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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=hunting&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/hunting/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:34:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Hunting</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/hunting/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Bolsonaro’s easing of gun control fueled illegal hunting, study indicates</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bolsonaros-easing-of-gun-control-fueled-illegal-hunting-study-indicates/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bolsonaros-easing-of-gun-control-fueled-illegal-hunting-study-indicates/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Aug 2026 10:17:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adele Santelli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/07162159/AP22116534634991-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325619</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Hunting, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s gun boom reached the forest, where native wildlife became targets too.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“I want everyone armed!” Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s statement during a cabinet meeting in May 2020 signaled the fulfillment of a presidential campaign promise he made in 2018. During that meeting, he demanded that his ministers sign a decree raising the limit on civilian ammunition purchases. Throughout his campaign and his term, Bolsonaro aggressively promoted and implemented a progun agenda with a direct impact on illegal wildlife hunting, data show. “I want everyone armed!” Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s statement during a cabinet meeting in May 2020 signaled the fulfillment of a presidential campaign promise he made in 2018. During that meeting, he demanded that his ministers sign a decree raising the limit on civilian ammunition purchases. Throughout his campaign and his term, Bolsonaro aggressively promoted and implemented a progun agenda with a direct impact on illegal wildlife hunting, data show. According to 2023 data compiled by nonprofit institutes Igarapé and Sou da Paz, the number of guns in private collections held by Brazilian civilians and military personnel nearly doubled to 3 million between 2019 and 2022 — that is, during the Bolsonaro administration. In 2018, that figure stood at just over 1.3 million, with nearly half belonging to the military. Policy enacted under Bolsonaro significantly eased access to firearms, particularly for a group known in Brazil as CACs — an acronym for hunters, sport shooters and collectors. According to the survey, CACs purchased 59,000 weapons in 2018. By 2022, that figure stood at 430,000. Over the same period,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bolsonaros-easing-of-gun-control-fueled-illegal-hunting-study-indicates/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bolsonaros-easing-of-gun-control-fueled-illegal-hunting-study-indicates/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325619</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Iceland to deport antiwhaling protest ship’s crew after they interfered with whale hunt</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/iceland-to-deport-antiwhaling-protest-ships-crew-after-they-interfered-with-whale-hunt/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/iceland-to-deport-antiwhaling-protest-ships-crew-after-they-interfered-with-whale-hunt/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2026 18:39:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alex Megerle]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/11165330/Hvalskurdur_038-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325958</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and Iceland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Cetaceans, Culture, Environment, Hunting, Mammals, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Protests, Traditional People, Whales, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in Iceland detained the M/V Bandero, an antiwhaling protest ship, on July 30 and held the boat in port in Reykjavík with its 21-person crew detained on board, according to Manolya Adan, an environmental biologist who was among the crew. She spoke to Mongabay on Aug. 4 from the ship and communicated further via [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in Iceland detained the M/V Bandero, an antiwhaling protest ship, on July 30 and held the boat in port in Reykjavík with its 21-person crew detained on board, according to Manolya Adan, an environmental biologist who was among the crew. She spoke to Mongabay on Aug. 4 from the ship and communicated further via text message over the next few days. The vessel is operated by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, a “direct action” ocean conservation nonprofit that operates globally (but maintains a P.O. box in New York City). It flies the Panamanian flag. According to the foundation, the M/V Bandero had been at sea for more than a month monitoring whaling activities by Hvalur hf., the country’s last whaling company, which is owned by Kristján Loftsson. The ship had purportedly been required to report its position hourly to the Icelandic Coast Guard, broadcast AIS and were under constant surveillance, monitored by plane and drones. The vessel entered into Iceland’s 12-nautical-mile national waters on July 30 after the crew identified that the Hvalur 9, one of the country’s last whaling ships, was leaving harbor. The Hvalur 9 returned to port without hunting as the M/V Bandero approached. The Coast Guard then deployed a helicopter and pursued the M/V Bandero with patrol vessels, eventually boarding the ship with armed forces. Adan said the vessel was boarded just before midnight on July 30 in Iceland’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), an area that extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the country’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/iceland-to-deport-antiwhaling-protest-ships-crew-after-they-interfered-with-whale-hunt/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/iceland-to-deport-antiwhaling-protest-ships-crew-after-they-interfered-with-whale-hunt/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325958</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Volunteers play crucial role in Bangladesh’s wildlife crime control efforts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/volunteers-play-crucial-role-in-bangladeshs-wildlife-crime-control-efforts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/volunteers-play-crucial-role-in-bangladeshs-wildlife-crime-control-efforts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2026 07:46:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sadiqur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/24073508/8-Forest-Department-officials-along-with-local-volunteers-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324467</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Poaching, Trapping, Wildlife, Wildlife Rescues, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A handful of animal lovers, mostly representing the youth community, spread across Bangladesh, have become crucial arsenals of the Forest Department’s wildlife crime control efforts. Despite not being assigned by the state, like the responsibilities a crime control force shoulders, the animal lovers help the Forest Department trace stressed wildlife in traps, cages or enclosures [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A handful of animal lovers, mostly representing the youth community, spread across Bangladesh, have become crucial arsenals of the Forest Department’s wildlife crime control efforts. Despite not being assigned by the state, like the responsibilities a crime control force shoulders, the animal lovers help the Forest Department trace stressed wildlife in traps, cages or enclosures of poachers and smugglers. Primarily, they share intel information about any potential wildlife crime. Often, they join the wildlife inspectors of the department, act as undercover buyers, reach the crime scene, and help arrest the criminals. All things they do are under life threats — voluntarily. The Forest Department’s Wildlife Crime Control Unit (WCCU), established in 2012, conducted more than 3,000 raids against wildlife criminals between July 2012 and March 2026. Almost all raids were planned with volunteers’ tip-offs. Chief conservator of forests, Md Amir Hosain Chowdhury, told Mongabay: “Volunteers are our crucial partners [in wildlife conservation].” The government of Bangladesh has also recognized the collaboration between the WCCU and the volunteers. The WCCU and wildlife photographer and conservationist Faisal Bin Azad, better known as Adnan Azad, were honored with the National Wildlife Conservation Awards 2026 on July 9. Azad is one of the pioneers in non-government campaigns for nature conservation and was one of the original volunteers with WCCU. Local volunteers and Forest Department officers pose for photographs with an administration officia after two pooches were detained while possessing a macaque illegally. Image by Siddiqur Rahman Rabbi. The Forest Department on Nov. 6, 2025,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/volunteers-play-crucial-role-in-bangladeshs-wildlife-crime-control-efforts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/volunteers-play-crucial-role-in-bangladeshs-wildlife-crime-control-efforts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324467</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bangladesh gets ready for its first release of tiger rescued from poachers’ trap</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/bangladesh-gets-ready-for-its-first-release-of-tiger-rescued-from-poachers-trap/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/bangladesh-gets-ready-for-its-first-release-of-tiger-rescued-from-poachers-trap/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2026 09:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/10084029/upscalemedia-transformed-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323027</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Hope and optimism, Mangroves, Monitoring, Poaching, Tigers, Trapping, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a first, Bangladesh is preparing to release a tiger back into the wild after it was rescued from a poacher’s trap and provided with medical treatment. On Jan. 4 this year, the Forest Department rescued the female tiger (Panthera tigris), estimated to be around 10 years old, from the Chandpai and Sarankhola forest range [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a first, Bangladesh is preparing to release a tiger back into the wild after it was rescued from a poacher’s trap and provided with medical treatment. On Jan. 4 this year, the Forest Department rescued the female tiger (Panthera tigris), estimated to be around 10 years old, from the Chandpai and Sarankhola forest range in the Sundarbans East division. The critically injured tiger was taken to the Khulna Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, a facility of the Bangladesh Forest Department, for treatment. “We rescued the tiger from a snare set for deer poaching. After receiving adequate care, the tiger is now ready to return to the wild. We are planning to release her in a few days,” said Md Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, divisional forest officer, Sundarbans East division. According to the latest