Since 2016, Rich Collins has been plunging into the pitch-black waters off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida, at night, camera in hand, in pursuit of blackwater photography. These nighttime…
California has a way of exaggerating things—mountains, deserts, and egos. But its insects? They take excess to another level. Somewhere between the redwoods and the Salton Sea live perhaps 60,000,…
In April 2025, the town of Gloster, Mississippi, population 858, won a significant battle against the giant global wood pellet maker Drax, when the permitting board of the Mississippi Department…
He never raised his voice in anger. When talks grew tense—whether across a union bargaining table or a forest-policy summit—Chris Allnutt would grow quieter. The softer he spoke, colleagues recalled,…
When songbirds migrate through the Americas, they often cut through sections of the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to save energy. A new study looks at their flying patterns…
HOMER, Alaska — Roarke Brown, a charter boat captain since 1972 in this picturesque fishing village, remembers being able to tread out onto the Kachemak Bay mud flats at low…
This is the second part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first part here. In May 2025, five counties in northern California — mostly…
How are whale populations faring? Traditionally, getting an answer to that question involved counting whales by taking their photos and identifying them from their natural markings. However, a caveat persisted.…
Hotter and drier conditions could whittle away 80% of land where whitebark pine grows by the middle of this century, according to a recent study. Scattered across the highest parts…
Earlier this year, 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs hopped into their new home in Bluff Lake in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. It’s the latest step in a long-running battle…
SAN DIEGO, U.S. — The bluff at La Jolla Cove in San Diego is covered with pelicans and cormorants; below, some two dozen sea lions lounge on a rocky ledge…
When wildfire smoke from Canada turned New York City's sky an eerie orange in June 2023, millions of Americans who'd never experienced such pollution got a glimpse of what has…
This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and Mongabay. MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Jasmín Ordóñez looks out at the water as the wooden boat she is in crosses…
Each year since 2021, Pia Reveco and her husband have set sail from Puerto Montt to spend the Chilean summers navigating Patagonia aboard their sailboat. Last year, they traveled along…
The writer John McPhee once described Alaska's Salmon River as having "the clearest, purest water" he'd ever seen. Today, that same river runs orange with toxic metals unleashed by thawing…
Initiated in 2024, the Planetary Health Check is a comprehensive, science-based global initiative dedicated to measuring and maintaining Earth systems critical to life as we know it. These annual reports…
This is the second installment of Mongabay’s coverage of beaver restoration in California. Read the first story. TÁSMAM KOYÓM, U.S. — “It’s a little wet!” Ben Cunningham shouted over his…
The small, bell-shaped flowers that dangle like gems in dazzling hues of yellow, maroon, purple, brown and white give jewelflowers their name. Yet these plants, from the genera Streptanthus and…
Climate warming could cause much greater soil carbon losses in the tropics than previously predicted, with potentially dire consequences for the global climate, according to a new study published in…
This is the first installment of Mongabay's coverage of beaver restoration in California. Read the second story. CHESTER, Calif. — The pictograph, an ochre-red outline with four paws and an…
FORT BRAGG, U.S. — In 2024, I was scuba diving in Northern California’s Casper Cove where the Watermen’s Alliance, a group of ex-abalone sports divers, has been culling purple urchins…
JAKARTA — Global calls are mounting for RV companies in the U.S. to change their policies following new revelations that some of America’s best-selling RVs are built with plywood from…
Villa Blanca Reef off Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula is home to emblematic and endangered species, and is the site of a coral restoration project with 35 platforms growing different species of…
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Balam Kú Biosphere Reserve has been invaded over the past year by people trying to establish a permanent settlement, and officials are racing to remove them…
The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a leading global biomass certification scheme offering assurances to end users (especially nations in the EU and Asia) that biomass (especially wood pellets for…
CONHUAS, Mexico — Esteban Dominguez has lived for more than 20 years close to one of the biggest conservation areas in southeastern Mexico — Calakmul Biosphere Reserve on the Yucatán…
HOPKINS, Belize — Heaters, pumps and computerized meters rigged to an everyday picnic icebox may seem like a high school science project. But this heat stress tank may hold the…
At the end of 2025, representatives from 185 countries will convene in Uzbekistan to discuss the fate of sharks, African hornbills, hyenas, vultures, palm trees and other threatened species. The…
There's hope for an iconic ocean predator that has mostly disappeared from California’s coastlines: the sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides). The population began to plummet in 2013, following an outbreak…
This is the second installment of Mongabay's coverage of active management tools for forest fires. Read Part 1. Photographs of forests in the western U.S. from the mid-1800s show a…
This is the first installment of Mongabay's coverage of active management tools for forest fires. Read Part 2. On Sept. 8, 2020, a brush field in southern Oregon, in the…
With its enchanting eyes, powerful jaws, acute senses and haunting howls, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) — the largest member of the dog family — is a wilderness icon. Once…
