The Bornean ferret badger is a small carnivore with the slinky body of a ferret and a face mask like a badger. A new study confirms that it lives only in the mountains of Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo.  Ferret badgers are nocturnal carnivores, widespread across Southeast Asia, but the Bornean ferret badger (Melogale everetti) lives only in a narrow mountain range on the island of Borneo. A group of researchers from the Bornean Carnivore Programme, part of the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), Sabah Forestry Department, and Sabah Parks set out to understand the Bornean ferret-badger’s distribution within Sabah. Between 2021 and 2024, the research team set up 188 camera-trap stations across Sabah’s western highlands and recorded the badgers more than 400 times, discovering a new population in the process. The new population in the Nuluhon-Trusmadi Forest Reserve of Malaysian Borneo, expanded the known range of the species, but photo-traps and habitat modeling showed that Bornean ferret badgers are only found within the greater Sabah’s Kinabalu-Crocker-Trusmadi mountain landscape.  “I grew up in Tambunan and had never seen or even heard of the Bornean ferret badger,” said Mohammad Aliyuddin bin Jaini, field manager of the Bornean Carnivore Programme in a press release. “I decided to place some camera traps around my family’s farm simply to see what wildlife might be there, and I was amazed when a Bornean ferret badger appeared in the photographs. To discover that an Endangered species found only in…This article was originally published on Mongabay

On June 6, nine female white rhinos arrived in Mozambique’s Zinave National Park following a two-day translocation. Their arrival marks the culmination of nearly 10 years of rhino reintroduction efforts in the park, aimed at rebuilding a viable breeding population of the mammals in Zinave after decades of local extinction. The white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) were transferred from the Manketti Game Reserve in South Africa and join another 30 white rhinos and 22 black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) introduced to Zinave since 2022. “[The translocation] went fantastically well,” Antony Alexander, a regional manager for the conservation nonprofit Peace Parks Foundation, which manages Zinave and organized the translocation, told Mongabay by phone. “I’m sure they’re happy to be in the wild again.” Zinave, which covers around 4,090 square kilometers (1,580 square miles) in the southern province of Inhambane, has previously been called a “silent park” after decades of civil war wiped out much of its wildlife. “You could almost sense the very low levels of life with insects and birds and smells and sounds,” said Alexander, describing Zinave before wildlife restoration efforts began. “That’s changed dramatically over the last 10 years.” Among the species reintroduced since 2016 are the critically endangered black rhino and Selous’ zebra (Equus quagga selousi), as well as the endangered African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana), vulnerable leopard (Panthera pardus) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta). The rhinos help maintain Zinave’s ecosystem as they are bulk grazers, eating a high volume of grass. This helps prevent fire risk, as overgrown…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The rumble of ship traffic is drowning out the calls of long-finned pilot whales and potentially other marine species in the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow strip of water between Morocco and Spain that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea. Researchers who investigated this looked at near and long-distance communication between long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas), which are actually a species of large dolphin. They found the mammals were able to increase the volume of their calls used for short distances, but long-distance calling was more challenging, according to their recently published study. The dolphins may not be able to overpower noise pollution in the Strait of Gibraltar when calling pod mates far away, raising concerns that they could become lost and isolated from the group, the researchers said. Roughly 60,000 ships pass through the Strait of Gibraltar each year. “If they cannot communicate with one another, they may need to stay much closer together, or all that communication may become ineffective,” study co-author Renaud de Stephanis, director at the Spain-based organization CIRCE (Conservación, Información y Estudio sobre Cetáceos), told Mongabay by phone. Researchers focused the study on a small resident population of roughly 250 pilot whales in the strait. The team attached suction-cup recorders to the backs of 23 individuals. Later, they categorized more than 1,400 calls into four different categories. They found that pilot whales were able to adjust to the noise pollution for two types of calls, the high-frequency and short-pulsed calls, by simply raising…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon biome fell by 23.5% in 2025 compared with 2024, according to a new report from MapBiomas, a Brazil-based land-use mapping project. Reductions in deforestation were recorded across the board in all of Brazil’s biomes, culminating in a 21% nationwide decrease in forest loss. In total, nearly 985,000 hectares (2.4 million acres) of forested land was cut