up there to study it isn&#8217;t easy. By the time a human has clumsily lumbered up from the ground, most of the critters have scattered. So a team of researchers had an idea: Why not collect the rainwater that trickles down through [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the rainforest, much of life dwells in the tree canopy. But getting up there to study it isn&#8217;t easy. By the time a human has clumsily lumbered up from the ground, most of the critters have scattered. So a team of researchers had an idea: Why not collect the rainwater that trickles down through the trees and analyze the water for traces of DNA? Every living thing, from the tiniest moss to the largest monkey, sheds microscopic pieces of itself. Cells slough off. Saliva droplets land on leaves. Waste products get deposited on branches. When rain falls through the forest canopy, it washes all this biological debris downward, creating what scientists call rainwash, a carrier of environmental DNA, or eDNA. To gather the rainwash, researchers repurposed ordinary umbrellas, drilling holes and attaching tubes to funnel water into collection devices, and hung them under trees in the Amazonian forests of French Guiana. Researchers repurposed umbrellas into low-cost rainwash collectors to study life in the canopy of French Guiana. Image courtesy of Amaia Iribar, CRBE, CNRS. &#8220;We wanted to develop something low cost and easily usable for all the local actors for conservation,&#8221; Lucie Zinger, a researcher at the France-based Center for Biodiversity and Environmental Research (CBRE), told Mongabay. &#8220;So, the idea of the umbrella comes from something cheap and easy to use.&#8221; The resulting study, published in Science Advances, found that the rainwater eDNA method detected a remarkable diversity of life in the canopy: 562 different taxa across plants, vertebrates&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rainwater-reveals-the-hidden-life-of-rainforest-canopies-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rainwater-reveals-the-hidden-life-of-rainforest-canopies-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305681</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Small islands offer big hope for conservation of endemic species, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/small-islands-offer-big-hope-for-conservation-of-endemic-species-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/small-islands-offer-big-hope-for-conservation-of-endemic-species-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2025 14:28:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/28142051/GorontaloBabirusa_SimonMitchell_2019-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305068</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, DNA, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Genetics, Green, Habitat Loss, Islands, Mammals, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Animals living on small islands are often thought to be more susceptible to extinction compared to those distributed across mainland land masses. Small population sizes, limited habitat availability, and genetic isolation can propel species into a downward spiral. However, new research from Indonesia’s biodiverse Wallacea region suggests that in areas facing intense anthropogenic disturbance, small [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Animals living on small islands are often thought to be more susceptible to extinction compared to those distributed across mainland land masses. Small population sizes, limited habitat availability, and genetic isolation can propel species into a downward spiral. However, new research from Indonesia’s biodiverse Wallacea region suggests that in areas facing intense anthropogenic disturbance, small islands can in fact provide crucial genetic and ecological refuges for rare mammals. The new study focuses on two forest-specialist mammals endemic to the island of Sulawesi and its smaller offshore islands: the anoa (Bubalus spp.), a type of dwarf buffalo; and the spectacularly tusked babirusa pig (Babyrousa spp.). Both mammals have suffered steep population declines in recent decades as logging, mining and agricultural expansion have replaced their forest habitats. Populations of anoa are classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List, while babirusa populations range from vulnerable to endangered. With their numbers thin on the ground, researchers often have trouble studying them. “With elusive species like anoa and babirusa, you don’t get to meet them a lot,” said study lead author Sabhrina Gita Aninta, a researcher at Queen Mary University of London. “This is where genomics can help — you can amplify their DNA from scraps of material [like scat and hairs] to get a lot of information.” By combining DNA analyses of more than 110 individuals, including museum specimens, with habitat suitability modeling, Aninta and her colleagues compared the genetic health of anoa and babirusa from the large main island of Sulawesi with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/small-islands-offer-big-hope-for-conservation-of-endemic-species-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/small-islands-offer-big-hope-for-conservation-of-endemic-species-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305068</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DNA research changes the fate of the most trafficked parrots in Colombia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/dna-research-changes-the-fate-of-the-most-trafficked-parrots-in-colombia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/dna-research-changes-the-fate-of-the-most-trafficked-parrots-in-colombia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Aug 2025 14:31:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana