Nigerian scientist Iroro Tanshi has won the Goldman Environmental Prize (one of the world's most prestigious awards for grassroots environmental activism) for her campaign to protect critically endangered short-tailed roundleaf bats in the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary in south-eastern Nigeria. Tanshi, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, mobilised community fire brigades to prevent the human-induced wildfires that threatened bat habitats, having rediscovered the species — unseen for nearly 50 years — just days before a wildfire swept through the area. Working against deep-rooted cultural associations between bats and witchcraft in Nigeria, she used community outreach and education to reframe the animals as vital contributors to local ecosystems, including the pollination of shea butter trees. She is among six winners of the 2026 Goldman prize, which this year, for the first time in its 37-year history, awarded all prizes to women.