IWN Daily Digest — Wednesday, 7 October 2026
Researchers at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology have produced the first detailed climate-based assessment of the ibisbill in the north-western Himalayas, finding that warming could widen the area with suitable climate for the bird while boulder mining eats away at its breeding rivers.
As reported by Mongabay India:
“The ibisbill (Ibidorhyncha struthersii), an elusive bird confined to the boulder-strewn mountain rivers of the Himalayas, has long remained one of the region’s least-studied species. Researchers have now produced the first detailed climate-based assessment of the bird in North-Western Himalayas, identifying where its suitable climatic conditions exist today and how they may shift under future warming.”
The study, published in the Journal for Nature Conservation with funding from the Science and Engineering Research Board, ran an ensemble of modelling algorithms over six bioclimatic variables across the Kashmir and Ladakh Himalayas. Mean annual temperature came out as the dominant driver at roughly 60% of relative importance, and the projections show a net expansion of suitable climate, particularly along mid-elevation river corridors.
Khursheed Ahmad, a senior scientist in the division of wildlife sciences at SKUAST-Kashmir, says “Suitable climate alone is not enough.” The ibisbill feeds between stones and under gravel on aquatic insects, larvae and other invertebrates, and its resident breeders in Jammu and Kashmir include those along the Sindh and Lidder rivers, which Ahmad describes as intact braided rivers the bird depends on.
According to the report, boulder and sand mining has severely degraded critical breeding habitat along the Sindh river, and dams, water diversion, urbanisation and plastic pollution add to the pressure, along with the crows, kites and dogs that follow human settlement. The study recommends protecting breeding sites, safeguarding free-flowing Himalayan rivers and bringing river-dependent birds into routine monitoring programmes.
Ankita Sinha, a wildlife biologist at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, points out that the ibisbill is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List, although India has no conclusive population estimate for it.
Mangrove Jackals
Golden jackals are using the mangroves of Satsaida Bet, an island in the Gulf of Kachchh in Gujarat, according to the researchers who found a grassland mesocarnivore living in a tidal forest.
As reported by Down To Earth:
“Fresh tracks recorded after high tide showed movement through the intertidal zone and among mangrove stands. No pack was observed, but the recurrence of animals and pugmarks indicates continuous habitat use.”
The team met golden jackals moving through the intertidal zone in the early morning, and the animals appeared familiar with approaching boat engines, which the researchers read as repeated exposure to people. The jackals use mangrove cover for shade and resting, creek margins as pathways and fishing discards as food, on an island that also holds mudskippers, crabs, coastal birds, juvenile fish, molluscs, reptiles and rodents.
To work out how many jackals there are, how long they stay and what they eat, the researchers propose camera traps, track surveys, genetic analysis of scat, dietary studies and stable-isotope analysis, and they want mammals monitored alongside vegetation in mangrove restoration work.
Sources: Mongabay India · Down To Earth
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