the university of arizona’s data diversity lab gives researchers a new way to picture the future of life on earth. by blending ecology, evolution, and advanced data science, the lab creates tools aimed to streamline massive biological datasets — allowing scientists to more accurately predict biodiversity loss, climate change, and long-term ecological impacts, along with guiding conservation efforts. 

founded in 2023 and led by ecologist and evolutionary biologist cristian román-palacios, the lab investigates a range of questions about life on earth, such as how urbanization, shifting ecosystems, and culturally learned behaviors affect species and their environments. 

“data science forms the backbone of our research, whether it’s analyzing biological data, predicting patterns behind species extinctions or extracting meaningful data from letters written by students demanding social justice in academia,” the lab’s mission reads. 

much of the data diversity lab’s work involves developing new algorithms and computational tools that can be applied to real-world problems. 

“for the lab, i wanted to assemble a group of students and researchers who would collaborate on diverse topics,” román-palacios said. “rather than restricting themselves to specific areas, they would bring curiosity to provide input and feedback, ask questions, and critically examine work outside their particular disciplines, drawing on their fundamental and transversal knowledge.”

datasets developed by the lab have supported research on topics such as freshwater fish diversity, plant evolution, climate-driven extinctions, and changes to access in natural spaces worldwide. taken together, this work offers a clearer picture of how species — and the ecosystems they rely on — are responding to unprecedented environmental shifts. 

román-palacios explained that his goal for starting the lab extended beyond his formal training in biology. “the lab emerged from my ever-growing interest in how biology permeates not only our basic understanding of nature, but also how we see human societies and understand social conflict, inequalities and other phenomena,” román-palacios said.

on-the-ground impact

the data diversity lab comes to life through its postdoctoral researchers, who each contribute their own specialties of research to the broader mission of understanding and having access to data on biodiversity.

among the researchers pushing this mission forward is ian estacio, whose work bridges ecology, public health, and urban planning. estacio studies socio-ecological systems — the complex networks of people, landscapes and biological communities that shape modern life. 

according to estacio, one of the factors impacting biodiversity the most is land use change, including urbanization. 

“modeling and analyzing socio-ecological systems enable researchers to understand the effects of human-environment interactions on biodiversity,” estacio said.

estacio studies how people and the environment influence each other, using maps, satellite imagery, and computer simulations to uncover those relationships. he explained that he gathers information through spatial science techniques, such as remote sensing, geographic information systems, and agent-based modeling, to acquire datasets on factors like air temperature, vegetation, population or land use.

from there, he uses models to simulate interactions between humans, wildlife and landscapes. according to estacio, these models allow him to test how new policies or urban planning decisions might affect biodiversity, heat exposure and environmental equity. 

the biggest challenge with socio-ecological modeling is accurately capturing the spatial processes that weave together social and environmental datasets, according to estacio. “modeling will always be an abstraction of reality — hence, there will always be limitations in modeling research,” estacio said. 

he explained that validation methods ensure that simulations match observable patterns, and thus can create reliable outcomes. 

one of estacio’s research focuses is urban heat islands — areas within urban areas that become significantly hotter than surrounding areas due to buildings, roads, and other surfaces that trap and radiate heat. this can create higher energy use, poorer air quality, and increased health risks. 

according to estacio, his main goal within the data diversity lab is to contribute to more sustainable planning of cities. “i hope that in the future, desert cities like tucson can use the findings of my research to promote environmental justice and build sustainable cities,” estacio said. 

from identifying areas at greatest risk of extreme heat to evaluating the cooling effects of new design strategies, he explained that his simulations offer tools for city planners, public health officials, and local governments to plan for future climate change. 

“we hope our research can pinpoint solvable issues and preventable pitfalls regarding ecosystem conservation,” román-palacios said. “through our findings, we aim to inform impactful decisions that foster conservation efforts and manage biodiversity on our planet.”

better data, better biodiversity

another major aspect of the lab’s work focuses on understanding biodiversity on a global scale, often through tools designed to make complex ecological questions accessible to researchers everywhere.

kristen martinet, a postdoctoral researcher specializing in biodiversity modeling, develops and refines computational tools that help scientists measure how species diversity changes across different landscapes. 

one of her central projects is the r package ssarp — the species-/speciation-area relationship projector — which models patterns such as species distributions, extinction risk, and environmental change. according to martinet, her interest in tool-building began during graduate school, when she found herself limited by poor software or databases.

