JAKARTA — A Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s rarest great ape, has been discovered dead in mud and log debris in a village in northern Sumatra — a grim sign of…
KAPUAS HULU, Indonesia — A palm oil company is rapidly clearing rainforest inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that’s home to orangutans and sun bears, adding to concerns over Indonesia’s efforts…
It was 2006 and Ismail Ebrahim, a botanist with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), was worried. While surveying one of the last remaining patches of renosterveld shrubland in…
KATHMANDU — Of the eight known species of pangolins found in Asia and Africa, three are listed as critically endangered on the Red List that’s maintained by the IUCN, the…
It sounds like a scene out of the Ocean's series of heist movies. Only this one didn’t happen in Las Vegas, but at a Mexican university campus surrounded by lush…
A controversial proposed mining project in Malawi’s newest UNESCO World Heritage Site is raising opposition from traditional chiefs and conservationists. Mount Mulanje in southern Malawi is a renowned biodiversity hotspot,…
LUKU CENTRAL FOREST RESERVE, Uganda — Ornithologist Ivan Oruka stops suddenly near the foot of a cliff that’s streaked with the telltale whitewash of bird droppings. He quickly presses his…
As part of the conservation process for Asian elephants, Bangladesh has taken a new step to retrieve captive elephants from their current owners and rehabilitate them in the wild. According…
PETCHABURI, Thailand — Swaths of butterflies flutter around Chalong Thongsong and his team of rangers and researchers as they walk along a muddy trail into the forest of Kaeng Krachan…
The Philippines, long recognized as one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, could lose nearly a quarter of its unique land-dwelling vertebrate species unless urgent conservation action is taken,…
ANTANANARIVO — Ninety-five percent of lemur species are threatened by habitat loss, hunting and climate change. The direct threat is often understood to result from the actions of poor rural…
JAKARTA — Indonesia is seeking to redraw the boundaries of a UNESCO World Heritage rainforest to pave the way for geothermal projects — part of its renewable energy push but…
Few people have the opportunity to meet near-mythical beasts in real life — but Rob Timmins has. He’s one of the few biologists ever to spend time with a saola,…
Mongabay recently published an investigation revealing widespread Brazilian government purchases of shark meat to feed schoolchildren, hospital patients, prisoners and more. The series has generated public debate in the South…
It’s early August 2025. Deep in the rainforests of Upolu, on the island of Samoa, Moeumu “Moe” Uili and I have paused our hike, counting the seconds between coo calls…
A cluster of mass vulture poisonings earlier this year has drawn attention to an alarming, ongoing problem in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and…
A spate of poisoning events this year has killed more than 400 vultures in and near South Africa’s Kruger National Park. In May, 49 vultures died after feasting on a…
GALLE, Sri Lanka — The hog deer is Sri Lanka’s rarest and most elusive deer, and was thought to be extinct a few decades ago. Classified as critically endangered within…
KATHMANDU — Debate is growing in Nepal over moves to start breeding the Bengal florican, a critically endangered bird, in captivity. A 2024 government plan that proposes captive breeding in…
BANYUMAS, Indonesia — As youngsters, Ari and Junianto would clamber over the upland above Sambirata village, gathering sap to glue-trap the birds nesting below Java’s Mount Slamet. “If it gets…
The megafish of the Mekong River are shrinking, a new study has found. In the most comprehensive analysis of species size in Southeast Asia’s Lower Mekong Basin, researchers have tracked…
JAKARTA — Some of the world’s biggest consumer brands are banding together to tackle deforestation in one of Earth’s richest biodiversity hotspots in Indonesia. The companies, including Nestlé, PepsiCo and…
A camera trap in an Indonesian mountain forest has recorded a rare Javan leopard, sparking renewed conservation monitoring efforts in the area. The Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) was captured…
Sumatran rhinos — hairy and noisy — were thought to have gone extinct from southern Sumatra for years. Then came the dogs. Recently, dogs with Working Dogs for Conservation have…
“Most people have a turtle story, whether that's seeing a turtle at an aquarium, having a turtle as a pet as a kid, or they helped one cross the road,…
TELUK AIR TAWAR, Malaysia — The tide is rising. On the Teluk Air Tawar-Kuala Muda coast (TAT-KM) of Penang state in Peninsular Malaysia, fishers are boating out to the sea…
Fish maw — the dried swim bladder of ray-finned fishes — is prized across East and Southeast Asia as a culinary delicacy and symbol of wealth and status. In Chinese…
KATHMANDU — Wildlife trafficking for the illegal pet trade in Nepal has made a significant shift online, according to recent research that attributes the trend to the rapid penetration of…
Extinction is an overwhelming concept, difficult to grasp in its enormity and finality. Thousands of species are barreling toward that grim fate, unless we help. A comprehensive new study provides…
"I was making a joke and in my head I said, 'I smell a threadsnake,'" Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for the NGO Re:wild, recalled. "I just had a feeling,…
When the government of Sri Lanka published the National Red List of threatened plants in 2020, my eyebrows shot up. We’ve all become accustomed, after all, to the grim news…
In 2013, when Sandra Altherr, co-founder of the German NGO Pro Wildlife, began looking into the reptile trade in Europe, she wondered why people paid thousands of euros for little-known…
