Community-managed forests in Guatemala support wildlife as well as protected areas, but subtle human impacts still shape where species roam PULLMAN, Wash. — Deep in Guatemala’s Maya rainforest, a team led by Washington State University researchers captured more than just photos of jaguars, tapirs and ocelots. They also captured a rare success story: a way for humans and wildlife to share a forest without destroying it. In a new study published in Conservation Biology, scientists from WSU and the Wildlife Conservation Society…

Understanding people’s attitudes to interactions with sharks could help halt the global decline of shark numbers, according to new research carried out on Ascension Island. In 2017, there were two non-fatal shark attacks at Ascension – a UK territory in the South Atlantic with a population of about 800 people. Large numbers of sharks – mostly silky and Galapagos sharks – have affected the island’s recreational fishers, who often lose tackle and hooked fish before they can be landed. The…

SAN DIEGO (Oct. 1, 2025) – Recent studies led by an international consortium of researchers, including scientists from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, unveiled groundbreaking findings in biodiversity conservation through in situ DNA barcoding in the Peruvian Amazon. Measuring the earth’s biological richness in one of its most remote and biodiverse regions is no small task. The Peruvian Amazon is in imminent danger of losing species…

New research reveals “unprecedented” conservation results of community-based management of protected areas in the Amazon – as many face a future in which they may become increasingly degraded due to low enforcement of regulations, growing external encroachment and competition for resources. The study describes a powerful new mechanism for increasing the extent of effective area-based protection by piggybacking on community management of natural resources. Tropical protected areas are typically understaffed, underfunded and underequipped and it remains unclear how existing ones…