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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=rodents&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/rodents/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Rodents</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/rodents/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Beavers brought a volcanic wasteland back to life. Now it&#8217;s under threat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/beavers-brought-a-volcanic-wasteland-back-to-life-now-its-under-threat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/beavers-brought-a-volcanic-wasteland-back-to-life-now-its-under-threat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2026 16:31:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Isabel Gil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/10124432/An-ecosystem-engineering-beaver-hard-at-work-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323058</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Mammals, Rivers, Rodents, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Smith family referred to the back part of their property as “the wasteland.” It opens up to the North Fork Toutle River in the U.S. state of Washington, which was swamped with volcanic sediment and runoff from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The sediment was further backed up when the U.S. Army [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Smith family referred to the back part of their property as “the wasteland.” It opens up to the North Fork Toutle River in the U.S. state of Washington, which was swamped with volcanic sediment and runoff from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The sediment was further backed up when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed a sediment retention structure, or SRS, in 1989, and then raised it again in 2013, less than a mile, or a kilometer and a half, downstream from the Smiths. The goal of the project was to hold back sediment that would otherwise threaten the Columbia River’s shipping routes and southwest Washington communities. But it created a backlog of volcanic material that filled the stretch of the North Fork Toutle River that ran beside the Smiths’ property and to the dam. After the SRS was raised the first time, Mark Smith and his wife, Dawn, watched over the next few years as volcanic material accumulated for miles along the riverside portion of the Eco Park Resort: “So if you can imagine seeing a big gray sediment dune of no life, just ash, sediment from Mount St. Helens, volcanic material,” Smith told Mongabay by phone. Smith runs the nearly 80-acre (32-hectare) resort, a lodging and campground site alongside the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. It offers the closest overnight accommodations to the volcano, so he often hosts groups of restoration ecologists and scientists. Through these researchers, and his family’s involvement in local environmental advocacy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/beavers-brought-a-volcanic-wasteland-back-to-life-now-its-under-threat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/beavers-brought-a-volcanic-wasteland-back-to-life-now-its-under-threat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323058</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rodent-killing baits threaten small wild cats and other wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 14:29:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/18054111/Image_6-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321399</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Australia, Global, North America, Oceania, South Africa, Southern Africa, United States, and Washington]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Carnivores, Cats, Chemicals, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Health, Mammals, Poisoning, Predators, Rodents, Small Cats, Toxicology, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cat kills rodent. Cat eats rodent. Cat is exposed to potentially lethal rodenticides. That scenario is increasingly likely for many small wild cat species across the globe, and yet, only a handful of researchers are investigating this underrecognized conservation issue. Thus far, researchers confirmed that one wild cat population has declined from exposure to these [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cat kills rodent. Cat eats rodent. Cat is exposed to potentially lethal rodenticides. That scenario is increasingly likely for many small wild cat species across the globe, and yet, only a handful of researchers are investigating this underrecognized conservation issue. Thus far, researchers confirmed that one wild cat population has declined from exposure to these poisons. That’s a small bobcat (Lynx rufus) living on Kiawah Island off the South Carolina coast in the U.S., which faces imminent local extinction due to rodenticides. Up until 2019, there was a stable population of these beloved cats, which are considered celebrities there, but that year, three cats died. Among them was a female that bled to death while giving birth. Postmortems revealed concoctions of rodenticides in each of the bobcats’ blood and livers. Over the next four years, there were 12 more victims and the bobcats’ overall survival rate fell to 39%. All tested positive for concentrations of anticoagulant rodenticides; some had been acutely poisoned, said Meghan Keating, a doctoral candidate at South Carolina’s Clemson University. That was a troubling sign for a population that now numbers less than 20 individuals. They are regularly exposed to rodenticides, as rodents (including rats) are a major part of their diet, Keating said. Also troubling is that her team found exposure to not just one, but a cocktail of rodenticides. “We haven&#8217;t had a bobcat test positive for less than two rodenticides,” she told Mongabay. Kiawah Island’s rodenticide-driven bobcat decline may be an outlier, given its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321399</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Already disappearing, Southeast Asia’s striped rabbits now caught in global pet trade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/already-disappearing-southeast-asias-striped-rabbits-now-caught-in-global-pet-trade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/already-disappearing-southeast-asias-striped-rabbits-now-caught-in-global-pet-trade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2025 12:40:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/25083030/Annamite_striped_rabbit_Nesolagus_timminsi-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310103</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Governance, Habitat Loss, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Law, Mammals, Pet Trade, Pets, Poaching, Rodents, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the remote rainforest of Sumatra, Indonesia, and the Annamite Mountains straddling Vietnam and Laos, two species of nocturnal rabbits live elusive lives. These species, both of which have distinctive black stripes coloring their fur, are each known to occur in only a single habitat: the Sumatran striped rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri) is found only in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the remote rainforest of Sumatra, Indonesia, and the Annamite Mountains straddling Vietnam and Laos, two species of nocturnal rabbits live elusive lives. These species, both of which have distinctive black stripes coloring their fur, are each known to occur in only a single habitat: the Sumatran striped rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri) is found only in the western and southern parts of the island, and the Annamite striped rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi) saunters the Annamites. Both species are threatened by disappearing and ever-degraded rainforest habitats, and illegal snaring and poaching, pushing them to the brink of extinction. The IUCN Red List classifies Annamite striped rabbits as endangered and Sumatran striped rabbits as data deficient, meaning scientists do not know how many of them are left in the wild or how well their populations are faring. In a recent paper published in the journal Oryx, conservationists highlight an additional emerging threat to the species: international smuggling for the pet trade. A spate of recent seizures of live striped rabbits in India, which has seen increasing seizures of exotic wildlife species from across the world, highlights the growing trade in the species. All of the seized individuals came from Thailand, which has a thriving wildlife market. Indian authorities identified all seized rabbits as the Sumatran species, but the paper’s authors question that claim. The two species, despite having evolved separately for nearly 8 million years, are so similar that scientists have to peer into their DNA to tell them apart, or use a Vernier&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/already-disappearing-southeast-asias-striped-rabbits-now-caught-in-global-pet-trade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/already-disappearing-southeast-asias-striped-rabbits-now-caught-in-global-pet-trade/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310103</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What Central Park’s Squirrel Census says about conservation tech: Interview with Okala’s Robin Whytock</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/what-central-parks-squirrel-census-says-about-conservation-tech-interview-with-okalas-robin-whytock/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/what-central-parks-squirrel-census-says-about-conservation-tech-interview-with-okalas-robin-whytock/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2025 05:28:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/12050540/%C2%A9Julie-Larsen-9455-Gray-Squirrel-NY-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309353</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[New York, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mammals, Rodents, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[By the time New York Climate Week wrapped up in September this year, Robin Whytock had a point to make. Over the course of the summit, the ecologist was part of many conversations where scientists and researchers spoke to him about the difficulty in conducting biodiversity surveys. So when Whytock headed to Central Park on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[By the time New York Climate Week wrapped up in September this year, Robin Whytock had a point to make. Over the course of the summit, the ecologist was part of many conversations where scientists and researchers spoke to him about the difficulty in conducting biodiversity surveys. So when Whytock headed to Central Park on a Saturday morning, he had a mission: demonstrate how technology could help count squirrels in the sprawling park, and compare his results with that of a manual survey done by 300 people in 2018. Over the course of a few hours, walking around with a cup of coffee, Whytock determined that there were 2,979 squirrels living in the park. The result of the 2018 survey, published eight months after it was carried out: 2,373. “If I can come up with an estimate of the squirrel population in a morning that&#8217;s in the ballpark of what was done by a hugely intensive survey with 300 people, let’s think of what’s possible in terms of the scalability of technology,” Whytock, CEO and founder of AI-powered nature monitoring platform Okala, told Mongabay in a video interview. With his organization, Whytock is now attempting to scale up tech solutions to make biodiversity monitoring easier and more efficient. While sensors are getting cheaper and are more widely available now, Whytock said, the real