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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/invasive-species/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 08 Aug 2026 14:23:17 +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 Invasive Species</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/invasive-species/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Nepal&#8217;s newest national parks drive tiger recovery, but new concerns arise</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepals-newest-national-parks-drive-tiger-recovery-but-new-concerns-arise/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepals-newest-national-parks-drive-tiger-recovery-but-new-concerns-arise/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Aug 2026 05:19:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/05050531/2-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325363</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Camera Trapping, Habitat Loss, Invasive Species, Leopards, Mammals, National Parks, Parks, Population, Tigers, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepal is now home to an estimated 429 wild tigers, up from 355 four years ago and nearly four-fold from 16 years ago, the country&#8217;s conservation officials reported on the occasion of World Tiger Day. As the country celebrates this historic achievement, a closer look at the latest numbers reveals an uneven recovery. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepal is now home to an estimated 429 wild tigers, up from 355 four years ago and nearly four-fold from 16 years ago, the country&#8217;s conservation officials reported on the occasion of World Tiger Day. As the country celebrates this historic achievement, a closer look at the latest numbers reveals an uneven recovery. Nepal&#8217;s youngest national parks are driving nearly all the growth, while Bardiya, the country&#8217;s second-oldest park, has fewer tigers. This could lead to more conflict between not just people and tigers, but people and leopards as well in and around the new national parks, according to recent studies. Three factors appear to be behind this split: water availability, animal movement both within and outside the country, and spread of invasive species. &#8220;The results from the survey reflect the positive outcomes of ongoing efforts in the field of tiger conservation in Nepal, such as habitat conservation and management, poaching control, conservation of prey species, and biological corridor conservation,&#8221; said Bed Kumar Dhakal, spokesperson for the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. Chitwan, the country&#8217;s oldest national park, still leads by far in raw numbers. But the newer parks (Banke, Parsa and Shuklaphanta) are where growth is concentrated, while the country&#8217;s two oldest parks, Chitwan and Bardiya, are showing the slowest growth or an outright decline. &nbsp; This graph shows changes in tiger population in different national parks in Nepal. Image courtesy of DNPWC/Nepal. The numbers are rooted in a global pledge made in November 2010.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepals-newest-national-parks-drive-tiger-recovery-but-new-concerns-arise/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepals-newest-national-parks-drive-tiger-recovery-but-new-concerns-arise/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325363</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Invasive giant prawn spreads through protected areas in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/invasive-giant-prawn-spreads-through-protected-areas-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/invasive-giant-prawn-spreads-through-protected-areas-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2026 15:33:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Evanildo da Silveira]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/16153119/Giant_Malaysian_Prawn-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323715</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Invasive Species, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The stealthy and increasingly persistent presence of an exotic species — the giant river prawn— in Brazil’s coastal ecosystems has been raising numerous alarms among scientists, fishers and environmental managers. Introduced in the country in the late 20th century to supply the growing aquaculture industry, the prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) is no longer limited to captive [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The stealthy and increasingly persistent presence of an exotic species — the giant river prawn— in Brazil’s coastal ecosystems has been raising numerous alarms among scientists, fishers and environmental managers. Introduced in the country in the late 20th century to supply the growing aquaculture industry, the prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) is no longer limited to captive breeding. The species has established itself in extremely sensitive natural environments, including protected areas. A study conducted by researchers from Brazil and Uruguay was published in February, revealing the extent of the problem and detailing the ecological and environmental risks associated with the giant prawn “invasion” — negative aspects that, according to experts, may intensify in the coming years. Led by oceanographer Edison Barbieri, director of the São Paulo Fisheries Institute’s Southern Coast Regional Research Center, the work was driven by the scientific community’s growing concern regarding biological invasions in estuarine ecosystems. These systems, which also include mangroves, are located in areas of transition between rivers and the ocean and are widely recognized for their biodiversity. Estuarine zones serve as nurseries for numerous aquatic species, including fish and crustaceans of ecological importance and economic potential. At the same time, these delicate transitional environments are susceptible to the introduction of exotic species, which then compete with native fauna for different vital resources. According to Barbieri, the study — conducted between 2015 and 2025 — started from an observation: While the intrusive prawn had been seen in different regions of Brazil, there was no systematic monitoring in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/invasive-giant-prawn-spreads-through-protected-areas-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/invasive-giant-prawn-spreads-through-protected-areas-in-brazil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323715</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Like wolves, non-native lake trout have radically altered Yellowstone ecosystems (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/like-wolves-non-native-lake-trout-have-radically-altered-yellowstone-ecosystems-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/like-wolves-non-native-lake-trout-have-radically-altered-yellowstone-ecosystems-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2026 16:49:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lyle Lewis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/08142259/yellowstne_native-cutthroat-trout_jay-fleming_nps-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322890</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Invasive Species, National Parks, Reintroductions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Yellowstone National Park is often told as a story of recovery. Wolves returned and then elk changed their behavior. Willows and aspens then rebounded and rivers, it is said, changed course. The reintroduction of wolves in 1995 is one of the most familiar ecological narratives in the world. But the Yellowstone ecosystem was not waiting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Yellowstone National Park is often told as a story of recovery. Wolves returned and then elk changed their behavior. Willows and aspens then rebounded and rivers, it is said, changed course. The reintroduction of wolves in 1995 is one of the most familiar ecological narratives in the world. But the Yellowstone ecosystem was not waiting in a stable state for wolves to return, it had already been reorganizing for centuries. Beavers declined following widespread trapping, altering vegetation and hydrology. Grizzly bears were heavily persecuted across the region, reducing another major connector between aquatic and terrestrial systems. Bison were reduced to near extinction in the late 19th century and later rebuilt under protection. Large predators were removed in the early 20th century, and elk populations expanded in their absence. Each of these changes altered how nutrients moved and how water, plants, and animals interacted. Wolf reintroduction did not occur in isolation; it entered a system already in motion. At almost the same time, something else was happening. It did not involve a visible predator and did not occur in valleys or along rivers. It did not lend itself to photography or documentary. It happened beneath the surface of Yellowstone Lake. Yellowstone Lake. Image courtesy of Neal Herbert / National Park Service. For many people, the idea of a non-native predator reshaping an ecosystem is not abstract. The Burmese python in the Florida Everglades provides a clear example, with an introduced predator reducing prey populations and altering how energy moves through the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/like-wolves-non-native-lake-trout-have-radically-altered-yellowstone-ecosystems-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/like-wolves-non-native-lake-trout-have-radically-altered-yellowstone-ecosystems-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322890</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How much suffering do invasive species cause? Researchers are measuring that</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-much-suffering-do-invasive-species-cause-researchers-are-measuring-that/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-much-suffering-do-invasive-species-cause-researchers-are-measuring-that/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 13:03:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Shailer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28112829/Anoplolepis_gracilipes_458690499-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320237</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Invasive Species, Monitoring, Research, and Threatened species]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Avian vampire flies (Philornis downsi) were not discovered in the Galápagos Islands for almost three decades after they were thought to have arrived from mainland Ecuador in the 1960s. Even then, the first were found by accident. Birgit Fessl, a landbird ecologist, was surveying for native species on the island of Santa Cruz in 1997 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Avian vampire flies (Philornis downsi) were not discovered in the Galápagos Islands for almost three decades after they were thought to have arrived from mainland Ecuador in the 1960s. Even then, the first were found by accident. Birgit Fessl, a landbird ecologist, was surveying for native species on the island of Santa Cruz in 1997 when she reached into the branches of a tree to take down the huge, domed nest of a woodpecker finch. Inside was a surprise. “We found one dying chick, another dead one which just looked sucked dry and 20 large maggots full of blood,” said Fessl, who now leads the Charles Darwin Foundation’s Landbird Conservation program. “I was stunned — the first dead baby in my hands. Then I realized it wasn’t an accident: It was everywhere,” she told Mongabay over a WhatsApp call. Across each of the Galapagos’ human-inhabited islands, vampire flies had already wrought havoc, killing some chicks in nests they infiltrated and leaving others maimed for life. “But it went