Snow leopards range across Asia’s rugged mountains, where they face mounting threats from climate change, declining wild prey, and retaliatory killings from local herders. Today, on Oct. 23, International Snow Leopard Day, we look back at recent Mongabay reporting highlighting how innovative science, climate-ready habitat, and community-centered conservation are helping these big cats share mountain […]
“We were literally running for our lives. If one of us had tripped, there was nothing we would have been able to do”
Axel Gomille is a photographer and filmmaker from Germany. His work has appeared in BBC Wildlife magazine and shortlisted for Wildlife Photographer of the Year. He has also published several books. How did your career start? I’ve been interested in wildlife since I was a child. For my 7th birthday, I asked for – and was […]
Mass sloth deaths prompt US bill calling for import ban
On Oct. 20, International Sloth Day, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. Congress to ban the import of wild sloths into the United States. The proposed legislation comes months after the deaths of 58 of the approximately 69 sloths imported to Sloth World, a Florida-based tourist attraction. “We owe it to these animals, […]
It can regrow its penis after mating – not just once – but twice!
In a world where it can seem that nothing is built to last, here is a creature that takes disposability to eye-watering extremes. Like most nudibranchs, Chromodoris reticulata is a simultaneous hermaphrodite. Copulation is a two-way affair, with each participant inserting its penis into its partner’s vagina. But much less conventional is what they do […]
Rare Indonesian maleo birds face new threat from international exotic pet trade
Wildlife traffickers are increasingly targeting critically endangered maleo birds from coastal Indonesia for the international exotic pet trade, according to a recent study. In 2024, enforcement agencies recorded three separate seizures totaling 25 live juvenile maleo birds (Macrocephalon maleo) en route to or within India. The ground-dwelling, black-and-white birds are endemic to the Indonesian island […]
VOTE for the Best Photo of the Month October 2026
Welcome to the “Best Photo of the Month” competition showcasing and celebrating the biodiversity of Planet Earth. Voting is easy and lots of fun. By popular request the number of images to be selected has been increased to six. First click an image and the slideshow will start automatically. Select the SIX images you like best […]
“Long, curved talons can crush the skull and break the spine of large prey – and carcasses too heavy to carry are dismembered where they fall”
The crowned eagle is considered Africa’s most powerful raptor. Built for ambushing prey among the trees, it kills monkeys and antelopes almost four times its own weight, crushing their skulls in its enormous talons. Its prowess may even have made it a hunter of our distant ancestors. Yet its strength offers little protection against the disappearance of […]
Six beluga deaths cast a shadow over rescue from Canada’s Marineland
Six members of a pod of 30 belugas, a fifth of the whales that were transferred from a marine park in Canada to facilities in the U.S. and Spain as part of a massive rescue operation, have died in the last two months. They were transported to the facilities in July and August after languishing […]