Hurricane Helene recently ravaged the southeastern United States, cutting a path of destruction from the Florida coast past the mountains of North Carolina, more than 480 kilometers (300 miles) inland. The inland flooding has been catastrophic, and conservationists worry that the unprecedented storm may push some vulnerable species toward extinction.
One of the most locally iconic species of concern is the hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). At roughly 0.6 meters (2 feet) long and weighing in at nearly 2.2 kilograms (5 pounds), the hellbender is the largest species of salamander in the Americas. It is entirely aquatic and extremely sensitive to water pollution.
“There’s so much contamination in floodwater,” Tierra Curry, endangered species coordinator with the Center for Biological Diversity, told Mongabay during a phone call. “Everything that was on the land can now settle out in the water, including things that are going to cause pollution for a long time, like refrigerators and cars.”
Curry said the additional sediment from floodwater is also deadly for hellbenders. They live and breed under large rocks, in crevices that can be filled in with sediment during a flood. She said a storm in Missouri a few years ago crushed some salamanders and washed others downstream where they couldn’t survive.
Hellbenders are considered vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of endangered species, yet they are not currently listed as such under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, largely due to their large range in the eastern U.S. The species lives in cold, clear, running water from Georgia all the way to New York, but Curry said they are disappearing throughout their range due to human development and subsequent water pollution, plus disease.
“So, 40% of their population has been wiped out entirely, 40% are not healthy and are not reproducing, but they are long-lived so those populations are still there just because older adults are surviving, but they’re not able to successfully reproduce. So, you’re looking at 20% of the population that are healthy and reproducing, and the core of their healthy range just got hit super hard,” Curry said.
In a September 2024 letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Curry argued that the eastern hellbender should be added to the endangered species list before their populations decline further.
The giant amphibian is regionally famous, as evidenced by the many hellbender-themed restaurants, video games, music and poetry events. The huge hurricane’s devastation will be a hurdle for them, and for the hundreds of other lesser-known species at risk of extinction that also call the mountainous area home, including many species of amphibians, freshwater mussels and reptiles. Curry said she thinks it will take time to understand the full extent of the ecological damage.
“I am extremely concerned,” she said, adding, “It’s going to be a while before people can even survey.”
Banner image: Eastern hellbenders can grow longer than 0.6 meters (2 feet), making them North America’s largest salamander. Photo courtesy of Freshwaters Illustrated/Dave Herasimtschuk/USDA.
Ant queens practice a grim but effective form of childcare, eating their own sick larvae to recycle them into new, healthier eggs. A new study shows that by consuming their infected offspring, the queens protect the rest of their colonies from deadly infections while boosting their egg production with the influx of nutrients.
Researchers behind the study infected larvae with a type of insect-killing fungus from the genus Metarhizium. The fungus isn’t immediately contagious, so the ant queens had a small window to detect the threat, and most of them did. Queens in the study cannibalized 92% of larvae infected with the fungus, researchers found, while sparing most of the healthy larvae. Only 6% of the healthy young were eaten.
“Ant queens are remarkably effective at responding to and eliminating early-stage infections before they become transmissible,” the authors wrote, adding that this behavior, observed in the black garden ants (Lasius niger), one of the world’s most common, helps protect both the queen and the wider colony from collapse.
In cases where the infection was left to spread, 80% of the queens died. By not eating their infected larvae in time, they allowed the fungus to reach a lethal stage, eventually leading to the colony’s collapse. Queens that ate their sick larvae early stayed healthy.
The tough love of the surviving queens doesn’t stop at cannibalism. Researchers also observed queen ants spraying the infected larvae with acidic venom before feasting, which may help kill pathogens and explain how ant queens are able to safely consume infected larvae.
“Even though eating your own offspring may seem reprehensible to us, for many other animals, it is no more than an evolved and efficient way for parents to produce the most offspring they can over their lifetimes or to give the best care they can to a smaller selection of their offspring,” Aneesh Bose, a behavioral ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, who was not involved in the study, told Mongabay in an email.
Queens that cannibalized infected larvae laid 55% more eggs than those that didn’t, leading the researchers to believe that they reinvest those nutrients into future reproduction. Ants live in confined spaces where disposal of dead bodies isn’t always possible, which adds another motivation for cannibalism.
“Filial cannibalism is a fascinating behavior because it goes against our basic nature and instincts, but it is hugely widespread elsewhere in the animal kingdom, and insects are no exception,” Bose added.
Banner image: Cannibalizing their offspring is often a life-or-death decision for the common black garden ant queen. Image by Lennart Tange via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
In August, a group of self-described “old ladies” fished out a toilet bowl from a pond in Massachusetts, U.S., and have gained local fame since then. The group is named Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage (OLAUG), and so far, they’ve cleaned up 18 ponds, removing everything from tires and beer bottles to the bright blue toilet.
