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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/new-discovery/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on New Discovery</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/new-discovery/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>One of the world’s largest deep-sea coral reefs discovered off Argentina</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/one-of-the-worlds-largest-deep-sea-coral-reefs-discovered-off-argentina/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/one-of-the-worlds-largest-deep-sea-coral-reefs-discovered-off-argentina/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2026 09:52:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/29094324/FKt251206-S0884-20251222T234830Z-0-scicam-Coral-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318139</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Deep Sea, Ecosystems, Environment, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, New Discovery, Oceans, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Biologist Erik Cordes has spent much of his career studying cold-water reefs — coral systems typically found in chilly, dark waters far below the ocean’s surface. But his latest project took him by surprise when he and a group of colleagues discovered what might be one of the world’s largest deep-sea, cold-water reefs. Over the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Biologist Erik Cordes has spent much of his career studying cold-water reefs — coral systems typically found in chilly, dark waters far below the ocean’s surface. But his latest project took him by surprise when he and a group of colleagues discovered what might be one of the world’s largest deep-sea, cold-water reefs. Over the course of two expeditions aboard the research ship R/V Falkor (too) — first in July 2025, and then in December 2025–January 2026 — Cordes and a team of scientists explored a previously undocumented cold-water coral reef system along a 900-kilometer (560-mile) stretch of Argentina’s territorial waters, about 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) below the surface. Globally, cold-water reefs can be found in depths as shallow as 50 m (164 ft) and as deep as 4,000 m (13,100 ft). Just one of the coral mounds — underwater hills made up of coral skeletons topped by living coral that take thousands or even millions of years to form — stretched out over an area of 0.4 square kilometers (0.15 square miles), nearly the size of Vatican City. The expeditions, mounted by the U.S.-based Schmidt Ocean Institute, identified many more of these mounds across the 900 km that it mapped, leading the researchers to believe the corals could be part of one of the most extensive cold-water reefs in the world. “It still amazes me when we can discover something this size still on our planet,” Cordes, a professor of biology at Temple University in the U.S., told Mongabay.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/one-of-the-worlds-largest-deep-sea-coral-reefs-discovered-off-argentina/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/one-of-the-worlds-largest-deep-sea-coral-reefs-discovered-off-argentina/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318139</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>24 new species found in ocean zone eyed for battery metals mining</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/24-new-species-found-in-ocean-zone-eyed-for-battery-metals-mining/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/24-new-species-found-in-ocean-zone-eyed-for-battery-metals-mining/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 01:58:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/09014340/CCZ-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317236</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Forest Destruction, Mining, New Discovery, Oceans, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers pulled 24 tiny new creatures from a deep abyss in the central Pacific Ocean, some with long, spindly legs and others with more squat, compact bodies. Some appeared to feed on the sediment itself, while others had large claws suggesting they prey on other creatures living in the mud. The discoveries, published in ZooKeys, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Researchers pulled 24 tiny new creatures from a deep abyss in the central Pacific Ocean, some with long, spindly legs and others with more squat, compact bodies. Some appeared to feed on the sediment itself, while others had large claws suggesting they prey on other creatures living in the mud. The discoveries, published in ZooKeys, come from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a roughly 6-million-square-kilometer (2.3-million-square-mile) expanse of seabed between Hawai‘i and Mexico. The newly described species are all amphipods, a diverse group of crustaceans. The shrimp-like creatures, most about a centimeter long, or less than half an inch, have evolved in the deep sea, some 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) below the surface, over millions of years. Among the finds was a completely new superfamily, Mirabestioidea, and a new family, Mirabestiidae, representing previously unknown evolutionary lineages. &#8220;If you imagine that on planet Earth, we know about carnivorous mammals, we know that bears exist and we know that the families of cats exist, it would be like finding dogs,&#8221; Tammy Horton, a researcher at the U.K.&#8217;s National Oceanography Centre and co-lead of the study, told Inside Climate News. Collage of the 24 new Amphipod species identified in Clarion-Clipperton Zone, CC BY, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton Scientists collected the specimens by extracting large cubes of mud from the seabed, known as box cores, and hauling them up to a research ship. After washing and sieving the cores, researchers found a variety of amphipods nestled among the mud and metallic nodules. During a weeklong&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/24-new-species-found-in-ocean-zone-eyed-for-battery-metals-mining/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/24-new-species-found-in-ocean-zone-eyed-for-battery-metals-mining/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317236</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Kew Gardens&#8217; top 10 newly named plants and fungi for 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2026 23:24:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/12223115/02.-Telipogon-cruentilabrum-CREDIT-L.Baquero-03-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312879</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Botswana, Brazil, Ecuador, England, Namibia, Peru, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Fungi, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, New Discovery, Plants, Rainforests, Species Discovery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., officially named 125 plants and 65 fungi. The new-to-science species include a parasitic fungus that turns Brazilian spiders into “zombies,” a critically endangered orchid with blood-red markings from Ecuador&#8217;s cloud forests, and a shrub named after the fire demon from the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., officially named 125 plants and 65 fungi. The new-to-science species include a parasitic fungus that turns Brazilian spiders into “zombies,” a critically endangered orchid with blood-red markings from Ecuador&#8217;s cloud forests, and a shrub named after the fire demon from the 2004 Hayao Miyazaki film Howl&#8217;s Moving Castle. Each year, Kew releases a list of its “top 10” new plant and fungal species to showcase nature&#8217;s vast diversity, as well as its fragility, as many newly described species are already in danger. According to Kew’s “State of the World&#8217;s Plants and Fungi 2023” report, three out of four undescribed plants are threatened with extinction. One species described in 2025, Cryptacanthus ebo, a bromeliad from the Ebo Forest in Cameroon, may have already gone extinct. Each year, researchers worldwide officially name about 2,500 new plants and even more fungi. An estimated 100,000 plant species and between 2 million and 3 million fungal species remain to be described and named by science. Many of these unnamed fungi are endophytes that live entirely within plant tissues, making up the plants’ microbiomes. &#8220;Describing new plant and fungal species is essential at a time when the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change accelerate before our eyes,&#8221; Martin Cheek, a senior research leader in Kew&#8217;s Africa team, said in a press release. &#8220;It is difficult to protect what we do not know, understand and have a scientific name for.&#8221; Although a species may be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312879</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deep-sea &#8216;hotels&#8217; reveal 20 new species hiding in Pacific Ocean twilight zone near Guam</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deep-sea-hotels-reveal-20-new-species-hiding-in-oceans-twilight-zone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deep-sea-hotels-reveal-20-new-species-hiding-in-oceans-twilight-zone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 18:20:28 +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/20/2025/12/31181314/Screenshot-2025-12-31-at-12.12.53-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312446</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Guam and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, New Discovery, Oceans, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A transparent goby fish drifted through the darkness, its skeleton visible through paper-thin skin. Nearby, a sea slug wore yellow polka dots like a party dress, while an orange fish with bulging eyes hid among the coral. No human had ever seen these creatures — until now. They live in the ocean&#8217;s &#8220;twilight zone,&#8221; a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A transparent goby fish drifted through the darkness, its skeleton visible through paper-thin skin. Nearby, a sea slug wore yellow polka dots like a party dress, while an orange fish with bulging eyes hid among the coral. No human had ever seen these creatures — until now. They live in the ocean&#8217;s &#8220;twilight zone,&#8221; a dim underwater world between 55 and 100 meters (180 and 330 feet) deep, where light fades and strange life thrives. Hidden in the depths off the coast of the Pacific island of Guam, these animals make their homes on unusual structures that scientists had quietly placed on the seafloor years earlier. In November, Luiz Rocha and his team at the California Academy of Sciences finally returned to collect what those structures had been gathering for eight years: a treasure trove of life never before seen by humans. A few of the species (not to scale) found living in the &#8220;twilight zone&#8221; near Guam. Some are likely new to science, others have not been seen before at this depth. Photos courtesy of California Academy of Science. &#8220;I&#8217;ve wanted to be an explorer ever since I was a kid,&#8221; Rocha told National Geographic, &#8220;and there&#8217;s nothing better for an explorer than going to a place that nobody has ever been, finding a species that nobody has ever seen before.&#8221; The monitoring devices, called ARMS (Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures), are stacks of square PVC plates that act as artificial reefs, like mini-condos for critters. Sea creatures settle on them&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deep-sea-hotels-reveal-20-new-species-hiding-in-oceans-twilight-zone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deep-sea-hotels-reveal-20-new-species-hiding-in-oceans-twilight-zone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312446</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A new frog species emerges from Peru’s cloud forests — and it’s already at risk</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2025 22:32:24 +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/20/2025/12/30222607/O.shunkusacha-768x466.