The spectacled cobra (Naja naja) is one of India's "big four" snakes responsible for most serious snakebite cases. It is currently considered one species, which lives across much of South Asia, with regional differences in color, hood markings and venom. However, it's still unclear which regional cobra populations represent separate evolutionary groups. A new study published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution has helped parse out which groups have different lineages, and when and where they may have diverged from their ancestors.

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In an effort to conserve the world's plants and animals, governments have pledged to conserve 30% of the planet by 2030. Official figures suggest that attempts to reach this target on land have stalled, but a new study led by the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom shows 27% of land may already be conserved for biodiversity if you also count areas that aren't globally recognized but still support wildlife.

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The World Health Organization on Thursday told countries to do more to prevent lead exposure, with hundreds of millions of children affected worldwide.

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Fireworks are an integral part of many celebrations and cultural events. With their pretty colors, spectacular sights and big bangs, fireworks are a popular attraction for many people.

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Today's Stories: Rep. Nick Begich and challenger Bill Hill clash on health care and resource development. El Niño could bring a warmer, less snowy Alaska winter. Many Kwigillingok families remain displaced a year after Halong. Native scholars gather in Juneau for a research exchange.

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Researchers from the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS) Ocean Observatory have documented ancient forests that grew on the Mozambican coast thousands of years ago and have been found beneath the sea, where they now serve as hotspots teeming with marine life similar in biodiversity to coral reefs.

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Every year between February and May, when mahua flowers begin to fall, Mamta Tigga collects them. Mamta comes from a village in Gumla in the Indian state of Jharkhand and has been collecting mahua (a flower from Madhuca longifolia), gethi kanda (or air potato, Dioscorea bulbifera) and tendu leaves from the Indian ebony tree (Diospyros melanoxylon) for the past three years. All of these plants are important sources of food, medicine and other traditional uses in her culture. Mamta is not just a tribal gatherer, but a homemaker and a mother of two children. Over the years, she has noticed a change in what the forest gives her. “There is less mahua than before,” she says, and the amount changes with the weather. When there is more heat, more mahua falls and when it rains, the mahua flower sheds off. “This year there was less mahua, between March to April we usually collect around 4-5 quintal [100 kilograms or 220 pounds] but this time due to excessive rain we got around 25 kg of mahua.” Forest produce is an essential source of income for families like Mamta’s. Her husband is a driver, and often, when they are short on money, the funds collected by selling mahua help them survive. But what happens when the resources people depend on begin to change, while the demand for those products continues to grow? A recent review in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems examines this question in the Indian states of Jharkhand…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Vegan honey alternatives could be engineered to have antimicrobial properties similar to those of prized mānuka honey from New Zealand, according to research at Aston University.

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A research team led by Dr. Lorenzo Marchetti of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin described the earliest archosauriform footprints (Pachychirotherium gardenaensis) from the GEOPARC Bletterbach—UNESCO World Heritage Dolomites, Italy.

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Kolby KickingWomanICT

LAS VEGAS — Many wondered what would happen to the title of Miss Indian World after Gathering of Nations officially ended its run earlier this year. Well, one could argue Miss Indian Rodeo could be its successor.

After all, the Indian National Finals Rodeo is billed as the largest and oldest Native American rodeo in the world and similar to powwows, Native rodeos got royalty to represent them too.

Spending her last few days as the outgoing 2026 Miss Indian Rodeo is Cajaun Cleveland, Diné and White Mountain Apache. She grew up around rodeo and from a young age always knew she wanted to be a rodeo queen.

Despite growing up around the sport, she didn’t take her first crack at rodeo royalty until two years ago and finished as the first runner-up, which she says was an accomplishment in and of itself.

After going back to the stalls with her family, Cleveland told them they would be back to win the crown.

“So the next year, I came back and I delivered everything that I practiced for two years, everything that I studied, every exposure clinic, every type of training that I had for horsemanship, for modeling, for speech and for interviews,” Cleveland said. “I was very successful my second year and I walked away with being the 50th annual 2026 Miss Indian Rodeo of the INFR. I got to go home with a gold buckle and the crown, and it was a really big accomplishment.”

