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 studies and conservation efforts,” Sam van Giessen, study lead author and a conservation genomics researcher from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, told Mongabay by email. The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, currently recognizes four species and seven subspecies of giraffes. South Sudan is home to two subspecies of the critically endangered northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis): the Nubian giraffe (G. c. camelopardalis) and the Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum). Between the conflict years of 1985 and 2025, Nubian giraffes in Ethiopia and South Sudan declined by 95%. By 2025, researchers estimated roughly 235 Nubian giraffe survived across South Sudan in isolated pockets, down from an estimate of 15,000 individuals in 1995. To find out the genetic health of these giraffe populations, researchers from the South Sudan government, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF), and conservation NGO African Parks analyzed DNA from skin biopsies collected from 30 Nubian giraffes in Boma and Badingilo national parks, run by African Parks. As the giraffe population in the region is small, there was some concern that inbreeding could be a problem for the subspecies’ long-term conservation. However, their analysis showed the South Sudan Nubian giraffe population has relatively high levels…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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 achieve this validation. Nearly 99% of all human rabies cases globally are caused by the bite or scratch of an infected dog. Once symptoms appear, rabies is almost always fatal. On Sept. 4, the WHO confirmed that Bhutan has recorded zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies since June 2023 and has demonstrated that it has the resources and systems in place to prevent the disease’s re-emergence. Bhutan’s achievement comes as organizations including the WHO, World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) mark World Rabies Day with the theme of “Stronger Together”, advancing a global goal to eliminate human rabies deaths worldwide by 2030 under the “Zero by 30” initiative. To eradicate rabies, Bhutan has persistently invested in a comprehensive “One Health” approach, which recognizes that animal, human and environmental health are interconnected, the WHO said in a press release. A 2021 Royal Decree by the King of Bhutan launched the Nationwide Accelerated Dog Population Mangement and Rabies Control Programme, implemented jointly by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. WHO said field health teams and veterinarians supported by…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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 in tears when it was removed. “It is such a magnificent animal,” he said. “But for the animal’s sake, it is for the best.” Dehorning gave poachers less reason to kill a rhino. For Muller, the sight of a dehorned rhino was preferable to finding a dead one. The idea for breeding rhinos came from his son, then 15, as a school project. In 2010, Muller converted the family’s antelope-breeding operation into what became the Rhino Momma Project in Namibia’s Kunene region. Muller believed that breeding more white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum), keeping them secure enough to reproduce, and then replenishing populations across Africa could help save the species. So he built a breeding program with a rhino-custodianship farm and the nonprofit Help Our Rhinos Now, or HoRn. The first calf was born in 2013; by 2025, the project had become one of Namibia’s larger privately run rhino-breeding operations. Kifaru Lodge, which Muller opened in 2018, brought in money from tourists to help cover security and rhino care. Muller also supported legalizing the trade in rhino horn. His argument was that prohibition let criminals collect the profits while farm owners and conservation groups paid for security.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. A mountain lion in front of the Hollywood sign sounds almost too convenient. When photographer Steve Winter proposed the picture, National Park Service biologist Jeff Sikich thought he was crazy. There were, as far as Sikich knew, no mountain lions in Griffith Park. Then P-22 turned up. Winter spent more than a year trying to get the photograph. Remote cameras were stolen, and equipment failed. Eventually, he captured P-22 walking beneath the Hollywood sign at night, his tracking collar visible around his neck. The photograph made P-22 famous and gave Los Angeles a symbol of the problems faced by wildlife boxed in by roads and development. P-22 became closely associated with the campaign for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over U.S. Route 101, which is intended to reconnect habitat divided by one of the region’s busiest freeways. The story is one of nine in Big Cats, a new book by Winter and journalist Sharon Guynup, who is also Mongabay’s wildlife editor. The pair revisit some of their most consequential reporting projects in the book in their recent conversation with Mike DiGirolamo, the host and producer of the Mongabay Newscast. One of those projects took them to Thailand’s Tiger Temple, a lucrative tourist attraction where visitors could pose with captive tigers. Guynup and Winter spent a year investigating the operation and documented its links to illegal wildlife trafficking. Thai authorities eventually raided and closed…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The Philippines remains the deadliest country in Asia for land and environmental defenders, according to a new report by the non-profit Global Witness. In its report, Global Witness says it could verify the killings  of 124 land and environmental defenders worldwide in 2025. While the majority, 85% of cases, occurred in Latin America, Asia accounted for 12% of the deaths with 12 defenders killed in the Philippines and one person killed for each of India, Indonesia and Turkey. The Philippines remains the deadliest country in Asia for the thirteenth consecutive year. Its 12 documented cases in 2025 represent the highest total recorded in any single country outside Latin America, the report says. State forces played a central role in the violence against environmental and land defenders in the country, with the Philippine military suspected of participating in five of the 12 killings amid expanded rural counterinsurgency campaigns and resource extraction projects, according to the report. “The report adds an important dimension to what we already know about the situation of land and environmental defenders in the Philippines,” Manila-based environmental advocacy group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (PNE) told Mongabay in an emailed statement. “Attacks against defenders are entrenched in state policies and structures that facilitate extractive and development projects.” Global Witness’ report adds that killings “are only the most extreme form of reprisal that defenders face.” Beyond lethal violence, environmental defenders  face a rising tide of legal harassment, criminalization, and smear campaigns, it says. In the Philippines, for example, the…This article was originally published on Mongabay