challenge lies beyond the tech hardware. “People put all of their budget into data collection and buying sensors, but don&#8217;t know how they&#8217;re going to analyze the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/what-central-parks-squirrel-census-says-about-conservation-tech-interview-with-okalas-robin-whytock/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/what-central-parks-squirrel-census-says-about-conservation-tech-interview-with-okalas-robin-whytock/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309353</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Singapore heats up, pests are seeking refuge indoors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-singapore-heats-up-pests-are-seeking-refuge-indoors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-singapore-heats-up-pests-are-seeking-refuge-indoors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2025 07:08:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Robin Hicks]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/09070714/Dorsal_view_of_Papilio_demoleus_Linnaeus_1758_%E2%80%93_Lime_Swallowtail_02-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307253</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Welfare, Cities, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Global Warming, Insects, Pesticides, Rodents, Temperatures, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — Singapore’s reputation as one of the world’s cleanest cities is being put to the test by a surge in rodent and insect infestations that experts say is being fueled by climate change and heat stress. At Changi Airport, famous for its indoor gardens that embody the “City in Nature” image Singapore markets to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — Singapore’s reputation as one of the world’s cleanest cities is being put to the test by a surge in rodent and insect infestations that experts say is being fueled by climate change and heat stress. At Changi Airport, famous for its indoor gardens that embody the “City in Nature” image Singapore markets to the world, lush plant displays have been succumbing to disease and insect attacks. In the last two years, swaths of greenery have had to be replaced. It’s a similar story at the iconic floating Apple Store at Marina Bay Sands, where a circle of Chinese banyan trees lines the interior of its glass dome, encircling the latest iPhones, iPads and MacBooks. Last year, the trees had to be replaced because of insect infestations. “The insects are coming inside — to escape the heat,” says Veera Sekaran, a botanist at the National University of Singapore and founder of Greenology, the firm that manages landscaping at both Changi and Apple’s flagship store. “Heat stress doesn’t just affect people.” Biological markers for heat stress Plants grown in artificial indoor environments are already vulnerable to disease. When insects move in to feed on sap or build nests, they become even more susceptible, Sekaran tells Mongabay. “The best biological markers are the little creatures, because their tolerance to extremes is very low,” he tells Mongabay. “This is especially true in the tropics, where temperatures are usually stable. For a butterfly, a 1-degree [Celsius, or 1.8° Fahrenheit] temperature rise is very&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-singapore-heats-up-pests-are-seeking-refuge-indoors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307253</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New research sheds light on Canada lynx-snowshoe hare cycle, human impacts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2025 14:34:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/14060945/Canadian_lynx_by_Keith_Williams-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298495</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Canada, Colorado, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Habitat, Invasive Species, Land Use Change, Logging, Mammals, Predators, Research, Rodents, Small Cats, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Open any ecology textbook and you’ll find the Canada lynx, the snowshoe hare, and their wildly oscillating population cycles offered as a classic example of the intimate relationship between predator and prey. The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a handsome, medium-sized felid, with a thick coat, tufted ears and large paws — an adaptation to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Open any ecology textbook and you’ll find the Canada lynx, the snowshoe hare, and their wildly oscillating population cycles offered as a classic example of the intimate relationship between predator and prey. The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a handsome, medium-sized felid, with a thick coat, tufted ears and large paws — an adaptation to deep snow. Its distribution and abundance in North America has long been inextricably linked to that of the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), its primary prey. The relationship also fascinates the public, with photos of the cat chasing the hare across snowy landscapes a staple of wildlife photo essays. Snowshoe hare numbers rise and fall dramatically in a regular cycle of eight to 10 years. A year or two later, Canada lynx numbers follow. This enduring relationship is borne out by Indigenous knowledge and centuries of fur trapping data, and is integral to boreal forest science. Now, researchers are questioning if human activities, including forestry practices, climate change and wildfires may be impacting lynx, hares and this natural cycle. With thick coats and broad paws, Canada lynx are supremely adapted to deep snow. Image courtesy of Allyson Menzies. An enduring ecological relationship Stan Boutin, a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, has been watching the lynx-hare drama play out in Kluane, in Canada’s Yukon Territory, for nearly 50 years. Over this time, hare populations have exploded and crashed five times, with lynx populations following behind. “We&#8217;re on a heavy increase phase now. So the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study reveals untold, and unprotected, wildlife wealth of Nepal’s Madhesh province</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-reveals-untold-and-unprotected-wildlife-wealth-of-nepals-madhesh-province/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-reveals-untold-and-unprotected-wildlife-wealth-of-nepals-madhesh-province/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 May 2025 14:11:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/23094449/Wild_boar_at_Parsa_Wildlife_Reserve-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298540</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Birds, Camera Trapping, Cats, Conservation, Ecosystems, Farming, Fish, Freshwater, Mammals, Rodents, and Tigers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The most extensive biodiversity survey yet of Nepal’s little-studied Madhesh province has revealed a wealth of wildlife facing threats from infrastructure development — and with virtually no protected areas to safeguard them. The vertebrate survey was led by Hari Sharma, a zoology professor at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, between 2022 and 2024. Sharma [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The most extensive biodiversity survey yet of Nepal’s little-studied Madhesh province has revealed a wealth of wildlife facing threats from infrastructure development — and with virtually no protected areas to safeguard them. The vertebrate survey was led by Hari Sharma, a zoology professor at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, between 2022 and 2024. Sharma and his team used camera traps, mist nets and direct field observations to identify 163 fish, 24 amphibian, 578 bird and 90 mammal species, including the iconic tigers (Panthera tigris) and the Asian elephants (Eliphas maximus). “Our study is a first in many ways,” Sharma said. “This is the first time that such an extensive study has been carried out in Madhesh.” It’s also the first by Tribhuvan’s zoology department funded by the university’s newly established national priority research program. Madhesh is home to communities dependent on agriculture. Image by Abhaya Raj Joshi. Madhesh province is located in Nepal’s southeastern Indo-Gangetic plains region, on the border with India, and is the agricultural heartland of the country. It accounts for just 6.6% of the country’s total land area, but 17.75% of its arable land. It also has the largest area of irrigated land as a proportion of total area, at 28.68%. For conservationists, however, the province has long been overlooked in terms of biodiversity conservation and research-related activities. This was evident in the findings from Sharma’s team, which recorded the presence of nine fish species never documented before in the province. This includes the culturally significant&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-reveals-untold-and-unprotected-wildlife-wealth-of-nepals-madhesh-province/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298540</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>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291312</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From rat-ridden to reserve, Redonda is an island restoration role model</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/from-rat-ridden-to-reserve-redonda-is-an-island-restoration-role-model/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/from-rat-ridden-to-reserve-redonda-is-an-island-restoration-role-model/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Sep 2023 10:33:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/27101830/redonda-birds-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273675</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antigua, Caribbean, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Habitat, Invasive Species, Islands, Marine, Oceans, Predators, Reforestation, Rodents, Seabirds, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Seven years ago, Redonda, a volcanic island in the Caribbean Sea, resembled the moon&#8217;s surface: a dusty, debris-covered, barren terrain. The island, which is part of Antigua and Barbuda, had once been mined for guano, seabird excrement used for fertilizer. However, mining operations on Redonda ceased around the start of World War I, and when [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Seven years ago, Redonda, a volcanic island in the Caribbean Sea, resembled the moon&#8217;s surface: a dusty, debris-covered, barren terrain. The island, which is part of Antigua and Barbuda, had once been mined for guano, seabird excrement used for fertilizer. However, mining operations on Redonda ceased around the start of World War I, and when the miners were gone, they left behind a legacy of rats and goats. Over the successive decades, the rats and goats stripped Redonda of its vegetation. Rocks and soil slid into the sea, damaging the reefs and seagrass and making it dangerous for anyone to venture onto the island. Then, in 2016, conservationists began removing the rats and goats to restore the island. They first used a rodenticide to eliminate the rats while not harming other biodiversity. Then, they captured and transported the small population of goats by helicopter off the island, most of whom had been starving due to the lack of food on Redonda. EAG staff monitoring Redonda Island in June 2022. Image © Olivier Raynaud. Once these invasive animals were gone, Redonda transformed faster than anyone could have imagined. Native trees and grasses sprouted back. Seabirds like brown boobies (Sula leucogaster) and red-billed tropicbirds (Phaethon aethereus) recolonized the island. According to conservation experts working to restore Redonda, the population of the critically endangered and endemic