New film details wrenching impact of illegal rhino horn trade on families
Communities around the world often pay a hidden toll in the global wildlife trade. Across its 17 minutes, Sides of a Horn, a new film released June 25, aims to…
Virtual Reality 360-degree video: An “empathy-generating machine” for conservation outreach?
People of all ages love wildlife videos, whether it’s seeing previously unheard-of species, species interactions, or baby animals at play. New video technology that films in 360 degrees brings viewers…
Those kicks were fast as lightning: Kangaroo rats evade deadly snake strikes
A student-led research team from three California universities has shown that desert kangaroo rats frequently avoid predation by rattlesnakes through a combination of speedy reaction times, powerful near-vertical leaps, and…
Indigenous-made film explores traditional textile making in the Ecuadorian Amazon
Before clothes from the outside world arrived, the Sápara people of the Ecuadoran Amazon made their own clothes from tree bark harvested in the rainforest. Today, the Sápara are in…
Short film celebrates community forest titles in DRC
The legal rights to manage local forests, recently awarded to communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have the potential to improve lives and protect the country’s block of…
In India, indigenous youths are filming their own forests and communities
Read the other stories in this four-part series on the indigenous groups living around Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, India: From a new bird to a new community reserve:…
Documenting the African elephant’s ‘last stand’: Q&A with filmmakers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson
“Walking Thunder” can feel like a family trip around the continent of Africa — if your parents were award-winning photographers and explorers. The mesmerizing film about the African elephant by…
Orangutan culture in focus in ‘Person of the Forest’: Q&A with researchers Cheryl Knott and Robert Rodriguez Suro
Rafts of research in the past few decades have convinced scientists that there's less that separates humans from other animals than we'd originally thought. Take the concept of culture, for…
‘Adaptation Bangladesh: Sea Level Rise’ film shows how farmers are fighting climate change
This is a story of hope. Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Threatened by rising sea levels, storms and cyclones, floods have become commonplace, with seawater encroaching both homes…
‘Photo Ark’ a quest to document global biodiversity: Q&A with photographer Joel Sartore and director Chun-Wei Yi
At turns haunting, humorous or just downright bizarre, the studio portraits of the thousands of animal species that photographer Joel Sartore has collected are more than just a catalog of…
Films celebrate big cats on World Wildlife Day
Big cats around the world face many challenges, from diminishing prey populations and habitat degradation, to poaching for their meat and body parts. A current spike in the killing of…
The plight of predators: Q&A with the director of ‘The Hunt: Living with Predators’
Predators are often depicted as the villains in films and other media. Even in wildlife documentaries, hunt scenes are often shot from the prey’s point of view and accompanied by…
Wild Kratts episode up for film festival award teaches about rare white bear
An episode of the popular cartoon Wild Kratts has been named a 2017 finalist in the biannual Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival competition. Drawn from a pool of over 1,000 entries competing…
Stalking snow leopards: Q&A with the director of “Ghost of the Mountains”
Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are known for their elusive ways. Even people who share the mountains with the silvery felines seldom spot them. In spring 2014 a crew of filmmakers…
Yasuni indigenous peoples’ fight for survival depicted in new documentary
The 2017 finalists for the biannual Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival competition have been announced. Drawn from a pool of over 1,000 entries competing for only 25 awards, finalists include…
Audio: A rare earth mine in Madagascar triggers concerns for locals and lemurs
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast we discuss a proposed rare earth mining project in Madagascar that worries both lemurs and locals, and we also speak with a researcher…
‘Tango in the Wind:’ New film captures courtship dance of critically endangered Hooded Grebe for first time ever
The Hooded Grebe wasn’t discovered by scientists until 1974, due mainly to the fact that it lives in one of the most remote and inhospitable environments on Earth: the windswept…
Short film takes you into the Amazon with researcher who discovered a new frog species
Biologist Jennifer Serrano was in the Amazonian rainforests of the Manú Biosphere Reserve in southeast Peru one night a few years ago when she came across a poison dart frog…
Meet one of the filmmakers behind Planet Earth 2
Last November, BBC returned with a sequel to its hit nature documentary series -- Planet Earth. The new six-part series Planet Earth II, presented by Sir David Attenborough, showcased some…
‘A man schooled in the Amazon:’ Q&A with director of new feature film about the fight to save the rainforest
Frontier is a forthcoming feature film by director and producer Matthew Wortman that is being billed as a “modern-day, real-life Western.” It tells the story of John Cain Carter, a…
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- On anniversary of nun’s murder Amazon land rights activists at high risk
- Iran upholds heavy sentences for conservationists convicted of spying
- Two deaths trigger alarm at Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve
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
- Indigenous group wins unprecedented right of reply to Bolsonaro’s racist invective
- BR-319 illegal side road threatens Amazon protected area, indigenous land (commentary)
- Barrage of mining requests targets Brazil’s isolated indigenous peoples
Asian rhinos
- Indonesia-WWF split puts rhino breeding project in Borneo in limbo
- Indonesian officials wield sharia law in defense of Sumatran rhinos
- Love triangle complicates efforts to breed Sumatran rhinos
