Eats, shoots and leaves, an essay on giant pandas

Giant panda in Chengdu in South Western China. Photo by: Shubhobroto Ghosh. By: Shubhobroto Ghosh Please note : The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not representative of the viewpoints of any organization. “We have to remember that what we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning” – Werner Heisenberg, Nobel Prize winner in Physics (1932) in Physics...

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Activism: funds needed to replant forest for nearly-extinct loris

Note: as a news organization mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. Horton Plains slender loris. Photo courtesy of EDGE. Researchers estimate that only 80 Horton Plains slender loris (Loris tardigradus nycticeboides) survive in the world. After believed to be extinct ZSL EDGE rediscovered the subspecies in a dwindling Sri Lanka...

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Banana plantation threatens rainforest valley (video)
Jun21

Banana plantation threatens rainforest valley (video)

Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains were recently spared a titanium mine, however now the region faces a new peril: bananas. The Australian firm Indochina Gateway Capital Limited has proposed a banana plantation in the Southern Cardamom Mountains. The plantation would likely destroy an elephant corridor for one of Cambodia’s last wild elephant populations. In addition, pesticides used in the plantation could pollute local...

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Rising hope for Asia’s vultures?

Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction from The RSPB on Vimeo. Vultures may not get a lot of love, or respect for that matter, from the public, but they play a vital role in cleaning up and recycling nature’s waste, which also helps prevent diseases from spreading. Vultures were once abundant throughout Asia, but that was until veterinary drug diclofenac became common. Used on cattle and livestock, researchers discovered...

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Economic worth of living sharks (video)
May15

Economic worth of living sharks (video)

It turns out that sharks are worth more alive than dead. According to a new study, a single shark is worth $1.9 million over its lifetime as a tourist attraction in the island nation of Palau. Sold for consumption the shark is worth around $108. In this case a shark is worth a stunning 17,000 times more alive than dead. Sharks worldwide are being decimated, largely for the Asian delicacy shark fin soup. Some populations have fallen by...

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Photos: ugly is the new adorable when it comes to saiga babies
May03

Photos: ugly is the new adorable when it comes to saiga babies

A pair of saiga calves. Photo by: Igor Shpilenok. Few species have seen a worse decline in the past 15 years than the Asian antelope, the saiga. Once known for making up one of the world’s largest migrations, the saiga population has dropped from 1.25 million in the 1990s to 50,000 animals today, plunging over 90% and landing itself on the Critically Endangered species list. The Saiga Conservation Alliance (SCA), which is...

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Photos: up close and personal with Sumatran elephants
May01

Photos: up close and personal with Sumatran elephants

Baby Sumatran elephant on the run. Photos of Sumatran elephants at Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park on the island of Sumatra. These Sumatran elephants are patrol elephants; they’ve been recently domesticated and are used to reduce human-wildlife conflict. All photos by Rhett A. Butler. Meeting of the minds. Sumatran elephant with mahout. Trunk tricks. Traveling. Big male. Fountain. Modern world. To see more photos of Sumatran...

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Photo: zoo elephants enjoy spring
Apr26

Photo: zoo elephants enjoy spring

Three Asian elephants from the Zoological Society of London’s Whipsnade Zoo take a spring stroll under blossoming Japanese miniature cherry trees. Photo by: Hannah Thompson. Mongabay.com recently conducted an interview on how wild Asian elephants, and their African counterparts, are vital to ‘gardening’ the continent’s tropical forests. To read more: Elephants: the gardeners of Asia’s and Africa’s...

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Photos: the end of the radiated tortoise?
Apr18

Photos: the end of the radiated tortoise?

Like the American bison or the passenger pigeon the radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) has gone from super-abundant to nearly extinct. The species could be gone by 2030 warn researchers. Photo by Robert Walker. Once one of the world’s most abundant tortoises, numbering in the millions, Madagascar’s radiated tortoise is on the very brink of extinction. Killed for their meat by one of the world’s most impoverished...

