Fishers have caught at least 440 invasive lionfish off the coast of Porto Seguro in northeastern Brazil in recent weeks. The local government paid fishers to harvest the fish in an attempt to curb the rapid spread of a species that can decimate native fish stocks, Mariana Martins writes for Mongabay Brasil.

Lionfish (Pterois volitans), which are native to the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea, have no natural predators along Brazil’s coastline and are preying upon the young of local species. The fish have already damaged coral reef ecosystems in the North Atlantic, including the Caribbean. Now they have also reportedly reached the Abrolhos reefs, the largest and richest reef system in the South Atlantic.

“By preying on juveniles of commercially exploited species, there is a depletion of fish populations,” Carlos Hackradt, biologist and coordinator of the Marine Ecology and Conservation Laboratory at the Federal University of Southern Bahia, told Martins. “This brings serious consequences for the ecosystem, affects the fishing economy and harms tourism on degraded reefs.”

Abrolhos is home to mushroom-shaped coral structures, locally known as chapeirões, and supports at least 90 coral and 266 fish species, including the goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) and blue parrotfish (Scarus coeruleus), which are nationally listed as critically endangered and endangered, respectively. Abrolhos is also the main breeding and nursing ground for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Western South Atlantic.

While the presence of lionfish there has been confirmed, their extent has not yet been measured.

“It has only just happened,” Hackradt said. “We are gathering the first information in the far south [where the reef system is located] to understand the severity and indicate to the authorities which measures are feasible.”

Lionfish reproduce very quickly, and the species may still move further south down Brazil’s coast and into the waters of other Brazilian states, he said.

The lionfish invasion was first detected near Porto Seguro in June 2026. The environment department of the municipality quickly joined forces with the local fishing association, Colônia Z-22, to fight it.

Since August 2026, the city government has been paying 10 Brazilian reais ($1.90) for every lionfish caught and delivered to Colônia Z-22. Researchers at the Federal University of Southern Bahia have analyzed the stomach contents of 430 of them to understand their impact on local marine life.

Researchers are also studying how viable the lionfish are for human consumption. They are considered a delicacy in some regions, but the species stores a venomous substance in its glands, connected to the 18 spines along its back. The venom doesn’t reach the animal’s flesh but it requires careful preparation to be safe to eat.

Banner image: Lionfish captured off the coast of Porto Seguro in Bahia state, northeastern Brazil. Image courtesy of Lecomar/UFSB.

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.

The jaguarundi was recently recategorized from least concern to near threatened on the IUCN Red List, reports contributor Sean Mowbray for Mongabay.

The small cat, which ranges from Mexico to southern Brazil and Argentina and lives in a variety of habitats, is in decline due to human-wildlife conflict, dangerous roadways, attacks by dogs, and infectious disease, according to researchers.

The reclassification of the jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi) to a higher threat category may be surprising because it’s one of the most frequently seen small cats in the Americas, as it’s active during the daytime and often lives in open areas.

“It’s easier to be seen and because of that, people perceived it as common,” said Tadeu de Oliveira, who led the assessment as co-chair of the Cat Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. “But when you quantify it data-wise, it shows to be otherwise.”

Conservationists say they hope the reclassification will give the jaguarundi more attention. Its otter-like appearance, color variants, and wide range of vocalizations make it an especially charismatic species.

Read the full story by Sean Mowbray here.

Banner image: Jaguarundis are sometimes known as the “otter cat” due to their distinctive, uncat-like appearance. They’re unique for their wide range of vocalizations, including “chirping” like a bird. Image by Wild Cats Brazil-Americas Conservation Program/Gatos do Mato.

Seven of Brazil’s nine Amazonian states are set to be governed by politicians aligned with far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, Karla Mendes and Lucas Berti reported for Mongabay Brasil.

On Oct. 25, Brazil will have an electoral face-off between the top two candidates for several races that were not able to secure more than 50% of the vote in the first round of the elections.