unseen because people didn’t really know what to look for.” Around the world, more than 37,000 invasive species have been introduced to new environments. Many of these cause suffering, from vampire flies maiming finches to yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) spraying acid at the eyes of shrikes (Laniidae) on Minami-Daitō Island, Japan, and Australian quolls (Dasyurus) bleeding from the nose after eating toxic cane toads (Rhinella marina). But none of these are measured by the current global standard for assessing the impact&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-much-suffering-do-invasive-species-cause-researchers-are-measuring-that/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-much-suffering-do-invasive-species-cause-researchers-are-measuring-that/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320237</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia’s declining tree health is a slow-burning crisis (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/declining-australian-tree-health-is-as-big-a-problem-as-bushfires-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/declining-australian-tree-health-is-as-big-a-problem-as-bushfires-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2026 00:31:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michael ReidTed Alter]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/04193052/Image-1_fire-e1777923225283-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318695</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Queensland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Diseases, Fires, Forests, Health, Invasive Species, Plants, Rainforests, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some of the most serious threats to our forests do not arrive with smoke or headlines. They move quietly, through bark and new growth, weakening ecosystems long before we notice. Without sustained attention, our unique flora and fauna remain vulnerable. Tree health is often treated as a niche technical issue, but it is also a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some of the most serious threats to our forests do not arrive with smoke or headlines. They move quietly, through bark and new growth, weakening ecosystems long before we notice. Without sustained attention, our unique flora and fauna remain vulnerable. Tree health is often treated as a niche technical issue, but it is also a question of ecological resilience, public health, and how well communities adapt to a hotter, more disturbed world. Devastating bushfires are reshaping Australia’s landscapes and ecosystems, and climate change is accelerating species loss. But there is a quieter threat with ecological, economic and human consequences. Alongside fire and drought, microscopic pests and pathogens are spreading through forests and urban canopies, thinning tree cover, weakening ecosystems, and leaving them more vulnerable to the next shock. Most of us appreciate the comfort of a shady tree on a hot day, and we’ve heard that the Amazon rainforests are the lungs of the planet. Yet many people underestimate the importance of healthy tree populations and how closely they are tied to our physical and mental health. The road to forest health, like this track through K’Gari rainforest, begins with vigilance, early detection, raising awareness, and working with those closest to the landscape to identify outbreak risks and track impacts over time. Image courtesy of Michael Reid. In his new book Nature and the Mind, Marc Berman, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and director of the Environmental Neuroscience Lab, draws together evidence on how nature supports cognitive,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/declining-australian-tree-health-is-as-big-a-problem-as-bushfires-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318695</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Inside the fight to save the little-known Galápagos petrel</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/inside-the-fight-to-save-the-little-known-galapagos-petrel/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/inside-the-fight-to-save-the-little-known-galapagos-petrel/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 14:02:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/30134940/Image_4_petrel-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318478</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Habitat Degradation, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Invasive Species, Marine, Nature-based climate solutions, Protected Areas, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Critically endangered Galápagos petrels spend much of their life at sea, but as they return to breed in the only place they call home, a litany of threats awaits. Over the last 60 years, in particular until the 1980s, the population of the Galápagos petrel (Pterodroma phaeopygia) declined significantly, with only 15,000 individuals remaining today, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Critically endangered Galápagos petrels spend much of their life at sea, but as they return to breed in the only place they call home, a litany of threats awaits. Over the last 60 years, in particular until the 1980s, the population of the Galápagos petrel (Pterodroma phaeopygia) declined significantly, with only 15,000 individuals remaining today, according to the latest IUCN Red List assessment of the species. And although that number could be as high as 20,000 as new colonies are being discovered, pressure from invasive species that prey on the bird and degrade its habitat keeps the petrel on the edge. But decades-long conservation efforts have refined strategies to protect these seabirds, while a new initiative will involve thousands of Galápagos private landowners in securing their fragile nesting grounds. “Even though it&#8217;s an oceanic bird, you don&#8217;t see them that often,” Paola Sangolquí, a marine conservation coordinator with Ecuadorian NGO Jocotoco, told Mongabay in a video interview. The petrels spend most of their time out on the open water, hunting squid and fish. When they return to land, it’s to the upland and remote areas of the Galápagos islands of San Cristóbal, Floreana, Santa Cruz, Isabela and Santiago, where they nest in burrows or natural crevices. These tend to be far from the islands’ human settlements, and because the birds are also largely nocturnal, that makes them even more difficult to spot. “They nest in these foggy, misty areas up in the highlands, surrounded by dense vegetation,” Sangolquí says. “It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/inside-the-fight-to-save-the-little-known-galapagos-petrel/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318478</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why forest conservation is also public health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/why-forest-conservation-is-also-public-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/why-forest-conservation-is-also-public-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Apr 2026 02:14:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/20194949/Eliurus-Credit-ElisePaietta-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317742</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Health, Invasive Species, Mammals, One Health, Planetary Health, Public Health, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; In a lowland forest in southeastern Madagascar, what was missing proved as telling as what was found. Researchers trapping small mammals in the Manombo Special Reserve caught tuft-tailed rats in the intact interior forest. In the nearby littoral forest, despite repeated efforts, they found none. The traps held black rats instead. The observation appears [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; In a lowland forest in southeastern Madagascar, what was missing proved as telling as what was found. Researchers trapping small mammals in the Manombo Special Reserve caught tuft-tailed rats in the intact interior forest. In the nearby littoral forest, despite repeated efforts, they found none. The traps held black rats instead. The observation appears in a recent paper describing the first complete mitochondrial genomes for two endemic species, Eliurus webbi and Eliurus minor. The study, published in Mitochondrial DNA Part B by Elise Paietta and an international team of researchers, itself is technical. It assembles genetic sequences, places them within a sparse phylogeny, and notes gaps in what is known about these animals. Yet the fieldwork offers an important ecological finding: native rodents were confined to intact forest; degraded habitat was occupied by an introduced species. The pattern is not unusual. In many tropical systems, disturbance tends to favor generalists. Species with narrower ecological requirements recede as habitat fragments or is altered. What is less often spelled out is what this shift means beyond the change in species lists. The Malagasy study offers a way to examine that more closely. Eliurus tanala rat in Ranomafana. Photo by Nina Finley / Health in Harmony Its immediate contribution is genetic. Until now, no complete mitochondrial genomes existed for the Nesomyinae, a subfamily of rodents found only in Madagascar. Earlier work relied on shorter sequences, often from a single gene. These can indicate broad relationships but leave much unresolved. Whole mitochondrial genomes offer&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/why-forest-conservation-is-also-public-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317742</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nearly a million birds shipped from Africa to Asia in 15 years; canaries top the list</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/nearly-a-million-birds-shipped-from-africa-to-asia-in-15-years-canaries-top-the-list/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/nearly-a-million-birds-shipped-from-africa-to-asia-in-15-years-canaries-top-the-list/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2026 15:04:39 +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/20/2026/04/15120913/Photo-5-yfc-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317571</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Atlantic Forest, Guinea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mali, Mozambique, North America, Senegal, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Tanzania, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Health, Invasive Species, Parrots, Pet Trade, Planetary Health, Public Health, Regulations, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Worldwide, people buy and hunt nearly half of the 11,000 bird species in existence. In Asia, Europe, and North and South America, songbirds and parrots are highly desired pets. Collectors pay exorbitant sums for rare species or melodious birds to compete in high-stakes singing competitions. Falconers and sport hunters capture or kill raptors. Belief-based rituals [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Worldwide, people buy and hunt nearly half of the 11,000 bird species in existence. In Asia, Europe, and North and South America, songbirds and parrots are highly desired pets. Collectors pay exorbitant sums for rare species or melodious birds to compete in high-stakes singing competitions. Falconers and sport hunters capture or kill raptors. Belief-based rituals in West Africa incorporate vulture parts. Buyers in North America seek dead hornbills and hummingbirds as home décor. The list goes on. This massive commerce threatens more than 200 avian species with extinction. Now, as online marketplaces proliferate, customers can order a bird with a swipe on their phone from anywhere on the planet. Moving birds around the world also spreads deadly diseases, from avian influenza to circovirus, and when non-native birds get loose, they may