Mongabay.com

On Costa Rica’s Golfo Dulce, a boat carried 13 white-lipped peccaries back to a forest where hunters had wiped them out nearly two decades ago.

The translocation to Piedras Blancas National Park was the culmination of more than a decade of research, community outreach, and a grueling 16-hour relay involving more than 20 people.

Known as "ecosystem engineers," white-lipped peccaries play a vital role in tropical forests. As herds root through leaf litter, they churn and fertilize soil, disperse seeds, and dig shallow wallows that become microhabitats for wildlife. They are also the primary prey for jaguars, which vanished from the park alongside the peccaries.

"What we are doing is basically giving medicine to the forest of Piedras Blancas," said Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, executive director of Osa Conservation. "Each of those pigs is a pill."

Tracking data shows the newly released herd is healthy and cohesive. Osa Conservation plans to conduct additional translocations this year to reach a target population of 25 to 30 peccaries in the park.

Read the full story 👉https://mongabay.cc/iHLm0t

Kenyan authorities have arrested four suspects in connection with the tragic deaths of 18 elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem near the border with Tanzania. Preliminary investigations suggest the animals, most of them females and calves, died after ingesting toxic agricultural pesticides.

The deaths, which occurred across Kimana Sanctuary, Kuku Group Ranch, and Kitenden B reserve, have raised serious concerns about pesticide oversight in regions where farming communities and wildlife coexist. While active investigations continue, conservationists emphasize that the crisis points to broader regulatory gaps.

"If toxic chemicals are capable of entering crops consumed by elephants, we must ask whether farmers, farm workers, neighbouring communities, livestock, and consumers are being adequately protected," said Paula Kahumbu, CEO of WildlifeDirect.

Read the full report on the ongoing investigation and what it means for regional wildlife protection.
👉https://mongabay.cc/wJy2x7

When catastrophic bushfires sweep across Australia, official emergency frameworks prioritize two main targets: human life and property. Yet during the 2019–2020 Black Summer bushfires, which burned over 30 million hectares and affected an estimated 3 billion vertebrates, non-human lives were largely omitted from formal state disaster response plans.

Without official systems to evacuate or treat wildlife and domestic animals, grassroots communities stepped in. Landholders, veterinarians, wildlife carers, and local volunteers rapidly coordinated emergency evacuations, set up water and feeding stations, and funneled medical supplies into fire-impacted zones.

A 2025 study led by University of Sydney sociologist Danielle Celermajer examined these community-led efforts, highlighting the power of hyper-local knowledge during climate disasters. While government policy reflects what Celermajer terms "systematic anthropocentrism," local networks demonstrated that communities view both native fauna and domestic animals as vulnerable victims of climate-driven crises.

Read the full story and learn how local networks can drastically improve survival outcomes for native wildlife.
👉 https://mongabay.cc/VAsavR

After 57 wild-caught sloths imported for tourism died at a Florida facility, a criminal investigation cleared the business operating the site of neglect. But while law enforcement cited a natural health incident, veterinary experts found the animals suffered severe malnourishment, emaciation and chronic stress.

Pathology reports revealed that the sloths, captured in Guyana and Peru, suffered from widespread lesions, organ failure and bone marrow depletion. Vets noted that the stress of capture, transport, overcrowding and an improper diet severely compromised the animals' immune systems.

The investigation's conclusion has sparked sharp criticism from wildlife conservationists, who warn that current animal protection laws are failing to hold commercial ventures accountable when wild animals die in captivity.

Read the full report on Mongabay.
👉https://mongabay.cc/9xv0HB

How can we navigate these challenges to ensure energy transitions remain just and effective?

To explore these questions, the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO) is organizing a 3-part webinar series, “Holding the Line: Just energy transitions amid democratic backsliding.”

In “The Governance of Just Energy Transitions”, the first webinar on August 25, Mongabay Africa’s Program Director David Akana will moderate a discussion with researchers and civil society leaders to explore how climate goals can be guided through global, national, and local roadblocks.

Panelists:
• Ayshka Najib (People’s Climate Diplomacy Program)
• Peter Newell (University of Sussex)
• Manuel Tufró (CELS, Argentina)
• Attila Szabó (HCLU, Hungary)

🗓️ Aug. 25, 2026
⏰ 13:00 UTC

Register here 👉 https://mongabay.cc/WgpDbR

The sand cat is the only feline adapted exclusively to survive in harsh deserts, and it is notoriously hard to study. With fur-padded paws that leave almost no footprints, stealthy nocturnal habits, and a tendency to close its eyes in light to avoid reflective eyeshine, this tiny predator easily evades human notice.

Now, the first systematic camera trap survey in Qatar has documented solid evidence of sand cats in the country's Al-Ureiq Reserve, capturing more than 100 images between 2022 and 2025.

While currently classified as "least concern" on the IUCN Red List, experts are working to update its status to "near threatened." Growing threats from human activity, roadways, and feral dogs pose risks to these elusive felids, which serve as vital mesopredators in fragile desert ecosystems where larger carnivores are absent.

Read the full story 👉 https://mongabay.cc/gkcR9U

“Conservationists around the world share one thing in common: To do their job, they need data. In many ways, conservation moves at the speed of that data,” explains Juan Lavista Ferres, chief data scientist at Microsoft.

To help bridge the data gap in remote conservation, Microsoft AI for Good Lab developed Project SPARROW—a solar-powered, AI-driven monitoring tool designed to collect and analyze visual and acoustic biodiversity data in extreme environments.

Deployed across 11 countries on five continents, SPARROW operates autonomously for more than a year without human intervention, sending real-time findings back via satellite or cellular networks.

In an interview with Mongabay, Lavista Ferres emphasized why autonomous technology is vital for protecting high-biodiversity areas.

“The majority of the threatened ecosystems in the world are in very remote places. We don’t want any humans in those ecosystems, but at the same time, we need to understand what is happening there.”

By reducing the physical hazards and delays of field data retrieval, SPARROW is already aiding efforts to monitor endangered populations, from giant pangolins in Uganda to spider monkeys in Colombia.

Read the full interview - https://mongabay.cc/BXpUsK

A new $200 million initiative is giving 100 critically endangered and extinct-in-the-wild species a vital lifeline.

The Phoenix Species Project, an initiative from Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund, will support targeted recovery efforts across 30 countries, on species ranging from Madagascar’s golden-crowned sifaka lemur to Mexico’s Charco Azul pupfish, which went extinct in the wild in 1997.

By funding recovery work for both famous and lesser-known species, conservationists hope to prevent irreversible loss and support broader ecosystem health worldwide.

Learn more 👉 https://mongabay.cc/Ffml9f