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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/snares/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 08:29:29 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Snares</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/snares/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Crackdown on snares in Sumatra as elephant, sun bear and tiger rescued</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/crackdown-on-snares-in-sumatra-as-elephant-sun-bear-and-tiger-rescued/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/crackdown-on-snares-in-sumatra-as-elephant-sun-bear-and-tiger-rescued/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2026 13:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jaka Hendra BaittriVinolia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/25125105/Sumatran-tiger-snare-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321801</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Poaching, Snares, Wildlife, Wildlife Rescues, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PADANG, Indonesia — Authorities in a stronghold for Sumatran tigers have warned the public against using snares to trap wild boar following the dramatic rescue of an 11-month old female tiger cub last month. While it is not illegal to set a snare for the purpose of trapping wild boar or animals that are not [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PADANG, Indonesia — Authorities in a stronghold for Sumatran tigers have warned the public against using snares to trap wild boar following the dramatic rescue of an 11-month old female tiger cub last month. While it is not illegal to set a snare for the purpose of trapping wild boar or animals that are not protected by law, the West Sumatra government said any protected species caught in a snare will now lead to criminal liability. The new clarification was set out in a letter issued in late May by the West Sumatra province office of Indonesia’s conservation agency, the BKSDA. It cites a 2024 amendment to Indonesia’s 1990 conservation law governing the protection of wildlife. “The situation has become dangerous because people are setting these snares,” explained Rizaldi, a conservation scientist at Andalas University in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province. The evacuation of a Sumatran tiger trapped in a wild boar snare in Pasaman. Image courtesy of BKSDA West Sumatra. Renewed attention on snares The recent crackdown on snares was sparked after a Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) was discovered in a wild boar snare in Padang Mantiggi Utara village located in West Sumatra’s Pasaman district. Officials from the West Sumatra BKSDA, the conservation agency, arrived at the scene at around 13:30 on May 21, where they found a young female tiger in distress and pain. A snare was wrapped around the animal’s neck, trunk and right foreleg, in about five loops. “She struggled for a while&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/crackdown-on-snares-in-sumatra-as-elephant-sun-bear-and-tiger-rescued/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/crackdown-on-snares-in-sumatra-as-elephant-sun-bear-and-tiger-rescued/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321801</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Thailand, old camera-trap photos shed new light on Asian tapirs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-old-camera-trap-photos-shed-new-light-on-asian-tapirs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-old-camera-trap-photos-shed-new-light-on-asian-tapirs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Feb 2026 23:06:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/23130817/a.-%C2%A9Royle-Safaris-Malayan-tapir-1-e1771852183468-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314643</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Research, Snares, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers in Thailand have used archived camera-trapping data to identify a stronghold for Asian tapirs in the Khlong Saeng–Khao Sok Forest Complex, a lush network of protected areas in the country’s southern Surat Thani province. The new study, led by Wyatt Petersen, a biologist at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Thailand, and published [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Researchers in Thailand have used archived camera-trapping data to identify a stronghold for Asian tapirs in the Khlong Saeng–Khao Sok Forest Complex, a lush network of protected areas in the country’s southern Surat Thani province. The new study, led by Wyatt Petersen, a biologist at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Thailand, and published in the journal Mammalian Biology, shows how camera-trap “bycatch” data — images of nontarget species — can be used to monitor tapirs (Tapirus indicus). To date, tapirs have mostly been surveyed using visual transects, in which researchers walk along a predefined path through the forest and count any tapirs they can spot along the way. The Asian tapir, sometimes also called the Malayan tapir, is the largest of the world’s four tapir species and the only one found outside Latin America. It ranges from southern Myanmar and Thailand to Sumatra and is considered endangered, with fewer than 2,500 mature individuals remaining, according to the latest assessment conducted in 2014 for the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Boldly black-and-white patterned adult tapirs can weigh up to 350 kilograms (772 pounds), whereas the more discrete brown coats of calves are flecked with white, perfectly camouflaging them against the dappled light of the forest floor. As nocturnal understory specialists, they have stubbornly thick hides to protect them against scrubby thorns, and a protruding prehensile snout for gathering foliage and fruits that doubles as a “snorkel” while rummaging underwater for aquatic plants. Although Asian tapirs are preyed on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-old-camera-trap-photos-shed-new-light-on-asian-tapirs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-old-camera-trap-photos-shed-new-light-on-asian-tapirs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314643</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Small cat conservationists hail Uganda’s new Echuya Forest National Park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/small-cat-conservationists-hail-ugandas-new-echuya-forest-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/small-cat-conservationists-hail-ugandas-new-echuya-forest-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2025 14:56:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/11132905/Image_1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311098</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bushmeat, Cats, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, forest degradation, Forests, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, National Parks, Small Cats, Snares, Tourism, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In what’s being called immensely good news for the African golden cat, often described as the continent’s most elusive and threatened wildcat species, Uganda’s Echuya Forest will become a national park. “Having Echuya elevated to that level of protection is massive,” says Badru Mugerwa, founder and director of Embaka, an NGO, and of the African [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In what’s being called immensely good news for the African golden cat, often described as the continent’s most elusive and threatened wildcat species, Uganda’s Echuya Forest will become a national park. “Having Echuya elevated to that level of protection is massive,” says Badru Mugerwa, founder and director of Embaka, an NGO, and of the African Golden Cat Conservation Alliance (AGCCA). “The African golden cat is one of those species that are being pushed to extinction in the forest.” Besides the African golden cat (Caracal aurata), it’s also a win for a multitude of other species, he adds, as Echuya is home to more than 100 bird species, many of them endemic to the region, as well as to baboons (Papio anubis), blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) and other mammal species. Echuya Forest hosts a wide array of biodiversity, including more than 100 bird species. Among them is the regal sunbird (Cinnyris regius). Image by Giles Bassière via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Echuya Forest covers around 3,400 hectares (8,400 acres) in Uganda’s extreme southwest near the Rwandan border, and is split between the districts of Kisoro and Rubanda. It’s currently a protected reserve. The declaration elevating it to a national park is part of a wider announcement by Uganda&#8217;s government as it creates six new national parks, bringing the country’s total to 16. The news of this added level of protection is welcome, says Emmanuel Akampurira, deputy director of the Embaka Echuya Project, who notes that numerous threats have persisted in Echuya&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/small-cat-conservationists-hail-ugandas-new-echuya-forest-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/small-cat-conservationists-hail-ugandas-new-echuya-forest-national-park/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311098</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Asian golden cat range expands, but declines continue amid rising threats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/asian-golden-cat-range-expands-but-declines-continue-amid-rising-threats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/asian-golden-cat-range-expands-but-declines-continue-amid-rising-threats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Nov 2025 15:45:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/07124346/Image_2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309032</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Camera Trapping, Cats, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Fragmentation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Predators, Research, Small Cats, Snares, Species, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A single camera trap image of an Asian golden cat, photographed in Nepal&#8217;s Jajarkot district, has expanded this felid species’ range westward by nearly 400 kilometers (248 miles). Out of nearly 60,000 camera trap images snapped in 2024 in the district, this elusive cat showed itself just once. It’s likely, says Badri Baral, program coordinator [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A single camera trap image of an Asian golden cat, photographed in Nepal&#8217;s Jajarkot district, has expanded this felid species’ range westward by nearly 400 kilometers (248 miles). Out of nearly 60,000 camera trap images snapped in 2024 in the district, this elusive cat showed itself just once. It’s likely, says Badri Baral, program coordinator with Nature Conservation Initiative Nepal, that more Asian golden cats could be found between Jajarkot and the Gaurishankar Conservation Area, an area until recently believed to mark the felid’s farthest westward distribution. This positive news about the elusive wildcat, which dwells in forests across South and Southeast Asia, comes at nearly the same time as bad news, as its IUCN status went from near threatened to vulnerable. A single camera trap image of an Asian golden cat from Jajarkot, has extended its range by nearly 400 kilometers westward in Nepal. Image courtesy of Badri Baral/NCI-Nepal. Researchers say the Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) was likely once abundant across its range. That’s not the case today, with numbers thinned and populations lost due to an excess of threats including deforestation, snaring, and retaliatory killings. Those risks, along with more accurate occurrence and population data featured in IUCN’s 2023 species assessment, are behind the revised threat status. The shift to vulnerable “represents a genuine concern,” says Thomas Gray, Tiger Landscape and Recovery Lead with the WWF Tigers Alive Initiative, who was part of the assessment team. The new IUCN listing also highlights the challenges of assigning a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/asian-golden-cat-range-expands-but-declines-continue-amid-rising-threats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/asian-golden-cat-range-expands-but-declines-continue-amid-rising-threats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309032</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To