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312381</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Cloud Forests, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Loss, Frogs, Green, Habitat Loss, Herps, Montane Forests, New Discovery, Rainforests, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep within the cloud forests of the San Martín region of Peru lie two places so high, cold and remote that they remained virtually unexplored for decades. In 2022, and again in 2025, monitors from three Indigenous and local associations guided a team of scientists from Peru and France on a series of expeditions to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep within the cloud forests of the San Martín region of Peru lie two places so high, cold and remote that they remained virtually unexplored for decades. In 2022, and again in 2025, monitors from three Indigenous and local associations guided a team of scientists from Peru and France on a series of expeditions to unravel their mysteries. It was there, within the Bosques de Vaquero Biocorridor, that one of the most striking discoveries emerged: a small, previously unknown frog hidden among the fallen leaves. They named it Shunku Sacha, which in Kichawa-Lamista means “heart of the forest.” The scientific name of the new species, Oreobates shunkusacha, honors the territory where it was discovered — a place that, along with the frog, is now threatened by the rapid destruction of the forest. O. shunkusacha was formally described in a study recently published in the German journal Salamandra. Due to the threats facing the species and its small known range, the study’s authors say it should be considered endangered. A collaborative effort The research was carried out by local associations and scientists from Nature Conserv’Action and the Ararankha Association–Ecology and Conservation, who have been working in the area since 2022, with the aim of bringing science closer to local organizations that protect the forests. The species has been named Oreobates shunkusacha, with Shunku Sacha meaning “heart of the forest” in Kichawa-Lamista. In their study, researchers propose “Shunku Sacha big-headed frog” as the species’ common name. Image courtesy of Nature Conserv’Action Perú.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312381</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal, the world’s smallest otter continues to elude researchers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-nepal-the-worlds-smallest-otter-continues-to-elude-researchers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-nepal-the-worlds-smallest-otter-continues-to-elude-researchers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 05:34:20 +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/20/2025/12/22045750/Z50_7454-min-scaled-e1766379564645-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311840</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Carnivores, Conservation, Cryptic Species, Ecosystems, Fish, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Mammals, New Discovery, Pollution, Rediscovered Species, Rivers, Species, Species Discovery, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A year ago, the appearance of the Asian small-clawed otter in Nepal created a buzz, given that the species hadn’t been seen in the country in 185 years. Since then, however, it’s disappeared once again, with no confirmed sightings in the past year, leaving researchers flummoxed on the question of whether it’s still [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A year ago, the appearance of the Asian small-clawed otter in Nepal created a buzz, given that the species hadn’t been seen in the country in 185 years. Since then, however, it’s disappeared once again, with no confirmed sightings in the past year, leaving researchers flummoxed on the question of whether it’s still found in the country. The November 2024 discovery of a juvenile Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus) in Dadeldhura district, on Nepal’s western border with India, left researchers hopeful of more sightings would follow. However, limited funding and difficulties in DNA analysis have left them relying on scattered clues rather than certainty, even as the species is formally incorporated into the country’s conservation plans. “Despite multiple reports of suspected signs, such as scats recovered from different river systems, there hasn’t been a second verified sighting of the Asian small-clawed otter anywhere in the country,” Mohan Bikram Shrestha, a leading otter researcher, told Mongabay. “We firmly believe that the animal is present in the eastern river systems as well.” The lone confirmed record from 2024 was remarkable not only for being the first recorded sighting since 1839, but also for raising the possibility that overlooked populations of the world’s smallest otter species might still roam Nepal’s rivers and wetlands. A rescued Asian small-clawed otter with its distinct webbed feet in Dadeldhura, Nepal. Image by Rajeev Chaudhary. Since then, however, there’s only been indirect evidence of a possible otter presence. Community members and researchers have collected suspected otter&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-nepal-the-worlds-smallest-otter-continues-to-elude-researchers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311840</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Armored worms and death-ball sponges among array of life newly documented from the deep sea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/armored-worms-and-death-ball-sponges-among-array-of-life-newly-documented-from-the-deep-sea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/armored-worms-and-death-ball-sponges-among-array-of-life-newly-documented-from-the-deep-sea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2025 23:03:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/05223634/1-Carnivorous-Tree-Sponge-The-Nippon-Foundation-Nekton-Ocean-Census_Schmidt-Ocean-Institute-%C2%A9-2025-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308900</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[New Discovery and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the darkness of the deep ocean, where pressure crushes and light fails, an expedition has found an astonishing array of life, including a carnivorous &#8220;death-ball&#8221; sponge (from the genus Chondrocladia) covered in tiny prey-catching hooks; &#8220;zombie worms&#8221; (genus Osedax) lacking mouths but harboring symbiotic bacteria that digest whale bones; armored scale worms of iridescent [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the darkness of the deep ocean, where pressure crushes and light fails, an expedition has found an astonishing array of life, including a carnivorous &#8220;death-ball&#8221; sponge (from the genus Chondrocladia) covered in tiny prey-catching hooks; &#8220;zombie worms&#8221; (genus Osedax) lacking mouths but harboring symbiotic bacteria that digest whale bones; armored scale worms of iridescent colors (genus Eulagisca); and rare mollusks adapted to the volcanic seafloor. The footage, recorded in March 2025, confirms 30 previously unknown deep-sea species from one of the planet&#8217;s most inaccessible regions in the South Atlantic Ocean. Researchers found new sea stars spanning multiple families (Brisingidae, Benthopectinidae and Paxillosidae), novel crustaceans, and candidate species such as black corals and a potential sea pen genus still under expert review. New iridescent scale worm found by the ROV SuBastian at 2859 metres at the South Trench dive site, northwest of Zavodovski Island. Photo courtesy of Jialing Cai/The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census/Schmidt Ocean Institute © 2025 New In-situ sea pen found by the ROV SuBastian at 805 metres at the Mystery Ridge dive site. /&gt;Photo courtesy of  The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census/Schmidt Ocean Institute © 2025 &#8220;The Southern Ocean remains profoundly under-sampled. To date, we have only assessed under 30% of the samples collected from this expedition, so confirming 30 new species already shows how much biodiversity is still undocumented,&#8221; Michelle Taylor, head of science at The Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census, said in a statement. Researchers also glimpsed one of Earth&#8217;s most mysterious giants deep below. For the first time,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/armored-worms-and-death-ball-sponges-among-array-of-life-newly-documented-from-the-deep-sea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308900</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New species of gecko described from Madagascar’s sacred forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-species-of-gecko-described-from-madagascars-sacred-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-species-of-gecko-described-from-madagascars-sacred-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2025 08:30:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Valisoa Rasolofomboahangy]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/23140705/cb095d1c-2895-4def-8640-3f91df3d41e1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306436</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Economics, Environment, Forests, Governance, New Discovery, Reptiles, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO — An international team of biologists has identified a new species of gecko in small forest remnants of southeastern Madagascar. Named Paragehyra tsaranoro, the lizard is microendemic to isolated patches of community-managed forests west of Andringitra National Park, highlighting the remarkable biodiversity found there. Fieldwork to identify the tsaranoro gecko was led by Francesco [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO — An international team of biologists has identified a new species of gecko in small forest remnants of southeastern Madagascar. Named Paragehyra tsaranoro, the lizard is microendemic to isolated patches of community-managed forests west of Andringitra National Park, highlighting the remarkable biodiversity found there. Fieldwork to identify the tsaranoro gecko was led by Francesco Belluardo from the Department of Biosciences at the University of Molise in Italy. The team found the new gecko species in small patches of montane forest in Tsaranoro, Ambatomainty and Iantaranomby. This nocturnal and elusive gecko shows a particular preference for rocky habitats, where its mottled brown skin blends almost perfectly with the surrounding stone. Lead study author Francesco Belluardo and co-author Gonçalo Rosa handling expedition samples. Image courtesy of Javier Lobón-Rovira. The forests around these sites are highly fragmented after decades of deforestation. While Andringitra National Park protects much of the massif, it doesn’t include the western slopes, where only a few patches of forest remain. “It’s not certain that its range is limited to these areas,” said Nirhy Rabibisoa, a lecturer and researcher at Madagascar’s University of Mahajanga, who wasn’t involved in the study. “It often happens that a species is initially thought to be microendemic, but later turns up elsewhere,” he added, citing the case of Blaesodactylus antongilensis, a gecko native to the dense rainforests of northeastern Madagascar. Even so, the study’s authors argue that P. tsaranoro should be listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List — a mournful irony&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-species-of-gecko-described-from-madagascars-sacred-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306436</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New gecko species findings highlight threats to Cambodia’s limestone hills</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-gecko-species-findings-highlight-threats-to-cambodias-limestone-hills/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-gecko-species-findings-highlight-threats-to-cambodias-limestone-hills/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Sep 2025 16:38:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anton L. Delgado]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/04153334/A-Battambang-leaf-toed-gecko-Dixonius-noctivagus.