Study investigates how to prevent viral spread from bat guano in Southeast Asia (July 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/study-investigates-how-to-prevent-viral-spread-from-bat-guano-in-southeast-asia/
- Scientists say they have found the first evidence of bat-linked viruses in commercial fertilizer made from bat guano in Thailand.
- Bat guano harvested from roosting cave sites is widely used, both commercially and informally, as agricultural fertilizer across many parts of Southeast Asia.
- While the viral strains detected in the study are not known to infect humans, the research urges the fertilizer industry to introduce stronger safety precautions throughout the supply chain to minimize the risk of zoonotic disease transfer.
- Experts also note the need to adhere to a “One Health” approach that minimizes disturbance of bat roosts and habitats to maintain safe ecological boundaries between potential zoonotic disease reservoirs and people.
India’s tiger numbers are rising. Protecting their pathways is next (July 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/indias-tiger-numbers-are-rising-protecting-their-pathways-is-next/
- India has made progress in conserving its Bengal tigers, but now it must accommodate growing numbers as they disperse from protected habitats into human-dominated areas — even as poaching is on the rise and destruction of forested land continues.
- Protected forest corridors are crucial to restoring lost or tenuous connectivity between key habitats, enabling genetic exchange between tiger populations that otherwise risk isolation and inbreeding.
- India has built more mitigation structures than any other country in Asia, including the world’s 10 largest wildlife underpasses and overpasses.
- But even as the country is reconnecting habitat, it’s also rapidly expanding road infrastructure, and even protected forests remain under threat.
End of Brazil’s Soy Moratorium risks millions of hectares of Amazon rainforest: Study (July 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/end-of-brazils-soy-moratorium-risks-millions-of-hectares-of-amazon-rainforest-study/
Millions of hectares of Amazon rainforest are newly at risk of being legally deforested, a new study estimates. The potential increase in deforestation comes as soy companies have terminated their voluntary participation in the Amazon Soy Moratorium, a private-sector agreement that barred signatories from buying soy grown on land deforested after 2008. Researchers found 9.1 […]
‘The shape of the land will change:’ South African villages resist heavy sands mine (July 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-shape-of-the-land-will-change-south-african-villages-resist-heavy-sands-mine/
- Communities in South Africa’s Eastern Cape are opposing a proposed heavy mineral sands mine that a South African company wants permission to operate day and night for 30 years on their communal land.
- They say the land targeted for mining is far from unused, supporting more than a 1,000 cattle, traditional medicine gathering, tourism and facilitates access to the coast and fishing.
- The villagers say that if the mine goes ahead, it will damage livelihoods, ancestral graves, biodiversity and water resources.
- The planned mine could also impact their long-running campaign to acquire commercial seaweed harvesting permits and an existing small-scale sand mining business run by a village committee.
Mining, drilling, and fire are fragmenting the world’s largest forests (July 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/mining-drilling-and-fire-are-fragmenting-the-worlds-largest-forests/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The world’s largest remaining stretches of undisturbed forest are shrinking. Fires now cause more of the loss than logging, while mining and oil and gas development have moved close to the top of the list. That’s the conclusion […]
Africa’s smallest wildcat found using abandoned rodent burrows to raise kittens (July 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/africas-smallest-wildcat-found-using-abandoned-rodent-burrows-to-raise-kittens/
Africa’s smallest wildcat uses abandoned springhare burrows to raise its kittens, according to new research. There are fewer than 10,000 black-footed cats (Felis nigripes) left in the wild and studies on these nocturnal animals are rare. To learn more about them, a team of researchers tracked five female black-footed cats (Felis nigripes) with radio collars […]
Pat Lowe spent decades describing and defending the Kimberley (July 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/pat-lowe-spent-decades-describing-and-defending-the-kimberley/
- Pat Lowe, who died on July 2nd, 2026, aged 84, was a psychologist, writer, naturalist, editor, and longtime defender of the Kimberley in Western Australia.