track a unicorn: Laos team goes all out to find the last saolas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/to-track-a-unicorn-laos-team-goes-all-out-to-find-the-last-saolas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/to-track-a-unicorn-laos-team-goes-all-out-to-find-the-last-saolas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2025 04:49:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/02105213/8-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306770</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Laos, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cattle, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Critically Endangered Species, DNA, Environment, Forests, Green, Innovation, Mammals, Snares, Tracking, Ungulates, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Few people have the opportunity to meet near-mythical beasts in real life — but Rob Timmins has. He’s one of the few biologists ever to spend time with a saola, a wild ox once known as the “Asian unicorn,” and arguably the most threatened large mammal on the planet. First described by science in 1993, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Few people have the opportunity to meet near-mythical beasts in real life — but Rob Timmins has. He’s one of the few biologists ever to spend time with a saola, a wild ox once known as the “Asian unicorn,” and arguably the most threatened large mammal on the planet. First described by science in 1993, the species, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, has only ever been recorded alive a handful of times: five camera-trap detections, and a few individuals briefly held in captivity. Timmins met one of those captive animals, a female named Martha, in 1996 after she was captured by villagers in Laos and taken to a nearby facility. She survived there only a few weeks before passing away. Martha was “truly beautiful amidst all the sadness of her captivity,” says Timmins, who is now chief technical adviser of the Saola Foundation for Annamite Mountain Conservation. “In behavior, [she] was very unlike any other ungulate I’d ever seen. Very docile, seemingly very calm.” The saola’s peaceful nature has in fact earned it a nickname in a Lao dialect: Saat Supphap, which means “polite animal.” The species is considered so evolutionarily distinct it’s placed in a genus of its own. Sporting a hefty pair of dark horns, a sloping back and bold flashes of white across the face, saolas resemble antelopes, yet their closest living relatives are wild cattle like gaur and buffalo. Yet the world is on the cusp of losing this gentle, one-of-a-kind mammal forever, before scientists have even begun to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/to-track-a-unicorn-laos-team-goes-all-out-to-find-the-last-saolas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/to-track-a-unicorn-laos-team-goes-all-out-to-find-the-last-saolas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306770</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Snared, skinned, sold: Brutal March for Indonesia’s Sumatran tigers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/snared-skinned-sold-brutal-march-for-indonesias-sumatran-tigers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/snared-skinned-sold-brutal-march-for-indonesias-sumatran-tigers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2025 05:02:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Junaidi HanafiahRahmi CarolinaVinolia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/09085354/animals_209019-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297230</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Poaching, Predators, Snares, Tigers, Top Predators, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ROKAN HULU/PADANG/CENTRAL ACEH, Indonesia — In separate incidents in early March, officials across three Indonesian provinces rescued a critically endangered Sumatran tiger with its leg amputated, arrested six people for butchering another of the big cats, and detained five suspects in rural Aceh allegedly selling tiger body parts. The spate of arrests began on March [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ROKAN HULU/PADANG/CENTRAL ACEH, Indonesia — In separate incidents in early March, officials across three Indonesian provinces rescued a critically endangered Sumatran tiger with its leg amputated, arrested six people for butchering another of the big cats, and detained five suspects in rural Aceh allegedly selling tiger body parts. The spate of arrests began on March 2 in the highlands of Sumatra’s Riau province, after conservation agency officials received a report of a Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) caught in a snare trap in Tibawan village, Rokan Hulu district. The officials, based in Pekanbaru, the provincial capital, asked local leaders, including the police, to secure the location as they made the eight-hour drive to Tibawan. When they arrived the next morning, however, they found an empty snare and signs someone had used a machete to beat a path through the forest. Blood spots and car tire tracks were nearby. The subsequent investigation focused on a group of men believed to have approached the location at around 10 p.m., about one hour before the officials departed from Pekanbaru. Inquiries led investigators to a black minivan seen at a car wash in Ujung Batu, the largest town in Rokan Hulu district. Police pulled it over and detained its three occupants. “The back of that car was full of animal feces,” one officer told Mongabay Indonesia. Officers arrested two more people, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the trap, who had allegedly skinned and chopped up the tiger, storing the body parts in plastic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/snared-skinned-sold-brutal-march-for-indonesias-sumatran-tigers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297230</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mammals, birds in Vietnam’s rare coastal forests revealed by camera traps</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mammals-birds-in-vietnams-rare-coastal-forests-revealed-by-camera-traps/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mammals-birds-in-vietnams-rare-coastal-forests-revealed-by-camera-traps/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2025 01:30:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/12141207/Banner-2-scaled-e1739369808158-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294282</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Dry Forests, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Hunting, Mammals, Poaching, Rainforests, Research, Snares, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, scientists rediscovered a species of miniature deer long lost to science within the dry coastal forests of southern Vietnam’s Nui Chua National Park. A victim of snaring, the silver-backed chevrotain (Tragulus versicolor) hadn’t been seen by scientists in the wild for nearly 30 years. Its unearthing via a camera-trapping study sparked a conservation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, scientists rediscovered a species of miniature deer long lost to science within the dry coastal forests of southern Vietnam’s Nui Chua National Park. A victim of snaring, the silver-backed chevrotain (Tragulus versicolor) hadn’t been seen by scientists in the wild for nearly 30 years. Its unearthing via a camera-trapping study sparked a conservation focus on the reserve, contributing to its 2022 designation as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. Although the resighting was a feat in itself, the scientists were captivated by the diversity of other species turning up in their images. “This inspired us to look beyond the species level and investigate the ground-dwelling mammal and bird community in Nui Chua,” An Nguyen, a member of the deer survey team and Ph.D. student at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany, said in a statement. Nguyen and his colleagues from Germany, the U.S. and Vietnam embarked on a four-year study of the reserve, setting up 145 camera traps between 2018 and 2022 across a range of habitats ascending from Nui Chua’s coastal dry forests, through semi-dry forests and into its highest-elevation broadleaf wet rainforests. Nui Chua National Park spans roughly 22,500 hectares (55,600 acres) of coastal mountains in southeast Vietnam’s Ninh Thuan province, within a region known as the Greater Annamites due to its proximity to the Annamite Mountain Range that extends like a spine from southern Vietnam northward along its western border with Cambodia and Laos. Due to the reserve’s unique climatic conditions, it’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mammals-birds-in-vietnams-rare-coastal-forests-revealed-by-camera-traps/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mammals-birds-in-vietnams-rare-coastal-forests-revealed-by-camera-traps/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294282</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Logging persists in Cameroon’s wildlife-rich Ebo Forest despite warnings</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/logging-persists-in-cameroons-wildlife-rich-ebo-forest-despite-warnings/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/logging-persists-in-cameroons-wildlife-rich-ebo-forest-despite-warnings/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2024 20:59:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Amindeh Blaise Atabong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/22113437/IMG_20210109_155127_430-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290493</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and East Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Green, Logging, Megafauna, Poaching, Primates, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Roads, Snares, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the heart of southwestern Cameroon, Ebo Forest is under immense threat from logging. This pristine and vibrant biodiverse ecosystem spanning 200,000 hectares (490,000 acres) is considered a critically important habitat for many rare animals, including Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglydtes ellioti) known to use tools for cracking coula nuts and fishing for termites. Ebo also [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the heart of southwestern Cameroon, Ebo Forest is under immense threat from logging. This pristine and vibrant biodiverse ecosystem spanning 200,000 hectares (490,000 acres) is considered a critically important habitat for many rare animals, including Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglydtes ellioti) known to use tools for cracking coula nuts and fishing for termites. Ebo also harbors numerous critically endangered wildlife, including western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and Cross River gorillas (Gorilla gorilla diehli), forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis), and one of two of the country’s only Preuss’s red colobus (Piliocolobus preussi) populations. Historically, Ebo’s habitat has been left relatively unscathed, with less than 0.3% primary forest cleared between 2002 and 2021, according to satellite data from monitoring platform Global Forest Watch (GFW). Meanwhile, the surrounding Littoral region of Cameroon lost nearly 8% during that same time. But in 2022, despite repeated warnings from conservationists and local communities that it would have dire impacts on area wildlife, a group of local politicians and businesspeople began construction of a road that pierced Ebo’s southern portion. Another road transected northeastern Ebo in 2023, according to data from GFW. A vehicle makes its way through dirt road leading into the Ebo forest. Image courtesy of Ekonde Daniel. Forest loss has only intensified further in 2024, with satellite data and imagery showing the proliferation of what appear to be logging roads and associated clearing in southeastern Ebo. There had been plans to conserve Ebo Forest’s unique biodiversity by designating the ecosystem a national park. But