<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=top-predators&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/top-predators/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 04 Nov 2026 10:23:41 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Top Predators</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/top-predators/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>In Nepal, AI builds on local knowledge to help prevent tiger attacks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/in-nepal-ai-builds-on-local-knowledge-to-help-prevent-tiger-attacks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/in-nepal-ai-builds-on-local-knowledge-to-help-prevent-tiger-attacks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2026 08:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Praveen Kumar Yadav]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/20073636/AP21090541435051-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333197</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Big Cats, Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Culture, Education, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Indigenous Peoples, Monitoring, Software, Technology, Tigers, Top Predators, Traditional Knowledge, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Bhadai Tharu says he still remembers the day a tiger attacked him. It was around 1 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2004. The encounter left him blind in his left eye. More than two decades later, the 59-year-old doesn’t speak ill of the animal that attacked him. “When incidents, like the one I was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Bhadai Tharu says he still remembers the day a tiger attacked him. It was around 1 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2004. The encounter left him blind in his left eye. More than two decades later, the 59-year-old doesn’t speak ill of the animal that attacked him. “When incidents, like the one I was involved in, happen, people get angry,” says Tharu, who is now chair of the Gauri Community Forest on the fringes of Bardiya National Park, a global hotspot for the endangered big cats. “Tigers have their role in the ecosystem, and both people and tigers should coexist,” Tharu says. His perspective comes as Nepal&#8217;s tiger population reaches a record 429 individuals, with Bardiya alone hosting 112. To avoid human-tiger encounters such as the one Tharu experienced, researchers turned to a survival skill long practiced by local people: listening to the forest. And for a while, at least, it seemed to have worked. The pilot project, documented in a recently published study, tested an artificial intelligence-powered system that “listens” to alarm calls from chital deer (Axis axis) and maps areas where tigers (Panthera tigris) or leopards (Panthera pardus) may be present and that humans should avoid. A chital deer in Bardiya National Park. The pilot project tested an AI-powered system that “listens” to alarm calls from chital deer. Image by Sunuwargr via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). A forest that speaks Long before researchers arrived with sensors and machine-learning models, Indigenous communities in Bardiya had already been&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/in-nepal-ai-builds-on-local-knowledge-to-help-prevent-tiger-attacks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/in-nepal-ai-builds-on-local-knowledge-to-help-prevent-tiger-attacks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333197</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>India’s tiger success brings a new challenge: Living alongside the big cats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indias-tiger-success-brings-a-new-challenge-living-alongside-the-big-cats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indias-tiger-success-brings-a-new-challenge-living-alongside-the-big-cats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Sep 2026 14:43:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Arathi Menon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/16122609/4.-Swami-Gowda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329853</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conflict, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Governance, Habitat, Human-wildlife Conflict, Predators, Protected Areas, Tigers, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forty-five-year-old Mahadeva Gowda was tending to his cotton farm in the village of Badagalapura in the southern Indian state of Karnataka when a tiger lunged at him from behind. He was caught unaware: He says he wasn’t aware that the forest department was trying to capture a tiger roaming through the area. Before he realized [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forty-five-year-old Mahadeva Gowda was tending to his cotton farm in the village of Badagalapura in the southern Indian state of Karnataka when a tiger lunged at him from behind. He was caught unaware: He says he wasn’t aware that the forest department was trying to capture a tiger roaming through the area. Before he realized what was happening, the tiger swiped at his face, severely injuring his eyes and part of his face. After multiple reconstructive surgeries, Gowda has been left to live the rest of his life blinded, without eyes, his mouth only able to open partially, and his speech slurred. His wife, Indrani, says survival is extremely difficult for the family: Gowda was the household’s breadwinner, and now, he can’t work. He’s now become fully dependent on his wife for even his most basic needs. The incident occurred in mid-October 2025. Two weeks later, another farmer, 55-year-old Rajashekarappa, was grazing his cattle in a field when he encountered a tiger: It was fatal. Badagalapura and other villages that regularly report tiger encounters sit on the edge of the forest, placing them within what the forest department considers a “tiger landscape.” “Tigers have been present in this landscape for centuries and they constantly move here,” says S. Prabhakaran, who served as conservator of forests and oversaw operations at Karnataka’s Bandipur Tiger Reserve until earlier this year. The 1,456-square-kilometer (562-square-mile) park is home to between 154 and 175 tigers, according to a 2024 estimate by India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indias-tiger-success-brings-a-new-challenge-living-alongside-the-big-cats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indias-tiger-success-brings-a-new-challenge-living-alongside-the-big-cats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329853</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Don’t shoot. Listen’: The AI-aided quest to understand Yellowstone’s wolves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/dont-shoot-listen-the-ai-aided-quest-to-understand-yellowstones-wolves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/dont-shoot-listen-the-ai-aided-quest-to-understand-yellowstones-wolves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2026 21:53:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/16130943/1-Wolf-907-Evan-Stout-BANNER-PHOTO-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329875</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Canids, Conflict, Conservation Technology, Ethics, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Science, Technology, Top Predators, Wildlife, Wildtech, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Jeff Reed wasn’t raised to hate wolves. But as a child he bought into the Little Red Riding Hood myth regarding their villainous nature. You see one, you shoot it. But not on a night on his Montana farm some five years ago, a night that proved life-changing not only for Reed, but perhaps for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Jeff Reed wasn’t raised to hate wolves. But as a child he bought into the Little Red Riding Hood myth regarding their villainous nature. You see one, you shoot it. But not on a night on his Montana farm some five years ago, a night that proved life-changing not only for Reed, but perhaps for the study and conservation of wolves. “I thought it was a large coyote,” Reed recalls. “It was standing broadside in my [pickup truck] headlights, like 10 yards away, this big, beautiful gray wolf. And he&#8217;s just looking at me. I open the door, grab my rifle, and he&#8217;s standing there … I’m pointing my barrel, looking at it. “Then all of a sudden — you can call it an Apostle Paul sees Jesus for the first time and goes blind moment — and I just go, ‘What the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this?’ So I shot over its back, like way high. It didn’t bolt. It just trotted right beside me … and kept going.” Reed heeded that night’s sacred call. It wasn’t long before wolf indifference morphed into obsession, and led to his linking up with the world’s leading long-term wolf research effort. Which may seem like an odd fit, Reed being a Ph.D. linguist who spent much of his career up to that point leading software engineering for Silicon Valley firms. But all that knowledge has intertwined perfectly: The Cry Wolf Project is grounded in bioacoustics and artificial intelligence&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/dont-shoot-listen-the-ai-aided-quest-to-understand-yellowstones-wolves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/dont-shoot-listen-the-ai-aided-quest-to-understand-yellowstones-wolves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/16174234/1-audio-clip-great-play-sounds-from-an-adult-play_sounds_YNP1_20230726_010002_44.91887-110.58058_17493_2110.wav" length="0" type="audio/wav" />
<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/16174546/2-audio-clip-Chewbacca-Howl.wav" length="0" type="audio/wav" />
<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/16174553/3-audio-clip-8-Mile-Wolf-Modulated-Howl-NPS-and-Jeffrey-T-Reed.wav" length="0" type="audio/wav" />
<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/16174602/4-audio-clip-907-Echo-Howl-NPS-and-Jeffrey-T-Reed.wav" length="0" type="audio/wav" />
<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/16174611/5-audio-clip-907F-Howling-NPS-and-Jeffrey-T-Reed.wav" length="0" type="audio/wav" />