down in 2025, the report found. Of this, 289,478 hectares (715,315 acres) was deforested in the Amazon. The decline in deforestation likely reflects a combination of stronger environmental enforcement, improved satellite monitoring and growing market demands for sustainable production, Nathalia Crusco, a researcher with MapBiomas, wrote to Mongabay. Only 5% of deforested land overlapped with enforcement actions or clearing authorizations in 2019, compared with 65% over the 2019-2025 period, she added, based on MapBiomas data. Deforestation also fell by nearly 17% in the Cerrado savanna, where agriculture expansion is most aggressive. More than half of the Cerrado’s native vegetation has already been cleared. And while the rate of deforestation in the Cerrado declined, the majority of forest clearing in Brazil, 55%, took place in the Cerrado savanna, the report said. Much of the reduction in deforestation was within Indigenous territories. Clear-cut deforestation on Indigenous lands in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 25% in 2025, according to a technical memo shared with Mongabay by Brazil’s Indigenous agency, Funai. Funai’s Remote Monitoring Center compiled the recent report. A total of 30,128 hectares (74,450 acres) of clear-cutting on Indigenous land was recorded last…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A field experiment in Kenya shows that dung beetles disappear when the African elephants they depend on for their fecal food and shelter also vanish locally. This is the first time that coextinction, the disappearance of one species leading directly to the extinction of another species, has been demonstrated in a large-scale field experiment, according to a recent study. In 2008, the researchers built a set of 10,000-square-meter (2.4 acres) exclosures in Mpala, Kenya. The exclosures were a fenced area of natural savanna habitat that kept out certain animals. Some exclosures kept out elephants, simulating what would happen if elephants went extinct from the landscape. The research focused on the connection between elephants and dung beetles, which bury and consume the feces of larger animals. Dung beetles provide an essential ecosystem service of ensuring feces doesn’t pile up to contaminate the land and water, which reduces the density of biting flies. The beetles also help with nutrient cycling, which keeps the soil and ecosystems thriving.  The researchers set out to see if removing elephant dung would affect the dung beetle community, and if it could lead to coextinction of some dung beetle species. The scientists, led by researcher Finote Gijsman, measured the dung preferences of 179 Kenyan dung beetle species and found that dung beetles love elephant dung. The team used modeling to predict that when elephants became locally extinct within the enclosures, 28% of dung beetle species would go extinct along with them. Their prediction was very close: 23%…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Kenya became the first African nation to receive landmark climate disaster funding. It will be used to identify Kenyans who have suffered climate-related losses and damages during the last decade. The Sh90 million ($700,000) in funding comes from the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, a Switzerland-based United Nations mechanism funded by voluntary contributions from developed countries and the international community. The Kenyan funding will be administered by the national government and used to identify Kenyan communities that have suffered losses as a result of climate-induced droughts, floods, crop failures and other extreme weather events. Festus Ng’eno, principle secretary for Kenya’s Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, announced the achievement at a recent U.N. climate meeting in Bonn, Germany. He said the assistance is a milestone as Kenya is only the second country globally to benefit from the fund. Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago, was the first. In a Facebook post, the State Department for Environment and Climate Change in Kenya said, “Despite enduring some of East Africa’s most devastating climate shocks, Kenya has never fully measured the true scale of what has been lost. That is set to change.” “It is long overdue for countries on the frontline of the climate crisis to receive support to build resilience,” Fred Njehu, a Pan-African political strategist with Greenpeace, told the Daily Nation. “Kenya’s allocation points to shifting climate actions, from frameworks, roadmaps, and dialogues to actual implementation.” The funding comes as African countries continue to pursue climate justice and reparations from countries that…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The Molopo Regional Court in Mahikeng, South Africa, sentenced two wildlife traffickers, Edward Motlatsi Phiri, 46, and Tlhoriso France Ralph, 51, to eight years in prison. They were convicted of smuggling a Temminck’s pangolin, a vulnerable species native to Southern and Eastern Africa, according to a statement released by the North West province’s environment agency. The judgment, delivered on May 26, 2026, followed the arrest of four suspects on June 2, 2023, when law enforcement authorities, acting on a tip, intercepted a vehicle in which they were traveling and seized a live female pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) intended for sale. During the court hearing three years later, charges against