One of the longest-running citizen science projects in the world has kicked off its 125^th annual event.

The Christmas Bird Count (CBC), administered by the U.S.-based nonprofit National Audubon Society, takes place each year from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5.  The annual bird census collects valuable data that scientists use to track the health and distribution of bird populations across the Western Hemisphere.

The CBC got started in 1900 with a handful of conservationists who wanted to promote counting, rather than hunting, birds. Today, tens of thousands of people volunteer for the count each year at more than 2,600 different locations, spanning more than 20 countries across the Americas.

The westernmost Christmas Bird Count takes place on the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, which is located 19,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) west of Recife, Brazil, where the easternmost CBC is held. The northernmost count occurs in the Arctic Bay, while the southernmost count is conducted aboard a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel in the Drake Passage, off the southern tip of South America.

“People count birds in all sorts of ways, like just your typical walking and going out in cars [and they] go out on dog sleds or on horseback. We had someone talk about how folks were going out in horse and buggy to count birds,” Cooper Farr, manager of community science at the National Audubon Society, told Mongabay in a phone call.

The CBC’s idea is to count all the birds you can see or hear in a 24-hour period in a 24-kilometer (15-mile) radius. The data collected is then compiled in a database by Audubon and made freely available for scientific use.

“To date we have documented more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific projects that came out of Christmas Bird Count data,” Farr said.

One of the most famous studies to use CBC data is the 2019 so-called three billion bird study, which found that North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970. 

Other researchers have used CBC citizen-science data to document the distribution of bird species and show how they’re responding to climate change and changing land use.

Luisa Moreno, who organizes the CBC in Monteverde, Costa Rica, told Mongabay that CBC observers there have seen dramatic changes in bird distribution over the 31 years of the local count.  

“The white-breasted wood wren [Henicorhina leucosticte] is becoming more common as you go uphill from the lower parts like from Los Llanos coming up to Monteverde,” said Moreno, who is also a research coordinator with the Monteverde Institute. “They’re becoming more common uphill just because of the change in the climate.”

Anyone, from a birding novice to an expert, can join a bird count circle near them and participate in the Christmas Bird Count.

Banner image: A male cardinal in winter. Image by William Klos via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

A tiny lizard found only on one tiny Caribbean island has seen a dramatic 1,500% increase in its population, after just a few years of island restoration efforts.

In 2018, researchers estimated there were fewer than 100 individuals of the critically endangered Sombrero ground lizard (Pholidoscelis corvinus) on the small hat-shaped Sombrero Island, part of Anguilla in the Caribbean. Just six years later, there are more than 1,600 of them, a recent survey has found.

“I am beyond thrilled to see the ground lizards on the road to recovery, and this is a fantastic reward for everyone who has worked hard to restore Sombrero,” Jenny Daltry, Caribbean alliance director at conservation NGOs Fauna & Flora and Re:wild, told Mongabay. “Too many island species have been lost already, and we really need to prevent extinctions whenever we can.”

Today, Sombrero Island hosts large seabird colonies and several unique and rare species. But invading mice, likely brought to the island on ships or other means by people, as well as climate change impacts, have wreaked havoc on the island’s inhabitants.

When mice take over islands, they devour almost everything, from seeds to seabirds, Daltry said. “By preventing plants from regenerating, the mice deprived the lizards of vital shelter and food, including fruits and insects. No doubt they also preyed on the lizards’ eggs and young.”

With native vegetation in a precarious state, storm surges and hurricanes striking the island further devasted the island’s lizard populations.

To turn things around, Fauna & Flora, Anguilla National Trust and Re:wild began restoration efforts in 2018. They trapped and removed all the mice by placing bait from June to August 2021. They also developed a “biosecurity plan” in which researchers regularly check the island to ensure it’s still mouse-free.

Given Sombrero’s remote location, the likelihood of reinvasion by mice is considered low, Daltry said. She added that the teams are also developing “remote surveillance cameras with AI capability” to automatically detect and alert them of invasive species.

While the mice may be gone, the threat from hurricanes fueled by climate change still loom close. While the researchers have been working to restore the island’s native vegetation, the island has lost much of its original soil cover, which will take time to rebuild, Daltry said. With no tree cover yet, any severe hurricane or storm surge in the future “could set back the speed of recovery of the soil layer and vegetation,” she added.

However, Daltry said she’s hopeful that even the current sparse vegetation provides the Sombrero ground lizards “with vital food and shelter, giving them a much better chance of survival when the next storm strikes.”

“This could make the difference between survival and extinction,” she said. “The big question is whether the recovery of Sombrero Island and its wildlife will be able to keep pace with the speed of climate breakdown.”

Banner image of Sombrero ground lizard ©️ Richard Brown/Fauna & Flora.