“as a graduate student, i often felt frustrated that there were very few tools that would help me answer the biological questions on which i wanted to focus,” martinet said. “if tools did exist, they were often poorly documented and hadn’t been maintained in years.” 

that gap pushed her to create the tools she needed. while studying island-dwelling lizards, martinet developed a code pipeline to understand how non-native species affected species-area relationships — a foundational ecological principle describing how the number of species changes with the amount of land area. 

“i wanted to ensure that the code pipeline i developed to conduct this research was well-documented and openly available for other researchers with similar questions to use for their own work,” martinet said. “this pipeline became my first r package, ssarp.”

today, ssarp helps researchers quantify and visualize biodiversity trends by standardizing how they use occurrence records — the millions of species observations stored in online databases like the global biodiversity information facility. these records make it possible to determine how many species live on a given island or landmass, which is the information needed to infer species-area relationships and speciation-area relationships.

“the ssarp r package makes quantifying and visualizing patterns of biodiversity on a global scale more accessible,” martinet said. “trends in biodiversity are often disrupted by anthropogenic effects, such as habitat loss and fragmentation. island systems are uniquely threatened due to their isolation, so monitoring island biodiversity is critical for conservation.”

looking ahead, martinet said she hopes ssarp and future tools will help researchers compare biodiversity patterns at a global scale — something historically difficult due to inconsistent datasets and computational barriers. 

“my hope is that the easily accessible nature of the tools i develop will allow more researchers to ask questions about biodiversity in their study systems,” martinet said. “making global comparisons more accessible will hopefully lead us to a clearer picture of the world’s biodiversity.”

building on the lab’s focus with biodiversity, kiran basava studies another layer of life on earth — cultural diversity in animals and humans. basava explained that she looks at behaviors animals learn from each other, such as how they find food, avoid predators, communicate, migrate, and build habitats. 

according to basava, understanding these behaviors can help scientists understand how species respond to changes in the environment. 

“​​the consideration of cultural diversity or socially learned behaviors has important implications for how species respond to climate change and other human-caused disturbances to the environment,” basava said.

by combining this information with existing biodiversity data, basava explained that scientists can see patterns that show how species adapt or struggle when their ecosystems are altered. “by bringing together information on animal behaviors, we can better understand how species survive and thrive,” basava said. “this can help guide conservation efforts and protect biodiversity for the future.”

the data diversity lab also ensures that diversity, equity, and inclusion remain central to the way scientists conduct research and collect data. the lab shapes data inclusion not as an extension to research, but as a core part to its identity. “our commitment to diversity and inclusion isn’t a separate initiative but a part of our lab’s dna,” its mission reads.

“our research seeks to advance understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes while educating the public about these critical issues,” román-palacios said. 

for román-palacios and his team, the future of biodiversity research depends not only on stronger models and better data, but on broadening the amount of scientists who can use those tools.

a study published aug. 4 in nature ecology & evolution outlines a recent breakthrough in sea star wasting disease (sswd) research: scientists have identified a causative agent.

sswd emerged unexpectedly in 2013 and quickly spread along the pacific coast. it destroys the tissue within sea stars, deforming their arms and causing them to break off. since 2013, it has killed billions of sea stars, including more than 90% of sunflower sea stars.

especially on the coast of california, sunflower sea star populations have been decimated, causing trophic cascades in kelp forest ecosystems. die-offs have led to a boom in sea urchins, which have then depleted kelp, their primary food source.

“there’s a lot of regions along the california coast where the kelp forests are severely declined and that has huge impacts,” a doctoral student in the school of aquatic and fisheries sciences, grace crandall, said.

kelp acts as a carbon sink, making it crucial for combating global warming, crandall explained.

a 2014 study suggested a virus as the causative agent of sswd, leading initial research in that direction. instead, the causation was found to be a bacterium known as vibrio pectenicida.

researchers used a method known as koch’s postulate to identify the cause of sswd. they began by performing a series of experiments to identify whether the disease was transmissible. they then boiled a sample of coelomic fluid, which is comparable to the human bloodstream, of the diseased sea star to determine whether the cause was alive. the boiled sample was no longer infectious, suggesting that the disease is caused by a living source, rather than environmental conditions.

researchers used a subtractive technique to isolate the causative agent; they removed everything from the diseased sample that was also highly present in the healthy sample.