tiger census, conducted in 2024, Bangladesh is home to 125 globally endangered Bengal tigers living in the Sundarbans mangrove forest. The rescued tiger&#8217;s left foreleg, which was caught in the snare, was severely injured. Image courtesy of the Bangladesh Forest Department. Covering 6,017 square kilometers (2,323 square miles), the mangrove forest is administratively divided into Sundarbans East and Sundarbans West. It is also divided into three blocks — Chandpai-Sarankhola, Khulna and Satkhira. As per the census, the highest number of Bengal tigers is found in the Chandpai-Sarankhola block. “This indicates that the density of other wildlife, including deer and wild boars, is also higher in this block because the forest’s top predators are more concentrated here,” Chowdhury&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/bangladesh-gets-ready-for-its-first-release-of-tiger-rescued-from-poachers-trap/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323027</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Belief-based use increasing threat to yellow-billed kite, an important African scavenger</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/belief-based-use-increasing-threat-to-yellow-billed-kite-an-important-african-scavenger/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/belief-based-use-increasing-threat-to-yellow-billed-kite-an-important-african-scavenger/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2026 14:52:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/07085501/Yellow-billed_Kite_Milvus_aegyptius_parasitus_--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322723</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Togo, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Crime, Culture, Hunting, Over-hunting, Poaching, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With West Africa’s vulture populations dwindling, poachers are increasingly turning to yellow-billed kites, a medium-sized, extremely adaptable raptor found in nearly every landscape across much of sub-Saharan Africa. And though they are listed as a “least concern” species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, they face a growing threat: They’re more frequently hunted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With West Africa’s vulture populations dwindling, poachers are increasingly turning to yellow-billed kites, a medium-sized, extremely adaptable raptor found in nearly every landscape across much of sub-Saharan Africa. And though they are listed as a “least concern” species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, they face a growing threat: They’re more frequently hunted for use as fetishes and for food. Like vultures, kites — both alive and dead — and their parts are used in rituals and as charms. They’re caught as bushmeat, supply fetish markets and are used as ingredients in local traditional medicine. A study by Abiola Chaffra, a research fellow at the International Bird Conservation Partnership, found that during November-to-March hunting seasons in 2022 and 2023, hunters killed 20,200 yellow-billed kites (Milvus aegyptius) in southern Benin. They flock from across Africa to nest and breed in southern Benin each year, and as soon as they arrive, they’re in danger. “[These hunts occur] every year because the kites always come back,” Chaffra told Mongabay. The research will be published in the bulletin of the African Bird Club. Their loss could have broad impact: Yellow-billed kites are opportunistic predators that eat a wide range of small mammals, amphibians and insects that are considered pests. They play a key role in cleansing landscapes of disease and scavenging carcasses. Yellow-billed kites at a fetish market in Benin. Image by Abiola Chaffra. Belief-based demand Raptors have long been used in rituals in Benin, but it appears to be increasing, Chaffra&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/belief-based-use-increasing-threat-to-yellow-billed-kite-an-important-african-scavenger/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322723</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Crackdown on snares in Sumatra as elephant, sun bear and tiger rescued</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/crackdown-on-snares-in-sumatra-as-elephant-sun-bear-and-tiger-rescued/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/crackdown-on-snares-in-sumatra-as-elephant-sun-bear-and-tiger-rescued/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2026 13:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jaka Hendra BaittriVinolia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/25125105/Sumatran-tiger-snare-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321801</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Poaching, Snares, Wildlife, Wildlife Rescues, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PADANG, Indonesia — Authorities in a stronghold for Sumatran tigers have warned the public against using snares to trap wild boar following the dramatic rescue of an 11-month old female tiger cub last month. While it is not illegal to set a snare for the purpose of trapping wild boar or animals that are not [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PADANG, Indonesia — Authorities in a stronghold for Sumatran tigers have warned the public against using snares to trap wild boar following the dramatic rescue of an 11-month old female tiger cub last month. While it is not illegal to set a snare for the purpose of trapping wild boar or animals that are not protected by law, the West Sumatra government said any protected species caught in a snare will now lead to criminal liability. The new clarification was set out in a letter issued in late May by the West Sumatra province office of Indonesia’s conservation agency, the BKSDA. It cites a 2024 amendment to Indonesia’s 1990 conservation law governing the protection of wildlife. “The situation has become dangerous because people are setting these snares,” explained Rizaldi, a conservation scientist at Andalas University in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province. The evacuation of a Sumatran tiger trapped in a wild boar snare in Pasaman. Image courtesy of BKSDA West Sumatra. Renewed attention on snares The recent crackdown on snares was sparked after a Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) was discovered in a wild boar snare in Padang Mantiggi Utara village located in West Sumatra’s Pasaman district. Officials from the West Sumatra BKSDA, the conservation agency, arrived at the scene at around 13:30 on May 21, where they found a young female tiger in distress and pain. A snare was wrapped around the animal’s neck, trunk and right foreleg, in about five loops. “She struggled for a while&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/crackdown-on-snares-in-sumatra-as-elephant-sun-bear-and-tiger-rescued/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321801</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Trump called trophy hunting a “horror show,” but permitted 300-plus elephant trophy imports in 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/trump-called-trophy-hunting-a-horror-show-but-permitted-300-plus-elephant-trophy-imports-in-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/trump-called-trophy-hunting-a-horror-show-but-permitted-300-plus-elephant-trophy-imports-in-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 May 2026 15:33:55 +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/20/2026/05/15171641/ele-mom-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319539</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Hunting, International Trade, Mammals, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. issued more than 300 elephant trophy import permits during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to records obtained by U.S.-based NGO the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). It’s the most ever issued on Trump’s watch in a year, and indicates that as many as 300 elephants were killed. Trophies [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. issued more than 300 elephant trophy import permits during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to records obtained by U.S.-based NGO the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). It’s the most ever issued on Trump’s watch in a year, and indicates that as many as 300 elephants were killed. Trophies are usually the taxidermied heads or feet, which hunters display in their homes as décor. Tanya Sanerib, the center’s international legal director who analyzed the data, called the permit numbers “alarming.” It’s a 154% increase in the total number of elephant trophy import permits issued during all of Trump&#8217;s first term. Because elephants are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), importers need a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to bring elephant trophies into the country. In 2018, the agency issued 114 permits. That dropped to just four in 2019 and none in 2020 and 2021. Receiving a permit does not necessarily mean an elephant was killed that year. Some hunters apply for permits before going on a hunting trip; others apply after an animal is killed. Each permit is valid for a year. African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) are an endangered species. In the 1800s, about 26 million roamed the continent. But poaching for the international trade in ivory crashed their numbers: Since 1965, 60% of them were slaughtered for their tusks. Only about 415,000 remain today. While the ivory trade has declined, this wide-ranging pachyderm’s habitat&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/trump-called-trophy-hunting-a-horror-show-but-permitted-300-plus-elephant-trophy-imports-in-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/trump-called-trophy-hunting-a-horror-show-but-permitted-300-plus-elephant-trophy-imports-in-2025/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319539</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The European wildcat hovers between recovery and local extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 13:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07014556/Image_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Czech Republic, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Turkey]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Funding, Genetics, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Mammals, Parasites, Population, Reintroductions, Saving Species From Extinction, Small Cats, Solutions, Species recovery, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing relatively well in some places and is imperiled in others, like the Czech Republic, where it’s critically endangered. The European wildcat (Felis silvestris), which is around the size of a large housecat, was wiped out because of disappearing habitat — and persecution. They were considered vermin and killed because they preyed on poultry and they were hunted for sport. More recently, they’re sometimes hybridizing, breeding with domestic cats. Numbers are spotty across parts of their range, so overall population numbers and trends, whether they’re rebounding or declining, is currently unknown. That’s a challenge shared by many of the world’s 30-plus small wildcat species that are often overlooked by research and funding. But they are hanging on in the Czech Republic. Earlier this year, Tonka gave birth to at least three kittens, offering hope that a slow wildcat recovery may be underway. Conservationists set up “hair traps,” wooden posts smeared with a lure that attracts the wildcats, then analyzed DNA from