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Spoorthy Raman

I love words. I admire science. I put them together to be a science writer. I evolved into an environment journalist and won a few awards. As a Staff Writer at Mongabay, I now write about all things wild. 

I also fact-check, edit and teach the craft of science writing.

Photo by Nico Marín on Pexels

Featured Work

Mongabay Environmental News •

Sun, sand and skulls: Bali tourism trade peddles threatened primate skulls

Charmed by the picturesque beaches and enchanting temple complexes, millions of tourists flock each year to the tiny Indonesian island of Bali to experience its unique culture and art. When they leave, many take home a piece of Bali in the form of souvenirs, such as carvings, pottery or textiles. Unbeknown to them, some may even be committing a crime if they pick up primate skulls — a commodity openly sold in Bali’s curio shops, despite it being illegal.

A recent study, published in the journal...
Mongabay Environmental News •

New evidence spells massive trouble for world’s sharks, rays and chimaeras

Evolution has perfected the world’s sharks and rays for more than 420 million years. Unlike the ammonites or pterosaurs that they once shared the oceans with, sharks and rays persevered through five mass extinctions. But now, their resilience has been put to test by a human folly: overfishing. In 2023, the Java stingaree (Urolophus javanicus) became the first marine fish on record to have gone extinct because of humans. If our current fishing trends continue, it won’t be the last, scientists war...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Africa’s little-known golden cat gets a conservation boost, with community help

It was mid-2008. Mwezi “Badru” Mugerwa was almost done with his bachelor’s degree in forestry, an academic field that had trained him to view forests as a resource for extraction. However, as he inched closer to graduation, the idea of cutting down trees didn’t sit well with him, and he was looking for ways to put his academic training to better use. In June, an internship opportunity in the remote forests of Bwindi came calling, and Mugerwa jumped at it. He didn’t know it then: but he had a dat...
Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán on Pexels
Engineering @ Maryland •

Engineering Headway in Microelectronics Manufacturing | A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

Boasting expertise across the spectrum of semiconductor manufacturing, the Clark School is leveraging new funding and partnership opportunities to advance next-gen semiconductor research underway in its laboratories.  

“The University of Maryland has clear leadership in technological areas including design tools, packaging, lifecycle engineering, and thermal management,” Graham says. “Maryland Engineering brings this expertise to the table to address society’s larger challenges.”

Carlos A. Río...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Culture and conservation thrive as Great Lakes tribes bring back native wild rice

In the late summer of 2023, thick stands of wild rice stood tall and shimmered gold in some of Lac du Flambeau’s lakes. The plant has been virtually absent in these lakes for decades, so for Joe Graveen, the sight of grain-filled stalks was a thing of joy, he says. As the wild rice program manager for the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, a tribal band in northern Wisconsin, Graveen was seeing the fruits (or grains, literally) of hard work he and his tribe’s members had put
Architectural Review •

Outrage: Great Green Wall crumbling

At first glance, deserts seem featureless and inert. The never-ending vastness of parched earth, sprinkled with shrivelled life forms, comes across as a mysterious terrain that induces dread. Look a little closer and you can see how dynamic and ever-changing their fringes are. As rainfall varies, it redraws the borders. When there is good rain, the edges come alive with vegetation in all shades of green; when precipitation is sparse, they turn brown and dry.

But as human-induced activities such
Nature •

How to make the leap into industry after a PhD

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Spoorthy Raman is a freelance science and environment journalist in St. John’s, Canada.

Landing that first job in industry requires planning, homework and networking — and a bit of soul-searching.

Melanie Zeppel stepped off the academic path to become a data scientist in industry. Credit: Stephen Jackson

Plant physiologist Melanie Zeppel had heard that hard work, a good publication list and securing highly competitive postdoctoral
Mongabay Environmental News •

Progress is slow on Africa’s Great Green Wall, but some bright spots bloom

The southern fringes of the Sahara are dynamic. As rainfall varies, land patches on the edge chop and change between green and arid brown. Human activities, like overgrazing, deforestation or poor irrigation, further degrade some of the already arid parts of the Sahel, resulting in desertification. As the planet heats up, changes in rainfall patterns can cause longer dry spells on the southern boundaries of the Sahara, stretching the desert further down, and affecting nearly a million people and
Mongabay Environmental News •

Volunteers, First Nations work to bring back a disappearing oak prairie

On the eastern edge of Victoria, British Columbia, abutting the Salish Sea, sits Uplands Park, spanning about 30 hectares, or 74 acres, amid the bustling municipality of Oak Bay. Although an urban park, it lacks manicured lawns, ornamental flowers or asphalted walkways — quintessential elements of modern-day urban parks.