two accused traffickers were withdrawn while Phiri and Ralph were found guilty. “This sentence sends a strong message that wildlife crime is a serious offense with devastating environmental consequences,” said Bitsa Lenkopane, with the Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism in the North West province, in a statement. “Every operation, every investigation, and every successful prosecution strengthen our collective fight against illegal wildlife trafficking.” Pangolins are trafficked for their scales, worth thousands of dollars on the black market. They are falsely believed to have medicinal qualities in East Asia. The demand has driven steep declines in pangolin numbers worldwide: Six of the eight species are classified as endangered or critically endangered today. Pangolins are also consumed as bushmeat in parts of Africa. These mammals are protected under South African law, which prohibits their possession, sale, display or transportation. Their international commercial trade…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Colombia passed a landmark law June 4 aimed at improving traceability of its cattle supply chain to ensure beef isn’t sourced from deforested land. The law hopes to enhance existing traceability systems and make it easier to identify when cattle have grazed in protected areas and forests that were illegally cleared for pasture. “This is the most powerful tool for determining whether the meat people consume comes from deforested areas,” said representative Juan Carlos Losada, one of the law’s sponsors, in a post on X. About 54% of Colombia’s total land area is covered by forest, that’s roughly 60 million hectares (148 million acres). Deforestation has ebbed and flowed in recent years, declining in 2023, spiking in 2024 and then declining again in 2025. Cattle are always one of the main drivers. The country has over 29.7 million heads of cattle, according to last year’s estimates from the Colombian Federation of Cattle Ranchers. To better regulate the industry, lawmakers tried to pass traceability legislation in 2021 and 2022 but failed to move it through Congress. Another version took too long to reach a final debate in the senate, and expired in 2024. The effort began around the same time that the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was passed. Once implemented, the law will require that companies trading with the EU demonstrate their cattle and other commodities weren’t sourced from deforested land. The law allows officials to establish “high surveillance zones” in deforestation hotspots. It includes the ability to implement special…This article was originally published on Mongabay

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s former Chief Justice David Maraga said he was arrested Monday alongside other activists protesting planned construction inside Nairobi National Park. Police fired tear gas canisters at the protesters who were marching outside the park while carrying banners with messages denouncing land grabs. Maraga was detained and later released while staging a sit-in on a major road outside the national park’s main gate. He was wearing a green T-shirt similar to those worn by other activists. The police have yet to comment on the reason for his arrest. Maraga wrote on X that he was arrested while heading to present a petition to the Kenya Wildlife Service. “Our national heritage and environment must be safeguarded from greed and unnecessary destruction without public participation,” he said. Hundreds of activists joined the protest against the planned construction inside the park and the relocation of an orphanage, calling it an attempt to grab public land. Kenya has experienced incidents of land grabbing in the past, and environmentalists have often spoken out when parks and other green spaces are encroached upon. Amnesty International in Kenya expressed solidarity with the protesters and called for members of the public to be included in decisions affecting the country’s environmental heritage. “We want to categorically state that Nairobi National Park is not for sale; our public spaces, our environment, and our rights cannot be traded away behind closed doors,” the rights group said. The Kenya Wildlife Service on Sunday defended the construction as part of a plan to…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Researchers in Nepal have confirmed a rare Chinese pangolin living in a small community forest considered sacred by locals, according to a recent study. It may also be the first video evidence of the pangolin in Nepal’s Sunsari district, researchers said.  The Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List and protected under Nepalese laws, is threatened by both habitat loss and poaching. This makes every verified population, especially those outside protected areas, important for conservation, study lead author Tujin Rai with Tribhuvan University in Nepal told Mongabay by email. Chinese pangolins are found across Nepal. However, verified records of the species in eastern Nepal remain poor, the authors wrote. Previous research has found indirect signs such as pangolin burrows and footprints in Panchakanya community forest in Sunsari district. The community forest, spanning just 0.56 square kilometers (0.22 square miles), is located “within a mosaic of villages, agricultural lands, transportation infrastructure, and the Sewti River,” Rai said. To verify the presence of the pangolin in the