Using the world’s smallest known satellite transmitter, conservationists were able to track a spoon-billed sandpiper, thought to be the world’s rarest migratory shorebird. The transmitter revealed new stopovers and nesting areas for an individual known as K9.
“K9 led us to a newly discovered breeding location and habitat, which could be a game-changer for Spoon-billed Sandpiper (SBS) conservation and research in the breeding grounds,” Sayam Chowdhury, co-director of the SBS task force, said in an email to Mongabay. “Better understanding of [these] sites and similar habitats will contribute significantly to the conservation of breeding habitats.”
The International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC) posted that the world’s smallest solar-powered satellite transmitter was glued to the back feathers of a spoon-billed sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea) from Thailand that researchers dubbed “K9” based on the code on its orange leg band.
The transmitter, which weighs 1.2 grams and costs $5,000, was built by California-based Microwave Telemetry. Such transmitters have been helping ornithologists discover new sandpiper sites since 2016. Understanding where they spend time can help prevent poaching of the critically endangered species.
There are roughly 490 mature individuals worldwide, and in 2016 they were expected to go extinct within a decade. Conservation successes mean that while the population continues to decline, it’s “not as rapidly as before,” ICFC director of bird conservation Scott Hecker wrote on the ICFC website.
“The hope was that K9’s journey would reveal new nesting areas in northeastern Russia, helping efforts to prevent this unique species — with its distinctive spoon-shaped bill — from going extinct,” Hecker wrote.
After leaving Thailand on April 4, 2024, the bird used two previously unknown stopovers spots in China. By April 25, it had crossed the Yellow Sea to enter North Korea, from there it flew 2,000 kilometers (more than 1,200 miles) to Sakhalin, Russia, before another 2,000-km flight to eastern Russia — a remarkable 8,000-km (nearly 5,000-mi) one-way migration.
“K9 had one final surprise for scientists: the bird didn’t settle in its usual coastal habitat. Instead, it chose a barren river valley — a previously unknown nesting site,” Hecker wrote, adding that the location is undisclosed to protect the species from egg collectors.
In the SBS November 2024 news bulletin, Katherine Leung with the SBS tracking team wrote that K9 “remained at an undisclosed potential breeding site for two months until early August, suggesting successful breeding, before returning south.” She said a follow-up expedition to the new breeding site is being planned.
“The entire journey, including the use of stopover sites, highlights the critical importance of protecting key locations, such as those in North Korea,” Chowdhury said.
He said the task force is already working on a new action plan to protect key sites, identify coastal threats, prevent hunting risks, and enhance conservation efforts for the species.
Banner image of the spoon-billed sandpaper dubbed K9, courtesy of Dongming Li.
Police in the U.K. recently announced the seizure of more than 5,000 eggs belonging to several wild bird species, following nationwide raids in November 2024. While no arrests have been made in this case, the investigations are continuing.
The seizure, the largest of its kind in U.K. history, was part of an international crackdown on the illegal trade in wild bird eggs, called Operation Pulka, that originated in Norway in June 2023. As part of it, authorities in other countries have so far arrested 16 people and seized more than 56,000 eggs from countries such as Australia, where nearly 3,500 eggs, believed to be worth A$400,000 ($251,000), were seized.
“Operation Pulka reveals a troubling reality: the illegal trade in wild bird eggs persists in the UK, with international criminal networks working at all levels to target species for profit or private collections,” Richard Scobey, executive director at TRAFFIC, an international NGO that monitors the illegal wildlife trade and is assisting in Operation Pulka, told Mongabay by email. “This record-breaking seizure is not just a win for enforcement but a wake-up call to redouble efforts in tackling wildlife crime.”
The trade in wild bird eggs became popular in the 19th century as people sought to build up their own private collections, sell them for a profit to other collectors, or raise hatchlings of rare birds from the eggs. Collectors can remove whole clutches of eggs from the wild, and in recent years criminals have been taking eggs or chicks from bird-of-prey nests and trading them illegally across the world, especially for falconry, according to the U.K.’s National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU).