Cristina Alvarado]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/01092231/Red-lored-Amazon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303588</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Habitat, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Parrots, Research, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Parrots of the Amazona genus are among the most trafficked birds in Colombia. With their distinctive feathers, these parrots are relatively easy to identify by authorities after they have been rescued. But “determining their home territory is a much more complex task that cannot be carried out relying on just the naked eye,” says Luis [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Parrots of the Amazona genus are among the most trafficked birds in Colombia. With their distinctive feathers, these parrots are relatively easy to identify by authorities after they have been rescued. But “determining their home territory is a much more complex task that cannot be carried out relying on just the naked eye,” says Luis Alejandro Arias, a biologist at the National University of Colombia. Different populations of each species sometimes live in various parts of the country. Learning the origin of the rescued and rehabilitated birds is necessary to reintroduce them back into the wild. “Although the law demands that environmental authorities release the animals as close to their origin as possible, it isn’t easy to do so at the technical level,” Arias says. To address this problem, a group of Colombian scientists led by Arias established a genetic database by studying rescued birds of the Amazona genus that had a documented origin. In their study published in the journal Bird Conservation International, the researchers analyzed the birds’ genetics and compared them with their database. This helped them to determine the most likely origin of 156 illegally-traded parrots that had been seized near Bogotá. A seized yellow-crowned Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala) that was part of this study. Image by Luis Alejandro Arias. Technological advances are changing the field of conservation. “As new molecular tools are created, like this one just published, we can go a step beyond,” says Carlos del Valle-Useche, co-author of the study and a biologist with the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/dna-research-changes-the-fate-of-the-most-trafficked-parrots-in-colombia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303588</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bicolored waterberry: The overlooked tree shaping Zambia’s rivers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/bicolored-waterberry-the-overlooked-tree-shaping-zambias-rivers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/bicolored-waterberry-the-overlooked-tree-shaping-zambias-rivers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2025 12:39:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/16123024/RT_Syzygium_island-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302610</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia — At a bend in Zambia’s Kafue River, the bicolored waterberry trees resemble an avenue planted along a city boulevard. Their evergreen crowns stretch as far as the eye can see, reflected in the still, glassy water, only broken by the surfacing of two curious hippos. These trees — Syzygium guineense [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia — At a bend in Zambia’s Kafue River, the bicolored waterberry trees resemble an avenue planted along a city boulevard. Their evergreen crowns stretch as far as the eye can see, reflected in the still, glassy water, only broken by the surfacing of two curious hippos. These trees — Syzygium guineense subsp. barotsense — are a dominant feature of this stretch of river, yet their role in maintaining river ecology is only just beginning to be understood. During a recent 300-kilometer (186-mile) canoe expedition through Kafue National Park, Mongabay joined The Wilderness Project (TWP) — a group of researchers and explorers gathering data on Africa’s major rivers and their basins — to document the Kafue River’s biodiversity and human impact along its course. On one island, shortly after the river crosses the northern boundary of the park, the team encountered the fantastical, deeply fluted trunks of waterberry trees, the soil at their bases threaded with the spoor of African clawless otters (Aonyx capensis). Further downstream, dozens of white-breasted cormorants (Phalacrocorax lucidus) burst from nests wedged into branches of a small copse of waterberries growing directly in the river’s current. Bicolored waterberry roots clasping rocks in the middle of the river channel. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. The Wilderness Project team stops to conduct research on the island, surrounded by the waterberry trees’ fluted trunks. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. Known for fruits that sometimes emerge half-white, half-purple, the bicolored waterberry is one of several&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/bicolored-waterberry-the-overlooked-tree-shaping-zambias-rivers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/bicolored-waterberry-the-overlooked-tree-shaping-zambias-rivers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302610</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>River of giants: Canoe team tracks hippos in one of Africa’s last strongholds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/river-of-giants-canoe-team-tracks-hippos-in-one-of-africas-last-strongholds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/river-of-giants-canoe-team-tracks-hippos-in-one-of-africas-last-strongholds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2025 15:51:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/15152623/RT_Kafue_canoes_congregate-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302532</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia — “Hippos ahead.” The warning comes from the lead canoe. Hippos are dangerous — highly territorial and fiercely protective of their young. They are capable of capsizing boats and inflicting serious injuries. The line of five canoes hugs the riverbank to avoid a group midstream, but suddenly a mother hippo (Hippopotamus [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia — “Hippos ahead.” The warning comes from the lead canoe. Hippos are dangerous — highly territorial and fiercely protective of their young. They are capable of capsizing boats and inflicting serious injuries. The line of five canoes hugs the riverbank to avoid a group midstream, but suddenly a mother hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius) and her calf charge down from the bank where they’d been grazing unseen. The animals barrel toward the river and the flotilla, the mother braking at the last second. Changing course, she and her calf plunge into the water just behind the last canoe. It’s only the second close encounter of the 34-day expedition, says Mike Ross, leader of The Wilderness Project (TWP) team. “You can’t really blame them — the water is their safe place.” And this particular stretch of the Kafue River, in central Zambia, is especially so. Hippos wallowing on the sunny, muddy shallows beside the Kafue River. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. Over 82 days in 2024, Ross and a TWP team journeyed along the entire length of the Kafue, tracing its path from the river’s source near the Democratic Republic of Congo border, through the Copperbelt’s industrial zones, across the papyrus-lined dambo wetlands of the Kafue Flats and down to the steep Kafue Gorge — a topographical bottleneck that prevents some species, like African tigerfish (Hydrocynus vittatus), from moving upstream from the Zambezi. “An ever-changing river,” is how Ross describes the Kafue — slouching across open floodplains in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/river-of-giants-canoe-team-tracks-hippos-in-one-of-africas-last-strongholds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302532</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife &#038; tourists on the up in Zambia’s Kafue Park: Q&#038;A with manager Craig Reid</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/wildlife-tourists-on-the-up-in-zambias-kafue-park-qa-with-manager-craig-reid/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/wildlife-tourists-on-the-up-in-zambias-kafue-park-qa-with-manager-craig-reid/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2025 08:58:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/15083547/KNG_elephants-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302486</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Interviews, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[African Parks, the conservation NGO, has a 20-year agreement with Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) to co-manage Kafue National Park. Running through the heart of the park is the Kafue River, which is crucial for Zambia&#8217;s economy and people. But it faces threats from pollution, including a major acid spill hundreds of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[African Parks, the conservation NGO, has a 20-year agreement with Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) to co-manage Kafue National Park. Running through the heart of the park is the Kafue River, which is crucial for Zambia&#8217;s economy and people. But it faces threats from pollution, including a major acid spill hundreds of kilometers upstream near the city of Kitwe, and from overfishing outside the safety of the park. At least half of the area contained within nine Game Management Areas (GMAs) that surround the park has been occupied by small-scale farmers, driven there partly by the impact of climate change. But significant intact habitat remains, and recovering wildlife is beneficial to the communities that live around the park. Co-managed by Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife and conservation NGO African Parks, Kafue NP is home to up to 22 different species of antelopes, the highest diversity in Africa, more than 500 species of birds and at least 2,400 hippos in the river from which the park takes its name. In 2026, park authorities plan to reintroduce black rhinos (Diceros bicornis), whose population was wiped out in the 1980s. At Chunga, the headquarters of Kafue National Park, Mongabay met Craig Reid, the park manager, and spoke with him about the work AP and the DNPW are doing to safeguard this biodiversity hotspot. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. A drone shot of a section of the Kafue National Park, near its southern boundary. The park&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/wildlife-tourists-on-the-up-in-zambias-kafue-park-qa-with-manager-craig-reid/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302486</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Croc on a rock’: How a group of explorers suffers for science</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/croc-on-a-rock-how-a-group-of-explorers-suffers-for-science/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/croc-on-a-rock-how-a-group-of-explorers-suffers-for-science/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2025 15:40:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/14152837/Ross_canoe_portage-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302403</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A crocodile