The work doesn’t stop there, literally.

At any point during a handful of events during the afternoon and evening performances, you can find Cleveland on the arena floor chasing and herding down steers and calves to the catch pen or leading the parade of tribal nations flags; among other responsibilities.

“We try to help in places where we’re not in the way, but more so trying to help the production move at a faster pace so that our spectators can enjoy it and our contestants aren’t waiting around a whole lot,” Cleveland said of the queen’s role.

Kierrynn Fowler, Navajo Nation, at the 2026 Indian National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 14, 2026. (Kolby KickingWoman/ICT)

Above the arena floor, on the concourse at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, there’s a good chance you’ll run into visiting rodeo queens and princesses from other rodeos or contestants in the running to become the next Miss Indian Rodeo.

Raegan First Rider-Young Pine, Kainai Nation, made the trip from Canada representing the Calgary Stampede as the INFR Calgary Stampede rodeo inaugural princess. She’s got a family history with the INFR, with two uncles in the hall of fame, saying she was very excited to see and support the Indigenous athletes competing.

“Being an Indigenous woman with such an amazing platform, it’s so cool to see other Indigenous people thriving because, after all, that’s all I really wanted to do,” First Rider-Young Pine said. “This role was to inspire little ones, and you know, you have athletes out here that are doing the same thing; so I’m just very proud of everyone, even if they’re not from my Reserve. I’m proud of everyone for being here.”

Becoming the next Miss Indian Rodeo is no small feat. After an initial application, there is an orientation once the cowgirl gets to INFR, along with an interview, exam and essay. Then comes a horsemanship display to show horse riding abilities, as well as a traditional presentation.

Additionally, each contestant gets to spend time on the arena floor with the outgoing Miss Indian Rodeo on the arena floor tending to the aforementioned duties.

In the running to be the next Miss Indian Rodeo is Kierrynn Fowler, Navajo Nation, who said it’s a true all-around test.

“It truly is a showmanship of horsemanship, your ability to communicate and network, as well as your knowledge in your traditional culture,” she told ICT.

Johnee Washakie, Crow and Eastern Shoshone, at the 2026 Indian National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 14, 2026. (Kolby KickingWoman/ICT)

Another lady who has her hat in the proverbial ring is Johnee Washakie, Crow and Eastern Shoshone, who is a former queen herself; holding the title of Miss Crowfair Rodeo. She says her next logical step was to run for Miss Indian Rodeo.

She described her time as Miss Crowfair Rodeo as an “experience of a lifetime.”

“Miss Indian Rodeo is a huge title to hold and I was one of the tour rodeo queens, so I figured the next step is Miss Indian Rodeo,” Washakie said. “So I’m over here trying it out.”

If one thing is clear, all of the women running to be the next Miss Indian Rodeo have a passion for the sport.

Hailey Vigen, Three Affiliated Tribes, is a rodeo competitor herself. She is a barrel racer, breakaway and team roper, as well as an Indian relay jockey.

Vigen says there’s no feeling like being on a horse at breakaway speed.

“You just can’t replace that feeling, like the adrenaline rush,” Vigen said. “You don’t know when they’re gonna start the race, so you get excited, you just want to go; and then you’re going and there’s nothing in front of you besides the wind.”

Hailey Vigen, Three Affiliated Tribes, at the 2026 Indian National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 14, 2026. (Kolby KickingWoman/ICT)

Throughout the Indian National Finals Rodeo, one theme continually comes up — community. Among the athletes, the queens and the princesses; it’s one big family.

“I really enjoy how everyone just knows each other and they all treat each other well. It’s like a big old family,” Vigen said. “Everyone gets comfortable with each other, and we all support each other and try to help each other as much as we can.”

In fact, Fowler said how tight knit the rodeo community is would be a surprising fact to those not familiar with rodeo culture.

