The short-eared dog is one of the Amazon’s least-known carnivores. In Bolivia, it’s also one of the hardest to find.

The species has a fox-like snout, small rounded ears, partially webbed toes, and a long bushy tail that often drags on the forest floor. In Spanish, it’s sometimes called perro fantasma, or ghost dog, a name that reflects how rarely even field biologists encounter it.

A long-running camera-trap study has now brought the species into sharper focus, reports Iván Paredes Tamayo. Over more than two decades, researchers recorded the short-eared dog in Bolivia’s lowland Amazonian forests, in piedmont forests near the Andes, and in large protected and Indigenous-managed landscapes. The results suggest the animal may be present in more places than earlier records showed. That is useful evidence, although it doesn’t make the species common. It remains scarce, elusive, and closely linked to well-preserved forest.

For conservation groups, land managers, and funders, the findings suggest the short-eared dog depends on large, connected areas of habitat. Small forest fragments are unlikely to provide what it needs. Its presence can help identify places where forests are still functioning well, especially where protected areas and Indigenous territories keep intact habitat at scale.

The finding also shows why long-term monitoring matters. Rare species are easy to miss in short surveys. A camera trap may sit for months without recording one. A study that runs across years, landscapes, and management types can reveal patterns that would otherwise remain hidden.

The short-eared dog will probably never become a familiar conservation symbol. That should not limit its importance. Its records give researchers a better view of Bolivia’s Amazonian forests, and they give decision-makers another reason to keep those forests large, connected, and standing.

Read the full story here.

Banner image: The short-eared dog inhabits the Amazon and prefers untouched forests. Image courtesy of Guido Ayala & María Viscarra/WCS Bolivia.

From human-elephant coexistence to an alternative conservation model from the Democratic Republic of Congo, from teen innovators in Kenya to Guinea’s complicated experience with mining, the stories that attracted the most readers in the first five months of 2026 reflect the richness of Mongabay’s Africa coverage on World Environment Day, June 5, 2026. They also showcase the talents of a diverse reporting team and a strong and growing network of resident contributors.

Electric fences help farmers and elephants coexist in Zambian borderlands: Contributor Ryan Truscott reports from eastern Zambia on an initiative aimed at protecting farmland from elephants, even as the pachyderms are forced into narrower corridors as habitats shrink.

A unique clearing in Central Africa draws elephants from the dense forests: Mongabay Africa’s program director David Akana takes readers to the forest clearing of Dzanga Bai in the Central African Republic. A place where the naturally elusive forest elephants gather, sometimes in the hundreds, forming a “village of elephants.”

Descendants of people pushed out for DRC national park lead forest conservation efforts:  Contributor Jérémie Kyaswekera brings a story of hope from the DRC, where descendants of  families that had to leave the forests of what is today an area in and around Maiko National Park are leading efforts to protect biodiversity through local conservation efforts.

Teen innovators in Kenya turn farm waste into award-winning vehicle exhaust filter: Kenya-based contributor Mary Mwendwa teamed up with Mongabay Africa editor Malavika Vyawahare to profile young innovators who developed an exhaust filtration system that uses filters made from locally-sourced materials like coconut shells, maize cobs, steel mesh, copper and recycled materials from old batteries. The duo won the Africa edition of the Earth Prize.

Hopes and fears as Guinea exports iron ore from Simandou mines:  Mongabay Africa features writer Ashoka Mukpo explains what makes the first shipment of iron ore from Guinea’s Simandou mines to China significant. The deep dive foregrounds the perils of extractives in a country with hopes of becoming one of the world’s leading iron ore producers.

Banner image: Elephants in Dzanga Bai in the Central African Republic. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Trump administration’s push to expand oil and gas development in Alaska faces a new test Friday. That’s when the latest lease sale is set for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A coalition of conservation groups sent a letter to oil company leaders ahead of the sale, urging them to stay away and citing risks such as ongoing litigation around the leasing program. Opponents of drilling in the refuge have pointed to a lack of major industry interest in prior lease sales. But supporters of drilling see the refuge’s coastal plain as a potential untapped resource that could boost oil production and generate new revenue.