-Image-by-Hun-Seiha-with-Fauna-Flora-Cambodia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305417</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Lizards, New Discovery, Protected Areas, Reptiles, Species Discovery, Surveying, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers have described three new gecko species in northwestern Cambodia’s limestone hills and are eager to conduct further research, but recent border clashes with Thailand have disrupted their studies. Violent clashes this summer, which killed close to 40 people and displaced nearly 300,000 across the two Southeast Asian nations, cut follow-up field surveys short, researchers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Researchers have described three new gecko species in northwestern Cambodia’s limestone hills and are eager to conduct further research, but recent border clashes with Thailand have disrupted their studies. Violent clashes this summer, which killed close to 40 people and displaced nearly 300,000 across the two Southeast Asian nations, cut follow-up field surveys short, researchers told Mongabay. The dispute has indefinitely delayed exploration of the landscape, which may host an abundance of creatures yet to be described by science. Pablo Sinovas, Cambodia country director for Fauna &amp; Flora, an international NGO, was leading the surveys in Battambang province near the Thai border in late July when the fighting erupted. He told Mongabay in August that the decision to pull back was taken as a precaution after Thai fighter jets bombed Cambodia. “In Cambodia, systematic exploration [of karst landscapes] has only just begun,” Sinovas said. “We can expect many more [species] discoveries to be made. These findings highlight the extraordinary diversity that can be hidden in karst ecosystems.” When the clash broke out, the research team pivoted to surveying karst towers near where they had found the Kamping Poi bent-toed gecko (Cyrtodactylus kampingpoiensis), Battambang leaf-toed gecko (Dixonius noctivagus) and Khpoh slender gecko (Hemiphyllodactylus khpoh) in 2024. A Kamping Poi bent-toed gecko (Cyrtodactylus kampingpoiensis). Image by Hun Seiha with Fauna &amp; Flora Cambodia. The discoveries of these species, announced in three studies published in 2025, had thrilled these conservationists and made them eager to double down on karst research. “Think of these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-gecko-species-findings-highlight-threats-to-cambodias-limestone-hills/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305417</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Discovery of dazzling blue butterfly underscores peril facing Angola&#8217;s forests </title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/discovery-of-dazzling-blue-butterfly-underscores-peril-facing-angolas-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/discovery-of-dazzling-blue-butterfly-underscores-peril-facing-angolas-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2025 06:27:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/02145151/e0f3ff0a-b3b3-4107-9183-9be85255d203-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305307</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Birds, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Drinking Water, Environment, Fires, forest degradation, Forests, Governance, Grasslands, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Montane Forests, Mountains, New Discovery, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Reforestation, Research, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Francis’s gorgeous sapphire — a new-to-science species of butterfly — has just been described in the high-altitude evergreen forests of western Angola. The identification of Iolaus francisi, with its shimmering blue upper wings bordered with black, and silvery underwings patterned with orange and brown lines highlights once more the rich biodiversity of the country&#8217;s most [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Francis’s gorgeous sapphire — a new-to-science species of butterfly — has just been described in the high-altitude evergreen forests of western Angola. The identification of Iolaus francisi, with its shimmering blue upper wings bordered with black, and silvery underwings patterned with orange and brown lines highlights once more the rich biodiversity of the country&#8217;s most threatened habitat. Ecologist Alan Gardiner recalls the exciting moment he and Zimbabwean lepidopterists (butterfly experts) Jonathan Francis and Shabani Ndarama first saw a male sapphire shining in a forest patch during an expedition to the Namba Mountains in Cuanza Sul province in May 2023. “It&#8217;s always special when you see something like that,&#8221; says Gardiner, head of applied research at the South African Wildlife College. &#8220;It’s so much more vivid than you can get in a picture.” &nbsp; Described recently in the journal Zootaxa, Francis’s gorgeous sapphire is now one of 13 unique butterflies known only from this region. Its caterpillars feed on the leaves of Phragmanthera mistletoes and mimic the hairy buds growing on the stems. Francis had collected two caterpillars of the butterfly in the Namba Mountains during an earlier trip in October 2022. He reared them back home in Zimbabwe, feeding them on the leaves of mistletoe plants he had cultivated in his Harare garden years earlier. “If I didn’t have the [mistletoe] leaves, I would have lost them.” The butterflies that emerged were both females, with distinctive undersides bearing an extra stripe that no other Iolaus butterflies have, he says. But&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/discovery-of-dazzling-blue-butterfly-underscores-peril-facing-angolas-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305307</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New population of rare douc langurs found in Vietnam’s highland forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/new-population-of-rare-douc-langurs-found-in-vietnams-highland-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/new-population-of-rare-douc-langurs-found-in-vietnams-highland-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2025 03:00:51 +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/20/2025/06/06081245/Banner_Ryan-Deboodt-FF-scaled-e1749198077371-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300303</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Mammals, Monkeys, New Discovery, Primates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers surveying forested mountains in south-central Vietnam have located a new subpopulation of gray-shanked douc langurs, a critically endangered monkey species. The discovery is a sign that more groups of the rare primate may still be found in unexplored forest areas, the team write in a recently published paper in the journal Oryx. Fewer than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Researchers surveying forested mountains in south-central Vietnam have located a new subpopulation of gray-shanked douc langurs, a critically endangered monkey species. The discovery is a sign that more groups of the rare primate may still be found in unexplored forest areas, the team write in a recently published paper in the journal Oryx. Fewer than 2,400 gray-shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix cinerea) are thought to remain in the wild, dispersed across six provinces in Vietnam’s central highlands. They typically live in dense canopy in upland forests, which limits their ability to disperse and makes population counts tricky. Although there have been some informal sightings of the species in eastern Cambodia, there’s little evidence of stable populations outside Vietnam. Deforestation and hunting for meat, the pet trade and body parts that are used in traditional medicine have slashed their numbers by 80% over the past three decades, according to their most recent assessment report for the IUCN Red List, published in 2020. Conservationists are particularly concerned that more than half of their population inhabits fragmented patches of forest outside of protected areas, where pressures on their numbers are intense and sightings are dwindling. The new subpopulation was sighted in a 17-hectare (42-acre) area of Quang Nam province called Khe Lim Forest. It came as a surprise for the team comprising researchers from the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), the GreenViet Biodiversity Conservation Centre and local guides, who were initially completing a botanical survey when they chanced upon the group of monkeys in trees&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/new-population-of-rare-douc-langurs-found-in-vietnams-highland-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300303</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Exploring India, finding new species: Interview with biologist Zeeshan Mirza</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/exploring-india-finding-new-species-interview-with-biologist-zeeshan-mirza/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/exploring-india-finding-new-species-interview-with-biologist-zeeshan-mirza/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Mar 2025 14:57:20 +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/20/2024/12/31144211/IMG_8535-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296447</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Himalayas, India, and Western Ghats]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Illegal Trade, New Discovery, Rainforests, Snakes, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A green pit viper named after Salazar Slytherin from Harry Potter, an unfamiliar snake found in an Instagram post, and twelve new species of day geckos from a single mountain range are few of the more than 60 new-to-science species found, identified and/or named by Indian biologist Zeeshan Mirza over the past decade. “I work [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A green pit viper named after Salazar Slytherin from Harry Potter, an unfamiliar snake found in an Instagram post, and twelve new species of day geckos from a single mountain range are few of the more than 60 new-to-science species found, identified and/or named by Indian biologist Zeeshan Mirza over the past decade. “I work on multiple taxa, but by far, snakes fascinate me more than any other group of organisms,” Mirza, who is pursuing a PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Biology, Germany, where he studies developmental genetics in nematodes, told Mongabay. Mirza’s wildlife journey began in the urban forests near his home in Mumbai. “I was born and brought up in Mumbai, the Western Ghats were close; I did end up conducting extensive fieldwork in the Ghats,” Mirza said. What started as childhood curiosity evolved into systematic scientific expeditions that have expanded our understanding of India’s vast biodiversity. Mirza and his team found the Salazar’s pit viper (Trimeresurus salazar) in the Himalayas. Photo courtesy of Zeeshan A. Mirza The Western Ghats, an ancient mountain range running parallel to India’s western coast, served as a particularly rich hunting ground for Mirza. On one expedition, he found four new tarantula species. This UNESCO World Heritage Site harbors exceptional levels of species found nowhere else on Earth, though many remain undocumented and are threatened by human development. “[Some] species may not even get named before they go extinct,” he said. “One of the major conservation challenges I feel that threaten&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/exploring-india-finding-new-species-interview-with-biologist-zeeshan-mirza/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296447</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Three new gecko species described in Nepal: Interview with herpetologist Santosh Bhattarai</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/three-new-gecko-species-described-in-nepal-interview-with-herpetologist-santosh-bhattarai/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/three-new-gecko-species-described-in-nepal-interview-with-herpetologist-santosh-bhattarai/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Mar 2025 17:56:21 +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/20/2025/03/21174235/2.