the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/logging-persists-in-cameroons-wildlife-rich-ebo-forest-despite-warnings/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/logging-persists-in-cameroons-wildlife-rich-ebo-forest-despite-warnings/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290493</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sumatran tiger confirmed killed by snare in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/sumatran-tiger-confirmed-killed-by-snare-in-indonesias-west-sumatra-province/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/sumatran-tiger-confirmed-killed-by-snare-in-indonesias-west-sumatra-province/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2024 17:46:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jaka Hendra BaittriVinolia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/12114221/animals_02483-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285986</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Poaching, Snares, Tigers, Top Predators, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PADANG, Indonesia — One of an estimated 400 of the world’s remaining Sumatran tigers was found dead on July 25 after becoming trapped in a wire snare set in Agam district, West Sumatra province. “Based on the results of the postmortem, this female Sumatran tiger died due to a ruptured trachea, fracture of the neck [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PADANG, Indonesia — One of an estimated 400 of the world’s remaining Sumatran tigers was found dead on July 25 after becoming trapped in a wire snare set in Agam district, West Sumatra province. “Based on the results of the postmortem, this female Sumatran tiger died due to a ruptured trachea, fracture of the neck bone and respiratory failure because of being entangled around the throat,” Lugi Hartanto, the head of the West Sumatra conservation agency, told Mongabay Indonesia. The tiger was a female, no more than 3 years old, and had not given birth to cubs, Lugi said. Residents in Agam had complained of a tiger prowling farming areas over a period of around four months prior to the discovery. Efforts by conservation fieldworkers to capture the tiger using a cage trap, with the intention of moving the animal to a new location, had not been successful. “The plan since March was to evacuate the tiger, but we couldn’t catch it,” Lugi said. Lugi said farmers commonly used small snares to trap wild boar, which are known to eat food crops across much of rural Indonesia. Conservation agency staff had visited many villages in West Sumatra to request that farmers not set snares because of the danger to Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae). Lugi said agency staff would continue to work with residents living near tiger habitats, but emphasized the challenges involved because of the risks to life and livelihood that farmers faced on the ground. A tigress that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/sumatran-tiger-confirmed-killed-by-snare-in-indonesias-west-sumatra-province/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/sumatran-tiger-confirmed-killed-by-snare-in-indonesias-west-sumatra-province/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285986</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On the trail of Borneo’s bay cat, one of the world’s most mysterious felines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/on-the-trail-of-borneos-bay-cat-one-of-the-worlds-most-mysterious-felines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/on-the-trail-of-borneos-bay-cat-one-of-the-worlds-most-mysterious-felines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2024 15:20:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/15134501/9a-Kuching-007-Borneos-bay-cat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280951</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Rainforests, Research, Small Cats, Snares, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Few researchers have ever seen this elusive wildcat and it is known primarily from a few camera trap photos. Which raises the question: How do you conserve an endangered species about which we know almost nothing?]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There is a photograph of the bay cat I can’t get out of my head. In it, the cat looks intensely right at the viewer, its sun-yellow eyes sporting two dark lines running up from them as if someone had applied makeup. In the mix of light and shade, its coat passes from brown to orange to blood red. Its long tail is tipped in white. The animal is in a dingy cage, littered with dead rats, but that doesn’t detract a bit from the cat’s majesty and strangeness. Jim Sanderson, the world’s leading expert on small wildcats, took the photo in 2008. The cat, which had previously been kept in a cage in a gas station, was being held in a private menagerie in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Sanderson, who founded the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation, says the cat’s owner “knew what he had.” And what he had was arguably the world’s most elusive wildcat — and among the most endangered. A few days later, the cat was gone — likely sold for a pile of cash into the illegal wildlife trade. Its end was probably ignominious. The Borneo bay cat (Catopuma badia) is so rare, elusive and strange that after its discovery, it vanished from science for more than 60 years. Today, the bay cat remains stubbornly difficult to even find, no less research or conserve. It makes the snow leopard look conspicuous. The haunting portrait of a captive bay cat photographed in 2008. Jim Sanderson took this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/on-the-trail-of-borneos-bay-cat-one-of-the-worlds-most-mysterious-felines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/on-the-trail-of-borneos-bay-cat-one-of-the-worlds-most-mysterious-felines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280951</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists look to defy gloomy outlook for Borneo’s sun bears</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/conservationists-look-to-defy-gloomy-outlook-for-borneos-sun-bears/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/conservationists-look-to-defy-gloomy-outlook-for-borneos-sun-bears/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2023 13:08:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/31114315/Banner-2-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274826</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Ecotourism, Education, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, GPS, Green, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Palm Oil, Pet Trade, Poaching, Rainforests, Rehabilitation, Reintroductions, Research, Snares, Sun Bears, Tracking, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, Wildlife Rescues, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SABAH, Malaysia — The 3-year-old sun bear sits teddy bear-like in a secluded grassy glade in its rainforest enclosure. Its soft, densely furred belly vibrates as it sucks on one of its front paws, emitting a series of strange, guttural whimpers. Its head downturned, the young bear looks up at us shyly with deep brown [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SABAH, Malaysia — The 3-year-old sun bear sits teddy bear-like in a secluded grassy glade in its rainforest enclosure. Its soft, densely furred belly vibrates as it sucks on one of its front paws, emitting a series of strange, guttural whimpers. Its head downturned, the young bear looks up at us shyly with deep brown eyes, penetrating our human instinct to care for the vulnerable. “This is a rather sad behavior,” Siew Te Wong, CEO and founder of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC), tells Mongabay during a visit to the pioneering rescue and education facility in the Malaysian state of Sabah. Wong says the bear, named Kipaku, was brought to the center as an orphaned cub, and what we’re witnessing is the little bear’s trauma response. “As with all infant mammals, this bear has an urge to suckle,” Wong says. “But he has no mother; his mother was brutally killed by poachers, so he’s had no opportunity to suckle … in the end, he’s developed this self-soothing behavior.” Like Kipaku, most of the 44 sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) Wong and his colleagues currently care for at the BSBCC were brought to them as orphaned cubs illegally taken from the wild and subsequently confiscated by authorities. One of the goals of the BSBCC is to return some of the rescued bears back into the wild to bolster flagging local populations. Since it was launched in 2008, the center has rewilded 12 bears into remote forest reserves in Sabah. But&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/conservationists-look-to-defy-gloomy-outlook-for-borneos-sun-bears/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/conservationists-look-to-defy-gloomy-outlook-for-borneos-sun-bears/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Endangered Formosan black bears caught in Taiwanese ‘snaring crisis’ (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/endangered-formosan-black-bears-caught-in-taiwanese-snaring-crisis-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/endangered-formosan-black-bears-caught-in-taiwanese-snaring-crisis-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2023 15:47:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gregory McCann]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/02145718/20210315105611668941602-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273772</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Bears, Commentary, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Illegal Trade, Mammals, Poaching, Snares, Trade, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2020 a report titled “Wildlife-snaring crisis in Asian Forests” was published by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), estimating that over 12 million snares engulf Indochinese forests (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) alone, mostly in ‘protected’ areas. By contrast, it is difficult to know how many snares blanket Taiwan’s mountainous forests, but it is safe [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2020 a report titled “Wildlife-snaring crisis in Asian Forests” was published by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), estimating that over 12 million snares engulf Indochinese forests (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) alone, mostly in ‘protected’ areas. By contrast, it is difficult to know how many snares blanket Taiwan’s mountainous forests, but it is safe to assume that based on recent cases involving officially protected Formosan black bears (Ursus thibetanus formosanus), that the number is very high. According to local media, two young black bears were snared in the past few weeks alone in Hualien County in eastern Taiwan, and other cases were reported in Hualien, including the successful rehabilitation and release of one bear. In Taichung County in central Taiwan, another snaring case occurred in which the bear died.  