Redonda ground dragon (Ameiva atrata) has increased thirteenfold since 2017. “The island was in such a dreadful state that everyone thought it was going to need an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/from-rat-ridden-to-reserve-redonda-is-an-island-restoration-role-model/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/from-rat-ridden-to-reserve-redonda-is-an-island-restoration-role-model/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273675</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NASA satellites reveal restoration power of beavers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/nasa-satellites-reveal-restoration-power-of-beavers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/nasa-satellites-reveal-restoration-power-of-beavers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2023 16:45:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/11145921/Beaver_Yearling_Grooming_Alhambra_Creek_2008-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273142</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, Pacific Northwest, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Freshwater, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Landscape Restoration, Mammals, Mitigation, Restoration, Rewilding, Rodents, Solutions, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If humans went extinct tomorrow, who would rule the world? Beavers. Well, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. These tree-felling, water-slowing, wetland-creating rodent engineers have a massive impact wherever they live. Indeed, when it comes to their power over water flow, Cory Mosby says, “I’m not aware of another species that does this (save humans) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If humans went extinct tomorrow, who would rule the world? Beavers. Well, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. These tree-felling, water-slowing, wetland-creating rodent engineers have a massive impact wherever they live. Indeed, when it comes to their power over water flow, Cory Mosby says, “I’m not aware of another species that does this (save humans) on the scale that a beaver population can.” A biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Wildlife, Mosby knows the power of these mammals intimately. And now NASA — yes, the same agency that sends people into space and searches for killer comets — is helping researchers get a more detailed look at how beavers can transform our world for the better, including combating climate change. Beaver dam on an Idaho creek. Image courtesy of Boise State University. “NASA is interested in how satellite Earth observations can be used for natural resource management,” says Cynthia Schmidt, the associate program manager for the NASA Ecological Conservation Program. In this particular case, Schmidt says, NASA is keen to use satellite research to help scientists “better understand the impacts of rewilding for ecosystem restoration.” Working with Jodi Brandt, a professor of human-environment systems at Boise State University, they are tracking just how quickly and verdantly reintroduced beavers change Idaho’s landscape. Already, the program has been able to produce images taken from space of how areas with reintroduced beavers are greener — i.e. have more vegetation — than areas without them. Water lords North America once housed more beavers than&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/nasa-satellites-reveal-restoration-power-of-beavers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/nasa-satellites-reveal-restoration-power-of-beavers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273142</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>S. Africa to purge bird-eating mice from key albatross breeding island</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/s-africa-to-purge-bird-eating-mice-from-key-albatross-breeding-island/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/s-africa-to-purge-bird-eating-mice-from-key-albatross-breeding-island/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jul 2023 17:01:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leonie Joubert]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/05110359/Wandering-Albatross-on-Marion-Island-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270562</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat, Invasive Species, Islands, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Predators, Research, Rodents, Seabirds, Solutions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CAPE TOWN — Evidence of mice attacking albatross chicks on Marion Island, midway between South Africa and Antarctica, makes for grim viewing. One video, captured at a colony of endangered gray-headed albatrosses (Thalassarche chrysostoma) in 2015, shows the first mice emerging shortly after sunset. Chicks stand defensively in their nests through the night, but once [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CAPE TOWN — Evidence of mice attacking albatross chicks on Marion Island, midway between South Africa and Antarctica, makes for grim viewing. One video, captured at a colony of endangered gray-headed albatrosses (Thalassarche chrysostoma) in 2015, shows the first mice emerging shortly after sunset. Chicks stand defensively in their nests through the night, but once fatigue sets in, they settle down. The mice quickly scurry onto their heads, and tear in. One chick gives in, tucking its bill under a wing and enduring the hours-long assault, before eventually shaking off its attacker. The video, filmed remotely by Ben Dilley, at the time a doctoral researcher at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town, confirmed an alarming pattern. When mice come upon younger, down-covered chicks, they first attack the birds’ wings or rumps. With older fledglings, whose feathers have toughened, the mice find easier pickings on the chicks’ heads, where the soft crown feathers still give quick access to the skin. Over the course of hours, a single mouse can gnaw the chick’s entire crown away, down to the bone. Two fledgling grey-headed albatrosses (Thalassarche chrysostoma) with mouse-inflicted wounds on their heads. Image by Ben Dilley. By dawn, Dilley’s video showed the wounded chicks alive but weakened with pain and exhaustion. Scalped, wings drooping, the chicks were less likely to clap their beaks defensively at an approaching threat. They were easy prey to predators such as petrels, and likely to contract potentially lethal secondary infections.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/s-africa-to-purge-bird-eating-mice-from-key-albatross-breeding-island/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270562</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ukrainian biologists fight to protect conservation legacy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/amid-war-ukrainian-biologists-fight-to-protect-conservation-legacy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/amid-war-ukrainian-biologists-fight-to-protect-conservation-legacy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Feb 2023 18:37:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/21232206/Hamsters-in-Kyiv-Zoo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265823</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Eastern Europe, Europe, European Union, Russia, and Ukraine]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Research, Rodents, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Before Ukrainian biologist Mikhail Rusin can grab his shovel and venture afield, he first needs to ask locals if there are land mines nearby in one of the few areas he can access. Others are still occupied by Russian troops, where the endangered sandy blind mole-rats he studies live. But that’s only one of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Before Ukrainian biologist Mikhail Rusin can grab his shovel and venture afield, he first needs to ask locals if there are land mines nearby in one of the few areas he can access. Others are still occupied by Russian troops, where the endangered sandy blind mole-rats he studies live. But that’s only one of the stresses of carrying out wildlife research in a war zone. In November 2022, Rusin, a mammologist with Kyiv Zoo who has studied at-risk species like the mole-rat (Spalax arenarius) and other rodents for more than 20 years, resumed his field research in newly reclaimed Ukrainian territory. Soon afterward, he encountered a chilling display of contempt: a tree with at least five hanged hamsters, one of which was a gray dwarf hamster (Cricetulus migratorius) – a species assessed as vulnerable by the country’s list of threatened species. It&#8217;s hard to say whether it was the work of retreating Russian soldiers or Ukrainian farmers fed up with rodents consuming their crops. Both Russians and Ukrainians, Rusin says, “are always in constant stress” on the frontlines. “They could do something that in normal life they would never do.” Mikhail Rusin crouches by a sandy blind mole-rat mound near Kardashynka, Ukraine, prior to Russia&#8217;s invasion. An endangered species endemic to southern Ukraine, the rodent lives almost entirely underground, making it vulnerable to Russian-built military trenches. Photo courtesy of V. Busel. The mole-rats are having a hard time coping, too. The rodents, which are roughly the size of guinea pigs, have extremely limited&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/amid-war-ukrainian-biologists-fight-to-protect-conservation-legacy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265823</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Grumpiest cat’ leaves its calling card on the world’s highest mountain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/grumpiest-cat-leaves-its-calling-card-on-the-worlds-highest-mountain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/grumpiest-cat-leaves-its-calling-card-on-the-worlds-highest-mountain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jan 2023 10:04:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/17114440/12-Pallass-cat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265116</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Cats, Caves, Climate Change, DNA, Grasslands, Mountains, New Discovery, Rodents, Scavengers, Small Cats, Snow Leopards, Species Discovery, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — If you were a grumpy cat, you’d probably want to avoid company. And if you were the world’s grumpiest, as David Attenborough once described the elusive manul, what better place for solitude than the slopes of the world’s tallest mountain? This appears, at least, to be the newest-known haunt of the manul, or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — If you were a grumpy cat, you’d probably want to avoid company. And if you were the world’s grumpiest, as David Attenborough once described the elusive manul, what better place for solitude than the slopes of the world’s tallest mountain? This appears, at least, to be the newest-known haunt of the manul, or Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul), a cold-adapted species about the size of a domestic cat. Its range is already known to include other parts of the Himalayas, stretching east to Siberia and west to the Iranian Plateau. Habitat where Pallas&#8217;s cat scat was collected. Image courtesy of  Anton Seimon/National Geographic A recent study published in the journal CATnews that analyzed scat samples in the region around Sagarmatha (also known as Mount Everest) found evidence of at least two of the cats living in the region, going undetected for many years by the tourists and mountain climbers who pass through. “When we found a scat, we didn’t know which animal it belonged to. We just collected the samples and brought it to our lab,” Tracie Seimon, who led the study under the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition, told Mongabay. Collecting scat wasn’t the primary objective of Seimon’s team, who worked in the Khumbu Valley on the southern flank of the mountain for more than four weeks. They were actually collecting water samples to analyze environmental DNA, or eDNA — trace amounts of genetic material shed by living organisms — that would provide clues&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/grumpiest-cat-leaves-its-calling-card-on-the-worlds-highest-mountain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265116</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Invasive rats topple ecological domino that affects reef fish behavior</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/invasive-rats-topple-ecological-domino-that-affects-reef-fish-behavior/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/invasive-rats-topple-ecological-domino-that-affects-reef-fish-behavior/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2023 00:14:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/19131245/reef-fish-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264728</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indian Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Invasive Species, Islands, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, Rodents, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Damselfish can be fastidious farmers. They prune and cultivate small patches of algae, often no more than half a square meter (5 square feet) in area, ensuring they have a steady food source. One species in the Caribbean even herds tiny mysid shrimp around their underwater “gardens,” which the shrimp dose with their fecal fertilizer. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Damselfish can be fastidious farmers. They prune and cultivate small patches of algae, often no more than half a square meter (5 square feet) in area, ensuring they have a steady food source. One species in the Caribbean even herds tiny mysid shrimp around their underwater “gardens,” which the shrimp dose with their fecal fertilizer. It might not come as a surprise, then, that damselfish would relentlessly chase any intruders from their territory looking to snatch a bit of their algae. Behavioral ecologist Rachel Gunn and her colleagues witnessed that sort of “hyper-aggressive” behavior in jewel damselfish (Plectroglyphidodon lacrymatus) living on reefs in the Chagos Archipelago of the Indian Ocean — but only off the coast of islands that didn’t have invasive rats. Around islands infested with rats, aggression toward interlopers waned, and the damselfish had larger territories. In a study published Jan. 5 in the journal Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution, the team demonstrated for the first time that the presence of invasive rats on islands affects the behavior of fish living on nearby reefs. In her earlier research, Gunn had been studying how other reef fish respond to the availability of their food. Butterflyfish, for example, spend more time foraging for the live coral they like to eat when it’s not particularly abundant, rather than expend a lot of energy defending a territory large enough to supply them with sufficient food. A jewel damselfish (Plectroglyphidodon lacrymatus) among the coral reef of a rat-free island. Image by Rachel Gunn. At&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/invasive-rats-topple-ecological-domino-that-affects-reef-fish-behavior/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/invasive-rats-topple-ecological-domino-that-affects-reef-fish-behavior/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264728</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rat killers in paradise: An eradication program remakes a tropical atoll</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/rat-killers-in-paradise-an-eradication-program-remakes-a-tropical-atoll/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/rat-killers-in-paradise-an-eradication-program-remakes-a-tropical-atoll/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Nov 2022 06:00:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Helvarg]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/09134530/Jayna-DeVore-and-Simon-Ducatez-approaching-Hiraanae-motu-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=262418</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[French Polynesia, Oceania, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat, Invasive Species, Islands, Predators, Research, Rodents, Solutions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The black-and-white motion-triggered video looks like an outtake from a cheap horror movie: A handful of rats circle a smooth, platter-sized mound of sand. Suddenly a sea turtle hatchling appears, digging out of the nest. A rat grabs it by its head and quickly drags it off-camera. A second hatchling is snatched by another rat, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The black-and-white motion-triggered video looks like an outtake from a cheap horror movie: A handful of rats circle a smooth, platter-sized mound of sand. Suddenly a sea turtle hatchling appears, digging out of the nest. A rat grabs it by its head and quickly drags it off-camera. A second hatchling is snatched by another rat, flipped on its back and dragged off. The video ends. But there’s more. In 2007 the first yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) were identified on one of the same islands, or motus, of Tetiaroa Atoll in French Polynesia. There are some 200 species of ants in Polynesia, all nonnative, but the yellow crazies are the worst. “They spray formic acid that can blind or else deform the wings and legs of seabirds,” says Jayna DeVore, one of the scientists working out of the Tetiaroa Society’s eco-station on the main resort island of Onetahi. “I’ve seen chicks dancing in their nests to get the ants off them.” DeVore extends a collapsible pole with a GoPro camera atop it to peek into a nest high up a mikimiki tree (Coprosma linariifolia). She’s looking to see if there’s a chick in it. The red-footed booby (Sula sula) parent flaps its wings and pokes at the camera with its long blue beak. Dozens more boobies and frigatebirds (genus Fregata) circle in the cerulean blue sky and occupy nearby trees and bushes in the seabird colony we’ve waded and hiked to on Hiraanae motu. Her seabird ecology study, along with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/rat-killers-in-paradise-an-eradication-program-remakes-a-tropical-atoll/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/rat-killers-in-paradise-an-eradication-program-remakes-a-tropical-atoll/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-262418</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study assesses wildlife exposure to rat poison on oil palm plantations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/study-assesses-wildlife-exposure-to-rat-poison-on-oil-palm-plantations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/study-assesses-wildlife-exposure-to-rat-poison-on-oil-palm-plantations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jul 2022 15:31:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/13150820/Leopard-cat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258190</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Palm Oil, Pesticides, Plantations, Poisoning, Pollution, Predators, Rodents, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rodents gnawing on oil palm crops can be a costly business. One study estimated that they can reduce yields by as much as 10%. Among the means used to tackle rat infestations: deploying barn owls and domestic cats, or putting out bait laced with rat poison. A recent review, published in the journal Ecotoxicology, has assessed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rodents gnawing on oil palm crops can be a costly business. One study estimated that they can reduce yields by as much as 10%. Among the means used to tackle rat infestations: deploying barn owls and domestic cats, or putting out bait laced with rat poison. A recent review, published in the journal Ecotoxicology, has assessed the latter method’s risk to the wildlife that are known to hunt on oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia. “There are numerous reports of non-target environment poisoning from other regions of the world, namely Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand, however there is a glaringly low number of such reports or research in Asian, especially Southeast Asian, countries,” study co-author Hasber Salim, of the Barn Owl and Rodent Research Group (BORG) at Universiti Sains Malaysia, wrote in an email. “As anticoagulant rodenticides are used by most plantations, there is a high exposure risk to non-target wildlife and [this is] why a baseline study is needed.” Rodents can cause significant damage to palm crops, reducing yields. Efforts to eradicate and manage populations often include anticoagulant rodenticides in the form of bait. Photo by Juan Carlos Huayllapuma/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Costly pest, risky response Two main pathways of exposure exist. Wildlife may consume the bait laid out for rats or they may consume rats that have eaten this bait. Rats can accumulate the chemicals in their bodies for several days before it proves fatal. Rafael Mateo, a wildlife toxicologist at the Institute for Game and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/study-assesses-wildlife-exposure-to-rat-poison-on-oil-palm-plantations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/study-assesses-wildlife-exposure-to-rat-poison-on-oil-palm-plantations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258190</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Seeing the maligned urban rat in a new light: Q&#038;A with Michael Parsons</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/seeing-the-maligned-urban-rat-in-a-new-light-qa-with-michael-parsons/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/seeing-the-maligned-urban-rat-in-a-new-light-qa-with-michael-parsons/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2021 10:19:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jansen Baier]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/09094818/My-lab-picture-credited-to-charlie-Hamilton-James.