It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Argentina court recognizes two goldfish as sentient beings with rights
Sol Amaya,
CNN Mon, July 13, 2026
Magui and Fede settled in very well in their new home. - Federico Sordo/Jaulas Vacías Sanctuary
On the facade of a sushi restaurant in a chic Buenos Aires neighborhood, two goldfish in a glass display case would go largely unnoticed apart from the occasional child who would tap against the glass.
One day, someone took a closer look at the tank, which was exposed to the sun and street noise. It would change the fate of the pair of small fish, named Fede and Magui, who were later recognized in an Argentine court as sentient beings that had rights.
"Anyone passing by and stopping to look could see it wasn't suitable for the fish," said Matías Trufero, lawyer for the NGO Jaulas Vacías, an anti-speciesism sanctuary that houses more than 200 rescued animals.
He said that's why Jaulas Vacías (Empty Cages), decided to file a complaint with the courts, arguing that the conditions of these fish violated Law 14.346, which penalizes animal abuse in Argentina.
With the help of specialists, they built a legal case and almost immediately convinced the court to move the fish to a more suitable place.
Trufero, the main promoter of this change, said the restaurant staff did not object to the ruling. CNN has contacted the restaurant for comment.
Having two fish in a glass display case is "more or less the same as putting two polar bears in a cage inside a sauna," said Carlos José Aga, one of the specialists who helped with the rescue and offered to adopt them.
Magui and Fede were moved from their 40-liter display case and into a 2,500-liter fish tank at Aga's house. The court ruled that the fish would remain in the care of their adopter.
"Fish are like astronauts, they travel in their own environment with careful monitoring of all their vital parameters, and when they arrive at the place, those conditions must be reproduced with great accuracy to avoid imbalances that could lead to a decrease in their immunity," Aga explained.
"Now they are doing very well," he said.
But rescuing the fish was only part of the process.
'Sentient beings'
Courtesy of Carlos José Aga
"At the beginning of the case, we requested that, in addition to removing the fish to a safe and suitable location, they be declared subjects of law," or "sentient beings," Trufero explained.
In other words, they wanted the fish to stop being recognized merely as "objects" under the law and become beings with rights.
Such a ruling sets a precedent for similar animals in inadequate conditions to lead a dignified life.
For anyone wondering if it's illegal to keep goldfish at home, Trufero said the answer depends on the situation.
"It's not illegal per se to keep a fish in a fish tank. However, it is illegal to keep them in conditions that cause mistreatment or cruelty. For example, inadequate space, insufficient food, and other acts punishable by law," Trufero said about the legislation in Argentina.
"Furthermore, if it's an exotic species, keeping could be prohibited if it falls under local wildlife laws," regulations that also exist in many other countries, he said. From orangutans to fish
The first habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of a non-human animal was in 2005 for Suiza, a chimpanzee in Brazil, who died before being transferred to a sanctuary.
From then on, similar cases began to occur in other countries, including Argentina. One of the best known was that of Sandra, an orangutan born in Germany who lived in the Buenos Aires Zoo for 20 years until 2014, when she was declared a "non-human person" by a judge thanks to legal action brought by environmentalists.
The ruling held that her captivity and exhibition violated her rights, even though she was well fed and did not suffer mistreatment.
In 2016, the Buenos Aires Zoo was transformed into an eco-park, removing animals from display and relocating many of them to sanctuaries. Sandra was sent to the Center of Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida, in 2019.
"The importance of declaring these animals subjects of law lies in the fact that they cease to be considered a thing, an object," Trufero explained.
In cases of cruelty and mistreatment, they can be considered victims and not things, which radically changes the way the future of animals is defined.
The case of Fede and Magui opens a door for these types of fish, very common in homes and businesses, to be legally protected.
"A subject with a legal right can do little or nothing for themselves unless there are people who speak on behalf of those who cannot speak and enforce the law," Aga emphasized, adding that Fede and Magui have already settled into their new home.
