Over 1000 people thought to have died in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand as a result of Cyclone Senyar.

At least 1000 people are thought to have died, with more than 2700 more known to have been injured and more than 500 still missing after Cyclone Senyar swept across Sumatra and Peninsula Malaysia on 26-28 November 2025. The storm formed as a tropical depression in the Strait of Malacca on 22 November 2025, intensifying to become a tropical cyclone before making landfall on the northern part of Sumatra at about midnight on 26 November 2025. The storm moved southwards along the coast of North Sumatra, before sweeping back across the Strait of Malacca to make landfall on Peninsula Malaysia on 27 November. On 28 November the storm swept out over the South China Sea, where it dissipated several days later without making landfall again.

Flooding in Padangsidimpuan, North Sumatra on 26 November 2025. Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana/Wikimedia Commons.

The passage of Cyclone Senyar resulted in at least 753 deaths on Sumatra, with a further 2600 injured and 526 people still missing, largely as a result of flooding and landslides. Over 1.2 million people on the island have been displaced because of the storm with about 3.3 million affected in some way, across the provinces of North Sumatra, West Sumatra, and Aceh. The storm is reported to have destroyed 3600 homes, and damaged a further 5800, along with 344 bridges and 324 schools.

A woman clearing mud from a house in the town of Meureudu in Aceh Province, Sumatra, following the passage of Cyclone Senyer. Hotli Simanjuntak/EPA.

The storm caused less damage in Peninsula Malaysia, where people had more time to prepare, with three fatalities, and 34 000 people evacuated from high-risk areas ahead of the storm. However, in neighbouring part of southern Thailand, flooding associated with the storm killed at least 267 people, with most of the fatalities occurring in Songkhla Province, according to government figures; although some sources have accused the government of downplaying the size of the disaster, with suggestions that more than 1000 people may have died in Songkhla Province alone. In addition, at least 102 people were injured, with two homes destroyed and 1074 damaged, along with 228 roads, 12 bridges, 41 schools and 38 temples. The city of Hat Yai in Sonhkla Province received 372 mm of rain on 21 November, more than is typical for the entire month of November, and more rain than has fallen on the city in a single day in 300 years of records.

Flooding in Songkhla Province, southern Thailand, on 26 November 2025. AP.

Tropical storms, called Cyclones in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific, are caused by solar energy heating the air above the oceans, which causes the air to rise leading to an inrush of air. If this happens over a large enough area the inrushing air will start to circulate, as the rotation of the Earth causes the winds closer to the equator to move eastwards compared to those further away (the Coriolis Effect). This leads to tropical storms rotating clockwise in the southern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere. These storms tend to grow in strength as they move across the ocean and lose it as they pass over land (this is not completely true: many tropical storms peter out without reaching land due to wider atmospheric patterns), since the land tends to absorb solar energy while the sea reflects it.

The formation of a tropical cyclone. Natural Disaster Management.

Despite the obvious danger of winds of this speed, which can physically blow people, and other large objects, away as well as damaging buildings and uprooting trees, the real danger from these storms comes from the flooding they bring. Each drop millibar drop in air-pressure leads to an approximate 1 cm rise in sea level, with big tropical storms capable of causing a storm surge of several meters. This is always accompanied by heavy rainfall, since warm air over the ocean leads to evaporation of sea water, which is then carried with the storm. These combined often lead to catastrophic flooding in areas hit by tropical storms. 

The formation and impact of a storm surge. eSchoolToday.

However, Cyclone Senyar is unusual in that it formed in a part of the world not usually prone to tropical storms; it is only the first such storm ever to form in the Strait of Malacca, and the second to cross these waters, after Typhoon Vamei, which formed in the South China Sea in 2001, and crossed Peninsula Malaysia from east to west. This is because the Strait of Malacca is close to the equator, an area where it was once thought that tropical storms could not form, as the Coriolis Force is not strong enough. However, warming global sea temperatures appear to be making this possible, as more heat is effectively more energy, and this is the fifth such near-equator storm of 2025. This means that communities in these areas are not as used to tropical storms as communities in areas where they are a long-standing problem, and infrastructure has not typically been built with large storms in mind, greatly increasing the damage and casualties caused when they appear.

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Ptychognathus dajie: A new species of Pom Pom Crab from East and Southeast Asia.