To join the group, you must be a woman, able to swim half a mile in under 30 minutes and more than 64 years old, Susan Bauer, 84, the founder of OLAUG, told Mongabay by phone.
She says older people bring a different perspective. “It’s the age of gratitude where you’ve lost enough so you’re really grateful for what’s left, whether that’s a husband or a child or it’s that you used to hear whip-poor-wills and now you don’t, you used to see spotted turtles and now you don’t,” Susan adds.
Susan started OLAUG with a few friends during the pandemic. Today, her group is 25 strong and she has a waiting list of women who want to collect trash with her. She says the success of her group is that it’s fun. “We wade out of the water better, kinder, happier, more empowered women. Our product is joy. And it’s a hell of a lot easier to scale up joy than it is to scale up sacrifice.”
“It’s the Zen of trash picking,” she adds.
OLAUG works with one kayaker for every two swimmers. The kayaks haul most of the trash the swimmers collect. The group also engages with local pond associations and asks them to invite the community to come watch the day of the dive.
Often, people start out as skeptics. “The onlookers sort of have their arms across their chest. ‘We have a clean pond; there’s no garbage in our pond,’” she says. “Then an hour later when the kayaks come in laden with tires over their bows, Adirondack chairs, rugs, sofas, a toilet occasionally, part of a charcoal grill, fishing rods and of course beer cans, beer cans, beer cans. When they see that stuff coming in, they change.”
Image courtesy of OLAUG
OLAUG is entirely voluntary. Susan says the women who work with her are doing it for the joy, comaraderie and adventure. Also, the cookies.
“We never work for money. We work for cookies. And so, you have to pay us in homemade cookies,” she says.
Susan says women have approached her about starting other chapters of OLAUG, so she is working on a short manual of lessons learned.
“You can’t just grab a kayak and a couple of swimmers and say, let’s see what we can get out of the pond. That’s the tip of the iceberg. You’ve got to get the community building. You’ve got to get the adventure. You’ve got to get the joy,” she says.
Banner image: courtesy of OLAUG
The U.K. government and Dutch development bank FMO committed $55 million toward commercial tree plantations primarily in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna. The agreement, announced Sep. 24, was struck with Latin America’s largest investment bank, BTG Pactual, through its forestry project, the Timberland Investment Group (TIG).
However, Mongabay investigations have raised concerns about the project. The reforestation project involves buying up pasturelands close to the construction of the world’s largest paper and pulp factory and turning them into eucalyptus monocultures.
According to experts, tree plantations are exacerbating, rather than helping, the Cerrado’s environment challenges.
“The Netherlands and the UK are investing in false solutions. Tree plantations are part of the problem. They are fast growing and therefore use vast amounts of water, depleting water sources,” Merel van der Mark, the Forests & Finance Coalition coordinator, wrote to Mongabay. “Monoculture tree plantations are a tremendous fire hazard, a biodiversity desert and use huge amounts of pesticides.”
Brazil’s Cerrado savanna, crucial for regulating 40% of Brazil’s freshwater, is facing its worst drought in 700 years, and the high water consumption of eucalyptus monocultures, 30-60 liters (8-16 gallons) of water daily per tree, is worsening drought conditions linked to climate change and extreme weather.
The recent announcement comes just a week after Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, committed to buying up to 3.9 million carbon credits from the same group.
As of 2023, BTG Pactual held $67 million in shares and bonds at the global pulp and paper giant Suzano, which also owns the paper and pulp processing factories in the region where TIG is investing. On Aug.1, TIG also sold 2.1 billion reais ($385 million) worth of tree farms to Suzano.
BTG Pactual’s environment policies were rated 0.9 out of 10 by the Forests & Finance policy assessment platform given their heavy investments in companies linked to deforestation, mostly in the beef and pulp sectors.
Huib-Jan de Ruijter, an executive at the Dutch development bank, praised the project for its “potential attractive financial returns” in a press release. “We look forward to continuing to attract much-needed institutional capital to the sustainable forestry sector with innovative blended finance structures,” he said.
Forestry investments are gaining traction as a financial product that can balance out risk for investors. Instead of investing in a single tree farm, the portfolio allows investors to spread out risk from climate factors, like wildfire.
TIG profits by offering private equity fund shares to large investors, earnings from timber sales to the paper and pulp industry, land speculation and, more recently, carbon credits.
Large investment funds now own roughly 90% of planted forests in Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state, where part of the Cerrado is located.
Banner image: Conservationists say that eucalyptus monocultures exacerbate drought conditions due to their heavy water consumption. Image © Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace.