fur they left behind when they rubbed on them to mark their territory, as cats do. Genetically confirmed records of wildcat births are “exceedingly rare” in the country, said Kristýna Chroboková, field coordinator with the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318902</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>US proposes endangered species protections for an imperiled Jamaican butterfly</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 12:04:27 +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/20/2026/05/06171317/Protographium-marcellinus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318851</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean, Jamaica, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environmental Law, Extinction, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Insects, Islands, Over-hunting, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildlife consumption]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently proposed listing Jamaica’s most imperiled butterfly, the Jamaican kite swallowtail, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species (Protographium marcellinus), a small, fast-flying butterfly, flutters through its limestone forest home. Its wings, painted in streaks of bright turquoise and black with a dash of red, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently proposed listing Jamaica’s most imperiled butterfly, the Jamaican kite swallowtail, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species (Protographium marcellinus), a small, fast-flying butterfly, flutters through its limestone forest home. Its wings, painted in streaks of bright turquoise and black with a dash of red, sport long, narrow tails. These charismatic butterflies live on this island and nowhere else. In recent years, they’ve nearly disappeared. Back in the 1960s, scientists recorded about 750,000 individuals; that number has plummeted to between 50 and 250 today. In some years, they’ve seen none. It’s such an alarming decline that scientists say this swallowtail should jump two categories on the IUCN Red List, from vulnerable to critically endangered. “This listing would be a real turning point for this species,” said Dianne DuBois, senior scientist at the U.S.-based NGO Center for Biological Diversity, which has been fighting for ESA protections for the butterfly since 1994. After a few failed attempts, it sued USFWS in 2021, which resulted in the agency drawing up the current proposal. ESA listings prevent extinction in 99% of the species under the act, but the wait is often quite long, about 12 years on average. Time may not be on its side for the Jamaican kite swallowtail, which hangs on the brink of extinction. “We wish this proposal had come three decades ago,” DuBois said. “We really want to urge the Fish and Wildlife Service to work quickly to finalize these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318851</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The value of South Africa’s wildlife shouldn&#8217;t be in the hands of wealthy foreign hunters (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 12:07:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stephanie Klarmann]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/27145726/gemsbok-Oryx-gazella-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318405</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Commentary, Conservation, Ecotourism, Environment, Ethics, Hunting, Lions, Predators, Top Predators, Trade, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[South Africa’s conservation debate is too often anchored within the blunt slogan, “If it pays, it stays.” At face value, this appears pragmatic, even responsible. But there’s a troubling premise underneath it: the survival of South Africa’s wildlife depends on its ability to generate an enormous income for a select group of wealthy farmers and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[South Africa’s conservation debate is too often anchored within the blunt slogan, “If it pays, it stays.” At face value, this appears pragmatic, even responsible. But there’s a troubling premise underneath it: the survival of South Africa’s wildlife depends on its ability to generate an enormous income for a select group of wealthy farmers and professional hunters from an even wealthier foreign clientele. According to this logic, wildlife is protected not because it is ecologically vital, culturally significant, or ethically deserving of life, but purely because it can be killed for a hefty price. When conservation is built on the premise that wildlife must pay its way to exist, we should ask not only who benefits, but what is being lost, and at whose expense. Each year I examine the professional hunting statistics provided to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to demand transparency regarding how South Africa’s wildlife is being utilized for financial gain. The most recently available statistics (for 2024) show a substantial increase of 17%: 7,756 visitors killed 40,508 wild animals (if one includes indigenous mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and exotic mammals also killed). For proponents of the euphemistically termed “sustainable use,” this will naturally look like a significant success. But can we continue to justify the continuous intensification and amplification of commercial wildlife use on ecological and ethical grounds? Number of animals hunted and hunting clients in South Africa, 2018-2024. Table provided by the author. ‘If it pays, it stays’ Superficially, this phrase&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318405</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Loss of prey could drive Atlantic Forest jaguars to extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/loss-of-prey-could-drive-atlantic-forest-jaguars-to-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/loss-of-prey-could-drive-atlantic-forest-jaguars-to-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2026 18:27:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/06084548/Image_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316990</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Fragmentation, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Jaguars, Mammals, Predators, Rewilding, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conserving the dwindling jaguar population in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest won’t be possible without protecting its prey. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which found that the absence of deer, peccaries and other animals that sustain these big cats is driving it toward local extinction. Jaguars (Panthera onca) once ranged from the southwestern U.S. to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conserving the dwindling jaguar population in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest won’t be possible without protecting its prey. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which found that the absence of deer, peccaries and other animals that sustain these big cats is driving it toward local extinction. Jaguars (Panthera onca) once ranged from the southwestern U.S. to Argentina and is the Western Hemisphere&#8217;s largest cat. Today it&#8217;s locally extinct or imperiled across much of its former territory, including the Atlantic Forest biome where it’s critically endangered. In this region, the study notes, some 85 % of jaguar habitat is gone and only small fragments remain within what’s considered one of the world’s most degraded tropical forests. As a result, jaguars have declined dramatically here, especially over the past two decades. The new study highlights one reason why: There’s not much for them to eat. Medium and large prey have diminished greatly, including white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari), collared peccaries (Dicotyles tajacu), brocket deer (Mazama spp.) and tapirs (Tapirus terrestris). “We are facing a silent extinction of prey species in the Atlantic Forest,” says study lead author Katia Ferraz, a wildlife biologist at the University of São Paulo. “We talk a lot about jaguar extinction, but we talk little about the extinction of peccaries and deer, for example, that are important prey.” Ferraz and her colleagues assessed jaguar prey species in nine protected areas in the Atlantic Forest. To do so, they carried out the most extensive camera-trap survey ever conducted in this biome. They&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/loss-of-prey-could-drive-atlantic-forest-jaguars-to-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/loss-of-prey-could-drive-atlantic-forest-jaguars-to-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316990</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Migratory species summit adopts new marine protections amid extinction warnings</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/migratory-species-summit-adopts-new-marine-protections-amid-extinction-warnings/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/migratory-species-summit-adopts-new-marine-protections-amid-extinction-warnings/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2026 13:55:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francesco De Augustinis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/08015440/c.-BANNER-%C2%A9Andy-Murch-Great-Hammerhead-Shark-4761-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317143</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean, Brazil, Global, Indian Ocean, Latin America, Pacific Ocean, South America, and Southern Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Birds, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Fish, Fishing, Fragmentation, Freshwater Fish, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Marine, Marine Animals, Migration, Oceans, Overexploitation, Seabirds, and Sharks]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dozens of migratory animals, including 33 marine species, gained new protections during the recent summit for the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. The 15th Conference of the Parties (CMS COP15) took place March 23-29 in Campo Grande, Brazil, under the slogan “Connecting Nature to Sustain Life.” “It was a very [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dozens of migratory animals, including 33 marine species, gained new protections during the recent summit for the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. The 15th Conference of the Parties (CMS COP15) took place March 23-29 in Campo Grande, Brazil, under the slogan “Connecting Nature to Sustain Life.” “It was a very strong COP for marine species,” Amy Fraenkel, CMS executive secretary, told Mongabay after the meeting’s conclusion. The CMS is a United Nations convention ratified by 132 nations and the European Union that aims to build the international cooperation necessary to conserve migratory species on a global scale. Among the key outcomes at the latest meeting: Delegates agreed on new or enhanced treaty protections for 40 species and populations, including 26 seabirds, three shorebirds and four shark species. Furthermore, CMS COP15 took steps to reduce bycatch of protected species and to identify marine flyways and key marine areas for the conservation of migratory species. Delegates also called for greater protections for seamounts, recognizing the conservation needs of freshwater fish and guarding against the impacts of deep-sea mining. “There&#8217;s a real need to be looking at ocean systems, including our coasts and the shorebirds that rely on the ocean and coastal systems,” Fraenkel said. “I