-Karans-Bent-toed-gecko-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296280</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Cryptic Species, Herps, New Discovery, Protected Areas, Reptiles, Species Discovery, Taxonomy, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As Nepal’s reptiles are one of the least studied among the country’s diverse flora and fauna, researchers have long been saying that it could be home to numerous species waiting to be discovered by science. Herpetologist Santosh Bhattarai, a PhD student at Federation University Australia, is one of the handful of scientists who have dedicated [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As Nepal’s reptiles are one of the least studied among the country’s diverse flora and fauna, researchers have long been saying that it could be home to numerous species waiting to be discovered by science. Herpetologist Santosh Bhattarai, a PhD student at Federation University Australia, is one of the handful of scientists who have dedicated their careers to studying smaller herps such as lizards, geckos and frogs across Nepal. He has been actively involved in raising awareness about the dark sitana (Sitana fusca), a critically endangered lizard endemic to Nepal. Bhattarai and his team recently discovered three new-to-science species of bent-toed geckos (Cyrtodactylus genus). According to a study documenting the discovery published in the journal Zootaxa, the nocturnal lizards, known for their camouflaging abilities, were found in the forests and rocky terrains of the Chitwan Annapurna Landscape. The newly identified species have been named Cyrtodactylus chitwanensis (Chitwan bent-toed gecko), Cyrtodactylus annapurnaensis (Annapurna bent-toed gecko) and Cyrtodactylus karanshahi (Karan’s bent-toed gecko) — the last one in honor of Nepal’s renowned herpetologist Karan Bahadur Shah. Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi spoke with Bhattarai, who is currently based in Australia, over the phone to discuss the new findings and their implications. The following interview has been translated from Nepali and edited for clarity. Mongabay: Could you please tell us how you discovered these new species? Santosh Bhattarai: Well, we made the discovery during my PhD field research in the Chitwan Annapurna Landscape in Nepal. My research focuses on amphibians and reptiles in the landscape,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/three-new-gecko-species-described-in-nepal-interview-with-herpetologist-santosh-bhattarai/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296280</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World’s smallest otter makes comeback in Nepal after 185 years</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/worlds-smallest-otter-makes-comeback-in-nepal-after-185-years/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/worlds-smallest-otter-makes-comeback-in-nepal-after-185-years/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2025 13:38:45 +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/20/2025/02/05133036/small-clawed-otter-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293950</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Freshwater, Mammals, New Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Scientists have for the first time in 185 years confirmed the presence of the Asian small-clawed otter in Nepal, thrilling conservationists and researchers looking for clues to its existence here. The last time the Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus), the smallest of the world’s 13 known otter species, was recorded by scientists in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Scientists have for the first time in 185 years confirmed the presence of the Asian small-clawed otter in Nepal, thrilling conservationists and researchers looking for clues to its existence here. The last time the Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus), the smallest of the world’s 13 known otter species, was recorded by scientists in Nepal was in 1839. “After years of speculation about its presence in Nepal, we can finally confirm that the small-clawed otter lives on in the country,” said Mohan Bikram Shrestha, the lead author of a short note published in the latest edition of the bulletin of the Otter Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Although historically three species of otters are believed to occur in Nepal, modern researchers had until now only confirmed the presence of smooth-coated otters (Lutrogale perspicillata) and Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra), with a question mark hanging over the small-clawed otter. During that time, reports have come in, never confirmed until now, of small-clawed otter sightings in Makalu Barun National Park in Nepal’s eastern Himalayas and Kailali and Kapilvastu districts in the western plains. Shrestha told Mongabay that the confirmed encounter occurred last November, when forestry department officials in Dadeldhura district, on Nepal’s western border with India, found a juvenile small-clawed otter at the confluence of the Rangun and Puntara rivers. “As it was found in a fragile and injured state, the forest officers decided to feed and nurse it, but they didn’t know which species it belonged&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/worlds-smallest-otter-makes-comeback-in-nepal-after-185-years/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/worlds-smallest-otter-makes-comeback-in-nepal-after-185-years/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293950</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Blob-headed fish and four mammals among 27 newly described species in Peru’s Alto Mayo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/blob-headed-fish-and-four-mammals-among-27-newly-described-species-in-perus-alto-mayo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/blob-headed-fish-and-four-mammals-among-27-newly-described-species-in-perus-alto-mayo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jan 2025 18:21:11 +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/20/2025/01/27174634/blob-fish-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293475</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Fish, Forest Destruction, Forests, Frogs, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, New Discovery, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists and Indigenous community members documented 27 new-to-science species in Peru&#8217;s Alto Mayo region, including four new mammals and a bizarre &#8220;blob-headed&#8221; fish that was already well-known to local people. The findings came from a 38-day expedition conducted in 2022 by Conservation International in collaboration with local Awajún Indigenous communities. “Discovering four new mammals in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists and Indigenous community members documented 27 new-to-science species in Peru&#8217;s Alto Mayo region, including four new mammals and a bizarre &#8220;blob-headed&#8221; fish that was already well-known to local people. The findings came from a 38-day expedition conducted in 2022 by Conservation International in collaboration with local Awajún Indigenous communities. “Discovering four new mammals in any expedition is surprising — finding them in a region with significant human populations is extraordinary,” said Trond Larsen, who leads Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) in the Moore Center for Science. RAPs are intensive biological surveys designed to quickly document biodiversity in understudied areas. Members of Indigenous Awajun communities assisted the scientists with their research, such as throwing cast nets to capture fish. The RAP expedition was important for collaboratively exchanging traditional knowledge and scientific training. 68 fish species were collected, including eight that are new to science. Image by Trond Larsen courtesy of Conservation International. The team surveyed eight different zones across the 780,700-hectare (1.93-million-acre) landscape, which lies at the intersection of the Andes Mountains and Amazon Rainforest in northern Peru&#8217;s San Martín region. The region is home to more than 200,000 people, including 16 Awajún communities. &#8220;People tend to work more in the protected areas, but we thought, hey, we have this big landscape with all different types of land uses with diverse ecosystem types, and it lies right in the middle between two existing protected areas,&#8221; said Larsen, who led the Alto Mayo expedition, told Mongabay. &#8220;But nothing&#8217;s being done, so this is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/blob-headed-fish-and-four-mammals-among-27-newly-described-species-in-perus-alto-mayo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/blob-headed-fish-and-four-mammals-among-27-newly-described-species-in-perus-alto-mayo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293475</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Survey uncovers ‘wildlife treasure’ in Cambodian park — but also signs of threats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/survey-uncovers-wildlife-treasure-in-cambodian-park-but-also-signs-of-threats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/survey-uncovers-wildlife-treasure-in-cambodian-park-but-also-signs-of-threats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jan 2025 21:02:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anton L. Delgado]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/20104904/A-Trimeresurus-cardamomesis-photographed-in-Cambodia_s-Samlout-Multiple-Use-Area.-Image-courtesy-of-Jeremy-Holden-with-Fauna-Flora_-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293135</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, cameras, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, New Discovery, Plants, Poaching, Protected Areas, Species Discovery, Surveying, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The first biodiversity survey ever conducted in one of northwestern Cambodia’s last forest frontiers has found potentially new-to-science species and recorded direct threats to what conservationists call a “small but precious” ecosystem. Spanning roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the Cambodian-Thai border, the 60,000-hectare (148,300-acre) Samlout Multiple Use Area is part of the greater Cardamom [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The first biodiversity survey ever conducted in one of northwestern Cambodia’s last forest frontiers has found potentially new-to-science species and recorded direct threats to what conservationists call a “small but precious” ecosystem. Spanning roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the Cambodian-Thai border, the 60,000-hectare (148,300-acre) Samlout Multiple Use Area is part of the greater Cardamom Mountain Range and straddles the provinces of Battambang and Pailin. Samlout was one of the three first multiple-use areas declared in Cambodia more than 30 years ago. This designation indicates that the management of the protected area is meant to conserve natural resources, while also developing economic activities. Since then, however, the kingdom’s northwest has experienced deforestation at a rate matching a national, decades-long trend of forest loss. Munichan Kung, country director of the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, told Mongabay that people had previously thought “Samlout was too small, too remote and too degraded. They didn’t believe there was such a treasure of wildlife inside the area.” The Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation — started by U.S. actress Angelina Jolie and named after her adopted son from Cambodia — has funded projects in Samlout for more than two decades. The foundation commissioned the NGO Fauna &amp; Flora to lead surveys on bats, plants, reptiles, amphibians, insects, birds and mammals. The results of the survey found a plethora of wildlife, including more than 140 bird species, nearly 30 mammal species, close to 15 distinct bat species, and 50 types of orchids. These findings set new Cambodia country records, as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/survey-uncovers-wildlife-treasure-in-cambodian-park-but-also-signs-of-threats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/survey-uncovers-wildlife-treasure-in-cambodian-park-but-also-signs-of-threats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293135</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Four new tarantula species found in India’s Western Ghats