“there’s this one type of bacteria that was hugely abundant in these sick stars that was not present in the healthy stars,” jason hodin, a senior research scientist at friday harbor labs (fhl), said.

this finding was a match for vibrio pectenicida fhcf-3, the same genus of bacteria that causes cholera (vibrio cholerae) in humans.

in early 2024, there was an outbreak of sswd at the friday harbor laboratories (fhl), a uw marine research station. scientists were able to isolate the full sequence of the bacterium from that sample for the first time

“the title of the paper talks about a strain called fhcf-3, and the fh in that is friday harbor,” hodin said.

the bacterium found in sea stars afflicted with sswd was a match to a scallop larval culture in france, indicating that it may have jumped species. identifying what drove the outbreak in sea stars is a next step for the research, according to hodin.

researchers are also looking to breed sea stars with more resistance to the disease. ochre stars, for instance, are already showing signs of recovery, indicating that they’ve developed some resistance to sswd. by breeding the most resistant stars, scientists could utilize artificial selection for recovery efforts. additionally, researchers could inject sea stars with a low dose of sswd, which would function similarly to a vaccine. however, scientists are uncertain whether sea stars’ immune systems work in a way that would be amenable to this.

a treatment for the disease has already been developed by the oregon coast aquarium. the process involves altering environmental conditions so that sea stars have the strength to fight off the disease themselves.

“[sea stars] are actually very robust and adaptable organisms, but they have this specific sensitivity to this disease,” hodin said.

to treat sswd, scientists put the sea stars in cooler water, adjust the ph, clean their wounds using iodine, and add probiotics to the water to support the sea stars’ microbiomes.

that afflicted sea stars heal in colder water is one piece of evidence of a correlation between sswd and warmer water temperatures.

“in 2014, there was a massive marine heat wave that coincided with the outbreak of this disease,” hodin said.

exploring this correlation is another next step for researchers.

if you stumble upon a diseased sea star while tidepooling, crandall suggests documenting it with an app like inaturalist.

“a way that people can help is if they see a sea star that looks like it’s sort of melting or has white spots or its arms are twisted up, to not touch it,” crandall said.

if you do touch the diseased sea star, wash your hands before touching anything else to prevent transmission, crandall recommends.

israel ceballos stands outside his condo in university village with a tupperware container full of orange peels and a handful of breadcrumbs. his husband, paul matylonek, sits inside, surrounded by eight día de los muertos ofrendas and two leather suitcases from his polish immigrant parents.

“i feed 50 birds right here, and six squirrels,” ceballos says. “when i whistle, they all show up.”

ceballos isn’t exaggerating. with one whistle, dozens of house sparrows creep out from tree branches to snack on ceballos’s offerings. above, a squirrel nest overlooks the couple’s newly completed project, nearly two decades in the making: the morgan street community garden.

a dream takes root

lifelong midwesterners, ceballos and matylonek met at church on father’s day, 28 years ago. ceballos recalls seeing “a handsome man” light a candle for his recently deceased father, and the rest was history. before transforming this patch of land into a thriving space, the pair spent years cultivating life in their own backyard. they planted milkweed to attract and raise monarch butterflies — a quiet practice that would later echo through their larger work, bringing nature and meaning to their neighborhood.

inspiration for the garden came after the pair realized that the land behind their home, owned by the burlington-norfolk and santa fe (bnsf) railway company, had served as a dumping ground for debris for years. after the railway failed to respond to their emails seeking permission to clean up the plot, ceballos and matylonek went ahead on their own in may, enlisting neighbors and friends to help. 

once they had hauled away about 40 industrial trash bags of debris, the pair invested $1,000 of their own funds to build a small, raised garden bed on the plot. they also sent a request to community members asking for donations of pots for the garden, as the soil was likely unsuitable for growth.

this simple community act led to what is now chicago native garden projects, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and maintaining native plant habitats in chicago.

“i just wanted something that the community could enjoy,” ceballos said. “nothing makes me happier than walking by and seeing people sitting here.”

ceballos said that many people wanted to help, but couldn’t deliver equipment, so the pair changed their request and asked for monetary donations. over the past six months, ceballos estimates that over 60 donors have raised around $13,000 in donations and materials for the community garden. the chicago department of streets and sanitation donated paint and a city garbage can to the cause, while 25th ward alderman byron sigcho lopez attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the garden in september.

“it’s opened up my eyes to the community itself, dealing with people who don’t live in my building, but have donated and have helped,” university village resident and volunteer jesus palacios said. “you turn from a neighbor into a friend.”

under ceballos and matylonek’s leadership, what was once a patch of waste transformed into a neighborhood effort that now includes over 300 native plants across 90 species.

community efforts bear fruit

nearly 60% of the world’s population now resides in urban environments, and increased urbanization has caused a substantial loss in native biodiversity. as a result, planting native species offers benefits that extend beyond neighborhood aesthetics, helping to repair some of the ecological damage caused by urban infrastructure. within city landscapes, native species have proven to outperform non-native species, providing critical habitat and food sources for pollinators, arthropods, and other local wildlife. 

in addition to ecological benefits, expanding access to urban green spaces enhances climate resilience while benefiting human wellbeing. a 2016 world health organization report synthesizing multiple studies found, among other things, that urban green spaces may be linked to improved immune system function, enhanced mental health and cognitive performance, reduced exposure to air pollution, and an increase in pro-environmental behaviors. together, these benefits illustrate how small-scale urban gardening efforts can connect people to the planet. 

for ceballos and matylonek, however, they see that growth less as an achievement in horticulture and more as proof of what trust, kindness, and transparency can build.