was happy to see that at this COP, we started to do that.” But while conservation advocates lauded the steps taken at COP15, the summit also issued stark warnings that extinction and species decline are accelerating. The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) World&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/migratory-species-summit-adopts-new-marine-protections-amid-extinction-warnings/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317143</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Canadian muskoxen hit by double punch of novel diseases and climate change</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/canadian-muskoxen-hit-by-double-punch-of-novel-diseases-and-climate-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/canadian-muskoxen-hit-by-double-punch-of-novel-diseases-and-climate-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Apr 2026 15:24:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/02214119/1-Edit-35-BANNER-IMAGE-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316879</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Atlantic Forest, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bacteria, Climate, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Diseases, Environment, Health, Hunting, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, Planetary Health, Public Health, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As winter comes to the Canadian Arctic, muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) abandon the valleys and head to higher ground, where winds sweep away the snow. That’s where we go to find them, Allen Niptanatiak, chairman of the Kugluktuk Hunters and Trappers Organization, tells Mongabay in a video call. The Inuit harvesters focus on culling the younger [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As winter comes to the Canadian Arctic, muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) abandon the valleys and head to higher ground, where winds sweep away the snow. That’s where we go to find them, Allen Niptanatiak, chairman of the Kugluktuk Hunters and Trappers Organization, tells Mongabay in a video call. The Inuit harvesters focus on culling the younger cows and bulls, leaving the breeding animals alone. It takes a couple hours to skin, butcher and load up the sleds, the older and younger generations working together in -30° Celsius to -35°C (-22° Fahrenheit to -35°F), weather that is “just perfect,” says Niptanatiak, an Inuk hunter and trapper from Nunavut, who is also a retired conservation officer. “Then we eat and have a big meal and just enjoy it and talk and say, ‘Oh, this is a blessing,’” he says. Muskoxen are an integral part of Arctic ecology and, with their thick shaggy coats, are synonymous with the Far North. Nearly driven to extinction by commercial hunting in the early 1900s, surviving in just a few pockets in Canada, they began to recover following a 1917 hunting ban. By the 1990s, the Canadian population was estimated at 108,600. About 70% of the Canadian population was on Victoria and Banks islands, in Canada’s Arctic Archipelago — large islands with a combined area of nearly 290,000 square kilometers (12,000 square miles), about the size of Italy. Niptanatiak lives in Kugluktuk, a small hamlet on the mainland, just across from Victoria Island. Diets vary there, but for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/canadian-muskoxen-hit-by-double-punch-of-novel-diseases-and-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316879</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Local conservationists sustain research on threatened heron amid Myanmar instability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-conservationists-sustain-research-on-threatened-heron-amid-myanmar-instability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-conservationists-sustain-research-on-threatened-heron-amid-myanmar-instability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2026 11:10:54 +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/20/2026/03/30105914/Jonathan-Slifkin-White-bellied-Heron-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316501</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Freshwater, Hunting, Research, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Community-led bird surveys have confirmed that one of the world’s most threatened bird species, the white-bellied heron, still survives in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state. As few as 50 mature white-bellied herons (Ardea insignis) are thought to remain globally, confined to a handful of undisturbed forested valleys in Bhutan, northeastern India and northern Myanmar. Their rarity [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Community-led bird surveys have confirmed that one of the world’s most threatened bird species, the white-bellied heron, still survives in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state. As few as 50 mature white-bellied herons (Ardea insignis) are thought to remain globally, confined to a handful of undisturbed forested valleys in Bhutan, northeastern India and northern Myanmar. Their rarity comes down to their extreme dependence on large, fast-flowing, clean rivers, which means they can’t adapt to the world’s increasingly human-modified watercourses. These slender and shy fish-eaters are also notoriously flighty, easily abandoning their nests if disturbed. With numbers dwindling across their range due to hydropower, mining, pollution, destructive fishing and climate change, the latest IUCN Red List assessment estimates their critically endangered global population at no more than 50-249 adult individuals. White-bellied herons depend on pristine watercourses where they catch fish. Image courtesy of Jonathan P. Slifkin. Local efforts plug gaps Led by Northern Wildlife Rangers (NWR), a local civil society group with a long history of conservation work in Kachin state, the surveys identified three to five individual white-bellied herons from 25 separate sightings in their survey area between 2022 and 2023. The grassroots initiative was exclusively conducted by surveyors from local communities and funded by a WWF small grants program. The latter aims to boost local capacity for conservation to cover diminished government support and reduced NGO presence amid Myanmar’s political crisis triggered by a 2021 military coup. Locally led efforts are increasingly significant in Myanmar, where the post-coup instability has seen&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-conservationists-sustain-research-on-threatened-heron-amid-myanmar-instability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-conservationists-sustain-research-on-threatened-heron-amid-myanmar-instability/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316501</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Outlook for migratory species worsens amid habitat loss &#038; avian flu, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/outlook-for-migratory-species-worsens-amid-habitat-loss-avian-flu-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/outlook-for-migratory-species-worsens-amid-habitat-loss-avian-flu-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2026 16:03:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/12132145/Sea-Turtle-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315646</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Arctic, Asia, Central Asia, Chad, East Africa, Europe, Global, Kenya, Serengeti, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Diseases, Elasmobranchs, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater Fish, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Jaguars, Mammals, Mapping, Migration, Mining, Poaching, Sea Turtles, Sharks, Species, Turtles, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From shorebirds flying between their Arctic breeding grounds and southerly foraging ranges to freshwater fish returning to native spawning streams, migratory animals are struggling. About half of all migratory species populations protected under a global treaty are now in decline, with the situation worsening in just the last two years, according to a new United [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From shorebirds flying between their Arctic breeding grounds and southerly foraging ranges to freshwater fish returning to native spawning streams, migratory animals are struggling. About half of all migratory species populations protected under a global treaty are now in decline, with the situation worsening in just the last two years, according to a new United Nations-backed report. When the first State of the World’s Migratory Species report was published in 2024, 44% of migratory species populations listed under the U.N. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) were declining, according to data from the IUCN Red List, the world’s most comprehensive guide to global extinction risk. Since then, the proportion of imperiled CMS-listed species rose to 49%, according to updated Red List data and new research. Though the next status report isn’t due until around 2030, conservation advocates said the deteriorating situation required an interim report, as many countries are moving in the wrong direction when it comes to conserving wildlife that depend on various habitats to complete their life cycles. “This [interim report] is saying there are some alarming trends in the meantime; that we don’t want to wait six years to talk about this,” said CMS executive secretary Amy Fraenkel. Jaguars have no subspecies. Their range extends from Mexico to Argentina, but some populations are cut off, at risk of inbreeding and the demise that comes with it. Image by Gregoire Dubois. The convention, established in 1979, aims to conserve migratory species by protecting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/outlook-for-migratory-species-worsens-amid-habitat-loss-avian-flu-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/outlook-for-migratory-species-worsens-amid-habitat-loss-avian-flu-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315646</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S.