The second round election includes the decision for president, where incumbent leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is up against Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro who is barred from public office after being convicted of planning a coup d’état in 2022. The second vote will also define many of the state governments in the Brazilian Amazon.

In the first round on Oct. 4, five candidates won a clear majority and have already been elected. Mato Grosso, an agricultural state in the southwest of the Brazilian Amazon, elected agribusinessman Otaviano Pivetta, aligned with the right-wing party Republicanos.

Pará elected Daniel Santos, known as Dr. Daniel, with the Podemos party. He has promised to designate Vinícius Borba to lead the environment department. Borba is a lawyer who gained notoriety for representing farmers illegally raising cattle on Indigenous land.

In Roraima, Brazil’s northernmost state that borders Venezuela and Guyana, nearly 70% of voters elected Arthur Henrique, affiliated with Flávio Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party. He previously served as the popular mayor of the state’s capital city, Boa Vista. He supports legalizing mining in Indigenous territories.

The state of Rondônia, which borders Bolivia in the western Brazilian Amazon, also elected a Liberal Party candidate, Marcos Rogério.

The only exception so far to the pro-Bolsonaro dominance among Amazonian governors is the state of Maranhão, where the elected governor Eduardo Braide has chosen to remain neutral regarding presidential support.

In Amapá state, in the eastern Amazon, the elected governor Antônio Paulo de Oliveira Furlan has not publicly declared support for either presidential candidate, but his campaign is supported by the Liberal Party.

Three states, Amazonas, Acre and Tocantins, will have their state governors decided by the second round of voting. In Acre and Tocantins states, both candidates still in the running support Flávio Bolsonaro. 

Amazonas state may be the second of all nine Amazonian states to elect a Lula-allied governor, as candidate Omar Aziz led the popular vote.

Adriana Ramos, executive director of the environmental nonprofit Instituto Socioambiental, told Mongabay Brasil that changes in the political landscape may bring back “the expansion of illegal activities, the presence of organized crime and the lack of control over the exploitation of natural resources” that marked Jair Bolsonaro’s government from 2019-2022.

“We are concerned because we know that Indigenous, quilombola and riverside communities will be the first to be impacted,” the current Minister of Indigenous Peoples Eloy Terena told Mongabay Brasil.

Banner image: Far-right presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. Image courtesy of Edilson Rodrigues/Agência Senado.

The Iranian spider-tailed horned viper, a rare snake endemic to western Iran, hunts by holding its body completely still while twitching its tail. Its body camouflages among the rocks of its semi-arid Zagros Mountains habitat, but its bulbous tail with accompanying leg-like scales looks remarkably like a large chunky spider.

The snake, Pseudocerastes urarachnoides, uses its spider tail to lure unsuspecting mammals and birds to their last meal. Scans of a specimen collected in 1968 and kept in the Field Museum of Natural History in Illinois, United States, now reveal what the lure is made of.

“The tip actually consists of enlarged, elongated and modified scales, which are unique among all living reptiles,” lead author Georgios Georgalis, an associate professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals in Kraków, Poland, told Mongabay by email.

Vipers have attracted the interest of researchers for centuries, Georgalis said, but knowledge of the group’s morphology is still limited. Scientists described P. urarachnoides for science in 2006, but only this year did they publish a high-resolution 3D scan to see the mechanism inside the snake’s tail as part of a scientific study.

The tail filaments, the authors said, loosely resemble those found on some ornithodiran archosaurs and other forms from the Triassic and Jurassic periods. This doesn’t mean that they are related, it’s more likely a case of convergent evolution: similar environmental demands pushing the evolutionary development of similar characteristics.

The findings suggest that reptile skin and scales have a “very high” evolutionary potential to develop complex appendage-like structures, according to Hossein Nabizadeh, a herpetologist at Razi University in Iran not involved in the study.

Nabizadeh, who is also a member of the IUCN SSC Snake Specialist Group, told Mongabay by email that scientists have observed less elaborate, “intermediate,” tail modifications in related vipers in the wild, offering clues to how the spider-tailed viper’s complex lure evolved.

