A couple of weeks ago, I told you about our work at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora—known as CITES. This conference is so important because it shapes how wild animals in trade are treated across the globe and can curb commercial […]
Tag: leopards
Honey Badger Takes On Three Leopards At Once, Emerges From The Brawl Without A Scratch
Lesson learned: NEVER mess around with the honey badger. No, I’m talking about NFL defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, we’re talking about one of the toughest, most elusive creatures in all of nature. We here in the United States aren’t too familiar with the creature, because they’re only found in Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, […]
Wild cats threatened by ‘underrecognized’ risk of spillover disease
Starting in 2020, the global coronavirus pandemic brought the threat posed by zoonotic diseases into sharp focus in the public mind. But across the tropics and beyond, scientists had long warned that shrinking habitats and the narrowing distance between human populations, livestock, domestic animals and wildlife was increasing possible points of contact, risking the spillover […]
Enigmatic binturong photographed in Nepal for the first time
KATHMANDU — This past July 20, Radha Krishna Rijal noticed a strange animal struggling in the drainage channel of his house in the Parshyang neighborhood of western Nepal’s Pokhara Valley. He’d never seen such an animal before, he tells Mongabay: it was small, with a long tail and a furry body. “It had rained continuously […]
Southeast Asia’s big cats like their prey rare — as in really elusive
Tigers and clouded leopards are two of Southeast Asia’s most threatened and enigmatic big cat species. With the numbers of both in sharp decline across the region, leaving their remaining populations small and fragmented, it’s unsurprising that scientists know very little about basic things — such as what they eat. But now, a new study […]
‘Protecting snow leopards benefits other species’: Q&A with Rinzin Phunjok Lama
KATHMANDU — Think of big cats in Nepal, and you’ll probably picture a Bengal tiger. And while the country is famous for the Panthera tigris that prowl its southern plains — and for its efforts in doubling their population over the past decade — there’s another, lesser-known, big cat in the country’s north, lurking high […]
Protect Persian leopards, and their defenders, for World Environment Day (commentary)
At times of anguish and confusion we turn to nature to quiet the mind and find healing. We hold on to the miraculous survival of wildlife and ecosystems, to persist in the face of struggles we have no control over, leaving us often drained and hopeless. For us, one of those miracles is a beautiful […]
Study warns of risk from feline viruses to wild cats on the palm oil frontier
Antibody tests conducted on domestic cats and wild cats in Malaysian Borneo indicate that oil palm plantations may act as transmission sites for viruses, according to a new study. The study, carried out by researchers working with the Health at the Edge Project, which investigates wildlife parasite transmission in forest-agricultural landscapes in Borneo, and published […]