Environmental NGOs are urging the European Commission to pursue their complaint about Greece’s approval of offshore oil and gas concessions in a crucial habitat for whales, after the executive body previously said the matter did not need it’s intervention.
“The Greek state is persistently avoiding carrying out the required assessments on marine biodiversity and marine protected areas before approving these programs,” said Francesco Malleto, a lawyer for the NGO ClientEarth. “The hope is that the Commission reconsiders their view and realizes how important it is for them to act.”
Greece has granted several offshore oil and gas concessions recently, mostly in the Hellenic Trench, an area of the Mediterranean Sea that’s a key habitat for many endangered marine mammals, including sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris). The concessions also lie near several Natura 2000 sites, a large network of marine protected areas. That’s according to a 2023 complaint filed with the European Commission by ClientEarth, WWF Greece and Greenpeace Greece.
Currently, the oil companies have been carrying out seismic surveys in the region, aimed at verifying the existence of oil and gas, Malleto told Mongabay by phone.
The NGOs’ complaint alleges that the Greek government has issued offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation permits without “appropriate assessments” of their impacts on marine biodiversity and the Natura 2000 sites in the area. This is in violation of EU laws, the complaint notes.
The NGOs first approached Greek national courts, but “the Greek council of state basically said that everything was fine,” Malleto said. “When national remedies are exhausted, the only way for us is to go to the European Commission, which as guardian of the EU treaties has to take action to make sure that EU law is respected in member states.”
However, the Commission in its response on Aug. 20 said 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 Commission added that it intends to close the complaint, although it gave the NGOs four weeks to provide additional information.
The NGOs responded on Sept. 20 to the letter, arguing that noise from seismic surveys does physically alter a site. Moreover, the letter says the Commission had focused on a very narrow aspect of their complaint. Their concerns apply to all phases of oil and gas production, from exploration and drilling to storage and transportation of the hydrocarbons. Under EU laws, all these processes are required to undergo comprehensive and scientifically sound impact assessments.
Banner image of sperm whale by Gabriel Barathieu via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Canada’s 2023 wildfire season was the worst in the nation’s history. More than 15 million hectares (37 million acres), an area roughly the size of Ireland, burned between April and October, a new study found.
The ferocity of the fires was fueled by unusually hot and dry conditions across the boreal forest, which spans much of northern Canada. During the fire season, average temperatures were 2.2° Celsius (4° Fahrenheit) higher than average, the study found.
Canada heated up twice as fast as the rest of the world in 2023, a year that broke global temperature records.
Eight firefighters lost their lives battling the flames, while more than 230,000 people were forced to flee their homes in mass evacuations. Millions were exposed to hazardous air pollution from the unprecedented levels of thick smoke.
The area burned was seven times larger than average, and more than twice the previous record, set in 1989 when 6.7 million hectares (17 million acres) burned — making 2023 the worst wildfire season on record in Canada.
“I don’t think anyone ever thought that it was possible for so much [forest] to burn. This has shifted expectations of what’s possible,” said Piyush Jain, the study’s lead author, in a telephone interview. “It’s a precursor. Under continued warming, we’ll see similar conditions more frequently.”
The higher temperature, consistent with global warming trends, created the perfect tinderbox: vegetation, dried out by persistent heat, ignited easily, allowing fires to spread uncontrollably.
The intensity of the wildfires caused 140 pyrocumulonimbus events, Jain said, a phenomenon when firestorms get so big and hot that they create their own weather systems, including lightning and strong winds, causing fires to spread faster.
Climate change has tripled the risk of fires in Canada’s boreal forests, according to the 2023–24 State of Wildfires report, meaning the ecosystem is more prone to burning over larger areas and for longer periods.
The fires released more than 1.5 billion tons of CO2 — nearly equal to a decade’s worth of Canada’s usual wildfire emissions. This rapid release of CO2 worsens climate change by fuelling a feedback loop: More greenhouse gases cause warming, which increases the likelihood and intensity of future fires.
Lightning ignited 59% of the wildfires, but these accounted for an overwhelming 93% of the total area burned, as fires sparked in remote areas spread rapidly due to the extreme dry conditions and difficulty in deploying firefighters to these regions.
Looking ahead, scientists warn that fire seasons in Canada could become increasingly severe. “We should be prepared,” Jain said. “We haven’t seen anything like this in recent years, but severe fire seasons are becoming more common.”
Banner image: The 2023 wildfire season in Canada is now the worst on record. Satellites show the trail of destruction left in Quebec, Canada, on June 28. Image courtesy of the European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2.
The European Union has stood firm on its new deforestation law, rejecting calls from global agricultural exporters to push back its implementation. Despite opposition from Brazil, China, India and the U.S., the EU announced during a World Trade Organization meeting on Sept. 25 that its deforestation regulation, EUDR, will come into force on Dec. 30.
