Obituaries and tributes
The slender-billed curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, slipped from the world in the way of rare things: gradually, quietly, and irretrievably. Once it coursed over the steppes of Siberia and wintered along Mediterranean shores, its migratory path a delicate thread connecting continents. Its last confirmed sighting, in Morocco in 1995, marked
Obituaries and tributes
I prepare obituary sketches for high-profile conservation figures and species-on-the-brink in advance, to be held until they’re needed to be developed into full obituaries. The following is one I hope to never publish, though as of today, fewer than ten vaquitas—gentle porpoises no larger
Obituaries and tributes
Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo, known to friends and comrades as “Lobo,” or “Wolf,” was no stranger to the forces that threatened his land and his people. The son of Colombia’s Andes, he belonged to a long line of Indigenous Nasa defenders and was a dedicated educational coordinator and leader.
Obituaries and tributes
Ryan Killackey, who died on October 4th, aged 46, was a man of singular purpose. Born in Homewood, Illinois, he came of age with a fascination for nature that would eventually drive him to the farthest reaches of the Amazon rainforest. But his was no simple journey of exploration or
Obituaries and tributes
In 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared 21 species officially extinct by removing them from list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. I recently put together short obituaries for a few of the species we lost. Amidst the dense, lush undergrowth of Kauaʻi's
Obituaries and tributes
This obituary came late. I intended to write it much earlier. Where others saw irreconcilable difference, Lafcadio Cortesi saw possibility. Indigenous leaders, corporate executives, idealistic campaigners, and skeptical bureaucrats—he moved among them not as a negotiator or emissary, but as someone who genuinely believed each had a role to
Mongabay Features
In the emerald shadows of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a profound loss echoes through the mountains. Danilo Villafañe, an Arhuaco Indigenous leader of unwavering conviction, passed away on Christmas Day, aged 49, in a selfless act of heroism. Villafañe drowned while trying to rescue two young women from
Mongabay Features
Tommy Apriando, an esteemed investigative journalist and chairperson of the Yogyakarta branch of Indonesia’s Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), died Sunday at the age of 30 after being hospitalized for complications from diabetes. In a country where environmental reporting is potentially deadly, Apriando wasn’t afraid to speak truth
Mongabay Features
Whether it was radio-collaring elephants across the savannas of South Africa, competing internationally alongside the Israeli national team in tennis, tracking saki monkeys through the rainforest in the sweltering mid-day heat of the Peruvian Amazon, or evaluating the practicalities of implementing technological solutions to conservation challenges, Sue Palminteri
Obituaries and tributes
In the official record, it ended quietly. A line in a government notice, tucked beneath more hopeful declarations, marking the passing of Melomys rubicola—the Bramble Cay melomys. After ten thousand years or more of survival on a scrap of reef in the Torres Strait, the last of its kind
Obituaries and tributes
On August 5th, the conservation world mourned the death of Alan Rabinowitz, an American zoologist celebrated as the 'Indiana Jones of wildlife protection' by Time magazine. He passed away at 64 after a battle with cancer. Rabinowitz's legacy testifies to a life spent in unwavering commitment
Obituaries and tributes
In the desert of northern Mexico, near the town of San Fernando in Tamaulipas, there was once a spring so small it barely deserved a name. It lay in the desert like a mirror dropped in the dust — a clear, turquoise eye through which the earth itself seemed to breathe.