In September 2020, more than a million households in Malaysia’s densely populated Klang Valley suffered extended water cuts after illegal chemical dumping debilitated the region’s aging water purification systems. In the midst of the pandemic, residents donned masks and lined up to fill buckets with water. A month later, before courts could identify and charge […]
Tag: mongabay
A New Species of Beaked-Whale May Have Just Been Discovered
Scientists on an expedition with the Sea Shepherd Society believe they may have discovered a new species of beaked-whale off the coast of Mexico. They were sailing in the San Benito Islands 300 miles from the US border when they made the unique find. The team was seeking out the source of a series of […]
Why do Eurasian badgers live with foxes? Candid Animal Cam spots badgers
Camera traps bring you closer to the secretive natural world and are an important conservation tool to study wildlife. This week we’re meeting the Eurasian badger. Eurasian badgers live from England, Ireland and Spain to the eastern edges of Russia, China, and Japan. Due to their large range, 24 subspecies have been recognized. Badgers are […]
Podcast: Sighting of super rare Chacoan fairy armadillo in Bolivia ‘a dream come true’
The four-wheel-drive bumped over a rutted road. Rain that began as soon as they left the pavement was so thick that the road, compacted by traffic, became slippery, and the tires dug-in. It was 8 a.m. At the wheel was Nick Mcphee, Australian conservationist-turned Bolivian ecotourism uber-specialist, and with him were Bolivian biologist Huáscar Bustillos […]
Vaccinations may be vital for saving Amur tigers from virus outbreaks (commentary)
While the world focuses on the development of new vaccines against COVID-19, biologists are building the case for using vaccines for the conservation of wildlife. Our own research on the impact of canine distemper virus (CDV) in the Russian Far East concludes that vaccination of Amur tigers is a potentially important strategy to avoid extinction […]
Songbird trade in Indonesia threatens wild Sunda laughingthrush
JAKARTA — The songbird trade in Indonesia has battered the wild population of the Sunda laughingthrush, an important seed disperser in the primary forest ecosystem, a new study shows. Bird market surveys in more than 30 cities across Indonesia between December 1991 and February 2020 point to a population decline in the Sunda laughingthrush (Garrulax […]
A forest in Sumatra disappears for farms and roads. So do its elephants
Jumar is no stranger to the presence of elephants. Having lived and farmed in the village of Pematang Pudu village in Bengkalis district, in Indonesia’s Riau province, for more than 20 years, he’s seen elephants wandering through his village and fields of sweet potato. And he has never become upset with the animals. He says […]
The New Guinea singing dog, once thought extinct, is alive in the wild
An analysis of the DNA of three wild dogs living above 4,300 meters (14,000 feet) on the island of New Guinea matches that of captive New Guinea singing dogs. These findings show that the New Guinea singing dog is not extinct in the wild, as most zoologists had assumed, researchers reported recently in the Proceedings […]