<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/16174823/6-audio-clip-Rescue-Pup-Echo-Howl-Left-Alone-at-the-Den-NPS-and-Jeffrey-T-Reed.wav" length="0" type="audio/wav" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329875</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As British Columbia mulls continued wolf-killing to save caribou, critics say habitat loss is the real threat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/as-british-columbia-mulls-continued-wolf-killing-to-save-caribou-critics-say-habitat-loss-is-the-real-threat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/as-british-columbia-mulls-continued-wolf-killing-to-save-caribou-critics-say-habitat-loss-is-the-real-threat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2026 13:19:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/31125406/caribou-canada-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327912</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[British Columbia, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Development, Ecosystems, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Infrastructure, Mammals, Research, Top Predators, Ungulates, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The government of the Canadian province of British Columbia is in talks to extend its decade-long wolf cull program by another five years. Since 2015, the province has killed wolves in areas with declining populations of endangered woodland caribou as part of its Caribou Recovery Program. In April 2026, provincial authorities began engaging key stakeholders [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The government of the Canadian province of British Columbia is in talks to extend its decade-long wolf cull program by another five years. Since 2015, the province has killed wolves in areas with declining populations of endangered woodland caribou as part of its Caribou Recovery Program. In April 2026, provincial authorities began engaging key stakeholders about the proposed extension, including about 70 First Nations in affected areas, hundreds of landowners, environmental NGOs and others. They’re expected to make a final decision by October, according to a spokesperson from the provincial Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship and the Ministry of Forests, in an email statement to Mongabay. If the proposal passes, the government will continue shooting gray wolves (Canis lupus), the primary predators of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), in 15 areas with herds. Eleven of these locations will have a yearly cull; in four, the canids will be killed every two years, the spokesperson said. B.C.’s wolf cull program was instituted to reverse historic caribou declines. Provincial data today show the ungulate’s numbers are rising in areas where wolves are killed. But the proposed extension, without steps to address habitat loss, has sparked outrage and concern among conservationists and scientists. Woodland caribou are on the brink in B.C., and the province is trying to save the remaining herds through maternal penning and supplemental feeding, in addition to killing predators. Image © Jocelyn Allen via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0). This is an “equivocal, intensely debated” issue, said wildlife biologist&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/as-british-columbia-mulls-continued-wolf-killing-to-save-caribou-critics-say-habitat-loss-is-the-real-threat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/as-british-columbia-mulls-continued-wolf-killing-to-save-caribou-critics-say-habitat-loss-is-the-real-threat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327912</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cougars cut deadly vehicle-deer collisions in the US by up to 76%, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cougars-cut-deadly-vehicle-deer-collisions-in-the-u-s-by-up-to-76-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cougars-cut-deadly-vehicle-deer-collisions-in-the-u-s-by-up-to-76-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2026 13:06:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Starre Vartan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/18174235/1-cougar-on-road-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326556</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Environment, Mammals, Predators, Research, Roadkill, Roads, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If you’re a black-tailed deer on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington, you’re always surrounded by friends and family. You are free-range, with abundant food to forage in familiar woods and meadows. But you’re also vigilant because you’re a prey species and your ideal habitat is also home to your top predators: [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If you’re a black-tailed deer on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington, you’re always surrounded by friends and family. You are free-range, with abundant food to forage in familiar woods and meadows. But you’re also vigilant because you’re a prey species and your ideal habitat is also home to your top predators: Cascade mountain wolves (Canis lupus fuscus), cougars (Puma concolor) and black bears (Ursus americanus). Avoiding the animals that will hunt you and your fawns is an integral part of how you move across the landscape. Cougars, padding on giant, soundless paws, are to be especially feared, as you are their favorite meal. As such, cougars directly impact where you go to find food, water and rest, and when you do it, according to a new study in the journal Current Biology.  The study reinforces the idea that the presence of cougars, also known as pumas, mountain lions and some 40 other names in English, alters how their prey uses the landscape. In doing so, they keep humans safer by pushing the region’s black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) away from roads and potential collisions with vehicles. Nationwide, there are 1.6-2.1 million accidents involving deer every year in the U.S., killing 200-440 people and costing about $10 billion a year, according to data cited in a 2025 study. The cats aren’t patrolling the highways and chasing deer away from traffic, of course. “The deer know where they&#8217;re most likely to be at risk of an encounter with a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cougars-cut-deadly-vehicle-deer-collisions-in-the-u-s-by-up-to-76-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cougars-cut-deadly-vehicle-deer-collisions-in-the-u-s-by-up-to-76-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326556</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Endangered West African leopards show signs of recovery, despite odds. &#8216;It&#8217;s a win&#8217;</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/endangered-west-african-leopards-show-signs-of-recovery-despite-odds-its-a-win/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/endangered-west-african-leopards-show-signs-of-recovery-despite-odds-its-a-win/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2026 13:13:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/02112035/Image-2-e1782991483626-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322381</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Leopards, Mammals, National Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s been difficult to monitor West African leopards in Benin’s Pendjari National Park: It’s a large wilderness area, situated within a hotspot of armed conflict. The park is among the last strongholds for this geographically distinct leopard population — but a recent study shared hopeful news. Leopard density in the park increased over a six-year [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s been difficult to monitor West African leopards in Benin’s Pendjari National Park: It’s a large wilderness area, situated within a hotspot of armed conflict. The park is among the last strongholds for this geographically distinct leopard population — but a recent study shared hopeful news. Leopard density in the park increased over a six-year period, according to a study published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation. The park has been managed by the nonprofit African Parks since 2017 in partnership with the government — and this conservation effort seems to be working. “It’s a win,” said study lead author Marine Drouilly, a biologist with Panthera, the global wild cat conservation non-profit. West African leopards are geographically separated from other African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) populations. In 2025, they were listed as regionally endangered on the IUCN Red List, after suffering a 50% decline over the past two decades. Numbers are estimated at just 354 across West Africa. In addition to Pendjari, important strongholds include the Niokolo-Koba–Badiar landscape in Senegal and the Guinea, Taï and Comoé National Parks in Côte d’Ivoire and Mole National Park in Ghana. A rapidly growing human population across West Africa means wildlife habitat is disappearing and becoming more fragmented, isolating already small leopard populations, Drouilly said, while widespread bushmeat hunting leaves leopards without enough prey. There’s a growing threat from poachers continent-wide, as leopards are targeted for their spotted skins, canine teeth, bones and other body parts,  killed to supply the illegal wildlife trade&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/endangered-west-african-leopards-show-signs-of-recovery-despite-odds-its-a-win/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/endangered-west-african-leopards-show-signs-of-recovery-despite-odds-its-a-win/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322381</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife’s unpredictable movements make climate-change planning difficult</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2026 10:40:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/30143313/6-Florida-panther-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322109</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Animal Behavior, Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Biology, Carnivores, Cats, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fragmentation, Habitat, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Megafauna, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Protected Areas, Research, Science, Temperatures, Threatened species, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New England’s winters have long been a punishing force. Forests fade in and out of deep freezes. Animals pile on fat for warmth in anticipation of the harsh weather to come. Others flee south, seeking warmer refuges. However, over the past 50 years, winters there have become much milder. In the northeastern U.S., winters now [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[New England’s winters have long been a punishing force. Forests fade in and out of deep freezes. Animals pile on fat for warmth in anticipation of the harsh weather to come. Others flee south, seeking warmer refuges. However, over the past 50 years, winters there have become much milder. In the northeastern U.S., winters now average between 4 and 5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 and 2.7 degrees Celsius) warmer than in the 1970s. Snowfall can be sparse, and there are usually fewer days of extreme cold. For decades, ecologists have expected that animals living within narrow climate niches would adapt to rising temperatures by moving northwards or upslope to higher elevations. For example, they thought the American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) in the northeastern U.S. would move up into the mountains in search of cold. But in a study published last year, scientists found that despite warmer winters, the squirrels haven’t sought out higher elevations. Rather, they’ve relocated downslope, seemingly drawn by the return of red spruce forest following a period of dieback. The tiny forest critters, it seems, are prioritizing habitat over temperature. The red squirrel isn’t alone. Thousands of plants and animals that scientists thought would be on the move in response to rising global temperatures don’t yet seem to have hit the road. In a 2023 study in the journal Environmental Evidence, scientists reviewed the observed range movements of more than 12,000 species, both terrestrial and marine, to see whether they aligned with what ecologists had expected would&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322109</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Endangered Persian leopards persist across borders, despite hunters and landmines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2026 16:15:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kayleigh Long]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/15145758/captive-leopard-cat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319523</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Georgia (Country)]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Leopards, Mammals, Predators, Top Predators, War, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last September, zoologist and conservationist Bejan Lortkipanidze received a video file from a collaborator, Zurab Gurielidze, the head of Georgia’s Tbilisi Zoo. Gurielidze offered no details, but told his friend to &#8220;just watch.