Study reveals how giant trees in tropical forests transport water to their uppermost branches
The study published in Science helps us understand the role of this little-studied type of vegetation in climate change. One percent of the tallest trees store more than half of the carbon in tropical forest ecosystems.
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
The authors of the article standing in front of a dipterocarp. From left to right: Arne Scheire, Palasiah Jotan, Martin Svátek, David Burslem, and Paulo Bittencourt
Credit: Lindsay Banin/UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in Edinburgh
The giant trees of tropical forests are important allies in the fight against climate change due to their ability to store carbon, yet they are still poorly understood by science. However, a study published July 2, 2026, in the journal Science reveals a crucial survival mechanism: these trees, which exceed 70 meters in height, have no difficulty transporting water to their tops and are no more vulnerable than smaller trees.
They have developed internal adaptations that compensate for the challenges of transporting water to the highest branches. Furthermore, tests conducted during severe droughts showed that they did not experience a more pronounced decline in growth compared to smaller trees. This contradicts the hypothesis that very tall trees would be more susceptible to water stress.
To date, the scientific literature suggests that as trees grow taller, their ability to move water upward is impaired by the greater distance between roots and leaves, as well as by the effects of gravity. This would reduce photosynthesis, limit growth, and increase vulnerability to drought.
The research found that adjustments to the xylem conduits (microscopic “tubes” that the plant uses to transport water and nutrients to the leaves) – which increase in diameter as the tree grows taller – compensate for the increased resistance to water flow along the way. In practice, it’s as if a larger hose were needed to carry water farther. These complex adaptations reduce the likelihood of water transport failure when the plant is in drought conditions.
In the case of leaves, gravity forces them to function with lower hydration, or a more negative water potential. This causes them to wilt and close their stomata, or microscopic “pores,” earlier, thereby reducing their photosynthesis. However, the study shows that these trees increase their tolerance to these conditions without compromising their function.
These findings advance our understanding of the biology of giant trees. They help explain how these trees overcome physical and physiological limitations to transport water and continue growing. The findings also enhance our understanding of the role of forests in climate change. Additionally, they provide evidence to guide conservation efforts aimed at maintaining the balance of the carbon cycle, rainfall, and biodiversity.
“There’s little data on how a plant’s hydraulic functions change as it grows. It’s generally accepted that larger trees have difficulty transporting water and are therefore more likely to die during droughts. We were very surprised by the results of our study, which showed that they have an internal adjustment mechanism,” Paulo Bittencourt, the corresponding author of the article and a professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Cardiff University (United Kingdom), as well as a collaborating researcher at the Institute of Biology at the State University of Campinas (IB-UNICAMP) in Brazil, tells Agência FAPESP.
According to the ecologist, 1% of the largest trees on the planet store more than half of the carbon in tropical forest ecosystems. They also contribute to the rainfall cycle through evapotranspiration.
The study was supported through a Young Investigator grant from FAPESP, awarded to biologist Peter Groenendijk, who is a co-author of the article alongside Rafael Oliveira. Both are from the Center for Integrative Ecology at IB-UNICAMP.
‘Climbing the forest’
To conduct the study, which took more than two years, the group used a sample of 38 Dipterocarpaceae trees representing five species located in the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve in Malaysia on the Asian island of Borneo. The reserve is world-renowned for its conservation centers, including the world’s first center dedicated to orangutan rehabilitation.
These trees range from 7.1 to 71 meters in height, equivalent to a building with more than 20 stories, and are considered the tallest flowering trees in the tropics.
The fieldwork was made possible by the contribution of climbers trained by Jamiludding Jami, an arborist affiliated with the Southeast Asian Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARPP). In 2018, Jami climbed and measured a 100.8-meter-tall dipterocarp (yellow meranti, <i>Shorea faguetiana</i>), considered the tallest tropical tree found to date.
“Climbing a tree over 70 meters tall is a very special job that very few people in the world do. These are people who, in the middle of the forest, can thread a rope through a tree as tall as a 20- to 30-story building, climb it, and collect branches, for example. Some collections had to be done at night, without sunlight. It isn’t just about knowing how to thread the rope and being physically fit. You have to check for wasp nests, know if a branch is suitable, if the wood is strong – it isn’t a trivial matter,” says Bittencourt.