proliferate, outcompeting residents. “There&#8217;s a lack of awareness and appreciation for the scale of this trade, and little attention on the impacts that this could be having on wild populations or the risks for the spread of invasive species and infectious diseases,” said Rowan Martin, director of bird trade at the nonprofit World Parrot Trust. “If people are not aware that this is even happening, then how are we going to be able to mitigate the risks associated with it?” In an attempt to understand the scale of the live bird trade, Martin and his colleagues used records from U.N. Comtrade, a database that aggregates information on all commodities traded between countries. The team analyzed live bird imports into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/nearly-a-million-birds-shipped-from-africa-to-asia-in-15-years-canaries-top-the-list/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/nearly-a-million-birds-shipped-from-africa-to-asia-in-15-years-canaries-top-the-list/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317571</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Invasive plant drives ecological change in America’s gigantic Selway–Bitterroot Wilderness (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasive-plant-drives-ecological-change-in-americas-gigantic-selway-bitterroot-wilderness-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasive-plant-drives-ecological-change-in-americas-gigantic-selway-bitterroot-wilderness-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 17:08:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lyle Lewis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/09162539/SelwayBitterrootWilderness_LittleRockCreekLakeAndElCapitan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317142</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Invasive Species, Plants, Protected Areas, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Selway–Bitterroot Wilderness was part of the original class of lands designated under the United States’ 1964 Wilderness Act: 1.3 million acres, or about 526,000 hectares, of steep river canyons, cold subalpine ridges, dense forest, and weather so unforgiving it shapes everything that survives there. It remains one of the most remote places in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Selway–Bitterroot Wilderness was part of the original class of lands designated under the United States’ 1964 Wilderness Act: 1.3 million acres, or about 526,000 hectares, of steep river canyons, cold subalpine ridges, dense forest, and weather so unforgiving it shapes everything that survives there. It remains one of the most remote places in the continental U.S. The Selway offers a window into a broader global pattern: ecosystems that appear intact from afar are already being structurally reshaped by invasive species, climate change and hidden biodiversity loss. The idea of “untouched wilderness” persists in our imagination, but ecologically, it is no longer true. Its remoteness is literal. Trails disappear under the brush that regrows faster than crews can cut it. Fire and blowdowns reshape entire drainages in a year. Maps may show routes, but the land often says otherwise. Without intervention, trails vanish, reclaimed by vegetation and gravity. I know this because I’ve spent days clearing them. By 2016, roughly half the trails shown on topographic maps were already impassable, in a failure for recreation but a quiet triumph for wildlife. There are square miles of habitat here that likely haven’t seen a human in decades. The Selway River is one of the most technically demanding whitewater runs in North America. Rafts flip, boats wrap, and accidents turn fatal almost every year. People call it wilderness because it feels like one. But feeling wild and intact functioning are not the same thing. One of the largest elk herds in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasive-plant-drives-ecological-change-in-americas-gigantic-selway-bitterroot-wilderness-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasive-plant-drives-ecological-change-in-americas-gigantic-selway-bitterroot-wilderness-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317142</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Invasives take over native plant spaces in Nepal’s cities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasives-take-over-native-plant-spaces-in-nepals-cities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasives-take-over-native-plant-spaces-in-nepals-cities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 13:25:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bibek Bhandari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/09131111/Ageratum_houstonianum_-_Humber_Arboretum-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317276</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat Degradation, Invasive Species, Plants, Research, urban ecology, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Until a few decades ago, botanist Bharat Babu Shrestha observed abundant growth of Indian pennywort (Centella asiatica) across large areas of Kathmandu. But the low-growing herb, distinguished by its kidney-shaped leaves and medicinal properties in the traditional Ayurveda, is now gradually vanishing from Nepal’s capital. Its disappearance has been attributed to shrinking open [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Until a few decades ago, botanist Bharat Babu Shrestha observed abundant growth of Indian pennywort (Centella asiatica) across large areas of Kathmandu. But the low-growing herb, distinguished by its kidney-shaped leaves and medicinal properties in the traditional Ayurveda, is now gradually vanishing from Nepal’s capital. Its disappearance has been attributed to shrinking open spaces, and largely due to the spread of another plant species creeping across Kathmandu: Crofton weed (Ageratina adenophora), locally known as kaalo banmara. The various species within the family of banmara — meaning “forest destroyer” in Nepali — the dense shrub with multi-colored flowers, with roots in Central and South America, is displacing many native species. “There has been no qualitative assessment in Kathmandu, but our observations show that our native vegetation has been dominated and displaced by many invasive species,” said Shrestha, a botany professor at Tribhuvan University, Nepal. “Our research in Nepal’s Parsa and Shuklaphanta national parks have concluded that invasive species have reduced almost half of the native species in those regions, indicating similar impacts in Kathmandu.” In Kathmandu, Crofton weed; the common lantana (Lantana camara), locally called kaade banmara; Santa Maria feverfew (parthenium weed, Parthenium hysterophorus), known as pati jhaar in Nepali; and blue billy goat weed (Ageratum houstonianum), locally called neelo gandhe, are said to be the dominant invasive species, according to experts. Shrestha said that species such as the common lantana or the polka dot plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya), which is native to Madagascar, have become popular ornamental plants in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasives-take-over-native-plant-spaces-in-nepals-cities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasives-take-over-native-plant-spaces-in-nepals-cities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317276</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Argentina updates national IUCN mammal list with new focus on non-native species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/argentina-updates-national-iucn-mammal-list-with-new-focus-on-non-native-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/argentina-updates-national-iucn-mammal-list-with-new-focus-on-non-native-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Mar 2026 01:47:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/23192822/Squirrel--768x500.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316159</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Invasive Species, Mammals, Politics, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have updated the conservation status of hundreds of mammals in Argentina, adding previously unassessed species and revising biodiversity threat levels. The assessment evaluated 417 native mammal species across the country, identifying national threats even in species that are listed as least concern. More than 500 scientists contributed to the effort, which also involved a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have updated the conservation status of hundreds of mammals in Argentina, adding previously unassessed species and revising biodiversity threat levels. The assessment evaluated 417 native mammal species across the country, identifying national threats even in species that are listed as least concern. More than 500 scientists contributed to the effort, which also involved a new way of measuring the impact of non-native mammals. “Some species are more at risk of disappearing than others, either because they’re more exposed or because their biology and ecology make them more affected by certain [factors],” Javier Pereira, general coordinator of the 2025 Categorization of the Mammals of Argentina, told Mongabay. “We need to measure that in order to have an indication of which species are more at risk than others.” The Argentine Society for the Study of Mammals (SAREM), a national collective of scientists, conducts periodic assessments of the conservation status of mammal species in Argentina. Its goal is to better understand population trends and threats across the country’s many ecosystems. Species expert teams review available scientific literature, monitoring data and field observations from the previous five years and then assign conservation statuses, which are then reviewed and formally validated by a committee. This time around, they evaluated 417 mammal species, 22 more than the 395 species evaluated in 2019. The increase reflects newly discovered mammals, Pereira said, but also taxonomic revisions to mammals that were once grouped together and are now recognized as distinct species. The non-native red deer (Cervus elaphus) in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/argentina-updates-national-iucn-mammal-list-with-new-focus-on-non-native-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316159</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Measuring biodiversity in a world of tree-planting pledges</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2026 16:54:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/12121050/Chimps_Photo-credit_Jane-Goodall-Institute-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312848</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Madagascar, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Sequestration, Certification, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Invasive Species, Reforestation, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There are around 60,000 known tree species in the world, and they can do amazing things: store carbon, provide people with food and firewood, shelter creatures big and small, and so much more. In the past two decades, numerous high-profile initiatives have announced ambitious restoration targets for forests. Restoring forests can bring all kinds of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There are around 60,000 known tree species in the world, and they can do amazing things: store carbon, provide people with food and firewood, shelter creatures big and small, and so much more. In the past two decades, numerous high-profile initiatives have announced ambitious restoration targets for forests. Restoring forests can bring all kinds of benefits and is widely seen as an effective nature-based solution to climate change and biodiversity loss. But planting the wrong trees, or planting them in the wrong places, is, at best, a missed opportunity — and at worst, can even harm biodiversity. In fact, a 2019 Nature commentary found that almost half the area pledged under the Bonn Challenge, a high-profile initiative to restore 350 million hectares (865 million acres) of degraded forest by 2030, was for plantation-style monocultures, and thus a poor strategy for both carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Meanwhile, half of the land pledged for reforestation under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative was actually on savanna, a landscape not suitable for tree planting, according to a 2024 Science study. “It started to occur to us that there was potentially a problem here, particularly given the size of the pledges that were being made,” says Paul Smith, secretary-general at U.K.