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246935</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Fellows, Human-wildlife Conflict, Interviews, Mammals, Rodents, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Wild rats are as different to laboratory rats, as probably a wolf is to a Chihuahua. That’s not an embellished analogy … The biggest misconception, I think, is that we know something about these animals.” As a veteran rat scholar and researcher, Michael Parsons says we know shockingly little about urban rats. Despite around 24,000 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Wild rats are as different to laboratory rats, as probably a wolf is to a Chihuahua. That’s not an embellished analogy … The biggest misconception, I think, is that we know something about these animals.” As a veteran rat scholar and researcher, Michael Parsons says we know shockingly little about urban rats. Despite around 24,000 published papers a year on lab rats, the urban rats many city dwellers regularly encounter are dramatically understudied. Parsons is an urban ecologist, has nearly 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 12 research grants, and is currently working on a book on his experience with rats. He is currently a visiting research scholar at Fordham University. Parsons says he’s excited by the urban rat’s research potential. With new studies alluding to rats’ emotional and intellectual complexity, Parsons makes the case that urban rats need to be studied in depth — not only for the sake of lab research, but to foster a healthier and cleaner urban relationship between humans and urban rats, one where the latter manage themselves better due to less human waste and food reaching them. Parsons spoke with Mongabay’s Jansen Baier by phone to discuss all things urban rats, including the many misconceptions about the lab and urban varieties, their negative portrayal in society, and potential solutions to the problems they pose. The following interview has been edited for length, clarity and style. Michael Parsons at his lab. Image by Charlie Hamilton James. Mongabay: Before talking about rats, could you just tell me who&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/seeing-the-maligned-urban-rat-in-a-new-light-qa-with-michael-parsons/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/seeing-the-maligned-urban-rat-in-a-new-light-qa-with-michael-parsons/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246935</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New study shows where to focus efforts to save long-neglected small mammals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/small-mammals-desperately-need-attention-now-we-know-where-to-focus/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/small-mammals-desperately-need-attention-now-we-know-where-to-focus/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Aug 2021 17:47:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/23163208/solenodon-rodents-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246263</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Mammals, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Rodents, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Think of a mammal that’s at risk of extinction. What comes to mind? A charismatic tiger, perhaps? Or a grand herd of majestic elephants? What about the Mount Lefo brush-furred mouse (Lophuromys eisentrauti), a rodent found only on Mount Lefo in Cameroon? Or the Sclater&#8217;s shrew (Sorex sclateri) that lives in Mexico? Both the mouse [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Think of a mammal that’s at risk of extinction. What comes to mind? A charismatic tiger, perhaps? Or a grand herd of majestic elephants? What about the Mount Lefo brush-furred mouse (Lophuromys eisentrauti), a rodent found only on Mount Lefo in Cameroon? Or the Sclater&#8217;s shrew (Sorex sclateri) that lives in Mexico? Both the mouse and the shrew are critically endangered species. But if you haven’t heard of them, you’re not alone. Many small-bodied mammals, those typically weighing less than a kilogram (2.2 pounds), still remain poorly studied and understood, even by researchers and conservationists. This is despite the fact that two small-mammal groups — Rodentia (animals like rats, mice, beavers, porcupines, chipmunks, marmots, voles and muskrats) and Eulipotyphla (shrews, moles, hedgehogs and solenodons, among others) — together contain nearly half of all known mammal species. Now, a new study has published an updated picture of both super-diverse mammalian groups. By mapping the distributions of rodents and eulipotyphlans, using the latest information from the IUCN Red List, researchers have identified hotspots where all of the globally threatened species from the two groups occur. Eulipotyphla. Clockwise from upper left: a solenodon, hedgehog, mole and shrew. Rodentia and Eulipotyphla together contain nearly half of all known mammal species. Image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). They’ve also identified regions that are home to rodents and eulipotyphlans whose conservation status is currently classified as data deficient, or DD. These are species for which we don’t have sufficient knowledge about population, distribution, or threats&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/small-mammals-desperately-need-attention-now-we-know-where-to-focus/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/small-mammals-desperately-need-attention-now-we-know-where-to-focus/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246263</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Black Death aside, we know surprisingly little about rodents and disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/black-death-aside-we-know-surprisingly-little-about-rodents-and-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/black-death-aside-we-know-surprisingly-little-about-rodents-and-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Aug 2021 20:28:18 +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/20/2021/08/09180632/rat1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=245708</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Cities, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deforestation, Diseases, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Health, Mammals, Planetary Health, Public Health, Rodents, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rodents live among us, but we rarely see them. Nondescript, tiny, and often nocturnal, they slip through the cracks of society, largely unnoticed. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the connection between animals and human diseases into the limelight, and because they are the most plentiful and pervasive mammal group on Earth, we may have [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rodents live among us, but we rarely see them. Nondescript, tiny, and often nocturnal, they slip through the cracks of society, largely unnoticed. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the connection between animals and human diseases into the limelight, and because they are the most plentiful and pervasive mammal group on Earth, we may have to reckon with rodents. An incredible 40% of all mammal species on the planet are rodents, with approximately 2,600 known species — more than just the familiar rats and mice. An estimated 10.7% of those species are known hosts of zoonotic diseases (those that can pass from animals to people) such as cat scratch disease, bartonella, hantavirus, Lyme disease, leishmaniasis, leptospirosis, and the bubonic plague. A recent laboratory study found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was able to infect mouse cells and replicate. In fact, viral richness in rodents is much higher than in their oft-feared cousin, the bat. Most people are familiar with mice and rats, but there are more than 2,600 species of small rodents. Image of a wood mouse by Hanna Knutsson via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). At the same time, rodents are immensely important to the entire web of life. They disperse seeds, fertilize the soil, and are critical components in the food chain for predatory birds, reptiles and many other mammals. “They&#8217;re a key part of the functioning of all global terrestrial ecosystems,” Thomas Lacher, professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology at Texas A&amp;M&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/black-death-aside-we-know-surprisingly-little-about-rodents-and-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/black-death-aside-we-know-surprisingly-little-about-rodents-and-disease/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-245708</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hantavirus study shows restoring forests can reduce zoonotic disease risk</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/hantavirus-study-shows-restoring-forests-can-reduce-zoonotic-disease-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/hantavirus-study-shows-restoring-forests-can-reduce-zoonotic-disease-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2021 09:45:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Nordseth]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/05/11142929/forest-mouse-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242502</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Diseases, Ecosystems, Environment, Fellows, Forests, Mammals, Research, Restoration, Rodents, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The COVID-19 pandemic brought zoonotic diseases into the global spotlight in a way nothing has done for a century, even though zoonoses — diseases passed between humans and animals — have always posed a public health threat. The coronavirus pandemic, however, has forced us to confront the connection between human and environmental health and the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The COVID-19 pandemic brought zoonotic diseases into the global spotlight in a way nothing has done for a century, even though zoonoses — diseases passed between humans and animals — have always posed a public health threat. The coronavirus pandemic, however, has forced us to confront the connection between human and environmental health and the painful consequences of that relationship breaking down. Research has already linked deforestation to increased zoonotic disease risk, finding that as habitat is lost, ecological dynamics are no longer as adept at regulating disease. But can restoring forests perhaps protect us from zoonotic diseases? Possibly, says a recent study led by Paula Ribeiro Prist, a researcher at EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit based in New York. Simulations run by Prist and colleagues found that restoring Brazil’s Atlantic Forest could lower the prevalence of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome, a highly lethal zoonotic disease, by reducing populations of the small mammals that harbor the disease. The team concluded that, if forests are just restored to levels mandated by Brazilian law, hantavirus transmission could be reduced by as much as 45% in Brazil’s most populous region. To see how forest restoration might impact zoonotic disease prevalence, Prist and colleagues took advantage of rodent abundance data from forested and deforested sites across São Paulo state. The team used these numbers to estimate hantavirus prevalence under a business-as-usual scenario versus restoration levels mandated by the Brazilian Native Vegetation Protection Law. “This was the first study that addressed [zoonotic diseases and restoration] in tropical&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/hantavirus-study-shows-restoring-forests-can-reduce-zoonotic-disease-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/hantavirus-study-shows-restoring-forests-can-reduce-zoonotic-disease-risk/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242502</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On a Philippine volcano, an eruption-proof mouse rules the roost</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/on-a-philippine-volcano-an-eruption-proof-mouse-rules-the-roost/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/on-a-philippine-volcano-an-eruption-proof-mouse-rules-the-roost/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Feb 2021 12:27:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leilani Chavez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Leilani]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/02/22145513/Ap-sacobianus-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=239838</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Disasters, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mountains, Rediscovered Species, Rodents, Species, Species Discovery, and Volcanoes]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MANILA — The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 spewed enough volcanic ash into the atmosphere to cool the world. In the immediate vicinity of the volcano, a slurry of ash, mud and volcanic debris blanketed 18,000 hectares (44,500 acres) of forest land, triggering fears among biologists that it could have doomed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MANILA — The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 spewed enough volcanic ash into the atmosphere to cool the world. In the immediate vicinity