During an expedition to southern Guyana in 2000, researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Kansas were surprised to see a red siskin flying overhead. A small bird with a bright red chest, the red siskin (Spinus cucullatus) had never been observed outside Venezuela, Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago. And even in those […]
Tag: Mongabay.com
Advocacy group links Uganda oil infrastructure to human-elephant conflict
Oil drilling by French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies is disturbing wildlife in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest and most-visited protected area. This is according to a briefing by environmental advocacy group Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), which warns that noise pollution is driving animals out of the park, leading to increased conflict […]
Scientists are racing to save South Asia’s butterflies from the threat of extinction
In the dark undergrowth of mangrove forests, an anthology of color stirs. Flickers of turquoise rise like exhales from the brackish marshlands, and flashes of sunset orange spark alive in the shadows. The Sundarbans mangrove forest in Bangladesh and India is largely known as one of the last remaining habitats for the Bengal tiger (Panthera […]
Where Javan leopards thrive, so do other wildlife, study shows
JAKARTA — A new study on Javan leopards has found that areas with higher numbers of the endangered subspecies have richer wildlife diversity than those from where the elusive big cats are absent. More Javan leopards (Panthera pardus melas) in a given habitat correspond to higher richness and abundance of other animals that coexist in […]
Ugandan chimps are eating bat guano, raising concerns over human epidemics
“Finish your yogurt, sweetheart, it’s good for your bones. And take a few almonds, so you’ll stay healthy.” You may have heard this before, and rightly so. Minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, are vital to our functioning as they ensure that our bones, muscles, heart and brain work properly. And the same holds for […]
For ‘extinct’ Spix’s macaw, successful comeback is overshadowed by uncertainty
RIO DE JANEIRO — On May 24 this year, Ugo Vercillo woke up to a piece of amazing news: two parrot fledglings, born in the wild in Curaçá municipality, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, had taken flight for the first time. These weren’t just any parrots; they were Spix’s macaws (Cyanopsitta spixii), one of […]
Thai tiger numbers swell as prey populations stabilize in western forests
The tiger population density in a series of protected areas in western Thailand has more than doubled over the past two decades, according to new survey data. Thailand is the final stronghold of the Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), the subspecies having been extirpated from neighboring Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam over the past decade due […]
Shrimp farms threaten Mexico’s mangroves and the jaguars that inhabit them
Among the spindly saline roots of the mangrove trees that line western Mexico’s coast, the jaguar is the ecosystem’s apex predator. Yet despite being at the top of the food chain, its existence is threatened by the abundance of another, much smaller species: the whiteleg shrimp. Aquaculture of whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), or Pacific white […]