Instead, the landscape is sprinkled with stunted, gnarled and crooked oak trees. A few shrubs of snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor), and som
Nature •

What it means to practise values-based research

Max Liboiron’s academic career criss-crossed science a few times before finding an interdisciplinary home in geography. Growing up in the rural hamlet of Lac la Biche in northeastern Alberta, Canada, where university education wasn’t common, Liboiron dreamt of being a scientist. But in 1998, when they began undergraduate science studies, they became disillusioned with their university’s push towards industrial applications of science and so gravitated towards fine arts instead. After earning a b
Hakai Magazine •

Shining the Light on Baby Crabs

It’s a gray summer evening on Galiano Island, a long strip of land about 1.5 kilometers across at its narrowest. Home to nearly 1,400 people, it is one of the 200-odd islands and islets in the Gulf Islands archipelago dotting the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and the mainland coast. The air here at the wooden pier in Whaler Bay on the island’s southeast end is heavy and moist, tinged with a whiff of boat fuel and old wood, and infused with sea salt. Amid a lineup of moto
BioScience •

Mining the sea floor: Implications for biodiversity

An air of urgency permeates the offices of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the international agency in Kingston, Jamaica, tasked with regulating mining-related activities on the ocean floor. Overlooking the Caribbean Sea through their windows, representatives from the 168 member states are scrambling to finalize the Mining Code, a rule book that will govern the commercial extraction of deep sea minerals.

For over a decade, different organs of the ISA have been working toward framing r
Nature •

TikTok’s dancing chemist catalyses joy in students

André Isaacs’ love of chemistry began at school in Kingston, Jamaica, inspired by his uncle — a teacher, who created fun ways to connect chemistry with life experiences. Isaacs earned his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 2011 and did a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, before returning to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts — his undergraduate alma mater — as a group leader in organic chemistry in 2012. As an educator, he mixes his
Hakai Magazine •

In Graphic Detail: The Polar Silk Route

On November 15, 2022, Chinese sailor Zhai Mo and his two-person crew sailed back to Shanghai after almost a year and a half of travel that took them through Arctic waters. The expedition took about a year longer than anticipated—unpredictable weather, ice, and cold temperatures all made the trip through the Northwest Passage tricky for the 24-meter-long ketch, Zhai Mo 1. But the trip drew attention to China’s 2018 announcement of the latest addition to its ambitious revival of the ancient Mariti
Hakai Magazine •

Coastal Job: Underwater Cave Ecologist

Fernando Calderón-Gutiérrez is a Mexican underwater cave ecologist who dives in the coastal caves of Mexico, Belize, and the United States to document organisms and learn how they interact with their hostile environment.

Most aspiring marine biologists are drawn to charismatic animals like sea turtles and whales. For me, the pale, blind creatures of the world’s darkest caverns are more alluring. For a long time, scientists wondered how life in underwater caves was possible because there’s no su
Photo by Visit Greenland on Pexels

About Me

I'm an award-winning science and environment journalist based in St. John's, Canada. My words have been published in many national and international media outlets.  

More About Me

How I Work

Journalism is under attack today from many quarters. Conspiracy theories abound. To win my reader's trust, I believe being critical, transparent and accurate in my reporting is key. 
More About My Process

My Ethos

My ethos lie in treating people and their lived experiences with respect, bringing diverse perspectives in my stories, strengthening relationships with my sources and building communities.

More About My Ethos

Get in Touch

Liked my stories? Have a story tip? Want to tell me about a cool project you are working on (Scientists, looking at you!)? Interested to work with me? Want me to speak at an event? Let's talk!

Contact Me
Photo by Ingrid Dietrich on Pexels

My Articles

Mongabay Environmental News •

Sun, sand and skulls: Bali tourism trade peddles threatened primate skulls

Charmed by the picturesque beaches and enchanting temple complexes, millions of tourists flock each year to the tiny Indonesian island of Bali to experience its unique culture and art. When they leave, many take home a piece of Bali in the form of souvenirs, such as carvings, pottery or textiles. Unbeknown to them, some may even be committing a crime if they pick up primate skulls — a commodity openly sold in Bali’s curio shops, despite it being illegal.

A recent study, published in the journal...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Rhino poachers imprisoned in back-to-back South Africa sentencing

A South African court in January sentenced four poachers to several years in prison for two separate crimes committed in Kruger National Park (KNP).

The Skukuza Regional Court, which in the past has boasted a near-100% conviction rate and under whose jurisdiction KNP falls, held two South African citizens, Sam Khosa and Solly Selahle, and a Mozambican named Oddis Maluleke, guilty of poaching a rhino and taking its horns in February 2019.