- Her understanding of the region was shaped by years living with Walmajarri artist Jimmy Pike at Kurlku in the Great Sandy Desert and by listening to Indigenous knowledge-holders.
- She helped found Environs Kimberley, later chaired it, served on its board for decades, and edited its newsletter for 29 years.
- Lowe also supported Broome’s literary community, wrote extensively about the Kimberley, and argued that communities should be able to reject projects that would permanently damage Country, the Indigenous Australian term for ancestral lands, waters, relationships, knowledge, and responsibilities.
More than 100 queen ants destined for Laos seized in Mexico (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/more-than-100-queen-ants-destined-for-laos-seized-in-mexico/
Authorities in Mexico’s Jalisco state seized a parcel containing 105 queen harvester ants concealed in toys on July 9. The shipment, sent from El Salto in Jalisco and destined for Laos, was falsely labeled “collectible figures,” authorities said in a press release. The parcel delivery company reported a suspicious package to Mexico’s Federal Attorney for […]
How carbon markets can succeed & also serve Global South communities (commentary) (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/
- The world’s forests provide essential ecosystem services, capture and store huge amounts of carbon dioxide, face enormous pressure, and need sustained economic incentives if they are to survive.
- So why has the voluntary carbon market consistently fallen short of its promise to support forest conservation and communities, a new op-ed asks.
- “The ecosystem services forests provide are worth something, and the people who live in and protect those forests must be the primary beneficiaries of that value. Anything short of that is not conservation but a new form of exploitation,” the author argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Heat stress is rising globally, raising health concerns for billions: Study (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/heat-stress-is-rising-globally-raising-health-concerns-for-billions-study/
Climate change is causing frequent, well-studied, extreme heat events. Less well understood is the additional heat stress experienced by billions of people as a result of those extreme heat events. However, a new study published in Nature Climate Change aims to change that. The study analyzed more than 70 years of climate data stored in […]
Listening to birdsong in a forest lowered a person’s stress during experiment (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/listening-to-birdsong-in-a-forest-lowered-a-persons-stress-during-experiment/
- A new experiment found that sitting in a restored urban forest while listening to birdsong lowered people’s stress and improved their mood more than any other setting tested.
- Researchers had 106 students at North Carolina State University in the U.S. sit in either a restored forest or a paved plaza while hearing birdsong or traffic noise, isolating the effects of place and sound.
- Both the natural setting and the birdsong helped independently, and the benefits were largest when combined.
- The forest was a human-made restoration completed in 2006, suggesting cities could build mental-health benefits into parks rather than relying on remote wilderness.
Scaling up offshore wind requires overcoming global and local challenges (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/scaling-up-offshore-wind-requires-overcoming-global-and-local-challenges/
- Offshore wind has great potential as a renewable source of energy, experts say, but remains underutilized; its pace of development is slower than needed to meet set climate goals.
- As a sector, offshore wind is buffeted by global economic factors, such as inflation and supply chain constraints. That’s led to failed auctions and canceled projects in recent years.
- Other challenges at the national level, such as ensuring timely grid connections and ship and port capacity, have also emerged.
- These must be overcome if offshore wind is to scale, according to experts.
Colorful birds are at greater risk of extinction than drab birds, study finds (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/colorful-birds-are-at-greater-risk-of-extinction-than-drab-birds-study-finds/
Habitat loss, climate change, hunting and the pet trade are well-known drivers of bird declines. A new study suggests the colors of the birds themselves may also influence their extinction risk: Birds with colorful plumage seem to be more threatened than those with dull colors. Researchers Montague Neate-Clegg and Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela were on a bird […]
French wildfire created a monster cloud, unleashing lightning that ignited more fires (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/french-wildfire-created-a-monster-cloud-unleashing-lightning-that-ignited-more-fires/
PARIS (AP) — A wildfire in southwest France grew so powerful that its towering smoke column became a thunderstorm, generating lightning that struck the ground and ignited new fires beyond the original blaze, French officials said. The so-called pyrocumulonimbus — which France’s national firefighters federation said had never before been seen in the country — […]
Father Robert Athickal asked children to protect the living world (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/father-robert-athickal-asked-children-to-protect-the-living-world/
- Father Robert Athickal helped a small group of schoolchildren in Patna turn local tree-planting efforts into one of India’s largest student environmental movements.
