Look up; look around. Look to the forests in your community. Odds are, they are secondary-growth forests (SFs), forests that regrow following major disturbances. These forests are becoming more common…
It is well understood that large-bodied species of mammals, fish, and birds are especially susceptible to steep population declines and even extinction due to environmental pressures and overhunting. But new…
Rainforest in Kinabatangan, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts have developed vegetation height maps for the entire tropics at…
A bird's eye view of speciation in the Neotropics How long does it take for a new species to develop? Not long, it turns out. In fact, only a few…
If you thought your relatively northerly or southerly location sheltered you from Mother Nature’s worst storms, think again For years we have known that the tropics are expanding towards the…
This article is based on a Mongabay-Indonesia story by Lili Rambe: Sejumlah Spesies Ikan Baru dan Langka Ditemukan di Hutan Harapan Jambi. In early April, Indonesian scientists discovered an endangered…
Fruit-eating bats play an important role in forest regeneration, collecting and spreading seeds far and wide. However, human development may be stymying bat-mediated dispersal. In a new study published in…
The notion of spiders using ants as bodyguards seems a bit contradictory, but that is exactly what occurs on the tropical forest floors of the Philippines. The jumping spider (Phintella…
Ongoing burning of fossil fuels could flip which portion of the tropics receive more rainfall: the southern hemisphere or the northern. Currently, the northern hemisphere tropics is the wetter of…
Last week U.S. scientists with the biotech company, Sanaria, announced a possible breakthrough on an experimental malaria vaccine: an early trial led to a success rate of 80 percent for…
Devastated rainforest in Indonesian Borneo. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. In 48 years wildlife populations in the tropics, the region that holds the bulk of the world's biodiversity, have fallen…