In the U.K., collecting wild bird eggs is illegal under multiple laws, including the Wildlife Countryside Act of 1981, which makes it a criminal offense to intentionally kill, injure or take any wild bird, its nests and eggs. Similar laws exist in other countries, such as the U.S. Some species, such as the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), commonly sought by falconers, are banned for commercial trade under CITES, the global wildlife trade convention.
Mark Harrison, an officer with the NWCU, said in a statement that while egg collection crimes are less common than they once were, the recent seizures show that the trade thrives. “These criminals are very well organized and connected. The rarer a species is, the higher its demand and value to these criminals,” he said.
The 2021 Birds of Conservation Concern report, published by the U.K.’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), placed more than a quarter of U.K. birds on its list of high conservation concern, indicating they’re declining and threatened by human-caused climate change, diseases such as the avian flu, and illegal hunting. Wild bird egg collection adds to these threats as it prevents the birds from breeding.
Banner image of wild bird eggs recently seized in the U.K., courtesy of Gloucestershire Police.
U.S. President Donald Trump kicked off his second term in office by issuing an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate accords, a historic agreement to limit global warming to below 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
The order states that it’s the policy of the new administration to put U.S. interests first when it comes to the “development and negotiation of any international agreements with the potential to damage or stifle the American economy.”
Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, told Reuters that by ignoring opportunities for “massive profits, millions of manufacturing jobs and clean air” from the energy transition, the U.S. risks losing out to competitor economies. At the same time, “climate disasters like droughts, wildfires and superstorms keep getting worse, destroying property and businesses, hitting nation-wide food production, and driving economy-wide price inflation,” Stiell said.
Ani Dasgupta, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute, echoed the warning, saying in a statement that “walking away from the Paris Agreement won’t protect Americans from climate impacts, but it will hand China and the European Union a competitive edge in the booming clean energy economy and lead to fewer opportunities for American workers.”
He added, “The Paris Agreement remains essential as ever” as the world faces “catastrophic climate impacts,” including recent wildfires and hurricanes in the U.S.
In a statement, Mads Christensen, executive director of Greenpeace International, said, “The world has moved far beyond the politics of denial and delay and abandoning the Paris Agreement will only isolate the US as other countries move ahead.”
He said the U.S. withdrawing will make things tougher, but the agreement is “resilient,” supported by nearly every country in the world. The only other countries not party to the Paris Agreement are Iran, Libya and Yemen.
Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said that as one of the world’s largest historical carbon emitters, the U.S. should support zero-carbon efforts.
“President Trump is skirting that responsibility. Worst yet, such a move will only encourage other leaders to follow suit,” he said, calling the move “reckless and destructive.”
O’Brien cited a Gallup survey showing that two-thirds of Americans are concerned about climate change. “State and local governments will continue to step up to fill the gap left by the Trump administration and deliver the climate action that their constituents are demanding,” he said.
WRI’s Dasgupta similarly said Americans will continue to support clean energy incentives through the Inflation Reduction Act.
The U.S. previously withdrew from the Paris Agreement during Trump’s first term, before rejoining under Joe Biden. But its absence during that time damaged both progress on climate action, especially financing, and U.S. credibility as a leader on climate issues.
Banner image of U.S. President Donald Trump signing post-inaugural documents. Image by Office of Speaker Mike Johnson via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).
Hundreds of tortoises have died following severe floods at a sanctuary in southwestern Madagascar that houses and protects more than 12,000 of the critically endangered animals.
On Jan. 16, Tropical Cyclone Dikeledi swept through the Atsimo-Andrefana region, where the Lavavola Tortoise Center is located, dumping torrential rains that caused water levels to rise as high as 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) across an area of 10 hectares (25 acres).
A total of 784 radiated tortoises (Astrochelys radiata) and spider tortoises (Pyxis arachnoides) have since been found dead due to drowning. While most of the tortoises could float in the water and be rescued, others were trapped by rocks or washed away.
