Former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres has been named the recipient of the inaugural Jane Goodall Earth Medal, which honors those who “unite science, courage and responsibility.”

Goodall, a primatologist, conservationist and a persistent voice of hope, died in October 2025 at the age of 91. She also served on Mongabay’s advisory council.

The Jane Goodall Earth Medal was awarded by the board of the Starmus Festival, an international gathering celebrating science, space, and the arts. This year, the festival will take place from Oct. 17-22 in Spain.

Figueres, who served as executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and led negotiations for the 2015 Paris climate agreement, discussed the award on the Mongabay Newscast hosted by Mike DiGirolamo.

Figueres told DiGirolamo that Goodall was “an absolute giant” to her very last day. “And the fact that a medal has been made in her honor, and that I will debut that, is just an unbelievable honor.”

Astrophysicist and Starmus co-founder Garik Israelian, who joined the podcast, said that advisory board members Brian May — astrophysicist and guitarist for the rock band Queen — and fellow musician Peter Gabriel together conceived the idea for the Jane Goodall Earth Medal. Israelian added that May “was very active in protecting animals” through his foundation Save Me, while Gabriel works closely on human rights causes.

The upcoming Starmus Festival centers on the theme of “The Search for Truth,” addressing information integrity in what political ecologist Bram Buscher previously characterized on the newscast as a “post-truth era.” During the episode, both Figueres and Israelian said that social media platforms rely on engagement-driven algorithms that prioritize profit over scientific facts.

“We are swimming in both disinformation and misinformation all the time without even knowing it,” Figueres said, calling their expansion an abuse of free speech.

“The fact that we choose to consume more misinformation and disinformation than science-based, truth-based information is to me the root of the problem of why these companies do what they do with algorithms,” she added.

Israelian said the way to counter this is through education. “It’s much harder to lead very educated, very knowledgeable people to this route of using misinformation and … to inform them completely wrong things,” Israelian said. “But also limiting the power of tech companies. Those who do social media, to limit the algorithms or to control those algorithms. They should be under control.”

Listen to the full conversation with Christiana Figueres and Garik Israelian here.

Banner image: Jane Goodall on her Hopecast podcast. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

A worsening convergence of drought driven by climate change, epidemic disease, and state neglect is creating a severe health emergency for the Indigenous Matsés people in the Peruvian Amazon.

Mongabay staff writer Aimee Gabay traveled to Matsés territory to investigate the environmental threats to the region. Instead, she found Matsés communities suffering from severe outbreaks of malaria and hepatitis B, she tells host Mike DiGirolamo in a recent episode of the Mongabay Newscast.

“When I arrived, interview after interview, I was asking questions about environmental threats, and people were like, ‘Well, people are dying on the streets’,” Gabay says. “And it got to the point where I was like I’m asking the wrong questions here.”

According to Gabay, the Matsés officially initiated contact with evangelical missionaries in 1969 to escape escalating violence from rubber tappers, loggers and military bombardments. However, the contact exposed them to infectious diseases. Roberto Necca Tumio Unan, a Matsés elder born before contact was initiated, told Gabay that entire families began dying shortly after contact from diseases previously unknown to them.

“They don’t have the immunological defenses to be able to fight these diseases that maybe, for us, we are constantly exposed to,” Gabay says.

Now, the health crisis is compounded by droughts in the Amazon. Low river levels restrict boat navigation, the primary transit route in the roadless region, preventing healthcare workers from entering remote villages and blocking sick villagers from reaching medical care.

Matsés chief Leo Chuma Teca Beso told Gabay that he traveled to Iquitos in northeastern Peru and capital Lima to plead for state intervention, reporting that sick community members are dying on streets due to advanced hepatitis B complications such as cirrhosis. While Peru’s Ministry of Health (MINSA) previously reported zero hepatitis B deaths among the Matsés, chief Leo said this figure reflects a lack of testing. Civil society health brigades have only screened around 20% of the population so far, identifying 17 hepatitis B cases, according to the health ministry.

Gabay says that MINSA officials cited budget constraints and geographic remoteness as reasons for the delays in healthcare aid and support.

The Matsés territory lies within the 16-million-hectare (40-million-acre) Yavari-Tapiche territorial corridor, where several other Indigenous groups live in isolation. Gabay says if the Indigenous people are forced to move owing to disease or drought, it increases the risk of them encountering illegal oil, logging and mining operations that could expose them to diseases.

“The moment there is an unhealthy environment, that automatically leads to more disease,” Gabay says.

Listen to the full conversation with Aimee Gabay here.