&#8221; For several moments, Lortkipanidze saw nothing remarkable — just nighttime footage of a high fence topped with razor wire. Then a leopard [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last September, zoologist and conservationist Bejan Lortkipanidze received a video file from a collaborator, Zurab Gurielidze, the head of Georgia’s Tbilisi Zoo. Gurielidze offered no details, but told his friend to &#8220;just watch.&#8221; For several moments, Lortkipanidze saw nothing remarkable — just nighttime footage of a high fence topped with razor wire. Then a leopard entered the frame. Lortkipanidze, who is co-founder of the Georgian conservation NGO NACRES, was stunned: It was just the third sighting of a Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana) in the south Caucasus nation in 20 years. The footage wasn&#8217;t from a wildlife camera trap. It came from a standard CCTV camera that surveilled the perimeter of a new breeding enclosure for endangered Caucasian red deer (Cervus elaphus maral) in Algeti National Park, situated an hour west of Tbilisi. The video quickly circulated around the conservation community. Vazha Kochiashvili, a biologist with WWF Caucasus, saw it: It was sent to him by the man tasked with checking the deer enclosure footage for Georgia&#8217;s National Agency of Wildlife, Sergo Tabagari, who called him immediately after he saw the cat while reviewing footage. Kochiashvili said he had a hunch and asked his friend: &#8220;Does the leopard have three legs?&#8221; It did. The male leopard’s name is Aren and, over the last few years, he’s roamed across at least two international borders. Persian leopards once traversed a vast territory that lies between Russia, the Middle East and the Caspian and Black seas. They’re wide-ranging animals, and Aren’s journey underscores&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319523</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New study explores how reforestation could help Java&#8217;s leopards survive</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-study-explores-how-reforestation-could-help-javas-leopards-survive/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-study-explores-how-reforestation-could-help-javas-leopards-survive/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 May 2026 01:33:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/03/19054541/Foto-CI-Perhutani-YOJ-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319188</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Java, East Java, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Development, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Infrastructure, Leopards, Mammals, Predators, Top Predators, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reforestation done right could be key to helping rebuild habitat connectivity for Javan leopards on an island with one of the highest human densities on Earth, a new study says. It frames strategic forest restoration — linking up fragmented patches of forest to create contiguous corridors — as offering a rare pathway to balance rapid [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Reforestation done right could be key to helping rebuild habitat connectivity for Javan leopards on an island with one of the highest human densities on Earth, a new study says. It frames strategic forest restoration — linking up fragmented patches of forest to create contiguous corridors — as offering a rare pathway to balance rapid infrastructure expansion with the conservation of the endangered big cat. “And to implement this, strong commitment from various stakeholders is needed, given Java’s highly fragmented landscape; this will undoubtedly be a significant challenge,” study lead author Andhika C. Ariyanto, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, told Mongabay by email. Camera-trap image of a Javan leopard on Mount Sanggabuana, West Java province. Image courtesy of Sanggabuana Wildlife Ranger. The study is the first to produce an islandwide model of habitat connectivity for the Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas), offering conservationists a new tool to identify which forest corridors should be protected and restored as infrastructure development expands across Java, Andhika said. By comparing the impact of new roads and railways with a scenario in which degraded forests were restored, Andhika and his colleagues found that replanting trees in key areas could help reconnect fragmented habitats throughout Java and give wildlife, including leopards, more room to move and survive. They looked at key forest areas used by leopards across Java, an island half the size of the U.S. state of Texas with five times its population. This high human population density has&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-study-explores-how-reforestation-could-help-javas-leopards-survive/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-study-explores-how-reforestation-could-help-javas-leopards-survive/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319188</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The value of South Africa’s wildlife shouldn&#8217;t be in the hands of wealthy foreign hunters (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 12:07:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stephanie Klarmann]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/27145726/gemsbok-Oryx-gazella-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318405</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Commentary, Conservation, Ecotourism, Environment, Ethics, Hunting, Lions, Predators, Top Predators, Trade, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[South Africa’s conservation debate is too often anchored within the blunt slogan, “If it pays, it stays.” At face value, this appears pragmatic, even responsible. But there’s a troubling premise underneath it: the survival of South Africa’s wildlife depends on its ability to generate an enormous income for a select group of wealthy farmers and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[South Africa’s conservation debate is too often anchored within the blunt slogan, “If it pays, it stays.” At face value, this appears pragmatic, even responsible. But there’s a troubling premise underneath it: the survival of South Africa’s wildlife depends on its ability to generate an enormous income for a select group of wealthy farmers and professional hunters from an even wealthier foreign clientele. According to this logic, wildlife is protected not because it is ecologically vital, culturally significant, or ethically deserving of life, but purely because it can be killed for a hefty price. When conservation is built on the premise that wildlife must pay its way to exist, we should ask not only who benefits, but what is being lost, and at whose expense. Each year I examine the professional hunting statistics provided to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to demand transparency regarding how South Africa’s wildlife is being utilized for financial gain. The most recently available statistics (for 2024) show a substantial increase of 17%: 7,756 visitors killed 40,508 wild animals (if one includes indigenous mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and exotic mammals also killed). For proponents of the euphemistically termed “sustainable use,” this will naturally look like a significant success. But can we continue to justify the continuous intensification and amplification of commercial wildlife use on ecological and ethical grounds? Number of animals hunted and hunting clients in South Africa, 2018-2024. Table provided by the author. ‘If it pays, it stays’ Superficially, this phrase&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318405</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationist wins top award to protect lions and people in Zimbabwe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 02:49:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/28190853/a-Moreangels_Mbizah_2026_Zimbabwe_Chizarira_National_Park_Moreangels_Mbizah_Posing_During_Lion_Tracking_Session_01-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318318</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Cattle, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Lions, Mammals, Predators, Solutions, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lion conservationist Moreangels Mbizah and her colleagues chose the name “Batabilili” for the community guardians they’re training in northern Zimbabwe. The word means &#8220;protectors&#8221; in the local language, Tonga, and its meaning cuts both ways: the guardians protect people and their livestock from lions, and lions from people. Both jobs are essential in this part [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lion conservationist Moreangels Mbizah and her colleagues chose the name “Batabilili” for the community guardians they’re training in northern Zimbabwe. The word means &#8220;protectors&#8221; in the local language, Tonga, and its meaning cuts both ways: the guardians protect people and their livestock from lions, and lions from people. Both jobs are essential in this part of the Southern African country. When cattle are killed by lions, the economic losses suffered by families are considerable; when farmers retaliate by killing lions, it worsens the plight of an emblematic species, Panthera leo, now vulnerable to extinction across the continent. “In some cases these lions are female lions and at times some of them would have cubs, so when the females die [at the hands of people] the cubs would probably die [also],” says Mbizah, who is the winner of one of this year’s Whitley Awards, prestigious international conservation prizes given out annually by the U.K.’s Whitley Fund for Nature. A young lion at rest. Image courtesy of the Whitley Fund for Nature. The 50,000-pound ($67,500) prize money will go toward supporting the work by Mbizah’s NGO, Wildlife Conservation Action, in three additional rural wards — small administrative areas comprising clusters of villages and around 4,800 people — that are prone to human-carnivore conflict. This will include the recruitment of six new Batabilili. The protectors head out early each morning to look for tracks or droppings and warn farmers about the presence of predators or elephants (Loxodonta africana) so that they can avoid&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318318</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study finds livestock pushing lions away from shared rangeland in Kenya</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2026 20:05:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/12195736/Lions_Kenya_MaraPredatorConservationProgram-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315684</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Cattle, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Human-wildlife Conflict, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Lions, Mammals, National Parks, Pasture, Predators, Solutions, Top Predators, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lions, Africa’s largest predators, are a near-universal source of fear for the continent’s wildlife. But in Kenya, it’s the king of the jungle that’s now becoming fearful — of domestic livestock. In Kenya, most wildlife is found outside formally protected areas. The lions, zebras and elephants that attract tourists mostly live in pastoralist rangeland. For [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lions, Africa’s largest predators, are a near-universal source of fear for the continent’s wildlife. But in Kenya, it’s the king of the jungle that’s now becoming fearful — of domestic livestock. In Kenya, most wildlife is found outside formally protected areas. The lions, zebras and elephants that attract tourists mostly live in pastoralist rangeland. For farmers and herders, this can be both a curse — coexistence is hard work where predators sometimes attack livestock and cattle compete with wild herbivores for grass — and a blessing — many community-owned conservancies profitably lease portions of their land to tourism operators for safaris and lodges, generating revenue for their members. In most conservancies’ grazing plans, herders can make use of the entire landscape. This allows grazing pressure to be more evenly distributed, but it also assumes that when herders and their livestock aren’t present in an area, other herbivores and the predators that hunt them make free use of the space. Niels Mogensen, a biologist with the Mara Predator Conservation Program, a Kenya Wildlife Trust initiative aimed at preserving large carnivores, says no one had actually checked to see if this was true before now. A lioness with cubs, Mara Conservancy, Kenya. Image by Ross Pollack via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).  