of the volcano, a slurry of ash, mud and volcanic debris blanketed 18,000 hectares (44,500 acres) of forest land, triggering fears among biologists that it could have doomed species left undiscovered and unstudied by science. To hear this article read aloud, listen here: With limited surveys conducted on the active volcano before the eruption, researchers were particularly interested in how it impacted species, particularly Apomys sacobianus, a mouse species first observed by scientists in 1956 but not seen by them since. When biologists returned to Mount Pinatubo two decades after the eruption, in 2011 and 2012, what they found surprised them: the landscape had begun to regenerate, and the tiny mouse was the dominant rodent species on the slopes. The Apomys sacobianus in Mount Pinatubo, Philippines. Image courtesy of the Field Museum of Natural History Eric Rickart, curator of vertebrate zoology at the National History Museum of Utah and lead author of the new paper detailing the findings, tells Mongabay that the rodent’s presence contradicts conventional wisdom about the fragility of endemic species after a cataclysmic event. “For many years, we&#8217;ve been interested in how Philippine mammals respond to habitat disturbance — both natural and that caused by humans,” Rickart says. “Most conservation biologists think that endemic species, especially those found on tropical oceanic islands, are the most highly threatened species and are least&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/on-a-philippine-volcano-an-eruption-proof-mouse-rules-the-roost/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/on-a-philippine-volcano-an-eruption-proof-mouse-rules-the-roost/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-239838</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The queen sets the tone: Deciphering the dialects of naked mole-rats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/the-queen-sets-the-tone-deciphering-the-dialects-of-naked-mole-rats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/the-queen-sets-the-tone-deciphering-the-dialects-of-naked-mole-rats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Feb 2021 08:57:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Romi Castagnino]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Romi Castagnino]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/02/04233204/shutterstock_1675993621-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=239323</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Communication, Conservation, Language, Research, Rodents, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), a hairless rodent that lives in the arid areas of eastern Africa, is one of the strangest-looking creatures in the animal kingdom. But what it lacks in looks, it makes up for in extraordinary biology. A team of researchers has discovered that these wrinkled rodents may have more in common [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), a hairless rodent that lives in the arid areas of eastern Africa, is one of the strangest-looking creatures in the animal kingdom. But what it lacks in looks, it makes up for in extraordinary biology. A team of researchers has discovered that these wrinkled rodents may have more in common with humans than previously thought: we both can speak in dialects. Naked mole-rats are burrowing rodents. They use their large protruding teeth to dig subterranean tunnels. Their lips close behind the teeth preventing soil from entering their mouths while digging. Image used under license from Shutterstock.com Chatty bunch As they are almost blind, an evolutionary adaptation to their exclusively underground lifestyle, naked mole-rats cannot rely on visual cues. Instead, these extremely social animals communicate by squeaking, grunting and chirping — and they do it a lot. In a new study published in Science, scientists give insight into the naked mole-rat’s secret language. A team led by Gary Lewin, a professor in neurobiology and head of the Molecular Physiology of Somatic Sensation Lab at Germany&#8217;s Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), found that just like humans, naked mole-rats use vocal mimicry from a young age to learn how to communicate. This enables them to develop geographic dialects and accents. Vocal imitation is something only a handful of other animals can do, among them whales, elephants, primates, parrots and songbirds. The majority of animals are not vocal learners; instead, most species produce&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/the-queen-sets-the-tone-deciphering-the-dialects-of-naked-mole-rats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/the-queen-sets-the-tone-deciphering-the-dialects-of-naked-mole-rats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-239323</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Those kicks were fast as lightning: Kangaroo rats evade deadly snake strikes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/those-kicks-were-fast-as-lightning-kangaroo-rats-evade-deadly-snake-strikes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/those-kicks-were-fast-as-lightning-kangaroo-rats-evade-deadly-snake-strikes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2019 12:38:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/04/04123607/snake-attack-photo_ninjarat-dog-org-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=217185</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arizona, Southwest United States, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, cameras, Deserts, Film, Predators, Research, Rodents, Technology, Tracking, Videos, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A student-led research team from three California universities has shown that desert kangaroo rats frequently avoid predation by rattlesnakes through a combination of speedy reaction times, powerful near-vertical leaps, and mid-air, ninja-style kicks. The research team tracked free-ranging rattlesnakes using radio telemetry and set up high-speed video cameras to capture potential predatory interactions when tagged [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A student-led research team from three California universities has shown that desert kangaroo rats frequently avoid predation by rattlesnakes through a combination of speedy reaction times, powerful near-vertical leaps, and mid-air, ninja-style kicks. A desert kangaroo rat in the desert of the southwestern United States leaps over a sidewinder rattlesnake to avoid predation. Image courtesy of the research website, ninjarat.org. The research team tracked free-ranging rattlesnakes using radio telemetry and set up high-speed video cameras to capture potential predatory interactions when tagged snakes took on their ambush postures near active kangaroo rat burrows or foraging kangaroo rats. The researchers recently published their findings on the factors affecting snake predation success and potential advantages of bipedalism among small mammals. Deadly predators and athletic prey Both sidewinder rattlesnakes (Crotalus cerastes) and desert kangaroo rats (Dipodomys deserti) are nocturnal residents of the deserts of the southwestern United States and Mexico. Rattlesnakes are ambush predators, meaning they sit still for long periods waiting until prey unaware of their presence get close enough. They eat various small mammals, including kangaroo rats, and attack by suddenly and rapidly launching themselves toward their prey and killing it with a venomous bite. Avoiding the stealthy strikes of a hunting rattlesnake at night, therefore, requires exceptional speed and athletic ability. Kangaroo rats have both: they and other bipedal small mammals frequently evade ambush predation by snakes. The seed-eating desert kangaroo rat in a quiet daytime moment. Its exceptional hearing, long tail, and long, powerful legs all contribute to its ability&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/those-kicks-were-fast-as-lightning-kangaroo-rats-evade-deadly-snake-strikes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/those-kicks-were-fast-as-lightning-kangaroo-rats-evade-deadly-snake-strikes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-217185</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the Solomon Islands, making amends in the name of conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/making-amends-in-the-name-of-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/making-amends-in-the-name-of-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Feb 2019 09:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/02/18073317/In-partnership-with-the-Kwaio-people-Lavery-conducts-research-that-bolsters-Malaitan-conservation-efforts-2-c-Ben-Speare-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=215590</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Oceania, Pacific Ocean, and Solomon Islands]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Bats, Biodiversity, Biogeography, Birds, Cats, Colonization, Conservation, Corruption, Culture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecology, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human Rights, Hunting, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Islands, Land Rights, Logging, Mammals, Medicinal Plants, Mining, Mountains, Natural Resources, Plants, Poverty, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Resource Conflict, Resource Curse, Rodents, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Species Discovery, Timber, Traditional People, Trees, Tropical Forests, Videos, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Wearing nothing more than leaves hanging from belts of woven vegetation, the three scientists stand in the rain with little idea of what to expect. They’ve lived and worked with the Kwaio people for years, and two of them speak the language. But they’re now on new ground in just about every sense. At an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Wearing nothing more than leaves hanging from belts of woven vegetation, the three scientists stand in the rain with little idea of what to expect. They’ve lived and worked with the Kwaio people for years, and two of them speak the language. But they’re now on new ground in just about every sense. At an ancestral shrine deep in the forested mountains of the Solomon Islands, with no vestiges of themselves as individuals, the scientists are simply representatives of their tribe — in this case, Australia. The trio has set out on a path toward mending a long-simmering rift with the Kwaio, represented here by their Kwaio friends, who have invited them to this sacred space. Mammalogist Tyrone Lavery remembers being “very nervous.” “There was very much a different atmosphere to the place and it felt very tense,” Lavery said. He wasn’t altogether sure that everything would work out for the best. For more than 90 years, the Kwaio people living on the island of Malaita have been haunted by the memory of a handful of violent months in 1927. That’s when a group of Kwaio led by a warrior named Basiana, chafing at having to pay a new tax levied by the colonial government, led an attack that killed two British officers and 13 local enforcers sent to collect. In reprisal, Australia sent a naval ship to the island, and British administrators dispatched a militia of the Kwaios’ local rivals on Malaita to hunt down Basiana. An expeditionary force&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/making-amends-in-the-name-of-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/making-amends-in-the-name-of-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-215590</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plant communities roar back after rat removal from Pacific islands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/plant-communities-roar-back-after-rat-removal-from-pacific-islands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/plant-communities-roar-back-after-rat-removal-from-pacific-islands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jul 