flips over on the river’s surface right in front of the canoe, then disappears into the white water frothing through the narrow channel. It’s too late to stop, but fortunately the croc (Crocodylus niloticus) is just as alarmed by the intruders as they are by it, and the canoe passes quickly over the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A crocodile flips over on the river’s surface right in front of the canoe, then disappears into the white water frothing through the narrow channel. It’s too late to stop, but fortunately the croc (Crocodylus niloticus) is just as alarmed by the intruders as they are by it, and the canoe passes quickly over the spot, alighting safely alongside some rocks. The Kafue River, in central Zambia, is impassable at this point. “There’s quite a big drop here that we have to do somewhere,” says Mike Ross, the expedition leader. The rapids are flanked by conglomerate rocks: small pebbles cemented together, some of them bleached pink as a hippo’s belly by the sun and water. To the uninitiated, carrying the canoes over this large, uneven jumble of boulders doesn’t look remotely possible. Boat captain Mfundisi Nowake and research assistant Katongo Kampamba carry a canoe across boulders at Mayukuyuku rapids. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. The maneuver, known as portage, is nothing new to Ross. Earlier this year, on an expedition down Angola’s Cubango River, he and colleagues from The Wilderness Project (TWP) had to carry their gear and canoes over 26 rapids. This current expedition began its journey at the source of Zambia’s Lunga River, one of the Kafue’s major tributaries, more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) to the north, and the team has already been on the water for a month. Weary but well-drilled, they get ready to lift the five boats out of the water. At these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/croc-on-a-rock-how-a-group-of-explorers-suffers-for-science/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/croc-on-a-rock-how-a-group-of-explorers-suffers-for-science/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302403</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A success story at Zambia’s leopard hotspot: Interview with ecologist Chisomo M’hango</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-success-story-at-zambias-leopard-hotspot-interview-with-ecologist-chisomo-mhango/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-success-story-at-zambias-leopard-hotspot-interview-with-ecologist-chisomo-mhango/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2025 11:39:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/11103724/Chisomo_QNA_leopard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302244</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Interviews, Leopards, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chisomo M’hango is a trainee field ecologist at Musekese Conservation (MC), a nonprofit whose research station is located deep inside the Musekese-Lumbeya section of Zambia’s Kafue National Park. M’hango and her colleagues have captured images of 95 individual leopards — or 9 leopards per 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles) in some parts of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Chisomo M’hango is a trainee field ecologist at Musekese Conservation (MC), a nonprofit whose research station is located deep inside the Musekese-Lumbeya section of Zambia’s Kafue National Park. M’hango and her colleagues have captured images of 95 individual leopards — or 9 leopards per 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles) in some parts of the study area. It represents one of the highest densities of this vulnerable species in Southern Africa. Leopards aren’t the only carnivores studied by staff members like M’hango. Musekese-Lumbeya is home to four other charismatic carnivores — spotted hyenas, African wild dogs, lions and cheetahs. Camera trap surveys, monitoring of individual animals, and citizen science projects that M’hango and MC are helping to run in collaboration with other research partners are providing promising signs on the recovery of leopards, wild dogs and lions. Mongabay spoke to M’hango at MC’s research center on the banks of the Kafue River in late May 2025. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Chisomo M’hango conducting fieldwork in the Musekese Lumbeya section of Kafue National Park. Image courtesy of Musekese Conservation. Mongabay: I understand that this area of Kafue National Park is an important leopard stronghold. Why is that? Chisomo M’hango: We have an ongoing project looking into this. We started our camera trapping efforts in 2022 to establish baseline estimates of leopard populations. We are now at a stage where we have enough data to be able to start looking into what variables are creating such an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-success-story-at-zambias-leopard-hotspot-interview-with-ecologist-chisomo-mhango/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-success-story-at-zambias-leopard-hotspot-interview-with-ecologist-chisomo-mhango/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302244</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From cattle to crayfish, human pressures mount on Zambia’s Kafue River</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-cattle-to-crayfish-human-pressures-mount-on-zambias-kafue-river/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-cattle-to-crayfish-human-pressures-mount-on-zambias-kafue-river/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jul 2025 14:51:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/11143322/RT_Kafue_canoes_woodland-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302279</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE, Zambia — “Three cattle on the left, 20 elephants on the right,” shouts the expedition leader from the bow seat of the first of five canoes snaking along a stretch of the Kafue River in central Zambia. The cattle are grazing near one of the many small farms and settlements that dot the river’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE, Zambia — “Three cattle on the left, 20 elephants on the right,” shouts the expedition leader from the bow seat of the first of five canoes snaking along a stretch of the Kafue River in central Zambia. The cattle are grazing near one of the many small farms and settlements that dot the river’s southern bank. On the northern bank lies the Lunga-Luswishi Game Management Area (GMA). Originally designated as buffer zones between populated areas and Kafue National Park, at least half of the area within the nine GMAs has now been settled and converted to farmland and homesteads, according to park officials. At the front of the lead canoe sits expedition leader and biologist Mike Ross, binoculars around his neck. He calls out observations, which are recorded by fellow scientists Lauren Searle and Katongo Kampamba, who briefly lower their paddles to log the data while their respective boat captains, brothers Vincent and Earnest Ifunga, continue to steer and propel the second and third canoes downstream. The team records fishing camps, nets and traps along the banks; farming activity and people traveling on foot or bicycle; boats, water pumps, buildings, invasive plants — and wildlife: mammals, reptiles and birds. Grey crowned cranes (Balearica regulorum) gather at the edge of an island in the middle of the river. Waterbirds, and others like white-fronted bee-eaters that need steep river banks in which to build their nesting colonies, are a key component of the data the team collects to measure the ecological&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-cattle-to-crayfish-human-pressures-mount-on-zambias-kafue-river/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-cattle-to-crayfish-human-pressures-mount-on-zambias-kafue-river/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302279</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Endangered Andean cat is imperiled by climate change and its solutions</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/endangered-andean-cat-is-imperiled-by-climate-change-and-its-solutions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/endangered-andean-cat-is-imperiled-by-climate-change-and-its-solutions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2025 14:58:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/10042617/Image_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302156</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Argentina, Atlantic Forest, Bolivia, Chile, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, DNA, Endangered Species, Environment, Extreme Weather, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Lithium, Mammals, Mining, Monitoring, Mountains, Natural Resources, Research, Small Cats, Species, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many conservationists dedicated to protecting the endangered Andean cat have never seen one in the wild, with the species known to science by just a few photos until the late 1990s. And it took Juan Reppucci, leader of the Andean Cat Alliance’s In the Field 24/7 program, nine years to spot one of these elusive [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many conservationists dedicated to protecting the endangered Andean cat have never seen one in the wild, with the species known to science by just a few photos until the late 1990s. And it took Juan Reppucci, leader of the Andean Cat Alliance’s In the Field 24/7 program, nine years to spot one of these elusive cats in its natural habitat. The Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita) is one of South America’s most endangered small cat species, roaming the high Andes of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. About the size of a domestic cat, it resembles a miniature snow leopard. Thick fur and an elongated tail make it well adapted to the harsh alpine environment it calls home and for chasing its favorite prey — vizcacha, a rabbit-resembling rodent — across rocky landscapes. Reppucci’s sighting happened on a very “weird” day, he recalls. While out looking for a radio collar that had fallen from a Pampas cat (L. colocolo) in Jujuy province, Argentina, the researcher’s dog Monty (an ever-present companion and guide on field trips) got spooked by a herd of llamas and went missing. Juan Reppucci and his dog Monty, who acts as both field trip companion and guide for AGA research teams. “If it&#8217;s dark, I follow the dog because he knows the way,” Reppucci says. Image courtesy of AGA. Reppucci walked for hours searching for both the collar and Monty. Eventually he reached a cliff edge and paused to catch his breath. “I was super tired, because I was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/endangered-andean-cat-is-imperiled-by-climate-change-and-its-solutions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302156</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mining spill highlights need to protect Zambia’s vital Kafue River &#038; its fish</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/mining-spill-highlights-need-to-protect-zambias-vital-kafue-river-its-fish/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/mining-spill-highlights-need-to-protect-zambias-vital-kafue-river-its-fish/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2025 12:04:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/09134254/KNG_fish_net_placement-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302103</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[-14.485383519365906, 