Between 2015 and 2023, he and his colleagues carried out surveys at seven community-owned wildlife conservancies in the Mara ecosystem. They covered nearly 69,000 kilometers (43,000 miles) in total, collecting data about the presence of lions, and wild and domestic herbivores.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315684</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Botswana shows how smarter cattle herding can save lions, reopen ancient wildlife pathways</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/botswana-shows-how-smarter-cattle-herding-can-save-lions-reopen-ancient-wildlife-pathways/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/botswana-shows-how-smarter-cattle-herding-can-save-lions-reopen-ancient-wildlife-pathways/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Feb 2026 13:51:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/20101714/africa-lion-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314550</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Pastoralists in a Changing World]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Botswana, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Cattle, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Human-wildlife Conflict, Lions, Mammals, Predators, Solutions, Top Predators, Traditional Knowledge, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The lions that roamed the plains of northern Botswana were dying. One by one, the big cats were succumbing to poisoned bait planted by exasperated villagers. The lions had been chipping away at their livelihood, feasting on the cattle that they left to graze along the Okavango Delta. By the end of 2013, around 30 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The lions that roamed the plains of northern Botswana were dying. One by one, the big cats were succumbing to poisoned bait planted by exasperated villagers. The lions had been chipping away at their livelihood, feasting on the cattle that they left to graze along the Okavango Delta. By the end of 2013, around 30 lions — more than half of the northern Okavango population — had been killed in just one year. More than a decade later, the situation is radically different. The lion population has rebounded. Cub survival rate is up. And cattle losses are dramatically down. It’s the result of years of hard work: restoring traditional herding practices, collaring and tracking lions, and, most recently, establishing a market for ‘wildlife-friendly beef.’ This serves as a model, wildlife advocates say, for other parts of southern Africa where modern grazing practices have collided with big cats’ appetites. “It can be adapted to just about anywhere,” said Andrew Stein, the founder of Communities Living Sustainably Among Wildlife (CLAWS) Conservancy, which is based in Botswana. In the last 25 years, more than half the lions have vanished from the plains of Africa, largely due to conflicts with communities. As human populations have expanded, the animal’s range has shrunk, leaving remnant isolated groups. Today, there are fewer than 25,000 lions left across the continent. But in southern Africa, one large continuous population still roams the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), the world’s largest transnational land-based protected area, which runs across Angola,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/botswana-shows-how-smarter-cattle-herding-can-save-lions-reopen-ancient-wildlife-pathways/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/botswana-shows-how-smarter-cattle-herding-can-save-lions-reopen-ancient-wildlife-pathways/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers eye jaguar conservation wins under Brazil Indigenous stewardship project</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/researchers-eye-jaguar-conservation-wins-under-brazil-indigenous-stewardship-project/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/researchers-eye-jaguar-conservation-wins-under-brazil-indigenous-stewardship-project/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2026 16:20:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[James HallKarla Mendes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/08181934/Onca_do_Pantanal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314428</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Caatinga, Cerrado, Latin America, Pantanal, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Jaguars, Mammals, Predators, Rainforests, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PAU BRASIL, Brazil — Indigenous leader Fábio Titiah recalls the night he walked the trail to the village of Água Vermelha, in the Caramuru-Paraguassu Indigenous Territory. At around 10 p.m., a shadow burst from the undergrowth and sprang across the road. He says he saw, startled, its glistening, pitch-black pelt and recognized it as one [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PAU BRASIL, Brazil — Indigenous leader Fábio Titiah recalls the night he walked the trail to the village of Água Vermelha, in the Caramuru-Paraguassu Indigenous Territory. At around 10 p.m., a shadow burst from the undergrowth and sprang across the road. He says he saw, startled, its glistening, pitch-black pelt and recognized it as one of the rarest animals of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest: a black jaguar (Panthera onca). For Titiah, one of the 21 caciques (chiefs) of the Caramuru-Paraguassu territory in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia, the fleeting sighting of the big cat was a spiritual encounter and a sign of changes afoot in Indigenous lands. “There was a time when we started the reclamation process, when we [re]occupied our territories, and found a large part of our land transformed into cattle pasture,” Titiah tells Mongabay at his house in the municipality of Pau Brasil, adjacent to the Caramuru-Paraguassu territory, where he’s a city councilor. “Then our people left a good part of these areas to regenerate. Some animals that hadn’t been seen here before started appearing. The jaguar started to return.” The transformation of the Caramuru-Paraguassu territory has been enabled in part by Ywy Ipuranguete (“beautiful lands” in the Tupi-Guarani language), a nationwide project to strengthen and support Indigenous stewardship across 15 Indigenous territories. Building on the recognition of Indigenous lands as vital for wildlife and ecosystems, Brazil’s Ministry of Indigenous Peoples launched the initiative to safeguard about 6 million hectares (15 million acres) of some of Brazil’s most&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/researchers-eye-jaguar-conservation-wins-under-brazil-indigenous-stewardship-project/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/researchers-eye-jaguar-conservation-wins-under-brazil-indigenous-stewardship-project/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314428</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Five detained over alleged hunting in Javan leopard habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/five-detained-over-alleged-hunting-in-javan-leopard-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/five-detained-over-alleged-hunting-in-javan-leopard-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jan 2026 04:10:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/28075814/Macan-tutul-Sanggabuana3-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313422</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Leopards, Mammals, Poaching, Predators, Top Predators, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Rangers, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian authorities have detained five people in connection with the alleged illegal hunting and shooting of an endangered Javan leopard in the Gunung Sanggabuana conservation forest in West Java, a case that has intensified scrutiny of wildlife protection failures and the limits of enforcement on the ground. The arrests followed the circulation of viral videos [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian authorities have detained five people in connection with the alleged illegal hunting and shooting of an endangered Javan leopard in the Gunung Sanggabuana conservation forest in West Java, a case that has intensified scrutiny of wildlife protection failures and the limits of enforcement on the ground. The arrests followed the circulation of viral videos and camera trap footage showing suspected hunters operating inside the protected forest. West Java Police Chief Inspector General Rudi Setiawan said the suspects were detained after investigators acted on public reports and digital evidence, and that they will be charged under environmental and wildlife protection laws. Public concern grew after camera trap footage from October through November 2025, released in January 2026, showed a Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) limping with a serious front leg injury, alongside separate clips of suspected poachers carrying firearms, bladed weapons and hunting dogs. Authorities suspect the wound was caused by a gunshot fired by poachers. “The priority now is ensuring the ecosystem remains protected and that there are no further disturbances to wildlife,” Rudi said as quoted by local news portal Kompas on Jan. 27. Footage showing the alleged hunters of the injured Javan leopard. Image courtesy of Sanggabuana Conservation Foundation. The leopard, classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List with an estimated wild population of around 350, is Java’s last surviving top predator following the extinction of the Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica). The leopard faces mounting threats from hunting, habitat loss and dwindling prey. Conservationists, however,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/five-detained-over-alleged-hunting-in-javan-leopard-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/five-detained-over-alleged-hunting-in-javan-leopard-habitat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313422</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Choosing coexistence over conflict: How some California ranchers are adapting to wolves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2025 10:37:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09032556/5039508124_3c17714711_o-e1765375705294-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308191</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Canids, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Hunting, Law, Mammals, National Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the fourth part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read Part 1,  Part 2 and Part 3. A lone gray wolf (Canis lupus) named OR-7 — then a 2 ½-year-old male — created history when he crossed over the state line from Oregon into California in 2011, becoming the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the fourth part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read Part 1,  Part 2 and Part 3. A lone gray wolf (Canis lupus) named OR-7 — then a 2 ½-year-old male — created history when he crossed over the state line from Oregon into California in 2011, becoming the first wolf to set foot in the state after nearly a century. His arrival, followed by his descendants who then established new packs, became a thumping conservation success for an endangered species in present-day California. Meandering the vast wilderness that straddles the border between the two states, OR-7 visited a few ranches in northern California on his 4,830-kilometer (3,000-mile) journey, including Mark Coats’ place in Siskiyou County. Coats, who was recuperating from an injury at the time, vividly remembers that visit. He’s raised cattle for more than five decades now. “My neighbor came over and said, ‘Mark, there&#8217;s a wolf on your ranch. Don&#8217;t shoot it. They’ll put you in jail,’” Coats said. That night, he found OR-7’s footprints on his property. Various predators had killed his cattle over the years: coyotes (C. latrans), black bears (Ursus americanus) and mountain lions (Puma concolor). But wolves were new. After the last gray wolves were shot down in the 1920s, generations of California’s ranchers raised their cattle without having to worry about — or prepare for — this predator in their landscape. OR-7’s visit panicked Coats and his fellow ranchers. “I was already losing five calves a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308191</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Predators in peril: Protected areas cover just a fraction of global carnivore ranges</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/predators-in-peril-protected-areas-cover-just-a-fraction-of-global-carnivore-ranges/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/predators-in-peril-protected-areas-cover-just-a-fraction-of-global-carnivore-ranges/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2025 00:45:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alonso Daboub]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03003720/Carnivores-Photo-5-e1774435069845-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310459</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Indigenous Reserves, Mammals, Predators, Protected Areas, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Slinking beneath the greenery of the Amazon is a cat whose territory far exceeds its stature. Despite weighing less than the average housecat, scientists say the northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus) stalks a territory of up to 50 square kilometers (around 20 square miles). And this small, spotted feline is not alone — carnivores around [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Slinking beneath the greenery of the Amazon is a cat whose territory far exceeds its stature. Despite weighing less than the average housecat, scientists say the northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus) stalks a territory of up to 50 square kilometers (around 20 square miles). And this small, spotted feline is not alone — carnivores around the world depend on vast swaths of natural land to survive. But their ranges are in peril. A northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus) in the Brazilian savannas of Mirador State Park. In South America, these cats face threats from multiple sources, including viruses from dogs and fragmented habitats due to human development. Image Credit: Wild Cats Brazil-Americas Conservation Program / Tiger Cats Conservation Initiative Human pressure is degrading the territory many carnivores need to hunt and breed, according to a recent study in Science Advances that assessed the impacts on the ranges and populations of 257 species across the planet. The researchers found that 64% of the total, combined range of these carnivores overlaps with areas of high human population density and urban infrastructure. Only 35% of this range overlaps with any kind of conservation lands. Many large carnivores included in the assessment are keystone species whose populations are critical to the health of entire ecosystems, said co-author Nuria Selva, an ecologist at the Doñana Biological Station in Seville, Spain. “We need to keep ecosystems functioning, and carnivores are very important pieces of these ecosystems.” Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) mother and cub in in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/predators-in-peril-protected-areas-cover-just-a-fraction-of-global-carnivore-ranges/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/predators-in-peril-protected-areas-cover-just-a-fraction-of-global-carnivore-ranges/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310459</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>First state-authorized killings mark escalation in California’s management of wolves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/first-state-authorized-killings-mark-escalation-in-californias-management-of-wolves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/first-state-authorized-killings-mark-escalation-in-californias-management-of-wolves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Nov 2025 08:24:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/24102253/RSGray_wolf_Minnesota_dalliedee_CC_BY-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310024</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Canids, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Hunting, Law, Mammals, National Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the third part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first, second and fourth parts. In late October, wildlife authorities in the U.S. state of California announced they captured and euthanized three adult gray wolves and shot a juvenile dead, all from the Beyem Seyo pack in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the third part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first, second and fourth parts. In late October, wildlife authorities in the U.S. state of California announced they captured and euthanized three adult gray wolves and shot a juvenile dead, all from the Beyem Seyo pack in the Sierra Valley. Wardens killed them, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said, because the wolves (Canis lupus) had become “habituated to preying on cattle” rather than hunting elk, deer and other wild prey. The wolves killed were a breeding pair, an adult female, and a juvenile male “mistaken” for the adult male. Officers also found the remains of two other juveniles from the same pack that were severely decomposed. The cause of death remains unknown, and authorities are investigating. This pack took down at least 88 head of cattle between January and October 2025 according to a new CDFW report — about half of the 175 livestock deaths statewide and one of the highest rates in any western U.S. state where wolves live. The killings follow months of using nonlethal deterrents to keep wolves away, including drones, all-terrain vehicles, flapping strips of bright-colored “fladry” strung along fences, and round-the-clock human presence. CDFW deployed a strike team in June, where officers spent more than 18,000 staff hours using these methods, also called hazing, but the wolves continued killing cattle. “The Beyem Seyo pack became so reliant on cattle at an unprecedented level, and we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/first-state-authorized-killings-mark-escalation-in-californias-management-of-wolves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/first-state-authorized-killings-mark-escalation-in-californias-management-of-wolves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310024</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>45 more shark species up for CITES protections; tight vote expected</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/45-more-shark-species-up-for-cites-protections-tight-vote-expected/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/45-more-shark-species-up-for-cites-protections-tight-vote-expected/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Nov 2025 17:43:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/26174022/Mustelus_asterias-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310229</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Fish, Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Overfishing, Predators, Sharks, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 180 nations gathering in Uzbekistan this week for the annual CITES conference could vote as early as Thursday on a proposal to regulate international trade in nearly 30 species of houndshark, a measure that would bring the vast majority of global shark trade under the wildlife body’s oversight. The measure would add three [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 180 nations gathering in Uzbekistan this week for the annual CITES conference could vote as early as Thursday on a proposal to regulate international trade in nearly 30 species of houndshark, a measure that would bring the vast majority of global shark trade under the wildlife body’s oversight. The measure would add three endangered houndsharks — the school shark (Galeorhinus galeus), common smoothhound (Mustelus mustelus) and Patagonian narrownose smoothhound (Mustelus schmitti) — as well as 26 lookalike species to CITES Appendix II, which would require countries to set up permit systems certifying that any foreign shipments of the animals are legal and sustainable. A family of about 40 small-to-medium-sized sharks known as Triakidae, houndsharks are widely consumed for their meat in southern Europe, where they’re eaten in a variety of dishes, and Australia, where they’re often the main component in fish and chips. Houndsharks can be found in restaurants in Athens, school lunches in Italy and taverns in Spain — though their meat isn’t always labeled as shark, so many people who eat it don’t realize what kind of fish it is. As bigger shark species have gradually come under CITES control, houndshark fins are increasingly turning up in Hong Kong, the world’s biggest shark fin trade hub, according to a genetic study published last year in Science Advances. “We also need to protect the small sharks,” Ralf Sonntag, marine biologist at Pro Wildlife, a German NGO, told Mongabay by phone from the Uzbek city of Samarkand, where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/45-more-shark-species-up-for-cites-protections-tight-vote-expected/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/45-more-shark-species-up-for-cites-protections-tight-vote-expected/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310229</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report finds dangerous mercury levels, highlights mislabeling in shark meat sold in EU</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-finds-dangerous-mercury-levels-highlights-mislabeling-in-shark-meat-sold-in-euevels-mislabeling-in-shark-meat-sold-in-eu/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-finds-dangerous-mercury-levels-highlights-mislabeling-in-shark-meat-sold-in-euevels-mislabeling-in-shark-meat-sold-in-eu/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2025 15:13:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Fitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/28155428/GP0STU63X_Low-res-800px-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308468</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Fisheries, Fishing, Food Industry, Health, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, Overfishing, Predators, Public Health, Sharks, and Top Predators]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Shark meat sold across Europe may be serving up more than seafood. Dangerously high levels of methylmercury, toxic to humans, were present in nearly a third of shark meat samples taken from European restaurants, fishmongers and supermarkets, according to a new report by a group of marine conservation NGOs. The findings suggest that