DENPASAR, Indonesia — Conservation authorities in Indonesia have launched a review of the main zoo on the resort island of Bali, after an elephant there was swept away and killed in a flash flood on Dec. 16.

”We‘ll evaluate the management of wildlife, especially the remaining 14 elephants” at Bali Zoo, said Ratna Hendramoko, head of the Bali Natural Resources Conservation Agency. 

Molly, a 45-year-old female Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), was one of 15 Asian elephants housed at Bali Zoo. The zoo said its elephant handlers routinely lead the animals on a walk to a nearby river. However, heavy rains on Dec. 16 caused the river to swell around the time Molly began her walk.

Witnesses said they heard Molly cry out before she was swept away. Tina, another elephant present at the scene, managed to reach safety before the current became too strong.

“We moved quickly together with the community to search the area,” Emma Chandra, a spokesperson for Bali Zoo, said at a press conference on Dec. 18.

A search party found Molly’s carcass downstream on Dec. 17 and covered it with a tarpaulin until they could take it away. Local Balinese Hindus arrived at the site with offerings and prayers.

Evacuating the 2.5-metric-ton carcass proved difficult, as it was found in a deep valley surrounded by large boulders. When they finally retrieved the body, officials buried it on the grounds of the zoo, where Molly had lived since 2013.       

The latest official government report on Sumatran elephants, published in 2007 and based on surveys from the early 2000s, put the estimated wild population of the critically endangered subspecies at 2,400-2,800. The most recent assessment by the nonprofit Indonesian Elephant Conservation Forum (FKGI) estimated in 2022 that just 924-1,359 wild individuals remained. 

The Bali conservation agency says that prior to Molly’s death, there were 85 elephants housed in several authorized facilities across the island.

In June, Mongabay reported on the emerging risk to elephants from farmers in Sumatra who install electrified fences around their farms.   

Scores of people die in landslides and flashfloods every year during Indonesia’s main rainy season, which usually begins in November and is set to worsen as the climate changes.

Bali Zoo said Molly’s death was “unavoidable,” but committed to conducting an in-house review of its procedures.  

The Bali conservation agency pledged to conduct its own evaluation of the zoo’s operations.

“To what extent are they prepared so as to prevent a repeat of this accident?” said Ratna, the conservation agency head.

This story was first published in Indonesian here on Dec. 18, 2024.

Banner image: Responders work to recover the body of Sumatran elephant Molly from a valley in Sukawati subdistrict, Bali province, Indonesia, on Dec. 17, 2024. Image courtesy of the Bali Natural Resources Conservation Agency.

The European Commission will reportedly “seek clarification” from Greece about its recent approvals for offshore oil and gas activities in areas critical for threatened whales and sea turtles.

That’s according to the NGO ClientEarth, which, alongside WWF Greece and Greenpeace Greece, filed a formal complaint with the European executive body in 2023 alleging that the Greek government had granted the concessions without “appropriate assessments” of their impacts on marine biodiversity and habitats. With the permits in hand, the oil companies have been carrying out seismic surveys in the region to verify the existence of oil and gas.

The NGOs in their 2023 complaint alleged that most of the concessions lay in the Hellenic Trench, an area of the Mediterranean Sea that serves as a vital habitat for many threatened marine animals, including loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta), green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris). The concessions are also close to Natura 2000 sites, a network of marine protected areas across the EU.

In response to the NGOs’ complaint, the European Commission said in August 2024 that EU laws don’t apply to seismic research activities where there hasn’t been any drilling or “alterations to the physical aspect of a site.”

The NGOs countered this in a letter sent to the commission in September, saying their complaint is “not only focused on seismic surveys but covers all phases” of oil and gas activities, from exploration and production to transportation and storage of the products. All these activities are required to undergo detailed scientific impact assessments under EU laws, which Greece had failed to carry out, the letter said.

The commission has now responded to this letter by saying it will probe further, ClientEarth said in a press release.

The commission’s letter isn’t publicly available, but Francesco Maletto, a lawyer for ClientEarth who has a copy of it, told Mongabay it includes the line: “After assessing your reply and the additional information that was provided, we have decided to contact the Greek authorities and seek clarifications [for the NGOs’ allegations]. We are now waiting for the reply of the Greek authorities.”

“After collecting all the information from Greek authorities, the Commission will have to decide whether to escalate to a formal infringement procedure,” Maletto said by email. A formal infringement procedure is a legal mechanism to ensure that EU member states comply with EU laws.

“Fossil fuel drilling, at the direct expense of nature, merits legal scrutiny by the EU Commission and we’re extremely pleased to see that will go ahead as we asked,” Maletto said in the release. “The European Commission is the guardian and enforcer of EU laws. It’s essential they act to ensure that laws are not undermined by Member States as we are seeing here from Greece.”