The recent finding, Nabizadeh said, reinforces the hypothesis that snake tails gradually evolved this luring behavior. “First a change in color or simple tail movement, then the appearance of a few filamentous scales.” 

Researchers have not yet studied the skeletons of the genus’ two other species, the Iranian horned viper (P. persicus), and Field’s horned viper (P. fieldi), in similar detail.

But field observations suggest the Iranian horned viper, one of the spider-tailed horned viper’s closest relatives, has a slightly modified tail too, albeit much less developed and complex, Nabizadeh said.

“Caudal luring behavior is also observed in other vipers, but in P. urarachnoides it has reached the peak of morphological complexity.”

Banner image: The spider-tail horned viper (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides) in western Iran. Image courtesy of Hossein Nabizadeh.

SERANGAN ISLAND, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities on the tourist island of Bali released 20 protected green sea turtles back into the ocean Tuesday after they were found and seized on an empty boat seemingly abandoned by wildlife smugglers fleeing a police raid.

Officers conducted final checks on the turtles at a conservation center on Serangan Island, also known as Turtle Island, in southern Bali. They then carefully lifted the turtles using blue cloths and transported them by small truck to the shoreline.

Marine police officers in Bali on Saturday foiled an attempt to smuggle 22 green sea turtles, known by the scientific name Chelonia mydas, in the waters off Serangan Island after receiving a report from residents who suspected sea turtle smuggling activity in the area.

Two of the 22 turtles are still sick and need to be treated before they can also be released, Gusti Agung Purnama Wirahadi from the Bali Water and Air Police said Tuesday.

All of the turtles, which are protected species in Indonesia, were found alive on the boat, but the suspected smugglers had already fled the scene by the time officers arrived.

“We hope that no one will dare to capture, keep, or trade these protected species anymore,” Wirahadi said.

Turtle species in Indonesia have been legally protected under conservation and fisheries laws since 1990. A 2018 Environment Ministry regulation further clarified protections for the six species of sea turtles found in the country’s waters. Additional government regulations also prohibit their trade.

According to a 2022 global study by researchers at Arizona State University, the green sea turtle accounted for 56% of sea turtle killings in the 30-year period to 2020.

Bali was once a major hub for green sea turtle trafficking, driven in part by the historical use of turtle meat in offerings in Balinese Hinduism, the predominant religion on the island of about 4.5 million people.

In June, authorities in Bali foiled an attempt to illegally trade 21 protected green sea turtles during a raid on the island’s Pegametan coast and arrested a 67-year-old man suspected of storing the protected animals before they were distributed for sale.

By Firdia Lisnawati, Associated Press

Banner image: Police officers and activists prepare to release green sea turtles back into the ocean after they were found on an empty boat seemingly abandoned by poachers fleeing a police raid, in Serangan, Bali island, Indonesia, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. Image courtesy of Firdia Lisnawati, Associated Press

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.

For the first time in the modern history of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a local nongovernmental organization will co-manage a protected area in the country with its wildlife authority, reports Mongabay’s Elodie Toto.

Strong Roots Congo will co-manage Itombwe Nature Reserve in South Kivu province with the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) under a public-private partnership.

“It is an honor,” Dominique Bikaba, founder of Strong Roots Congo, told Toto. “I think the government chose us because they have observed the work we have done in the biodiversity corridor and the way we have put local communities at the center of conservation.”

Strong Roots has secured nearly 600,000 hectares (roughly 1.5 million acres) of community land to create a corridor between Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Itombwe Nature Reserve. It aims to secure 1 million hectares (about 2.5 million acres).

The development comes three months after the DRC adopted a National Forest Policy that recognizes the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities to manage forest areas. The measures are significant because many protected areas in the country were created through the eviction of Indigenous populations, exacerbating conflict between local communities and park authorities.

Read the full story by Elodie Toto here.

Banner image: Critically endangered Grauer’s gorillas live in Itombwe Nature Reserve. Image courtesy of Strong Roots Congo.