Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo recorded the birth of a second set of mountain gorilla twins this year.

According to park authorities, the twins were born into the Baraka family and are believed to be a male and a female, now about 2 weeks old. Their arrival follows a twin birth in January in the Bageni family.

Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), a subspecies of the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei), live in close-knit groups or families led by a dominant silverback male and several females with their offspring. The Virunga mountains host one of two known populations of the endangered ape. Only around 1,050 remain in the wild today.

The birth brings the Baraka family to 19 individuals and marks the seventh gorilla birth recorded in Virunga this year.

“Two instances of twin births within three months is an extraordinary event and provides another vital indicator that dedicated conservation efforts which have continued despite the current instability in eastern Congo are supporting the growth of the endangered mountain gorilla population,” Jacques Katutu, Virunga’s head of gorilla monitoring, said in a press release.

Twin births among mountain gorillas are rare, typically occurring in less than 1% of births, according to park authorities. The first twins of the year, born in January to adult female Mafuko in the Bageni family, are now about 11 weeks old and reported to be thriving. Field teams have also observed strong social support within the group, including a young blackback (a sexually mature male) staying close to the mother and helping protect the newborns.

While the births are encouraging, the context remains challenging. Virunga, Africa’s oldest national park, sits in a region affected by ongoing insecurity and displacement. In 2025, M23 rebels, allegedly backed by Rwanda, captured the nearby city of Goma in the eastern DRC.

Mongabay previously reported that reduced patrols in parts of Virunga affected by M23 activity since April 2024 have limited monitoring. Researchers and local sources say some individuals have taken advantage of the situation to access forest resources, collaborate with armed groups, or engage in the bushmeat trade.

Park authorities have already reported incidents reflecting these risks. In one case, rangers discovered a young gorilla named Fazili caught in a poacher’s trap, a reminder of the continued threats facing wildlife.

Despite these challenges, Virunga’s mountain gorilla populations have shown signs of recovery. WWF’s 2024 “Living Planet Report” noted that their numbers increased by 3% every year between 2010 and 2016.

“The mountain gorillas were actually faring extraordinarily well,” Virunga director Emmanuel de Merode told Mongabay. “The numbers increased because of an enormous effort on the part of Congo’s rangers.”

For now, field teams are closely monitoring the Baraka family and the newborn twins during the critical early months, when survival risks remain high, park officials say.

Banner image: The newborn Baraka family twins. Image courtesy of Virunga National Park.

A stranded humpback whale in Germany’s Baltic Sea looks weaker, and experts fear it won’t be able to find its way back to the Atlantic despite several attempts at its rescue this week.

A 500-meter (yards) restricted area was enforced around the whale so it could get some rest and hopefully free itself, officials said Sunday in a news conference in the eastern German coastal town of Wismar, near where the giant cetacean has been stuck.

“He would be able to do so if he regains his strength, and that is why we decided to leave him alone, allowing him to actually set off and then successfully leave this area,” said Till Backhaus, the environment minister of the state of Mecklenburg-Pomerania, where Wismar is located.

“But we also have to assume that he is weakened. And he is also sick,” said Backhaus, adding that the humpback whale may have injuries because it came into contact with a fishing net.

Previous efforts to rescue the 12-15 meter (39-49 feet) whale off a sandbank at Timmendorfer Strand beach and in the Wismar Bay with the help of an excavator and boats, creating large waves to help it swim free earlier this week, captivated Germans — with media sending news alerts of updates on its progress and streaming live video from the scene.

The whale also became a popular topic of conversation across the country, with people exchanging text messages about rescue efforts.

But by now, hopes are dimming that the whale is still strong enough to swim free and find its way back to the Atlantic through German and Danish waters.

“It is very noticeable that the animal is showing significantly less activity,” said Stefanie Groß from the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. “Its respiratory rate has dropped considerably. The animal is not moving. It did not react even when we drove closer.”