“you don’t know until you put yourself out there,” ceballos said. “what i’ve learned is you’ve got to let the fear go.”

although ceballos and matylonek seem stunned at the community’s outpouring of support, secretary of cgnp danielle orihuela said that it isn’t surprising at all.

“[israel] has always been the person to be able to talk to anybody. he’s captivating,” orihuela said. “i think those are the most important things that make a leader: do you actually care about the people sitting next to you? do you want to get to know them? you level with them as an equal, and i think both of them are like that.”

their approach to fundraising reflects that same ethos. instead of chasing publicity, they invite people to participate through dedicated containers, which often honor loved ones.

one pilsen resident dedicated her garden container to her recently deceased brother and stops by once a month to honor his memory. nearby, another container holds soil mixed with the ashes of a neighbor’s son. to ceballos and matylonek, these aren’t just plants: they’re reminders that what they’ve cultivated goes beyond the garden boundaries.

“it was these two that i realized, we’re really doing something right,” ceballos said. “people want to memorialize; they want to remember their loved ones. they don’t know how or where, so people found solace in that. it goes to show that you just don’t know how you’re going to impact people.”

this fall, ceballos and matylonek opened their home during día de los muertos as part of their expanded fundraising efforts. in exchange for a small donation, ceballos guided visitors through their many ofrendas – traditional memorials for dia de los muertos, or the day of the dead — and explained the holiday’s history. monarchs, once fluttering through their backyard, reappeared as symbols of the season, woven throughout the altars to represent the souls of ancestors returning home.

matylonek also offered visitors insight into his family history, explaining how his parents immigrated to the united states from eastern poland.

with the end of the gardening season, volunteers will continue to maintain the grounds and prepare for spring.

“i think we’re living in a society where it’s a little dark,” palacios said. “working together and seeing the different colors and shapes and sizes of people helps so much and brings the community together.”

palacios said he’s come to understand why the garden keeps growing, not just with plants, but with people.

“[israel and paul] have such a beautiful view … they’re so kind, i think that’s also why people want to help,” he said. “you just become one, and i think they are the glue to everything.”

we were navigating the beagle channel, on our way to omora ethnobotanical park, located 3 km west of puerto williams, the capital of the chilean antarctic province.

as the boat was moving and crossing the cold subantarctic waters, the landscape and glacial peaks made me realize that holding a bird in the hand for a single moment is a powerful reminder of the vulnerability of wildlife and the responsibility of researchers.

birds are commonly infected by blood parasites transmitted by various species of mosquitoes, flies, and midges. in hawai‘i, the introduction of blood parasites in native birds was found to decrease the bird population and cause the extinction of endemic hawaiian honeycreepers.

previous studies in chile have documented blood parasites in several species. juan rivero de aguilar, ph.d., an associate researcher at the cape horn international center for global change studies and biocultural conservation, took me on board on one of his field expeditions to understand and know more about these blood parasite infections in this subantarctic region of the world.

birds in the wild may often appear perfectly healthy; however, blood parasites may be circulating within them without any obvious symptoms. collecting a small blood sample from birds allows researchers to understand the health and the effect that these blood parasites can have on bird populations and the ecosystem.

so i would like to ask: how many hidden threats to wildlife remain invisible to the human eye in a single moment?

almost everyone has, at some point or another, walked into a glass door or screen. after shaking off the initial embarrassment and checking to see if there were any witnesses, the consequences are usually mild. however, the same cannot be said for many birds. while humans learn to adapt and avoid these obstacles, a single window strike for a bird can result in severe injury or death. in the united states, building collisions, due to glass, lead to over 1 billion bird deaths every year. 

now, companies around the world are racing to develop glass with innovative designs, patterns, and elements that birds can see and, hopefully, avoid. despite this influx of “bird-safe” glass products, there are only two testing sites in the entire united states – both run by the american bird conservancy – that assess whether these glass designs are truly effective. these testing tunnels use groundbreaking methods and rigorous field research to examine the functionality of bird-safe glass. one such tunnel, located deep in rural maryland, is on the front lines of the fight to conserve and protect birds across the world.