This expertise was shared with climbers in the Brazilian Amazon – specifically, members of riverside communities in the state of Amapá. After receiving training, these climbers helped collect materials for similar research in the Amazon rainforest. Some of these results are expected to be released by the end of 2026.
For several years, this group of scientists has been studying Amazonian giants in the Tumucumaque Mountains National Park and the Amapá National Forest regions, where several expeditions have already taken place. The project aims to understand how the Amazon rainforest physiologically responds to climate change. It is led by British ecologist Lucy Rowland of the University of Exeter. Bittencourt worked directly with Rowland while at the institution, and Rowland is also an author of the study published in Science.
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Estimates from another study led by Robson Borges de Lima of the State University of Amapá, in which Bittencourt and Groenendijk participated, indicate that the Brazilian Amazon has approximately 55.5 million giant trees. However, their geographic distribution is uneven. Just 1% of the forest area accounts for 14% of these trees, half of which are located in approximately 11% of the biome. The trees are mainly found in Roraima state and the Guiana Shield (a geological formation that includes part of Amapá), where water availability is high (<i>read the article here: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.70634#</i>).
Impacts of climate change
To analyze how dipterocarps react to water stress, the researchers measured their trunk growth rates before, during, and after the severe drought associated with the 2023–2024 El Niño event. The 2023–2024 El Niño, a climate phenomenon characterized by abnormal warming of the surface waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, was considered one of the five most intense ever recorded. Classified at the threshold of the “very strong” category, it raised temperatures by about 2 °C above average, impacting the climate of several countries in different ways.
In the study, no decline in growth rate associated with tree height was observed during the severe drought. In other words, the tallest trees were affected just as much as the shorter ones, experiencing similar impacts from climate change.
“Our findings demonstrate that the hydraulic systems of very tall dipterocarps have evolved to be perfectly adapted to their height and should not suffer more than smaller trees exposed to the same drought conditions,” Rowland states in a press release.
In this regard, the research suggests that differences in the ability of trees to prevent air bubbles (embolisms) that disrupt internal water circulation during droughts may be more closely related to canopy microclimate and shading than to height.
For Oliveira, the results highlight the need for a better understanding of the mechanisms that determine tree mortality during extreme droughts. “Rather than assuming that height alone increases hydraulic vulnerability, the findings suggest that other physiological and anatomical mechanisms may be equally or more important in explaining the survival of these trees in the face of climate change. This new perspective can help us develop more realistic models of how forests function and respond to increasingly dry climates,” Oliveira tells Agência FAPESP.
Groenendijk emphasizes the importance of understanding the growth rates of these species. “Understanding how old these giants get, how they grow, and how they behave in the face of climate variability are crucial questions we’re trying to answer using automated sensors and growth ring analysis,” he added.
In Brazil, an international group of scientists is collecting data at the Adolfo Ducke Forest Reserve in Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, to quantify and map the causes and factors leading to the death of tall tropical trees. The “Giant Project” is being developed by members of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook in the United States in cooperation with Brazil’s National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA).
Oliveira points out that a mechanism compensating for drought resistance is likely linked to the ability of the uppermost leaves to absorb dew and fog. “Previous research we’ve conducted has shown that atmospheric sources can be important for maintaining hydration in plants in general, even those with very large leaves,” he concludes.
About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe
Bottom view of a 61-meter-tall dipterocarp with a tree climber at the top
The world’s tallest tropical trees have no trouble pumping water to their topmost branches, new research reveals.
Conventional scientific theory suggests that as trees grow, it becomes harder to transport water from roots to leaves – limiting growth and making trees more vulnerable to drought.
But the new study – led by the University of Exeter and Cardiff University and published in the journal Science – finds that adjustments to water transport inside giant Dipterocarp trees “fully compensated” for the challenges of drawing water to the top.
As a result, the height of these trees does not make their water systems more vulnerable to drought compared to shorter trees, and separate testing found they suffered no height-related loss in growth (compared to smaller trees) during a severe drought.