2018 11:33:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/07/19034558/red-footed-boobies-flying-over-palmyra-atoll_6074936066_o-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=208518</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Islands and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Invasive Species, Islands, Mammals, Oceans, Plants, Predators, Rainforests, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Rodents, Saving Rainforests, Seabirds, Seed Dispersal, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[CBO2017]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Plant numbers have surged in a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean following the eradication of invasive rats that gobbled up seeds and gnawed away at vegetation, a new study has found. The findings demonstrate the resilience of natural ecosystems, Alex Wegmann, an ecologist with The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii and director of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Plant numbers have surged in a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean following the eradication of invasive rats that gobbled up seeds and gnawed away at vegetation, a new study has found. The findings demonstrate the resilience of natural ecosystems, Alex Wegmann, an ecologist with The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii and director of the group’s Palmyra program, said in a statement. “In an age of well-founded concern about the environment,” Wegmann said, “Palmyra Atoll’s response to the eradication of introduced rats reminds us of the resilience of intact ecosystems and gives us hope for a better tomorrow.” A new tree sprouts in the Palmyra Atoll. Image by Abram Fleishman/Island Conservation. Scientists know that merely removing rats from the islands they’ve infiltrated, mostly as stowaways from visiting ships in the past few centuries, can have a remarkable impact on seabird numbers since they target their eggs and chicks. And recent research has shown that coral reefs thrive next to rat-free islands because the seabirds play a critical role in depositing nutrients in their guano that leach into the surrounding waters. Until now, however, the impact of rat eradication on the recovery of plant communities hasn’t been as clear. Since the early 2000s, researchers have been keeping an eye on the trees living on Palmyra Atoll, a group of 25 small islands around 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Then, in 2011, the California-based NGO Island Conservation teamed up with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/plant-communities-roar-back-after-rat-removal-from-pacific-islands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/plant-communities-roar-back-after-rat-removal-from-pacific-islands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-208518</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coral reefs thrive next to rat-free islands, new study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/coral-reefs-thrive-next-to-rat-free-islands-new-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/coral-reefs-thrive-next-to-rat-free-islands-new-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jul 2018 13:25:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/07/11113229/pic8-Nick-Graham-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=208200</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indian Ocean and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Defaunation, Ecology, Environment, Extinction, Fish, Fishing, Invasive Species, Mammals, Oceans, Research, Rodents, Seabirds, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[CBO2017]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TOULOUSE, France &#8212; Rats exact a punishing toll on island seabird colonies, decimating their numbers as they eat the birds’ eggs and young. Research has shown that fewer birds, and fewer bird droppings, mean that ecosystems on these islands don’t have the same diversity and quantity of life. But until now, our understanding of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TOULOUSE, France &#8212; Rats exact a punishing toll on island seabird colonies, decimating their numbers as they eat the birds’ eggs and young. Research has shown that fewer birds, and fewer bird droppings, mean that ecosystems on these islands don’t have the same diversity and quantity of life. But until now, our understanding of the impact that rats have has stopped at the island’s edge. “What people haven’t really captured is how that then affects adjacent marine ecosystems,” said Nick Graham, a marine ecologist at Lancaster University in the U.K. Graham is the lead author of a study published July 11 in the journal Nature, in which he and his colleagues demonstrate that coral reefs next to rat-infested islands aren’t as healthy as reefs near rat-free islands. He presented the team’s research on July 10 at the European Open Science Forum 2018 (ESOF18) in Toulouse, France. “These rats are having a knock-on effect to the adjacent coral reef system,” Graham said, “and that’s never been shown before.” An immature red footed booby in the Chagos Archipelago. Image by Dan Bayley. Invasive species such as rats, goats and pigs that humans have dropped off — intentionally or inadvertently — on islands around the world are linked to 86 percent of the extinctions of island animals, according to a 2016 study. At the same time, the very existence of the coral reefs that ring many of these islands in the tropics is under threat from warming and increasingly acidic seas. Though climate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/coral-reefs-thrive-next-to-rat-free-islands-new-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/coral-reefs-thrive-next-to-rat-free-islands-new-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-208200</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How an island of mice is changing what we know about evolution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/how-an-island-of-mice-is-changing-what-we-know-about-evolution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/how-an-island-of-mice-is-changing-what-we-know-about-evolution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 May 2018 20:23:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/05/17200500/Mt-Halcon-forest-mouse-by-L.-R.-Heaney-The-Field-Museum-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=206808</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forest Reporting Network]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Environment, Evolution, Extinction, Islands, Mammals, Mountains, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Rodents, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[G-1710-55576]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Evolution takes time and space. Enough time needs to pass for genetic differences to crop up in a population of animals and make them distinct from their forebears. And enough space is needed to stop interbreeding between populations from ironing out these differences. But just how much space is needed for species to diversify? Scientists [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Evolution takes time and space. Enough time needs to pass for genetic differences to crop up in a population of animals and make them distinct from their forebears. And enough space is needed to stop interbreeding between populations from ironing out these differences. But just how much space is needed for species to diversify? Scientists have been puzzling over this question for decades, and it’s one that has taken on increasing importance as human-driven habitat loss constricts the ranges of the world’s wildlife. In their quest to solve this mystery, a team of researchers from institutions in the U.S. have been scouting the globe for the smallest island that supports multiple lineages of mammals evolved from a common ancestor. And in a new study published recently in the Journal of Biogeography, they describe such a place – an island in the Philippines with a unique array of worm-eating mice. From one species to four At around 10,000 square kilometers (4,000 square miles) Mindoro is about the size of Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. and represents a big step down from the previous record-holder, Luzon. Also in the Philippines, Luzon is the country’s largest island and about 10 times the size of Mindoro, which lies just across the Verde Island Passage strait. Montane rainforest on Mindoro. Photo by L.R. Heaney / The Field Museum When the researchers surveyed the mammals of Mindoro’s forests, they discovered four distinct species of earthworm mice. Nested within the genus Apomys, earthworm mice are found&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/how-an-island-of-mice-is-changing-what-we-know-about-evolution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/how-an-island-of-mice-is-changing-what-we-know-about-evolution/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-206808</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Camera trap videos capture biodiversity of conservation area in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/camera-trap-videos-capture-biodiversity-of-conservation-area-in-mexicos-yucatan-peninsula/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/camera-trap-videos-capture-biodiversity-of-conservation-area-in-mexicos-yucatan-peninsula/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2018 12:45:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/04/23124006/Screen-Shot-2018-04-23-at-12.34.56-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=206036</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Camera Trapping, Cats, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Mammals, Rodents, Sustainable Forest Management, Videos, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ejidos are part of a land tenure system in Mexico by which land is communally managed by local villages. Many ejidos, such as Ejido Caoba in the state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatán Peninsula, run sustainable forestry enterprises on their land, harvesting and selling wood for the benefit of the entire community and replanting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ejidos are part of a land tenure system in Mexico by which land is communally managed by local villages. Many ejidos, such as Ejido Caoba in the state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatán Peninsula, run sustainable forestry enterprises on their land, harvesting and selling wood for the benefit of the entire community and replanting the trees they cut down in order to ensure the health of the ecosystem as a whole. One way to measure how well an ecosystem has been maintained is through the levels of biodiversity the land is capable of sustaining — and by that measure, Ejido Caoba&#8217;s efforts to preserve the ecosystem appear to be quite successful, as the camera trap videos below suggest. There are 311 ejidatarios in Ejido Caoba who collectively manage the nearly 68,000 hectares of land owned by the community. Ejido Caoba has been certified for sustainable forest management by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for the past 25 years. On a recent visit to the ejido, Pedro Pablo Chay Cocom, the current president of Ejido Caoba, told Mongabay that the community makes more money selling its wood on the international market than it does domestically, which is why FSC certification is so important. “Without certification,” Chocom said, “selling wood would be very hard.” In 2016, for instance, the ejido sold $173,000-worth of certified mahogany to U.S.