forest, Rai and his colleagues installed camera traps on trails and around recently dug burrows in January 2025. On Jan. 21, 2025, the cameras recorded a male Chinese pangolin. Rai told Mongabay that during field surveys they also recorded nearly 30 pangolin burrows and other signs, especially in areas with abundant ant and termite colonies, which pangolins like to eat. These observations suggest the forest possibly supports more than a single individual; however, right now the team can only…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo granted 31 community forest land titles to farmers in May, bringing a total of more than a million hectares of forest in Tshopo under the legal stewardship of local Indigenous peoples. Bantu and Indigenous Mbuti communities have lived in the province for generations, but without official title or control of their own lands and under the ever-present threat of extractive and development projects without their consent. Community Forestry Lands (CFLCs) include community environmental management plans. They also offer legal tenure that’s meant to ensure any development on those forest lands requires the free and informed consent of the communities holding the tenure rights. According to the deforestation-tracking platform Global Forest Watch, Tshopo province lost roughly 46% of its total tree cover between 2002 and 2025, largely driven by timber harvesting, charcoal production and mining. These activities degrade the ecosystem and destabilize the livelihoods and food systems of indigenous peoples. “[E]xtreme poverty is gaining ground among indigenous peoples and local communities, for whom the forest is more of a habitat than a source of vital goods and services,” Alphonse Maindo, director of the environmental NGO Tropenbos DRC that helped the communities obtain CFLCs, told Mongabay’s Didier Makal. The recently granted community forest concessions in Tshopo, when added to other such community management areas, means nearly 6.3 million hectares (15.5 million acres) of secured land in the DRC. That’s an area roughly the size of Togo. Some local residents are planning to start beekeeping and cocoa…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Starting in 2018, gray whales began regularly stopping in California’s San Francisco Bay, where they are vulnerable to ship strikes in one of the busiest ports in the United States. In response, researchers have deployed a monitoring network of thermal cameras and AI software to alert ships when whales are present in the bay to help them avoid whale collisions.  Gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) have one of the longest migrations of any mammal species, roughly 19,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) from their feeding grounds in Alaska to their breeding grounds in Mexico, and back again. Climate change is making their feeding grounds in Alaska less productive, leaving the whales hungry as they head south to breed. Scientists believe that’s why gray whales have started stopping in San Francisco Bay to eat along their migration route. But the new pit stop brings whales into busy shipping zones, where more than 20 were killed by ship collisions in 2025, according to a news release. Whale biologists at the Benioff Ocean Science Lab, WhaleSpotter, and the Marine Mammal Center have developed thermal cameras that can detect the heat signature of whale spouts and bodies when the whales surface.  “Next a trained human confirms the detection and will help classify the species when possible,” Rachel Rhodes, a project scientist with the Benioff Ocean Science Lab told Mongabay in an email. Then the information is, “posted publicly on [the] Whale Safe website, which is accessed by mariners in the Bay Area including Vessel Traffic Service and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A massive slab of wartime concrete blocked the Pčinja River in Kumanovo, North Macedonia for more than 70 years. A 53-meter-long and 30-meter-wide (174 by 98 feet) structure of reinforced concrete packed with salvaged railway steel impeded the free flow of water and fish for at least 70 kilometers (44 miles) upstream. It was considered a safety hazard by the local Shuplji Kamen community. In late 2025, the barrier was demolished after efforts by the nation’s Eko-svest environmental organization. It was the first large-scale removal of its type in North Macedonia. It was also one of 603 obsolete river barriers, including dams, weirs and culverts, removed from European rivers in 2025, according to the 2025 Dam Removal Europe report. Researchers estimated removing those objects reconnected more than 3,740 km (2,324 miles) of rivers across the continent, a new single year record for dam removal in Europe. “Barrier removal [is] one of the biggest ecological ‘easy wins’ available today,” Chris Baker, director of Wetlands International Europe (WIE) wrote in a statement. “These obsolete barriers no longer provide any benefits, yet they continue to degrade rivers.” According to WIE, there are roughly 1.2 million barriers in place today that fragment Europe’s rivers, of them more than 150,000 are “considered obsolete.” Since 2020, nearly 2,300 dams have been removed across Europe, mostly in Sweden, Finland and Spain. Iceland, along with North Macedonia, carried out its first removal in 2025. Iceland removed an old hydroelectric dam that was no longer in use. The barrier…This article was originally published on Mongabay