A lifeline for the last leopards (commentary)
The Arabian Peninsula is home to one of the greatest — yet mostly unrecognized — species resurrection stories in recent times: the Arabian oryx. Left for dead after it disappeared…
A Philippine island employs a rare cockatoo in its fight against mines
GUIUAN, Philippines — The island of Homonhon in the Philippines’ Eastern Samar province cemented its place in history when the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan landed on its warm ochre shores…
With new protections, saiga antelope may continue to be a symbol of Central Asia (commentary)
The saiga antelope has great cultural, historical, and ecological importance to Mongolia. So I was proud to be advisor to the Mongolian Government Delegation at the 18th Meeting of the…
The Pan Borneo Highway brings wildlife threats to nat’l park doorstep
This is the second article in our six-part series “Traveling the Pan Borneo Highway.” Read Part One. TELOK SERABANG, Malaysia — At the westernmost tip of Borneo sits a dense…
Nigeria finds itself at the heart of the illegal pangolin trade
EPE, LAGOS – A babel of voices hangs in the misty air over the Oluwo bushmeat market in Epe, in Nigeria's southwestern Lagos state. Smoke curls toward women selling live…
Campaigners push for reform of outdated CITES wildlife trade system
Groundbreaking reforms to the $320 billion legal wildlife trade are being put up for discussion at a major international conference this month as campaigners seek to modernize a system they…
Indonesia agrees to attempt Sumatran rhino IVF with eggs from Malaysia
JAKARTA — The governments of Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to carry out in vitro fertilization of Sumatran rhinos, heralding a breakthrough in a decades-long effort to breed the nearly…
Africa’s largest reserve may lose half its area to oil development
Created in 2012, Niger’s Termit and Tin Toumma National Nature Reserve is the last region of the Sahara relatively undisturbed by human activity. But expanding oil exploration threatens this sanctuary…
Secretive and colorful dryas monkey isn’t as rare as once thought
On a July day in 2014, biologists Henri Silegowa and Jean Pierre Kapale were buying rice in Bafundo, a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, when they noticed…
The ambitious plan to recover and rewild the feisty, dwarf cow
Don’t let appearances fool you. The animal pictured above — the dwarf cattle known as tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis) from the island of Mindoro in the Philippines — may look cute;…
Indonesian officials foil attempt to smuggle hornbill casques to Hong Kong
JAKARTA — Authorities in Indonesia have seized 72 highly prized hornbill casques and arrested a woman for allegedly attempting to smuggle them out of the country. The seizure occurred at…
Information is key – but lacking for sharks and rays in the Western Indian Ocean (commentary)
Great white sharks, bull sharks, tiger sharks: All are household names, synonymous with media hype, and made infamous through films and documentaries. These “deadly” names represent just three species of…
From over 100,000 species assessments in IUCN update, zero improvements
From rays to deep-sea snails, primates to rosewood trees, the latest IUCN Red List update paints a gloomy picture for our world’s species. The update, which includes assessments of 105,732…
Study finds lemurs in degraded Madagascar forest skinny and stunted
An iconic yet critically endangered species of lemur living in heavily degraded forests in Madagascar appears to be in poor health, a recent study has found. The study’s lead author,…
After a lengthy delay, still no green light for Sri Lanka’s red list
When a team of herpetologists led by Mendis Wickramasinghe found a group of webless shrub frogs in a remote montane ecosystem in Sri Lanka in 2010, it was an encounter…
Audio: Listen to the first-ever recordings of right whales breaking into song
Today we speak with Jessica Crance, a research biologist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who recently discovered right whales singing for the first time ever. Listen…
Documentary seeks to tip the scales against illegal pangolin trafficking
If people knew about pangolins and how special they are, says documentary filmmaker Bruce Young, “they might begin to care enough to help save and conserve them, and put an…
Thousands of endangered snails raised in captivity returned to natural habitat in Bermuda
Thousands of captive-bred greater Bermuda land snails are heading home. Due mostly to predation by invasive species of carnivorous snails and flatworms, greater Bermuda land snails (Poecilozonites bermudensis) were driven…
Great Indian bustard eggs being collected to kick-start captive breeding
The great Indian bustard has been in deep trouble for a while. Once found across India’s grasslands and dry landscapes, the critically endangered bird is now down to just 160-odd…
Chinese nationals arrested in US after smuggling totoaba swim bladders worth $3.7 million from Mexico
According to a report this week by Quartz, two Chinese nationals were arrested last month in the state of California with $3.7-million-worth of totoaba swim bladders that they had smuggled…
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- ‘Pray & continue’: Death of Philippine ranger is latest in legacy of violence
- In Cambodia, a rare acquittal in a climate of danger for green activists
- On Peru’s border, the Tikuna tribe takes on illegal coca growers
Indonesias forest guardians
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
- On the island of Java, a social forestry scheme creates jobs at home
- In Indonesia, bigger catches for a fishing village protecting its mangroves
Amazon infrastructure
- Yanomami Amazon reserve invaded by 20,000 miners; Bolsonaro fails to act
- Amazon infrastructure puts 68% of indigenous lands / protected areas at risk: report
- Amazon fish kill at Sinop spotlights risk from 80+ Tapajós basin dams
Asian rhinos
- Nepal to conduct, self-fund, rhino census in March 2020
- Calls for natural solution over man-made one in flood-ravaged rhino refuge
- Death on the Brahmaputra: The rhino, the rangers, and the usual suspects