Europeans are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Shark meat sold across Europe may be serving up more than seafood. Dangerously high levels of methylmercury, toxic to humans, were present in nearly a third of shark meat samples taken from European restaurants, fishmongers and supermarkets, according to a new report by a group of marine conservation NGOs. The findings suggest that Europeans are routinely consuming shark meat that would fail food safety tests if it were monitored more closely. All tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus) samples and 22.7% of blue shark (Prionace glauca) samples analyzed exceeded safe levels, some by more than four times the maximum permitted in shark meat for human consumption under EU rules. Average mercury across all samples analyzed was less than a 10th of a milligram per kilogram below the maximum permitted, according to the report. “We were astonished at how high the contamination levels were in all of the samples,” report co-author and marine biologist Julian Münster of the German campaign group Stop Finning Deutschland, told Mongabay. “We did not expect the average methylmercury contamination to be just below the maximum limit.” Who eats shark meat, though? You may well ask. The report, published Oct. 15, also raised concerns about misleading shark-meat labeling, citing examples where retailers make up names they consider more appealing to consumers than “shark.” These include rock salmon or huss in English, schillerlocke in German and veau de mer, roussette or saumonette in French, the report said. “As things stand, people are consuming contaminated fish without even knowing it,” Münster&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-finds-dangerous-mercury-levels-highlights-mislabeling-in-shark-meat-sold-in-euevels-mislabeling-in-shark-meat-sold-in-eu/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-finds-dangerous-mercury-levels-highlights-mislabeling-in-shark-meat-sold-in-euevels-mislabeling-in-shark-meat-sold-in-eu/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308468</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pet sharks have become cool, but is owning them ethical?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/pet-sharks-have-become-cool-but-is-owning-them-ethical/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/pet-sharks-have-become-cool-but-is-owning-them-ethical/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 16:53:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hallie Lieberman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/17123307/Transitional-zebra-shark-Aquarium-of-the-Pacific-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306102</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Consumption, Coral Reefs, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Pet Trade, Pets, Predators, Saltwater Fish, Sharks, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Laurie was a kid, she had recurrent nightmares that featured her getting eaten by a shark. Decades later, Laurie goes to sleep next to them (or at least in the same house). She’s the proud owner of two epaulette sharks (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) in her 1,135-liter (300-gallon) tank: bottom-dwelling spotted sharks up to 0.6 meters [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Laurie was a kid, she had recurrent nightmares that featured her getting eaten by a shark. Decades later, Laurie goes to sleep next to them (or at least in the same house). She’s the proud owner of two epaulette sharks (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) in her 1,135-liter (300-gallon) tank: bottom-dwelling spotted sharks up to 0.6 meters (2 feet) long that are known as “walking sharks” because they use their fins to crawl on the bottom of the ocean. Laurie acquired them from an owner who no longer wanted them. “I can’t release them because our waters are different than their habitat, but I can give them a good home and appreciate them while respecting Mother Nature,” says Laurie, a U.S. resident who asked to be identified by her first name. She adds that the sharks give her a feeling of Zen. Home shark tanks are no longer just the province of tech bros or celebrities who spend millions on 38,000-l (10,000-gal) aquariums full of apex predators. Now middle-class aquarium owners are adding smaller, bottom-dwelling sharks to their home aquariums. These sharks are benthic, meaning they hang out on the ocean floor. Many can breathe while lying down by pumping water through their gills in contrast to pelagic sharks like whitetips (Carcharhinus longimanus) and tigers (Galeocerdo cuvier), which swim the open ocean and must keep moving to breathe. A growing aquarium industry is serving home shark tank owners’ needs by providing bamboo (Hemiscylliidae spp.), epaulette, zebra (Stegostoma tigrinum) and catsharks (Scyliorhinidae spp.).&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/pet-sharks-have-become-cool-but-is-owning-them-ethical/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/pet-sharks-have-become-cool-but-is-owning-them-ethical/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306102</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rare Javan leopard sighting renews focus on conservation, monitoring efforts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/javan-leopard-camera-trap-java-endangered-wildlife-big-cat-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/javan-leopard-camera-trap-java-endangered-wildlife-big-cat-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Aug 2025 08:11:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten GokkonFalahi Mubarok]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/22093338/456923fa-fddc-4f6d-954b-0822fcb212b6.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304773</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Java, East Java, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Leopards, Mammals, Predators, Top Predators, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A camera trap in an Indonesian mountain forest has recorded a rare Javan leopard, sparking renewed conservation monitoring efforts in the area. The Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) was captured on a camera installed in the Mount Lawu forest area of Central Java province, according to a July 29 post by the KGPAA Mangkunagoro I [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A camera trap in an Indonesian mountain forest has recorded a rare Javan leopard, sparking renewed conservation monitoring efforts in the area. The Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) was captured on a camera installed in the Mount Lawu forest area of Central Java province, according to a July 29 post by the KGPAA Mangkunagoro I Grand Forest Park (Tahura) on Instagram. The recording, which shows the endangered big cat strolling calmly past the lens, was obtained after officials followed up on a hiker’s report of a leopard sighting along a trail. Dhidhit Suryono, field coordinator team leader at Tahura Mangkunagoro, said the cameras were installed for two full weeks around the reported site to ensure optimal observation results and increase the chance of capturing footage. The exact location of the recording is not being disclosed, he added, to prevent potential poaching. Tahura KGPAA Mangkunagoro I is a 231-hectare (571-acre) forest park on the slopes of Mount Lawu, a 3,265-meter (10,712-foot) volcano on the border between Central and East Java provinces. Image courtesy of Tahura KGPAA Mangkunagoro I. The effort involved four officers and two local residents, Dhidhit said. Of the 10 cameras they carried, only three worked in the field, one of which captured the leopard before the observation period ended. He said this backed their hypothesis that the animal regularly roams the area. Tahura KGPAA Mangkunagoro I is a 231-hectare (571-acre) forest park on the slopes of Mount Lawu, a 3,265-meter (10,712-foot) volcano on the border between Central and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/javan-leopard-camera-trap-java-endangered-wildlife-big-cat-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/javan-leopard-camera-trap-java-endangered-wildlife-big-cat-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304773</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Learning to live with lions: Interview with Claw Conservancy’s Andrew Stein</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/learning-to-live-with-lions-interview-with-claw-conservancys-andrew-stein/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/learning-to-live-with-lions-interview-with-claw-conservancys-andrew-stein/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Aug 2025 06:30:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/15060548/pexels-elena-blessing-355784-2674052-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304316</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Botswana, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Human-wildlife Conflict, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Lions, Livestock, Predators, Protected Areas, Technology, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Andrew Stein had been working across Africa for more than 15 years when he first heard of lion poisoning incidents in Botswana. In a bid to protect their livestock, communities were poisoning the big cats when they came close to their villages. It was a precarious situation. On one hand, populations of lions (Panthera leo) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Andrew Stein had been working across Africa for more than 15 years when he first heard of lion poisoning incidents in Botswana. In a bid to protect their livestock, communities were poisoning the big cats when they came close to their villages. It was a precarious situation. On one hand, populations of lions (Panthera leo) were rapidly declining across the continent. On the flip side, people had few other options to protect the source of their livelihood. “People were using poison because they were likely desperate,” Stein told Mongabay in a video interview. “They saw no other alternative to managing the issues that they were facing.” That led him to launch Claws Conservancy, a nonprofit that aims to balance the protection of lions with the needs of the community. “Something had to be done to alleviate the challenges of local people, but also ensure that this iconic species of Africa survives,” he said. Stein and his team have developed an automated real-time alert system that warns people if a lion is close by so that they can take preventive measures to protect themselves as well as their livestock. The initiative has so far enrolled 389 community members and issued more than 50,000 alerts in the last six years. As part of the initiative, the team also works with the communities to name individual lions in order to help create a connection between people and the animals. Andrew Stein spoke to Mongabay’s Abhishyant Kidangoor about why the work is crucial, how&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/learning-to-live-with-lions-interview-with-claw-conservancys-andrew-stein/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/learning-to-live-with-lions-interview-with-claw-conservancys-andrew-stein/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wolves’ continued spread in California brings joy, controversy &#038; conflicts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/wolves-continued-spread-in-california-brings-joy-controversy-conflicts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/wolves-continued-spread-in-california-brings-joy-controversy-conflicts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2025 05:11:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/08134424/Grey-wolves-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303960</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Canids, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Hunting, Law, Mammals, National Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the