The lights draw uncertain lines under the blanket of stars that joins the sea to the sky at El Ostional Beach in southern Nicaragua, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Costa Rica. The silence of the darkness is interrupted by the noise of waves crashing on the shore and the clicks of flashlights […]
Tag: Mongabay.com
What makes a forest healthy? Māori knowledge has some answers.
RUATĀHUNA, New Zealand — In certain seasons, the forest used to look like a bride, recalled Māori elders in Ruatāhuna: vibrant, healthy, and clothed in all its glory. These days, they agreed, it looks more like an old lady, ragged and tired. There’s a feeling of loneliness there now, too, as if the forest is […]
Every sea turtle in global study found to have synthetic fibers and microplastics in their guts
A recent study found microplastics in the intestines of humans around the globe, and new research has now done the same for sea turtles. Researchers at the UK’s University of Exeter and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, a research organization also in the UK, led a team that studied 102 sea turtles in the Atlantic and […]
Christmas ad conundrum: Is a palm oil boycott the way to save apes?
A Christmas advertisement deemed too political to air in the U.K. but that has been viewed more than 70 million times online has rekindled the debate about how to save orangutans from going extinct: should consumers boycott products containing palm oil? In one corner is the British supermarket chain Iceland, which earlier this year announced […]
Pesticides could be painting black howler monkeys yellow in Costa Rica
Pesticide use on agricultural plantations may be shifting the color palette of howler monkey fur in Costa Rica, a team of scientists has found. Mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata) are typically pretty understated in terms of color, often carrying a dark coat of fur with a few flecks of orange on their sides. But in […]
POLL: Should Mauritian flying foxes be culled to protect farmers’s fruit trees?
The culling of fruit bats in recent years to protect crops in Mauritius has pushed the species closer to extinction, and now the government is planning to do it again. One problem, scientists say, is that killing bats might not boost harvests. Until now, growers and the government have been operating on the assumption, based […]
As the mammal tree of life suffers hits, should we prioritize which species to save?
The current mass extinction is eliminating whole branches of the mammal tree of life, which will take millions of years to replace, according to a recent study. Some researchers suggest focusing our conservation efforts on mammal species that sit on the tree’s most distinct and precarious limbs. How we choose to save one species over […]
Whale stress levels influenced by human activity, earwax study suggests
Scientists have mapped whale stress levels in relation to human activity going back nearly a century and a half — using earwax collected from baleen whales. From 1870 to 2016, the whales’ stress levels seem to be closely associated with activities such as industrial whaling, naval operations during World War II, and rising sea-surface temperatures, […]