26.580594798057326]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia – Biologist Mike Ross, balanced in a canoe beneath a star-filled sky in central Zambia, slaps the water with a net attached to a wooden pole and draws it toward him. In the net are several small silver fish. At dawn the next morning, as three snowy white cattle egrets (Bubulcus [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia – Biologist Mike Ross, balanced in a canoe beneath a star-filled sky in central Zambia, slaps the water with a net attached to a wooden pole and draws it toward him. In the net are several small silver fish. At dawn the next morning, as three snowy white cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) glide through the mist hanging low over the Kafue River, Ross and fellow scientists Lauren Searle and Katongo Kampamba identify the catch: among them, a banded tilapia (Tilapia sparrmanii), an orangefin minnow (Enteromius eutaenia) and a silver robber (Micralestes acutidens). All three are native to the Kafue — Zambia’s longest river — and documenting them contributes to a growing database of the river’s biodiversity, now under increasing threat. In February, a dam holding acidic mine waste near Kitwe, hundreds of kilometers upstream from the where the trio of scientists now work near Kafue National Park, failed. It released more than 50 million liters (13.2 million gallons) of acidic, heavy metal-laden sludge into a Kafue tributary. As the toxic plume moved downstream, it left at least one hippo dead, as well as numerous crocodiles, fish and monitor lizards. Zambia Air Force helicopters dumped lime into the river near the spill and upstream of the park in an effort to neutralize the acid. Biologist Katongo Kampamba identifies a fish caught at one of the team’s campsites along the Kafue river, while TWP’s Kyle Gordon removes a clipping from one of the fish’s fins for DNA analysis.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/mining-spill-highlights-need-to-protect-zambias-vital-kafue-river-its-fish/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302103</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DNA sequencing to meet global biodiversity goals: Interview with Tyler Kartzinel</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/dna-sequencing-to-meet-global-biodiversity-goals-interview-with-tyler-kartzinel/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/dna-sequencing-to-meet-global-biodiversity-goals-interview-with-tyler-kartzinel/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2025 12:32:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/25113840/Photo1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301328</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, data, DNA, Economics, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Genetics, Interviews, Monitoring, Plants, Research, Social Justice, Solutions, Species, Species Discovery, Technology, Tropical Conservation Science, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tyler Kartzinel likens protecting biodiversity to enhancing cellphone networks. His analogy is pretty straightforward: look for gaps in coverage, and then do what’s needed to fill them. “Engineers have figured out how to look for dead zones and enhance coverage,” Kartzinel, associate professor of ecology, evolution and organizational biology at Brown University in the U.S., [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tyler Kartzinel likens protecting biodiversity to enhancing cellphone networks. His analogy is pretty straightforward: look for gaps in coverage, and then do what’s needed to fill them. “Engineers have figured out how to look for dead zones and enhance coverage,” Kartzinel, associate professor of ecology, evolution and organizational biology at Brown University in the U.S., told Mongabay in a video interview. “They look for where the need is and plug the gaps.” That, according to Kartzinel, is exactly what scientists need to do when it comes to DNA sequencing technology. In recent years, DNA sampling and analysis technology have advanced rapidly, with scientists using drones and robots to collect samples from the remotest corners of the world. But a common grouse persists: the lack of extensive reference libraries against which scientists can compare samples to identity species. A study led by Kartzinel and published in the journal Molecular Ecology looks at how reference libraries are faring. While databases were found to cover a quarter of the plant species that the team looked into, they found “coverage gaps in tropical biodiversity hotspots” reflecting “well-documented biases in biodiversity science.” The study found that at least 17% of the plant families they looked into lacked any reference data. “There’s hundreds of years of power asymmetries and economic inequities that have privileged biodiversity studies in some parts of the world versus others,” Kartzinel said. “In areas which could arguably benefit the most from this technology, we&#8217;re actually most limited in the data sets.” He&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/dna-sequencing-to-meet-global-biodiversity-goals-interview-with-tyler-kartzinel/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301328</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DNA probe links Japan’s otter-themed cafes to poaching hotspots in Thailand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dna-probe-links-japans-otter-themed-cafes-to-poaching-hotspots-in-thailand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dna-probe-links-japans-otter-themed-cafes-to-poaching-hotspots-in-thailand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2025 04:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/23110434/Small-clawed-otter_RAB-e1747998306214-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299550</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, DNA, Environment, Genetics, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Pet Trade, Poaching, Research, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A glut of social media videos featuring captive Asian small-clawed otters in the mid-2000s led to what wildlife trade experts term “the pet otter boom.” Demand for the species exploded, placing pressure on wild populations already contending with widespread loss of their wetland habitats. Amid an emerging trend for otter-themed exotic animal cafes in some [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A glut of social media videos featuring captive Asian small-clawed otters in the mid-2000s led to what wildlife trade experts term “the pet otter boom.” Demand for the species exploded, placing pressure on wild populations already contending with widespread loss of their wetland habitats. Amid an emerging trend for otter-themed exotic animal cafes in some of the world’s largest cities, experts worry the demand for live otters will intensify. Researchers from France, Japan and Thailand recently used DNA tests to investigate the geographic origins of Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinereus) held in exotic animal cafes in Japan. Their study, published in Conservation Science and Practice, links many of them with wild populations in well-known otter poaching hotspots in southern Thailand. “Actually, there’s a lot more Thai otters in Japan than we previously thought,” said study co-author Worata Klinsawat, a conservation biologist at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Thailand. “Otters are now one of the top three mammals that people want to keep as exotic pets.” The species, which ranges from South Asia across Southeast Asia, has been listed under Appendix I of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, since 2019, which means the commercial trade in wild specimens is prohibited. It’s also protected by national laws within many countries in its range, including Thailand. However, it lacks legal protection in Indonesia and Vietnam, leaving loopholes that traffickers exploit to sell wild-caught animals. Consequently, many captive otters in destination countries like Japan have ambiguous origins. Asian small-clawed otters are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dna-probe-links-japans-otter-themed-cafes-to-poaching-hotspots-in-thailand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can a new DNA test save the world’s rarest turtle?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/can-a-new-dna-test-un-extinct-the-worlds-rarest-turtle/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/can-a-new-dna-test-un-extinct-the-worlds-rarest-turtle/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Feb 2025 15:06:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/19145210/Photo-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294691</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Conservation Technology, DNA, Endangered Species, Extinction, Technology, Turtles, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It might sound hyperbolic to say that finding even one female turtle can revive an entire species. However, nothing could be truer for the critically endangered Yangtze softshell turtle, a species for which no known female individuals are left on the planet. With the species functionally extinct, scientists and conservationists have ramped up efforts in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It might sound hyperbolic to say that finding even one female turtle can revive an entire species. However, nothing could be truer for the critically endangered Yangtze softshell turtle, a species for which no known female individuals are left on the planet. With the species functionally extinct, scientists and conservationists have ramped up efforts in recent years to find any unknown individuals that could help rewrite the fate of the turtle. Now, a method specifically developed for this purpose might provide a faint glimmer of hope for the world’s largest freshwater turtle. Scientists have developed and tested a portable environmental DNA kit to help detect the presence of the Yangtze softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) in large bodies of water. With the help of this tool, they hope to find any as-yet-unknown turtles that might be swimming around undetected in the lakes of Vietnam. With the newly developed portable environmental DNA (eDNA) kit, scientists are hoping to detect unknown individuals of the critically endangered Yangtze softshell turtle. Image courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society. “Their future existence really hinges on finding additional animals that may still exist in unexplored lakes, both in terms of protecting the animals and securing a captive breeding population,” Tracie Seimon, director of the molecular laboratory at the Wildlife Conservation Society, who was involved in the work, told Mongabay in a video interview. A study published in the journal Environmental DNA describes how the kit was developed and validated. According to the study, the kit “bypasses the need&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/can-a-new-dna-test-un-extinct-the-worlds-rarest-turtle/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/can-a-new-dna-test-un-extinct-the-worlds-rarest-turtle/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294691</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>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292398</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New brown bear ‘stronghold’ in Nepal redraws