Banner image: The Matsés depend on rivers for transport. The closest village, Colonia Angamos, can take up to two days to reach from some of the furthest communities and receives flights only twice a week. Image by Aimee Gabay/Mongabay. 

Sperm whales are the only whales known to rest vertically, floating steadily just below the ocean’s surface. Scientists have hypothesized that the whales release air bubbles to help them stay neutrally buoyant but the mechanism for how they do so has not previously been demonstrated — until now.

“We already knew that sperm whales rest in a stereotypical vertical position and that they had been observed releasing bubbles during these resting periods,” lead author of a new study Noémie Freymond, a researcher at the Université de Neuchâtel in Switzerland, told Mongabay by email. “It had been hypothesized that the release of bubbles was related to buoyancy regulation, but this had not been demonstrated experimentally or systematically recorded.”

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are buoyant largely thanks to a massive oil-filled organ, called the spermaceti organ, located in their heads. Waxy spermaceti oil is lighter than water, making the whales buoyant. It was once used as a fuel for lamps and candles and the reason the whales were targeted by hunters. 

The whales’ lungs, respiratory tract and spermaceti organ are all low-density organs positioned near the head and help the whales stay vertical. As the whales drift up, lower pressure allows air in the lungs to expand, pushing the whales toward the surface. Releasing bubbles counteracts that upwards push and allows the whales to stay submerged instead of bobbing to the surface.

The study’s research team used data from 42 sperm whales that had been tagged with suction cups near Norway’s Lofoten Islands. The data, collected between 2005 and 2019, contained recordings that enabled the research team to identify when bubbles were released.

Seventeen of the 42 whales were recorded in this resting position, which lasted from just a few minutes up to three hours.

Scientists refer to this behavior as resting rather than sleep because they haven’t yet conducted EEG tests to record their brains activity, which is difficult to do in the wild, Freymond said.

Sperm whales aren’t the only marine mammals to use bubbles in some way. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) release bubbles during foraging, creating bubble nets that make it easier for them to capture prey. Dolphins produce bubbles during play and social interactions. Gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) and bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) have been observed using bubbles to control their buoyancy, both during dives and resting, she added.

For sperm whales, the researchers found that the volume of air that whales breathed in during resting dives was different than for other activities, such as foraging dives.

“The behavior suggests that sperm whales are able to respond to changes in their environment or physiological state during resting dives,” Freymond said.

“Improving our understanding of their sleep and awareness during these periods could have important implications for understanding their vulnerability to anthropogenic threats, such as ship strikes.”

Banner image: A sperm whale resting and releasing bubbles. Image courtesy of the University of St Andrews.

Researchers from India have generated reference genomes for four threatened species of Asian hornbills, reports contributor Nikhil Sreekandan for Mongabay India.

The scientists from the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) in Mysore and the CSIR–Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad assembled high-quality genomes for threatened Asian hornbill species including the great hornbill (Buceros bicornis), rufous-necked hornbill (Aceros nipalensis), Malabar pied hornbill (Anthracoceros coronatus), and wreathed hornbill (Rhyticeros undulatus).

Prior to this study, whole-genome information was available for only two of the 32 Asian hornbill species.

The research team used two types of genetic sequencing to create genetic maps for each of the species; together short- and long-read DNA sequencing helped researchers minimize errors.

“A genome is the complete genetic structure of an organism, [and] a reference genome is a baseline genome for a particular species,” said Pooja Pawar, corresponding author of the study and a doctoral researcher at NCF.

Pawar said that genomic tools allow scientists to examine species histories across the region and over time. “I could go back in time, to when the species originated or diverged from its sister species, and not restrict [my research] to the Western Ghats or northeast India.”

The team used statistical modeling to trace changes in hornbill populations over time, and discovered that climatic instability during the Pleistocene epoch (2.5 million to 11,000 years ago) reduced the effective population sizes of all four species. Among them, the widely distributed wreathed hornbill had a higher effective population size than the other three.

Meghana Natesh, a conservation geneticist at WWF India who wasn’t involved in the study, said genomics also allows researchers to understand the genetic variation in populations. “Genetic variation or diversity is crucial to the adaptive potential and long-term resilience of populations,” she said. Therefore, the findings provide a foundational tool for evaluating population resilience and informing conservation management.

“By comparing their genomes, we can attribute differences in their characteristics to the structural and functional variations within their genomes,” Pawar said.

Read the full story by Nikhil Sreekandan here.

Banner image: The rufous-necked hornbill is found in dense forests in northeastern India, with some of the highest numbers in Arunachal Pradesh state. Image by Shiv’s fotografia via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

H5N1 avian influenza is spreading rapidly across southeastern Australia owing to infected wild bird species, including little penguins, magpies, crested terns and pelicans.

