Wildlife Conservation
Heat-sensing drone cameras spy threats to sea turtle nests
Sea turtles lumber from ocean to shore to lay their eggs in the sand. In some places, this effort is protected by humans who patrol beaches on foot, warding off poachers, predators and naïve tourists. But might there be a more effective way? Researchers used thermal infrared sensors mounted on drones to monitor sea turtle […]
Ecuador’s Indigenous Siekopai communities sue for title in protected area
A group of Indigenous communities in Ecuador is taking legal action to regain control of territory in a wildlife reserve they say the government recognized a long time ago but never properly delivered to them. Siekopai communities, which occupy territory in the Western Amazon along the Ecuador-Peru border, have filed a lawsuit against the Ministry […]
Tiny new tree frog species found in rewilded Costa Rican nature reserve
Nestled in a valley between two volcanoes, Donald Varela-Soto heard something unfamiliar. For six months, he searched for the source of a shrill frog call along the edge of a wetland in Tapir Valley Nature Reserve, a former cattle ranch in northern Costa Rica. “I kept hearing this different sound in the wetland but was […]
An emerald-green hummingbird lost to science reemerges in Colombia
In the mountains of Colombia, an experienced bird-watcher saw an iridescent flash of blue and green. “A hummingbird caught my attention. I got out my binoculars and was shocked to see that it was a Santa Marta sabrewing,” Yurgen Vega said. “This sighting was a complete surprise, but a very welcome one.” This was only […]
Bolivia’s former ‘death road’ is now a haven for wildlife
In Bolivia, the infamous “Death Road” has become a haven for life. Once the only route north from La Paz, the narrow and treacherous old road to the Yungas claimed an average of 300 lives per year during peak usage. However, since the construction of a safer road in 2007, traffic has dropped 90% and […]
$245-million initiative to create and maintain protected areas in Colombia
A new multi-million-dollar conservation initiative in Colombia aims to create numerous new protected areas and biological corridors across the country, bringing it closer to meeting long-term climate change prevention goals. The $245-million project, called Heritage Colombia, will support the creation, expansion and improvement of 32 million hectares (nearly 80 million acres) of protected land and […]
Inside Sierra Leone’s Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (video)
In the 1970s, there were around 20,000 critically endangered western chimpanzees in Sierra Leone. But by 2008, when the most recent census was carried out, there were only around 5,500 western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) left. Like those of its neighbors in West and Central Africa, Sierra Leone’s chimpanzee habitats are shrinking — and so […]
Raise-and-release program keeping Nepal’s gharials alive can be improved, study says
KATHMANDU — A spark of good news for the gharial crocodile (Gavialis gangeticus) in Nepal last month shouldn’t obscure the challenges that remain in conserving the critically endangered species, experts say. On June 15, just two days before World Crocodile Day, 28 gharial hatchlings were spotted in a tributary of Nepal’s Karnali River — the […]
Andean eagles have managed to adapt to fragmenting habitats — for now
Even the greatest, most mobile predators aren’t immune to the shrinking of South America’s forests. The endangered black-and-chestnut eagle (Spizaetus isidori), one of the largest raptors on the continent, has been forced to change its behavior to survive in increasingly fragmented habitats and growing threats from humans. A new study in Global Ecology and Conservation […]
Miners, drug traffickers and loggers: Is Costa Rica’s Corcovado National Park on the verge of collapse?
News articles and opinion pieces have popped up in the pages of different Costa Rican newspapers over the past several years, warning of the imminent collapse of Corcovado National Park, one of the country’s most treasured protected areas. The park is in “agonizing” condition and “on a downward spiral,” some of the opinion pieces said. […]