Global experts gather in Sri Lanka for historic first World Congress on Snakes (September 30, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/global-experts-gather-in-sri-lanka-for-historic-first-world-congress-on-snakes/
- Sri Lanka will host the first ever dedicated global conference on snakes from Oct. 1-4 in Kandy, central Sri Lanka.
- There will be several scientific sessions including plenaries, symposia, workshops and special events attended by more than 500 researchers and conservationists from 25 countries.
- Sri Lanka is home to some 112 snake species and is a biodiversity hotspot, with more than 56% of the country’s snake species found nowhere else on Earth.
Illegal wildlife continues to slip through Canada’s borders. Experts explain how (September 30, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/illegal-wildlife-continues-to-slip-through-canadas-borders-experts-explain-how/
- The global wildlife trade is a multibillion-dollar industry that mixes legal business and illegal transactions. It’s a major driver of biodiversity loss, and even legal trade is often unsustainable.
- Canada is a significant player but struggles to enforce a key law that bans the import of wildlife taken illegally in other countries.
- This gap allows various protected species to be brought into Canada illegally, sold and sometimes bred.
In Brazil’s Acre, calls for new roads clash with deforestation commitments (September 30, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-brazils-acre-calls-for-new-roads-clash-with-deforestation-commitments/
- The 2024 inauguration of the Chinese-built Chancay Port in Peru has reinforced calls to build road infrastructure through the Amazon, connecting Brazil to the Pacific coast, with authorities in Acre, on Brazil’s border with Peru, wanting their state to be part of a strategic corridor to the Pacific.
- Acre already has a road connection to Peru through the BR-317 highway, but local politicians running for election this year defend the extension of the BR-364 from Cruzeiro do Sul in Acre to Pucallpa in Peru’s Ucayali department, saying it will ease connectivity for local communities and encourage economic development.
- A new report from NGO Amazon Conservation argues that this will increase areas at risk of forest loss and could drive additional deforestation of up to 68,500 hectares (169,270 acres) per year, while threatening Acre’s multimillion-dollar revenue from the sale of carbon credits, according to the report.
- Uncertainty around whether the extension of the BR-364 will go ahead is already driving land speculation between the town of Mâncio Lima and the Serra do Divisor National Park and encouraging criminal groups that are already established along the border, local environmentalists say.
Big Oil vs. national parks: Who wins? (September 30, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/big-oil-vs-national-parks-who-wins/
12 critically endangered Nubian Giraffes were recently relocated from their home at Murchison Falls National Park to a reserve over 100km away. One of the reasons? Murchison Falls is now being opened up for oil extraction, as almost half of Uganda’s oil reserves are thought to lie there. National parks are home to some of […]
Evidence builds showing climate change could be intensifying El Niño events (September 30, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/evidence-builds-showing-climate-change-could-be-intensifying-el-nino-events/
- A potentially historic El Niño event is building in the Pacific Ocean and already impacting the globe. Based on most recent models, this year’s event could be the largest ever recorded.
- Recent studies suggest that climate change is increasing the intensity of El Niños. A paper analyzing coral samples from the Galapagos Islands found that intensity has increased 36.5% in the last four decades.
- Modeling suggests that climate change will continue to intensify El Niños into the future and change their frequency. Though this is still debated, with some models showing more limited influence.
Pratap Singh Chundawat rescued a leopard from a well. He died in the line of duty, aged 40 (September 30, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/pratap-singh-chundawat-rescued-a-leopard-from-a-well-he-died-in-the-line-of-duty-aged-40/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. On April 9, a farmer named Rupalal heard noises in a well at his field in Dhawadi village in the state of Rajasthan in India. He looked down and saw a leopard 21 meters (70 feet) below. A […]
Tokyo records historic 35-day rain streak driven by El Niño and stalled fronts (September 30, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/tokyo-records-historic-35-day-rain-streak-driven-by-el-nino-and-stalled-fronts/
Central Tokyo has experienced 35 consecutive days of rainfall, setting the longest continuous rainy streak since records began in 1886, reported local media citing Japan’s weather agency. Rains began on Aug. 27 and have continued daily as of Sept. 30. This spell breaks the previous record of 33 consecutive days of rainfall set in 2019, […]
Turning vulnerable livestock into four-eyed beasts helps protect them in Zimbabwe (September 30, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/turning-vulnerable-livestock-into-four-eyed-beasts-helps-protect-them-in-zimbabwe/
- In the first half 2026, the local council of one district in southeastern Zimbabwe recorded 317 cases of human-wildlife conflict, including attacks on livestock by predators.
- Edson Mabika says he used to lose four or five animals this way every year — until he took an ex-ranger’s advice and painted black and white eyes on the backsides of his livestock.
- Since then, he told Mongabay, he’s lost just one goat and a lamb.
Plastic fused to coral rubble raises new concerns for ocean pollution (September 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/plastic-fused-to-coral-rubble-raises-new-concerns-for-ocean-pollution/
From the seafloor to turtle stomachs, scientists are finding plastic everywhere they look for it. Now, researchers in Japan have found plastic thermally adhered to coral rubble, an amalgamation they’ve termed “plasticoral,” according to a new study. The finding is raising concerns about potential ocean chemical leaching, habitat degradation and a new way for microplastics […]
Iwi and community-led effort return kiwi to Wellington for first time in over a century (September 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/09/iwi-and-community-led-effort-return-kiwi-to-wellington-for-first-time-in-over-a-century/
For the first time in 150 years, kiwi once again live in the hills surrounding Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. More than 250 manu (“birds” in the Māori language) were successfully translocated back to the region, thanks to the efforts of the iwi (nations of Aotearoa), community members, and landowners behind the Capital Kiwi Project. Paul […]
Uganda pastoralists turn to wild plants as food shortages bite, study finds (September 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/uganda-pastoralists-turn-to-wild-plants-as-food-shortages-bite-study-finds/
- New research reveals that pastoralist communities are turning to wild plants to cope with food shortages in northern Uganda.