In yet another case earlier this year in Pingtung County at the very south of the island, hunters were filmed driving around on their scooter with a dead bear on the seat, waving its limp paw around as if it was a cute teddy bear. Nine suspects have been indicted for poaching an additional four black bears over a three year period in Pingtung. Two years ago, a group of timber poachers snared, shot, skinned, and ate a black bear in Guanwu National Forest Recreation Area in Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range and posted their activity on social media; they were later arrested. Formosan black bear footprint found at low elevation in Taitung, with cigarette lighter for scale. Image courtesy of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/endangered-formosan-black-bears-caught-in-taiwanese-snaring-crisis-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/endangered-formosan-black-bears-caught-in-taiwanese-snaring-crisis-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273772</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodian conglomerate sparks conflict in Botum Sakor National Park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/cambodian-conglomerate-sparks-conflict-in-botum-sakor-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/cambodian-conglomerate-sparks-conflict-in-botum-sakor-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jul 2023 03:53:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnMeng Kroypunlok]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/20022756/DJI_0617-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271159</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Cardamom Mountains, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Governance, Illegal Logging, Industrial Agriculture, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Reform, Land Rights, Land Use Change, National Parks, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Snares, Tropical Deforestation, Wildlife Rangers, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[*Names have been changed to protect sources who said they feared reprisals from the authorities. BOTUM SAKOR, Cambodia — “We’ve filed complaints with four institutions now — the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Land Management, and the Ministry of National Defense — but only the interior ministry has responded,” said [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[*Names have been changed to protect sources who said they feared reprisals from the authorities. BOTUM SAKOR, Cambodia — “We’ve filed complaints with four institutions now — the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Land Management, and the Ministry of National Defense — but only the interior ministry has responded,” said Vichea*, a resident of Cambodia&#8217;s Thma Sa commune, who requested the name of his village not be published when interviewed in April 2022. “The local authorities tell [us] they will do something to help us but they don’t; anyone who stands up to protest these developments is accused of being an opposition activist.” More than a year later, in May 2023, reporters caught up with Vichea again in Botum Sakor National Park. Spanning 182,342 hectares (450,577 acres) along the Gulf of Thailand in southwest Cambodia, Botum Sakor was once the country&#8217;s largest national park. But more than half of the park was sold off to private developers between 1998 and 2017, mostly to investors with ties to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). As of July 2023, just 18% of the park remains protected. In 2008, the Cambodian government awarded Chinese developer Union Development Group, known locally as UDG, 36,000 hectares (89,000 acres) within the park&#8217;s boundaries, kicking off a series of land disputes that became increasingly desperate as they dragged on for more than a decade. Despite the fallout, the government awarded UDG a further 9,100 hectares (22,500 acres) of the national park in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/cambodian-conglomerate-sparks-conflict-in-botum-sakor-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/cambodian-conglomerate-sparks-conflict-in-botum-sakor-national-park/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271159</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study: Snares claim another local extinction as Cambodia loses its leopards</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/study-snares-claim-another-local-extinction-as-cambodia-loses-its-leopards/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/study-snares-claim-another-local-extinction-as-cambodia-loses-its-leopards/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2023 08:46:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/29130740/leopard-in-cambodia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269152</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Human-wildlife Conflict, Illegal Trade, Leopards, Mammals, Poaching, Protected Areas, Snares, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Years of law enforcement to tackle rampant snaring and poaching have failed to halt the loss of Cambodia’s last remaining Indochinese leopard population, according to a recent study. The researchers believe that while a few individual Indochinese leopards (Panthera pardus delacouri) may still linger in Cambodia’s forests, the country no longer has a viable population [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Years of law enforcement to tackle rampant snaring and poaching have failed to halt the loss of Cambodia’s last remaining Indochinese leopard population, according to a recent study. The researchers believe that while a few individual Indochinese leopards (Panthera pardus delacouri) may still linger in Cambodia’s forests, the country no longer has a viable population of the subspecies. “Given the current population status and myriad of threats, it is pretty certain that the Indochinese leopard now is functionally extinct in Cambodia,” study author Susana Rostro-Garcia, a scientist with the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and the NGO Panthera, told Mongabay in an email. “Regrettably, the population status and trajectory of the Critically Endangered Indochinese Leopard in the [Eastern Plains Landscape] suggest that population recovery in this priority site is unlikely to occur.” Researchers conducted seven camera-trap surveys in Cambodia’s Eastern Plains between 2009 and 2019, revealing that the leopard population declined by 82% during that time. A further survey in 2021 found no leopards. (Individual leopards were caught on camera in Cambodia&#8217;s eastern highlands in 2022.) The Indochinese leopard is critically endangered and its range has shrunk massively to as little as 2-6% of its former size. Cambodia’s population was considered a priority for conservation as one of the last viable, breeding populations, leaving remaining strongholds in Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar. Researchers say that rampant snaring — predominantly driven by demand for meat from species such as wild pigs and muntjac deer — is behind the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/study-snares-claim-another-local-extinction-as-cambodia-loses-its-leopards/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/study-snares-claim-another-local-extinction-as-cambodia-loses-its-leopards/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269152</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Snares don’t discriminate: A problem for wild cats, both big and small</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/snares-dont-discriminate-a-problem-for-wild-cats-both-big-and-small/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/snares-dont-discriminate-a-problem-for-wild-cats-both-big-and-small/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2023 15:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/04164130/clouded-leopard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268282</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Wildlife Trade]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Human-wildlife Conflict, Illegal Trade, Mammals, Poaching, Protected Areas, Snares, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, researchers declared the Indochinese tiger extinct in Laos as widespread snaring in Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park picked off the last few individuals of Panthera tigris corbetti. Two years later, scientists found that smaller cat species, such as the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) and marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata), were also in decline in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, researchers declared the Indochinese tiger extinct in Laos as widespread snaring in Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park picked off the last few individuals of Panthera tigris corbetti. Two years later, scientists found that smaller cat species, such as the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) and marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata), were also in decline in the park. It was thought that in the absence of larger predators, smaller cat populations would boom, but this wasn’t the reality on the ground. “We didn’t see that in the data. We saw their numbers going down too,” says Jan Kamler, with the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. “I think, generally, snaring is the greatest threat to felids in Southeast Asia, more than habitat loss … in some places like Laos and Cambodia that still have habitat, it&#8217;s the snaring that has driven them out of these areas.” Other conservationists say that human-wildlife conflict, persecution and habitat degradation are likely more important factors, especially for the smaller cat species. Across the border in Vietnam, snaring has already wiped out many felid populations, according to researchers. Aside from a solitary sighting of a marbled cat in 2019 on the border with Laos, only leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis), which may be too small and light to trigger widely used foot snares, remain in the country. “Snaring has basically decimated the wild cat community [in Vietnam],” says Andrew Tilker, species conservation coordinator with Re:wild, an NGO. He says it has played a major role in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/snares-dont-discriminate-a-problem-for-wild-cats-both-big-and-small/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/snares-dont-discriminate-a-problem-for-wild-cats-both-big-and-small/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268282</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Southeast Asia’s big cats like their prey rare — as in really elusive</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/southeast-asias-big-cats-like-their-prey-rare-as-in-really-elusive/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/southeast-asias-big-cats-like-their-prey-rare-as-in-really-elusive/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Sep 2022 06:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Carolyncowan]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/06060323/1.-CL-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=259979</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Laos, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Carnivores, Cats, Conservation Technology, Endangered Species, Mammals, Poaching, Predators, Rainforests, Snares, Tigers, Ungulates, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tigers and clouded leopards are two of Southeast Asia’s most threatened and enigmatic big cat species. With the numbers of both in sharp decline across the region, leaving their remaining populations small and fragmented, it’s unsurprising that scientists know very little about basic things — such as what they eat. But now, a new study [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tigers and clouded leopards are two of Southeast Asia’s most threatened and enigmatic big cat species. With the numbers of both in sharp decline across the region, leaving their remaining populations small and fragmented, it’s unsurprising that scientists know very little about basic things — such as what they eat. But now, a new study that analyzed scat samples collected in a remote protected area in northern Laos provides new insights into their dietary preferences. As expected, wild pigs feature prominently on the menu for both tigers (Panthera tigris) and mainland clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa). However, both species appear to deliberately seek out a mysterious, goat-like ungulate called the serow (Capricornis sumatraensis) over all other prey, according to the findings published in Ecology and Evolution. The researchers say their study can help direct conservationists toward the most suitable prey species to target for recovery in their efforts to boost flagging big cat numbers across the region. “Management and enhancement of serow populations, along with other ungulate species, is likely to be important for the clouded leopard to persist and for tiger population recovery in some areas of Southeast Asia,” Akchousanh Rasphone, Laos conservation science director at the Wildlife Conservation Society and lead author of the study, told Mongabay. Mainland serow young and adult photographed in Khao Yai National Park in Thailand. Image by tontantravel via Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) DNA gives clues about cats long gone Once ranging widely across Asia, tigers and clouded leopards have seen their populations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/southeast-asias-big-cats-like-their-prey-rare-as-in-really-elusive/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/southeast-asias-big-cats-like-their-prey-rare-as-in-really-elusive/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-259979</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Snares: Low-tech, low-profile killers of rare wildlife the world over</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/snares-low-tech-low-profile-killers-of-rare-wildlife-the-world-over/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/snares-low-tech-low-profile-killers-of-rare-wildlife-the-world-over/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2022 15:39:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Laurel Neme]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/17123708/16-leopard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=259315</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Great Apes, Habitat, Hunting, Mammals, Poaching, Protected Areas, Snares, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Millions of wild animals die or are maimed annually in snares, including elephants, tigers and gorillas. Snares are mostly used to source bushmeat for urban markets or to feed rural families. But bycatch is rife and solutions difficult.