&#8217; hunger for Halloween trinkets is killing Vietnam&#8217;s painted woolly bats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/u-s-hunger-for-halloween-trinkets-is-killing-vietnams-painted-woolly-bats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/u-s-hunger-for-halloween-trinkets-is-killing-vietnams-painted-woolly-bats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Mar 2026 13:31:04 +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/20/2026/03/06154617/original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315361</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, North America, Southeast Asia, United States, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Hunting, Illegal Trade, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Poaching, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With hues of orange and black on its wings and a furry, fluffy face, the painted woolly bat is a stunner. But its beauty has become a deadly liability. People want to hang the bats — dead and stuffed — on their walls, display them as collectibles and even set them in jewelry. In recent [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With hues of orange and black on its wings and a furry, fluffy face, the painted woolly bat is a stunner. But its beauty has become a deadly liability. People want to hang the bats — dead and stuffed — on their walls, display them as collectibles and even set them in jewelry. In recent years, taxidermied and framed bats have become popular as Halloween décor and, oddly, as Christmas tree decorations, sold to customers in the U.S., as well as Europe and Canada. This macabre trade first came to light in 2015 when scientists found dead bats, including painted woolly bats, for sale in Vietnam’s largest metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City. Then, nearly a decade later, scientists realized that it wasn’t just a few stores selling bats: There’s also a huge online market. In 2024, researchers from the Bat Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, documented nearly 800 bats for sale on Amazon.com, eBay and Etsy over a three-month period. Their “Dying for décor” study, published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research, suggests that the trade is global. A quarter of the bats sold online were from a single species: painted woolly bats (Kerivoula picta). After a successful awareness campaign by conservation organizations, eBay and Etsy banned the sale of bat products on their sites in 2025. Painted woolly bats are nocturnal and sparsely distributed in the landscape, roosting in small groups. Image by faridmuzaki via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0). Now, a new study&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/u-s-hunger-for-halloween-trinkets-is-killing-vietnams-painted-woolly-bats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/u-s-hunger-for-halloween-trinkets-is-killing-vietnams-painted-woolly-bats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315361</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Thailand, old camera-trap photos shed new light on Asian tapirs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-old-camera-trap-photos-shed-new-light-on-asian-tapirs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-old-camera-trap-photos-shed-new-light-on-asian-tapirs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Feb 2026 23:06:36 +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/20/2026/02/23130817/a.-%C2%A9Royle-Safaris-Malayan-tapir-1-e1771852183468-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314643</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Research, Snares, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers in Thailand have used archived camera-trapping data to identify a stronghold for Asian tapirs in the Khlong Saeng–Khao Sok Forest Complex, a lush network of protected areas in the country’s southern Surat Thani province. The new study, led by Wyatt Petersen, a biologist at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Thailand, and published [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Researchers in Thailand have used archived camera-trapping data to identify a stronghold for Asian tapirs in the Khlong Saeng–Khao Sok Forest Complex, a lush network of protected areas in the country’s southern Surat Thani province. The new study, led by Wyatt Petersen, a biologist at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Thailand, and published in the journal Mammalian Biology, shows how camera-trap “bycatch” data — images of nontarget species — can be used to monitor tapirs (Tapirus indicus). To date, tapirs have mostly been surveyed using visual transects, in which researchers walk along a predefined path through the forest and count any tapirs they can spot along the way. The Asian tapir, sometimes also called the Malayan tapir, is the largest of the world’s four tapir species and the only one found outside Latin America. It ranges from southern Myanmar and Thailand to Sumatra and is considered endangered, with fewer than 2,500 mature individuals remaining, according to the latest assessment conducted in 2014 for the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Boldly black-and-white patterned adult tapirs can weigh up to 350 kilograms (772 pounds), whereas the more discrete brown coats of calves are flecked with white, perfectly camouflaging them against the dappled light of the forest floor. As nocturnal understory specialists, they have stubbornly thick hides to protect them against scrubby thorns, and a protruding prehensile snout for gathering foliage and fruits that doubles as a “snorkel” while rummaging underwater for aquatic plants. Although Asian tapirs are preyed on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-old-camera-trap-photos-shed-new-light-on-asian-tapirs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-old-camera-trap-photos-shed-new-light-on-asian-tapirs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314643</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Five detained over alleged hunting in Javan leopard habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/five-detained-over-alleged-hunting-in-javan-leopard-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/five-detained-over-alleged-hunting-in-javan-leopard-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jan 2026 04:10:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/28075814/Macan-tutul-Sanggabuana3-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313422</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Leopards, Mammals, Poaching, Predators, Top Predators, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Rangers, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian authorities have detained five people in connection with the alleged illegal hunting and shooting of an endangered Javan leopard in the Gunung Sanggabuana conservation forest in West Java, a case that has intensified scrutiny of wildlife protection failures and the limits of enforcement on the ground. The arrests followed the circulation of viral videos [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian authorities have detained five people in connection with the alleged illegal hunting and shooting of an endangered Javan leopard in the Gunung Sanggabuana conservation forest in West Java, a case that has intensified scrutiny of wildlife protection failures and the limits of enforcement on the ground. The arrests followed the circulation of viral videos and camera trap footage showing suspected hunters operating inside the protected forest. West Java Police Chief Inspector General Rudi Setiawan said the suspects were detained after investigators acted on public reports and digital evidence, and that they will be charged under environmental and wildlife protection laws. Public concern grew after camera trap footage from October through November 2025, released in January 2026, showed a Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) limping with a serious front leg injury, alongside separate clips of suspected poachers carrying firearms, bladed weapons and hunting dogs. Authorities suspect the wound was caused by a gunshot fired by poachers. “The priority now is ensuring the ecosystem remains protected and that there are no further disturbances to wildlife,” Rudi said as quoted by local news portal Kompas on Jan. 27. Footage showing the alleged hunters of the injured Javan leopard. Image courtesy of Sanggabuana Conservation Foundation. The leopard, classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List with an estimated wild population of around 350, is Java’s last surviving top predator following the extinction of the Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica). The leopard faces mounting threats from hunting, habitat loss and dwindling prey. Conservationists, however,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/five-detained-over-alleged-hunting-in-javan-leopard-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313422</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For two of the world’s most at-risk primates, threats abound and the future looks grim</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/for-two-of-the-worlds-most-at-risk-primates-threats-abound-and-the-future-looks-grim/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/for-two-of-the-worlds-most-at-risk-primates-threats-abound-and-the-future-looks-grim/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2026 10:54:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mino Rakotovao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/20142839/original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313105</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Cameroon, Central Africa, Indonesia, Nigeria, Southeast Asia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Extinction, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Monkeys, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Between Nigeria’s Cross River and Cameroon’s Sanaga River lies one of West Africa’s largest remaining blocks of intact rainforest. Noisy groups of Preuss’s red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus preussi) move through this forest’s canopy in bands 20-to-60-strong, feeding mainly on the young leaves of just a few tree species, including Lecomtedoxa klaineana (known locally as oguomo) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Between Nigeria’s Cross River and Cameroon’s Sanaga River lies one of West Africa’s largest remaining blocks of intact rainforest. Noisy groups of Preuss’s red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus preussi) move through this forest’s canopy in bands 20-to-60-strong, feeding mainly on the young leaves of just a few tree species, including Lecomtedoxa klaineana (known locally as oguomo) and Xylopia aethiopica (“grains of Selim”). The leaf-heavy diet of these social monkeys helps shape forest structure, and declines in their numbers often foreshadow wider losses of wildlife across the forest. Half a world away, a very different primate lurks in the trees on the small, relatively isolated Indonesian island of Bangka. Readily identified by its pale facial mask, the Bangka slow loris (Nycticebus bancanus) is arboreal, nocturnal, and venomous, with large eyes and deliberate movements. Not much formal scientific knowledge has been gathered about this species since it was first described in 1937, but local conservationists have rehabilitated and released several dozen of the animals over the past decade. Both species feature on the &#8220;Primates in Peril&#8221;, a roll call of the world’s 25 most endangered primates, a call  for careful, focused conservation action. The future prospects for either primate illustrates how a threatened species’ survival may depend on very specific conditions: the health and protection of a single small island, or a particular forest type, or a few key plant species within that forest can make the difference between persistence and disappearance. Korup National Park, Cameroon. Image by Pleauthon Pierre via Flickr (CC&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/for-two-of-the-worlds-most-at-risk-primates-threats-abound-and-the-future-looks-grim/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313105</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Clark Lungren and the case for compromise in conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/clark-lungren-and-the-case-for-compromise-in-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/clark-lungren-and-the-case-for-compromise-in-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Dec 2025 00:02:31 +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/20/2025/12/27215023/Clark-Lungren-2009-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312068</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Burkina Faso, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Hunting, Obituary, Other effective conservation measures (OECMs), and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The history of conservation in West Africa is often written