The sawfish, recognizable by its distinctive saw-shaped snout or rostrum, is now thought to be “functionally extinct” in Sri Lankan waters. This, researchers say, means that while a few individuals may still exist, their numbers are likely too low to maintain a viable breeding population, reports contributor Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay.

In a 2021 study, researchers from the Colombo-based nonprofit Blue Resources Trust (BRT), interviewed 300 fishers across 21 harbors to assess the status of the species. The results showed a stark generational gap.

While fishers over the age of 50 remembered sawfish as once abundant, none of the fishers under the age of 30 could even identify the animal from photographs, Akshay Tanna with the BRT told Mongabay. He added that roughly half of the older fishers who had seen one had not encountered a sawfish since 1992.

The last confirmed record of a sawfish in Sri Lanka, the researchers found, was a chance encounter in 2017 off the eastern coast, when a fisher had photographed the animal and framed its picture.

Marine biologist and study co-author Sahan Thilakaratna said three of five species of sawfish have historically been recorded in Sri Lankan waters: the narrow sawfish (Anoxypristis cuspidata), the largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis) and the green sawfish (P. zijsron). All are currently listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. Globally, their decline is driven by overfishing, habitat loss and bycatch. The sawfish’s rostrum, which it uses as a sensory organ and weapon to hunt, easily becomes entangled in fishing nets, making them highly vulnerable to accidental capture.

Recovery for these rays is particularly challenging due to their biology: they grow slowly, mature late, and produce few offspring, said Rima Jabado, chair of the Shark Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. However, researchers say there’s a ray of hope.

Thilakaratna recorded a fisher who had caught a juvenile sawfish in brackish waters in Balapitiya in southern Sri Lanka nearly a decade ago, suggesting that refuges for the species might still exist. “Sawfish do use brackish habitats as breeding and nursery grounds, and these environments are critical for their survival,” he said.

Thilakaratna also found cultural records that suggest there’s potential for community-based conservation actions for the sawfish. He visited churches in coastal fishing communities where he saw preserved sawfish rostra presented as offerings. “Fishers offer the sawfish rostra to churches as acts of gratitude or for protection at sea,” he said.

To prevent the sawfish’s local extinction, Jabado called for coordinated conservation efforts, including protecting key estuarine habitats, incentivizing fishers to release bycatch, and strengthening science-based policies. She added these measures could also support the recovery of sawfishes and other threatened rays such as guitarfishes and wedgefishes.

Read the full story by Malaka Rodrigo here.

Banner image of a largetooth sawfish at the Georgia Aquarium. Image by David Iliff via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

The destruction of coastal wetlands for illegal tin mining and oil palm plantations is to blame for a surge in crocodile attacks on people on Indonesia’s Bangka Island, residents say.

Mongabay Indonesia contributor Taufik Wijaya reported that in February this year, a 40-year-old fisherman was killed by a saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) in the Menduk River. He was possibly the 21st victim of a crocodile attack in the last five years on Bangka Island, according to local wildlife charity the Alobi Foundation. The attacks have also resulted in 12 crocodiles being killed and dozens of humans and crocs injured during the same period.

People have lived in the wetlands of the Menduk River estuary since the 7th century, but the recent rise in crocodile attacks has been attributed to the region’s changing landscape.

Approximately 1,000 hectares (around 2,500 acres) of oil palm plantations and 250 illegal tin mining sites have taken over the Menduk wetlands, according to Suhadi, a resident of Menduk village and the manager of a community group established by Indonesia’s largest environmental NGO, Walhi.

Bangka and neighboring Belitung Island were once responsible for more than a quarter of global tin production. Much of the environmental degradation is a legacy of that tin mining, researchers say, including possible illegal mining that became the focus of a massive recent corruption scandal.

As the wetlands are destroyed, crocodiles are forced to migrate to new territories, leading to increased aggression and territorial disputes, said Endi R. Yusuf, manager of the Alobi Foundation’s animal rescue center.

Residents say they’re increasingly fearful of entering the water to fish or farm, and fish stocks are declining as wetlands degrade.

Over time, climate change may also affect crocodiles, as warmer temperatures may raise their metabolism and increase human water use, further compounding the risk of encounters, researchers noted in a 2023 study.

With the Alobi Foundation’s animal sanctuary on Bangka currently at capacity, Endi said protecting habitats is crucial. “A conservation area is really needed in the Bangka-Belitung islands to accommodate [saltwater] crocodiles,” he said, adding that the charity had identified intact wetlands in Central Bangka district where such a zone could be created.