“It was less than 20 hours of rain, and the whole area was flooded,” Hery Razafimamonjiraibe, country director for Turtle Survival Alliance Madagascar, which runs the center, told Mongabay by phone. “It is unprecedented. We have never encountered this kind of flooding before.”
The heavy rains devastated the Lavavola Tortoise Center’s infrastructure, with the organization estimating damages and veterinary care costs at up to $150,000.
The region has struggled with drought conditions over the past year, with temperatures exceeding 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit), which left the dry, compacted soil less able to absorb heavy rains, thus exacerbating the impacts from the flood.
Almost all the surviving tortoises have now been moved to elevated enclosures by staff and volunteers with Turtle Survival Alliance Madagascar. But prolonged exposure to the wet, cold floodwaters increases the risk for pneumonia among the tortoises, Razafimamonjiraibe said.
Floodwaters in the region are receding gradually, but the main road to the Lavavola center is still inundated, complicating transport for people and materials. The homes of 15 staff members and their families were also flooded and sustained severe damage. No one was injured.
“Volunteers from the community are continuing to help feed the animals. Yesterday they brought more than 2 [metric] tons of food for the tortoises,” Razafimamonjiraibe added.
The radiated tortoise was once considered one of the most abundant tortoises on Earth, with a population of more than 12 million. But poaching and illegal trafficking has reduced its population by three-quarters, Jordan Gray, external relations manager at the Turtle Survival Alliance, told Mongabay by phone.
Before reaching southern Madagascar, Tropical Cyclone Dikeledi hit the Nampula region in northern Mozambique on Jan. 13, causing flash floods that claimed 11 lives and impacted approximately 249,000 people, the U.N. International Organization for Migration reported.
Banner image: Thousands of radiated tortoises (Astrochelys radiata) were saved from floodwaters in southern Madagascar. Image courtesy of Turtle Survival Alliance.
Update: The confirmed tortoise deaths and estimated damages were updated on Jan. 24, 2025.
On Dec. 22, 2024, Turkish customs officers conducting a random search of a plane’s cargo hold found a surprise stowaway inside a small wooden crate with holes: a malnourished baby gorilla dressed in a soiled T-shirt.
The Turkish Airlines flight was headed from Nigeria to Thailand and was transiting via Istanbul, authorities told local media. The baby gorilla, transported without necessary permits, is one among many wildlife seized in recent months in Istanbul, a major air-transit hub.
After its seizure, authorities handed over the five-month-old male gorilla to the general directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks (DKMP) under the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The gorilla, named Zeytin (meaning ‘olive’ in Turkish) after a social media campaign in early January, is now recovering at Polonezköy Zoo in Istanbul.
“He is doing well,” Aslıhan Niksarlı, a primate expert at the Jane Goodall Institute and director of Roots and Shoots Türkiye, told Mongabay, crediting his well-being to those in charge. She said she has been in touch with the Turkish authorities since the seizure, supporting Zeytin’s care. “He’s beating his chest and threatening people around him, showing he’s becoming the boss — all these signs we see show that he is physically and socially doing well,” Niksarlı added.
Zeytin is one of the latest victims of the booming illegal trafficking of wild apes. Both eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei) and western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) are critically endangered and listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which prohibits its commercial trade. Niksarlı says further genetic testing would be needed to confirm his species and geographic origin.
The crate in which Zeytin was found was falsely declared as containing 50 rabbits. Subsequent investigations revealed that Zeytin was likely headed to an animal farm in Nakhon Pathom in Central Thailand. Acting on this intelligence, Thai Police raided the farm and seized 284 animals, although their legality is yet to be determined.
Since his seizure, Zeytin has gained weight and grown taller. He’s been fed a nutritious diet, which Niksarlı said was based on a “detailed diet list” put together by Roots and Shoots and the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA), the largest primate sanctuary alliance in Africa. Videos, shared by the ministry, show him playing with toys, drinking milk from his bottle and exploring his new surroundings.
