Honey production sweetens snow leopard conservation in Kyrgyzstan
SHAMSHY, Kyrgyzstan — “I was only 9 when I first saw a snow leopard with my father. He was a ranger bringing injured animals found in the mountains to the…
Big Cats News
Study shows Javan leopard habitat shrinking, but real picture may be worse
Across the Indonesian island of Java, suitable habitat for Javan leopards shrunk by more than 1,300 square kilometers, or 500 square miles, between 2000 and 2020. That’s according to a…
Pumas create nutrient-rich ‘kill gardens’ to attract prey: Study
Big cats are expert hunters, but some may also be adept gardeners, according to a recent study published in Springer Nature. After killing and eating, pumas (Puma concolor) leave the…
Counting dead cats on Costa Rica’s highways: Q&A with Daniela Araya Gamboa
The nature of her father’s work, as an aerial fumigation pilot, meant that Daniela Araya lived in many areas of Costa Rica when she was a child. She usually traveled…
India cheetah births spark interest in fast felines in neighboring Nepal
KATHMANDU — News of four cheetah cubs being born recently in India has sparked interest in the species in the conservation community in neighboring Nepal, where the big cat’s historical…
Do tiger-dense habitats also help save carbon stock? It’s complicated
KATHMANDU — In 2012, when wildlife biologist Kanchan Thapa visited Chitwan National Park, a stronghold of the Bengal tiger in Nepal, a colleague asked him a question: “How much carbon…
Human migration to Nepal’s tiger capital adds to conservation challenges
KATHMANDU — The B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Nepal’s central Bharatpur city, Chitwan District, bustles as patients, most of them from the country’s northern hilly areas, line up for…
Island-hopping cougars redraw boundaries of big cats’ potential range
It’s often been said that big cats don’t like water — but this mythological thinking isn’t entirely accurate. New research provides evidence that some male cougars (Puma concolor), or pumas,…
Video of rare West African lion cubs sparks hope for the population
New video of a West African lioness and her three cubs is exciting news for the conservation community, sparking hope for the slow recovery of a population perilously close to…
As Himalayas thaw, snow leopards scramble for habitat: Q&A with Bikram Shrestha
KATHMANDU — When researchers last year confirmed the presence of the manul, the “world’s grumpiest cat,” on the world’s highest mountain, they immediately looked at past records of the elusive…
Most of ‘top ten’ hotspots for jaguar conservation are in Brazil’s Indigenous territories
Jaguars have been feared and revered for centuries, inspiring rituals, cults, and, more recently, conservation concerns. Although jaguars’ known range extends from Mexico to Argentina, they’ve been eradicated from almost…
Himalayan catfight looms as tigers, leopards venture into snow leopard land
KATHMANDU — A tiger sits quietly surrounded by trees, observing something in the distance. It then roars and darts toward its target: a leopard that jumps down from a tree.…
For tigers in Nepal, highways are a giant roadblock best avoided
KATHMANDU — It starts off like the premise for a joke: “Why did the tigers cross the road?” But for researchers and conservationists in Nepal, the spread of roads throughout…
In Nepal, conservationists suspect link between canine distemper and human-leopard conflict
KATHMANDU — On Nov. 1 last year, a leopard dragged off an 8-year-old boy as he was playing just steps away from the cowshed where his grandmother was milking the…
With climate change, Nepal’s leopards get a bigger range — and more problems
KATHMANDU — Climate change is likely to expand the habitat of leopards in the Nepal’s high mountain regions, potentially increasing conflict with humans and competition with snow leopards, a new…
To restore large carnivore populations, make people wealthier, study finds
The decline of big carnivore populations like lions, bears and lynx is most closely associated with rapid economic growth, according to a study published this week in Nature Communications. The study…
‘Your tiger killed my cattle’: As big cats thrive in Bhutan, farmers struggle
The village of Rukubji, in Bhutan’s central Wangdue Phodrang district, lies in a valley at the intersection of three rivers, its surrounding hillsides scattered with yak herder tents or swathed…
Ecotourism and education: Win-win solution for Pantanal jaguars and ranchers
Examining the torn remains of a calf, Paul Raad saw evidence of a jaguar attack. Most big cats grip the throat to bring down their prey, but jaguars prefer to…
The tiger in the snow: Cameras capture abundance of life in a Himalayan refuge
KATHMANDU — During his regular patrol in the forests of Dadeldhura district in Nepal’s westernmost tip in 2020, forester Bishnu Prasad Acharya heard something strange from a temple priest. “He…
Sumatran tiger arrives at Tacoma captive-breeding program
A known breeding Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) has made its way to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington state, in hopes it will produce more cubs of…
For Nepal, 2022 was a roaring Year of the Tiger
KATHMANDU — The country received accolades and applause from all around the world for its success in conserving the endangered species. However, with the growing number of big cats, attacks…
Brazil’s Pantanal is at risk of collapse, scientists say
Record fires, climate change, large-scale agriculture, deforestation and a proposed industrial waterway collectively threaten the world’s largest tropical wetland — a biodiversity hotspot and home to jaguars.