“Trees contain lots of thin, hollow vessels and they suck water upwards by creating low pressure at the top,” said Professor Lucy Rowland, from the University of Exeter.
“These vessels have evolved intricate adaptations that can maintain the water in liquid form, even under the extreme low pressures required to move to the top of trees which can reach over 80 metres.
“However, a widely accepted theory suggests that in tall trees, the sheer length of vessels and the effects of gravity limit water transport, photosynthesis and growth.
“Our results challenge this by showing that the hydraulic systems of very tall Dipterocarp trees are perfectly evolved for their height, and should not suffer more than small Dipterocarp trees exposed to the same drought conditions.”
Dipterocarp species are the tallest flowering trees in the world and dominate Asian rain forests.
The researchers examined Dipterocarp trees ranging from 7 to 71 metres tall in Malaysian Borneo, and measured a variety of traits at multiple positions along each tree.
They found that taller trees compensate for their height in various ways, including water-carrying vessels that grow wider nearer the ground and leaves which have adapted to withstand greater water stress before wilting. They also measured trunk growth rates before, during and after the strong El Niño drought period of 2023-2024.
“Understanding tall trees is vital because the tallest 1% of trees store more than half of above-ground carbon in forests,” said Dr Paulo Bittencourt, now at Cardiff University.
“These trees are rare and important, and existing predictions suggest a weaker hydraulic system places them at higher risk of dying due to drought.
“That prediction is included in some models of climate-change impacts, and our study suggests this may not be correct.
“More research is now needed to investigate the hydraulic systems and drought resilience of other tall trees.”
Co-author Palasiah Jotan, a Malaysian PhD student studying in The Czech University of Life Sciences, said: "Dipterocarp trees dominate the rain forests of Malaysian Borneo and are central to the region's ecology and biodiversity.
“As a Malaysian researcher co-authoring this study, showing that even the tallest of these trees are hydraulically resilient to drought is a finding I hope will strengthen the case for protecting these forests under a changing climate."
The research team included Sabah Forestry Department (Malaysia), the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the University of Aberdeen, as well as institutions from the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Brazil and the USA.
The study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
The paper is entitled: “Height does not impair the hydraulic system of the tallest tropical Dipterocarp trees.”
Great apes may have been laughing with a similar rhythm to modern humans for at least 15 million years, a University of Warwick study reveals. The finding offers unexpected clues to how human speech evolved.
All living great apes - chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans - laugh. But until now, it has been unclear how our laughter may have changed over millions of years of evolution, and how it might relate to the evolution of speech in humans.
In a new Communications Biology study, Warwick researchers analysed laughter recordings from four orangutans, two gorillas, three bonobos, four chimpanzees, and four humans. Across 140 laughter sequences, they found the same pattern: all species produce laughter with evenly spaced rhythmic intervals between successive sounds.
The researchers propose this basic rhythmic structure was already present in a shared common ancestor 15 million years ago and has remained remarkably conserved with all living great apes still show the same underlying pattern.
Dr Chiara De Gregorio, Honorary Research Associate, Department of Psychology, University of Warwick said: “How did humans evolve the remarkable ability to speak? Speech leaves no fossils, and complex language exists only in our own species. But we've found a 15-million-year-old clue in an unexpected place: our laughter. Unlike speech, laughter is shared by all living great apes. By comparing how different species laugh, we can see that a basic rhythmic structure has remained unchanged since our last common ancestor. That's extraordinary.”
The researchers found that while the basic rhythm stayed constant, human laughter has become faster, more variable, and gained sophisticated context-dependent control. Of the great apes, humans alone have the ability to control when and how they laugh depending on context: an uncontrollable laugh when tickled differs sharply from a polite laugh in a meeting, a nervous laugh after a mistake, or the infectious laughter that spreads through a group of friends. The same underlying rhythm, shaped by conscious control to communicate different emotions and intentions.
