PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Scientists who study whales are heartened by an unexpected discovery of a baby right whale off Canada. Researchers in Canada captured images of an unidentified baby North Atlantic right whale, one of the rarest sea mammals in the world, off Anticosti Island in Quebec in September. Scientists with the New England Aquarium in Boston said this week that after analyzing photos and data about right whales, they have determined it was a calf likely born months ago that went unseen during winter surveys for the giant animals. The discovery puts the number of baby right whales discovered from the most recent birthing season at 24.

By Patrick Whittle,  Associated Press

Banner image:  A North Atlantic right whale Image courtesy of Robert F. Bukaty, NOAA permit # 21371

A juvenile orangutan seized from an apartment in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2024 has been repatriated to its native Indonesia, following two years of health and procedural delays.

The endangered animal was transferred to the Sumatra Rescue Alliance facility on the island of Sumatra, where experts plan to prepare it for eventual release into the wild, reports Mongabay India’s Arathi Menon. Orangutans are listed in Appendix I of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty, which bans the international commercial trade in wild-caught individuals.

“This is the first successful repatriation of a seized CITES animal from India and my office did everything in our capacity to make it happen,” said Yogesh Nilkand Warkad, assistant management authority of CITES in Mumbai.

Sinan Serhadli, a conservation scientist and adviser to Yayasan Orangutan Sumatera Lestari–Orangutan Information Centre (YOSL-OIC), which manages the Sumatra Rescue Alliance where the orangutan is headed, said that after a designated quarantine period, the juvenile will attend a forest school to acquire survival skills. “If all goes to plan, he can be released in the wild in about four years,” he said.

The successful repatriation has renewed international focus on five infant orangutans that were rescued from the forests of Odisha state in India in September. Estimated to be between 1 and 1.5 years old, the infants remain at Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s capital, while authorities investigate their origins and suspected trafficking.

Panut Hadisiswoyo, founder of the Orangutan Information Centre, which founded the Sumatra Rescue Alliance, credited the media attention surrounding the Odisha incident in helping accelerate repatriation efforts. “A team of experts from Indonesia will visit the babies soon and look into the paperwork needed,” he said.

Indonesia has proposed sending a seven-member delegation of government officials, veterinarians, and orangutan specialists to assess the infants’ health, welfare, and origins.

Ahmad Munawir, director of species and genetic conservation at Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry, said initial physical observations suggest the infants are Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii), though official confirmation requires genetic testing, as reported by Mongabay Indonesia.

While Indonesian authorities say they’re hopeful the repatriation can set the right precedent in wildlife trade and seizures in India, Hadisiswoyo said both nations should leverage this latest development to dismantle cross-border smuggling operations.

“We also demand processes are in place to combat international illegal wildlife trade that facilitate transport and trade of animals to other countries,” Hadisiswoyo added.

Read the full story by Arathi Menon here.

Banner image: Representative image of an infant orangutan at a zoo in Zürich, Switzerland. Image by Tambako the Jaguar via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0).

Philippine researchers have confirmed the presence of horseshoe crabs in the southern island province of Tawi-Tawi for the first time through interviews with local residents. Previously, scientists had recorded the arthropods’ existence only in the country’s Palawan province.

In a recent study, fishers and coastal residents described two distinct horseshoe crab species with features resembling those of the tri-spine horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) and the mangrove horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda). The tri-spine horseshoe crab is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Meanwhile, the mangrove horseshoe crab is listed as data deficient, meaning not much is known about its conservation status.

Ivane Pedrosa-Gerasmio, the corresponding author of the study and an associate professor in marine sciences at the Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology in the Philippines, said locals told her about seeing horseshoe crabs when she visited a market in Bongao, the capital of Tawi-Tawi, in December 2023.

Pedrosa-Gerasmio told Mongabay she shared the news with her student Quesie Tolero Omnos, and together they decided to investigate further.  

“I saw an opportunity to establish baseline information that could support future research and science-based conservation initiatives for horseshoe crab species,” Omnos told Mongabay.

Pedrosa-Gerasmio, Osmos and their colleagues decided to rely on the people who best know the coastal areas. The scientists talked with 142 residents across four municipalities in Tawi-Tawi about where they had seen horseshoe crabs, how frequently, what they thought of the horseshoe crabs’ population changes, and how they collected and consumed the animals. Horseshoe crabs are called “bangkas” by the locals, due to their boat-like shape.  