Jessix Amundian, director of the nonprofit Tumbek for Earth, noted that creating a conservation area for saltwater crocodiles isn’t enough. He said the condition of the island’s rivers, swamps and mangroves needs to be restored.

Suhadi told Mongabay Indonesia that the root of the conflict must be addressed first. “If we want to stop the conflict, we must stop destroying wetlands,” he said.

Read the full story by Taufik Wijaya here.

Banner image: A captive crocodile at the Alobi Foundation’s wildlife rescue center in January 2026. Image by Nopri Ismi/Mongabay Indonesia.

Agriculture is the biggest driver of peatland loss in Indonesia, Peru and the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to the largest expanses of tropical peatlands in the world, a recent study has found.

Peatlands are crucial in the fight against climate change: They cover less than 3% of the world’s landmass, but sequester more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem. Yet, the boggy wetlands are being deforested and drained at unsustainable rates, releasing climate-warming greenhouse gases. However, scientists have lacked a clear understanding of the emissions associated with the different drivers of recent tropical peatland degradation.

In the new study, researchers analyzed satellite imagery from 2020-2021 to determine what’s driving peatland conversion in Indonesia, Peru and the DRC, and to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions associated with it.

Logging emerged as a key driver of tropical peatland loss in all three countries. Mining and road development were major factors in Indonesia and Peru. However, agriculture was by far the biggest driver across all three regions, the study found.

In Indonesia, where large-scale agriculture was the leading source of emissions, agriculture overall accounted for 67% of peatland conversion. In Peru, smallholder agriculture was most responsible, for the 61% of agricultural conversion. In the DRC, smallholder agriculture alone accounted for 93% of peatland conversion and 94% of emissions, with no significant role by large-scale agriculture.

Tropical peatlands are often cleared by burning, which the study found accounted for roughly half the total greenhouse gas emissions of the conversion. “Fire emits a very high amount of greenhouse gases over a very short period of time,” lead author Karimon Nesha, from Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, told Mongabay in a video call. That’s because fire quickly releases the carbon stored in both vegetation and soil.

The study found that the initial emissions in 2020 from fires used to clear peatlands was 19-20 times higher than the emissions from decaying peat the following year. However, scientists know that peat continues to decompose for decades and can eventually release roughly the same amount of emissions as the initial period of peatland draining, clearing and burning.

Overall, researchers found the highest greenhouse gas emissions in the DRC, home to the largest tropical peatland in the world, the Cuvette Centrale. However, Shona Jenkins, a research fellow at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, who wasn’t involved in the study, questioned part of the methodology quantifying the emissions.

She said the peatland map the researchers used may overestimate peatland depth in the DRC, meaning emissions there “could be vastly overestimated.”

While some uncertainty may remain around emissions estimates, Nesha said the path to reducing peatland emissions is clear: Don’t use fire, which generates the most short-term emissions, and “rewet” drained peatlands; cover them with water to stop the decomposition that results in long-term emissions.

Banner image: Aerial view of a peatland forest in the DRC. Image © Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — At least 10 people are dead with many homes destroyed in flooding caused by torrential rains across six provinces in South Africa that have hit informal settlements especially hard.

South African authorities have declared a natural disaster for the flooding, thunderstorms, high winds and even snowfall that have affected parts of the Western Cape, North West, Free State, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces since May 4.

The declaration enables the government to use emergency funds and other resources to respond.

Cape Town was badly affected, and the Western Cape provincial government has ordered the temporary closure of schools and parts of the city’s Table Mountain tourist attraction.

Local officials there on Tuesday said at least 26 informal settlements around the city had been affected by flooding, with over 10,000 structures damaged.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday expressed “deep sadness” over the loss of at least 10 lives due to the severe weather as winter in the Southern Hemisphere begins.

He said authorities are “making the best use of science to pre-empt some of these events and to respond to the aftermath.”

Experts have said severe floods across Southern Africa are intensifying, driven by extreme weather patterns. Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe experienced unusually heavy rains in recent months, with the region’s worst flooding in years.

In January, South Africa declared a national disaster over torrential rains and floods that killed at least 30 people in the north, damaged thousands of homes and washed away roads and bridges.

By Associated Press

Banner image: A woman walks on a waterlogged pathway of the informal settlement in Khayelitsha, on the outkirks of Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Bheki Radebe)

For many birds, survival depends heavily on their beaks. Beaks are used for eating, hygiene and even fighting, so a broken or deformed beak can often be a death sentence. But for one kea parrot, an endangered species endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand, scientists observed the exact opposite, despite the bird missing its entire upper beak.