as a record of loss: wildlife depleted, institutions stretched thin, and well-intended projects undone by conflict or poverty. Less often does it include examples of enduring recovery. When such cases do exist, they tend to rest on compromises that look unorthodox on paper but make [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The history of conservation in West Africa is often written as a record of loss: wildlife depleted, institutions stretched thin, and well-intended projects undone by conflict or poverty. Less often does it include examples of enduring recovery. When such cases do exist, they tend to rest on compromises that look unorthodox on paper but make sense on the ground. One of those compromises took shape in southern Burkina Faso in the late 1970s and 1980s, at a time when elephants were scarce and hunting had shifted from subsistence to eradication. The idea was simple and, to many specialists, implausible: allow local communities to retain a controlled right to hunt, in exchange for protecting wildlife and habitat. The approach ran against prevailing conservation doctrine. It also ran against the expectations of international development experts, many of whom dismissed it outright. The person who pursued this arrangement despite the skepticism was Clark Lungren, who was raised in what was then Upper Volta and spent most of his life there. When he proposed that villagers who had long depended on hunting should become partners in conservation, he was told the plan would fail. It did not. At Nazinga, a game reserve south of Ouagadougou, wildlife populations rebounded sharply over the following years, including elephants that had all but vanished from the area. Tourism followed. Some of the men employed as wardens and guides were former poachers. Lungren’s authority in such negotiations did not come from formal credentials. He did not hold a university&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/clark-lungren-and-the-case-for-compromise-in-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312068</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hope for tigers grows as Thailand safeguards a key link in their habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/hope-for-tigers-grows-as-thailand-safeguards-a-key-link-in-their-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/hope-for-tigers-grows-as-thailand-safeguards-a-key-link-in-their-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2025 16:14:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/15160553/SWT001F_KSR_LTM54_a_2025-07-07_19-00_b-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311364</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Camera Trapping, Cats, Conservation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hunting, Mammals, Poaching, Tigers, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KANCHANABURI, Thailand — Following the path of the tiger isn’t easy. Yet the three rangers, clad in camouflage, move lithely through the steep bamboo thicket, tracking the muddy hoofprints of a sambar deer. Out of the snagging vines, they emerge on a forested ridgeline overlooking a landscape that swells and shrinks in watercolor hues of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KANCHANABURI, Thailand — Following the path of the tiger isn’t easy. Yet the three rangers, clad in camouflage, move lithely through the steep bamboo thicket, tracking the muddy hoofprints of a sambar deer. Out of the snagging vines, they emerge on a forested ridgeline overlooking a landscape that swells and shrinks in watercolor hues of indigo. A breeze rustles the stone oak trees as the sound of grasshoppers pierces the silence. It’s easy to imagine the tiger slinking confidently across this terrain, the master of its Thai kingdom. Another 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) down the ridge, the rangers stop in a small clearing. Members of Panthera, a wildcat conservation NGO, pull out a toolkit to check two camera traps. It was here, in early 2024, that a camera picked up a female Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) moving through this protected corridor known as Si Sawat. She had never been detected in any other protected area. Maybe, they say, the tiger will have returned in the past three months. But the camera’s memory card reveals only smaller species: a leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) and an Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii), as well as a porcupine (Hystrix brachyura) and a pig-tailed macaque (Macaca leonina). Still, the team is in good spirits. Hopefully, they say, the tiger has taken up residency to the south, in Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary. After all, this swath of forest is too small to support a large tiger population — maybe four, at best. Yet as a corridor,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/hope-for-tigers-grows-as-thailand-safeguards-a-key-link-in-their-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311364</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Small cat conservationists hail Uganda’s new Echuya Forest National Park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/small-cat-conservationists-hail-ugandas-new-echuya-forest-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/small-cat-conservationists-hail-ugandas-new-echuya-forest-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2025 14:56:58 +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/20/2025/12/11132905/Image_1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311098</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bushmeat, Cats, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, forest degradation, Forests, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, National Parks, Small Cats, Snares, Tourism, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In what’s being called immensely good news for the African golden cat, often described as the continent’s most elusive and threatened wildcat species, Uganda’s Echuya Forest will become a national park. “Having Echuya elevated to that level of protection is massive,” says Badru Mugerwa, founder and director of Embaka, an NGO, and of the African [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In what’s being called immensely good news for the African golden cat, often described as the continent’s most elusive and threatened wildcat species, Uganda’s Echuya Forest will become a national park. “Having Echuya elevated to that level of protection is massive,” says Badru Mugerwa, founder and director of Embaka, an NGO, and of the African Golden Cat Conservation Alliance (AGCCA). “The African golden cat is one of those species that are being pushed to extinction in the forest.” Besides the African golden cat (Caracal aurata), it’s also a win for a multitude of other species, he adds, as Echuya is home to more than 100 bird species, many of them endemic to the region, as well as to baboons (Papio anubis), blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) and other mammal species. Echuya Forest hosts a wide array of biodiversity, including more than 100 bird species. Among them is the regal sunbird (Cinnyris regius). Image by Giles Bassière via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Echuya Forest covers around 3,400 hectares (8,400 acres) in Uganda’s extreme southwest near the Rwandan border, and is split between the districts of Kisoro and Rubanda. It’s currently a protected reserve. The declaration elevating it to a national park is part of a wider announcement by Uganda&#8217;s government as it creates six new national parks, bringing the country’s total to 16. The news of this added level of protection is welcome, says Emmanuel Akampurira, deputy director of the Embaka Echuya Project, who notes that numerous threats have persisted in Echuya&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/small-cat-conservationists-hail-ugandas-new-echuya-forest-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311098</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Choosing coexistence over conflict: How some California ranchers are adapting to wolves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2025 10:37:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09032556/5039508124_3c17714711_o-e1765375705294-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308191</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Canids, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Hunting, Law, Mammals, National Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the fourth part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read Part 1,  Part 2 and Part 3. A lone gray wolf (Canis lupus) named OR-7 — then a 2 ½-year-old male — created history when he crossed over the state line from Oregon into California in 2011, becoming the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the fourth part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read Part 1,  Part 2 and Part 3. A lone gray wolf (Canis lupus) named OR-7 — then a 2 ½-year-old male — created history when he crossed over the state line from Oregon into California in 2011, becoming the first wolf to set foot in the state after nearly a century. His arrival, followed by his descendants who then established new packs, became a thumping conservation success for an endangered species in present-day California. Meandering the vast wilderness that straddles the border between the two states, OR-7 visited a few ranches in northern California on his 4,830-kilometer (3,000-mile) journey, including Mark Coats’ place in Siskiyou County. Coats, who was recuperating from an injury at the time, vividly remembers that visit. He’s raised cattle for more than five decades now. “My neighbor came over and said, ‘Mark, there&#8217;s a wolf on your ranch. Don&#8217;t shoot it. They’ll put you in jail,’” Coats said. That night, he found OR-7’s footprints on his property. Various predators had killed his cattle over the years: coyotes (C. latrans), black bears (Ursus americanus) and mountain lions (Puma concolor). But wolves were new. After the last gray wolves were shot down in the 1920s, generations of California’s ranchers raised their cattle without having to worry about — or prepare for — this predator in their landscape. OR-7’s visit panicked Coats and his fellow ranchers. “I was already losing five calves a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308191</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>First state-authorized killings mark escalation in California’s management of wolves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/first-state-authorized-killings-mark-escalation-in-californias-management-of-wolves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/first-state-authorized-killings-mark-escalation-in-californias-management-of-wolves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Nov 2025 08:24:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/24102253/RSGray_wolf_Minnesota_dalliedee_CC_BY-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310024</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Canids, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Hunting, Law, Mammals, National Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the third part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first, second and fourth parts. In late October, wildlife authorities in the U.S. state of California announced they captured and euthanized three adult gray wolves and shot a juvenile dead, all from the Beyem Seyo pack in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the third part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first, second