Deep cultural connection to land and nature are inherent to the human experience and a birthright, says Jay Griffiths, author of WILD: An Elemental Journey (2006). But what happens when…
Gomon. In Seychellois Creole, this has generally been the word to refer to anything “green and slimy,” says biologist and marine turtle expert Jeanne Mortimer. “You have gomon in the…
The Carib language is slowly disappearing from the villages of its descendants in Guyana. But in the remote village of Kwebana in the country’s Barima-Waini region, a schoolteacher, a community…
A study at the University of Zurich in Switzerland shows that a large proportion of existing medicinal plant knowledge is linked to threatened indigenous languages. In a regional study on the Amazon, New Guinea and North America, researchers concluded that 75% of medicinal plant uses are known in only one language.
The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), a hairless rodent that lives in the arid areas of eastern Africa, is one of the strangest-looking creatures in the animal kingdom. But what it…
In the past decade we've seen an incredible rise in the availability of information, from open-access journals to freely accessible high-resolution satellite imagery to high-quality investigative journalism. But we've also…
Iawá, also known as Odete Kuruaya, is the last remaining fluent speaker of the Kuruaya language. Not much is known of the Kuruaya, an Indigenous group from the Amazon Rainforest.…
NAPO, Ecuador — Gloria Ushigua, president of the Sápara women’s association, stops by a large, thin, spindly tree that looks almost dead, and breaks off a thin branch. Running her…
Amazon community on the Rio Corrientes. Photo by: Patrick le Flufy. "Shh, wait here," Wilson told me. I ducked down behind the buttress of a large tree to wait. We…
Does language extinction matter? Does language extinction matter? mongabay.com February 16, 2007 Most of humanity's 6,000 languages could be extinct within the next two centuries. Does it matter? At the…
Captive chimpanzees "talk" to humans Captive chimpanzees "talk" to humans mongabay.com January 29, 2007 Captive chimpanzees use specific vocalizations to communicate with humans according to new research published in the…
Indigenous Amazonians Display Core Understanding Of Geometry Finds Harvard Study Indigenous Amazonians Display Core Understanding Of Geometry Finds Harvard Study Harvard University news release January 23, 2006 Researchers in France…
Q&A: What are the most spoken languages on earth? Q&A: What are the most spoken languages on earth? mongabay.com July 25, 2005 According to figures from UNESCO, the United Nations…