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Pictures: Saving threatened frogs

Hand-feeding a sick Hyloscirtus colymba tree frog. The Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project is racing to save amphibians as the deadly chytrid fungus spreads down Central America. The disease is presently between Panama City and Colon. Juvenile Atelopus certus. Pristimantis species. Undescribed Pristimantis species. Juvenile Atelopus certus. Atelopus limosus. More photos to come. All photos by Rhett A....

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Photos: tortoise dwarfed by grape, seriously

No, this is not photoshopped: this month-old Egyptian tortoise (Testudo kleinmanni) is actually dwarfed by a grape. A new resident of the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire, the tortoise is the offspring of a group of tortoises seized by customs last year as a sting on the illegal pet trade. The tiny tortoise pictured weighs 0.2 ounces (6 grams), but within a decade will weigh nearly hundred times...

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Activism: petition targets Chinese officials regarding African poaching “due to the demand of ivory and rhino horns by Chinese citizens”
Apr10

Activism: petition targets Chinese officials regarding African poaching “due to the demand of ivory and rhino horns by Chinese citizens”

Note: mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. African elephant (Acinonyx jubatus) infant in Kenya. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The organization SOS Elephants of Chad has released a petition urging the Chinese government to tackle the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade as a new article in the Global Post reports: “The growing...

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Camera trap catches snow leopards in Mongolia
Mar30

Camera trap catches snow leopards in Mongolia

Video is from an ongoing study by Panthera and the Snow Leopard Trust. It is the first comprehensive long-term study on snow leopards. This video was taken in August 2010 at the Tost Mountain study area in South Gobi, Mongolia where Panthera and the Snow Leopard Trust are collaborating. This film clip is actually 61 images taken about a half second apart by one of our remote automated cameras. We believe it is a mother and her nearly...

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“I hope that I never have to see it again”: oil spill hits penguins on Nightingale Island (video)
Mar29

“I hope that I never have to see it again”: oil spill hits penguins on Nightingale Island (video)

Video documents the oil spill on Nightingale Island in the remote Southern Atlantic ocean, which has taken a particular toll on Endangered northern rockhopper penguins Over a week ago conservation workers have hundreds of oiled northern rockhopper penguins (Eudyptes moseleyi) after a cargo vessel wrecked on Nightingale Island, a part of the remote UK’s Tristan da Cunha archipelago. According to a press release by BirdLife...

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Photo: oil spill hits endangered penguins
Mar22

Photo: oil spill hits endangered penguins

Northern rockhopper penguins covered in oil. Photo by: Tristan Conservation Team of Simon Glass, Wayne Swain and Matthew Green. Courtesy of: The Tristan da Cunha Website. Northern rockhopper penguins (Eudyptes moseleyi) hit hard by an oil spill from a wrecked cargo ship on Nightingale Island in the Southern Atlantic. Already listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List, the oil spill threatens nearly half of the northern rockhopper...

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Video: bizarre purple frog sounds like a squeaky toy

Native to India, the purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) is listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List. The species is also a focal amphibian for the innovative ZSL EDGE program, which selects the species it works with based on their evolutionary uniqueness and threat level. According to the EDGE website: “The purple frog is the sole representative of an ancient lineage of frogs that has been evolving independently for...

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Photos: the gentle lemur

The world’s bamboo lemurs are also known by the more evocative name, the gentle lemurs. Currently these lemurs are separated into five species, all of which are threatened with extinction. These photos are of the Eastern Lesser Bamboo Lemur which is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. More photos of bamboo...

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Activism: oil in Virunga National Park

Note: mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. Male gorilla in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently considering allowing oil companies SOCO and Dominion into Virunga National Park for drilling. Home to a quarter of the world’s mountain gorillas, as well as...

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Video: Australia’s banteng question

Conservation problem or opportunity? Australia tries to decide what to do with its population of invasive wild cattle, known as banteng. The problem is that this invasive species has almost gone extinct in its native Southeast Asia. Does Australia protect a globally endangered species even if it’s not their own? Credit:...

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