The long-term plan of the DKMP is to return Zeytin to “its homeland,” according to Fahrettin Ulu, regional director of DKMP. “Our desire is for [Zeytin] to continue [his] life in the rainforests of Africa,” he said, adding Türkiye is in talks with CITES, other organizations and relevant countries on Zeytin’s repatriation. If these talks succeed, Zeytin could be sent to a wildlife sanctuary in Africa, where he’d be rehabilitated before being released into the wild.
Banner image of baby gorilla seized in Turkey, courtesy of Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry via Facebook.
Shaken, not stirred: That’s how fictional secret service agent James Bond prefers his martini. And now there’s a lizard in the Caribbean that shares his name: the James Bond forest lizard, found close to where author Ian Fleming wrote his iconic Bond novels. Researchers recently described the new species alongside 34 others in a 306-page study that has shaken up what researchers understand about Caribbean lizards.
The taxonomy of neotropical forest lizards, those found in Central and South America and the Caribbean islands, remains poorly understood, the study’s authors write. Among these are lizards from the subfamily Celestinae, which prefer humid tropical forest habitats and are mostly only known from the Caribbean Islands.
To shed light on the taxonomy of Celestinae lizards, researchers from Temple University in the U.S. used modern genetic and morphological tools to compare hundreds of lizards collected over past expeditions from the Caribbean, as well as preserved specimens from museums, some of them 200 years old. In doing so, they identified 35 new-to-science Celestinae species. More than half may be threatened with extinction, the researchers estimate. Fourteen species might even be critically endangered and three may be extinct, they say.
“The results revealed a surprising hidden diversity of species, some of which are likely extinct because of human-mediated alterations of habitat and invasive species,” the authors write in the study.
The new-to-science species include the James Bond forest lizard (Celestus jamesbondi), described from a specimen collected back in 1987.
“We found it to be a species new to science after molecular analysis of samples collected and frozen from our earlier expeditions and discovery of morphological differences from other species,” study co-author S. Blair Hedges, also from Temple University, told Mongabay by email.
The lizard, found near Goldeneye, Jamaica, where Fleming wrote the Bond books, can grow to about 7 centimeters (2.8 inches) long, and is predominantly brown with darker markings and a yellow underside. These lizards are considered common in Jamaica, but the authors write that its small range is concerning and additional studies are needed to better understand its population and threats.
It’s important to identify and describe species like the James Bond forest lizard because “the forest habitats of these species are rapidly disappearing, which means that many of these species will become extinct in our lifetimes — soon,” Hedges said.
The lizards also face predation by introduced species such as the Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctat), study co-author Molly Schools said in a statement.
“To fix this problem and stop the deforestation, it is important to know how many species exist and where they are located,” Hedges said, adding, “Many people, including biologists, don’t full appreciate the value of taxonomy. It is the backbone of most biological science, but especially ecology and conservation.”
Banner image of the James Bond forest lizard (Celestus jamesbondi), courtesy of S. Blair Hedges.
The southern states of the U.S. are facing a winter storm this week that will bring heavy snow and ice to a region that rarely experiences such conditions.
More than 220 million people are expected to be affected from Texas to South Carolina. Several states, including Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, have each already declared a state of emergency following cold weather advisories and warnings from the National Weather Service (NWS). Texas has also ordered its agencies to prepare resources.
More than 2,200 domestic flights were cancelled by Jan. 21Tuesday, BBC reported, citing online tracker FlightAware.
On Jan. 20, NWS forecast the “historic winter storm” would bring “extreme cold temperatures … with lows near or below 20 degrees” Fahrenheit, or -6.7° Celsius, in southeast Texas. It warned that travel “will be extremely hazardous and not possible at times” on ice-slicked roads.
NWS said it doesn’t expect the storm to break the record 14 inches (35 centimeters) of snowfall that hit Houston in 1895, but it “should be considered a generational winter storm event and its impacts should be taken seriously.” In Louisiana, New Orleans is also experiencing a rare snow event.