Banner image: FILE – The Kaktovik Lagoon and the Brooks Range mountains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are seen in Kaktovik, Alaska, Oct. 15, 2024. Image by Lindsey Wasson via Associated Press.

While on a deep-sea expedition in the Galapagos in 2015, scientists found a golf-ball sized, short-armed blue octopus. In a recent study, they confirmed that it’s new to science.

The newly described octopus, named Microeledone galapagensis, was first sighted with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) near an underwater mountain, roughly 1,773 meters (5,800 feet) below the Pacific Ocean surface close to Darwin Island.  

Expedition researchers from the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galápagos National Park Directorate collected it with their ROV. They saw two more octopus individuals on video. The body of the collected specimen was preserved and sent to octopus expert Janet Voight at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. 

Voight and colleagues at the museum scanned the octopus using computed tomography (CT) to create a 3D model of the individual. The researchers then used the CT model to examine its internal organs and mouth parts.   

“When you describe a new species of octopus, you have to look at all the parts, including the mouth, the beak, and the teeth. And to see those things, you have to cut the specimen open. We only had the one specimen, so I didn’t want to take it apart,” Voight said in a press release.  

A comparison of the blue octopus’ parts with those from other octopus species revealed that it was a new-to-science species.

Unlike many octopuses, Microeledone galapagensis is small, squat, and has short, stubby arms with few arm suckers. “One of the interesting questions about this and related octopus species is how they survive in the deep sea, which we consider to be resource limited, with such short arms,” Voight told Mongabay by email. “If you gather prey by moving your arms through the sediment (as we think they do), wouldn’t it be better to have longer arms with more suckers than short little arms?”

Voight said finding a new octopus species in the deep sea isn’t unusual since few people have looked in those places — there may be other deep-sea octopuses waiting to be discovered. 

“Given the little we know about the deep sea, how large an area it is (the Pacific Ocean alone is larger than all land masses on the planet combined) and what seems to be limited dispersal of the very large young of deep-sea octopus, we definitely will be discovering new deep-sea octopuses for a long time to come,” Voight said.

Jim Barry, a senior scientist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, U.S.,  who was not involved with the study, told CNN: “We just don’t know enough about the biodiversity of the deep sea in general, so as discoveries like this keep coming up every dive, you may see something new that’s never been seen before.”

Banner image: Microeledone galapagensis, a tiny blue octopus, was found in the deep sea in the Galapagos. Image courtesy of the Charles Darwin Foundation. 

Across the small islands of eastern Indonesia that lie within the Wallacea region, one of the world’s richest marine biodiversity regions, coastal communities are reviving ancient customary systems to safeguard marine ecosystems from destructive fishing and habitat loss. This movement is the centerpiece of Jejak Wallacea, a recent documentary highlighting how local empowerment can succeed where top-down conservation often fails, reports Mongabay’s Hans Nicholas Jong.

The film features initiatives across four provinces: East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi. These communities have turned to locally rooted methods of reverse biodiversity loss, such as seasonal fishing closures, customary sanctions and mangrove restoration.

In Solor, East Nusa Tenggara, residents established traditionally protected marine areas that they refer to as “marine granaries” (kebang lewa lolon) to restore coral reefs and created turtle hatcheries. They are also moving away from harmful blast fishing.

“What we chose was conservation, but based on local wisdom,” Vero Lamahoda, director of the local foundation Yayasan Tanah Ile Boleng that is supporting the communities in the transition, said in the documentary.