-based charity Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). What was needed, Smith and colleagues thought, was some way to promote best practices and recognize projects that got things right. When they looked at existing certification standards, they found that none focused primarily on biodiversity. What’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312848</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Up close with Mexico’s fish-eating bats: Interview with researcher José Juan Flores Martínez</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 17:54:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30230254/murcielago-pescador-cover3-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312388</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Coastal Ecosystems, Deserts, Ecology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Fishing, Green, Interviews, Invasive Species, Islands, Mammals, Marine, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, José Juan Flores Martínez was studying for a bachelor’s degree in biology and working as a volunteer in a program designed to control invasive rodents on islands in the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, which are home to several seabird colonies. On one of those expeditions, his group traveled to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, José Juan Flores Martínez was studying for a bachelor’s degree in biology and working as a volunteer in a program designed to control invasive rodents on islands in the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, which are home to several seabird colonies. On one of those expeditions, his group traveled to Isla Partida Norte near the city of La Paz, where something surprised them: they heard bats. Accustomed to seeing them in caves, Flores Martínez was intrigued when he saw them coming out from between the rocks and making clicking sounds under his feet. “It surprised me to find out that they were on an island, in the middle of the desert, under extreme conditions: They can resist sub[-freezing] temperatures and heat above 50 degrees [Celsius, or about 122° Fahrenheit],” said Flores Martínez, now an academic technician at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s (UNAM) Institute of Biology. “But it was much more surprising to me that, when I began to ask questions, I was told that they feed on fish.” They were fish-eating bats (Myotis vivesi), and they fascinated Flores Martínez. This fascination led him, along with researcher Gerardo Herrera Montalvo, to embark on a scientific journey that has lasted a quarter of a century and counting. The fish-eating bat is the largest bat in its genus, reaching up to 16 centimeters (about 6 inches) in length. Its long, shiny fur is waterproof, which comes in handy as it maneuvers above the surface of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312388</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Top new species from 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 14:22:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29141103/Screenshot-2025-12-28-at-5.12.22-PM-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312133</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Angola, Atlantic Ocean, Brazil, Cerrado, Global, Himalayas, India, Peru, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deep Sea, Deforestation, DNA, Ecosystem Services, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Farming, Forests, Fungi, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Invasive Species, Marine, Mining, Oceans, Old Growth Forests, Pollution, Protected Areas, Ranching, Research, Science, Snakes, Species, Species Discovery, Swamps, Threatened species, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world still holds its secrets. Hidden under wet rocks, in the ocean&#8217;s twilight crevices, and in the minutiae of the genetic code are creatures unknown and unnamed by the human species. Every year, scientists find hundreds of new animals, insects, plants and fungi. This year, researchers described a tiny new marsupial, a new Himalayan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world still holds its secrets. Hidden under wet rocks, in the ocean&#8217;s twilight crevices, and in the minutiae of the genetic code are creatures unknown and unnamed by the human species. Every year, scientists find hundreds of new animals, insects, plants and fungi. This year, researchers described a tiny new marsupial, a new Himalayan bat, an ancient tree, a bright blue butterfly, a parrot snake, and a fairy lantern plant, among others. &#8220;I think most people believe that we know most species on Earth,&#8221; Mario Moura, a professor at the Federal University of Paraíba in Brazil, told Mongabay, &#8220;but in the best-case scenario, we know 20% of Earth&#8217;s species.&#8221; Some estimate that only 10% of all the species on the planet have been described. Unfortunately, many species may be threatened with extinction before they’re even formally named — victims of human activities like development and climate change. Some of these species could be food or medicine for humans, but each plays a unique role in Earth’s interconnected web of life. “We’re understanding more and more that every species on the planet has a role, and in one way or another, is linked to our well-being through the part they play in ecosystems,&#8221; said Boris Worm, a marine conservation biologist who co-authored a study that quantifies the number of undescribed species on land and in the ocean. “We can’t protect them … if we don’t know them.&#8221; Atlantic manta ray (Mobula yarae) with a diver off the coast of Mexico. Originally&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312133</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Artificial incubation gives Colombia’s threatened Andean condor a new lifeline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2025 12:23:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Christina Noriega]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/02111525/Banner-Martin-Brogger-aaMIA_3117-Andean-Condor-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310429</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Captive Breeding, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Invasive Species, Raptors, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Threatened species, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In an isolated backroom of a nature reserve near Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, Wayra, a recently hatched condor chick, is a symbol of hope for Fernando Castro, a wildlife specialist. Castro, 33, says he sees in the small fluff of gray down the future of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) in Colombia. Wayra is the latest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In an isolated backroom of a nature reserve near Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, Wayra, a recently hatched condor chick, is a symbol of hope for Fernando Castro, a wildlife specialist. Castro, 33, says he sees in the small fluff of gray down the future of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) in Colombia. Wayra is the latest Andean condor chick hatched through an artificial incubation program run by the Jaime Duque Park Foundation, a Colombian nonprofit working to conserve the species. At Jaime Duque Park, a theme park a 30-minute drive from Bogotá, which includes two nature reserves, conservationists are working to breed the species at a faster pace than would happen naturally, in a bid to give the Americas’ largest flying bird a better chance at recovery. Over the past two centuries, Andean condor populations have been steadily declining across the seven countries they inhabit: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The population plunged in the 20th century as people settling in the Andean highlands killed the scavenging birds because of the mistaken belief that they were to blame for livestock deaths. Habitat loss and lead contamination from ammunition left in animal carcasses further devastated the species. Today, the Andean condor is classified on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable to extinction. The IUCN assessment, carried out in 2020, estimates there are about 6,700 individual condors remaining across the species’ range. But their situation varies across countries. In Venezuela, the species is believed to have gone locally extinct, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310429</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A slowdown, not salvation: what new extinction data reveal about the state of life on Earth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2025 21:21:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/17205718/dodo-bird-icon-256x90-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309675</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Green, Habitat Loss, Impact Of Climate Change, Invasive Species, Islands, Mass Extinction, Overexploitation, Pollution, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests the picture is more complicated. Extinctions, it finds, may have peaked a century ago—and declined [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests the picture is more complicated. Extinctions, it finds, may have peaked a century ago—and declined since. Kristen Saban and John Wiens of the University of Arizona examined 912 documented extinctions among plants and animals over the past 500 years. Their analysis, covering nearly two million assessed species, shows that losses rose steeply through the 1800s and early 1900s before slowing. Extinction rates for vertebrates, arthropods, and plants have generally decreased over the past century. The trend runs counter to the popular narrative of an accelerating biodiversity collapse. The number of extinctions are shown for each century since 1500. From Saban and Wiens (2025) &nbsp; Extinctions over time. The number of extinctions are shown for each decade since 1800 (b). For each time period, Saban and Wiens give the number of species that were inferred to have gone extinct in that time period, based primarily on the dates when each species was last seen. From Saban and Wiens (2025) That finding, however, offers little comfort. The apparent lull in recorded extinctions may reflect where and how humans look, not a reprieve for nature. Most known extinctions occurred on islands, where invasive rats, pigs, and goats devastated native fauna and flora. Today’s drivers—deforestation, pollution, and climate change—are concentrated on continents, where declines&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309675</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Thai agri giant CPF sues activist over claims linking it to invasive fish outbreak</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/thai-agri-giant-cpf-sues-activist-over-claims-linking-it-to-invasive-fish-outbreak/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/thai-agri-giant-cpf-sues-activist-over-claims-linking-it-to-invasive-fish-outbreak/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2025 