The genus Ptychognathus comprises 32 species of brackish-water Crabs found in estuaries and the lower parts of river systems across the Indo-Western Pacific region. They are known as Pom Pom Crabs in the aquarium industry because of the clusters of fine setae (hairs) on their claws (although they are widely traded as freshwater Crabs rather than brackish-water Crabs). Most species of Ptychognathus have very localised distributions, being found on a single island, estuary, or river system, although one species, Ptychognathus barbatus, is found over an extremely wide area, including Japan, Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and New Caledonia. However, as part of a PhD thesis completed in 2006, carcinologist Ngan Kee Ng, then a graduate student at the National University of Singapore, examined the systematics of Ptychognathus barbatus, concluding that the populations described under this name represented two, rather than a single, species. Ng went on the lead a highly successful research group, specialising in the study of Crabs, for many years, before passing away in 2022, but never formerly published her PhD thesis. This means that all taxonomic nomenclature presented in the thesis is considered unusable under the terms of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, even if specialists in the field believe it to be generally correct.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 27 June 2025, Jhih-Wei Hsu of the Department of Life Science at the National Chung Hsing University, Jose Christopher Mendoza, of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at the National University of Singapore, and Hsi-Te Shih, also of the Department of Life Science, and of the Global Change Biology Research Center at the National Chung Hsing University, build upon Ngan Kee Ng's work, to formally divide Ptychognathus barbatus into two, and describe a new species.

The new species is named Ptychognathus dajie, where 'dajie' means 'elder sister', a title often used for women in leadership roles in Chinese-speaking countries, in honour of Ngan Kee Ng. A genetic analysis of museum specimens suggests that this species is found in estuaries and tidally-influenced portions of rivers, in Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. Surprisingly, Ptychognathus dajie is not particularly closely-related to Ptychognathus barbatus, instead forming a sister species to Ptychognathus guijulugani, a species found on Negros and Mindanao islands in the Philippines, placing it close to the base of the Ptychognathus family tree.

A neighbor-joining tree for species of Ptychognathus, based on the COI gene. Probability values at the nodes represent support values. Only values greater than 50% are shown. Hsu et al. (2025).

Specimens of Ptychognathus dajie have almost square carapaces, slightly wider than they are long, with a glossy upper surface and a concave frontal margin. The lower part of the claw is covered by long, thin setae; claws are larger in males than in females. The largest male specimen found was 20.2 mm wide and 16.8 mm long, the largest female found was 16.8 mm wide and 14.5 mm long. Colour is extremeley variable, and tends to match the substrate upon which the Crabs live.

Ptychognathus dajie. (A), (B) Holotype male (13.2 × 11.6 mm, ZRC 2024.0072); (C), (D) Paratype female (10.6 × 9.2 mm, NCHUZOOL 17356); (E) Male (NCHUZOOL 17341); (F) Male (NCHUZOOL 17343); (G), (H) Males (NCHUZOOL 7342). (A), (C) Dorsal view; (B), (D) Ventral view; (A)–(D) Preserved specimens; (E)–(H) Colour in life. Hsu et al. (2025).

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Nocticola vagus: A new species of parthenogenetic Nocticolid Cockroach from Florida and Vienna.

Nocticolids are a small group (39 described species in ten genera) of Cockroaches found in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, Papua-New Guinea, and Australia. They differ from other Cockroach groups in that they are flattened laterally rather than horizontally. Nocticolids are rather cryptic in their habits, and the group is not well studied in the wild; most of what we know about their biology comes from studies of colonies in labs, or the pet trade.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 5 May 2025, Junkai Wang of the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University, Alan Jeon of the Natural History Museum at Auburn University, and Anthony Cognato, also of the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University, describe a new, and apparently invasive, species of Nocticolid Cockroach from Florida and Vienna.

The new species was originally detected in the wild at University Park in Miami Dade County, Florida, where Alan Jeon collected several female specimens in June 2020.  In captivity, these were found to reproduce parthenogenetically, i.e. the female Cockroaches laid eggs without mating, which hatched into new females, also capable of producing fertile eggs without mating. This trait has not previously been recorded in Nocticolid Cockroaches, although it is known in several other Cockroach groups.