first part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the second, third and fourth parts. With its enchanting eyes, powerful jaws, acute senses and haunting howls, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) — the largest member of the dog family — is a wilderness icon. Once the most widespread mammal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the first part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the second, third and fourth parts. With its enchanting eyes, powerful jaws, acute senses and haunting howls, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) — the largest member of the dog family — is a wilderness icon. Once the most widespread mammal on the planet, gray wolves roamed across large swaths of North America, Europe and Asia. However, as human settlements grew, these livestock-killing canids became “vermin” and were hunted to near-extinction in many parts of their range. By the mid-20th century, wolves were extirpated from the contiguous U.S. Their remarkable comeback since the 1980s, thanks in part to their reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park, has sparked joy, controversy and conflicts. The latest saga is playing out in California, where there’s a lot of potential for conflict: It’s the most populous U.S. state with nearly 40 million people. Some 7 million cattle graze on 57 million acres of rangeland, half of which are privately owned. California’s wolves, which naturally dispersed south from Oregon, are now further expanding their territories, with more  frequent encounters — and conflict — with humans. “Almost every pack does overlap to some degree with an agricultural area with livestock,” said Axel Hunnicutt, a biologist who coordinates the wolf program for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). Almost every group has killed livestock. “That’s one thing that unites all of the packs in California, unfortunately,” he added. Gray wolves are the largest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/wolves-continued-spread-in-california-brings-joy-controversy-conflicts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/wolves-continued-spread-in-california-brings-joy-controversy-conflicts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303960</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists raise sharks to restore reefs in waters around Thailand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/conservationists-raise-sharks-to-restore-reefs-in-waters-around-thailand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/conservationists-raise-sharks-to-restore-reefs-in-waters-around-thailand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jul 2025 18:37:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Turrell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/17131545/leopard-sharks-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302697</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Habitat Loss, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Predators, Restoration, Saltwater Fish, Sharks, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KHAO LAK, Thailand — Conservationist Ying Pemika Choovanichchanon holds a small basket in her hands, careful not to disturb the leathery brown pouches nestled inside. When she shines a light underneath, signs of life appear: the pouches are bamboo shark egg cases, and the tiny creatures within them are a key part of a plan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KHAO LAK, Thailand — Conservationist Ying Pemika Choovanichchanon holds a small basket in her hands, careful not to disturb the leathery brown pouches nestled inside. When she shines a light underneath, signs of life appear: the pouches are bamboo shark egg cases, and the tiny creatures within them are a key part of a plan to help revive Thailand’s coral reefs. At the forefront of this plan is Oceans for All, a Thai-based nonprofit that’s partnering with luxury hotels to breed and release bamboo sharks. After opening its first shark nursery with Club Med Phuket in March 2022, followed by Pullman Phuket Panwa Beach Resort in November 2022, the program has now expanded to the Thai mainland by opening a shark nursery at the JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort &amp; Spa on the shores of the Andaman Sea. Twenty years ago, Thai waters were filled with the tan-colored bamboo sharks (Chiloscyllium punctatum), famed for their distinctive dark bands. But overfishing and habitat destruction have seen their numbers drop drastically. The sharks, which are listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List, play a vital role in the ecosystem, by feeding on small fish and invertebrates that eat corals. As apex predators, bamboo sharks keep in check populations of smaller creatures that might otherwise overgraze the reefs. The Oceans for All team say that when shallow reefs die, it’s often due to the lack of predators rather than pollution. A coral reef in Thailand. Image by Umeed Mistry / Ocean&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/conservationists-raise-sharks-to-restore-reefs-in-waters-around-thailand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/conservationists-raise-sharks-to-restore-reefs-in-waters-around-thailand/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302697</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New research sheds light on Canada lynx-snowshoe hare cycle, human impacts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2025 14:34:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/14060945/Canadian_lynx_by_Keith_Williams-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298495</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Canada, Colorado, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Habitat, Invasive Species, Land Use Change, Logging, Mammals, Predators, Research, Rodents, Small Cats, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Open any ecology textbook and you’ll find the Canada lynx, the snowshoe hare, and their wildly oscillating population cycles offered as a classic example of the intimate relationship between predator and prey. The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a handsome, medium-sized felid, with a thick coat, tufted ears and large paws — an adaptation to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Open any ecology textbook and you’ll find the Canada lynx, the snowshoe hare, and their wildly oscillating population cycles offered as a classic example of the intimate relationship between predator and prey. The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a handsome, medium-sized felid, with a thick coat, tufted ears and large paws — an adaptation to deep snow. Its distribution and abundance in North America has long been inextricably linked to that of the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), its primary prey. The relationship also fascinates the public, with photos of the cat chasing the hare across snowy landscapes a staple of wildlife photo essays. Snowshoe hare numbers rise and fall dramatically in a regular cycle of eight to 10 years. A year or two later, Canada lynx numbers follow. This enduring relationship is borne out by Indigenous knowledge and centuries of fur trapping data, and is integral to boreal forest science. Now, researchers are questioning if human activities, including forestry practices, climate change and wildfires may be impacting lynx, hares and this natural cycle. With thick coats and broad paws, Canada lynx are supremely adapted to deep snow. Image courtesy of Allyson Menzies. An enduring ecological relationship Stan Boutin, a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, has been watching the lynx-hare drama play out in Kluane, in Canada’s Yukon Territory, for nearly 50 years. Over this time, hare populations have exploded and crashed five times, with lynx populations following behind. “We&#8217;re on a heavy increase phase now. So the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nepal announces its snow leopard population after first-of-its-kind assessment</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/nepal-announces-its-snow-leopard-population-after-first-of-its-kind-assessment/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/nepal-announces-its-snow-leopard-population-after-first-of-its-kind-assessment/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2025 12:40:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/23104302/%C2%A9-Rocky-Prajapati-DNPWC-WWF-Nepal-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298045</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Cats, Conservation, data, Ecology, Environment, Genetics, Mammals, Mountains, Snow Leopards, Surveying, Technology, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Following decades of speculation, skepticism and lack of consensus, Nepal’s government has announced the country’s first-ever consolidated national estimate of snow leopards (Panther uncia): 397 individuals. The figure, which translates to 1.56 individuals per 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles), was reported by an expert committee following months of work which involved aggregating [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Following decades of speculation, skepticism and lack of consensus, Nepal’s government has announced the country’s first-ever consolidated national estimate of snow leopards (Panther uncia): 397 individuals. The figure, which translates to 1.56 individuals per 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles), was reported by an expert committee following months of work which involved aggregating results from multiple studies carried out in different parts of the country adopting different methods across various periods of time. “This national estimate is a historic step in Nepal’s conservation journey,” said Ramchandra Kandel, director-general at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC). It not only provides us with a clearer picture of snow leopard populations but also informs future conservation strategies,” he added. A snow leopard photographed in Nepal. Image courtesy of WWF. This estimate and its report are the Himalayan country’s contribution to the Population Assessment of the World’s Snow Leopards (PAWS), an initiative launched under the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) in 2019 to support the 12 range countries to produce a robust estimate of the cat’s population status. The result, based on data on snow leopard distribution and population density collected between 2015 and 2024, also has global implications. “Although Nepal has the second smallest snow leopard habitat of only around 2% of the global land area considered suitable for snow leopards, it is home to nearly 10%, the fourth largest population,” said Ghana Shyam Gurung, Nepal representative of WWF. Unlike tigers (Panthera tigris), the other&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/nepal-announces-its-snow-leopard-population-after-first-of-its-kind-assessment/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/nepal-announces-its-snow-leopard-population-after-first-of-its-kind-assessment/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298045</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Loss of great white sharks triggers domino effect down food chain, study shows </title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/loss-of-great-white-sharks-triggers-domino-effect-down-food-chain-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/loss-of-great-white-sharks-triggers-domino-effect-down-food-chain-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2025 