Monica Bond is a wildlife biologist who has spent the past 15 years becoming an expert on spotted owls and forest fires. Earlier this month, she published a paper summarizing all existing science about what happens to spotted owls when forests burn, in the hope of averting a major US forest management policy mistake. The […]
Tag: Mongabay.com
Big city living doesn’t stop peregrine falcons from mating for life
As humans encroach more and more on their habitat, some peregrine falcons have become city-dwellers: at least 25 pairs now nest on man-made structures like skyscrapers and bridges in Chicago, for instance. In their natural habitat, where they build their nests on isolated cliff ledges, peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) mate for life. But like any […]
Indonesia’s birds being wiped out by pet trade
Birds are hugely popular pets in Indonesia. A 2011 study found, for instance, that more than one-third of households in the six biggest cities of Java and Bali kept birds as pets. Most of these pet birds are caught from the wild. Conservationists say that the popularity of bird-keeping in Indonesia has been driving the […]
15 Bornean rhinos discovered in Kalimantan?
Indonesia’s environment and forestry ministry will convert a former gold mining site into a sanctuary for the Sumatran rhinoceros in East Kalimantan province, after conservationists identified 15 of the critically endangered creatures in the area. The Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) was until recently believed to be extinct in Kalimantan. Then in 2013, scientists on an […]
POLL: Should the international trade in slow lorises be stopped?
In 2014, the Telegraph ranked slow lorises as one of the “top 10 internet superstar pets”. Unfortunately, the rising online popularity of slow lorises (Nycticebus spp.) as exotic pets is fueling the illicit trade in these animals. Japan, for example, is emerging as a major black market for illegally obtained slow lorises, researchers found in […]
A new plan to pull the Okapi back from the brink of extinction
The rare “forest giraffe,” a native of the lowland rainforests in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, faces numerous threats, including habitat loss, armed conflict, poaching, and, increasingly, the mining and oil industries. Okapi, sometimes referred to as “forest giraffes” because they are the only other member of the Giraffidae family besides giraffes, are mostly […]
Scientists see like predators to prove camouflage works
In a groundbreaking study conducted in southern Zambia, researchers combined advanced technology, local knowledge of area fauna, and prior research on the visual systems of predators, to finally see as a predator sees. In a first of its kind approach, the team from the Universities of Exeter, Cambridge, and Cape Town was able to collect […]
POLL: Should bison be culled in Yellowstone National Park?
Yellowstone National Park’s annual culling of the last wild herd of bison, or buffalo, in the United States has been controversial since it began in 2000, and now it has prompted a First Amendment battle between National Park Service officials and reporters determined to document the grim spectacle. The U.S. National Park Service originally proposed […]