and fourth parts. In late October, wildlife authorities in the U.S. state of California announced they captured and euthanized three adult gray wolves and shot a juvenile dead, all from the Beyem Seyo pack in the Sierra Valley. Wardens killed them, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said, because the wolves (Canis lupus) had become “habituated to preying on cattle” rather than hunting elk, deer and other wild prey. The wolves killed were a breeding pair, an adult female, and a juvenile male “mistaken” for the adult male. Officers also found the remains of two other juveniles from the same pack that were severely decomposed. The cause of death remains unknown, and authorities are investigating. This pack took down at least 88 head of cattle between January and October 2025 according to a new CDFW report — about half of the 175 livestock deaths statewide and one of the highest rates in any western U.S. state where wolves live. The killings follow months of using nonlethal deterrents to keep wolves away, including drones, all-terrain vehicles, flapping strips of bright-colored “fladry” strung along fences, and round-the-clock human presence. CDFW deployed a strike team in June, where officers spent more than 18,000 staff hours using these methods, also called hazing, but the wolves continued killing cattle. “The Beyem Seyo pack became so reliant on cattle at an unprecedented level, and we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/first-state-authorized-killings-mark-escalation-in-californias-management-of-wolves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310024</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Asian golden cat range expands, but declines continue amid rising threats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/asian-golden-cat-range-expands-but-declines-continue-amid-rising-threats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/asian-golden-cat-range-expands-but-declines-continue-amid-rising-threats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Nov 2025 15:45:14 +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/20/2025/11/07124346/Image_2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309032</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Camera Trapping, Cats, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Fragmentation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Predators, Research, Small Cats, Snares, Species, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A single camera trap image of an Asian golden cat, photographed in Nepal&#8217;s Jajarkot district, has expanded this felid species’ range westward by nearly 400 kilometers (248 miles). Out of nearly 60,000 camera trap images snapped in 2024 in the district, this elusive cat showed itself just once. It’s likely, says Badri Baral, program coordinator [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A single camera trap image of an Asian golden cat, photographed in Nepal&#8217;s Jajarkot district, has expanded this felid species’ range westward by nearly 400 kilometers (248 miles). Out of nearly 60,000 camera trap images snapped in 2024 in the district, this elusive cat showed itself just once. It’s likely, says Badri Baral, program coordinator with Nature Conservation Initiative Nepal, that more Asian golden cats could be found between Jajarkot and the Gaurishankar Conservation Area, an area until recently believed to mark the felid’s farthest westward distribution. This positive news about the elusive wildcat, which dwells in forests across South and Southeast Asia, comes at nearly the same time as bad news, as its IUCN status went from near threatened to vulnerable. A single camera trap image of an Asian golden cat from Jajarkot, has extended its range by nearly 400 kilometers westward in Nepal. Image courtesy of Badri Baral/NCI-Nepal. Researchers say the Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) was likely once abundant across its range. That’s not the case today, with numbers thinned and populations lost due to an excess of threats including deforestation, snaring, and retaliatory killings. Those risks, along with more accurate occurrence and population data featured in IUCN’s 2023 species assessment, are behind the revised threat status. The shift to vulnerable “represents a genuine concern,” says Thomas Gray, Tiger Landscape and Recovery Lead with the WWF Tigers Alive Initiative, who was part of the assessment team. The new IUCN listing also highlights the challenges of assigning a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/asian-golden-cat-range-expands-but-declines-continue-amid-rising-threats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309032</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study reveals overlooked cultural threat to wildcats across Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/study-reveals-overlooked-cultural-threat-to-wildcats-across-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/study-reveals-overlooked-cultural-threat-to-wildcats-across-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2025 13:52:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22133238/2_GarethWhittington-JonesPanthera-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308139</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Culture, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Hunting, Illegal Trade, Leopards, Lions, Poaching, Research, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE ― Habitat loss and direct persecution of large carnivores are well-documented threats, but the role that cultural demand plays in the fortunes of many species of wildcats is poorly understood. In a study published in March 2025, researchers found that alongside servals and cheetahs, leopards and lions — both classed as vulnerable on the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE ― Habitat loss and direct persecution of large carnivores are well-documented threats, but the role that cultural demand plays in the fortunes of many species of wildcats is poorly understood. In a study published in March 2025, researchers found that alongside servals and cheetahs, leopards and lions — both classed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List — are among the most commonly exploited species. Study co-author Marine Drouilly told Mongabay by email that many conservation efforts fail because they don’t consider local beliefs and traditions. “While threats such as habitat loss and poaching for bushmeat are well-documented, cultural practices — such as the use of skins, bones, and other parts in rituals, traditional medicine, or social status symbols — are often overlooked,” said Drouilly, the carnivore monitoring coordinator for West and Central Africa at wildcat conservation NGO Panthera. A young female leopard rests on a fallen tree trunk in South Africa&#8217;s Sabi Sand Nature Reserve. Image courtesy of Panthera. Genet, serval and black-backed jackal skins, at the Faraday market, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2017. Image courtesy of Jacob Calle/Panthera. There are more than 2,000 ethnolinguistic groups in Africa, each with its own distinctive customs. “Many of these cultures have traditions of using wildlife for purposes such as attire, zootherapy (medicine) and bushmeat, but the pervasive usage of carnivore parts, especially in traditional ceremonies, has not received the level of consideration it seems to warrant,” Drouilly and her fellow researchers write. Among the better-known examples of cultural demand for wildcat&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/study-reveals-overlooked-cultural-threat-to-wildcats-across-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308139</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Research aims to link Hansen’s disease &#038; illegal armadillo hunting in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/research-aims-to-link-hansens-disease-illegal-armadillo-hunting-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/research-aims-to-link-hansens-disease-illegal-armadillo-hunting-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2025 08:05:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adele Santelli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/08092652/Tatu-galinha-1-e1758116505731-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307210</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Diseases, Environment, Health, Hunting, Research, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Hansen’s disease (also known as leprosy) has afflicted humans for thousands of years — it has been cited throughout history, even in passages of the Bible. Yet science has still not determined whether it originated in Asia or in Africa. But Hansen’s disease’s modern name has a very traceable history. In 1873, Norwegian physician Gerhard [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Hansen’s disease (also known as leprosy) has afflicted humans for thousands of years — it has been cited throughout history, even in passages of the Bible. Yet science has still not determined whether it originated in Asia or in Africa. But Hansen’s disease’s modern name has a very traceable history. In 1873, Norwegian physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen identified the bacillus that causes Hansen’s disease: Mycobacterium leprae. From that point on, the illness was named after the researcher and typically referred to as Hansen’s disease rather than leprosy in scientific literature. More than a century and a half later, Hansen’s findings are still a hot topic in Brazil because they lie at the center of a public health crisis: This is the nation with the second-largest number of registered cases of the disease, ranking only behind India. Part of the problem is the disease’s transmission, which happens when droplets of saliva from infected individuals come into contact with the airways of a healthy person. Coughing and sneezing facilitate the propagation of these bodily fluids. The bacteria themselves are silent, making them harder to detect because the microorganism can take years, or even decades, to manifest itself. Once it has become active, it affects peripheral nerves and the skin, causing spots, lesions, tingling and even the loss of feeling in some parts of the body. Another uncertainty lingers regarding Hansen’s disease. Even though many indicators point in this direction, Brazilian scientists still have not come to consensus in classifying it as a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/research-aims-to-link-hansens-disease-illegal-armadillo-hunting-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307210</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>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306770</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Madagascar’s dry forests need attention, and Verreaux’s sifakas could help</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/madagascars-dry-forests-need-attention-and-verreauxs-sifakas-could-help/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/madagascars-dry-forests-need-attention-and-verreauxs-sifakas-could-help/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2025 14:35:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mino Rakotovao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15104055/Verreauxs-Sifaka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305893</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Madagascar, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fires, forest degradation, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Land Use