Category Archives: Animals

Charity faces legal action after relocated elephants in Malawi allegedly kill 10 people

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People living near Kasungu national park say they are living in fear after translocation of 263 elephants by International Fund for Animal Welfare

People living on the edge of a protected area in Malawi are taking legal action against an NGO that moved more than 250 elephants into the area, which they say have killed at least 10 people.

Villagers near Kasungu national park, which is Malawi’s second largest and crosses the Zambian border, say they are living in fear for their livelihoods and safety after 263 elephants were introduced in July 2022, causing a sharp spike in human-wildlife conflict. Ten people claiming to be affected by the translocation from Liwonde national park have begun legal action against the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), demanding that the conservation NGO construct adequate fencing to protect the 167 villages around the park and compensate local people for the damage caused by the elephants.

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Bald eagle who went viral for incubating rock dies after fierce storms in Missouri

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Murphy, who lived to 33, took in a rock in 2023 and tried to hatch it, captivating hearts and later fostering two eaglets

Missouri lost an ambassador, role model and community pillar in the violent storms that swept the country on 15 March: a 33-year-old bald eagle named Murphy.

Murphy captivated hearts far beyond the midwest and gained national attention in 2023 when he incubated a rock, attempting to hatch it, in a stunt the internet loved. The World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri, where he lived, rewarded his instincts, allowing him to foster an eaglet that he nurtured back to health. Another eaglet was placed into his care, and is expected to be released midway through the summer.

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Falconer ‘extremely close’ to catching hawk attacking Hertfordshire villagers

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Bird of prey’s violent reign in Flamstead could soon come to an end, according to parish council

It stole two woolly hats from the head of a 91-year-old pensioner. It clawed a jogger’s scalp and left him reeling. It is said to swoop in from behind without making a sound, has a penchant for tall men’s heads and – so far – has evaded capture.

But the violent reign of the Flamstead hawk, which has made men in the Hertfordshire village of Flamstead afraid to go out without covering their heads, may soon be at an end.

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Spanish parliament vote on cutting food waste will end ban on wolf hunting

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Amendment brought by coalition of parties says wolves add to food waste due to remains of livestock they kill

The Spanish parliament has voted through a measure that will in effect lift the hunting ban on wolves that was imposed in 2021.

A coalition led by the conservative People’s party, with the support of the far-right Vox party and Basque and Catalan nationalists, added an amendment to a law aimed at reducing Spain’s estimated 1.2bn kilograms of food waste.

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Mexico City introduces ‘bloodless bullfighting’ in win for animal rights activists

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Activists celebrate move, but note that ‘a bull event without violence does not mean one without suffering’

Mexico City’s congress has voted to ban traditional bullfights and replace them with a new form of bloodless spectacle, marking the latest episode in a years-long legal battle to outlaw the practice in the capital.

Animal rights activists celebrated the move on Tuesday – even if it wasn’t the total ban on bullfighting they had been pushing for.

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Hope for endangered penguins as no-fishing zones agreed off South Africa

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Deal will restrict fishing near colonies on Robben Island and Bird Island for 10 years, after long debate between industry and conservationists

Efforts to stop the critically endangered African penguin from going extinct took a step forward on Tuesday after South African conservationists and fishing industry groups reached a legal settlement on no-fishing zones around six of the penguins’ major breeding colonies.

Sardine and anchovy fishing will not be allowed for 12 miles (20km) around the penguin colony off Cape Town on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, and Bird Island, across the bay from Gqeberha, also known as Port Elizabeth. There will be more limited closures around four other colonies, according to a court order formalising the agreement.

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Once named world’s ugliest animal, blobfish wins New Zealand’s fish of the year

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Made up of blobby tissue and living deep in the ocean, the distinctive species beat the longfin eel and pygmy pipehorse in the annual contest

It was once crowned the “world’s ugliest animal” and now the disgruntled-looking gelatinous blobfish has a new gong to its name: New Zealand’s fish of the year.

The winning species of blobfish, Psychrolutes marcidus, lives in the highly pressurised depths off the coasts of New Zealand and Australia and has developed a unique anatomy to exist. Blobfish do not have a swim bladder, a full skeleton, muscles or scales. Instead, their bodies are made up of blobby tissue with a lower density than water that allows them to float above the seafloor.