mountains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/four-new-tarantula-species-found-in-indias-western-ghats-mountains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/four-new-tarantula-species-found-in-indias-western-ghats-mountains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2024 15:02:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/31144013/ZeeshanMirzaNewTarantula-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292581</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[India and Western Ghats]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, New Discovery, Pet Trade, Rainforests, Species Discovery, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A researcher described four new species of tarantulas, including one new genus, from India&#8217;s Western Ghats, a chain of mountains running along the country&#8217;s west coast. &#8220;Most people in India are not even aware that there are tarantulas in India when there are more than 60 species in the country,&#8221; Zeeshan Mirza, from the Max [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A researcher described four new species of tarantulas, including one new genus, from India&#8217;s Western Ghats, a chain of mountains running along the country&#8217;s west coast. &#8220;Most people in India are not even aware that there are tarantulas in India when there are more than 60 species in the country,&#8221; Zeeshan Mirza, from the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Germany, who found and described the species, told Mongabay. The large, fuzzy spiders live in tree hollows, along streams and forest paths, and in forest patches. They exhibit interesting behaviors, such as females carrying their egg sacs under their mouth parts (or chelicerae) or creating hammock-like web structures to protect their eggs. Zeeshan Mirza with one of the new tarantula species from the Western Ghats. Mirza has discovered several species of reptiles in India as well. Photo courtesy of Mirza. One of the new species, named Haploclastus bratocolonus (meaning &#8220;tree dweller&#8221;), makes its home in hollow trees along rivers. Another species, Haploclastus montanus, was found living at elevations higher than 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) in mountain forests, making it one of the highest-living tarantulas known from the region. Some of the new species were found in the rare small fragments of remaining shola forest surrounded by tea plantations. Among the species was an entirely new genus of tarantulas called Cilantica, named after the Tamil word for spider. They can be identified by the unique scattered pattern of curved bristles on their bodies, unlike the C-shaped arrangement of bristles found in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/four-new-tarantula-species-found-in-indias-western-ghats-mountains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/four-new-tarantula-species-found-in-indias-western-ghats-mountains/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292581</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Great Himalayan leaf-nosed bat finally confirmed in Bangladesh</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/great-himalayan-leaf-nosed-bat-finally-confirmed-in-bangladesh/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/great-himalayan-leaf-nosed-bat-finally-confirmed-in-bangladesh/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2024 11:32:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mohammad Al-Masum Molla]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/26152418/H.-armiger-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292387</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Biodiversity, Caves, Conservation, Environment, Mammals, New Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DHAKA — Scientists have published the first record of the great Himalayan leaf-nosed bat in Bangladesh, dropping another pin on this wide-ranging species’ distribution map across Asia and highlighting the importance of continued biodiversity surveys in Bangladesh. The species, Hipposideros armiger, was found in a cave in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh during [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DHAKA — Scientists have published the first record of the great Himalayan leaf-nosed bat in Bangladesh, dropping another pin on this wide-ranging species’ distribution map across Asia and highlighting the importance of continued biodiversity surveys in Bangladesh. The species, Hipposideros armiger, was found in a cave in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh during field surveys between July and December 2023, according to a newly published study. “We were thrilled to confirm this species in Bangladesh,” said lead researcher M. Abdul Aziz, a professor in the Department of Zoology at Jahangirnagar University. “It’s an exciting moment for both local and global bat conservation efforts, as this discovery not only adds to the national fauna but also provides a deeper understanding of the species’ distribution across South Asia.” H. armiger, among the larger of the leaf-nosed bats, has a wide distribution stretching from India in the west to China in the east, and as far south as Malaysia. Until last year’s discovery, however, its presence in Bangladesh had never been confirmed by scientists. H. armiger, among the larger of the leaf-nosed bats, has a wide distribution stretching from India in the west to China in the east, and as far south as Malaysia. Image by M. Aziz. How it was identified The species is a high-altitude cave dweller known for its distinctive nose-leaf structure, a crucial part of its echolocation mechanism that helps it navigate in the dark. The cave in which Aziz and his team found it is a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/great-himalayan-leaf-nosed-bat-finally-confirmed-in-bangladesh/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/great-himalayan-leaf-nosed-bat-finally-confirmed-in-bangladesh/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292387</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Top new species from 2024</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2024/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2024/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2024 22:47:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/01222118/Image-1-Leopardus-tigrinus-pardinoides-Cuenca-3-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292398</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Atlantic Forest, Australia, Cameroon, Central America, Chile, China, Global, India, Indonesia, Latin America, Malaysia, Mekong Basin, Pacific Ocean, Peru, South America, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birding, Birds, Botany, Charismatic Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Cryptic Species, Culture, Deforestation, DNA, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Flowers, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Insects, Islands, Lizards, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, New Discovery, Oceans, Oil Drilling, Plants, Rainforests, Reptiles, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Snakes, Solutions, Species Discovery, Traditional Knowledge, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A giant anaconda, a vampire hedgehog, a dwarf squirrel, and a tiger cat were among the new species named by science in 2024. Found from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the mountaintops of Southeast Asia, each new species shows us that even our well-known world contains unexplored chambers of life. This year, in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A giant anaconda, a vampire hedgehog, a dwarf squirrel, and a tiger cat were among the new species named by science in 2024. Found from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the mountaintops of Southeast Asia, each new species shows us that even our well-known world contains unexplored chambers of life. This year, in Peru&#8217;s Alto Mayo Landscape alone, scientists uncovered 27 new-to-science species, including four new mammals, during a two month expedition. Meanwhile, the Greater Mekong region yielded 234 new species, and scientists from the California Academy of Sciences described 138 new species globally. The ocean depths continued to surprise, with more than 100 potentially new species found on an unexplored underwater mountain off Chile&#8217;s coast. Two new mammal species were found in India this year, including the world’s smallest otter. Scientists estimate only a small fraction of Earth&#8217;s species have been documented, perhaps 20% at best. Even among mammals, the best-known group of animals, researchers think we’ve only found 80% of species.  Most of these hidden species are likely bats, rodents, shrews, moles and hedgehogs. Members of Indigenous Awajun communities in Peru&#8217;s Alto Mayo assist scientists with their research, such as throwing cast nets to capture fish.  68 fish species were collected, including eight that are new to science. Photo courtesy of Trond Larsen/Conservation International. However, while species may be new to Western science, many have been well known to Indigenous peoples and local communities for generations. These communities often maintain sophisticated classification systems and deep ecological&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2024/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292398</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Greater Mekong serves up 234 new species in a year, from fanged hedgehog to diva viper</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/greater-mekong-serves-up-234-new-species-in-a-year-from-fanged-hedgehog-to-diva-viper/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/greater-mekong-serves-up-234-new-species-in-a-year-from-fanged-hedgehog-to-diva-viper/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2024 06:11:37 +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/20/2024/12/16052538/1-Hylomys-macarong-%C2%A9-Alexei-V.-Abramov-02-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291689</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Cryptic Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Illegal Trade, Mammals, Mountains, New Discovery, Orchids, Pet Trade, Plants, Reptiles, Research, Rivers, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The dense tropical forests, isolated mountain peaks and limestone karst caverns of the Greater Mekong region yielded a remarkable 234 new-to-science species in 2023, according to a new report compiled by WWF. A striking orange-and-black crocodile newt recorded at the highest ever elevation for its type, a karst dragon lizard that represents an entirely new [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The dense tropical forests, isolated mountain peaks and limestone karst caverns of the Greater Mekong region yielded a remarkable 234 new-to-science species in 2023, according to a new report compiled by WWF. A striking orange-and-black crocodile newt recorded at the highest ever elevation for its type, a karst dragon lizard that represents an entirely new genus, and a shrew mole that tips the scales at only 8 grams, or less than 0.3 ounces, qualifying it among the top 10 lightest land mammals on Earth, feature among the new assortment of species. Nature enthusiasts and researchers in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, along with experts at global museums, described 173 plants, 26 reptiles, 17 amphibians, 15 fish and three mammals previously unknown to science. The 2023 haul brings the total number of newly described species in the region since 1997 to 3,623. “Although these species were just described by science last year, they have been living in the unique habitats of our region for many millennia,” said Chris Hallam, head of wildlife and wildlife crime at WWF-Greater Mekong. “Each of these species is a critical piece of a functioning, healthy ecosystem and a jewel in the region&#8217;s rich natural heritage.” Other new curiosities include a species of wild ginger with roots that smell like mango; a red-and-green pit viper with scales sculpting the appearance of glamorous eyelashes around its eyes; and a soft-furred hedgehog that makes up for its lack of pointy spines with formidable incisors, described by researchers