Animals that cross borders often encounter conservation systems that stop at them. Migratory species move through jurisdictions with little regard for political boundaries, relying on habitats spread across large…
KISUMU, Kenya — On a December morning, the early sunshine casts a golden sheen on the waters of Lake Victoria in Kenya’s Kisumu county. The breeze from the lake carries…
Dozens of migratory animals, including 33 marine species, gained new protections during the recent summit for the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. The 15th Conference…
Best-selling author Scott Weidensaul's new book is a celebration of species recovery efforts led by scientists, conservationists, and Indigenous communities around the world, beginning with the successful rebound of the…
NEW YORK — Catherine Quayle has been caring for sick and injured wild animals in New York City for the past 12 years, first as a volunteer at the Wild…
In the long arc of conservation, recovery is often slow enough to be mistaken for stasis. Populations dwindle, habitats shrink, and the work of reversal depends less on moments of…
Five “missing” bird species — not seen, heard or documented in the wild for a decade or more — were “found” in 2025, according to the 2026 annual update to…
Last week, governments, conservationists and civil society from around the world gathered in Brazil for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS-15). In a…
Community-led bird surveys have confirmed that one of the world’s most threatened bird species, the white-bellied heron, still survives in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state. As few as 50 mature white-bellied…
In October 2025, environmental officers arrived unannounced at the Parangaba Fair that takes place every Sunday in Fortaleza, in northeastern Brazil. The market, also known as the Bird Fair, had…
The hooded vulture, a small, scruffy-looking raptor native to sub-Saharan Africa, gets its name from a patch of beige feathers on its head: It appears to be wearing a hood.…
In Namibia’s Karas Region, birds are more than symbols of freedom or beauty — they are teachers of resilience. Their survival in arid landscapes mirrors the endurance of the communities…
Increasing demand for songbirds is raising the risk of “secondary extinctions” of so-called “master birds” in Southeast Asia, conservationists warn. While these birds never enter the region’s songbird singing competitions,…
A pair of California condors reintroduced to the Pacific Northwest by the Yurok Tribe appears to have established the species’ first nest in the region in more than 100 years,…
This story was produced in collaboration with Bellingcat. Read their version here, and Mongabay-Indonesia's version here. JAKARTA — A new report by Mongabay and independent journalism organization Bellingcat has uncovered…
The plight of the emperor penguin might be more dire than previously thought. For the first time, scientists have used satellite data to discover new locations in Antarctica where the…
From shorebirds flying between their Arctic breeding grounds and southerly foraging ranges to freshwater fish returning to native spawning streams, migratory animals are struggling. About half of all migratory species…
Populations of Rüppell’s vultures have fallen by more than 90% over the past four decades. Knowing exactly where these critically endangered birds breed can allow conservationists to put protective measures…
Conservation has long depended on measurement. Populations are counted, habitats mapped, trends plotted against baselines that often extend back only a few decades. Yet many ecosystems began changing long before…
MANCORA, Peru — The largetooth sawfish is a critically endangered fish distinguished by its long, blade-like snout edged with tooth-like projections. In the waters off Peru, it’s become an unlikely…
Penguins are dramatically shifting their breeding season as the Antarctic peninsula warms, a recent study finds. From 2012 to 2022, researchers used remote cameras to examine the timing of breeding…
Protecting vulture populations in Africa presents some unique challenges for conservationists. These slow-breeding and ecologically vital scavengers range over vast territories and are vulnerable to poisons targeting other species and…
Every winter, millions of birds fly thousands of kilometers via the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) and East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), from the frozen expanses of Siberia and Central Asia to…
In the forests of the Sierra Nevada, the black-backed woodpecker is without parallel. The bird appears almost born of fire, thriving on the flames that flicker through California’s coniferous forests…
In small island states, conservation has often depended less on formal institutions than on vigilance: watching harbors, checking traps, noticing what does not belong. The work is repetitive, practical, and…
Abijata-Shalla National Park, ETHIOPIA — Under the scorching midday sun in the upper catchment of Ethiopia’s Abijata-Shalla National Park, a local youth group toils along the edges of a deep…
Papua New Guinea’s rainforests, which span 28.2 million hectares (69.6 million acres), are among the most biodiverse in the world, hosting an estimated 5-8% of all species. The country also…
It’s a fundamental question for ecologists in this age: How are biodiversity losses reshaping how ecosystems function? A recent study quantifies the impact of biodiversity and abundance losses on ecological…
In an isolated backroom of a nature reserve near Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, Wayra, a recently hatched condor chick, is a symbol of hope for Fernando Castro, a wildlife specialist. Castro,…
COLOMBO — “Cries in silence, her veins robbed by greedy hands, each grain of stolen sand buries a future beneath the lands” — these lines from the song Karunilam (‘black…
KATHMANDU — Birds prefer to live in a mix of forests, fields and wetlands, but human activities such as logging, hunting and sand and gravel mining are taking a toll…
In October, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer at California's Otay Mesa border crossing noticed an odd bulge inside a man's pants. Jesse Agus Martinez, a U.S. citizen who…