Climate change is making such events more common. As the poles warm, the temperature difference between the Arctic and southern latitudes decreases, weakening the jet stream that acts as a barrier to the frigid Arctic air. A weak jet stream allows the cold air to move southward.
More than 75% of the U.S. will experience extreme winter weather this week, with several inches of snow expected in New York, Boston, Hartford and Philadelphia.
On the other side of the world, Australia is recovering from record-breaking rain brought by Tropical Cyclone Sean. Categorized as a category 4 storm on Jan. 20, Sean weakened to a category 3 as it moved out to sea.
Pilbara, a large, mostly dry region in Western Australia, was most affected, with several people having to be rescued as their vehicles were submerged in floodwaters. The storm broke the almost 20-year rainfall record of the town of Karratha in a single day.
Local news reported that in some areas the storm’s flooding had “transformed” the landscape, with children enjoying the rain.
“There was a little bit of a worrying time with flooding down the Bulgarra end of town, but once that cleared and everyone is safe and happy we’re just enjoying it now,” a resident told ABC News.
The rain is also welcome for many cattle ranches, or stations as they’re called in Australia, ensuring grass for grazing in the coming season.
“It looks like there’s another cloud band coming through. If it comes through we might pick up another 50mm [2 in], which we don’t really need to have but we won’t say no to,” Jeff McInnery, managing director of Pardoo Station in Pilbara, told ABC News.
Banner image of Tropical Cyclone Sean over Australia, courtesy of NASA.
Nearly all of Antarctica’s iconic wildlife, from penguins to seals and whales, depend on krill, tiny crustaceans that make up the base of the food chain. Krill are also sought after by humans, who scoop them up using massive fishing boats, potentially putting whales in danger, scientists warn.
The fishing boats and whales are “going after the exact same thing; the biggest, largest, densest krill swarms,” Matthew Savoca, an ecologist at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in the U.S., told Mongabay by phone.
In July 2023, Mongabay reported on fishing trawlers harvesting Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) amid a large pod of whales, defying concerns from scientists that the whales could be injured, killed or outcompeted for food.
Following whales is often the most efficient way to find large congregations of krill, Savoca said.
In December 2024, Jonathan Zaccaria, an expedition leader with National Geographic, reported seeing two Norwegian ships and one Chinese vessel krill fishing in the region; the Chinese ship was near feeding humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae).
“Krill fishing is happening more than ever before,” Savoca said. “As compared to literally just last year, there are more boats … on the horizon. Russia has notified their intent to start fishing again. China is going to ramp up their fishing.”
Savoca said this increase is largely a result of a failure to move forward with an updated krill management plan that would have created a new marine protected area and require that krill fishing be spread out to create less conflict with whales.
Interactions with krill ships can be dangerous for whales, but the bigger concern is that the vessels are taking critical food when the whales need it most, Savoca said. For example, most humpbacks are only in Antarctica for the Southern Hemisphere summer when they fatten up on krill. Humpbacks largely fast for the winter when they migrate to northern climates to breed. Krill ships also only work in Antarctic waters during the summers, when the weather is agreeable.
“It’s not as though we’re taking their food now, but they’ll get a bunch more, when the boats are gone. That is not how it works for these animals,” Savoca said.
In an emailed response to Mongabay, Javier Arata, executive officer with the Association of Responsible Krill Harvesting Companies (ARK) wrote, “there is no risk from fishing vessels that put in danger these whale populations.” However, AP has reported at least two humpbacks killed and one seriously injured in krill fishing nets last year.
Overall, humpback populations are increasing globally, which ARK said is proof that the fishery “is highly precautionary, allowing only <1% of the actual krill biomass to be fished.”
Savoca said the problem is that the fishery is taking the best 1% of krill — the densest, easiest-to-get swarms. “So, it’s going to make it harder for the whales,” he said.
Banner image of humpback whale by Whit Welles via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).
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