- As in Uganda, experts reckon that edible wild plants can be a boon to countries like Nigeria, where roughly 15% of the population faces serious hunger.
- The study’s findings raise a broader question: Will communities with less richer botanical diversity be less capable of coping with food crises?
Kenyan nuclear project faces international legal challenge over security risks (September 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/kenyan-nuclear-project-faces-international-legal-challenge-over-security-risks/
A case has been brought to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) over the Kenyan government’s plan to build a 2,000-5,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bondo, near the eastern shore of Victoria Lake, Africa’s largest freshwater lake. The project has been the source of numerous protests from residents since it was announced. A Strategic […]
Hurricane Polo makes landfall in Baja California, flooding coastal communities and toppling trees (September 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/hurricane-polo-makes-landfall-in-baja-california-flooding-coastal-communities-and-toppling-trees/
PUERTO SAN CARLOS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Polo has made landfall in Baja California, Mexico, with powerful winds and flash flooding. The Category 2 hurricane struck early Tuesday near Las Barrancas, bringing maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. The U.S. National Hurricane Center reports Polo is crossing the Gulf of California and could bring heavy […]
In war-torn South Sudan, giraffes retain a surprisingly healthy gene pool (September 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/in-war-torn-south-sudan-giraffes-retain-a-surprisingly-healthy-gene-pool/
Giraffes living in the South Sudan’s war-torn savannas are genetically healthy and connected to nearby giraffe populations by gene flow, despite decades of conflict, recent research suggests. These findings show that “regions of the world that have been affected by conflict can maintain a lot of biodiversity and should therefore not be overlooked by genetic […]
New global maps chart 40 years of ocean heat and acidification extremes (September 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/new-global-maps-chart-40-years-of-ocean-heat-and-acidification-extremes/
- Using satellite data and water samples taken by ships over the last 40 years, researchers employed machine learning to untangle the history of marine heat waves hitting simultaneously with acidification events.
- They found that these compound events happen more frequently than would be expected by chance, attributing them to ocean physics that allow marine heat waves to become unusually acidic in some regions.
- The resulting database captured some “double-hit” heat-acidity events that have been largely ignored in the scientific literature, such as a massive 2016 event in the Southern Pacific Ocean that lasted eight months.
- Experts say more research is urgently needed to better understand how these compound events affect marine life and fisheries.
Bhutan recognized for eliminating dog-transmitted rabies ahead of World Rabies Day (September 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/bhutan-recognized-for-eliminating-dog-transmitted-rabies-ahead-of-world-rabies-day/
The World Health Organization has officially recognized Bhutan for eliminating dog-transmitted human rabies as a public health problem — in time for World Rabies Day on Sept. 28. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Bhutan is the first country in the Southeast Asia region, and the second to be named globally after Mexico, to […]
Jaco Muller turned his 15-year-old son’s idea into 197 rhino births (September 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/jaco-muller-turned-his-15-year-old-sons-idea-into-197-rhino-births/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In 2022, poachers had taken 14 white rhinos from private farms in Namibia in six weeks, so owners started removing their horns. One cow had a horn 86 centimeters (34 inches) long. Jaco Muller said he was nearly […]
Despite a drop in deforestation in 2025, forest losses pile up in the Mekong (September 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/despite-a-drop-in-deforestation-in-2025-forest-losses-pile-up-in-the-mekong/
- Over the course of 2025, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam lost a combined 746,168 hectares of tree cover (1.8 million acres), including more than 154,000 hectares (380,000 acres) of primary forest, according to Mongabay’s analysis of data published by the University of Maryland and Global Nature Watch.
- However, the rate of deforestation in each country dropped when compared to 2024, continuing a decline that data show started in 2023.
- Experts say fewer wildfires, stricter enforcement and lower market rates for commodities could explain the drop.
- Mongabay’s analysis also found almost 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of forest loss occurred within protected areas, where deforestation risks should be lower.
More plastic, less glow? Pollution threatens deep sea’s bioluminescent life, experts warn (September 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/more-plastic-less-glow-pollution-threatens-deep-seas-bioluminescent-life-experts-warn/
Plastic pollution could disrupt the bioluminescent light produced by deep-sea organisms, researchers warn in a letter in the journal Cambridge Prisms: Plastics. When deep-sea organisms ingest plastics, it could disrupt the chemical pathways that create bioluminescence and damage the tissues in their bodies, impairing their ability to find food and a mate, the authors said. […]
Reintroduced Grauer’s gorilla gives birth in DRC national park, ‘makes us happy’ (September 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/reintroduced-grauers-gorilla-gives-birth-in-drc-national-park-makes-us-happy/
Lulingu, a Grauer’s gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), was reintroduced to Virunga National Park, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 2024. In May 2026, Lulingu gave birth to a new baby, bringing hope for the species and excitement for the conservationists working there. “The baby and the mother are doing perfectly well. It really makes us […]