- Tarumitra trained generations of young people to restore degraded land, protect native species, practice organic farming, and organize around environmental problems.
- Athickal combined Jesuit teaching with Indian philosophy, arguing that humans had moral obligations toward animals, plants, rivers, soils, and other forms of life.
- By trusting students with real responsibility, he showed how modest, local action could grow into a movement involving hundreds of thousands of young people.
Extreme weather dampens breeding success for marine predators in Tasmania: study (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/extreme-weather-dampens-breeding-success-for-marine-predators-in-tasmania-study/
- A recent study found that extreme weather events like storms, heat waves and floods can interfere with the breeding success of marine predators like seals, shearwaters and albatross that raise their young along the coasts of the Australian state of Tasmania.
- While some colonies appeared unaffected by extreme weather, others saw offspring swept away by powerful waves and storm surges, hypothermia during unusually wet episodes, and deadly overheating during periods of high temperatures.
- The researchers noted that these extremes are among many challenges seals, seabirds and other marine predators face, including pollution, disease and declining food supplies, which can also be influenced by extreme weather events.
Cheetahs reintroduced to Zambia’s Greater Luangwa Ecosystem (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/cheetahs-reintroduced-to-zambias-greater-luangwa-ecosystem/
Cheetahs are back in Zambia’s Greater Luangwa Ecosystem, nearly 30 years after the big cats’ last recorded presence in the massive landscape. Six cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), three males and three females, were earlier in July moved by Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) and several conservation groups, including the South Africa-based Endangered Wildlife […]
Bangladesh shipbreakers push back against stricter environmental standards (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/bangladesh-shipbreakers-push-back-against-stricter-environmental-standards/
- Bangladesh’s shipbreaking industry faces a pivotal treaty dispute. The country’s interim government last year decided that both Basel Convention and the Hong Kong Convention (HKC) will apply simultaneously to the local shipbreaking operations.
- However, shipbreakers say that applying Basel rules would make ship imports more expensive and legally complex, potentially forcing many shipbreaking yards to close due to their inability to meet Basel standards.
- Basel strictly controls transboundary movement of toxic waste, and requires dismantling ships on impermeable surfaces that contain hazardous waste, effectively ruling out the conventional method used in Bangladesh, of grounding a ship onto a beach.
- The Hong Kong Convention permits the beaching method, but environmental activists say it doesn’t provide sufficient environmental protection and reflects shipping industry interests.
Finning the High Seas (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/07/finning-the-high-seas/
This investigative series uncovered a massive illegal shark-finning scheme and widespread labor abuses across the fleet of Dalian Ocean Fishing (DOF), a major Chinese tuna company with dozens of boats operating in international waters. Reporters tracked down and interviewed some two dozen Indonesian deckhands who worked aboard the company’s vessels, documenting their experiences with excessive […]
Major orangutan study finds Sumatran population fell nearly 20% despite slower forest loss (July 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/major-orangutan-study-finds-sumatran-population-fell-nearly-20-despite-slower-forest-loss/
- A new study estimates the Sumatran orangutan population declined by nearly 20% between 2011 and 2023.
- The researchers found that habitat loss alone cannot explain the declines, pointing to additional threats such as killing, conflict and habitat fragmentation.
- The study is the first comprehensive reassessment of Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutans since a landmark 2016 survey.
- The Forestry Ministry co-authored the study and says it will use the findings to guide conservation policy, marking a contrast with the previous administration’s public claims that orangutan populations were increasing.