In Southeast Sulawesi, the village of Wabula employs a customary system called Kaombo, which regulates access to traditionally protected areas like seagrass beds and mangroves. Violators face customary fines or rituals like Kaleo Leo, where suspects are dunked into the sea, and the individual who surfaces first is considered the guilty party. Similarly, communities on Langkai and Lanjukang islands in South Sulawesi utilize periodic closures of marine areas for octopus fishing to allow populations to recover.

A study by researchers at Burung Indonesia, the Indonesian affiliate of BirdLife International, noted that the community-led efforts featured in the documentary have helped in the recovery of at least seven key marine species. These include the Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni), green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus) and dugong (Dugong dugon).

In South Sulawesi alone, seminatural turtle hatcheries — community-managed sites established to protect sea turtle eggs from natural threats — helped release nearly 4,000 sea turtle hatchlings.

In the Banggai Islands, mangrove restoration has stabilized crab populations, which are vital for local livelihoods. Film director Sam August Himmawan noted the economic importance of these ecosystems. “If mangroves disappear, then the crabs will disappear too. The economic multiplier effect is enormous,” Himmawan said.

Burung Indonesia said that long-term sustainability of the community initiatives through their customary systems requires formal government recognition and support. Angga Yoga, a terrestrial program specialist at the organization, explained that their goal is to strengthen the capacity of civil society so that communities can design their own conservation mechanisms rather than having prohibitions imposed upon them.

Read the full story by Hans Nicholas Jong here.

Banner image: Aerial view of Langkai Island in South Sulawesi. Image courtesy of Arise! Indonesia

Severed tissue from a cold-water sea cucumber can survive, heal, and even move independently for years in natural seawater, researchers recently found.

Some animals have the ability to regenerate tissues and body parts. Certain lizards can regrow their tails, for example. Some sea stars and sea cucumbers, including Psolus fabricii that live in the cold waters of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, can regrow their severed arms or halves. However, researchers in the study showed that the discarded parts of a sea cucumber, instead of dying, can also remain viable for long periods of time.

“It’s like a lizard that loses its tail,” study co-author Rachel Sipler from Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, said in a statement. “We know some lizards can grow new tails; we’re talking about whether the tail can grow a new lizard.”

Sipler and her colleagues removed parts of tentacles, feet and the main body from three Psolus fabricii individuals and placed them in natural seawater in the laboratory. The tissues showed active immune responses, cell diversification, and the ability to absorb nutrients (amino acids) dissolved in the seawater. Even when the researchers stopped the experiments after three years, the tissues continued to survive.

“We haven’t grown a new, complete sea cucumber yet, but we are seeing pretty stunning growth and diversification of cells literally years after this tissue was removed,” Sipler said in the statement.

Cell lines that are “immortal” and can perpetuate indefinitely are crucial for biomedical research. However, most such “immortal” cell lines, such as the famous HeLa cells taken from a cancerous cervical tumor of Henrietta Lacks, without her consent, require meticulously sterilized conditions and enriched nutrients to survive. In contrast, the sea cucumber tissues thrived in unfiltered seawater teeming with microbes, the researchers found.

“Natural seawater is just about the most microbially diverse, least clean approach we could take experimentally,” Sipler said in the statement. “Yet, that rich environment full of bacteria and all this organic matter was actually feeding them and allowing this tissue to heal and grow.”

The study’s authors said their findings offer a “new class of experimental model” for science.  Since the tissues are from an invertebrate, they are not subject to the same legal and ethical restrictions as human or vertebrate cell lines, the researchers added, potentially making high-level biological research more accessible in contexts with “limited biosafety infrastructure. ”

Beyond its medical promise, the discovery underscores the “untapped potential of ocean life,” Sipler noted. “It’s a reminder of how much is yet to be discovered in the marine environment, and how important it is to protect these resources that may hold really valuable knowledge for us.”

Banner image: Microscopy image of a tube foot severed from a Psolus fabricii sea cucumber and stained green. Denser green coloring reflects areas of more active cellular processes. Image courtesy of Sara Jobson via American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).