Bird aggregations during breeding seasons will likely accelerate transmission to mammals, said Victoria’s chief biodiversity officer James Todd.

In late August, H5N1 jumped to a mammal, a red fox (Vulpes vulpes), in Adelaide, South Australia.

Acting chief veterinary officer Cameron Bell said that while wild foxes generally do not spread the virus directly, scavenging pests risk moving infected carcasses across habitats, according to media reports.

In September, state authorities confirmed H5N1 in an Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) and a common dolphin (Delphinus delphis). South Australian Environment Minister Emily Bourke said that the sea lion — a critically endangered species currently declining by 2% a year — was recovering from a shark attack when it succumbed to the virus, reports ABC Australia.

Cetacean researcher Mike Bossley is concerned about how quickly a dolphin contracted the disease. In a news report, he called it both “shocking … and very worrying.”

Bourke added that South Australia has recorded bird flu in another mammal species, long-nosed fur seals (Arctocephalus forsteri) and confirmed the nation’s first pelican case on the Yorke Peninsula.

“The first confirmed H5N1 death recorded for [the Australian sea lion] in Australia marks a significant and worrying moment for Australian wildlife,” Bill Bateman, associate professor of behavioral ecology at Curtin University, Australia, wrote in The Conversation. He added that the evolving H5N1 strain can invade a mammal’s central nervous system, causing severe brain inflammation.

The way marine mammals contract the virus is likely from birds, Bateman wrote. Sick or dead seabirds can infect coastal breeding grounds, he added, either when animals eat them or come into contact with bodily fluids or contaminated water and substrate.

While there’s no “real way” to stop the spread of H5N1 now that it’s here, Bateman noted that there are ways to reduce its impact. There is a way to limit exposure, he said. “Removing carcasses safely is crucial, as it removes these viral reservoirs, and stops it getting into Australia’s many scavenging animals.”

Along South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, volunteers with the Victor Harbor Dolphin Watch Group are on the lookout for dolphins exhibiting abnormal swimming or neurological symptoms.

Bateman said the burden of the bird flu will reach far beyond birds, “This strain of the virus is a wide-ranging threat able to affect entire ecosystems. We must do what we can to protect them.”

Banner image of a common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) spotted off a port in the state of Victoria. Image courtesy of Ed Dunens via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

You may have heard her songs, seen her videos, maybe even attended one of her concerts … but have you seen the new genus of Australian plant bugs named after Taylor Swift?

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside recently described a new genus of plant bugs, they’ve named Swiftiephylus, in honor of the Grammy-winning U.S. singer. The genus contains 12 new species of plant bugs. Four of the insects are named after Taylor Swift or her albums: Swiftiephylus taylorae, Swiftiephylus amator, Swiftiephylus intrepidus, and Swiftiephylus poetorum. The first is a Latinized version of Taylor; the others are references to her albums “Lover,” “Fearless” and “The Tortured Poets Department.” 

The authors write that the insects were named after Taylor Swift, “in recognition of her show-stopping talent, heart-wrenching lyrics, and the joy and comfort she has brought to many. The term ‘Swifitie’ refers to Swift’s loving fanbase,” the study notes.  

Study author and “Swiftie” Sarah Schroeder said in a press release that she named the insects after Taylor Swift’s appearance. “Taylor Swift’s iconic look is her blonde hair and red lips. These insects are pale yellow with accents of red throughout,” Schroeder said. “In the paper I refer to them as blonde.”

Schroeder believes that their coloring helps the bugs camouflage in the flowers they live on, which feature spindly red to orange flowers.

Though many species of insects are broadly called bugs, Swiftiephylus plant bugs are part of the Miridae family, the largest family of true bugs. There are more than 11,000 described species of true bugs in the Miridae family worldwide. The bugs in this study were collected between 1995 and 2004 and borrowed from museum collections to be formally described.

Swiftiephylus plant bugs feed on trees and shrubs in Australia, though they are relatively harmless to their host plants and aren’t known agricultural pests. Unlike their namesake, the Swiftiephylus are silent bugs and have no known musical talent.

Akito Kawahara, director of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity in Florida, U.S., has written about the taxonomic use of naming insects after celebrities, which he thinks is, “generally good for science,” especially for insects which often don’t get much attention. 

 “Currently many insects are disappearing and potentially going extinct. The naming for celebrities helps generate more attention to them, and their importance to the environment and in many cases, to humankind,” Kawahara told Mongabay in an email.

 Banner image: Of Swiftiephylus taylorae. Image courtesy of Sarah Schroeder/UC Riverside.