Audio: The best animal calls featured on the Mongabay Newscast in 2019
This is our last episode of 2019, so we took a look back at the bioacoustic recordings we featured here on the Mongabay Newscast over the past year and today…
India’s Ganga River dolphins are being shouted down by noisy boats
India’s Ganga is a noisy river. There’s the churning of sediment, the hums, grunts and growls of fishes and turtles. There are the cacophonous stretches of cities and industries breathing…
Canada passes ‘Free Willy’ bill to ban captivity of all whales, dolphins
Canada has made it illegal to catch and hold whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity. On June 10, Canada’s House of Commons passed Bill S-203, or the Ending the Captivity…
Audio: Chatty river dolphins in Brazil might help us understand evolution of marine mammal communication
On today’s episode, we speak with Gabriel Melo-Santos, whose study of Araguaian river dolphins in Brazil has revealed that the species is chattier than we’d previously known — and could…
Recently discovered Brazilian river dolphin’s calls could help us understand evolution of marine mammal communication
The Araguaian river dolphin was just discovered and described to science in 2014, so it’s no surprise that there’s a lot we don’t know about the cetacean native to the…
Audio: What underwater sounds can tell us about Indian Ocean humpback dolphins
On today’s episode, we speak with marine biologist Isha Bopardikar, an independent researcher who is using bioacoustics to study humpback dolphins off the west coast of India. Listen here: …
Plastics found in dolphins, seals, and whales in UK waters
Researchers who examined 50 marine mammals that had washed up on Britain’s shores say they found microplastics in the guts of every single animal. In a paper published in the…
Latam Eco Review: Seeing red over pink dolphins and flamingos
The most popular stories published recently by our Spanish-language news service, Mongabay Latam, featured endangered pink Amazon river dolphins, the world’s rarest flamingos, palm oil plantations in Nicaragua, impunity in…
A monitoring network in the Amazon captures a flood of data
Monitoring technology deployed in a remote rainforest over time subjects it to high heat, humidity, and rainfall, as well as potential damage by insects and other wildlife. When you add…
Latam Eco Review: Microbial memories of Venezuela’s lost glaciers
Microbiomes of Venezuela’s lost glaciers, mile-high Andean lizards, and starving baby seals are among the recent top stories from Mongabay Latam, our Spanish-language service. The abandoned microbes of Venezuela’s last…
Myanmar expands protected area for rare Irrawaddy dolphin
The Myanmar government has expanded a protected stretch of the Irrawaddy River as part of efforts to save the critically endangered dolphin species of the same name. The Irrawaddy Dolphin…
On an island in the sun, coal power is king over abundant solar
JAKARTA — Dolphins haven’t had it easy in Bali, a resort island in Indonesia that’s massively popular with tourists. They’re often held captive in chlorinated pools for traveling circuses; a…
Ice-free passage for ships through the Arctic could cause problems for marine mammals
An increasingly ice-free Arctic could test the adaptability of marine mammals, a new study has found, as hundreds of ships in recent years have used the newly open polar seas…
And then there were 12: Why don’t we hear about extinction until it’s too late? (commentary)
Everyone loves a wildlife story. Watching the latest blue-chip natural history series complete with hushed narration about nature’s grandeur — or reading the latest online science about evolution or quirky…
Shark fisheries hunting dolphins, other marine mammals as bait: Study
Shark-fishing outfits have for decades been catching dolphins, seals and other sea mammals to use as bait, helping drive some of those species closer to extinction, researchers have found. In…
Hunting, fishing causing dramatic decline in Amazon river dolphins
Both species of Amazon river dolphin declined by over 90 percent between 1994-2017 in an Amazonas state reserve, mostly due to hunting and fishing: study.
Latam Eco Review: More than 100 new species in Bolivian park
Among the top articles from our Spanish language service, Mongabay Latam, for the week of May 23 - June 3 is one about researchers who were surprised to find more than…
Venezuela’s hungry hunt wildlife, zoo animals, as economic crisis grows
The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has become a crisis for wildlife and zoo animals too, as a hungry, desperate population hunts wild species for food.
First increase in Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphins in 20 years
Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River could be making a comeback. After more than two decades of steady decline, numbers of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) in the Mekong River…
Animal trainers are teaching wildlife to conserve themselves
Chimps have been taught to sound an alarm when poachers approach; polar bears and condors have been trained to avoid towns; and even butterflies can learn new tricks.
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- Fighting to save an endangered ape, Indonesian activists fear for their lives
- Iran sentences eight conservationists convicted of spying
- Watchdog denounces arrests of four anti-mining activists in Indonesia
Indonesias forest guardians
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
Amazon infrastructure
- Belo Monte boondoggle: Brazil’s biggest, costliest dam may be unviable
- Amazon’s Mura indigenous group demands input over giant mining project
- Mega-mining project slated for Brazilian Amazon sparks controversy
Asian rhinos
- Indonesian officials wield sharia law in defense of Sumatran rhinos
- Love triangle complicates efforts to breed Sumatran rhinos
- Indonesia to capture 3 wild Sumatran rhinos to add to breeding population