you can also see the first installment of patched wings here!

deep within the rainforests of the central african republic’s dzanga-sangha protected areas, conservation teams are fighting to safeguard one of the last strongholds of the african forest elephant. 

here, in a clearing known as dzanga bai, forest elephants gather by the hundreds — one of the few places on earth where this critically endangered species can be observed in such numbers.

what makes dzanga bai — meaning “village of elephants” in sango — so attractive to these african giants? the minerals in the soil. 

rich in magnesium, calcium, and potassium, the soil at dzanga bai is beneficial to forest elephants’ digestive and reproductive health. long before the diamond mining industry came to define the central african republic, elephants were “mining” the soil in dzanga bai — digging up the mineral-rich soil and shaping the landscape itself. 

dzanga bai is more than an elephant stronghold. it’s home to two types of antelopes — bongos and sitatungas — and the giant forest hog, the world’s largest wild pig.

in essence, dzanga bai is a rare watering hole for the congo basin’s most precious mammal species.

but dzanga bai’s openness also makes it a point of vulnerability: ivory poachers have long targeted the clearing, including a 2013 massacre that killed at least 26 elephants in a single day. 

today, dzanga-sangha’s eco-guards, local researchers, and indigenous ba’aka trackers work in tandem to protect the bai and monitor the herd, work that has helped stabilize elephant numbers here even as populations collapse across the congo basin region. 

but as poaching remains a threat, the survival of dzanga bai depends on constant conservation presence.

preserving the herd

the journey to dzanga bai is an arduous one, through dense bush and waist-deep rivers of dzanga-sangha. indigenous ba’aka trackers lead research teams in silence along trails shaped by frequent elephant traffic. one tracker was killed by an elephant in 2021, so groups are urged to remain quiet and vigilant along the trek. 

before you reach dzanga bai, you can hear it — a soundscape straight out of “jurassic park” echoes for miles.

when the forest opens, the sight is staggering: over 150 elephants roam this open expanse in the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest.

for research assistant timothée dieu sauve, this dramatic trek is simply his daily commute. working with the world wildlife fund-car and the elephant listening project, dieu sauve camps out everyday at dzanga bai’s timber observation platform to document the wildlife activities of the bai.

“this has allowed us to better understand not only the number of elephants and other species that visit,” dieu sauve said. “it has helped us identify [elephants] and understand their interactions.”

the secret language of elephants

because forest elephants typically live within dense rainforests, dzanga bai is unique not just for its mineral deposits but also as an open space for social behavior.

here, researchers can study the complex acoustic communication among elephants.

the elephant listening project, a cornell university study founded in 2000, has spent over two decades recording the bai’s soundscape, using acoustic recorders placed throughout the forest. researchers have analyzed sounds ranging from powerful distress roars reaching 117 decibels to low-frequency rumbles used to locate other members of herds. 

many elephant calls are infrasonic — undetectable to human ears — yet able to travel miles through the forest.

each day, researchers record the symphony of elephants, ranging from inaudible to deafening noises, in an effort to understand the interior lives of the largest land mammals.

researchers even hypothesize that elephants communicate abstract emotions such as grief. but much of the forest elephants’ acoustic language is yet to be understood.

dzanga bai serves as a living laboratory for researchers as they work to translate the language of forest elephants.

at the edge of extinction

of the african elephant species, the forest elephant is most threatened by poaching, according to the international union for conservation of nature and natural resources. in dzanga bai, the exposed forest clearing makes these elephant herds even more of a target for ivory and bushmeat poaching in the dzanga-sangha protected areas.

for this reason, an armed wildlife protection unit of so-called eco-guards patrol the perimeter of dzanga bai daily to deter illegal hunting. 

but there hasn’t always been this level of investment in the forest elephants’ protection. wwf vice president of african forests allard blom, ph.d., has been studying these forest elephants for over four decades, and when the protected areas were first established in 1990, he recalled a prevailing belief among conservationists that forest elephants were in less need of protection than their savanna counterparts because they lived in hard-to-reach forests.