-based Gibson Guitars. The following year, the community planted 26,000 new trees of a variety of species, including 19,300 mahogany trees, 2,600 ciricote, and 3,900&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/camera-trap-videos-capture-biodiversity-of-conservation-area-in-mexicos-yucatan-peninsula/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-206036</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Efforts to save island wildlife from extinction get a boost from new database</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/efforts-to-save-island-wildlife-from-extinction-get-a-boost-from-new-database/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/efforts-to-save-island-wildlife-from-extinction-get-a-boost-from-new-database/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jan 2018 19:04:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/01/10181819/pexels-photo-95399-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=202811</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Islands, Mammals, Research, Rodents, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Though the approximately 465,000 islands on planet Earth represent just over five percent of total global land area, they are disproportionately rich in threatened biodiversity — and researchers have now identified which are the most important to protect from invasive species, a major driver of species extinction on islands. A 2015 study found that 61 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Though the approximately 465,000 islands on planet Earth represent just over five percent of total global land area, they are disproportionately rich in threatened biodiversity — and researchers have now identified which are the most important to protect from invasive species, a major driver of species extinction on islands. A 2015 study found that 61 percent of all species extinctions recorded since 1500 and 37 percent of all species currently listed as critically endangered are confined to islands. Invasive species are one of the largest threats to terrestrial species that call islands home, in addition to habitat loss, but the study’s authors note that “Proven management actions can reduce these threats, benefiting both local peoples and species diversity on islands.” In order to aid in the planning of the types of conservation efforts that can help prevent further island-based extinctions, a team of researchers led by Dena Spatz, a conservation biologist at Santa Cruz, California-based NGO Island Conservation, identified which islands around the world harbor both threatened terrestrial vertebrates and invasive species like rodents or cats (Spatz began the project while a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz). The researchers have compiled their findings in an interactive distribution map called the Threatened Island Biodiversity Database. &#8220;The opportunities to prevent extinctions are now laid out right in front of us,” Spatz said in a statement. “This knowledge base of threatened island biodiversity can really empower more efficient and better-informed conservation planning efforts, which is exactly what our planet needs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/efforts-to-save-island-wildlife-from-extinction-get-a-boost-from-new-database/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-202811</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Top 20 new species of 2017</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/photos-top-20-new-species-of-2017/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/photos-top-20-new-species-of-2017/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Dec 2017 11:43:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/11/02115724/Batang-Toru-Maxime-Aliaga-581-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=202498</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Apes, Beetles, Biodiversity, Environment, Fish, Frogs, Great Apes, Herps, Lemurs, Lizards, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Orangutans, Primates, Reptiles, Rodents, Species Discovery, Spiders, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There’s still so much we don’t know about life on planet Earth that scientists discover new species with whom we share this planet nearly every day. For instance, this year scientists described a new species of orangutan in Sumatra — just the eighth great ape species known to exist on planet Earth. Sometimes we discover [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There’s still so much we don’t know about life on planet Earth that scientists discover new species with whom we share this planet nearly every day. For instance, this year scientists described a new species of orangutan in Sumatra — just the eighth great ape species known to exist on planet Earth. Sometimes we discover new species that have been hiding right under our noses — like the six new species of silky anteater that were mistakenly lumped in with the one known, widespread species in Central and South America. Then there are new species that surprise even the scientists who discovered them — such as the new butterflyfish recently discovered in the Philippine’s Verde Island Passage, even though butterflyfish are a relatively well-studied group. Some new species are named after famous people or characters in an attempt to draw more attention and awareness to the natural world — including new spiders named for David Bowie, Barack and Michelle Obama, and Bernie Sanders, as well as a new bat sometimes referred to as “the Yoda bat” because of its resemblance to the diminutive Jedi Master from the Star Wars films. A lot of newly discovered species can certainly use the attention, given that they are already facing severe threats from human activities, even though we just learned of their existence — as is the case with the a new catfish found in South America and the newly discovered orangutan species. Here, in no particular order, we present the top 20&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/photos-top-20-new-species-of-2017/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-202498</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Giant tree-dwelling rat discovered in the Solomon Islands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/giant-tree-dwelling-rat-discovered-in-the-solomon-islands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/giant-tree-dwelling-rat-discovered-in-the-solomon-islands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Sep 2017 06:37:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/09/27040712/New-rat.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=199463</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Ocean and Solomon Islands]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Islands, Logging, Mammals, Rainforests, Research, Rodents, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For a long time, people living on the Vangunu Island in the Solomons spoke about the &#8220;vika&#8221;, a giant rat on the island that lives in trees and cracks open coconuts with its teeth. But the rat remained elusive to the scientific community. Now, researchers have finally discovered an individual of the mysterious rat, making [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For a long time, people living on the Vangunu Island in the Solomons spoke about the &#8220;vika&#8221;, a giant rat on the island that lives in trees and cracks open coconuts with its teeth. But the rat remained elusive to the scientific community. Now, researchers have finally discovered an individual of the mysterious rat, making it the first new rodent species to be described from the Solomon Islands in 80 years, according to a new study published in the Journal of Mammology. Tyrone Lavery, a mammologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, first heard of &#8220;vika&#8221; on his first trip to the Solomon Islands in 2010. He spent the next few years looking for the rat on the Vangunu Island, but failed to spot the animal. All he could find were the regular black rats. Finally, in 2015, an 18-inch, orange-brown rat fell out of a tree that had been cut down by a logging company. &#8220;As soon as I examined the specimen, I knew it was something different,&#8221; Lavery said in a statement. &#8220;There are only eight known species of native rat from the Solomon Islands, and looking at the features on its skull, I could rule out a bunch of species right away.&#8221; A skull of new species Uromys vika. Photo courtesy of Tyrone Lavery, The Field Museum. By comparing the rat from the felled tree to similar species in museum collections, and checking the new rat&#8217;s DNA against the DNA of its relatives, Lavery&#8217;s team confirmed that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/giant-tree-dwelling-rat-discovered-in-the-solomon-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-199463</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From tarsiers to cloud rats, scientist strives to save Philippine species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/08/from-tarsiers-to-cloud-rats-scientist-strives-to-save-philippine-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/08/from-tarsiers-to-cloud-rats-scientist-strives-to-save-philippine-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Aug 2017 12:28:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jacqueline Hernandez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/08/15112657/Foto4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=198346</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Philippines]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Interviews, Primates, Research, and Rodents]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2012, Dr. Milada Rehakova’s research brought her back to Dinagat Island, Philippines. It was her second expedition to the island in pursuit of insights on the tarsier, but she had another rare animal in her mind too: the bushy-tailed cloud rat (Crateromys australis). The species had been presumed extinct – it hadn’t been seen in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2012, Dr. Milada Rehakova’s research brought her back to Dinagat Island, Philippines. It was her second expedition to the island in pursuit of insights on the tarsier, but she had another rare animal in her mind too: the bushy-tailed cloud rat (Crateromys australis). The species had been presumed extinct – it hadn’t been seen in decades – but Rehakova thought it might still be around. She laughs as she tells the story of how her husband, skeptical that she’d find an extinct species, was actually the first to spot the bushy-tailed cloud rat’s brown body with its unmistakable black and white tail. Before Rehakova’s rediscovery, the rodent had only revealed itself to science once before, in 1975. In the meantime, mining efforts have chipped away at the bushy-tailed cloud rat’s forest habitat. “It’s a shame that there are no protected areas on Dinagat Island on the national level,” Rehakova said. “Mining companies have divided all the land and it’s just a question of time when they will start.” Czech zoologist Milada Rehakova (second from the right) studies tarsier social behavior and vocalizations in the field. Photo by Vaclav Rehak The 2012 encounter captured photo and video evidence of the critically-endangered animal’s existence, giving conservationists a new reason to push for more forest protections. The effort brings together Philippine and Czech teams, including a team member from the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and Rehakova is hopeful that key areas will remain intact both for forest-dependent species and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/08/from-tarsiers-to-cloud-rats-scientist-strives-to-save-philippine-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-198346</doi>				</item>
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