“It is truly love, all of us have become like family,” Fowler said. “You can rely on the person next to you. There’s always going to be someone who, even if you don’t know them, they’re going to be willing to help support you and be a strong sense of community.”

‘Longest eight seconds in the world’

For Cleveland, she echoed those sentiments and rodeo culture comes down to one word within the word: unity.

“I can just explain in one word, unity,” Cleveland said. “The INFR brings many tribes, many bands and many cultures together within the rodeo community. Within our rodeo community, we each borrow everyone’s horses, everyone’s tack. We get lectures, we get criticized by our own family members, but more so, we get helped and we get guided by other families who are willing to help you; who are willing to put in that effort when your family can’t make it out or when you need a little bit of help in the chute. I think that’s something that’s very unique about Indian Country and Native Nations is that we’re willing to step in when your family can’t physically be there for you, and that you always have family wherever you go.”

With family comes unique relationships and that’s what First Rider-Young Pine enjoys.

“It [rodeo] brings everyone together. You know, if some people don’t dance the same type of style, you could have a jingle dress dancer and a fancy dancer and they can be really great friends,” she said. “You can have a bull rider and a barrel racer, and they can be great friends, I just like that, it just brings everyone together.”

After everything, in the true Native way, these rodeo royalty want the next generation to see themselves in them.

“One thing that I’d like to say to all the little girls out there is that if I can do it, you can do it too,” Cleveland said. “If you put your heart, your mind, and your soul into all the things that you want to accomplish, it will not be very hard for you. Study very hard and practice every single day and just be yourself.”

The post Bend the knee: Royalty at the Indian National Finals Rodeo appeared first on ICT.

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The latest Healthy NDC Scorecard, published by the Global Climate and Health Alliance, finds that, Colombia integrates health most deeply into its national climate plan, closely followed by Nigeria and Cambodia. Conversely, the climate commitments of the governments of Japan, New Zealand and India fail to adequately consider health, while high-emitting economies, including EU members, China, Brazil and the U.K., refer to health in their national climate plans but do not match this with the ambitious emissions reduction targets required to protect health.

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They can't fly or swim, so why do their closest relatives appear on different continents? Grey Gustafson, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, discovered through DNA sequencing that the ancestors of some of today's tiger beetles existed in South America and Africa before the two continents separated. What's more, North America's largest tiger beetles are related to these ancestral South American giant tiger beetles.

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Environmental DNA (eDNA) is increasingly being investigated by forensic scientists as a tool to help solve criminal cases that lack biological traces—and attention is also turning to collecting trace airborne eDNA left behind by intruders in residential burglaries.

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For most Indigenous peoples in the Bolivian Amazon, the forest is far more than a collection of trees. It is the casa grande, Spanish for “the main house”, where communities, rivers, wildlife, spiritual beings and ancestral memories coexist. For them, conserving the forest means conserving life itself. Yet data analyzed by Amazonía Traficada (Trafficked Amazon) — a journalistic collaboration backed by the Pulitzer Center in partnership with Mongabay, Bolivian independent environmental journalism platform RAI Bolivia and the multiplatform newsroom Asuntos Centrales — show that this casa grande is now under siege. According to the analysis, between 2003 and 2023, more than 186,500 hectares (460,900 acres) of forest were cleared across the 48 Indigenous territories of the Bolivian Amazon basin — an area nearly three times the size of Madrid. Of that total, the Bolivian Authority for the Supervision and Social Control of Forests and Land (ABT) authorized only 10%; the remaining 90%, or 168,670 hectares (416,800 acres), was cleared illegally. For Rivelino Segundo, leader of Isoso — the Bolivian Indigenous territory with the largest area of illegal forest clearing, more than 43,000 hectares (106,000 acres) — the deforestation eating into ancestral lands is directly tied to land invasions and an expanding agricultural frontier. Those occupying the land illegally seek to convert forest into farmland, he told Mobgabay: “We are not the ones clearing the land. It is the invaders. [In Isoso], they do it to plant large-scale soy. We, as the Guaraní Indigenous people, coexist with nature.” These findings stem…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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A major international study of the role cortisol plays in reproduction has found it may not be the villain it has been depicted as, and it may actually promote healthy reproduction.

