Malaysian conservationists working in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund captured a photo of a critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceros thought to be pregnant, raising hopes that the species on Borneo island may be breeding in the wild. The Sumatran rhino – once widespread on Borneo – is now confirmed to exist only in the northeast state of Sabah, where the photo was taken, and is possibly extinct from its former habitats in Sarawak (Malaysia) and Kalimantan (Indonesia).

A remotely controlled camera set up in a forest in Sabah state on Borneo captured a still picture of the rhino, and another 50 cameras have been set up in the area to gather more information on the females.

It is the first such image in the wild of a female thought to be pregnant, providing cheer to conservationists after the initial failure of a breeding-in-captivity program for the Borneo Sumatran rhino.

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Researchers in Peru have recently filmed the long-whiskered owlet, one of the world’s rarest birds, at La Esperanza, Peru. How rare is this six-inch owlet? It’s estimated that fewer than 15 people have ever seen this bird in the wild.

“The owlet was originally discovered in 1976, but not seen again until 2002. It was seen in 2008 at Abra Patricia where it has also been heard subsequently. This new sighting was at the main research area for the organization Neotropical Primate Conservation — the area is also home to one of the world’s most endangered primates, the yellow-tailed woolly monkey.

“The researchers counted five individuals, making this the largest grouping of owlets ever recorded.”

For video and to read more, visit the American Bird Conservancy

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Thought to have disappeared in the 1970s, the yellow-spotted bell frog (Litoria castanea) was rediscovered in late-2009 in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. Since then, tadpoles have been taken to Sydney’s Taronga Zoo to boost populations through a captive breeding program.

“The Yellow-spotted Bell Frog (Litoria castanea) had not been seen in the wild for almost 30 years and so many people had written the species off as extinct. That was until Luke Pearce spotted what he thought might be one in a small stream on the Southern Tablelands of NSW.

“The Global Amphibian Assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found that 30-50% of amphibians are now threatened with extinction. International scientists such as Dr Kevin Zippel have described the combined threats of loss of habitat, climate change and Chytrid fungus as the perfect storm which could lead to the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs.”

Learn more at www.wildlifeextra.com or read about 30 new frog species discovered in Ecuador.

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Guests on last week’s Amazon River tour aboard La Amatista spotted six primate species: brown capuchins, red howlers, monk sakis, night monkeys, squirrel monkeys and even pygmy marmosets!

The pygmy marmoset (pictured right) is the smallest monkey and – unlike other monkeys – have claws.

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Guests on our September 18 Amazon river tour have already spotted some rarities this week during their daily excursions, including a Hawk Eagle and River Otters! Everyone at the home office hope the lucky folks aboard La Amatista have more extraordinary sightings.

Giant River Otter Facts: This South American River Otter is the world’s largest – up to six feet long – and only lives in the rivers and creeks of the Amazon, Orinoco and La Plata river systems. 

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Researchers from the Illinois Wesleyan University and the University of California, Berkeley have recently described three new species of high-elevation frogs from Peru. These new frog species we found in the cloud forests north of the Inca fortress of Ollantaytambo, Manu National Park and the upper Marcapata valley.

Unlike most other amphibian species, these three species have no tadpoles; the eggs hatch into froglets.

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British researchers from the University of Southampton have found several new species of life – and some that were thought to be extinct – during an in-depth study documenting some of the world’s rarest and most fragile coral reefs in the Galapagos Islands.

“A team from the University of Southampton’s School of Geography has spent three years in the Galapagos Islands studying the reefs of the northern Wolf and Darwin Islands as part of the government-funded Darwin Initiative project.

“Among the discoveries were species not known to live in Galapagos, and some that were previously unknown to science. These include new zooanthid coral species from the genera Hydrozoanthus, Parazoanthus, Antipathozoanthus and possibly Epizoanthus, although Dawson says that the latter may be an entirely new species that hasn’t been put into a family (genera) as yet.”

Read the full story here

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While many of International Expeditions’ guests have joined snorkeling excursions to Belize to swim with whale sharks, the coasts of our home-state of Alabama have reported dozens of whale shark sightings in the past few weeks. Multiple whale sharks have been spotted just off the Alabama Gulf Coast.

“The gigantic fish, perhaps 25 feet long, was seen swimming at the surface, headed north, about five miles off of Orange Beach.

A few days later, a group of scientists searching the same location tagged a whale shark for just the sixth time ever in the northern Gulf.

In other years, scientists said, multiple sightings of whale sharks off Alabama would have been so rare as to be almost unbelievable.

But for the last two weeks, the Alabama coast has been one of the best places in the world to see the ocean’s largest fish, with dozens of sightings reported to a whale shark Web site by fishermen, scuba divers and pilots.”

Read the complete story from the Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register.

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Expedition Leader Zapa reports:

“July in Brazil’s Pantanal is good for spotting mammals. It is still green, even during this dry season, so our group saw many cool things.

“This week guests saw a jaguar near our truck during a spotlighting safari (pictured right), a tapir swimming past our canoes and an anteater taking a bath!”

Thanks in large part to the work of the Jaguar Conservation Project, which IE supports, our guests are reporting more sightings of the elusive jaguar during their Pantanal tours.

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