Those interviewed had observed horseshoe crabs turn up on sandy beaches, in mangroves, among rocky coral and seagrass, and in waters 10-15 meters (32.8-49.2 feet) deep in Bongao and other coastal towns such as Simunul, Sitangkai and Panglima Sugala.

Residents and fishers told the researchers that locals capture horseshoe crabs to use in medicine to cure asthma and other illnesses, and in rituals for people possessed by bad spirits. More than half of those interviewed also thought that horseshoe crab numbers were declining, possibly due to collection for medicinal purposes, climate change and industrial pollution. 

Horseshoe crabs are often referred to as “living fossils,” because they have existed for 450 million years, outlasting dinosaurs. There are just four known species of horseshoe crabs; three are found in Asia. All Asian horseshoe crab populations are declining due to threats including habitat loss in Japan, bycatch and beach litter in Indonesia, and overharvesting, pollution and coastal reclamation in China.

Omnos said conserving the two horseshoe crab species they’ve potentially documented in Tawi-Tawi is important because of their ecological significance, possible pharmaceutical applications and cultural value to the communities.

“I believe conservation should begin with sufficient scientific evidence on their occurrence, distribution, population status, and threats, which can guide local government units in developing science-based management plans,” she said.

Banner image: A mangrove horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda). Image by Bernard Dupont via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Rising temperatures in Bangladesh are creating an occupational health crisis for the 4.2 million workers in the country’s garment industry, reports Mongabay contributor Usraat Fahmidah.

A World Bank report shows that maximum temperatures across the country have climbed by about 1.1° Celsius (2° Fahrenheit) since 1980. The country’s capital, Dhaka, hit a record 40.6°C (105°F) in April 2023 and endured a 30-day heat wave in 2024. A 2025 study found that peak indoor temperatures at garment factories exceed 35°C (95°F) on 37% of monitored days, occasionally surpassing 40°C (104°F) during peak summer months.

That heat is taking a physical toll on factory workers. Mridula, a 20-year-old sewing operator in Dhaka, collapsed on the job after she became dizzy amid extreme heat. She was later diagnosed with jaundice, a condition exacerbated by dehydration and physical exertion.

Medical staff at Dhaka garment facilities report rising numbers of dehydrated workers suffering from low blood pressure, alongside a marked increase in needle injuries from sewing machines and falls during hotter months.

Systemic data on indoor heat-related illness remain scarce. Aaron Bach from Griffith University in Australia, who co-authored a 2025 study on heat impacts in Bangladeshi garment factories, said factory clinics are set up for acute emergencies and lack facilities to screen for chronic conditions.

“If we’re not recording health effects now, we’ll have no way of knowing how much harm is building up as conditions get hotter,” Bach told Mongabay. Moreover, Bangladesh’s 2024 National Guideline on Heat-Related Illness focuses on outdoor labor and doesn’t directly address indoor factory environments, he added. Bach said safety reforms following the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse prioritized structural and fire hazards over workplace heat exposure.

Cara Schulte, a researcher at Climate Rights International, said labor rights violations directly amplify heat risks. “You can tell a worker to drink more water, but that recommendation isn’t meaningful if she doesn’t have access to potable water at work, or can’t leave her production line to use the bathroom,” Schulte said.

Heat stress also imposes economic costs on the garment sector. An analysis by the Global Labor Institute at Cornell University in the U.S. found a 4.1% annual revenue drop associated with heat at one participating factory.

Md. Manirul Islam, deputy director of research at the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, noted that Bangladesh law requires that factories control heat in their facilities. However weak enforcement and a reliance on superficial remedies like using water to cool factory roofs don’t address the root causes of unsafe heat.

Enforceable heat standards and sustainable cooling investments — such as reflective roof paint, thermal insulation, and improved airflow — are urgently needed to protect workers and maintain factory productivity, according to the research.

Read the full story by Usraat Fahmidah here.

Banner image: Garment employees leave a clothing plant at the end of their work day. Image by Better Work Programme via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

A coalition of legal and environmental groups has filed money laundering complaints against JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, and 12 financial institutions, investors and advisers, including the U.K. bank Barclays. The complaints allegedly tie JBS profits to illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.

The Transnational Legal Coalition filed 14 complaints with prosecutors and financial regulators in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands on Nov. 5. It argues that profits from cattle raised on illegally cleared land constitute “proceeds of crime” under anti-money laundering laws, potentially exposing JBS, and institutions that handle its money, to legal liability.

“Illegal deforestation of the Amazon is a crime, not a business model,” Bláithín Quigley, coordinator for the Transnational Legal Coalition, said in a statement.