Because Nocticolid Cockroaches are not thought to be indigenous to the Americas, Wang et al. carried out a genetic analysis, in which they also included specimens from the US pet trade, which weren being traded under the name Nocticola sp. 'Malaysia', as well as specimens from a greenhouse at Schönbrunn  Zoo in  Vienna, Austria, where another all female colony of Nocticolid Cockroaches was reported.

The genetic study recovered all three populations as the same species, which Wang et al. name Nocticola vagus, where 'vagus' means 'wandering' in Latin, in reeference to the known distribution of the species. The original location of the Cockroaches traded as Nocticola sp. 'Malaysia' is unknown, but Nocticola vagus was recovered as the sister species to an un-named specimen from Vietnam in the genetic study. Thus, it is likely that the species originates in Southeast Asia, and possibly with a range that includes Peninsula Malaysia. A morphological comparison was more difficult, as many species of Nocticola are known only from male specimens, whereas all known specimens of Nocticola vagus are female.

Nocticola vagus female holotype. Habitus (A) frontal, (B) dorsal, (C) lateral, (D) ventral view and ootheca (E) lateral view. Wang et al. (2025).

Specimens of Nocticola vagus are described as 'small' (although Wang et al.do not provide measurements, and yellow or brown in colour. Their bodies are covered in short sensilla chaetica (sensory bristles). Each eye has eight ommatidia (the individual lenses of an Insect's compound eye), and the maxillary palps (mouthparts) each have five segments, making them almost as long as the head. 

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Thismia malayana: A new species of Parasitc Plant from Peninsula Malaysia.

Thismias, Thismia spp., are a curious group on Monocotyledonous Plants found in the evergreen forests of tropical and subtropical Asia, northern and eastern Australia to New Zealand, the north-central USA, Costa Rica and southern tropical America. They are Mycoheterotrophs, obtaining nutrition parasitically from the network of Mycorrhizal Fungi which exchange nutrients with the Plants of the forest, but contributing nothing themselves to the relationship. Thismias do not photosynthesize, enabling them to live on the darkest parts of the forest floor, and live most of their lives below ground, occasionally producing intricate, but often inconspicuous, flowers at most a few centimetres high, which are pollinated by Fungus Knats or similar small Insects.

In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 31 May 2024, Mat Yunoh Siti-Munirah of the Forest Research Institute Malaysia, independent researchers Chin Hardy-Adrian, Sharipudin Mohamad-Shafiq, and Zainuddin Irwan-Syah, and Abd Halim Hamidi of the Negeri Sembilan Forestry Department, describe a new species of Thismia from Peninsula Malaysia.

The new species is named Thismia malayana, where 'malayana' is derived from 'Malaya' the old name for Peninsula Malaysia. The species is described from a specimen collected in the Kuala Pilah District of Negeri Sembilan State, Malaysia, on a trail leading to Gunung Angsi mountain, in February 2023.

Thismia malayana (A) flowering plant (A1) floral tube, inner surface (A2) annulus and stamen filaments, view from inside (B) inflorescence with anthetic flower and several young fruits (B1) style and stigma (B2) annulus, top view (C) flower, side view (D), (E) stamens, view from inside and from outside, (E1) stamen supraconnectives: one pair of club-shaped inwards-pointing, one pair of acute outwards-pointing, and one central appendage (F) stamen supraconnectives, apical view (G) stamen tube, view from below (H), (H1) fruit after dehiscence, top view, (H2) seeds I shoot base with roots. Siti-Munirah et al. (2024).

Thismia malayana exists as a vermiform root, light brown, unbranching and about 1 mm in diameter, which produces a light brown herbaceous Plant, reaching a maximum height of about 10 cm. This above-ground Plant comprises a stem about 6 cm long and 0.2 cm in diameter, from which grow 2-4 scale-like brown leaves, and 1-4 asymmetrical, tube-shaped flowers, up to about 7 mm long and 5 mm in width, brown-to-off-white in colour, with orange longitudinal ribs, and an opening surrounded by six triangular tepals. 

Thismia malayana with scales (the finest grade is 0.5 mm) (A) side view (B) top view (C) the size compared to the 20-sen coin (23.59 mm in diameter). Photos by Chin Hardy-Adrian from uncollected plants. Siti-Munirah et al. (2024).

