This post was originally published on Mongabay.com Dung beetles have emerged as one of the most intensively studied animal groups in tropical rainforests. They are very easy and cheap to survey and are strong indicators of the health of rainforests and the presence of diverse mammal communities. Dung beetles also […]
This piece was orignally published on Mongabay.com A new coalition of scientists, indigenous peoples, community groups and lawyers is pushing for legal recognition of the rights of an endangered orca population living in the Salish Sea. The population, known as the Southern Resident Killer Whales, numbers just 75 individuals, down […]
Some rare plants sure take some finding.
I’ve been back from Colombia a week now and there’s nothing like a week of English rain and chill to spark up a reflective mood. So on the day I head to Oman to join a cool project tracking the distribution of rare and endemic plants (more on that soon) […]
My first article for Mongabay. Read with original images here. A new study outlines where Javan leopards live – and where suitable habitat remains on the densely inhabited island. National parks remain the most stable habitat for the critically endangered species, but the study finds that half its potential habitat […]
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And when fieldwork throws up problems, write a blog post about it. I’m a big fan of people that talk about failures. It’s probably a British thing. Truth is, fieldwork has so many moving parts, so many things that can go slightly awry—or […]
The bull didn’t lower its horns or scuff its front leg in the soil, like they always seem to in movies. One second it was looking in my direction. The next it was charging full-tilt straight at me. This field season in Colombia is the first that I’ve worked outside […]
Forest restoration on Colombian cowlands is a great idea…but how can we actually do it?
On our weekend off, we drove out of the steep mountains, cow fields and landslides of the Andes and into the pan flat grasslands of the Llanos. The Llanos is a strange biome found only in Colombia and neighbouring Venezuela. It’s sort of savannah-like with patches of forest that have […]
When the mist rolls in and all you can see are the silhouettes of ferns and tree trunks, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’re standing in an ancient forest. But once a gust of wind lifts the blanket of white, you start to notice things. The trees aren’t so […]