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On an early morning in January 2013, rangers patrolling Kahuzi-Biéga National Park, a 6,000-square-kilometer (2,300-square-mile) UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Democratic Republic of Congo, spotted a young female Grauer&#8217;s gorilla. Known to the rangers as Iragi, a name that means &#8220;lucky&#8221; in Congolese, she had a wire snare wrapped around her hand. Unable to move, she would have died where she stood without rescue. Snares can be deadly. In fact, that&#8217;s the point. Hunters and poachers around the world use rope, wire or brake cables to make these simple, low-tech, noose-like traps. And they set them in the forest to catch animals. While hunters mostly target antelope and other smaller game to eat or sell as bushmeat, the snares don&#8217;t care. They’re indiscriminate. They often maim or kill non-targeted animals: Elephants, lions, tigers, giraffes. Or a young, critically endangered Grauer’s gorilla like Iragi. Iragi, a female Grauer’s gorilla, with her infant son on May 26, 2022, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Quick-responding rangers and the Gorilla Doctors saved Iragi from near-certain death in a snare in 2013. Image © Gorilla Doctors. When rangers discovered Iragi&#8217;s situation, they alerted Gorilla Doctors, an NGO that provides veterinary care in Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC to gorillas that have become habituated to the presence of humans. Time was of the essence. Gorilla Doctors dispatched its DRC team immediately. &#8220;These are wild animals, so we prefer to be as hands-off as possible,&#8221; says Kirsten Gilardi, executive director and chief veterinary officer for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/snares-low-tech-low-profile-killers-of-rare-wildlife-the-world-over/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-259315</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rare mammals caught on camera highlight value of Annamite Mountains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/rare-mammals-caught-on-camera-highlight-value-of-annamite-mountains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/rare-mammals-caught-on-camera-highlight-value-of-annamite-mountains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2022 15:02:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/31140313/camera-trap-surveys-pr-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254337</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Laos, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Snares, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Annamite Mountains are a series of jagged peaks and secluded valleys that run between Laos and Vietnam south to Cambodia’s northern plateau. Over the past three decades, researchers have described numerous new-to-science large mammals from the region, all of which occur nowhere else on the planet. However, biologists still lack basic knowledge about their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Annamite Mountains are a series of jagged peaks and secluded valleys that run between Laos and Vietnam south to Cambodia’s northern plateau. Over the past three decades, researchers have described numerous new-to-science large mammals from the region, all of which occur nowhere else on the planet. However, biologists still lack basic knowledge about their ecology, behavior and distribution due to their extreme scarcity. Now, an international team of scientists has completed a painstaking camera-trap study that provides insights into two of these elusive mammals: the Annamite striped rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi), and the Annamite dark muntjac species complex, a group of closely related deer species indistinguishable in the field. The team published its results in Conservation Science and Practice. Camera trap photo of an Annamite striped rabbit in the Annamite Mountains. Photo courtesy of Leibniz-IZW / WWF-Viet Nam / Song Thanh National Park The study is the first landscape-scale overview of where these two animals live in Laos and Vietnam. It also provides crucial information to guide the development of effective conservation strategies to ensure their long-term survival, say the researchers. “The factors influencing species distribution in the Annamite Mountains are complex,” said Thanh Van Nguyen, a doctoral candidate at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany and lead author of the study. “Through this study, we could assess how these factors influenced the occurrence of [the two] species across several study sites, and thus improve our understanding.” Camera trap photo of an Annamite dark muntjac in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/rare-mammals-caught-on-camera-highlight-value-of-annamite-mountains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/rare-mammals-caught-on-camera-highlight-value-of-annamite-mountains/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254337</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Uganda, safeguarding chimpanzees against the scourge of snaring</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/in-uganda-safeguarding-chimpanzees-against-the-scourge-of-snaring/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/in-uganda-safeguarding-chimpanzees-against-the-scourge-of-snaring/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2020 08:47:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alex Dudley]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/10/20084153/chimp-banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=235936</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Mammals, Poaching, Protected Areas, Snares, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KANYAWARA, Uganda — As they hack their way with pangas through the dense and prickly undergrowth, a palpable sense of tension grips the camo-clad patrol party navigating the rainforest of Kibale National Park. An hour and a half into their hike, they hastily change course and flee to higher ground, keeping upwind of the forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KANYAWARA, Uganda — As they hack their way with pangas through the dense and prickly undergrowth, a palpable sense of tension grips the camo-clad patrol party navigating the rainforest of Kibale National Park. An hour and a half into their hike, they hastily change course and flee to higher ground, keeping upwind of the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) bull glimpsed by the team leader. More than once, they come to a halt as patrol members sink knee-deep into black soil that has been liquified by unseasonal summer downpours. These hazards are just an ordinary part of the job for members of the Kibale Snare Removal Program (KSRP) team. Despite the setbacks, they steadily traverse the forest. By mid-afternoon, after eight hours on foot, the team encounters what it has been searching for. Tucked in the vegetation just within the park’s boundary lie two wire snares­: crude but lethally effective devices used to catch bushmeat for consumption by people from neighboring communities. After carefully recording the traps’ GPS coordinates into a mobile device, the team hacks apart the wooden posts anchoring the snares and seizes the wires to be melted down. The patrol — a joint endeavor between rangers from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and staff from the KSRP, an arm of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project (KCP) — vividly illustrates one of the key challenges facing conservation in Kibale: protecting chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) from falling prey to snares set for other animals. A 2000 study estimated that 15,000 snares are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/in-uganda-safeguarding-chimpanzees-against-the-scourge-of-snaring/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-235936</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mountain gorilla census reveals further increase in numbers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/mountain-gorilla-census-reveals-further-increase-in-numbers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/mountain-gorilla-census-reveals-further-increase-in-numbers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2019 10:55:54 +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/20/2019/12/17100942/5-Silverback-mtn-gorilla-Uganda-Skyler-Bishop-for-Gorilla-Doctors-copy.81e608fc73b14b42bf767c74f3f63fd3-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225452</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Atlantic Forest, Democratic Republic Of Congo, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Chimpanzees, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Diseases, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Gorillas, Great Apes, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Mountains, NGOs, Parks, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Saving Species From Extinction, Snares, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The outlook for eastern Africa&#8217;s mountain gorillas is growing brighter, as a recent census released on Dec. 16 shows that the subspecies’ numbers have risen since 2011. Scientists believe there are now at least 1,063 mountain gorillas living in the wild. Tara Stoinski, the CEO and chief scientific officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The outlook for eastern Africa&#8217;s mountain gorillas is growing brighter, as a recent census released on Dec. 16 shows that the subspecies’ numbers have risen since 2011. Scientists believe there are now at least 1,063 mountain gorillas living in the wild. Tara Stoinski, the CEO and chief scientific officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, said the results  of the latest census were &#8220;incredible, given what&#8217;s happening to other wildlife populations, and given the high level of threats that they face.