 

Thismia malayana is known from only two localities, one in the Gunung Angsi Forest Reserve in Negeri Sembilan State, and the other in Tengku Hassanal Wildlife Reserve in Pahang State. In both locations it grows in moist, shady areas of Diptocarp forests, at elevations of 200-450 m above sealeavel, usually producing flowers and fruit between December and February (although flowering in June has also been observed). 

Habitat (in situ) of Thismia malayana in Ulu Bendul Recreational Park in Gunung Angsi Forest Reserve (A), (B) and the Tengku Hassanal Wildlife Reserve (C)–(E). (A) Thismia malayana at its habitat, which is located right next to the main trail to Gunung Angsi. (B) Mat Yunoh Siti-Munirah showing the habitat of Thismia malayana. (C) Path to Lata Bujang and Gunung Benom (D) The plants growing on rotten wood (E) Sharipudin Mohamad-Shafiq observing a Thismia malayana in its habitat. Photos by Mat Yunoh Siti-Munirah (A), (B) and Sharipudin Mohamad-Shafiq (C)–(E). Siti-Munirah et al. (2024).

Thismia malayana is known only from two locations, with less than 10 individual Plants observed. Both locations are in protected areas, although on is quite close to a forest trail, where it might be disturbed by visitors. The species is extremely cryptic in nature, making it likely that is exists in other areas and has not been discovered. For these reasons, Siti-Munirah et al. recommend that the species be classified as Vulnerable under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. 

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Authorities in Kelantan State, Malaysia, begin capturing wild Tigers after a spate of attacks.

Authorities in Kelantan State, Peninsula Malaysia have begun capturing wild Malaysian Tigers, Panthera tigris jacksoni, following a series of attacks on workers and others on Rubber plantations in the northeast of the country. Traps have been set in forests close to plantations, with two Tigers captured to date, both of which have been sent to a wildlife sanctuary.

A Tiger captured in a trap set by wildlife rangers in Gua Musang, Kelantan. Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department.

The first death occurred on 9 May 2023, when Halim Asin, a member of the Orang Asli indigenous community, was attacked while fishing on the Sg Aring River with his nephew, and later found dead. On 5 October, when another Orang Asli man, Pisie Amud, 25, was attacked and killed why on a fishing trip in the Pos Pasik Forest. On 10 November, Lalu Sukarya Yahya, 42, an Indonesian migrant worker employed as a rubber tapper on a rubber plantation in Kuala Wok near Pos Pasik. The following day, another migrant worker, Ahka Soe Ya, 22, from Myanmar, was attacked by a Tiger while working on Rubber plantation in Kampung Meranto alongside his wife. He was taken to hospital by four Myanmar nationals, thought to be his wife and their friends, but died of injuries to his head and neck. Between 2017 and 2022 only four Tiger attacks were recorded in the state, two of which were fatal.

Police officers recovering the body of Lalu Sukarya Yahya, 42, who was killed in an apparent Tiger attack on a Rubber plantation in Kuala Wok. New Straits Times/Royal Malaysian Police.

The attacks have been blamed upon male Tigers roaming in search of and mates, or else young Tigers learning to hunt and looking for territories of their own. However, it is likely that a change in forest use by Humans in the region is as much to blame. Since the 1980s logging in Malaysian forest reserves has been selective, with loggers only allowed to remove certain trees, leaving the essential structure of the forest unchanged. This changed in 2007 when a new government policy has allowed for the clearing of areas of natural forest for plantation forestry, in which trees are grown on a cycle of felling and replanting. These plantations typically comprise monocultures of trees such as Rubber, Acacia and Eucalyptus, which support far less wildlife than natural forests, providing less food for Tigers, and causing them to roam further afield, and consider non-preferred food items, such as Humans.

Newly planted trees on a plantation in Kelantan, following a cycle of clearing. Malaysialand.

The status of Malaysian Tigers is subject to some dispute. The population in Peninsula Malaysia, which comprises about 200 adult individuals, has been considered to be a separate subspecies, Panthera tigris jacksoni (sometimes Panthera tigris malayensis) since 2004, with that subspecies regarded as Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. However, it is also argued that Malaysian Tigers are not sufficiently distinct to merit this status and that they should be regarded as a population of the Asian Tiger, Panthera tigris tigris, which is regarded as Endangered, a lower threat of extinction, with a much larger population, found from Malaysia to Siberia.

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