India, among others, questioned whether the EU would reconsider, given concerns over the strict certification requirements that would force companies to prove forest-related products like beef, soy and palm oil aren’t linked to deforestation.
But the EU rejected rumors of a postponement, underscoring its commitment to legal certainty.
“Any postponement would require a legislative change. This would not achieve our goal to provide legal predictability for operators as soon as possible,” European Union officials wrote. “We are therefore focusing on ensuring that all the elements necessary for the implementation of the Regulation are ready on time.”
The EUDR compels companies to provide geolocation data proving commodities are sourced from land that wasn’t deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. The EU argues the regulation is essential to curbing deforestation tied to its imports and to safeguarding carbon sinks, a crucial element in combating the climate crisis.
Major producer countries have criticized the new law, especially industry heads and top political leaders. In a joint letter, representatives from 17 nations, including the Argentine and Colombian ambassadors to the EU, condemned the EUDR as a “unilateral,” “punitive” and “discriminatory” measure that unfairly targets their economies.
Indonesia accused the EU of “regulatory imperialism.” Ethiopia said its farmers don’t have access to the technology and resources required to geolocate their plantations. China and the U.S. expressed concern over sharing potentially sensitive geolocation data.
WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the policy could punish Nigeria’s 10-year rotational planting system designed to regenerate land for crops, as the cropland would enter the database as forest, rather than recovering cropland. (Okonjo-Iweala is Nigerian, previously serving as the country’s finance minister and foreign minister.)
Still, the regulation has drawn support from environmental NGOs around the world.
“Brazil and the EU want the same thing: the end of deforestation,” Claudio Angelo, the international policy coordinator at Brazil’s Climate Observatory, an independent environmental watchdog, said in a statement. “At a moment when the entire country of Brazil is ablaze due to the climate crisis, discarding this tool under pressure from the backward wing of agribusiness would be like dancing a waltz with the apocalypse.”
Banner image: Preserved area of the Amazon Rainforest near one of the newest frontiers of deforestation in Humaitá, Brazil. Image © Nilmar Lage/Greenpeace.
Brazil has ramped up efforts to quell illegal gold mining over the last two years. Police raids in the Brazilian Amazon’s gold capital have destroyed mining machinery, leaving miners angry and struggling to keep their operations running, Mongabay’s Fernanda Wenzel reports.
Federal agents destroyed 150 backhoes and 600 dredgers used in illegal mining in 2023, cutting deforestation from mining by 30% compared with the previous year. Almost all efforts were concentrated in the Itaituba municipality in Pará state, which produces 75% of Brazil’s illegal gold. The crackdown has sparked protests and frustration in Itaituba, where most people rely on gold mining for income, culminating in a 10-day protest in April, Wenzel writes.
Rampant gold mining has caused widespread environmental destruction in the Amazon Rainforest, including polluted rivers, mercury contamination, large-scale fish deaths and deforestation.
But most clandestine miners, or garimpeiros, are frustrated with the government’s actions. “[They] burned my excavator and broke everything with no mercy,” mine owner Carlos Mendes Moares told Mongabay.
For many, gold mining is their primary source of income. José Maria Silva de Souza, another clandestine mine boss, lost two backhoes valued at 1.5 million reais ($272,000 now) but is determined to continue. “I’m not thinking of giving up,” he said, and is now using less efficient methods to keep his illegal operation running.
The war on illegal gold mining marks a shift since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023, following his vows to reverse the environmental damage caused during the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who openly opposed environmental regulations.
Lula’s government has also tightened rules on gold sales, requiring more checks on the source of gold, which has made it harder to sell gold in Itaituba, where much of the trade is illegal.
State legislator Wescley Tomaz, a key supporter of the miners, argues that the government should focus on legalizing operations. “What is irregular can be made regular,” he told Mongabay.
Legalizing a clandestine mine involves National Mining Agency approval and an environmental license, which requires miners repair damage caused by their activities. A license costs approximately 50,000 reais (about $9,000 now) and takes about six months to process, Tomaz said.
Mines located within Indigenous territories or fully protected conservation units are outright forbidden, though 10% of mined land in the Amazon — totaling 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) — is on Indigenous lands.
Miners in Itaituba remain defiant, calling for legalization as their livelihoods hang in the balance. As enforcement ramps up, the political struggle between preserving the environment and supporting local economies in the Amazon continues.
(This is a summary of “Resilient and resourceful, Brazil’s illegal gold capital resists government crackdown” by Fernanda Wenzel.)
Banner image: A miner in the Creporizinho village of Itaituba displays two chains: one with a large nugget shaped like Brazil and the other, which he had custom-made, featuring the essential tools for artisanal mining — a shovel, pick and pan. Image by Fernando Martinho.
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