species’ range map</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-brown-bear-stronghold-in-nepal-redraws-species-range-map/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-brown-bear-stronghold-in-nepal-redraws-species-range-map/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2024 16:30:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/26082129/Tibetan-brown-bear-6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289510</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, cameras, Conservation, DNA, Genetics, Mammals, Mountains, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Researchers have discovered brown bears in a part of Nepal not previously known to host the species, prompting a call to protect this area as a bear “stronghold.” The finding, based on camera-trap images, also expands the known range of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Asia. It could also mark out the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Researchers have discovered brown bears in a part of Nepal not previously known to host the species, prompting a call to protect this area as a bear “stronghold.” The finding, based on camera-trap images, also expands the known range of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Asia. It could also mark out the Limi Valley, in northwestern Nepal, as a “contact zone” between two subspecies of this apex predator, the researchers write in a newly published study. “The bears weren’t the species we primarily set up the camera traps for,” study lead author Naresh Kusi, from the Himalayan Wolves Project, told Mongabay. As part of their research, Kusi and his project team have since 2021 run a network of 61 camera traps across an area in the Limi Valley that’s half the size of London. Since then, they’ve recorded images of species never before confirmed outside Nepal’s protected areas, such as the steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanii), Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). A brown bear image from a camera trap in Limi valley in western Nepal. Image courtesy of Naresh Kusi This time around, it’s the brown bear — a species found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but which is so vanishingly rare in Nepal, at an estimated 20 individuals, that it’s considered critically endangered here. Yet Kusi’s team managed to capture dozens of independent images of brown bears in their camera-trapping surveys. “Although we didn’t estimate the size of the population in Limi Valley, based&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-brown-bear-stronghold-in-nepal-redraws-species-range-map/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-brown-bear-stronghold-in-nepal-redraws-species-range-map/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289510</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Nepal counts its snow leopards, even the best estimate is still a guess</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-nepal-counts-its-snow-leopards-even-the-best-estimate-is-still-a-guess/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-nepal-counts-its-snow-leopards-even-the-best-estimate-is-still-a-guess/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2024 13:24:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/30130800/WWF-Nepal-Sanjog-Rai-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289442</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Technology, DNA, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Mountains, Population, Snow Leopards, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Scientists and government officials have embarked on the uphill task of coming up with a number, or even just a range, for the population of snow leopards in the Himalayan country. To do so, they’re having to rely on several fragmented studies carried out during different periods of time in different landscapes across [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Scientists and government officials have embarked on the uphill task of coming up with a number, or even just a range, for the population of snow leopards in the Himalayan country. To do so, they’re having to rely on several fragmented studies carried out during different periods of time in different landscapes across the country. The undertaking is Nepal’s commitment to the Population Assessment of the World&#8217;s Snow Leopards program, or PAWS. The program was adopted in 2019 by 12 countries that host populations of snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and is part of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP). &#8220;Previous snow leopard population studies in Nepal as well as many other countries often faced limitations due to sampling bias, with smaller, high-density areas leading to inflated population estimates,” said Rinzin Phunjok Lama, a snow leopard researcher who’s on the newly formed government committee to conduct the count. Because the range countries hadn’t agreed on a standardized approach, it became challenging to compare and aggregate data across regions before PAWS was rolled out. In the context of Nepal, pioneering telemetry work by researcher Rodney Jackson and his team in the late 1980s and early ’90s form the bedrock of population estimates within the country. They first estimated the snow leopard population in Nepal to be around 150-300 in 1979 and later revised the number up to 350-500 individuals based on a computerized habitat suitability model. In 2009, researchers from WWF and the Department of National Parks&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-nepal-counts-its-snow-leopards-even-the-best-estimate-is-still-a-guess/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289442</doi>				</item>
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