08:43:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/04083625/DSCF7491-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308772</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Ecosystems, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Food Industry, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Habitat Degradation, Industrial Agriculture, Invasive Species, Marine, Rivers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The secretary-general of a Thai agricultural watchdog is facing a lawsuit that observers say is part of corporate efforts to silence citizens who are calling for greater accountability over the outbreak of an invasive species of fish wreaking havoc in Thailand’s waterways. Witoon Lianchamroon of the BIOTHAI Foundation, a Thailand-based food sovereignty NGO, appeared at [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The secretary-general of a Thai agricultural watchdog is facing a lawsuit that observers say is part of corporate efforts to silence citizens who are calling for greater accountability over the outbreak of an invasive species of fish wreaking havoc in Thailand’s waterways. Witoon Lianchamroon of the BIOTHAI Foundation, a Thailand-based food sovereignty NGO, appeared at Nonthaburi Provincial Court Oct. 22 for the first hearing of a defamation lawsuit filed against him by Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF). The firm, a subsidiary of Thailand’s largest agricultural conglomerate, CP Group, alleges he spread false and misleading information linking it to the outbreak of blackchin tilapia (Sarotherodon melanotheron), a highly invasive species of fish. The case stems from a public conference hosted by the BIOTHAI Foundation in July 2024, when Witoon alleged during a presentation that the invasive fish outbreak was linked to an aquaculture facility operated by CPF in Samut Songkhram province. At the event, Witoon also urged the firm to take responsibility for losses to farmers’ livelihoods and the outbreak’s escalating ecological harms. Blackchin tilapia, a species native to brackish coastal habitats in West Africa, breeds rapidly year-round, can survive in both freshwater and saltwater, and has an omnivorous diet. As such, it has outcompeted both native and commercially farmed species, harming aquaculture businesses in at least 19 provinces where it has already spread. CPF came under scrutiny over the matter because it obtained a permit from the Department of Fisheries to import the species in 2010, shortly before the first detections&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/thai-agri-giant-cpf-sues-activist-over-claims-linking-it-to-invasive-fish-outbreak/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/thai-agri-giant-cpf-sues-activist-over-claims-linking-it-to-invasive-fish-outbreak/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308772</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In memory of the Christmas Island shrew</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-memory-of-the-christmas-island-shrew/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-memory-of-the-christmas-island-shrew/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2025 15:19:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/24151654/shrew-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308285</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Green, Invasive Species, Islands, Mammals, Obituary, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It never weighed more than a spoonful of sugar. Five or six grams of life, soft-furred and sharp-nosed, moving through the roots and leaf litter of a tiny island in the Indian Ocean. At night, its voice—a thin, high cry, part bat and part whisper—once filled the forest of Christmas Island. Now the forest is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It never weighed more than a spoonful of sugar. Five or six grams of life, soft-furred and sharp-nosed, moving through the roots and leaf litter of a tiny island in the Indian Ocean. At night, its voice—a thin, high cry, part bat and part whisper—once filled the forest of Christmas Island. Now the forest is silent. The Christmas Island shrew, Crocidura trichura, has been declared extinct. Few knew it lived, fewer still that it was Australian, at least by jurisdiction. Biogeographically, Christmas Island belongs to the Sundaic world—no marsupials, no kangaroos, only the small and secretive species typical of Southeast Asia. The shrew was a castaway that arrived tens of thousands of years ago, likely clinging to a raft of vegetation from what is now Java. On this isolated outpost, it built a quiet lineage of survivors. When British naturalists arrived in the 1890s, they found the forest alive with its shrill chatter. “Extremely common,” they wrote. And then, almost at once, it vanished. The black rats came first, stowaways in bales of hay brought by miners drawn to the island’s phosphate riches. With them came a parasite, Trypanosoma lewisi, that swept through the island’s naïve mammals like a plague. Within years, both native rats were gone. By 1908, the shrew was presumed lost too. Its name lingered only in museum drawers and in the footnotes of field reports. Yet it was not quite gone. Half a century later, in 1958, two shrews appeared as bulldozers tore into the forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-memory-of-the-christmas-island-shrew/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-memory-of-the-christmas-island-shrew/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308285</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An indestructible invasive anemone threatens Chilean Patagonia’s seas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-indestructible-invasive-anemone-threatens-chilean-patagonias-seas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-indestructible-invasive-anemone-threatens-chilean-patagonias-seas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2025 10:21:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana Cristina Alvarado]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/11101614/IMG_0902-rotated-e1747277058671-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305780</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Invasive Species, Marine, Marine Animals, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Diver and artisanal fisherman Daniel Caniullán recalls with frustration the day he went to collect shellfish from a natural bank in northern Chile, only to find hundreds of the plumose anemones covering the seabed. “I found an anemone plague where there used to be locos [edible sea snails]. It is upsetting, because these are places [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Diver and artisanal fisherman Daniel Caniullán recalls with frustration the day he went to collect shellfish from a natural bank in northern Chile, only to find hundreds of the plumose anemones covering the seabed. “I found an anemone plague where there used to be locos [edible sea snails]. It is upsetting, because these are places we protect, where we feel safe,” says the Indigenous leader from the Guaitecas archipelago in northern Chilean Patagonia. This invasive anemone species (Metridium senile), also known as the frilled anemone, is native to the Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. In 2005, a group of researchers, including marine biologist Vreni Häussermann, recorded M. senile for the first time in central Patagonia. In 2011 and 2015, its presence was confirmed in northern and southern Patagonia, respectively. These anemones occupy large areas of the seabed, displacing species such as sponges, bivalves and barnacles. Experts are therefore concerned about the “devastating” impact this species could have on Chile’s marine ecosystems. In addition, there are warnings about the loss of commercially significant resources, such as the locos (Concholepas concholepas), red sea urchin (Loxechinus albus) and the giant barnacle (Austromegabalanus psittacus), on which artisanal fishing communities depend. The laceration of the anemone’s base leads to asexual reproduction. Image courtesy of Vreni Häussermann. Häussermann, a principal investigator at San Sebastian University, explains that the anemone could have arrived in Chile in ballast water, used to stabilize ships when they are partially loaded or under different loading conditions. Upon arrival, the water is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-indestructible-invasive-anemone-threatens-chilean-patagonias-seas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305780</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Newly hatched Socorro dove chicks bring hope to species extinct in the wild</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/newly-hatched-socorro-dove-chicks-bring-hope-to-species-extinct-in-the-wild/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/newly-hatched-socorro-dove-chicks-bring-hope-to-species-extinct-in-the-wild/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 14:15:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29140233/Eight-Socorro-doves-a-species-extinct-in-the-wild-have-hatched-at-Chester-Zoo-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305168</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Extinction, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Invasive Species, Saving Species From Extinction, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Eight Socorro dove chicks hatched at Chester Zoo in the UK this year. These brown floofs represent a significant milestone for a species that is extinct in the wild. Socorro doves (Zenaida graysoni) once lived on Socorro Island, located 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Mexico&#8217;s Baja California coast. Old reports describe birds that walked [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Eight Socorro dove chicks hatched at Chester Zoo in the UK this year. These brown floofs represent a significant milestone for a species that is extinct in the wild. Socorro doves (Zenaida graysoni) once lived on Socorro Island, located 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Mexico&#8217;s Baja California coast. Old reports describe birds that walked right through human camps and over people&#8217;s boots without fear. This friendly behavior would later cost them their lives. The trouble started when sheep arrived in the 1800s and ate the plants the doves needed. A naval base built in 1957 brought the final blow. An adult Socorro dove at Chester Zoo. Just 200 birds survive in conservation zoos globally Image courtesy of Chester Zoo. &#8220;Navy staff and their families brought house cats which became wild and caused terrible damage to the native wildlife, including the Socorro dove population, which was last seen in the wild in 1972,&#8221; Andrew Owen, head of Chester Zoo&#8217;s bird department, said in a statement. The feral cats hunted these trusting birds with deadly effect. Scientists who searched the island in 1978 and 1981 found no doves left. The species only survived because of quick thinking almost a century ago. In 1925, a California Academy of Sciences expedition took 17 Socorro doves back to the U.S. Every dove alive today comes from those birds. Today, all of the known remaining birds live in zoos across North America and Europe. About 200 birds make up the entire surviving population, according to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/newly-hatched-socorro-dove-chicks-bring-hope-to-species-extinct-in-the-wild/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305168</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As fast-spreading mussel sweeps across Asia, Sri Lanka faces new invasive threat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-fast-spreading-mussel-sweeps-across-asia-sri-lanka-faces-new-invasive-threat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-fast-spreading-mussel-sweeps-across-asia-sri-lanka-faces-new-invasive-threat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2025 