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A University of Queensland study has outlined a practical pathway for accelerating the development of heat-adapted chickpeas using data from new 'omic' technologies. Ph.D. candidate Callum Jamie said the suite of technologies offered tremendous opportunities to understand how a complex trait like heat tolerance works.

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Seabird protections drew debate at the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), held Oct. 5-8 in Brussels. The eight-member multilateral body that manages the stock has long struggled to curb seabird deaths caused by longline fishing targeting southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) across several oceans. This year’s meeting saw a modicum of progress on the issue. Based on recent modeling, the parties agreed on 13 priority seabird species for conservation efforts and designated high-risk areas for them. However, the designations don’t carry any new mandatory protections: Due to the reluctance of some members, the commission stopped short of adopting proposed conservation measures for the high-risk areas, most notably tighter seabird bycatch mitigation requirements. Oliver Yates, head of the marine program at BirdLife International, a U.K.-based NGO, told Mongabay that the identification of high-risk areas was “a good step forward” but said it was a problem that “they’ve not then adopted any management action to accompany the fishing activity in those spatial areas.” “[T]hey recognise bycatch of seabirds is a very serious issue but again agreed to do nothing about it,” Yates, who attended the Brussels meeting, added in a text message. There are more than a dozen RFMOs in the world, with some overlapping geographically but managing different fish stocks. The map shows the five best-known and most commercially important RFMOs, which focus on tuna and tuna-like species. Image courtesy of Pew Charitable Trusts. Sources: U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO Map Catalog.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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About a decade ago, a group of climate scientists described five scenarios for the future. Called the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), these scenarios suggest how socioeconomic development could evolve in worlds with differing challenges to climate adaptation and mitigation.

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Belize is turning to its deep waters to fulfill its pledge to protect 30% of its ocean and achieve the sixth milestone of its Blue Bond agreement. A draft marine spatial plan submitted on Sept. 8 for government approval proposes closing the final gap to 30% by establishing three offshore marine protected areas (MPAs). Officials say the choice serves two ends at once: protecting distinctive deepwater features the country has never fully safeguarded, and steering clear of the coastal grounds fishers depend on. The decision to protect offshore areas emerged from previously agreed criteria for establishing marine protected areas, according to Samir Rosado, who led the plan’s development as head of marine spatial planning at the government’s Coastal Zone Management Authority & Institute (CZMAI). “These criteria contain social as well as ecological considerations for the identification of the areas,” Rosado told Mongabay in an email. “Overwhelmingly, stakeholders expressed their absolute reluctance to increase protections in nearshore areas as they believe this space was already saturated. A gap analysis was done on the representation of ecosystems within the existing MPA network, and it confirmed this.” With more than 50% of Belize’s corals and nearly 40% of its seagrass already within MPAs, he said the underrepresented features of Belize’s MPA network were in the deep. For local fishers who pushed back hard against earlier proposals to close traditional inshore fishing grounds instead, the new zones, sitting well beyond the waters where they work, are welcome. However, experts say this decision is unlikely…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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The fight for survival in the forest is fierce: light, water and nutrients are all limited. This is particularly true in "mast years"—times when trees and shrubs produce an unusually large crop of fruits, nuts or seeds. Then the race for growth is on. But can differences in height between trees in their first year of life make a difference to their future, even if these differences are just one or two centimeters (0.4 or 0.8 inches)?

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Countries highly vulnerable to the phase-out of oil, gas and coal account for just 6% of global economic output, countries in Africa stand to benefit from their vast solar energy potential, and the economic interests of the U.S., Europe and China are affected by climate policy in surprisingly similar ways. A study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) published in Nature Sustainability now shows, for 169 countries around the world, how the fight against global heating affects national assets—and what geopolitical challenges and opportunities arise as a result.