“people were saying at that time, ‘forest elephants are fine. we don’t have to worry about it. there are plenty of forest elephants. they’re not getting poached at all, because nobody can hunt in the forest,’” blom said. “which was complete nonsense.”

according to blom, elephant poaching in dzanga-sangha has worsened in recent years, requiring constant vigilance. and in 2021, forest elephants were listed as a critically endangered species due to increased ivory poaching.

but monitoring elephant populations is not an easy task in highly remote locations like dzanga-sangha. so every five years, the wwf-car team conducts a wildlife inventory across more than 1 million acres of its dense rainforests. 

wwf-car program director antoine edé uses these surveys to track population health across the protected areas and determine where eco-guards must be stationed. the wwf-car conservation team surveys wildlife populations through a handful of inventory methods, including “dung counts” of elephant feces and edna from leaf swabs. 

results from past inventories are clear: nonviolent, persistent eco-guard presence directly correlates with stable mammal populations.

and among all species in this corner of the congo basin, edé says none is more critical to monitor than the forest elephant.

“it’s a keystone species for the forest,” edé said. “and it’s a good indicator of what’s around because it’s one of the most butchered species.”

as of this year’s inventory, edé reported that elephant populations have held stable in dzanga-sangha, indicating that conservation efforts are working at dzanga bai and throughout the protected areas — but only so long as they continue.

so when it comes to protecting forest elephants, there are no off days at dzanga bai.

each morning, researchers like dieu sauve return to the platform to listen — to the roars, the rumbles, and the inaudible pulses traveling through the rainforest — while the elephants, the ancient miners of dzanga bai, continue to unearth the minerals that sustain them.

in the dry fields of sankoyo, a village of less than 200 people where land cruisers speed by on their way to the okavango delta’s hippo-dotted lagoons, thekiso bayei, a petite mother of five, is in a battle against a 15,000-pound herbivore. 

she says she saw it yesterday, waiting just outside her fence. 

“we used to harvest crops to feed our children,” thekiso said, holding a handful of seeds. she’s not planting today, but she still likes to hold them. now, every harvest season, thekiso awakens one morning to a broken fence and a field picked clean of crops: “they only leave footprints and dung.”

it’s hard to farm when you live next to the world’s largest population of african elephants. sankoyo is one of a few dozen villages in botswana stuck between over 130,000 elephants and the kalahari desert. the delta’s rising elephant population — often celebrated as a conservation success — has taken a devastating toll on the indigenous villagers who have farmed its riverbanks since the 18th century. 

as the world debates what to do with botswana’s elephants, some farmers in sankoyo have made up their minds. 

“i want elephants to be killed,” thekiso said.

the farmers and the elephants

“long ago, we used to harvest so much food we even left some crops in the field,” qumokaake, an 81-year-old grandmother, said. “today, we die of hunger because you have to buy food to survive.” 

like most farmers in northwest botswana, qumokaake said it’s been years since elephants left her crops alone. the southern african nation’s elephant population spiked from about 80,000 in 1996 to over 130,000 by 2023. that’s over one third of africa’s elephants, mostly concentrated in a region smaller than ireland where no fences separate wildlife from villages.

“we don’t stop plowing, even if we know the elephants will come,” qumokaake said, pulling weeds from her maize. “farming is our life.”

a few hundred yards from qumokaake’s garden, a safari truck kicks up dust. 

inside the open-air truck, safari-goers and their african guide risk the bumpy dirt road that skirts sankoyo. most foreign tourists to the okavango fly over the village on chartered flights that land at luxury safari lodges. they likely never know sankoyo exists, let alone that the village just seven miles from moremi game reserve is among the poorest in a nation with one of the world’s highest rates of wealth inequality.

botswana, known as a sanctuary for southern africa’s wildlife, has done so well conserving its elephants with strict anti-poaching policies that some scientists say the population is now overpopulated. researchers largely attribute this rise to thousands of elephants migrating into botswana to escape poaching and conflict in surrounding nations.

the notion of too many majestic elephants may be lost on westerners, but it’s not a hard concept to grasp for locals who live in daily fear of attacks by hungry giants.

“they killed two people,” kobamelo simalumba, a 78-year-old farmer in sankoyo, said. “one called sangwana shalenshando and one called fwafwa.”

since 2018, injuries and deaths from wildlife have increased by about 80% in the okavango delta. botswana reported 60 people killed by wildlife, mostly elephants, between 2018 and 2023. 

in the forests around sankoyo, trees are stripped of leaves and stunted at elephant-trunk height. while the african elephant is still very much endangered on the continent as a whole, it’s more complicated in botswana specifically. 

“we have so many elephants,” said monty montshiwa, an ecologist who leads human-wildlife conflict mitigation programs at wildentrust, a botswana non-governmental organization (ngo). “the population is so high, and it ravages the whole ecosystem.”

as the mammals step on trees, lift thatched roofs off houses, and rip up water pipes, locals are desperate for solutions. 

“where is the balance?” montshiwa asks. “what is it that can be done for co-existence?”

a trophy hunting debate

timex moalassi, chief of sankoyo, thinks trophy hunting is part of the solution.

