New satellite data analysis reveals that Mau Forest in Kenya, the largest montane forest in East Africa, is continuing to lose tree cover, likely due to illegal logging and agricultural expansion, despite efforts at protection. The Mau Forest is vital as the country’s biggest water catchment area, covering some 2,700 square kilometers (1,042 square miles) […]
Tag: Liz Kimbrough
Fishing, dams and dredging close in on Peru’s river dolphins, study shows
Amazon river dolphins navigate the complex waterways of the forest, their pods spread across the Amazon Basin in six different countries. The routes of these large, pink mammals are naturally blocked by land, waterfalls and stretches of shallow water, but increasingly something else is in the way: human activity. According to a recent study published […]
Rewilding animals could be key for climate: Report
When it comes to climate solutions, your first thought may not be the wildebeest. But in the Serengeti, these buffalo-looking antelopes are the key to carbon capture. Wildebeest eat large amounts of grass and recycle it back into the soil as dung. So when their population plummeted in the early 1900s due to a disease […]
Tiny new tree frog species found in rewilded Costa Rican nature reserve
Nestled in a valley between two volcanoes, Donald Varela-Soto heard something unfamiliar. For six months, he searched for the source of a shrill frog call along the edge of a wetland in Tapir Valley Nature Reserve, a former cattle ranch in northern Costa Rica. “I kept hearing this different sound in the wetland but was […]
Seeing through the swarm: How hawks hunt bat prey
Raptors are famous for their ability to home in on prey and attack with precision. But how does this work when they hunt animals that flock, school or swarm, forming bewildering displays that appear to move everywhere all at once? A study published today in Nature Communications reports that Swainson’s hawks (Buteo swainsoni) and some […]
Shade-grown coffee won’t support all birds, but adding a forest helps: Study
Organic, shade-grown, bird-friendly: coffee comes with a lot of labels these days, certifications that tell the consumer their beans were farmed in a way that supports the people who grow them and the ecosystems that sustain them. And with coffee now growing on more than 1 million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) of agricultural land […]
Spiny new chameleon species described from Bale Mountains of Ethiopia
Researchers have described a new chameleon species from the Bale Mountains of south-central Ethiopia, and say the biodiversity hotspot may harbor even more. Named Wolfgang Böhme’s Ethiopian chameleon (Trioceros wolfgangboehmei), in honor of the senior herpetologist at the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZMFK) in Bonn, Germany, the chameleon is around 15 centimeters (6 inches) […]
Two new species of endangered screech owls identified from Brazil
Two new species of tiny screech owls from the Amazon and Atlantic rainforests in Brazil have been described by science. “They’re cute little owls, probably five or six inches long [13-15 centimeters], with tufts of feathers on their heads,” said John Bates, curator of birds at the Field Museum in Chicago and one of the […]