&#8221; &#8220;It&#8217;s a real testament to the level of conservation action that&#8217;s happening for these populations,&#8221; Stoinski told Mongabay. A team participates in a training for the census. Image by Winnie Eckardt/Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. In the 1980s, the known population of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in the Virunga Mountains had dwindled to just 240 individuals, as lost habitat, hunting, disease and other threats had exacted a costly toll. By late 2018, though, more than three decades of &#8220;extreme conservation&#8221; involving the day-to-day protection of gorilla families appeared to be having an impact: A 2016 survey of the gorillas living in the Virungas revealed an increase to 604 animals. At the time, scientists pegged the total number of individuals at more than 1,000, and the IUCN changed the ape’s status on the Red List from critically endangered to endangered. But a census of the other mountain gorilla population, found further north in the Bwindi-Sarambwe ecosystem, hadn’t taken place since 2011, when researchers figured it held 400 gorillas. A silverback&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/mountain-gorilla-census-reveals-further-increase-in-numbers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-225452</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Time is running out for Southeast Asia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/time-is-running-out-for-southeast-asia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/time-is-running-out-for-southeast-asia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2019 09:49:31 +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/20/2019/11/25021359/Iman-dalam-kenangan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225119</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Asian Rhinos and Saving Life on Earth: Words on the Wild]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Borneo, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Ex-situ Conservation, Extinction, Hunting, Mammals, Mass Extinction, Megafauna, Over-hunting, Pet Trade, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rhinos, Snares, Sumatran Rhino, Tigers, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Nov. 23, the last Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) in Malaysia died. Named Iman, she’d lived in captivity in the Malaysian state of Sabah in Borneo for just over five years. Iman was not only the last rhino in Malaysia, but one of the last of the Bornean subspecies of the Sumatran rhino (D. s. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Nov. 23, the last Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) in Malaysia died. Named Iman, she’d lived in captivity in the Malaysian state of Sabah in Borneo for just over five years. Iman was not only the last rhino in Malaysia, but one of the last of the Bornean subspecies of the Sumatran rhino (D. s. harrissoni). But Iman’s passing isn’t just another tragedy, and lost opportunity, for her species. It’s also another signal for something bigger: that the heart of our mass extinction crisis lies in Southeast Asia. The region is undergoing a wildlife decline that’s really unparalleled anywhere else of comparable size. Recently, scientists have declared that tigers are extinct in Laos, after already vanishing from Vietnam and Cambodia. The Indochinese and Malayan populations of the tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) and the Sumatran subspecies (P. t. sondaica), are all on their last stand. The same is true of the Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri). Meanwhile, the last photograph of a saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), or Asian unicorn, on camera trap was taken six years ago. There is now a project hoping to catch and breed them in captivity. But whether conservationists will find any alive anywhere is an open question — officially a couple of hundred are believed to survive — and whether they will find enough to form a captive-breeding population is an even bigger question. The list goes on: all the big four of Sumatra – elephants, tigers, orangutans, and rhinos – are Critically Endangered. The Tapanuli orangutan&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/time-is-running-out-for-southeast-asia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/time-is-running-out-for-southeast-asia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-225119</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Illegal hunting a greater threat to wildlife than forest degradation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/illegal-hunting-a-greater-threat-to-wildlife-than-forest-degradation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/illegal-hunting-a-greater-threat-to-wildlife-than-forest-degradation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2019 07:16:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nanditha Chandraprakash]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/12/09071428/IMG_0571_Stumping.70d1e8482b6e429aaa4d56eb4bad5a2f-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225177</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Evolving Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Borneo, Laos, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Bushmeat, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Hunting, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Logging, Over-hunting, Poaching, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Snares, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world has long associated plummeting populations of Southeast Asian wildlife with news of forest degradation and poignant images of deforested lands. Recent studies, however, bring to light another human practice that’s been driving the decline of wildlife numbers in these ecosystems. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) in Berlin, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world has long associated plummeting populations of Southeast Asian wildlife with news of forest degradation and poignant images of deforested lands. Recent studies, however, bring to light another human practice that’s been driving the decline of wildlife numbers in these ecosystems. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) in Berlin, in cooperation with WWF-Vietnam, WWF-Laos and the forestry department of the state of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo, carried out a study showing that illegal hunting may be a bigger threat to mammals and ground-dwelling birds than forest degradation. The research, published Oct. 30 in the journal Communications Biology, compares camera-trapping records from logged forests in Malaysian Borneo with a protected eco-region in the Annamite Mountains of Vietnam and Laos where illegal hunting is rampant. The results show a more precipitous loss of species and wildlife populations in the Annamites than in Borneo. Researchers chose the two rainforest study sites as they have similar habitats. Their recent history, however, has a few noteworthy differences. While widespread logging has degraded many forests in Borneo, the island has faced less hunting. By contrast, the Annamites have experienced exceedingly high illegal hunting, but its forests are structurally more intact. A forest ranger removes a snare in central Vietnam. Hunters are increasingly using easy-to-construct snares to hunt mammals and ground-dwelling birds in the Annamite Mountains in Vietnam and Laos. Image by Andrew Tilker. Both forest degradation and hunting threaten wildlife, but the latter has reached extreme heights in recent years.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/illegal-hunting-a-greater-threat-to-wildlife-than-forest-degradation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/illegal-hunting-a-greater-threat-to-wildlife-than-forest-degradation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-225177</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists rediscover mammalian oddity in remote Vietnam</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/scientists-rediscover-mammalian-oddity-in-remote-vietnam/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/scientists-rediscover-mammalian-oddity-in-remote-vietnam/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2019 11:00:02 +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/20/2019/11/11120442/Chevrotains-768x467.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=224270</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Saving Life on Earth: Words on the Wild]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Bushmeat, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hunting, In-situ Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, Over-hunting, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rediscovered Species, Snares, Strange, Tropical Forests, Ungulates, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[VIETNAM, July 2019 – I’m chasing a ghost, I think not for the first time, as night falls and I gather up my gear in a hotel in a village in southern Vietnam. I pack my camera, a bottle of water, and a poncho; outside the window I can see a light rain. I’m here to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[VIETNAM, July 2019 – I’m chasing a ghost, I think not for the first time, as night falls and I gather up my gear in a hotel in a village in southern Vietnam. I pack my camera, a bottle of water, and a poncho; outside the window I can see a light rain. I’m here to report on the silver-backed chevrotain (Tragulus versicolor), a so-called mouse-deer that’s been missing in action (at least from science) for nearly 30 years. My phone goes off. It’s a WhatsApp message from Anh The Nguyen, my wildlife guide on this venture. It’s time: the chevrotain is nocturnal, meaning our best chance to see one is at night. To help us, Nguyen has hired two local hunters from the Raglai ethnic group. They know the territory and they know the animal. We take two motorbikes from the village to the forest, but barely make it a few blocks before taking shelter under an aluminum overhang as the rain, drowsy until now, becomes a full-blown tropical downpour. It thunks against the metal and the night sky growls with thunder. Long forgotten by scientists, two years ago, the silver-backed chevrotain, also known as the Vietnam mouse-deer, gained prominence as one of the “25 Most Wanted” in the Search for Lost Species Initiative by Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC). A silver-backed chevroatin. Illustration by Eric Losh. “That’s when we first put together a plan of action,” said Andrew Tilker, the Asian species officer for GWC, who described a 2017 meeting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/scientists-rediscover-mammalian-oddity-in-remote-vietnam/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/scientists-rediscover-mammalian-oddity-in-remote-vietnam/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-224270</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How Laos lost its tigers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/how-laos-lost-its-tigers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/how-laos-lost-its-tigers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Oct 2019 11:12:33 +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/20/2019/10/26195010/02Tiger.long_.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=223822</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Saving Life on Earth: Words on the Wild]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, China, East Asia, Laos, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Endangered Species, Hunting, Leopards, Mammals, National Parks, Poaching, Predators, Protected Areas, Saving Species From Extinction, Snares, Solutions, Tigers, Top Predators, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The last tiger in Lao PDR likely died in terrible anguish. Its foot caught in a snare, the animal probably died of dehydration. Or maybe, in a desperate bid to free itself from a snare crafted from a simple and cheap motorbike cable, it tore off a leg and died from the blood loss. Perhaps [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The last tiger in Lao PDR likely died in terrible anguish. Its foot caught in a snare, the animal probably died of dehydration. Or maybe, in a desperate bid to free itself from a snare crafted from a simple and cheap motorbike cable, it tore off a leg and died from the blood loss. Perhaps the Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), a distinct subspecies, was able to free itself from the snare, only to have the wound fester and kill it in the end. Or, and this isn’t impossible either, the last tiger of Lao PDR (or Laos) was simply shot to death by poachers who then butchered its body and sold its parts in the illegal trafficking trade to feed a seemingly insatiable demand for tiger bits and bones for sham medicine or status symbols. However it died, it probably wasn’t peaceful. A new paper in Global Conservation and Ecology finds that the last tigers of Laos vanished shortly after 2013 from Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area. And the scientists believe it was most likely a surge in snaring that did them in, despite large-scale investments in the park, relative to the region. With the loss of tigers in Laos’s largest protected area, the tiger is most likely extinct in Laos, as it probably is in both Cambodia and Vietnam. That’s an area significantly larger than Texas in Southeast Asia that’s now bereft of its proper top predator. One of the first tigers photographed during a baseline survey.