SINGCHUNG, India — “Follow the rustling in the bushes,” whispers Phurpa Tsering, tiptoeing aside. I hear a brief low-pitched call. A bird, larger than a sparrow but smaller than a pigeon, stirs in the branches before diving deeper into another bush in the ravine. Its partner trails behind, revealing a fleeting glimpse of the bird’s […]
Tag: rainforest
Saving the Helmeted Hornbill
Helmeted Hornbills Rhinoplax vigil are used to clashes. When a tall forest tree is in fruit, rival individuals launch into one of the most remarkable skirmishes seen among birds anywhere. The mighty hornbills, up to 1.5 m in length, take off from their high perches with deep beats of their enormous wings. Just above the […]
Facebook video shows orangutan defending forest against bulldozer
Dramatic footage released last week by an animal welfare group shows a wild orangutan trying in vain to fight off destruction of its rainforest habitat in Borneo. The video, filmed in 2013 but posted on Facebook on June 5th for World Environment Day by International Animal Rescue (IAR), was shot in Sungai Putri, a tract […]
Ghana – rainforest birding on the brink by Adam Riley
My connection with Ghana began rather unexpectedly (and as it turned out, rather humorously) more than ten years ago. I was in contact with a group of birders for whom I arranged and guided an annual tour to Africa. During each trip we would discuss a destination for the following year. We already had South […]
Poll: Should the Nicaraguan interoceanic canal go ahead?
A Chinese company has launched work on a $50bn canal across Nicaragua, an ambitious rival to the Panama canal that sceptics dismiss as a pipe dream and environmentalists say will wreck the country’s ecosystem. The Chinese telecoms magnate behind the canal, Wang Jing, inaugurated the project at a ceremony in the southern town of Rivas […]
Video: Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest hangs in the balance!
The future of Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest still hangs in the balance. First Nations, environmentalists, industry, and government continue to forge a compromise that might keep this 64,000 square kilometre region from having the same sad fate as most of the world’s precious preserves of water, food, wildlife, and oxygen. But even if this is […]
Brazil declares new protected area larger than Delaware
Earlier this week, the Brazilian government announced the declaration of a new federal reserve deep in the Amazon rainforest. The protections conferred by the move will ban deforestation, reduce carbon emissions, and help safeguard the area’s renowned wildlife. Named Alto Maues, the new reserve encompasses 668,000 hectares of mostly pristine forest void of human presence, […]
Scientists identify 137 protected areas most important for preserving biodiversity
Want to save the world’s biodiversity from mass extinction? Then make certain to safeguard the 74 sites identified today in a new study in Science. Evaluating 173,000 terrestrial protected areas, scientists pulled out the most important ones for global biodiversity based on the number of threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians found in the parks. In […]