07:23:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/22150125/ChrisFallows2-1-scaled-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298004</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Food, Predators, Research, Science, Sharks, and Top Predators]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CAPE TOWN — South Africa’s False Bay was once known as a global hotspot for great white sharks. But within the span of a few years, between 2015 and 2019, this apex predator vanished from the area, leading to profound ecological changes, according to a new study. The study suggests that the disappearance of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CAPE TOWN — South Africa’s False Bay was once known as a global hotspot for great white sharks. But within the span of a few years, between 2015 and 2019, this apex predator vanished from the area, leading to profound ecological changes, according to a new study. The study suggests that the disappearance of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) from the bay on South Africa’s southwestern Atlantic tip triggered a trophic cascade in the local marine ecosystem — a domino effect that rippled down the food chain. Scientists speak of the phenomenon of a trophic cascade when the change in prevalence of a top predator leads to changes across all levels of the food chain below them. With the loss of the sharks, populations of their prey species like Cape fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) and sevengill sharks (Notorynchus cepedianus) in the study area increased, while the number of small fish and smaller sharks that sevengills prey upon declined. The changes also coincided with shifts in the behavior of animals that live in the orbit of great whites. Study lead author Neil Hammerschlag, a marine ecologist and CEO of the Canada-based Shark Research Foundation, analyzed data from a long-term monitoring program that tracked white shark presence around False Bay’s Seal Island between 2000 and 2020. He and other scientists documented a stable great white population until 2015, followed by a sharp decline that led to their complete disappearance from the bay by mid-2018. Data show that within three and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/loss-of-great-white-sharks-triggers-domino-effect-down-food-chain-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/loss-of-great-white-sharks-triggers-domino-effect-down-food-chain-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298004</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coexistence with Europe’s carnivores is possible (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/coexistence-with-europes-carnivores-is-possible-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/coexistence-with-europes-carnivores-is-possible-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2025 20:30:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Linnell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/23080616/MLU-20230814-165155-16SQ8-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297465</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Carnivores, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Ethics, Predators, Restoration, Rewilding, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Few people working in wildlife conservation in the 1980s could have imagined a future where breeding wolf packs roam the Netherlands and Denmark — but this is now part of Europe’s new reality. Over the last 30 to 40 years, European wildlife has undergone a dramatic transformation. Conservation laws, like the Bern Convention and the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Few people working in wildlife conservation in the 1980s could have imagined a future where breeding wolf packs roam the Netherlands and Denmark — but this is now part of Europe’s new reality. Over the last 30 to 40 years, European wildlife has undergone a dramatic transformation. Conservation laws, like the Bern Convention and the Habitats Directive, provided vital breathing space for many species to begin the long process to recovery. Among the most striking and iconic comebacks are large carnivores — brown bears, wolverines, Eurasian lynx, and especially the wolf — returning to landscapes from where they had been absent for decades or even centuries. From a conservation perspective, this is a remarkable success. Because of large carnivores’ position at the top of the food chain, conserving them in the modern European landscape requires that most of their populations live outside protected areas (such as national parks and nature reserves). This means that we need to share the landscapes where we live, work and play with new neighbors. In most cases, these new neighbors live quiet and invisible lives. But there is no escaping the fact that have the capacity to be very challenging cohabitants. A lynx being released in Poland as part of a rewilding project. Image courtesy of Fabien Quetier/Rewilding Europe. The return of these species has also led to a resurgence of age-old conflicts, such as livestock depredation and fears for personal safety, while also sparking new debates about how our modern society views nature and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/coexistence-with-europes-carnivores-is-possible-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/coexistence-with-europes-carnivores-is-possible-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297465</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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/snared-skinned-sold-brutal-march-for-indonesias-sumatran-tigers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297230</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How cultural and religious beliefs combine for snow leopard conservation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-cultural-and-religious-beliefs-combine-for-snow-leopard-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-cultural-and-religious-beliefs-combine-for-snow-leopard-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2025 18:33:41 +0000</pubDate>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/08/23175248/Snow-leopard-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297167</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, and Nepal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Carnivores, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Ethics, Indigenous Peoples, Livestock, Mammals, Predators, Religions, Snow Leopards, Top Predators, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In November 2023, at 4 a.m., four snow leopards made their way into Mingmar Gurung’s livestock corral in Dhakmar village, Mustang district, Nepal. Hearing the goats’ commotion so early in the morning, Mingmar ran toward the corral. The scene was heartbreaking: out of the 190 goats, snow leopards had killed 77. In the morning, villagers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In November 2023, at 4 a.m., four snow leopards made their way into Mingmar Gurung’s livestock corral in Dhakmar village, Mustang district, Nepal. Hearing the goats’ commotion so early in the morning, Mingmar ran toward the corral. The scene was heartbreaking: out of the 190 goats, snow leopards had killed 77. In the morning, villagers found the group of snow leopards on nearby ridges and took pictures and videos. Two of the animals returned the next morning at 3 a.m. to feed on the goats. One of them was trapped in the corral for half an hour while another escaped. Mingmar, who could have sought revenge, chose not to, since Buddhism teaches compassion and nonviolence. “This is the culture of the people of the Himalayas and a reflection of their attitude towards Mother Nature,” says Surya Bahadur Thakali, a Lama priest from Mustang. Mustang is home to 14,452 people of predominantly Buddhist ethnic groups, with 20.9% Thakali, 20.1% Gurung, and the remaining population from other ethnicities. Around 60.2% of the people follow Buddhist teachings in this district north of Nepal’s central Himalaya region, which is also one of the crucial habitats of the globally vulnerable snow leopard (Panther uncia). Although the animal’s actual population is uncertain for lack of detailed studies, Mustang is considered crucial because it also serves as a transboundary corridor between Nepal and its northern neighbor, China. Snow leopard in Nepal. Image courtesy of Madhu Chetri The Buddha’s teachings encourage compassion, mindfulness, interconnectedness, and generosity toward nature&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-cultural-and-religious-beliefs-combine-for-snow-leopard-conservation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-cultural-and-religious-beliefs-combine-for-snow-leopard-conservation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297167</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Seal ‘oceanographers’ reveal fish abundance in Pacific Ocean’s twilight zone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/seal-oceanographers-reveal-fish-abundance-in-pacific-oceans-twilight-zone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/seal-oceanographers-reveal-fish-abundance-in-pacific-oceans-twilight-zone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Mar 2025 16:10:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/17081519/Northern-elephant-seal-1-photo-credit_-D-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295914</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deep Sea, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Predators, Research, Saltwater Fish, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rhythmic clicks, grunts and roars fill the Año Nuevo Island Reserve in California, home to a large breeding colony of northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris). For nearly 60 years, scientists at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) have studied the seals here. Lately, they have used Fitbit-like biomonitors on the seals to understand where [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rhythmic clicks, grunts and roars fill the Año Nuevo Island Reserve in California, home to a large breeding colony of northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris). For nearly 60 years, scientists at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) have studied the seals here. Lately, they have used Fitbit-like biomonitors on the seals to understand where they migrate to each year and what they eat. In 2022, one of the students attending a 10-week-long undergraduate field course at the reserve wondered how oceanographic conditions, such as surface temperature and pressure, affect the elephant seals. That curious question led scientists to connect oceanographic conditions in the northern Pacific Ocean to fish abundance in its deep twilight zone by measuring how successfully elephant seals foraged and reproduced. Their study, published in February in Science, analyzes this connection to estimate fish abundance in the twilight zone five decades in the past and predict it two years into the future. The study also shows how marine predators like elephant seals act as sentinels that can tell us about changes in the ocean’s inaccessible depths — if only we can learn how to decipher their reports. The twilight, or mesopelagic, zone — the layer of ocean water that extends 200–1000 meters (656–3280 feet) deep — is an inhospitable place. “It’s completely dark, it’s extremely cold, there’s this crushing pressure,” says study co-author Allison Payne, a graduate student in the UCSC lab of lead author Roxanne Beltran. “It’s kind of like another planet.” “We don’t know exactly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/seal-oceanographers-reveal-fish-abundance-in-pacific-oceans-twilight-zone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/seal-oceanographers-reveal-fish-abundance-in-pacific-oceans-twilight-zone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295914</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>