Change, Lemurs, Mammals, Parks, Primates, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO — Which tropical habitats are worthy of conservation? Humid forests, with their dazzling species counts, easily gain notice. Dry forests may not boast the same numbers, but their unique rhythms of life are just as vital — and a charismatic inhabitant, the Verreaux’s sifaka, is helping make their case in Madagascar. “Conservation efforts and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO — Which tropical habitats are worthy of conservation? Humid forests, with their dazzling species counts, easily gain notice. Dry forests may not boast the same numbers, but their unique rhythms of life are just as vital — and a charismatic inhabitant, the Verreaux’s sifaka, is helping make their case in Madagascar. “Conservation efforts and international funding have long focused on the eastern rainforests, by both conservation organizations or by development organizations, in Madagascar and globally,” primatologist Rebecca Lewis told Mongabay, “[Meanwhile], in the west and southwest [of Madagascar], the situation is just as serious, with widespread food insecurity, increased bushmeat hunting, and similar threats like deforestation and reliance of local communities on forest resources.” At the recently-concluded International Primatological Society (IPS) congress, Lewis, founder of Ankoatsifaka Initiative for Dry Forests (AID Forests), advocated for inclusion of Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) on the most recent list of the World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates not only because the species is critically endangered, but also because its listing could serve as a rallying point to protect its habitat in Madagascar’s dry forests. Found across southern and southwestern Madagascar, Verreaux’s sifaka is a diurnal lemur that lives in family groups and holds local cultural significance. As a seed disperser, it plays a vital role in regenerating and maintaining the diverse forests and habitats it occupies. This primate is classed as critically endangered by the IUCN, the global conservation authority, due to severe threats from habitat loss, hunting and, in some areas, low genetic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/madagascars-dry-forests-need-attention-and-verreauxs-sifakas-could-help/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305893</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On Java’s Mount Slamet, two former trappers find new calling as bird protectors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/on-javas-mount-slamet-two-former-trappers-find-new-calling-as-bird-protectors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/on-javas-mount-slamet-two-former-trappers-find-new-calling-as-bird-protectors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Aug 2025 15:13:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[L. Darmawan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29084318/A-Sikatan-cacing-jawa_Cyornis-banyumas_Burung-Indonesia_Jihad-1536x1025-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305124</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Java, Indonesia, Java, Oceania, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Hunting, Trapping, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANYUMAS, Indonesia — As youngsters, Ari and Junianto would clamber over the upland above Sambirata village, gathering sap to glue-trap the birds nesting below Java’s Mount Slamet. “If it gets wet it’ll lose its stickiness, so you’d have to place it during the day,” Junianto, now in his mid-30s, told Mongabay Indonesia as he pressed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[BANYUMAS, Indonesia — As youngsters, Ari and Junianto would clamber over the upland above Sambirata village, gathering sap to glue-trap the birds nesting below Java’s Mount Slamet. “If it gets wet it’ll lose its stickiness, so you’d have to place it during the day,” Junianto, now in his mid-30s, told Mongabay Indonesia as he pressed on through thin mist up Mount Slamet together with Ari. A mother Javan blue flycatcher (Cyornis banyumas) is seen feeding her young in their nest. Image courtesy of Burung Indonesia/Jihad. Junianto learned to trap birds in the fourth grade. Before long, hunting had become his primary occupation. Often he would carry a small snake as bait for bigger birds. Within half an hour, they’d usually catch a white-eye (from the Zosteropidae family) or an olive bulbul (Iole viridescens) — both are greenish songbirds — somewhere between 800 and 1500 meters (2,600 and 4,900 feet) up the mountain. Junianto, a former bird hunter, is now a conservation activist. Image by L. Darmawan for Mongabay Indonesia. Their contact lists grew as they became more experienced hunters. Junianto began stockpiling birds from other hunters that he supplied to traders in the neighboring city of Purwokerto. Ari, meanwhile, branched out into selling species on social media. Between 2011 and 2012, he sold not just songbirds, but also slow lorises (Nycticebus coucang), sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps) and even Javan hawk-eagles (Nisaetus bartelsi), Indonesia’s national bird — the equivalent of trading bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the U.S. Ari recalled earlier&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/on-javas-mount-slamet-two-former-trappers-find-new-calling-as-bird-protectors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305124</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brunei built Southeast Asia’s longest bridge. What does this mean for wildlife?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/brunei-built-southeast-asias-longest-bridge-what-does-this-mean-for-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/brunei-built-southeast-asias-longest-bridge-what-does-this-mean-for-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 04:36:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29041142/4-southern-red-muntjac-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305102</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Brunei, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Development, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Hunting, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Rainforests, Roads, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For local communities in Brunei, the longest bridge in Southeast Asia does more than connect remote eastern areas to the country’s urban capital; it also opens up access to rainforests teeming with unique biodiversity and protected species. Ethnic groups in the remote, eastern Temburong region have historically relied on hunting for sustenance, with low impacts [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For local communities in Brunei, the longest bridge in Southeast Asia does more than connect remote eastern areas to the country’s urban capital; it also opens up access to rainforests teeming with unique biodiversity and protected species. Ethnic groups in the remote, eastern Temburong region have historically relied on hunting for sustenance, with low impacts and pressure on biodiversity. However, as some community members point out, there’s been a gradual shift toward hunting for recreation and extra income — now made easier by the 26-kilometer (16-mile) Sultan Haji Omar &#8216;Ali Saifuddien Bridge, which connects villagers directly to a wider variety of markets in the west of the country. To assess whether easier access between Temburong’s forests and markets influences hunting behaviors and practices, a recent study published in the British Ecological Society’s journal People and Nature gathered opinions from community members. The authors examined how infrastructure expansion interacts with people&#8217;s motivations and the region’s biodiversity, including tropical forests and mammal diversity. “In Temburong, one of the ways through which the bridge possibly impacted biodiversity was by facilitating hunter access to forests,” said study author Natasha Mannion, a Ph.D. scholar at the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University. The Sultan Haji Omar &#8216;Ali Saifuddien (SOAS) Bridge. Image by Natasha Mannion. A local villager in Temburong, who requested to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, said, “If someone caught a wild boar, they’d share it with everyone in the village. Hunted meat is less important as a source of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/brunei-built-southeast-asias-longest-bridge-what-does-this-mean-for-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305102</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After 160 years, an old drawing leads scientists to a long-lost Sri Lanka orchid</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/after-160-years-an-old-drawing-leads-scientists-to-a-long-lost-sri-lanka-orchid/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/after-160-years-an-old-drawing-leads-scientists-to-a-long-lost-sri-lanka-orchid/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2025 08:37:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/28082511/Vanda-thwaitesii-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305028</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Citizen Science, Conservation, Environment, Flowers, Forests, Hunting, Orchids, Plants, Rediscovered Species, Species, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — In the mist-wrapped folds of Sri Lanka’s Knuckles Mountain Range, a UNESCO-recognized world heritage site, where clouds softly wrap the rugged peaks in a soft embrace, a group of scientists recently stumbled upon a ghost from the island’s colonial past, in the form of a forgotten orchid. Nestled among the branches of forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — In the mist-wrapped folds of Sri Lanka’s Knuckles Mountain Range, a UNESCO-recognized world heritage site, where clouds softly wrap the rugged peaks in a soft embrace, a group of scientists recently stumbled upon a ghost from the island’s colonial past, in the form of a forgotten orchid. Nestled among the branches of forest trees near a tributary of the Mahaweli River in Rangala, Kandy district, bloomed Vanda thwaitesii — a delicate orchid unseen in the wild for more than 160 years. The orchid had never been studied alive, even by eminent British botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, who described it in 1898 based on only two drawings by Haramanis de Alwis, the official draftsman at Sri Lanka’s Royal Botanic Gardens at the time. With no herbarium specimens collected, the plant slipped into obscurity and was widely presumed extinct. “Many assumed it had vanished from the Earth, so we were delighted to find it alive after all this time,” says Bhathiya Gopallawa, a Ph.D. candidate at Sri Lanka’s University of Peradeniya, who co-authored the paper announcing the rediscovery. Vanda thwaitesii is named after George Thwaites, a botanist and administrator who held the post of superintendent of the Royal Botanical Gardens located in Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, for 30 years and also studied the flower through a 1961 drawing. Image by Bhathiya Gopallawa. A scientific twist The return of V. thwaitesii is also a testament to citizen science, a trait of many recent floral rediscoveries and finding of rare plants. Gopallawa and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/after-160-years-an-old-drawing-leads-scientists-to-a-long-lost-sri-lanka-orchid/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305028</doi>				</item>
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