It is not clear why the whale swam into the Baltic Sea. Some experts say the animal may have lost its way when it swam after a shoal of herring, or during migration, as it is most likely a male.

The marine mammal cannot survive in the Baltic Sea long-term as the salt concentration of the water isn’t high enough. It has already developed a skin disease. Another issue is that it can’t find the right kind of nutrition it needs, though whales can go without food for weeks.

If it is to survive, it will need to return to the Atlantic Ocean via the North Sea.

“When you consider how narrow the straits are and that there are still about 500 kilometers (310 miles) to go, you realize that it’s a real bottleneck you have to navigate, and naturally, the chances of success are relatively slim,” said Burkard Baschek, the director of the German Maritime Museum in Stralsund.

The whale was first spotted swimming in the Baltic on March 3, but reports of it being stranded surfaced last week.

By Kirsten Grieshaber, Associated Press

Banner image: Image by Philip Dulian/dpa via Associated Press.

Wild ecosystems such as grassland savannas, bush and open wetlands are losing ground worldwide to make way for large pastures and grain fields. A new study found these ecosystems are being converted at a rate four times higher than for forests.  

Over a 15-year period, from 2005-2020, researchers found that 190 million hectares (470 million acres) of natural ecosystems, a combined area almost the size of Mexico, was converted, mostly into pastures and farms. Policies that protect only forest ecosystems are partly to blame for this pressure, the researchers wrote in a recently published study.

“A narrow policy focus on forests has fueled agricultural expansion into ecologically significant but severely overlooked non-forest ecosystems, including grasslands and open wetlands,” they wrote.

Half of the world’s nonforest ecosystems were lost to pasture, while 27% were cleared for crop plantations for human food, and another 17% for animal feed.

Grasslands alone account for a third of all global biodiversity hotspots and hold 20-35% of global carbon stocks.

Brazil leads the ranking, accounting for 13% of the world’s nonforest land conversion. Most of the nation’s losses come from the Cerrado savanna, an ecosystem that’s been dubbed an inverted forest due to its extensive underground root network responsible for storing so much carbon and water.

Grassland ecosystem loss is notably harder to study than forest loss. Technical restraints, such as the lack of fine-grained satellite imagery, can make it difficult to distinguish pastures from a natural grassland, for example.

So the researchers used imagery with a resolution of 30 meters (about 100 feet) and were able to attribute specific commodities to each area using spatially explicit analysis to track this typically overlooked land-use change.

By linking land conversion to crops such as soy and corn, they also found that a huge proportion of these ecosystems were lost for exports. In Brazil and Argentina, 70-80% of crops from converted land were destined for export.

Due to a focus on protecting the world’s forests, the authors say, grasslands and other nonforest ecosystems are often treated as expendable, rather than included in the policies that help protect forests.

“A challenge is that non-forest ecosystems are often misclassified as degraded forests or even deemed unproductive wastelands,” they wrote. “This misclassification increases the likelihood that non-forest ecosystems are converted for agriculture or targeted by tree-planting initiatives.”

Banner image: Landscape in the Cerrado region of Brazil. Image © Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace.

On March 9, wildlife authorities in Zambia arrested 10 people in possession of 550 kilograms (1,212 pounds) of ivory, according to the U.K.-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which provided intelligence that led to the arrests. EIA said the case highlights the impact that international cooperation can have in the fight against the illegal trade of wildlife.

In a Mar. 19 statement, the Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) said police raided several locations in the capital, Lusaka, leading to the arrest of members of a cross-border wildlife crime syndicate, including a foreign national, who is believed to be the buyer of the ivory.

“Notably, some of the apprehended suspects are repeat offenders who have previously been convicted for wildlife-related crimes, highlighting the persistent challenge posed by illegal wildlife trafficking networks,” DNPW said in a statement.

 The suspects have been charged with unlawful possession of a prescribed trophy but have not yet appeared before a court.