Banner image of a sperm whale and calf by Gabriel Barathieu via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Intense Tropical Cyclone Chido, which developed in the southwest Indian Ocean, left a trail of destruction in the French island territory Mayotte and nearby countries in southeast Africa like Mozambique, possibly leaving thousands dead and many more without homes and livelihood.

“Cyclone Chido underwent rapid intensification before landfall in Mauritius, weakened slightly, and then regained its Category 4-equivalent intensity before reaching Mayotte and continuing to Mozambique,” Alex Baker, a meteorologist at the University of Reading in the U.K., said in a statement.

Local authorities in Mayotte said that while they are uncertain about the full extent of the disaster, the death toll could reach several hundreds or even thousands.

 Hospital reports recorded at least 22 people dead and more than a thousand injured but many parts of the island are still inaccessible. Reuters reported that some casualties were also buried before their deaths could be counted.

A curfew has been imposed by the French government to stabilize the situation in Mayotte as planes are sent daily with up to 50 tons of food, water and medicine, the Associated Press reported.

Aid group Médecins du Monde (MDM) said in the report that cholera is already circulating on the island. “It might turn into an epidemic if there is no way to ensure efficient access to water,” MDM director Jean-François Corty was quoted as saying.

In Mozambique, at least 34 people have died, recent reports said. In Mayotte’s neighboring archipelago Comoros, a week of national mourning was declared as authorities anticipate deaths reaching several hundreds, Le Monde reported.

An update released Dec. 17 by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs suggests that Cyclone Chido has affected “more than 174,000 people in Mozambique, 34,000 Malawi and 64,000 in the Comoros”

French weather service Météo-France said Chido is the strongest cyclone experienced by Mayotte in more than 90 years.

Baker from the University of Reading attributed much of the massive devastation from the cyclone to a “lack of resilience and low-income communities” in the region.

While there were no reported casualties in Mauritius, a Bloomberg report quoted government officials saying that a large majority of buildings were damaged.

Whether climate change fueled Chido is yet to be determined, but Helen Hooker, another meteorologist from the University of Reading, said that “Indian Ocean temperatures have been incredibly high this year, contributing to the strengthening of tropical Cyclone Chido into a Category 4 storm with wind speeds of more than 225 kmh (140 mph).”

Meteorologist and professor Liz Stephens from the same university added that “the intensity of tropical cyclones in the southwest Indian Ocean has been increasing, this is consistent with what scientists expect in a changing climate.”

She said that Chido showed how vulnerable small islands were to climate change.

Banner image of Tropical Cyclone Chido over the Indian Ocean by NASA via Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain).

The hellbender, the largest species of salamander in the Americas, is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, meaning it’s at high risk of extinction in the wild. Yet despite this, the amphibian doesn’t have any federal protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).

That’s set to change, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed listing the hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) as an endangered species under the ESA. If approved, it will open the door to federal funding to help protect the salamander, which can grow to a length of 0.6 meters (2 feet).

Tierra Curry, endangered species coordinator with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), told Mongabay by phone that she was so surprised and happy about the proposal that she shed tears of joy. “I wear my heart on my sleeve in the shape of a hellbender,” she wrote in a social media post.

The CBD first sought ESA status for hellbenders in 2010, but it was denied, largely because the salamanders have a huge range across 15 eastern U.S. states, from Georgia to New York. However, they’re successfully reproducing in just 12% of that range, and the core part of it was recently devastated by Hurricane Helene.

The most recent ESA denial was issued by the Trump administration, which argued that zoos and universities were successfully raising them and releasing them back into streams.

“So, they were using population augmentation as a replacement for habitat protection instead of using it in addition to habitat protection, which is how it’s supposed to be used,” Curry said. The CBD challenged that finding in court and won.

The ESA has a good track record of helping endangered species: 99% of those listed don’t go extinct, though they don’t all necessarily rebound, Curry said.

Hellbenders are entirely aquatic and extremely sensitive to pollution, water quality, and sediments in the water, worsened by deforestation along rivers and streams. With protected status, federal money can go toward reforesting riparian areas to keep soil out of the rivers, a move that will improve water quality for many other species as well, Curry said.

The USFWS also recently proposed monarch butterflies for the ESA. Both these proposals are important because of the species’ ranges, Curry said. “The monarch is going to be the widest-ranging proposed species since the bald eagle, and Hellbenders have a 15-state range in the eastern U.S. So many rivers are going to have safeguards now. It’s two huge proposals,” she said.

“Those are both clearly umbrella species for their communities. So, protecting monarchs is going to protect so many other pollinators and especially native bees that don’t get any attention. And the same for hellbenders. It’s going to protect miles and miles of waterways,” she added.

Banner image: Eastern hellbenders can grow longer than 0.6 meters (2 feet), making them North America’s largest salamander. Image courtesy of Freshwaters Illustrated/Dave Herasimtschuk/USDA.