07:34:09 +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/20/2025/08/18071153/Shells-in-situ_drained-pond-TMK-9.1.2024-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304431</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Destruction, Habitat, Invasive Species, Protected Areas, Restoration, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — The discovery of the black mussel (Mytella strigata) in coastal shrimp farms in Sri Lanka’s northwestern coastal belt has raised concerns among scientists, who warn against its potential to disrupt the country’s fragile aquatic ecosystems. Clusters of these mussels were first discovered attached to hard surfaces and each other at the bottom of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — The discovery of the black mussel (Mytella strigata) in coastal shrimp farms in Sri Lanka’s northwestern coastal belt has raised concerns among scientists, who warn against its potential to disrupt the country’s fragile aquatic ecosystems. Clusters of these mussels were first discovered attached to hard surfaces and each other at the bottom of drained shrimp ponds at a site that was being inspected for the development of a mangrove restoration project. According to Malik Fernando of the Wildlife &amp; Nature Protection Society (WNPS), these ponds had been free of mussels just three and a half months earlier. “The owners confirmed the ponds were clear before, which points to a rapid local establishment,” Fernando told Mongabay. From the Americas to Asia Native to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the Americas, from Mexico and El Salvador down to Argentina and Venezuela, including the Galapagos Islands, M. strigata has become a notorious invader in parts of the United States such as Florida and Georgia and parts of Southeast Asia such as the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. In 2019, it was first recorded in India’s Kerala backwaters. In Sri Lanka, the mussel was detected in September 2023 during baseline mollusk surveys for a planned mangrove restoration project near the Anawilundawa Sanctuary, an important Ramsar wetland. As part of the ecological assessment, researcher Thilina Kumarasiri first spotted empty shells along a supply canal. When Fernando examined the shells, he first suspected the marine brown mussel (Perna perna) but noted significant differences. Further&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-fast-spreading-mussel-sweeps-across-asia-sri-lanka-faces-new-invasive-threat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304431</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It’s time to update the language of human-wildlife interactions (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/its-time-to-update-the-language-of-human-wildlife-interactions-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/its-time-to-update-the-language-of-human-wildlife-interactions-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Aug 2025 22:28:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tracie McKinney]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/21070551/4-Kavanthissa-0-another-tusker-crossing-road-c-Gimantha-e1755210123630-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304321</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Commentary, Communication, Conflict, Conservation, Elephants, Environment, Ethics, Human-wildlife Conflict, Invasive Species, Language, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Language shapes the way we view our world. In the field of wildlife conservation, even very subtle word choices drive peoples’ perceptions around individual species or situations. These word choices can be illustrated by the language associated with wildlife value orientations (WVO). When asked about views toward wildlife, individuals often fall into one of two [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Language shapes the way we view our world. In the field of wildlife conservation, even very subtle word choices drive peoples’ perceptions around individual species or situations. These word choices can be illustrated by the language associated with wildlife value orientations (WVO). When asked about views toward wildlife, individuals often fall into one of two camps: domination or mutualism. Those with a domination perspective tend to view wildlife as a resource to be controlled and used according to human needs. People with a mutualism ideology see wildlife as an extended part of our community, and therefore deserving of our respect and protection. Words like “management” or “resources” are associated with a domination perspective, while those with a mutualism orientation are more likely to view wildlife in human terms, or focus on animal welfare. Wildlife value orientations are influenced by many social and economic factors, and they are not static. Attitudes in both the U.S. and the U.K. have moved from domination to more mutualism orientations, and this change is strongest in younger and more educated groups. As attitudes toward wildlife shift over time, the language we use to describe other animals will naturally change. Conservationists can actively encourage shifting perspectives toward more positive interactions with wildlife by choosing their language carefully. Some terms that should be replaced are “human-wildlife conflict,” “crop-raiding” and “pest,” because this language depicts humans and nonhumans as enemies. A chain-link fence erected to exclude wildlife from crops in Chanachen village, Chhukha district, Bhutan. Image by Norbu&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/its-time-to-update-the-language-of-human-wildlife-interactions-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/its-time-to-update-the-language-of-human-wildlife-interactions-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304321</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>More than 10,000 species on brink of extinction need urgent action: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2025 16:55:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/30144030/Black-rhino-a-Critically-Endangered-species-c-ZSL-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303424</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Caribbean, Global, Madagascar, South America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Invasive Species, Logging, Mammals, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Extinction is an overwhelming concept, difficult to grasp in its enormity and finality. Thousands of species are barreling toward that grim fate, unless we help. A comprehensive new study provides the clearest picture yet of Earth&#8217;s most imperiled species, and offers evidence that conservation can work. The study published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity found that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Extinction is an overwhelming concept, difficult to grasp in its enormity and finality. Thousands of species are barreling toward that grim fate, unless we help. A comprehensive new study provides the clearest picture yet of Earth&#8217;s most imperiled species, and offers evidence that conservation can work. The study published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity found that 10,443 species are critically endangered, the worst threat category before extinct in the wild and, finally, extinct. Species qualify as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List when they meet strict thresholds such as rapid population declines, extremely restricted ranges, or having fewer than 50 mature individuals remaining. &#8220;It is surprising that more than 1,500 species, so 15% of the critically endangered species, are estimated to have fewer than 50 mature individuals remaining in the wild, a large number of those plants,&#8221; Rikki Gumbs, research fellow at the Zoological Society of London&#8217;s Institute of Zoology and co-author of the study, told Mongabay. A critically endangered gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) or fish-eating crocodile in Nepal. Image courtesy of  ZSL/ Rikki Gumbs “The good news is that it’s within our power as humans to [save them]. It’s our unsustainable behaviour driving these devastating declines — whether through deforestation or the introduction of invasive species and diseases — so we can turn things around and bring these species back from the brink.” Most critically endangered species, 77%, earned their status because they have extremely limited habitat remaining. Seven species, including three amphibians, three tortoises and the vaquita porpoise (Phocoena&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303424</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In California, an invasive mustard is destabilizing desert plant communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-california-an-invasive-mustard-is-destabilizing-desert-plant-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-california-an-invasive-mustard-is-destabilizing-desert-plant-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2025 16:27:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maya L. Kapoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/16131330/sahara-mustard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302646</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deserts, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Invasive Species, and Plants]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In southern California’s Coachella Valley, pale sand dunes sprawl under the desert sun, shifting and re-forming in the wind. In dry years, lone shrubs dot the dunes. But the landscape bursts with color and greenery after a wet winter. That’s because seeds of desert plants may wait in the soil for years, even decades, for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In southern California’s Coachella Valley, pale sand dunes sprawl under the desert sun, shifting and re-forming in the wind. In dry years, lone shrubs dot the dunes. But the landscape bursts with color and greenery after a wet winter. That’s because seeds of desert plants may wait in the soil for years, even decades, for the right conditions to sprout. But an introduced mustard species that arrived a century ago is having an unexpected impact. The Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii) is creating less stable plant communities by outcompeting native species in the Coachella Valley’s Mojave Desert, according to a 17-year study published in the journal Ecology. These findings raise questions about how well native plants will persist in an increasingly unpredictable environment. Across ecosystems, “asynchrony” – species responding differently to weather and other cues –  increases diversity. In the Mojave Desert, many plant species coexist by germinating at different times, or even in different years. A research plot in the Coachella Valley sand dunes, which researchers surveyed for 17 years. Sahara mustards form the yellow patch in the background. Image by Lynn Sweet/University of California, Riverside. Generalist species such as Sahara mustard can upset this balance. “The invasive species that come in&#8230;can germinate year-round, even though our natives wait because they&#8217;re used to their germination cues,” said Clarissa Rodriguez, a plant ecologist at the University of San Diego who led this research. Although the region’s spring bloom of native plants has ended for this year, she said, “If you go&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-california-an-invasive-mustard-is-destabilizing-desert-plant-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-california-an-invasive-mustard-is-destabilizing-desert-plant-communities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302646</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Suspicions surround international legal trade in Galápagos