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/how-laos-lost-its-tigers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/how-laos-lost-its-tigers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-223822</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Not all hope is lost’ as outlook for mountain gorillas brightens</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/mountain-gorillas-recovery-prompts-downlisting-to-endangered-status/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/mountain-gorillas-recovery-prompts-downlisting-to-endangered-status/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Nov 2018 12:06:45 +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/20/2018/11/14115319/Young-mountain-gorilla-Fasha-Dian-Fossey-Gorilla-Fund-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=212252</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, East Africa, Rwanda, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Bushmeat, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Great Apes, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, NGOs, Parks, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Saving Species From Extinction, Snares, Solutions, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[G-PGM-1803-2431]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Decades of “extreme” conservation have lifted the mountain gorilla from the edge of extinction, leading the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to change the animal’s status from the more dire “critically endangered” to “endangered.” “The good news is this really shows that when we invest long-term in conservation … we can change the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Decades of “extreme” conservation have lifted the mountain gorilla from the edge of extinction, leading the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to change the animal’s status from the more dire “critically endangered” to “endangered.” “The good news is this really shows that when we invest long-term in conservation … we can change the tide for these animals,” Tara Stoinski, CEO and chief scientific officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, said in an interview. Mountain gorillas today number more than 1,000 individuals. Image courtesy of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. First brought to the attention of Western scientists and conservation groups by biologist George Schaller and later by researcher Dian Fossey in the 1960s, the mountain gorilla subspecies (Gorilla beringei beringei) had plummeted to just a few hundred individuals by the 1980s. Hunting, civil unrest and the loss of gorilla habitat to farmland in the forested mountains of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo led Fossey to warn that these animals, one of humankind’s closest relatives, might appear only in the pages of books by the year 2000 if there wasn’t an effort to save them. Fortunately for the gorillas, the governments of the range countries, along with the Fossey Fund and several other conservation groups, launched into action. Despite the still-mysterious murder of Fossey herself in 1985, they came together to work with local communities to halt habitat loss and manage conflict between farmers and gorillas, treat injury and disease in the populations, and protect&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/mountain-gorillas-recovery-prompts-downlisting-to-endangered-status/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/mountain-gorillas-recovery-prompts-downlisting-to-endangered-status/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-212252</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Adorbs: scientists capture first photos of African golden cat kittens</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/01/adorbs-scientists-capture-first-photos-of-african-golden-cat-kittens/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/01/adorbs-scientists-capture-first-photos-of-african-golden-cat-kittens/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jan 2015 15:21:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/01/adorbs-scientists-capture-first-photos-of-african-golden-cat-kittens/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Bushmeat, Camera Trapping, Carnivores, Cats, Conservation, Cryptic Species, Cute, Environment, Green, Mammals, Photos, Predators, Rainforests, and Snares]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Elusive, little-known cats are &#8216;just unbelievably sneaky&#8217; The African golden cat is arguably the continent&#8217;s least known feline, inhabiting dense tropical forests, almost never seen, and, of course, long-upstaged by Africa&#8217;s famous felines: lions, cheetahs, and leopards. But a few intrepid scientists are beginning to uncover the long-unknown lives of these wild cats, which are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Elusive, little-known cats are &#8216;just unbelievably sneaky&#8217; The African golden cat is arguably the continent&#8217;s least known feline, inhabiting dense tropical forests, almost never seen, and, of course, long-upstaged by Africa&#8217;s famous felines: lions, cheetahs, and leopards. But a few intrepid scientists are beginning to uncover the long-unknown lives of these wild cats, which are about double the size of a domestic cat. Most recently, researchers working in Uganda&#8217;s Kibale National Park have captured remarkable photos of African golden cats&#8230;with kittens. &#8220;Since 2010, we have conducted seven camera surveys and accumulated nearly 300 independent golden cat captures in over 18,000 trap days,&#8221; David Mills with the Wildlife Conservation Society Uganda and Panthera told mongabay.com. Still, the cats are so secretive that it took the project three years to capture photos of African golden cat kittens, which Mills believe are the first verifiable photos of this jungle cat&#8217;s young. But the rare photos of the kittens are already telling scientists something new about this species. &#8220;Our camera trap photographs have shown that golden cat color phases are roughly equally represented and do not show sex bias, so we assumed that mothers of each color produce kittens of different colors as well. These photographs show that indeed grey and red phase mothers produce grey kittens. Another photograph that is less clear also suggests a red adult with red juvenile,&#8221; David Mills noted. The research on African golden cats in Kibale National Park has been complimented by similar research in Gabon. Currently, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/01/adorbs-scientists-capture-first-photos-of-african-golden-cat-kittens/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/01/adorbs-scientists-capture-first-photos-of-african-golden-cat-kittens/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24168</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>&#8216;Guns kill trees too&#8217;: overhunting raises extinction threat for trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/11/guns-kill-trees-too-overhunting-raises-extinction-threat-for-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/11/guns-kill-trees-too-overhunting-raises-extinction-threat-for-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2014 16:50:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/11/guns-kill-trees-too-overhunting-raises-extinction-threat-for-trees/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Ecology, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Hunting, Mammals, Plants, Poaching, Rainforests, Seed Dispersal, Snares, Trapping, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Landmark study finds that hunting and trapping also hurts tropical trees The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), also known as the moon bear, is a key seed dispersal species for Miliusa horsfieldii and other trees in Thailand. This individual was caught on a camera trap. A new study finds that when species like these are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Landmark study finds that hunting and trapping also hurts tropical trees The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), also known as the moon bear, is a key seed dispersal species for Miliusa horsfieldii and other trees in Thailand. This individual was caught on a camera trap. A new study finds that when species like these are hunted out, tropical trees face extinction. Photo by: Dusit Ngoprasert, Conservation Ecology Program, King Mongkut&#8217;s University of Technology Thonburi. A new paper confirms what ecologists have long feared: hunting birds and mammals drastically raises the risk of extinction for tropical trees. Following the long-lifespan of a single canopy tree, Miliusa horsfieldii, researchers discovered that overhunting of animals could increase the chances of extinction for the species fourteen times over a century, from 0.5 percent to seven percent. &#8220;Our study is the first to quantify the decades-long effects of animal seed dispersal across the entire tree life cycle, from seeds to seedlings to adult trees,&#8221; said co-author Jeremy Lichstein with the University of Florida. But how could hunting birds and mammals impact trees? The vast majority of trees in rainforests are not dispersed by wind, like those in temperate areas, but by animals, which eat the fruit and spread the seeds far-and-wide when they defecate. These &#8220;seed dispersers,&#8221; as they are known, include a wide-variety of species from birds to bats to bigger mammals like monkeys, civet cats, bears, and even rhinos and elephants. In fact, some tree species in the tropics depend on just a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/11/guns-kill-trees-too-overhunting-raises-extinction-threat-for-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/11/guns-kill-trees-too-overhunting-raises-extinction-threat-for-trees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24475</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Saving Asia&#8217;s other endangered cats  (photos)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/10/saving-asias-other-endangered-cats-photos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/10/saving-asias-other-endangered-cats-photos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2014 14:47:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/10/saving-asias-other-endangered-cats-photos/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Camera Trapping, Carnivores, Cats, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, In-situ Conservation, Interviews, Mammals, Monocultures, Palm Oil, Photos, Plantations, Poaching, Predators, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Species From Extinction, Snares, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Flat-headed cat and fishing cat require immediate research and conservation attention. It&#8217;s no secret that when it comes to the wild cats of Asia&#8212;and, really, cats in general&#8212;tigers get all the press. In fact, tigers&#8212;down to an estimated 3,200 individuals&#8212;arguably dominate conservation across Asia. But as magnificent, grand, and endangered as the tigers are, there [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Flat-headed cat and fishing cat require immediate research and conservation attention. It&#8217;s no secret that when it comes to the wild cats of Asia&#8212;and, really, cats in general&#8212;tigers get all the press. In fact, tigers&#8212;down to an estimated 3,200 individuals&#8212;arguably dominate conservation across Asia. But as magnificent, grand, and endangered as the tigers are, there are a number of other felines in the region that are much less studied&#8212;and may be just as imperiled. A new, special edition of Cat News from the IUCN&#8217;s Cat Specialist Group attempts to shine a light on Southeast Asia&#8217;s other cats: nine small-to-medium sized cats that are not a part of the big cat genus, Panthera. Of these nine, cat conservationists say two are in particular need of research and conservation attention: the flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps) and the fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus). Most of Southeast Asia&#8217;s cats have been studied in recent years using remote camera trap data in surveys set up for bigger cats, such as tigers and leopards, or other charismatic mammals. While these camera traps have revolutionized our