“we don’t say, ‘let’s just kill elephants for the sake of killing,’” said moalassi, who traveled to london last spring to argue against a proposed trophy hunting ban. “we say, ‘let’s hunt a certain number of elephants per year for a fee so that we can manage the environment and make developments in our settlement.’”

the village’s community trust recently approved the auction of 83 wild animals — including 15 elephants — to a trophy hunting operator for an estimated $326,618. the sale will add nearly double the income the village gets from leasing land to safari lodges to its annual budget. 

sankoyo is one of many villages electing to bring back trophy hunters after botswana lifted its hunting ban in 2019. the return of trophy hunters sparked backlash from western animal rights groups. locals see it as a lifeline, however.

“people outside our country don’t want us to kill our animals because they are rich,” galefete kettwaeletswe, sankoyo’s deputy chief, said. “us here, we are poor.”

botswana issued a quota of 400 elephant hunting licenses in 2025. every year, sankoyo’s trust will now receive a certain portion of those licenses to sell. residents hope trophy hunters will solve their elephant problem and “push the animals far away from us,” as lesego ntaashuma said, but it’s not that simple.

according to joseph mbaiwa, a scientist at the okavango research institute, killing 400 elephants — about 0.003% of botswana’s total population — will have minimal impact.

“have you ever seen somebody hitting a wall? it will remain as it is,” mbaiwa said. “it doesn’t do a dent to the elephant population. it will keep on going up.” 

if people want to keep farming alongside the elephants, they’ll need more than cash. mbaiwa said communities also need mitigation strategies like electric fences and lights over their fields.

but these ideas rarely get implemented. dikatholo kedikilwe said his neighbors are more familiar with the idea of shooting pesky elephants. he’s trying to show them a different way.

dikatholo is mixing chili peppers with elephant dung and letting the mixture burn in his fields. elephants dislike the spicy smoke and stay away. dikatholo said he hopes a donor will fund his chili pepper project so he can grow enough peppers for all of sankoyo.

“it’s really promising, but the main challenge is funds,” dikatholo said. “we need water for the chili peppers. it’s a struggle.”

under the shade of a giant raintree near the middle of the village, dikatholo and his neighbors gather for a budget meeting. they have to decide how to spend the estimated $326,618 of hunting revenue. still no funding for his peppers, but the village does settle on items like school scholarships, village electrification, and payments to the elderly.

as the sun sets over the raintree, the village votes to accept the budget funded by the sale of 15 elephants. people are quick to get home.

the lions come out after dark.

“maybe the elephants won’t come”

thekiso’s knee aches as she pulls tufts of fingergrass from the side of the road. like many elderly women in sankoyo, she spends her mornings pulling weeds for ipelegeng, botswana’s unemployment program, for 620 pula or $44 a month. 

most of her children and grandchildren left sankoyo years ago. there are few jobs in the village besides pulling weeds for the government. most young people gave up on farming after a childhood of elephant-raids, but the women in patterned dresses still go out into their fields, every day after ipelegeng, to tend to their crops. the rains have been good this year, and their crops are growing well.  

when thekiso gets home from ipelegeng, she sets down her cane and watches her garden. her beloved maize, watermelon, and pumpkins are safe, for now.

“maybe i have a chance to harvest,” thekiso said. “maybe the elephants won’t come.” out in the mopane forest, an elephant trumpets.

have you ever seen a bird fly into a window? if you have, chances are you’re not alone. building collisions account for over 1 billion bird deaths in the united states every year. this, along with other human factors, has led to a nearly 30% decline in the overall population of birds in north america over the past 50 years, impacting crop production, seed dispersal, and the billion-dollar birding industry. 

yet, across the country, organizations continue to fight for our avian friends, even in the face of mounting adversity. one such group, city wildlife, a rehabilitation center on the outskirts of the nation’s capital, has made it their mission to stop as many bird deaths as possible. their lights out dc initiative has been especially impactful, not only raising public awareness about the dangers of artificial light during migration seasons but also driving meaningful legislative change through years of hands-on work.

bats have a bad reputation, according to owen hejna, an ecologist at the lincoln park zoo in chicago. many people have a “horrible misconception” that bats are good for spreading rabies, sucking blood, and not much else, hejna said.

but the bat tracker community science project, an initiative through the lincoln park zoo’s urban wildlife institute (uwi), seeks to change that.

hejna, a 2024 graduate of loyola university of chicago, is the community science coordinator of uwi’s bat monitoring program. the initiative brings together volunteers in the chicagoland area for a unique citizen science project, while simultaneously educating the public about the benefits of bats.