iguanas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/suspicions-surround-international-legal-trade-in-galapagos-iguanas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/suspicions-surround-international-legal-trade-in-galapagos-iguanas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2025 13:29:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/10131958/iguana-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302191</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Invasive Species, Lizards, Protected Areas, Trade, trafficking, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2013, when Sandra Altherr, co-founder of the German NGO Pro Wildlife, began looking into the reptile trade in Europe, she wondered why people paid thousands of euros for little-known reptiles whose trade wasn’t regulated by CITES, the international agreement on wildlife trade. On investigating further, she found many of the expensive reptiles sold were [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2013, when Sandra Altherr, co-founder of the German NGO Pro Wildlife, began looking into the reptile trade in Europe, she wondered why people paid thousands of euros for little-known reptiles whose trade wasn’t regulated by CITES, the international agreement on wildlife trade. On investigating further, she found many of the expensive reptiles sold were protected in the countries of their origin. While they were illegal to trade in their range countries, they could still be smuggled out and sold internationally, thanks to regulatory loopholes in EU wildlife trade regulations. What particularly struck Altherr were ads by an individual in Switzerland selling nationally protected reptiles from various parts of the world, including iguanas from the Galápagos, which have been illegal to remove from the archipelago since 1959, with the creation of the Galápagos National Park. “No one at the time in Europe even kept these animals. … It was clear he was special,” Altherr told Mongabay, referring to the individual that caught her eye. “Then we followed him, and collected data on him.” That digital sleuthing, which lasted for more than a decade, has now uncovered a “true crime” story of transnational trade in live Galápagos iguanas sought after by reptile collectors and private zoos worldwide, who are willing to pay top dollar. “Galápagos iguanas are at the top end of black market prices for reptiles,” Altherr said. In a recent study, Altherr and her colleagues — including herpetologists, wildlife trade experts and conservation scientists — present the case of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/suspicions-surround-international-legal-trade-in-galapagos-iguanas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/suspicions-surround-international-legal-trade-in-galapagos-iguanas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302191</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Predatory snakehead fish poses invasive threat after sighting in Sri Lanka reservoir</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/predatory-snakehead-fish-poses-invasive-threat-after-sighting-in-sri-lanka-reservoir/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/predatory-snakehead-fish-poses-invasive-threat-after-sighting-in-sri-lanka-reservoir/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2025 12:40:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/28122236/2-Young-giant-snakeheads-c-NARA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301605</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Aquariums, Ecology, Education, Environment, Fish, Freshwater Fish, and Invasive Species]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — The Deduru Oya reservoir in northwestern Sri Lanka has long been a favorite fishing spot for angler Ishanka Dissanayaka. In mid-June, he returned to the reservoir for a relaxing day by the water. But this time, the fish that snagged his bait was so heavy that he had to wade to the edge [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — The Deduru Oya reservoir in northwestern Sri Lanka has long been a favorite fishing spot for angler Ishanka Dissanayaka. In mid-June, he returned to the reservoir for a relaxing day by the water. But this time, the fish that snagged his bait was so heavy that he had to wade to the edge of the water and, with the help of colleagues, hauled it out using a hand net. The fish measured nearly a meter (3 feet) in length and weighed 8 kilograms (17. 6 pounds), one of his heaviest catches to date. What made it even more remarkable was when it turned out to be giant snakehead (Channa micropeltes), one of the world’s most feared invasive freshwater fish, now clearly established in Sri Lanka. While Dissanayaka saw the catch as a personal triumph, others in the community viewed this discovery with alarm. Local fisher Vijith Samantha recalled how fishing near the banks during windy days used to yield a decent catch. But now, he said, those catches have been reduced by half, with many of the native species once commonly caught seeming to have disappeared. Measuring nearly 1 m in length and weighing 8 kg, this giant snakehead is now well-established as an invasive species in Sri Lanka’s Deduru Oya reservoir. Image courtesy of Ishanka Dissanayaka. Dramatic increase of giant snakeheads Samantha attributed this dramatic change to the rise of the giant snakehead, an apex predator native to Southeast Asia. With a torpedo-shaped body and powerful jaws&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/predatory-snakehead-fish-poses-invasive-threat-after-sighting-in-sri-lanka-reservoir/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301605</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On a Patagonian plateau, a microendemic frog makes a hopeful comeback</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/on-a-patagonian-plateau-a-microendemic-frog-makes-a-hopeful-comeback/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/on-a-patagonian-plateau-a-microendemic-frog-makes-a-hopeful-comeback/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jun 2025 12:44:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/19144925/Federico-_Kacoliris-_2025_Argentina-Somuncura_Species_Frog-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301082</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Latin America, Patagonia, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Amphibians, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Invasive Species, Protected Areas, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A first look at Argentina’s Somuncurá Plateau reveals features somewhat predictable for a Patagonian steppe: shrubs, grass, plains, and rocky outcrops. Only the occasional volcanic peak breaks the monotony of the landscape spanning an area larger than Switzerland across the provinces of Rio Negro and Chubut. But in this apparent monotony, life abounds as the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A first look at Argentina’s Somuncurá Plateau reveals features somewhat predictable for a Patagonian steppe: shrubs, grass, plains, and rocky outcrops. Only the occasional volcanic peak breaks the monotony of the landscape spanning an area larger than Switzerland across the provinces of Rio Negro and Chubut. But in this apparent monotony, life abounds as the plateau’s conditions make it one of Patagonia’s key biodiversity areas and home to several endemic species.  Among those, one critically endangered species has caught the attention of researchers and, more recently, of the wider conservation world. Measuring less than 5 centimeters (2 inches) in length, the El Rincon stream frog (Pleurodema somuncurense) relies on the warm headwaters of the Valcheta stream, fed by the Somuncurá’s hot springs. Here, the microendemic amphibian, whose habitat measures no more than 10 square kilometers (3.7 square miles), finds refuge from the plateau’s large temperature variations.  The species was described by scientists in the late 1960s, but went on to be largely ignored by science until the early 2000s, when it became increasingly exposed to habitat loss, invasive species and cattle ranching. That earned it the status of critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, making it one of the world’s most threatened amphibians. Argentina’s Somuncurá Plateau provides an unexpected haven for microendemic species. Image courtesy of Federico Kacoliris. Federico Kacoliris has long studied the El Rincon stream frog. Aside from adding knowledge about the species and its habitats, Kacoliris, who leads the Somuncurá Foundation, has mobilized a conservation movement&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/on-a-patagonian-plateau-a-microendemic-frog-makes-a-hopeful-comeback/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301082</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The blobby little sea squirt that stowed away across the Pacific to California</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/the-blobby-little-sea-squirt-that-stowed-away-across-the-pacific-to-california/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/the-blobby-little-sea-squirt-that-stowed-away-across-the-pacific-to-california/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 May 2025 18:01:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maya L. Kapoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/23151726/Corella-japonica-field-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299557</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Invasive Species, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, biologists Lauren Stefaniak and Marie Nydam had time to kill before their university workshop on marine invertebrates began, so they drove to a marina not far from Los Angeles to gather organisms for their students to study. They strolled along floating docks, pausing periodically to sit down or to lie on their stomachs [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, biologists Lauren Stefaniak and Marie Nydam had time to kill before their university workshop on marine invertebrates began, so they drove to a marina not far from Los Angeles to gather organisms for their students to study. They strolled along floating docks, pausing periodically to sit down or to lie on their stomachs and pluck an assortment of small creatures from the water. Stefaniak, a marine scientist at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, and Nydam, a marine evolutionary geneticist at Soka University of America, in California, are experts at identifying the myriad animals — shelled or squishy, scurrying or stuck in place — that festoon docks, buoys, pilings and ropes at the water’s edge. But that day, one finding surprised them: reddish blobs about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) long that they didn’t recognize. As it turned out, they had collected the first specimens of the ascidian Corella japonica from North America. Scientists don’t yet know whether this new member of California’s marine fauna will have ecological impacts, but its arrival highlights the massive, largely uncontrolled movement of marine species via ships that travel the world. Ascidians, which are a type of tunicate also known as a sea squirt, are part of the ocean’s seafloor ecosystems, or benthic zone. Like many benthic organisms, they are sessile, meaning once they settle down as adults, they don’t move again. Some ascidians, including C. japonica, resemble small fleshy balloons; others spread out as rubbery colonial mats. Adult sea squirts filter feed,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/the-blobby-little-sea-squirt-that-stowed-away-across-the-pacific-to-california/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299557</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Venomous snakes, freshwater fish among legally traded species most likely to become invasive in