as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/greater-mekong-serves-up-234-new-species-in-a-year-from-fanged-hedgehog-to-diva-viper/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/greater-mekong-serves-up-234-new-species-in-a-year-from-fanged-hedgehog-to-diva-viper/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291689</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>That Cuban rodent species you never knew about? Turns out it’s two species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/that-cuban-rodent-species-you-never-knew-about-turns-out-its-two-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/that-cuban-rodent-species-you-never-knew-about-turns-out-its-two-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Dec 2024 16:26:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/06121218/Desmarests-hutia-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291312</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cuba and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, New Discovery, Rodents, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Hutias are a strange group of rodents living on various islands of the Caribbean. Although big, and sometimes looking a little plump, they’re active climbers and spend a considerable amount of their lives in trees. They look almost like a cross between a squirrel and a beaver, but are only distantly related to either. Instead, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Hutias are a strange group of rodents living on various islands of the Caribbean. Although big, and sometimes looking a little plump, they’re active climbers and spend a considerable amount of their lives in trees. They look almost like a cross between a squirrel and a beaver, but are only distantly related to either. Instead, these rodents are in the Cavimorpha group that includes many unusual rodents of the Americas, such as capybaras, guinea pigs and spiny rats. The largest of all the hutias is Desmarest&#8217;s hutia (Capromys pilorides), found only in Cuba. A new study now shows, based on museum specimens, that the Cuban species is actually two distinct species: Desmarest&#8217;s hutia on the eastern part of Cuba, and the western conga hutia (Capromys geayi) on the western side. “We used ancient DNA research methods to investigate the evolutionary relationships between historically old specimens of hutias that had been collected from Cuba in the 19th century, and were now in the collections of museums in Europe,” says study co-author Samuel Turvey, a professor at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and expert on Caribbean mammals, both alive and extinct. “These included specimens that had originally been named as distinct species by zoologists over a century ago, but had since been largely forgotten.” DNA evidence showed that these two animals split around 1.75 million years ago, long before humans arrived in what is today the Americas. For millions of years, a large, deep-water channel split Cuba into two distinct parts, likely keeping&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/that-cuban-rodent-species-you-never-knew-about-turns-out-its-two-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/that-cuban-rodent-species-you-never-knew-about-turns-out-its-two-species/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291312</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lesser noddy sighting stirs up birding community in Bangladesh</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/lesser-noddy-sighting-stirs-up-birding-community-in-bangladesh/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/lesser-noddy-sighting-stirs-up-birding-community-in-bangladesh/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2024 06:48:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rafiqul Islam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/05060331/lesser-noddies-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289679</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birding, Birds, Conservation, Environment, Habitat, Marine, New Discovery, Oceans, Seabirds, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Sept. 7, 2024, British ornithologist Gary Allport and Dutch birdwatcher Jan-erik Nilsen took a boat from Bangladesh’s coastal district of Cox&#8217;s Bazar to Sonadia Island. On their way, while they observed a flock of terns feeding around a fishing boat, a lesser noddy (Anous tenuirostris) flew in, circled the boat twice, and then flew [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Sept. 7, 2024, British ornithologist Gary Allport and Dutch birdwatcher Jan-erik Nilsen took a boat from Bangladesh’s coastal district of Cox&#8217;s Bazar to Sonadia Island. On their way, while they observed a flock of terns feeding around a fishing boat, a lesser noddy (Anous tenuirostris) flew in, circled the boat twice, and then flew off, surprising them. This is the first time the seabird species was recorded in Bangladesh. “Fortunately, we got quick photos and then headed off to Sonadia. Once there, we saw another noddy very briefly, which we could not identify as the species for certain, but we assumed it was the same bird,” Allport said. Then they headed back to Cox&#8217;s Bazar. When they got to the lagoon by Cox’s Bazar airport, they saw two lesser noddies together. A close examination of the pictures showed that they were different individuals from the ones they saw first in the morning, so there were at least three birds. And it seemed likely that the bird at Sonadia was a fourth. “[A] lesser noddy first for Bangladesh — Boom! Great day out in a boat at the weekend from Cox&#8217;s Bazar to Sonadia area with good numbers of terns and waders. Nice start finding the first lesser noddy but then followed by two more, and probably a fourth bird too. Really super birding,” Allport wrote on his X handle after sighting the birds. Lesser noddies are generally a bird of the open seas, and there has been no record&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/lesser-noddy-sighting-stirs-up-birding-community-in-bangladesh/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/lesser-noddy-sighting-stirs-up-birding-community-in-bangladesh/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289679</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the Pacific depths, an underwater mountain hosts a bonanza of new species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-pacific-depths-an-underwater-mountain-hosts-a-bonanza-of-new-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-pacific-depths-an-underwater-mountain-hosts-a-bonanza-of-new-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2024 17:51:20 +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/20/2024/10/01162558/chaunax-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288070</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Ecosystems, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, New Discovery, Oceans, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Flying spaghetti monsters, Casper octopus, and a fish that looks like a Muppet are just a few of the rare creatures found on a previously unknown underwater mountain off the coast of Chile. During ocean expeditions in the Southeast Pacific this year, scientists found an underwater wonderland, including more than 100 potentially new-to-science species. &#8220;We [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Flying spaghetti monsters, Casper octopus, and a fish that looks like a Muppet are just a few of the rare creatures found on a previously unknown underwater mountain off the coast of Chile. During ocean expeditions in the Southeast Pacific this year, scientists found an underwater wonderland, including more than 100 potentially new-to-science species. &#8220;We far exceeded our hopes on this expedition,&#8221; expedition leader Javier Sellanes of Chile’s Catholic University of the North (UCN), said in a statement. &#8220;You always expect to find new species in these remote and poorly explored areas, but the amount we found, especially for some groups like sponges, is mind-blowing.&#8221; This is the first time this rare octopus species, informally named the Casper octopus, has been seen in the Southern Pacific. Image courtesy of ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute CC BY-NC-SA Scientists mapped and explored numerous seamounts along underwater mountain ranges like the Nazca Ridge and Salas y Gómez Ridge, venturing into areas that have never been studied in detail. Among the most significant discoveries was an entirely new seamount in international waters, about 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) off the Chilean coast. The underwater mountain rises more than 3 km meters (nearly 2 miles) from the seafloor, reaching its summit 994 m (3,261 ft) below the ocean surface. The seamount discovery came during a 28-day expedition in July and August led by the Schmidt Ocean Institute in partnership with Ocean Census and the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center at the University of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-pacific-depths-an-underwater-mountain-hosts-a-bonanza-of-new-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-288070</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change could threaten newly described ‘shiny’ North American bees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/climate-change-could-threaten-newly-described-shiny-north-american-bees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/climate-change-could-threaten-newly-described-shiny-north-american-bees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2024 03:55:45 +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/20/2024/09/18035156/3.-The-genus-Lasioglossum-records-the-largest-number-of-wild-bees-image-shows-Lasioglossum-Dialictus-sp.3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287525</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bees, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Insects, New Discovery, Research, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean island, lies far away from the United States and is just one-sixth the size of California. But interestingly, one of the three newly identified wild bee species described in California has been bestowed with a Sinhala name, a language exclusive to Sri Lanka. All three bees look alike [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean island, lies far away from the United States and is just one-sixth the size of California. But interestingly, one of the three newly identified wild bee species described in California has been bestowed with a Sinhala name, a language exclusive to Sri Lanka. All three bees look alike and display an unusual metallic sheen on their body, so one of them was named Lasioglossum (Sphecodogastra) dilisena, as the word dilisena means “shining” in the Sinhala language. Thilina Hettiarachchi, a PhD student at the University of Manitoba in Canada and the first author of the study, suggested the inclusion. &#8220;Given that Thilina hails from Sri Lanka, it seemed apt to have a Sinhala word incorporated into one of the names, as scientific names are typically in Latin or Latinized Greek, which most people in North America may not speak. Then there’s no particular reason why Sinhala would be any less understandable,&#8221; said Jason Gibbs, associate professor of entomology at Manitoba University who is Hettiarachchi’s supervisor and a study co-author. &#8220;We strive to find names for new species that are descriptive, easy to pronounce and celebrate diversity, and the word ‘dilisena’ embodies all these features,&#8221; Gibbs told Mongabay. Part Sinhala name Given the metallic sheen that gives the bee&#8217;s body its iridescence, the team has aptly named the second bee as Lasioglossum (Sphecodogastra) iridescens, highlighting its iridescent nature and the color reflected by its metallic sheen. The third bee has been named Lasioglossum (Sphecodogastra) silveirai,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/climate-change-could-threaten-newly-described-shiny-north-american-bees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/climate-change-could-threaten-newly-described-shiny-north-american-bees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287525</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New relatives of the cacao tree uncovered in old plant