understanding of some cryptic cats, like Borneo&#8217;s bay cat (Catopuma badia), which appears more common than long-believed. It has also meant that species not found in so-called tiger areas have been overlooked. &#8220;There are still gaps in our understanding because most of the camera-trap data comes from forest habitats (where tigers predominate) rather than wetlands, streams, and scrub forest which are evidently the more preferred habitats for [the fishing cat, flat-headed cat,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/10/saving-asias-other-endangered-cats-photos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24557</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forgotten species: the exotic squirrel with a super tail</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/08/forgotten-species-the-exotic-squirrel-with-a-super-tail/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/08/forgotten-species-the-exotic-squirrel-with-a-super-tail/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2014 12:22:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/08/forgotten-species-the-exotic-squirrel-with-a-super-tail/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Borneo, Indonesia, and Malaysia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Carnivores, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Green, Islands, Logging, Mammals, Palm Oil, Predators, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Science, Snares, Strange, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Everyone knows the tiger, the panda, the blue whale, but what about the other five to thirty million species estimated to inhabit our Earth? Many of these marvelous, stunning, and rare species have received little attention from the media, conservation groups, and the public. This series is an attempt to give these &#8216;forgotten species&#8216; some [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Everyone knows the tiger, the panda, the blue whale, but what about the other five to thirty million species estimated to inhabit our Earth? Many of these marvelous, stunning, and rare species have received little attention from the media, conservation groups, and the public. This series is an attempt to give these &#8216;forgotten species&#8216; some well-deserved attention. The tufted ground squirrel (Rheithrosciurus macrotis) caught on camera trap in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Outside camera traps, few photos of this species exist. Photo by: Erik Meijaard. To residents of the Northern Hemisphere, the squirrel is arguably the most mundane mammal. It&#8217;s a good bet that no mammal is more likely to be encountered when you walk out your door than a member of the Sciuridae family. In fact I can look out my front window right now in a city of 3.4 million and probably see at least one, if not two or three, squirrels. Try that with any other mammal and I guarantee you&#8217;ll fail the majority of the time. Sure, mice and rats may also be ubiquitous, but they are generally ubiquitously cryptic, hiding in places we can&#8217;t see. Squirrels are unabashedly brazen. It&#8217;s not surprising then that many people begrudge squirrels as nuisance animals: they gorge themselves on bird feeders with audacity, they build nests in attics, they chew on power lines, and in some cases can even create fire hazards. Yet if we are honest with ourselves, we have a lot in common with these highly adaptable species.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/08/forgotten-species-the-exotic-squirrel-with-a-super-tail/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24817</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Long lost mammal photographed on camera trap in Vietnam</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/03/long-lost-mammal-photographed-on-camera-trap-in-vietnam/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/03/long-lost-mammal-photographed-on-camera-trap-in-vietnam/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2014 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/03/long-lost-mammal-photographed-on-camera-trap-in-vietnam/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cryptic Species, Cryptozoology, Deforestation, DNA, Environment, Forests, Genetics, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hunting, Mammals, Overconsumption, Rainforests, Snares, Strange, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 1929, two sons of Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy Junior and Kermit) led an expedition that killed a barking deer, or muntjac, in present-day Laos, which has left scientists puzzled for over 80 years. At first scientists believed it to be a distinct species of muntjac and named it Roosevelts&#8217; muntjac (Muntiacus rooseveltorum), however that designation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 1929, two sons of Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy Junior and Kermit) led an expedition that killed a barking deer, or muntjac, in present-day Laos, which has left scientists puzzled for over 80 years. At first scientists believed it to be a distinct species of muntjac and named it Roosevelts&#8217; muntjac (Muntiacus rooseveltorum), however that designation was soon cast into doubt with some scientists claiming it was a specimen of an already-known muntjac or a subspecies. The problem was compounded by the fact that the animal simply disappeared in the wild. No one ever documented a living Roosevelts&#8217; muntjac again&#8212;until now. &#8220;The Roosevelts&#8217; barking deer&#8230;is one of the most poorly known mammal species in the world. Since it was described as a new species in the early 20th century&#8230;no records have been reported until its rediscovery in Laos [in 1999],&#8221; write a scientific team, headed by Min Le with Hanoi University of Science, in a new paper in Conservation Genetics that has finally solved the mystery of Roosevelts&#8217; muntjac. All trace of Roosevelts&#8217; muntjac vanished until 1999, when researchers found hunting trophies of the animals in Laos&#8212;though still no living animal. They conducted molecular studies on these specimens, which pointed to the fact that Roosevelts&#8217; muntjac was indeed a distinct species. One of the first ever photos of Roosevelts&#8217; muntjacs. Photo taken by camera trap in Xuan Lien Nature Reserve. Photo by: Xuan Lien Nature Reserve and CRES, VNU. &#8220;However, the taxonomic status of this species was thrown in dark again,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/03/long-lost-mammal-photographed-on-camera-trap-in-vietnam/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25490</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Elusive giraffe-relative &#8211; the okapi &#8211; now listed as Endangered</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/11/elusive-giraffe-relative-the-okapi-now-listed-as-endangered/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/11/elusive-giraffe-relative-the-okapi-now-listed-as-endangered/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/11/elusive-giraffe-relative-the-okapi-now-listed-as-endangered/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conflict, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Mammals, Megafauna, Poaching, Rainforests, Snares, and Ungulates]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The discovery of the okapi shocked the world in 1901. African explorer, Henry Stanley, called it &#8220;donkey-like,&#8221; while others thought it a new species of zebra, given the stripes. However, this notoriously-secretive rainforest ungulate proved to be the world&#8217;s only living relative of the giraffe, making it one of most incredible taxonomic discoveries of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The discovery of the okapi shocked the world in 1901. African explorer, Henry Stanley, called it &#8220;donkey-like,&#8221; while others thought it a new species of zebra, given the stripes. However, this notoriously-secretive rainforest ungulate proved to be the world&#8217;s only living relative of the giraffe, making it one of most incredible taxonomic discoveries of the Twentieth Century as well as one of the last large-bodied mammals to be uncovered by scientists. But the future of the okapi (Okapia johnstoni) is increasingly in doubt: a new update of the IUCN Red List released today has raised the threatened level for the okapi from Vulnerable to Endangered. Found only in the Ituri Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the okapi has been hit hard by deforestation, poaching for skins and bushmeat, bycatch in snaring, and, most importantly, roving bands of poachers and rebells. Nothing typifies the perilous situation of the okapi more than the attack last year on the headquarters of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Epulu. MaiMai rebels, led by an infamous poacher known simply as Morgan, launched a sneak attach on the station, killing six people and shooting dead 14 captive okapis that were meant as ambassadors of the species to the local community. Reportedly, the poachers were striking back for increased enforcement against wildlife poaching and illegal mining in the reserve. Okapi. Photo by: Bob Jenkins. In fact, the new assessment found that the okapi population with the Okapi Wildlife Reserve had dropped by 43 percent from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/11/elusive-giraffe-relative-the-okapi-now-listed-as-endangered/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-26014</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Asia&#8217;s &#8216;unicorn&#8217; photographed in Vietnam</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/11/asias-unicorn-photographed-in-vietnam/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/11/asias-unicorn-photographed-in-vietnam/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2013 17:53:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/11/asias-unicorn-photographed-in-vietnam/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, In-situ Conservation, Mammals, Poaching, Rainforests, Snares, Strange, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[World&#8217;s least-known big, land mammal caught on camera trap in Vietnam. In 1992, scientists made a spectacular discovery: a large, land mammal (200 pounds) that had somehow eluded science even as humans visited the moon and split the atom. Its discoverers, with WWF and Vietnam&#8217;s Ministry of Forestry, dubbed the species the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis). [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[World&#8217;s least-known big, land mammal caught on camera trap in Vietnam. In 1992, scientists made a spectacular discovery: a large, land mammal (200 pounds) that had somehow eluded science even as humans visited the moon and split the atom. Its discoverers, with WWF and Vietnam&#8217;s Ministry of Forestry, dubbed the species the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis). Found in the Annamite Mountains in Laos and Vietnam, the saola is a two-horned beautiful bovine that resembles an African antelope and, given its rarity, has been called the Asian unicorn. Since its discovery, scientists have managed to take photos via camera trap of a wild saola (in 1999) and even briefly studied live specimens brought into villages in Laos before they died (in 1996 and again in 2010), however the constant fear of extinction loomed over efforts to save the species. But WWF has announced good news today: a camera trap has taken photos of a saola in an unnamed protected area in Vietnam, the first documentation of the animal in the country in 15 years. &#8220;In Vietnam, the last sighting of a saola in the wild was in 1998,&#8221; says Dang Dinh Nguyen, Deputy Head of Quang Nam Forest Protection Department and Director of Quang Nam’s Saola Nature Reserve. &#8220;This is an historic moment in Vietnam’s efforts to protect our extraordinary biodiversity, and provides powerful evidence of the effectiveness of conservation efforts in critical saola habitat.&#8221; In 2011, the Vietnamese government set up the Saola Nature Reserve even though scientists weren&#8217;t certain how&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/11/asias-unicorn-photographed-in-vietnam/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-26094</doi>				</item>
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