Scientists found that the male kea parrot (Nestor notabilis), which they named Bruce, was using his lower beak as a jousting weapon, thrusting the implement forward — a behavior that other parrots with intact beaks did not replicate. Researchers observed Bruce participate in 36 combative interactions — and win all of them.

“Bruce shows us that behavioral innovation can help bypass physical disability, at least in species with the cognitive flexibility to develop new solutions,” Alexander Grabham, lead author of a recently published study describing the findings, said in a statement. “Previous research has shown links between large brains, behavioral flexibility, and survival at the species level.”

Kea parrots are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, with an estimated 4,000 adults left in the wild.

Bruce was born in the wild but was taken into captivity around 12 years ago, after he was found with his entire upper beak missing. He has since lived in the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch, where the study was carried out.

Researchers found that Bruce was jousting more frequently than other keas, using different techniques and targeting different areas of his opponents’ body. Usually, keas target the neck, but Bruce distributed his attacks across the back, head, wings and legs. In total, researchers recorded 227 combative interactions among 12 different parrots, nine males and three females. Bruce participated in around 16% of them.

Fecal testing showed that Bruce had the lowest levels of a stress hormone metabolite called corticosterone in his group. They also noted that he had priority access to feeders, and he was the only male groomed by other males. In fact, four other males participated in his grooming.

“Bruce is the alpha male of his group,” said Grabham, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Canterbury. “Our findings also raise an important welfare question: if a disabled animal can innovate its way to success, well-intentioned interventions like prosthetics might not always improve their quality of life. Sometimes the animal can do better without help.”

A previous study, published in 2021, recorded another innovative behavioral adaptation by Bruce: he used pebbles to preen his feathers, a behavior that had never been seen before by other individuals of his species with intact beaks.

Banner image: Kea parrot Bruce at New Zealand’s Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. Images courtesy of Alexander Grabham.

Forest authorities in central India have successfully helped establish a new breeding population of the vulnerable hard-ground swamp deer, an animal previously restricted to just one protected area, reports contributor Sneha Mahale for Mongabay India. 

Once widespread in India, the hard-ground swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii branderi) was until recently reduced to a single, isolated population of around 1,100 individuals, restricted to Kanha Tiger Reserve in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state.

The hard-ground swamp deer is the only subspecies of the swamp deer — or barasingha, meaning “12-horned” in Hindi — that’s adapted to solid grassland. The two other subspecies live in swampy grassland habitats in other parts of the country.

“Confining the entire subspecies to Kanha effectively created a single point of failure,” Neha Awasthi, a member of the Deer Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, told Mongabay India. She said small isolated populations face risks from fluctuations in population, gene patterns and inbreeding, as well as external threats including disease outbreaks or large-scale environmental disturbances.  

To help the deer survive future catastrophes, the Madhya Pradesh forest department translocated 98 deer from Kanha to Satpura Tiger Reserve, also in Madhya Pradesh, between 2015 and 2023. The deer were first transferred into a 50-hectare (124-acre) predator-proof enclosure to allow for acclimatization, before being released into open grassland.  

Awasthi is a co-author of a recently published study that found that the hard-ground swamp deer population had increased from the original 98 to 172 individuals by 2023. The researchers recorded fawns, including second- and third-generation deer, annually, suggesting they were successfully breeding.

“Several independent indicators suggest the population is establishing rather than simply persisting with management support,” Awasthi said.

During the monitoring period, the researchers also found that the swamp deer in Satpura were in good physical condition, comparable to that of deer in Kanha, suggesting that Satpura’s grasslands offered sufficient food, water and shelter for the subspecies.

The forest department actively managed much of the habitat inside Satpura to aid the swamp deer’s translocation, Awasthi said. These interventions included restoring grasslands and planting key forage species such as black speargrass, kangaroo grass and wild sugarcane. They also removed invasive plants such as lantana and congress weed.

Awasthi cautioned that the project’s long-term success will depend on continued management.

Since 2023, 48 hard-ground swamp deer have also been introduced to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, also in Madhya Pradesh. That population has already grown to 64, according to Anish Andheria, president of the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Trust, who wasn’t involved in the Satpura study.

“The swamp deer (barasingha) translocation programme in Madhya Pradesh is a landmark effort to secure the future of the species,” Andheria told Mongabay India.

Read the full story by Sneha Mahale here.

Banner image: Hard-ground swamp deer in their new habitat in Satpura Tiger Reserve. Image courtesy of L. Krishnamoorthy.