collections</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/new-relatives-of-the-cacao-tree-uncovered-in-old-plant-collections/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/new-relatives-of-the-cacao-tree-uncovered-in-old-plant-collections/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2024 15:46:25 +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/20/2020/09/09202247/amazon_202252-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285254</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Cacao, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, New Discovery, Rainforests, Species Discovery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have uncovered a surprising find from the Amazon Basin: three new species of plants closely related to Theobroma cacao, the tree that gives us chocolate. This finding, made by examining dried plant specimens in herbaria, reveals that even well-known plant groups can still hold secrets. This research, published in the journal Kew Bulletin, highlights [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have uncovered a surprising find from the Amazon Basin: three new species of plants closely related to Theobroma cacao, the tree that gives us chocolate. This finding, made by examining dried plant specimens in herbaria, reveals that even well-known plant groups can still hold secrets. This research, published in the journal Kew Bulletin, highlights the importance of preserving both natural habitats and scientific collections of plants and animals, especially as more biodiversity hotspots like the Amazon face unprecedented threats from deforestation and climate change. &#8220;That there were recently unknown species closely related to Theobroma cacao, which is of huge importance for the production of chocolate and other products, shows how much more work there is to be done to catalogue the vast amount of unknown biodiversity across our planet,&#8221; James Richardson, a plant evolutionary biologist at University College Cork in Ireland, told Mongabay. A specimen of one of the new species, Theobroma globosum, collected by Doug Daly. Image courtesy of Doug Daly/New York Botanical Garden. The research team, comprising scientists and students from University College Cork; the University of São Paulo (including lead author Matheus Colli-Silva); the New York Botanical Garden; and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., meticulously examined herbarium specimens to identify the new species: Theobroma globosum, T. nervosum, and T. schultesii. These species were originally collected from various locations across the western Amazon Basin, in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Theobroma schultesii, named after botanist Richard E. Schultes, is the tallest of the three new trees, reaching up to 8 meters (26 feet)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/new-relatives-of-the-cacao-tree-uncovered-in-old-plant-collections/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/new-relatives-of-the-cacao-tree-uncovered-in-old-plant-collections/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285254</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>34,000-year-old termite mounds in South Africa are still being used</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/34000-year-old-termite-mounds-in-south-africa-are-still-being-used/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/34000-year-old-termite-mounds-in-south-africa-are-still-being-used/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2024 15:18:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/28104243/termite-mound-5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283844</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Conservation, Environment, Insects, New Discovery, Research, Science, Soil Carbon, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Inhabited termite mounds along the Buffels River in Namaqualand, South Africa, are an astounding 34,000 years old, according to a new study. Termites are a diverse group of insects that play a vital ecological role by breaking down organic matter. They live in complex social groups, and some species create large underground nests. These can [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Inhabited termite mounds along the Buffels River in Namaqualand, South Africa, are an astounding 34,000 years old, according to a new study. Termites are a diverse group of insects that play a vital ecological role by breaking down organic matter. They live in complex social groups, and some species create large underground nests. These can include extensive tunnels and chambers where the termites live and store plant material. Some termite mounds can be very old; in 2018, researchers discovered termite mounds in Brazil that were 4,000 years old. But a recent Science of The Total Environment study has discovered that termite mounds inhabited by southern harvester termites (Microhodotermes viator) in Namaqualand are far, far older. Using radiocarbon dating, the researchers found that the mounds have been used by termites for 34,000 years, since before the last Ice Age. During this period, humans were busy making cave art while a few Neanderthals were still hanging on in southern Europe. The world was still full of megafauna like woolly mammoths, saber-toothed cats and giant sloths. The study also gives an unparalleled view of the past climate cycles in the region, and points to a previously unexplored role of termites in storing carbon, says Michele Francis, a senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University and the study’s lead author. “Our gut told us [the mounds] were special, and when we dug through and saw these old nests and termites, we thought ‘wow,’” Francis says. “It&#8217;s like watching a video of the past.” Purple wildflowers growing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/34000-year-old-termite-mounds-in-south-africa-are-still-being-used/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283844</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Miracle’ in miniature as rare new plant defies deforestation in Ecuador</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/miracle-in-miniature-as-rare-new-plant-defies-deforestation-in-ecuador/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/miracle-in-miniature-as-rare-new-plant-defies-deforestation-in-ecuador/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2024 14:42:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/28142046/Screenshot-2024-06-28-at-7.19.36-AM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283878</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Botany, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, New Discovery, Plants, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Species Discovery, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Very exciting here!&#8221; exclaims botanist John L. Clark in an Instagram video posted during the summer of 2022. He and his team have just spotted a tiny, new-to-science plant species in a rare patch of northwestern Ecuadorian forest. This scene marks the finding of Amalophyllon miraculum, an undescribed plant barely 5 centimeters (2 inches) tall, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Very exciting here!&#8221; exclaims botanist John L. Clark in an Instagram video posted during the summer of 2022. He and his team have just spotted a tiny, new-to-science plant species in a rare patch of northwestern Ecuadorian forest. This scene marks the finding of Amalophyllon miraculum, an undescribed plant barely 5 centimeters (2 inches) tall, found clinging to a large boulder in a forest fragment near the town of Santo Domingo. The find, researchers say, highlights the importance of preserving even small patches of threatened ecosystems. https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/28140411/Amalophyllon_Instagram-1-1.mp4 &nbsp; Clark, a research botanist with Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Florida, and his team were driving outside Santo Domingo on the western slopes of the Andes when they spotted a rare tree and pulled over. The landowner came to see what the fuss was about and allowed them to explore the patch of forest on his land. &#8220;We knew right away it was something unique,&#8221; Clark told Mongabay. Amalophyllon miraculum has distinctive features, including green leaves with purple undersides and minuscule white flowers. The new species just described in the journal PhytoKeys. Amalophyllon miraculum was found on the Western slopes of the Andes. Photo courtesy of John Clark. The new species was found growing on a large bolder in Centinela. Photo courtesy of John Clark. The area where the plant was found, known as Centinela, was once a vast, lush tropical forest, but is now largely cleared for agriculture. Experts estimate that 70-97% of western Ecuador&#8217;s original forests have been destroyed since the mid-20th&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/miracle-in-miniature-as-rare-new-plant-defies-deforestation-in-ecuador/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/miracle-in-miniature-as-rare-new-plant-defies-deforestation-in-ecuador/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/28140411/Amalophyllon_Instagram-1-1.mp4" length="4005215" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283878</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A tale of two frogs: The tough uphill battle for rediscovered species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/a-tale-of-two-frogs-the-tough-uphill-battle-for-rediscovered-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/a-tale-of-two-frogs-the-tough-uphill-battle-for-rediscovered-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jun 2024 14:55:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Katarina Zimmer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/03140608/EIGHT_GuanujoAtJambatu-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282826</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, North America, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, New Discovery, Rainforests, Rediscovered Species, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When lost or assumed-extinct species are rediscovered, they often face a long rocky road to population recovery — especially if they’re an amphibian.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2021, a group of scientists in Ecuador looked in disbelief at a photo of a chocolate-colored frog with an orange belly. The researchers wondered: Could it be Atelopus guanujo — the Guanujo stubfoot toad — a species of harlequin frog that hadn’t been seen since 1988 and thought to be extinct? At first, “you can’t really believe that you’re looking at a lost species!” said conservation biologist Andrea Terán-Valdez, a research team member from the Jambatu Center for Amphibian Research and Conservation in San Rafael. A. guanujo, once abundant across Ecuador’s central Andes Mountains, like many other harlequin frogs, had diminished and vanished as habitat degradation, climate change, and the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus intensified in the region. Fortunately, since 2018, a priest had been showing pictures of several so-called lost species to community members in case anyone chanced across them. And when in 2021, someone in the small town of Simiátug recognized a male frog in a pasture as one the priest had shown, the priest alerted the Jambatu Center’s director Luis A. Coloma. Finding this single male shone a beacon of hope for the species, Terán-Valdez said. But as efforts to find a female bore little fruit, A. guanujo’s future began to look more complicated. When they first looked in the area where the malle was discovered, “we couldn’t find anything else,” Terán-Valdez said. Technician Patricio Vargas, an expert in harlequin frog reproduction at the Jambatu Center, shows a number of lab-born individuals of the rediscovered species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/a-tale-of-two-frogs-the-tough-uphill-battle-for-rediscovered-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-282826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tanzania’s ‘mountain of millipedes’ yields six new