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Authorities in Thailand say they have seized about 400 pieces of African elephant ivory in a shipment of timber from Zambia, and are now testing the contraband to identify the origin of the animals. The tusks were found concealed inside logs in two containers declared as holding processed timber at Laem Chabang Port, Chonburi province, according to an Oct. 7 announcement by the Thai Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP). Thailand’s environment minister, Suchart Chomklin, said in the statement that a team of DNP academics and forensic experts have been asked “to officially inspect and count the confiscated items and conduct DNA testing.” The DNP added the testing will help determine the origin of the elephants from which the ivory was taken. This “will be used to coordinate with [Interpol] to identify the main perpetrators and the destination countries.” “The fact that DNA analysis is being initiated at an early stage demonstrates considerable leadership in the fight against the illegal trafficking of ivory and should assist in determining the source country as it is unlikely that all the ivory in the consignment is from Zambia elephants,” Mary Rice, executive director of the Environmental Investigation Agency U.K., told Mongabay by email. Rice added that another large seizure made earlier this year in Zambia hasn’t yet undergone DNA analysis. Under the regulations of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty, ivory seizures of more than 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) should trigger collection of DNA samples for forensic analysis within 90…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Global wildlife trade authorities say Cambodia has made little progress in cleaning up its monkey export industry, a year after the country was flagged as needing major reforms in how it manages the capture, breeding, and export of monkeys used in biomedical research. In November 2025, following years of controversies, the secretariat of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, issued a series of recommendations to Cambodia. In a document released Oct. 5, CITES stated that limited improvements to Cambodia’s monkey farm governance mean it “cannot confirm or rule out the occurrence of fraud or corruption” in the country’s trade of long-tailed macaques, a species listed as endangered. The statement comes ahead of the Nov. 2-6 CITES Standing Committee meeting in Geneva, where parties to the convention will assess progress made by countries placed under review. Countries unable to meet CITES standards can face trade bans. Monkey poaching has reportedly declined in Cambodia as the populations and habitats of long-tailed macaques are believed to have declined in recent years. Images supplied by source. Cambodia has faced widespread condemnation since a five-year United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) investigation found substantial evidence of Cambodian monkey farms laundering wild-caught monkeys as captive-bred. This, experts have warned, heightens the risk of zoonotic disease spillover — the transmission of pathogens from wildlife to humans — while also posing a threat to Cambodia’s wild population of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis), which dropped between 50% and 70% in the last three decades.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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You may have heard by now that heat pumps — which transfer warmth from outdoor air to an indoor space, instead of generating it like a furnace — don’t work when it gets really cold out. That’s incorrect, as models designed for frigid climes can keep you toasty even in the dead of winter. Don’t believe me? Look no further than the Nordic countries, which have fully committed to them despite the region’s not-exactly-balmy winters.

OK, so heat pumps are more efficient than ever, which is why Americans seem to be warming up to the appliances. But surely, since they’re electric, switching to them en masse will push the grid to collapse? That’s also false. A new report from the energy thinktank RMI finds that thanks to “headroom” in the grid during the winter months, three-quarters of U.S. homes — some 109 million — could adopt the technology, no problem. That would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slash electric bills by over 20 percent in some states.

“A substantial number of homes can upgrade to heat pumps within the headroom today,” said Ryan Shea, a manager in the organization’s buildings team. “We’d be better utilizing the grid capacity that’s already there, that essentially spreads those costs across more kilowatt-hours, and everyone benefits with a lower electricity rate.”

What is this headroom, exactly? It’s the difference between the grid’s generation capacity and demand in winter. Typically, the need for electricity is highest in the summer, when millions of air conditioners gobble tremendous amounts of power. In the winter, many folks instead heat their homes with gas furnaces, so they’re getting that energy elsewhere, relieving strain on the grid. This means that during colder months, there’s additional capacity to provide power.