The coalition of legal nonprofits includes Global Legal Action Network and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, as well as advocacy groups Mighty Earth, FIND and King’s College London in the U.K.

The complaints draw on a report by environmental research nonprofit AidEnvironment that linked JBS suppliers to more than 6.5 million hectares (16 million acres) of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon between 1988 and 2026.

Barclays is JBS’s largest financier and earned $1.7 billion from its dealings with the company between 2018 and 2023, according to a 2024 investigation by Global Witness. An analysis by the Center for Climate Crime Analysis for the same investigation found nearly 8,000 cows reared on illegally occupied Apyterewa Indigenous territory in Pará “entered JBS’s supply chain” in the same period.

AidEnvironment also found evidence of deforestation in legally protected areas on more than 80% of farms they sampled that directly or indirectly supply JBS. The affected areas included Legal Reserves, portions of rural properties that landowners must preserve under Brazilian law, and Areas of Permanent Preservation, where clearing vegetation is generally prohibited.

Barclays declined to comment.

In an email to Mongabay, a Mighty Earth spokesperson said that JBS has received a summary of the report and is “aware of the key findings.” However, JBS has disputed the allegations and said it hasn’t received the data needed to assess the claims.

“JBS regrets that the NGO’s campaign has withheld the purported data on which its allegations against JBS are based, which prevents the Company from taking action on them. We cannot comment without access to the methodology of the purported study.”

JBS added that it has monitored its suppliers in the Amazon since 2010 using a protocol set by Brazil’s Federal Prosecution Office. It also said that their systems automatically block farms with illegal deforestation or that overlap conservation units.

“Environmental crime is financial crime. Revenue linked to illegal deforestation can flow into the global financial system,” Mariana Gutiérrez, director and investigator at FIND, said in a statement. ”JBS has raised billions in the past year alone despite well-documented deforestation risk in its Brazilian supply chain.”

Banner image: Smoke from fires in Apyterewa Indigenous Territory in Pará state, Brazil. Image courtesy of Cícero Pedrosa Neto/Global Witness.

Rokiatu Traoré, president of a social enterprise in Mali that uses agroforestry to restore degraded land and create jobs for women and youths, has been named a Changemaker at the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals Action Awards.

“I work in Mali, where lands are becoming drier every year. Many farmers struggle with degraded soil, smaller harvests, and fewer economic opportunities,” Traoré said at the Oct. 29 awards ceremony in Rome. “I founded Herou Alliance to restore degraded lands and create real economic opportunities for communities in rural areas.”

The Herou Alliance uses an agroforestry model that creates value by producing seedlings, training farmers, and planting trees. Since 2021, the organization has built commercial value chains around the moringa tree (Moringa oleifera). Traoré has said in a past interview that she’s sometimes even referred to as the “Moringa Queen.”

The alliance develops “products derived from the leaves, flowers and seeds of this plant, which we process into different products: herbal tea, powder, honey, soap, spices, dietary supplements for the national, regional and international market,” Traoré told Mongabay by phone.

The moringa tree is native to South Asia, but is now widely grown in other parts of the world, including in Africa. This fast-growing deciduous tree is sometimes called the miracle tree because of its range of uses. Almost all parts of the plant are edible, with the leaves considered especially nutritious as a source of vitamins, minerals, and proteins. The seeds can be pressed to extract the oil, and the residue can be used for water purification.

The tree is also known to be resilient to drought, which makes it suitable for drier conditions, where it’s been planted as part of reforestation or afforestation programs to stop land degradation. However, there’s insufficient research on how well it does in such programs in the arid Sahel region of Africa.

Traoré said that beyond its role in restoring degraded land and helping halt the advance of the desert, moringa provides a versatile and valuable raw material for manufacturing cosmetics, food, and even medicinal products.

She added this transformative value, anchored by the tree’s well-established ecological and socioeconomic roles, earned her project a nomination for the 2026 edition of the U.N. SDG Action Awards.

The Herou Alliance has set a target of restoring 10 million hectares (25 million acres) of degraded land in Mali by 2040. Land degradation affected 11.5 million hectares (28.4 acres) in the country in 2019, impacting more than 6.5 million people, according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

“We’ve planted so far 150,000 moringa and baobab [trees] and trained over 2,000 smallholder farmers in rural areas,” Traoré said at the awards ceremony.  “Restoring land is restoring opportunities.”

Banner image: A view of the Bandiagara escarpment in Mali. Image courtesy of Johannes Zielcke via Flickr. (CC BY-SA 4.0).