test feed

In the 1970s and ’80s, frogs in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest began dying off. Researchers have proposed various causes, from severe cold snaps to acid rain. Now, scientists believe they have solved this decade-old amphibian “cold case.” The culprit, it seems, may be the highly contagious pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). It causes a deadly infectious skin

“Last night we had a very big fight with an elephant in our tomato field,” said Joeman Moyo, a farmer at Den Staat farm in South Africa’s Limpopo region. “We used a torch … to make a fire. The elephant would go away but return when I put out the torch. I also burned a

Kenya’s fitness boom runs on activewear built for stretch, sweat and shine yet almost no one asks what’s actually in the fabric. By 7 a.m. on a Saturday, Riverside Square in Nairobi’s Westlands neighborhood is already filling up. Dozens arrive in matching leggings and sports bras, water bottles clipped to armbands, ready for a running

A recent Mongabay investigation by Elizabeth Claire Alberts and Andrés Alegría reveals that the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean, a swath of deep sea regulated by the International Seabed Authority, has received a surge of claim applications filed with the United States for mineral exploration and exploitation. While the ISA, a U.N.-associated body, is

For more than a decade, Kazi Zenifar Azmiri has played a crucial part in protecting wildlife in Bangladesh. Zenifar is a program associate at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Her work centers primarily on the rescue and rehabilitation of threatened vultures like the white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and Himalayan griffon vulture (Gyps

The Daasanach people in the Turkana Basin of northern Kenya experienced the worst drought in 40 years between November 2020 and March 2023. The Daasanach are pastoralists who have lived semi-nomadically for roughly 6,000 years, supported by herds of livestock including cows, camels, donkeys, and goats. A group of researchers worked with the Daasanach to

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — Prominent climate change activist Greta Thunberg arrived Tuesday at the U.N. climate meeting, where she emphasized the need to protect people and the planet over profits and power. This year’s meeting — called the Conference of the Parties, or COP31 — comes after a year of climate-induced heat waves and other

Twenty-seven residents of Kolwezi, a major copper and cobalt mining hub in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, have taken Chinese-controlled mining company COMMUS to court, accusing it of polluting their water, air and soil and putting their health and livelihoods at risk. The lawsuit against Compagnie Minière de Musonoie Global (COMMUS), controlled by Chinese mining

After nearly a century’s absence, gray wolves are recolonizing California, altering ecosystems and landscapes in the U.S.’s most populous state. Mongabay’s Spoorthy Raman examines how this change is playing out: conservationists welcome the wolves’ return, ranchers vilify them due to livestock losses, and others seek coexistence at a time when wolf numbers are growing. This

When the 2011 tsunami devastated Japan’s coast, patches of forest were left standing amid the destruction. Many surrounded Shinto shrines, ancient chinju-no-mori, or “guardian forests”, that appeared to protected them when disaster struck. Could these deeply rooted forests offer a natural defence against future tsunamis?

Four decades ago, Wayan Wardika says, clouds of fireflies would illuminate the night sky above the rice fields of his native village in Bali, Indonesia. Today, the insects have virtually disappeared from here due to rapid land development, light pollution, habitat degradation, and heavy use of agricultural pesticides, reports contributor Rizky Maulana Yanuar and Mongabay’s

An emergency effort to rescue tens of thousands of orchids from being razed for a road-building projects in southern India has been hailed a success in a recent study. Many species of orchids are classified as epiphytes, which means they grow on trees, using them as physical support frames. When these host trees are killed,

MANJUYOD, Philippines — For years, Jonalyn Rentuaya, president of Alangilanan United Seaweed Growers Association, began her mornings the same way. By 6:00 a.m., she and other seaweed growers in the Alangilanan neighborhood of Manjuyod, would be wading in the shallows of Bais Bay, out on their lines, tending their crop. Then, on Oct. 26, 2025,

Two months ago, more than 500 people invaded Brazil’s Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Territory in Pará, northern Brazil, where the isolated Igarapé Ipiaçava Indigenous people live. In response, Brazil has deployed the National Public Security Force for a period of 180 days to support the country’s Indigenous Affairs Agency (Funai) as it works to protect the Indigenous

When the El Niño drought ended in a remote Papua New Guinea rainforest, the trees did not immediately recover. Many kept dying. That is one of the findings of a recent study of more than 21,000 trees in the Wanang Forest Dynamics Plot, a 50-hectare (124-acre) research site in northern Papua New Guinea. Researchers measured

At the COP17 biodiversity summit in Yerevan, Armenia, conservation leaders from around the world gathered to conduct the first global review of progress toward the ambitious goals adopted in 2022 under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). Among them is Target 3, a commitment to effectively and equitably conserving 30% of the planet’s land and waters

