Articles for author: Sameen David

Sameen David

Mass Manatee Release Includes Three Former Cincinnati Zoo Residents

Three Cincinnati Zoo Manatees Freed in Florida’s Largest Recent Release

Florida waters – More than 20 rehabilitated manatees returned to their natural habitat earlier this week, including three females that had called the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden home during a critical recovery phase. Orphans to Ocean Giants: Remarkable Turnarounds Orphans to Ocean Giants: Remarkable Turnarounds (Image Credits: Upload.wikimedia.org) Rescued as vulnerable calves suffering from ...

Sameen David

Southern elephant seals recover in Southern Africa, but global picture is mixed

Southern Elephant Seals Mark Conservation Victory in South Africa Amid Global Uncertainties

Prince Edward Islands, South Africa — Southern elephant seals breeding on Marion and Prince Edward Islands have transitioned from near threatened to least concern status, highlighting effective local protections in a remote sub-Antarctic setting. A Striking Population Rebound A Striking Population Rebound (Image Credits: Imgs.mongabay.com) Researchers counted nearly 1,400 pups on the islands in 2023, ...

Sameen David

In Ecuador’s Chocó, roads shape the fate of the rainforest

Roads Reshape the Destiny of Ecuador’s Chocó Rainforest Wildlife

Hoja Blanco, Ecuador — Expanding road networks in the northwestern Chocó rainforest have transformed remote wilderness into accessible frontiers, altering habitats for species that once thrived in isolation. Loggers Paved the Initial Paths Loggers Paved the Initial Paths (Image Credits: Imgs.mongabay.com) Timber companies first breached the dense canopy during the 1980s and 1990s. Firms like ...

Sameen David

US ocean regulator faces criticism over changes to right whale protection rule

Conservationists Decry NOAA’s Deregulatory Push for Endangered Right Whale Protections

Portland, Maine — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration drew immediate fire from environmental advocates after signaling plans to revise a vital vessel speed rule aimed at shielding the North Atlantic right whale from extinction. A Tragic Loss Highlights the Stakes A Tragic Loss Highlights the Stakes (Image Credits: Imgs.mongabay.com) Confirmation of a young female ...

Sameen David

PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ are falling in North Atlantic whales after phaseout

North Atlantic Ocean – Pilot Whales Signal Victory Over ‘Forever Chemicals’ with 60% Decline

Long-finned pilot whales in the North Atlantic now harbor markedly lower levels of certain persistent industrial chemicals, demonstrating the delayed but real effects of production phaseouts initiated two decades ago. Decline Uncovered Through Innovative Analysis Decline Uncovered Through Innovative Analysis (Image Credits: Imgs.mongabay.com) Researchers at Harvard University revealed a significant drop in PFAS concentrations by ...

Sameen David

Study refutes claim that Indonesia’s legal turtle trade supports livelihoods

Indonesia’s Turtle Harvest: Scant Livelihood Support for Harvesters, Study Reveals

Indonesia – Wildlife researchers have challenged long-held assumptions about the economic role of the country’s legal freshwater turtle trade, finding it sustains only a tiny fraction of collectors amid declining populations. Ancient Survivors Under Siege Ancient Survivors Under Siege (Image Credits: Imgs.mongabay.com) Turtles boast an evolutionary legacy spanning over 200 million years, enduring cataclysmic events ...

Paleo-Art Is Being Revolutionized by New Understandings of Dinosaur Biology

There’s something almost humbling about realizing that the dinosaurs you grew up with – the big, scaly, gray-green monsters stomping around in movies and on museum posters – were probably never quite real. Not in any accurate scientific sense. The images that shaped a generation’s understanding of these extraordinary animals were built mostly on guesswork, ...

Recent Discoveries Point to Dinosaurs' Sophisticated Sensory Perception

Recent Discoveries Point to Dinosaurs’ Sophisticated Sensory Perception

When most people picture a dinosaur, they imagine something enormous, lumbering, and about as sharp as a boulder. You know the image: squinting little eyes, no expression, mindlessly stomping through prehistoric ferns. Honestly, it’s an image that science has been quietly dismantling for decades now, and the pace of those revelations has picked up dramatically ...

The Dominant Herbivores of the Cretaceous Period Were More Adaptable Than Imagined

The Dominant Herbivores of the Cretaceous Period Were More Adaptable Than Imagined

When you picture a plant-eating dinosaur from the Cretaceous, you probably imagine a slow, lumbering giant trudging through a prehistoric jungle, blindly munching on anything green within reach. Honest moment here – that image is satisfying, but it is also wildly incomplete. The herbivores of the Cretaceous were far more sophisticated, resourceful, and ecologically nimble ...