Conservationists play matchmaker to boost Argentina’s jaguar gene pool
For about 70 years, jaguars were absent from Iberá Park in northeastern Argentina’s Corrientes province. To rectify this, conservationists reintroduced three jaguars into the park in 2021, followed by seven…
Hunting takes its toll on Himalaya’s blue sheep, favored prey of snow leopards
KATHMANDU — The Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve in western Nepal is known for its pristine high-altitude grasslands, and buzzes with helicopter traffic every October and November, at the onset of winter.…
A fast-growing pipeline: The Amazon-to-Southeast Asia wildlife trade
Organized crime cartels and Chinese laborers continue draining the Amazon of jaguars and other endangered species, threatening ecosystems with collapse.
Community study sheds light on wild cat killings in Brazil’s central Amazon
Wild felids in Brazil’s Amazon face a myriad of pressures from habitat loss and, most recently, the threat of fires. In the central Amazon region, a long-running community-based monitoring program…
Wild cats threatened by ‘underrecognized’ risk of spillover disease
Diseases affecting domestic animals, such as canine distemper, are increasingly infecting tropical wildlife, including wild felids, presenting a threat to biodiversity; so far solutions are few and funding is scarce.
Thai zoos come under scrutiny again as tourism rebounds from COVID-19
BANGKOK — A run-down department store tucked among Bangkok’s skyscrapers is home to the rooftop Pata Zoo, where nearly 300 animals pace in cages littered with feces, food scraps and…
‘South Asia needs its own tiger plan’: Q&A with Nepal’s Maheshwar Dhakal
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s tigers hogged the headlines around the world this past July as officials announced that their population had nearly tripled over the past 12 years. The figure of…
Southeast Asia’s big cats like their prey rare — as in really elusive
Tigers and clouded leopards are two of Southeast Asia’s most threatened and enigmatic big cat species. With the numbers of both in sharp decline across the region, leaving their remaining…
In Nepal, endangered tiger kills critically endangered gharial. What does it mean?
KATHMANDU — On the morning of July 31, a tiger (Panthera tigris) entered the enclosure of the Kasara gharial breeding center in Chitwan National Park unnoticed. It observed the behavior of…
Bolivia’s former ‘death road’ is now a haven for wildlife
In Bolivia, the infamous “Death Road” has become a haven for life. Once the only route north from La Paz, the narrow and treacherous old road to the Yungas claimed…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon
- 15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities
- Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park
- Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon
Oceans
- Scientists, Māori experts uncover new insights into rare spade-toothed whale
- Coral reefs could survive climate change, but in altered state, study says
- Conservationists see progress for swordfish, problems for sharks at Atlantic fisheries summit
- As tidal power rides a wave of clean energy optimism, pitfalls persist
Amazon Conservation
- ‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal in the Amazon faces bumpy road ahead
- New conservation model calls for protecting Amazon for its archaeological riches
- Brazil dredges Amazon rivers to ease drought isolation, raising environmental concerns
- ‘We need white men on our side to save the Amazon from destruction,’ 92-year-old Indigenous Chief Raoni says
Land rights and extractives
- Should mining companies consider no-go zones where isolated Indigenous peoples live? (Commentary)
- Brazil sets a date to remove illegal miners from Munduruku land, more details await
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- A national park and its rangers in Bolivia endure persisting road construction, illegal mining
Endangered Environmentalists
- Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
- Mongabay video screening at Chile’s Supreme Court expected to help landmark verdict in Brazil
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
Conservation Effectiveness
- How effective is the EU’s marquee policy to reduce the illegal timber trade?
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- An ‘ocean grab’ for a property megaproject leaves Jakarta fishers grounded
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
