The world’s tropical forests are threatened by deforestation due to agricultural, industrial and urban expansion; as well as by drought, fire, and disease, all worsened by climate change. Human reforestation…
Sunda flying fox silhouettes against the sunset. Photo by: Tiffany Roufs. Rain or clear, wind or still, full moon or no. Every night thousands of flying foxes rise from a…
Tracking lions, photographing bats, collecting insects, bringing elephants home: it's all part of a day's work in Gorongosa National Park. This vast wilderness in Mozambique—including savannah and montane rainforest—was ravaged…
Straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) at the Zoological Garden Berlin, Germany. This species, along with other fruit bats, is present in the Ebola impacted area and may have been a…
Big-fanged bat threatened by dam construction New bat, Hypsugo dolichodon, showing off its remarkable canines. Photo by: Judith L. Eger. What big teeth you have, my dear! The better to…
Despite vast forest loss, the Anjouan scops owl is holding on in the Comoros Islands The Anjouan scops owl. Photo by: Alan Van Norman. The Anjouan scops owl—an elusive owl…
West African country lost 4.4 percent of forests in 12 years, new incentives may help stymie future destruction Liberia is one of the last strongholds of intact forest in West…
A ground-breaking bat call library is released from one of India’s biodiversity hotspots The Western Ghats is one of the world’s eight richest biodiversity hotspots. A UNESCO World Heritage site,…
New research in Thailand finds birds and bats key to reforestation efforts Tropical forest restoration projects are exciting research sites for scientists studying factors that affect ecosystem recovery. Here, scientists…
Development of roads and other structures disturb large, continuous patches of habitat for wildlife. This habitat fragmentation is one of the biggest contributors to species extinction, as the local ecology…
The world's worst Ebola outbreak was likely begun by a hunter shooting a fruit bat for their dinner or the market, according to the UN. The outbreak has killed over…
As an environmental journalist covering stories from the great Arctic ice melt to the rhino poaching crisis in Africa, you'll forgive me if sometimes in the morning—before I turn my…
In 1890 Lamberto Loria collected 45 specimens—all female—of a small bat from the wilds of Papua New Guinea. Nearly 25 years later, in 1914, the species was finally described and…
Species monitoring can be a very invasive form of research. For instance, bird-banding – in which identification bands are placed around birds’ legs to track their movements – usually requires…
The Theory of Island Biogeography, coined by Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson, helps describe why species are distributed as they are. The larger and closer an island is to another…
In a cave in Australia, researchers from the University of New South Wales discovered giant fossilized sperm. The sperm were produced 17 million years ago by a group of tiny,…
Suren Gazaryan. Photo by: Goldman Environmental Prize. In a country increasingly known for its authoritarian-style crackdown on activists and dissidents, a bat scientist has won a number of impressive victories…
Fruit-eating bats play an important role in forest regeneration, collecting and spreading seeds far and wide. However, human development may be stymying bat-mediated dispersal. In a new study published in…
A team of researchers has discovered a new species of bat in Brazil, which has put a previously known species, Bokermann's nectar bat (Lonchophylla bokermanni), at risk of extinction. Long…
An international research team led by Professor Petr Koube and Darina Koubínová has discovered five new species of vesper bats during a series of expeditions to Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park.…
A dolphin swimming through the world’s oceans after fish, and a bat flying through the air with its membranous wings to catch insects or eat fruit: at first glance, it…
One of the world's least-known flying foxes could face extinction by rising seas and changing precipitation patterns due to global warming, according to a new study in Zookeys. The research,…
Nectar-feeding bats shift the shape of their tongue to slurp up sugar from flowers upon which they feed, finds a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy…
Scientists have uncovered a rare, brilliantly-striped bat in South Sudan that has yielded new secrets after close study. Working in Bangangai Game Reserve during July of last year, biologist DeeAnn…
A change in prey abundance due to climate change could impact the lesser mouse-eared bat (Myotis blythii). Photo by: Christoph F. Robiller. Global climate change could devastate bat populations around…
This was the image Paul had been so hoping to get: a sunlit mass of emperor penguins charging upwards, leaving in their wake a crisscross of bubble trails. The location…
Pteropus vampyrus hanging in tree in Sierra Madre Natural Park, Philippines. Photo by: Bigstock. Bushmeat hunting is well-known to be decimating animal populations in Africa, but has been little studied…
The three-toed pygmy sloth. Photo © Craig Turner/ZSL. The pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus) is one of the world's most endangered mammals, according to a detailed survey of the population,…
Now extinct: the Christmas Island pipistrelle. Photo by: Lindy Lumsden. Nights on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean will never again be the same. The last echolocation call of a…
Indian flying fox soaring at the WCS Bronx Zoo. Photo by: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS. Indian flying foxes (Pteropus giganteus) are now soaring a the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Bronx Zoo.…