Peruvian customs agents and authorities from the National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR) announced on Nov. 4, 2026, that they seized more than 3,000 tarantulas at the Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima. The spiders were hidden inside socks put in luggage destined for Germany. The alleged traffickers, two German citizens and a Polish national,

NEW DELHI (AP) — A thick blanket of smog shrouded India’s capital Monday after firecrackers lit up the skies over New Delhi during Diwali celebrations, compounding dangerously high pollution levels and intensifying the seasonal air pollution crisis that grips the city every year. Despite restrictions on fireworks, residents in New Delhi celebrated the Hindu festival

COLOMBO — The recent death of Kavantissa, a celebrated “tusker” in one of Sri Lanka’s human-elephant conflict hotspots, from a gunshot injury has sparked grief, anger, and a string of public protests. It’s also spurred debate about whether photographers who follow tuskers — elephants, typically male, with large tusks — also put the pachyderms at

KATHMANDU — Ramesh Dulal was 13 years old when he began “communicating” with crows. He started making sounds resembling the crows, who would respond by gathering around him, he recalls. Popularly known as kagé, crows are called kaag in Nepali, and Nepal observes an annual day of the crow, called Kaag Tihar, which falls around

SEOUL — Many South Koreans remember days when squid was inexpensive, everyday food: Stir-fried with spicy chili flakes, steamed in a bath of water and soju, or dried and eaten as a bar snack along with a pint of ice-cold beer. Kim Tae-won, a professor at the Department of Ocean Sciences at South Korea’s Inha

A Brazilian biologist and a team of volunteer divers are killing coral to save a marine protected area just off the famous Ipanema beach. They’re manually removing sun coral, an invasive species first seen in Brazil more than 40 years ago, from an offshore oil platform. The coral has no natural predators in the region

RIO DE JANEIRO — Beneath the surface of Brazil’s coastal waters, a silent invasion is transforming marine ecosystems. Sun coral (Tubastraea coccinea and Tubastraea tagusensis), an invasive coral native to the Indo-Pacific, is spreading along Brazil’s coastline, threatening native species. First seen in Brazil in the 1980s, attached to an offshore oil platform in Rio

Mongabay’s reporter Max Radwin went to Suriname’s Amazon to investigate the advance of illegal gold mining on Indigenous territories. Despite a government pledge to combat the activity, Indigenous Wayana communities are facing an influx of miners who cut down the forest and pollute rivers with mercury on the border of French Guiana. To learn more

Years after Indigenous communities in Guatemala were forcibly evicted from their ancestral land, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is asking a court to hold the government responsible and provide reparations. On Oct. 28, the IACHR announced it had referred a case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which rules on human rights violations

Like many in the community of Phinaya, in southeastern Peru, Donato Bermúdez makes his living from alpacas. His flock of 500 roams the slopes beneath the vast Quelccaya glacier, the site of the second-largest tropical ice cap in the world. Reaching 5,600 meters (18,400 feet), its white peak is home to centuries of tradition. “We

ASCEA and CASTEL VOLTURNO, Italy, and BARCELONA, Spain — In the early hours of a warm July day, regular rows of still-folded sun umbrellas stand along the shores of Castel Volturno, a coastal town in the Italian region of Campania, located about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northwest of Naples. A small group gathers around a

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Scientists who study whales are heartened by an unexpected discovery of a baby right whale off Canada. Researchers in Canada captured images of an unidentified baby North Atlantic right whale, one of the rarest sea mammals in the world, off Anticosti Island in Quebec in September. Scientists with the New England

As climate change intensifies, drought is widening globally, causing alterations in water-dependent pathogen patterns, leaving scientists scrambling to understand how infectious disease transmission is evolving. They’ll need to act quickly to predict and prepare for future outbreaks: In 2025, annual drought affected approximately 30% of the globe’s land surface, a near doubling of area since

Why hasn’t the trial for the 2019 killing of forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara and the attempted killing of fellow guardian Láercio Guajajara, in the Brazilian Amazon, taken place yet? “[T]here are no available slots on the court’s hearing calendar,” the advisory staff to the judge in the case told Mongabay in an emailed statement,

The international organization responsible for regulating fisheries in the Mediterranean and Black seas concluded its annual meeting with the adoption of new management plans for some iconic species. However, it declined to pass expected fishing restrictions to protect certain ecologically important habitats. Half of all assessed species in the region are overexploited. The 49th session

The government of Kenya has launched a 10-year, $160 million conservation program that will target 17.3 million hectares (43 million acres) of existing conservation areas and community-managed land across 31 counties. The government projects that the initiative, which also aims to establish 2.7 million hectares of new conserved areas, will benefit 1.6 million people and