“That’s where we see moving to heat pumps, adding that electrical load in the winter, where there is all that available grid capacity, is a way to add load to the grid without needing to build it out more,” Shea said. In other words, keeping 109 million heat pumps running through the winter wouldn’t require, say, heaps of new gas-fired power plants.

This buffer, though, isn’t the same state to state or region to region. For one, climates are different: In Phoenix, summers are way hotter than in Boston, requiring more AC, with much milder winters, requiring less heating. How local utilities generate electricity matters, too. Gas power plants can run year-round, but with more solar coming online, generation dips in the winter as the days grow shorter. To compensate for this, utilities are building sprawling battery farms to store energy, and experimenting with using electric vehicles as a vast network of backup power. (They’re even using Earth itself as a giant battery for longer-duration storage.) Either way, renewables and batteries are combining to make the grid more reliable than it is with fossil fuels, and much more flexible no matter the time of year, further reducing costs for ratepayers.

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The US may be hitting a tipping point for heat pumps

Matt Simon

The ultimate goal is for heat pumps to replace fossil fuels as the dominant way of warming and cooling our homes. (Yes, heat pumps can cool a space by transferring warmth from inside to outside.) But they also need to replace electric resistance heating, like space heaters. These appliances are especially common in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast, which endure less punishing winters than the Northeast. These giant toasters are, of course, a better option than a gas furnace, as they’re inherently more efficient and don’t poison homes. But heat pumps are around three to four times more efficient, meaning they require less electricity and therefore demand less from the grid. This could theoretically save households switching from resistance heating an average of $1,530 a year, according to RMI’s previous research.

So how can the U.S. accelerate its shift to heat pumps? For one, AC units that go kaput should be replaced with heat pumps. States can provide rebates to encourage people to make the switch. When a state puts its collective mind to it, the transition can happen faster than you think: Maine (again, another place not known for comfortable winters) blew past its goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps two years ahead of schedule. Oddly enough, simply building more apartments — tackling the housing crisis is a rare bit of agreement between Democrats and Republicans — is a sneaky way to get more heat pumps into units.

Instead of crashing the grid, then, heat pumps working in all American climates (even Alaska) will reduce electricity costs for owners — and rates overall — while making the system as a whole more flexible. As affordability dominates the conversation in American politics, the heat pump could well emerge as a superstar, a rare feat for an appliance. “We really think there’s a reason to include heat pumps within those affordability plans,” Shea said, “and try to really establish some heat pump installation goals.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline A new report just busted another myth about heat pumps on Oct 15, 2026.

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A mushroom is analogous to a flower on a plant — it’s the reproductive organ of a fungus, which protects and distributes fungal spores. Mushrooms are critical part of our ecosystems. For humans and other animals, mushrooms are also food. And they may be part of the solution for food security and solving the plastic crisis. On Oct. 15, World Mushroom Day, we highlight three such stories that Mongabay has covered. Mushrooms can help inspire eco-friendly solutions to problems Mushrooms are helping us create low-cost, sustainable housing materials and additional income for farmers, according to Gabriela D’Elia, director of the Fungal Diversity Survey. In a Mongabay video titled “Fungi are our climate allies” published last year, D’Elia cited examples of projects that are using mushrooms to address food security and waste management. For example, a company called Evocative uses a mushroom called artist’s conk (Ganoderma applanatum) to create materials that can possibly replace leather, plastic, and other packaging materials, D’Elia said. “Fungi are showing us new ways to live in allyship with the planet,” D’Elia added. Golden oyster mushrooms are crowding out native fungi in North America Golden oyster mushrooms, known for their bright yellow caps and earthy flavors, are prized edible mushrooms. They’re native to Asia, but have gained popularity throughout North America, where they’re spreading across forests and displacing native fungal species, a 2025 study found. Aishwarya Veerabahu, lead author and a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S., told Mongabay’s Shreya Dasgupta that the study was prompted by…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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