for instance, according to hejna, bats are not only critical for pollinating crops and reducing nocturnal pests like mosquitos: they are also responsible for saving lots of money in the agricultural industry. by eating pests — such as lepidopterans, or moths — they protect crops, in turn saving an estimated $1 billion in the corn industry alone, according to a stanford university study.

how the bat tracker works

established in 2018, the bat tracker program gathers volunteers for “bat walks” to conduct acoustic monitoring. this monitoring allows uwi to collect data about bat populations and the challenges they face in chicago. the bat walks take place in 25 different locations, including recent expansions to neighborhoods in the south side and the city of evanston.

volunteers walk a roughly hourlong route at their monitoring site, equipped with a backpack, a microphone that picks up ultrasonic noise, and an ipad that receives the data. the technology, called echo meter, is able to identify bat species based on their calls. the team at uwi then uses this information to visualize the activity of bat populations in different regions of the city. in 2024, 7,300 bat calls were recognized over the course of 105 bat walks. 

this mobile monitoring is supplemented by stationary monitoring systems, where ultrasonic recorders are strapped to trees in a forest reserve. for over a week, the recorders collect data from sunset to sunrise each night. the stationary monitoring project mostly takes place at different locations from the bat walks, including natural spaces as far outside of chicago as the palos forest preserves south of the city and preserves near o’hare airport. this “urban-rural gradient” is used to “analyze how bats are using natural areas at different levels of urbanization,” hejna wrote in an email.

helping chicago’s bats thrive

so how is the data put to use? hejna said that the goal of the bat monitoring program is to study how cities can “build up [their] green spaces to better suit urban bat populations.” 

while agricultural benefits don’t necessarily apply to downtown chicago, bats also provide a wealth of advantages in urban spaces, including maintaining urban biodiversity, according to hejna. 

additionally, keeping track of bat populations allows scientists like hejna to monitor the spread of white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has been decimating north american bat populations for more than 20 years. the program’s establishment in 2018 was largely in response to the initial detection of white-nose syndrome in illinois.

the community engagement aspect of the program also strives to decrease the stigma around urban bat populations. getting volunteers involved allows people to learn that bats are present (and even prevalent) in chicago, and to understand how to appropriately handle human-wildlife interactions with bats.

the data collected from bat walks can also be used to determine the impacts of some of the “anthropomorphic” characteristics of chicago that bat populations struggle with, such as urban noise, artificial light, and human-wildlife interactions, according to hejna.

in turn, hejna said, this information gives city planners and engineers better insight to inform city planning so that “urban areas can be better planned with wildlife in mind.”

before finches or red-footed boobies could be found nesting in trees, before even those trees, the pioneer species of the galápagos created gorgeous landscapes out of a lava-ridden barren landscape.

the galápagos islands were formed from tectonic plate movements that created hot spots where magma has been able to seep through and erupt to form the volcanos that line the galápagos landscape, according to the charles darwin research center. the lava fields found on the shores of islands like santiago and bartolomé are the marks left behind by eruptions from these still very active volcanos. on islands formed from volcanic rock and ash, how can there be grass, trees, and animals inhabiting these barren expanses?

that is where pioneer species come in. pioneer species are the very first organisms that grow on newly formed, barren environments or the first to repopulate environments after they have experienced disruptions. these mosses and succulents break down the lava rock into soil that can be used by intermediate trees and shrubs that in turn cycle nutrients and help to stabilize the soil. on the galápagos, these pioneer species include lava cacti, mollugo, mangroves, and more. without these plants, the rest of the national park the world has grown to marvel would never have existed.

this photo gallery captures a number of the pioneer species that can be found on the galápagos islands, from isabela to genovesa.

lava cactus (brachycereus nesioticus) found on the island of isabela. (avril silva)

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red mangrove (rhizophora mangle) found on the island of genovesa. (avril silva)

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mollugo (mollugo flavescens) found on the lava fields of santiago island. (avril silva)

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the dried chamisa plant (ericameria nauseosa) shown here on santiago island is otherwise known as sage, but it should not be confused with the aromatic spice. (avril silva)

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found on bartolomé island, the gray matplant (tiquilia nesiotica) is endemic to the galápagos islands. (avril silva)

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this amalgamation of plants found on santiago island includes the galápagos leatherleaf (maytenus octogona), rabbitbrush (ericameria nauseosa) and gray matplant (tiquilia nesiotica), according to a galápagos-certified naturalist guide.

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nesting between cracks of volcanic rock, this mollugo flavescens was found on santiago island. (avril silva)

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