Khosa and Maluleke were handed a 22-year prison term and...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Report reveals staggering levels of wildlife trafficking in Hispanic America

From the glacial fjords of Chilean Patagonia to the beaches and mountains of Baja California, Hispanic America, representing Spanish-speaking countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean, is a biodiversity treasure trove. These include colorful macaws, showy iguanas, gaudy poison frogs and charismatic cats — animals so beautiful that people want to own them as pets.

A recent report throws light on what this desire for exotic pets means for biodiversity in Hispanic America, where wil...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Vietnam and China partner on wildlife-friendly traditional medicine practices

Vietnam and China, the two largest markets for traditional medicine (TM) that uses wild plants and animals, announced a new partnership in January to adopt practices that protect wildlife while preserving the countries’ cultural heritage.

The first-of-its-kind agreement involved leading TM associations from Vietnam and China — the Vietnam Oriental Traditional Medicine Association (VOTMA) and the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CATCM) — along with researchers, policymakers and...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Camera traps capture first glimpse of genetically distinct chimps in southwestern Nigeria

In a win for Nigeria’s only Indigenous grassroots conservation organization, camera traps installed in Ise Conservation Area have captured the first known video of a resident Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee.

The individual, seen swinging between tree branches and feeding on figs, is a mature male in his prime, said Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh, founder director of the South-West/Niger Delta Forest Project (SWNDF). “We are able to show the world these chimps for the very first time.”


Camera traps at I...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Increase in gibbon trafficking into India has conservationists worried

With oversized and inquisitive eyes, an infant-like expressive face, and a palette of thick, furry coats ranging from beige to black, gibbons tick all the right boxes to be called “cute” and “cuddly.” But their endearing appearance is now costing these native Asian apes their lives and a future in the wild, thanks to people wanting them as pets.

This surging demand in the exotic pet trade, especially from countries where gibbons aren’t native, is thrusting them into the illegal wildlife trade....
Mongabay Environmental News •

Record seizure highlights scale of wild bird egg theft in UK

Police in the U.K. recently announced the seizure of more than 5,000 eggs belonging to several wild bird species, following nationwide raids in November 2024. While no arrests have been made in this case, the investigations are continuing.

The seizure, the largest of its kind in U.K. history, was part of an international crackdown on the illegal trade in wild bird eggs, called Operation Pulka, that originated in Norway in June 2023. As part of it, authorities in other countries have so far arre...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Five-month-old male gorilla, victim of illegal wildlife trade, seized in Istanbul

On Dec. 22, 2024, Turkish customs officers conducting a random search of a plane’s cargo hold found a surprise stowaway inside a small wooden crate with holes: a malnourished baby gorilla dressed in a soiled T-shirt.

The Turkish Airlines flight was headed from Nigeria to Thailand and was transiting via Istanbul, authorities told local media. The baby gorilla, transported without necessary permits, is one among many wildlife seized in recent months in Istanbul, a major air-transit hub.

After it...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Indonesia’s voracious songbird trade laps up rare and poisonous pitohuis

Among New Guinea’s rainforest inhabitants is a group of birds called pitohuis, chatty songbirds that stand out for their loud, attractive songs. But there’s more to these birds than their songs: their poison.

Pitohuis are among the few poisonous birds on the planet. Their skin and feathers contain potent neurotoxins, which help them fight off parasites such as lice, ticks and fleas, and predators, including humans. When humans handle these birds, the neurotoxins irritate the nasal passage and c...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Atlantic puffins are perilously attracted to artificial light, new study shows

As the long summer days of August turn into nights, a few dozen volunteers gather in the small community of Witless Bay, a tiny town on the Atlantic coast about a half-hour’s drive south of St. John’s, capital of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. After a briefing by a coordinator from conservation NGO the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), the volunteers don reflective vests, grab butterfly nets and flashlights, and place plastic crates in their cars. They then set...
Mongabay Environmental News •

New evidence spells massive trouble for world’s sharks, rays and chimaeras

Evolution has perfected the world’s sharks and rays for more than 420 million years. Unlike the ammonites or pterosaurs that they once shared the oceans with, sharks and rays persevered through five mass extinctions. But now, their resilience has been put to test by a human folly: overfishing. In 2023, the Java stingaree (Urolophus javanicus) became the first marine fish on record to have gone extinct because of humans. If our current fishing trends continue, it won’t be the last, scientists war...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Nigerian authorities seize 2 metric tons of pangolin scales, arrest 1 suspect

On Dec. 5, Nigerian authorities seized more than 2 metric tons of pangolin scales in yet another effort to clamp down on the country’s booming transnational wildlife trade.