In an email, the EIA’s executive director, Mary Rice, told Mongabay that governments are becoming more receptive to collaborating closely with nongovernmental agencies such as EIA. “There are more examples of embedded partnerships where NGOs work directly with a mandated authority to tackle illegal wildlife trade.”

These growing partnerships, which in some cases include financial support, have helped disrupt trafficking networks and secure convictions, she said. She highlighted a three-year collaboration involving EIA, Interpol, China Customs, Tanzania, Mozambique and Nigeria. In May 2017, the group busted the Shuidong ivory smuggling network, one of the key players in trafficking illegal ivory between Africa and China.

Rice also said a global network of NGOs and government agencies is building a global database of environmental crimes and their perpetrators.

She noted that while recent data from the Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants project suggest that poaching is on the decline in Southern Africa, continued seizures linked to the region suggest that criminal networks are still actively trafficking ivory in that part of the continent.

She also pointed to instances in which convictions have been weakened or undermined by corruption or political interference. In Malawi, for example, wildlife trafficker Yunhua Lin was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2021, but was granted a presidential pardon in 2025. He remains in prison, however, pending charges of attempting to bribe a judge and a prison official.

Banner image: Ivory seized by Zambian authorities in March 2026. Image courtesy of Zambia Ministry of Tourism.

As John Tanui was being laid to rest in Kenya’s Rift Valley on March 25, stories and praise poured in for a man people would have loved to have lived longer.

Tanui served as a security communications officer at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya from 1995 to 2024. He helped transform the operations of the anti-poaching and ranger teams, the conservancy stated in an impact report published in 2017. He also had an impressive knowledge of wildlife and birds and often served as a guide to Lewa’s guests.

Despite decades of fieldwork, Tanui never lost his sense of wonder for wildlife. One evening, he and a visitor watched a group of lions climbing around on a fallen tree. Tanui’s awe at the lions’ agility captured the attention of the visitor, Jes Lefcourt, director of the conservation NGO EarthRanger.

“I’ve never seen him as excited as when watching the lions. That’s what true love and dedication looks like,” Lefcourt said in a statement he shared after Tanui’s death from a blood clot complication.

Tanui met and briefed many visitors, including actors, politicians and icons like David Attenborough, an English broadcaster, author and naturalist.

Commonly referred to as “Tango,” Tanui spent three decades protecting wildlife at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, but his  conservation work extended beyond Kenya, as he collaborated with international NGOs including EarthRanger and Tusk. The knowledge he gathered placed him at the intersection of tradition and innovation, as he helped to bring modern tools into ranger operations.

According to Lefcourt, Tanui’s most recent job had him traveling throughout Africa, teaching rangers and park teams.

In a social media post, Tusk offered a personal tribute. “His passion for technology, connectivity and practical innovation was immediately evident. John was a wonderful person whom we at Tusk have known for many years, and we feel fortunate to have seen him in his element: curious, dedicated and quietly brilliant.”

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy echoed that sentiment.

“Through the most challenging times, including periods of heightened poaching, Tango remained steadfast, never giving up, always pushing forward, and instilling hope and resilience in those around him. He was known for his discipline, his strength, and his unwavering dedication to duty.”

But beyond his professional legacy, Lewa said, Tango will be remembered for the person he was: A mentor. A friend. A leader who built family, not just teams.

Banner image:John Tanui, left, when he hosted the EarthRanger team in Kenya in June 2024. Image courtesy of the EarthRanger team.

From soft peach to vivid pink and purple blooms, spring arrives in a burst of color across the Northern Hemisphere. In Washington, D.C. and Tokyo, streets and parks are awash in a sea of cherry blossoms. Across the plains of Greece’s largest peach-producing region, orchards unfurl like a pink veil over the landscape, while in London parks burst into bloom. And each spring, a purple haze of blossoming jacaranda trees brightens Mexico City.

Banner image: Visitors take picture along a pathway lined with blooming peach blossoms at the Summer Palace in Beijing, China, Monday, March 23, 2026, as people enjoy the mild weather and seasonal flowers. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)