Habitat News

Right up front, this is a story about unsung species — not those megafauna with the extraordinary symbolism of a snow leopard, a blue whale, or a rhino. These little-known,…

The loyalty of humpback whales to their annual feeding grounds in Glacier Bay and Icy Strait, Alaska, is passed down from mothers to their calves, marine biologists have shown. Understanding…

Many amphibians worldwide are facing extinction, but one frog in California’s Yosemite National Park is defying the trend. Researchers in the park were surprised to witness a large-scale recovery of…

When I mentioned to some friends that I was writing a piece for Mongabay about langurs, their perplexed reactions were similar: “I thought you were an environmental journalist?” they said.…

The greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) in India is set to get two new homes in the state of West Bengal. All of the 250 rhinos in West Bengal occur…

Loud gibbon-like hoots, ending in a maniacal cackle, echo through the dense Indonesian forest. This flamboyant utterance isn’t produced by a primate; nor even a mammal. It is sounded by…

t has been said that the binturong is part bear, part cat, and has a monkey’s tail. Indeed, it does seem a bit like a composite animal, with parts gathered…

ack in 2010, scientists discovered a new primate species with a distinct and unusual aversion to rain. Tipped off by hunters’ stories, they found the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri)…

cientists have long known that invasive species possess “pesty traits” that benefit their spread. But what if similar, but latent, “pesty traits” could be triggered into action in endangered species…

ore than 160 bat species can be found flying through the Amazonian night — and their variety is astonishing. From the largest (the carnivorous Spectral, or False Vampire bat; Vampyrum…

lmost everything about North American wolverines (Gulo gulo luscus) makes them hard to study. This reclusive mustelid — part of a carnivorous mammalian family that includes otters, badgers, weasels, martens,…

he 7,100 islands of the Philippine Republic, scattered across the Pacific Ocean and South China Sea, teem with life. The entire nation is a recognized biodiversity hotspot — rated among…

wo-month old Asahan sucks milk greedily from a bottle. The baby Malayan tapir — his spotty brown juvenile coat already morphing to the distinctive black and white of an adult…

map of Cuba doesn’t give you any feel for what it’s like to traverse the Latin American country. On paper, it’s 1,250 kilometers (780 miles) long, but never more than…

f you've ever heard of the slow loris, it's likely for all the wrong reasons. People may coo over viral videos of pet lorises being tickled or eating rice balls,…

olivia’s TIPNIS Highway — defeated by mass protests from indigenous groups and environmentalists — rates as one of the most controversial Latin American construction projects of recent years. The role…

or much of the year, the painted terrapin’s name doesn’t make much sense. The carapace of this large Asian river turtle is usually an unremarkable grey/brown. But during the breeding…

he Paris Agreement marked the biggest political milestone to combat climate change since scientists first introduced us in the late 1980s to perhaps humanity’s greatest existential crisis. Last December, 178…

fter more than three decades as professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Donald Waller is a student again. He has dived into a baffling sea of…

ay the word “cat” and it’s unlikely the words “water” or “swimming” spring quickly to mind. But both are essential to the lifestyle of Asia’s Fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus). Short,…

oop: picking it up and studying it is one way scientists determine stress levels in animals. But it is not an ideal tool: “I quickly learned that interpreting fecal hormone…

he Malayan Sun bear may not be the most famous animal in Southeast Asia, but it is undoubtedly one of the most endearing — though its charm hasn’t served to…

This is the first of 20 Mongabay stories highlighting Almost Famous Asian Animals — all to be published by the end of 2016. You can find the complete Almost Famous…

The dark bordered beauty moth is heading towards extinction at its last known site in England, a new study has found. The rare moth (Epione vespertaria) is found in just…

fter more than a 100-year hiatus, the sport of golf will again be played at the Summer Olympics — though that celebratory event has been tarnished by an environmental controversy,…