species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/tanzanias-mountain-of-millipedes-yields-six-new-species-helping-to-track-rainforest-recovery/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/tanzanias-mountain-of-millipedes-yields-six-new-species-helping-to-track-rainforest-recovery/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2024 21:35:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/26183707/AlainSenghorKNguteProcessingMillipedeSpecimen_HamiduMnendendo-MEDIUM-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280281</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Botany, Conservation, Environment, Forest Recovery, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Insects, Invertebrates, New Discovery, Plants, Research, Species Discovery, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have recently described six new species of millipedes, including one from an entirely new genus, in Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains. This brings the number of new species found in the Udzungwa Mountiains since 2014 to 81 — further confirming the rich biodiversity of these isolated mountain blocks. The newly-described millipedes are helping researchers to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have recently described six new species of millipedes, including one from an entirely new genus, in Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains. This brings the number of new species found in the Udzungwa Mountiains since 2014 to 81 — further confirming the rich biodiversity of these isolated mountain blocks. The newly-described millipedes are helping researchers to assess ecosystem recovery. One of the newly-described millipedes, Udzungwastreptus marianae, grows to around 3 centimeters in length, and lives in forests above 1,000 meters. Henrik Enghoff, a professor of zoological systematics and zoogeography at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, who has described 69 of the 81 new species found in these mountains, says the genus was given the name Udzungwastrepus to celebrate the Udzungwas’ astonishing biological richness. The Udzungwa mountains form part of the Eastern Arc, an inland archipelago of forest-capped peaks that stretches for 900 kilometers (560 miles) across Tanzania. Image by Marc Veraart via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) U. marianae and other millipedes trundle along the forest floor like miniature locomotives, feeding on dead plant matter and organic debris. “Some of the millipedes had unique features, such as colorful legs or shiny exoskeletons,” says Alain Ngute, a tropical forest ecologist who was part of the team working in the Udzungwa Mountains that collected the millipedes. Ngute explains that millipedes help to recycle nutrients and maintain soil fertility, and contribute to soil aeration and water retention — all essential for plant growth and forest regeneration. In areas of degraded forest that have been&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/tanzanias-mountain-of-millipedes-yields-six-new-species-helping-to-track-rainforest-recovery/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280281</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ancient giant river dolphin species found in the Peruvian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/ancient-giant-river-dolphin-species-found-in-the-peruvian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/ancient-giant-river-dolphin-species-found-in-the-peruvian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2024 22:35:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/20222413/Boto-%C2%A9-COULANGES-_-WWF-Sweden-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280128</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Bycatch, Cetaceans, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Dams, Dolphins, Dredging, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fishing, Forests, Freshwater Fish, Green, Mammals, Monitoring, New Discovery, Rainforests, Research, Species Discovery, Technology, Tracking, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A team of paleontologists found a giant fossilized skull along the shore of the Napo River in the Peruvian Amazon. To their surprise, the relic belonged to a newly described species of giant freshwater dolphin. This colossal creature swam in the rivers of the Amazon around 16 million years ago and is considered the largest-known [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A team of paleontologists found a giant fossilized skull along the shore of the Napo River in the Peruvian Amazon. To their surprise, the relic belonged to a newly described species of giant freshwater dolphin. This colossal creature swam in the rivers of the Amazon around 16 million years ago and is considered the largest-known species of river dolphin to have ever lived, measuring 3-3.5 meters (9.8-11.5 feet). Artistic reconstruction of Pebanista yacuruna in the murky waters of the Peruvian proto-Amazonia. Image by Jamie Bran. “As soon as I recognized it, I saw the teeth sockets. I screamed, ‘this is a dolphin.’ We could not believe it,” Aldo Benites-Palomino told The Guardian. Scientists unearthed the fossil during a 2018 expedition led by the University of Zurich (UZH). The new species has been named Pebanista yacuruna, after mythical aquatic beings (Yacuruna) believed by some Indigenous groups to live deep in the river. The team was also surprised to find that the ancient creature was not related to the local, living species of Amazon river pink dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) but rather to South Asian river dolphins (genus Platanista). “We [had] found an animal, a giant, whose closest living relative is 10,000km away in south-east Asia,” Benites-Palomino was quoted as saying. Palaeontologists (from left to right): Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi (Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru), Julia Tejada-Lara (California Institute of Technology, California, USA), John Flynn (American Museum of Natura History, New York, USA) &amp; local guide Michel Valles during the 2018 expedition to the Napo&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/ancient-giant-river-dolphin-species-found-in-the-peruvian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280128</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New ecoregion proposed for Southern Africa’s threatened ‘sky islands’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/new-ecoregion-proposed-for-southern-africas-threatened-sky-islands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/new-ecoregion-proposed-for-southern-africas-threatened-sky-islands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2024 04:09:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/12121217/An-endemic-chameleon_ChristopheBernier.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279738</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Farming, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Herps, Lizards, New Discovery, Protected Areas, Reptiles, Research, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There is an “inland archipelago” of mountains stretching across southern Malawi and northern Mozambique — a chain of hard granite inselbergs lifted high above the surrounding landscape as it weathered down over millions of years. These “sky islands”, as they’re also known, are topped with high-altitude grasslands and evergreen forests and watered by cool moist [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There is an “inland archipelago” of mountains stretching across southern Malawi and northern Mozambique — a chain of hard granite inselbergs lifted high above the surrounding landscape as it weathered down over millions of years. These “sky islands”, as they’re also known, are topped with high-altitude grasslands and evergreen forests and watered by cool moist winds from the Indian Ocean to the east. A group of researchers is now making the case to declare a new &#8220;ecoregion&#8221; that will strengthen protection for these inselbergs, whose forest patches, thought once to have been linked to those in Central Africa, still host unique communities of animals and plants. Researcher Julian Bayliss discovered one new species of snake by stepping on it. Both the snake, a 45-centimeter-long (1.5 foot-long) bush viper, and Bayliss, a biodiversity and protected area management specialist, were unharmed, and the snake was collected and later described as new to science and given the name Mabu bush viper (Atheris mabuensis) in honor of the mountain where he found it. The incident was one of Bayliss’ many highlights over 20 years spent documenting the rich diversity of plants and animals of this region. He and 25 colleagues he has worked alongside are now proposing Mabu and the other 30 or so mountains in this transboundary biological treasure be declared a brand new ecoregion: —the South East Africa Mountain Archipelago (SEAMA) — to support landscape-wide conservation initiatives. “Instead of single-site [conservation] initiatives you can now have ecoregion-wide conservation initiatives targeting many of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/new-ecoregion-proposed-for-southern-africas-threatened-sky-islands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279738</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Giant anaconda species found on Waorani Indigenous land in Ecuador</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/new-giant-anaconda-species-found-on-waorani-indigenous-land-in-ecuador/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/new-giant-anaconda-species-found-on-waorani-indigenous-land-in-ecuador/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2024 20:54:45 +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/20/2024/02/28204334/A-northern-green-anaconda-eating-a-deer.-Credit-Jesus-Rivas-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279264</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Indigenous Reserves, New Discovery, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Species Discovery, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new species of giant anaconda has been found in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador, scientists announced. The snake, named the northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayima), is genetically distinct from its close relative, the green anaconda (E. murinus) and may be the largest snake species in the world. For 20 years, researchers collected blood and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new species of giant anaconda has been found in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador, scientists announced. The snake, named the northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayima), is genetically distinct from its close relative, the green anaconda (E. murinus) and may be the largest snake species in the world. For 20 years, researchers collected blood and tissue samples from green anacondas across South America. But it was samples collected in 2022 from the Bameno region of Baihuaeri Waorani Territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon that would prove most crucial to the discovery. “Conditions were difficult. We paddled up muddy rivers and slogged through swamps,” Bryan Fry, a National Geographic Explorer, biologist at the University of Queensland in Australia and co-author of the new study, said in The Conversation. “The heat was relentless and swarms of insects were omnipresent.” Northern green anaconda breeding. Photo by Jesus Rivas Fry said his team entered Waorani territory on the invitation of, and in collaboration with, Waorani leader Penti Baihua. Identifying the new species would not have been possible without the Indigenous Waorani guides, who are recognized as co-authors of the paper describing the new species in the journal Diversity. “The indigenous hunters took us into the jungle on a 10-day expedition to search for these snakes, which they consider sacred,” Fry said in a statement. Actor Will Smith also joined the team while filming a series for National Geographic. “We paddled canoes down the river system and were lucky enough to find several anacondas lurking in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/new-giant-anaconda-species-found-on-waorani-indigenous-land-in-ecuador/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279264</doi>				</item>
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