Acting on intelligence provided by the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), an international NGO fighting organized wildlife crime, the Kano-Jigawa command of the Nigeria Customs Services (NCS) also arrested one person, suspected to be a broker. The seizures and the arrest were made in two warehouses in Mubi, a town in Adamawa...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Hundreds of whales to be harpooned as Iceland issues new hunting licenses

On Dec. 6, Iceland’s caretaker government announced it had issued five-year licenses to hunt fin and minke whales in Icelandic waters. It granted the fin whale hunting license to Hvalur hf., the country’s only remaining fin-whaling company, run by billionaire Kristján Loftsson, and the minke-hunting permit to a ship owned by Tjaldtangi ehf., a whaling company that was previously licensed to hunt minke whales.

The licenses were issued by Iceland’s caretaker prime minister, who also serves as the...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park

When the Indonesian government established Tesso Nilo National Park in 2004 on a former logging concession, little could it have known that the legacy of logging and deforestation would continue years after granting it official protection. The park, which was expanded in 2009, now covers more than 80,000 hectares of land in Sumatra’s Riau province, and is one of the last tracts of lowland forest blocks that remains on the island.

Tesso Nilo National Park is home to nearly 3% of the world’s mamm...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Africa’s little-known golden cat gets a conservation boost, with community help

It was mid-2008. Mwezi “Badru” Mugerwa was almost done with his bachelor’s degree in forestry, an academic field that had trained him to view forests as a resource for extraction. However, as he inched closer to graduation, the idea of cutting down trees didn’t sit well with him, and he was looking for ways to put his academic training to better use. In June, an internship opportunity in the remote forests of Bwindi came calling, and Mugerwa jumped at it. He didn’t know it then: but he had a dat...
Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán on Pexels
Engineering @ Maryland •

Engineering Headway in Microelectronics Manufacturing | A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

Boasting expertise across the spectrum of semiconductor manufacturing, the Clark School is leveraging new funding and partnership opportunities to advance next-gen semiconductor research underway in its laboratories.  

“The University of Maryland has clear leadership in technological areas including design tools, packaging, lifecycle engineering, and thermal management,” Graham says. “Maryland Engineering brings this expertise to the table to address society’s larger challenges.”

Carlos A. Río...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Protected areas in SE Asia could do better with more resources, study finds

For the last two decades, countries around the world have been in a frenzy to earmark large swaths of their lands and waters as protected areas to meet the ambitious “30 by 30” target that calls for 30% of Earth’s land and seas to be legally protected by 2030. Governments are expanding existing protected areas and setting up new ones to prevent deforestation, conserve biodiversity and reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

But how well are these protected areas working? That’s a questi...
Hakai Magazine •

In Graphic Detail: Mouthfuls of Microplastic

It’s tasteless, odorless, and nutritionally devoid, yet eaten every day. Nearly everyone on the planet unintentionally consumes microplastic—through food, water, and even air. How much? That depends on geography.

Plastic production has increased 240-fold in the past few decades. Over time, these plastics degrade into smaller and smaller pieces that infiltrate the air, soil, and water. To determine how much microplastic people have been eating, drinking, and breathing, researchers from Cornell U...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Chatterbox chimps converse just like humans (but with more gestures)

For more than 15 years, an international team of researchers intermittently followed five groups of eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the jungles of Uganda and Tanzania. With cameras in hand, they diligently recorded hundreds of videos of chimpanzee chatter.

“This took a lot of hard drives,” says primatologist Gal Badihi from the University of St. Andrews in the U.K., talking about the largest ever database of chimpanzee conversations. With this treasure trove of data, Bad...
Mongabay Environmental News •

Regions with highest risks to wildlife have fewest camera traps, study finds

Over the past three decades, camera traps have given us a rare, never-before-seen peek into animal lives. Used by conservation organizations, academic researchers and citizen science projects around the world, camera traps have become the gold standard in monitoring biodiversity and studying cryptic and elusive species in the wild. However, a first-of-its-kind study published in the journal Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation finds that camera traps remain missing from areas that could re...
Deccan Herald •

Diatoms: Storytellers of the past

When diatomist Karthick Balasubramanian visited the Inter-University Accelerator Centre, a research institute in Delhi, he serendipitously met archaeologist C R Gayathri, who too was at the centre with a few ancient pottery shards. They were at the centre to look back in time—biological and archaeological—for their respective research and got talking. Over the next six years, ideas bounced off each other resulting in the first-of-its-kind scientific study that uses diatoms from ancient pottery i
Mongabay Environmental News •

Sierra Leone cacao project boosts livelihoods and buffers biodiversity

In eastern Sierra Leone, straddling the border of Liberia, lies Gola Rainforest National Park, one of the last remaining intact tracts of the tropical Upper Guinean forests in West Africa. Towering trees with massive buttress roots create a dense, emerald-hued canopy where monkeys hoot, malimbes chatter and hornbills flutter between the branches with their high-pitched honks and impressive wingspans.

Along the park’s fringes, 122 communities own small patches of the jungle within the four-kilom...
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