US</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/venomous-snakes-freshwater-fish-among-legally-traded-species-most-likely-to-become-invasive-in-us/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/venomous-snakes-freshwater-fish-among-legally-traded-species-most-likely-to-become-invasive-in-us/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 May 2025 16:24:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/19094621/Puff-Adder-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299234</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Invasive Species, Pet Trade, Reptiles, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Although a superpower, the U.S. is under constant invasion — we’re not talking humans here but meek-looking plants and animals that have caused ecological havoc. Take, for instance, the tiny, nocturnal coqui frogs (Eleutherodactylus coqui) in Hawai‘i that arrived from Puerto Rico in the 1980s and are now terrorizing the islanders with their deafening “ko-kee” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Although a superpower, the U.S. is under constant invasion — we’re not talking humans here but meek-looking plants and animals that have caused ecological havoc. Take, for instance, the tiny, nocturnal coqui frogs (Eleutherodactylus coqui) in Hawai‘i that arrived from Puerto Rico in the 1980s and are now terrorizing the islanders with their deafening “ko-kee” calls that can be as loud as a motorcycle engine. With numbers in Hawai‘i now surpassing those in Puerto Rico, the frogs have scrubbed the forest floor and treetops of vital pollinating insects, toppled property prices in prime real estate markets, and are hurting tourism. It’s not just the frogs: Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus), Argentine black-and-white tegus (Salvator merianae), European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), invasive carps in the Mississippi, zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha), English ivy (Hedera helix) — the list is long. Many of these were legally imported, either as ornamental plants, bait or exotic pets, but soon escaped into the wild and established themselves, devastating the local environment and costing the U.S. economy more than $1 trillion. “Prevention is the most effective and cost-efficient way of preventing those impacts that we know that nonnative species can have,” said Wesley Daniel from the U.S. Geological Survey. A starting point is figuring out which of the thousands of species imported into the country are most likely to become invasive. So that’s what Daniel and his colleagues did. The findings from their recently published study identified 32 legally traded nonnative vertebrate species in the U.S. that have the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/venomous-snakes-freshwater-fish-among-legally-traded-species-most-likely-to-become-invasive-in-us/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://mauiinvasive.org/wp-content/uploads/one-coqui-turning-into-a-population.mp3" length="2177226" type="audio/mpeg" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299234</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Invasive whiteflies pose a new threat to Bangladesh’s cash crops</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/invasive-whiteflies-pose-a-new-threat-to-bangladeshs-cash-crops/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/invasive-whiteflies-pose-a-new-threat-to-bangladeshs-cash-crops/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2025 08:14:06 +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/20/2025/05/15081035/original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299131</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Crops, Diseases, Environment, Farming, Insects, Invasive Species, Pesticides, Plants, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The mass invasion of a new insect, the whitefly, in Bangladesh’s agricultural farms — especially in coconut, banana and guava farms — has put farmers at risk due to its devastating effects on crops. How the insects are entering the country is yet to be confirmed, but researchers suggest the pest may have spread in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The mass invasion of a new insect, the whitefly, in Bangladesh’s agricultural farms — especially in coconut, banana and guava farms — has put farmers at risk due to its devastating effects on crops. How the insects are entering the country is yet to be confirmed, but researchers suggest the pest may have spread in the country via the high-yielding coconut imported in 2014 and 2015. According to a 2022 study, the whiteflies (Aleurodicus rugioperculatus) were first identified in Bangladesh in 2019 on coconut in the southwest. Since then, the insect’s presence has spread across the country with different levels of infestation. “The insect can damage a plant in many ways, including removing nutrients and water from leaves and disrupting the photosynthesis process,” the study states. “Initially, we found the pest in coconut trees; however, now the insect has already made 61 types of plants as their hosts,” said Gopal Das, lead author of the study and an entomology professor at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU). He added that coconut, banana and guava are the most affected crops by the pest. Rice, wheat and maize are the primary crops grown in Bangladesh while other crops like jute, tea, banana, guava and coconut are grown as cash crops. According to media reports, in 2023, Bangladesh was the 12th highest coconut-producing country in the world with a yield of 442,700 tons from 25,335 hectares (62,00 acres) of land, while, in 2021-22, the country produced 430,000 tons of guavas from around 89,000 hectares (219,920&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/invasive-whiteflies-pose-a-new-threat-to-bangladeshs-cash-crops/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299131</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New research sheds light on Canada lynx-snowshoe hare cycle, human impacts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2025 14:34:06 +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/20/2025/05/14060945/Canadian_lynx_by_Keith_Williams-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298495</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Canada, Colorado, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Habitat, Invasive Species, Land Use Change, Logging, Mammals, Predators, Research, Rodents, Small Cats, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Open any ecology textbook and you’ll find the Canada lynx, the snowshoe hare, and their wildly oscillating population cycles offered as a classic example of the intimate relationship between predator and prey. The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a handsome, medium-sized felid, with a thick coat, tufted ears and large paws — an adaptation to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Open any ecology textbook and you’ll find the Canada lynx, the snowshoe hare, and their wildly oscillating population cycles offered as a classic example of the intimate relationship between predator and prey. The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a handsome, medium-sized felid, with a thick coat, tufted ears and large paws — an adaptation to deep snow. Its distribution and abundance in North America has long been inextricably linked to that of the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), its primary prey. The relationship also fascinates the public, with photos of the cat chasing the hare across snowy landscapes a staple of wildlife photo essays. Snowshoe hare numbers rise and fall dramatically in a regular cycle of eight to 10 years. A year or two later, Canada lynx numbers follow. This enduring relationship is borne out by Indigenous knowledge and centuries of fur trapping data, and is integral to boreal forest science. Now, researchers are questioning if human activities, including forestry practices, climate change and wildfires may be impacting lynx, hares and this natural cycle. With thick coats and broad paws, Canada lynx are supremely adapted to deep snow. Image courtesy of Allyson Menzies. An enduring ecological relationship Stan Boutin, a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, has been watching the lynx-hare drama play out in Kluane, in Canada’s Yukon Territory, for nearly 50 years. Over this time, hare populations have exploded and crashed five times, with lynx populations following behind. “We&#8217;re on a heavy increase phase now. So the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Africa’s growing cities are endangering birdlife (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/africas-growing-cities-are-pushing-birdlife-to-the-brink-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/africas-growing-cities-are-pushing-birdlife-to-the-brink-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2025 18:32:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bello Adamu Danmallam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/07134921/Red-throated-bee-eaters-Merops-bulocki-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297734</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Cities, Citizen Science, Commentary, Conservation, Development, Global Environmental Crisis, Invasive Species, Research, Sustainable Development, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As urbanization reshapes global landscapes, ecological balance is increasingly at risk, especially in Africa. The primary drivers are rapid development and expanding human settlements, often without proper environmental considerations, posing a serious threat to birds and biodiversity and weakening ecological resilience. These changes create opportunities for invasive species to thrive, further threatening native bird populations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As urbanization reshapes global landscapes, ecological balance is increasingly at risk, especially in Africa. The primary drivers are rapid development and expanding human settlements, often without proper environmental considerations, posing a serious threat to birds and biodiversity and weakening ecological resilience. These changes create opportunities for invasive species to thrive, further threatening native bird populations and the essential roles they play in ecosystems. Without strategic environmental planning, urban expansion will continue to erode biodiversity, altering species interactions, ecosystem functions, and threatening species survival. I recently co-led a study published in Frontiers in Conservation Science revealing how urban growth in Kenya and Nigeria degrades bird communities, undermining both species diversity and their ecological roles. With more than half of the global population already in urban areas — a figure projected to reach about 70% by 2050 — the pressures on biodiversity are mounting. In Africa, urban land cover is expected to triple by 2030, and the potential impact on birds and biodiversity is particularly alarming. Birds are key indicators of environmental health, making them crucial for assessing human impacts on ecosystems. Although urbanization contributes to habitat loss, fragmentation, and the spread of invasive species, its effects on birds’ ecological roles in Africa remain understudied, despite the region’s rich but vulnerable ecosystems. &#8220;Urbanization is fundamentally reshaping African landscapes, and its impacts on avian biodiversity are often overlooked,&#8221; said one of my co-authors, Peggy Ngila. &#8220;Our research sheds light on how this process is changing the composition of bird communities and their vital ecosystem services, such as seed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/africas-growing-cities-are-pushing-birdlife-to-the-brink-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297734</doi>				</item>
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