The findings of this study suggest that throughout great ape evolution, our ancestors gradually developed greater control over the timing of their vocalisations, including laughter. Sophisticated vocal control is a fundamental building block of speech.
Dr Adriano Lameria, Associate Professor, ApeTank, Department of Psychology, University of Warwick said: “It is impossible to assess the precursor forms of language directly from our extinct ancestors. Laughter, being evolutionarily older and having remained shared between all living great apes, provides a rare evolutionary window into the vocal transformations that unfolded across hominid evolution until the first humans appeared on scene. Contrary to the classic notion that the first humans suddenly acquired vocal control capacities remarkably different from their predecessors, laughter evolution tells us that humans lay on a continuum, a prolongation of vocal control capacities that were already being cumulatively honed in for 15 million years.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
The paper ‘Rhythm and timing in laughter reveal that human vocal plasticity falls on a hominid continuum’ is published in Communications Biology. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-026-10499-z
For more information please contact:
Matt Higgs, PhD | Media & Communications Officer (Warwick Press Office)
The research analysed acoustic recordings of spontaneous laughter from four orangutans, two gorillas, three bonobos, four chimpanzees, and four humans aged six months to seven years, measuring 140 individual laughter sequences.
All great apes and humans were recorded in their home environments during controlled, playful interactions with familiar humans, who elicited both play and tickle-induced vocalizations. The study focused on the rhythmic structure, the timing intervals between successive bursts of sound, rather than pitch or intensity.
The last common ancestor of all living great apes (including humans) is estimated to have existed approximately 15 million years ago.
About the University of Warwick
Founded in 1965, the University of Warwick is a world-leading institution known for its commitment to era-defining innovation across research and education. A connected ecosystem of staff, students and alumni, the University fosters transformative learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and bold industry partnerships across state-of-the-art facilities in the UK and global satellite hubs. Here, spirited thinkers push boundaries, experiment, and challenge convention to create a better world.
An adolescent gorilla being tickled on his foot. The gorilla responds with laughter, pulls his foot away, but then presents his foot in order to be tickled some more. Clip acquired directly from Dr Marina Davila Ross
Orangutans seek out plants with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and wound-healing properties, new research shows.
Based on 20 years of observations of orangutans in Indonesian Borneo, scientists assessed how often the animals ate plants with known medicinal benefits.
The findings suggest orangutans eat combinations of plants in specific sequences – consistent with "self-medication" seen in other species.
It's not clear how they learn to do this, but the researchers think it may involve instinct and/or behaviour passed down over many generations.
"At this stage, we cannot say that orangutans are consciously 'diagnosing' themselves in the same way humans would," said Georgia Allen, who led the study as part of her Masters in Conservation and Biodiversity at the University of Exeter.
"However, our findings suggest they selectively consume certain plants with medicinal properties in ways that go beyond simple nutrition.
"What makes the findings interesting is that some plant species appeared together in the orangutan diet far more often than we would expect by chance.
"Several of these plants are known to contain compounds linked to antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, or wound-healing effects.
"Importantly, many of these plants are not major parts of the orangutan diet overall, suggesting they may be eaten for specific benefits rather than as everyday food sources."
Chimpanzees are known to engage in "self-medication", for example by eating plants that reduce internal parasite infections. Similar behaviours have also been observed in bonobos, gibbons and gorillas.
The new study used long-term observations of orangutans living in a peat-swamp forest in Central Kalimantan.
Some of the plants eaten by the orangutans are also used by local Indigenous people for medicinal purposes, and the findings highlight the importance of preserving Indigenous knowledge for biodiversity conservation and global health research.
Georgia Allen led the study under the supervision of Dr Kimberley Hockings, and supported by Dr Elodie Freymann.
The study was initiated by Dr Helen Morrogh-Bernard, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and Founder of the Borneo Nature Foundation (BNF).
The research used long-term orangutan behavioural data collected through the Orangutan Behaviour Project in collaboration with the University of Palangka Raya – CIMTROP.
The research was made possible with the generous support of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Great Ape Conservation Fund, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, ARCUS, The Orangutan Project (TOP) and Re:Wild.