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Storrington in West Sussex named UK’s first European stork village

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Village joins continental network alongside nearby Knepp estate, as birds previously extinct in Britain flourish

The Saxons knew the West Sussex village of Storrington as Estorchestone, the “abode of the storks”.

But the graceful white birds disappeared from its skies more than 600 years ago, when they became extinct in Britain.

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Baby wombat-snatching US influencer apologises and says she was ‘concerned’ for Australian animal

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Sam Jones, who left Australia on Friday, posted a 900-word statement questioning outrage in country where ‘slaughter of wombats’ is permitted

A US hunting influencer who caused outrage in Australia after grabbing a baby wombat from its mother says she is sorry for the incident but was only trying to ensure its safety by removing it from a road.

Sam Jones left the country on Friday morning after the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said immigration authorities were checking if she had breached the conditions of her visa.

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‘All the birds returned’: How a Chinese project led the way in water and soil conservation

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The Loess plateau was the most eroded place on Earth until China took action and reversed decades of damage from grazing and farming

It was one of China’s most ambitious environmental endeavours ever.

The Loess plateau, an area spanning more than 245,000 sq miles (640,000 sq km) across three provinces and parts of four others, supports about 100 million people. By the end of the 20th century, however, this land, once fertile and productive, was considered the most eroded place on Earth, according to a documentary by the ecologist John D Liu.

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Baby wombat-snatching US influencer at risk of losing Australian visa

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Video footage, described as ‘callous’ and ‘pretty dreadful’, showed Sam Jones grabbing the joey from its mother at night

A US hunting influencer who shared video of herself snatching a baby wombat away from its mother is being investigated for a potential breach of her Australian visa.

The footage, with scenes described as “callous” by the RSPCA and “pretty dreadful” by the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, showed the Montana-based influencer Sam Jones grabbing the wombat joey at night as it was walking with its mother.

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‘Don’t underestimate cats’: Los Angeles feline uses up one of nine lives surviving wildfire

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Katherine Kiefer lost her home to the Palisades wildfire, but her crafty kitty, Aggie, somehow lived through the disaster

It appears the tall tale that all cats have nine lives may be true for a California Maine coon named Aggie.

The beloved feline was feared dead for two months after the Palisades wildfire in Los Angeles left her family’s home in ashes. But her owner, 82-year-old Katherine Kiefer, held out some hope.

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‘A ribbon dancer’: captive baby sea lion performs acrobatics with artificial kelp

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‘It look so artistic under the water,’ staff at Washington state aquarium says of Pepper

A baby sea lion toting an artificial kelp strip was filmed performing intricate rhythmic gymnastics-style circles through the waters of an aquarium in Washington state.

Although only nine months old and still reliant on her mother’s milk, Pepper has become the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s most acrobatic sea lion, said Noelle Tremonti, a staff biologist for the aquarium.

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TSA finds live turtle concealed in man’s pants at New Jersey airport

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Turtle was detected after a body scanner alarm went off at Newark Liberty airport

A Pennsylvania man who was going through security at a New Jersey airport was found to have a live turtle concealed in his pants, according to the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The turtle was detected on Friday after a body scanner alarm went off at Newark Liberty international airport. A TSA officer then conducted a pat-down on the East Stroudsburg man and determined there was something concealed in the groin area of his pants.

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Eastern monarch butterfly population doubles in a year

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Migratory insects covered 4.2 acres in Mexican forests this winter but number remains far below long-term average

The population of eastern monarch butterflies – which migrate from Canada and the US to Mexico during the winter – has nearly doubled over the last year, according to a recent report commissioned in Mexico, generating optimism among nature preservationists.

The modest growth in numbers for the orange-and-black butterflies follows years of ongoing conservation efforts – and perhaps provides a sliver of optimism after otherwise discouraging long-term trends for the species.

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Chicken manure can be classified as industrial waste, judge rules

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US-style mega-farms in Herefordshire face tough new regulations after high court ruling

Industrial poultry farms face tough new regulations around the disposal of chicken manure after a judge ruled it can be classified as waste and requires a detailed and transparent plan to dispose of it without damaging the environment.

The high court ruling means new US-style mega-farms in Herefordshire will have to deal with poultry manure as if it was industrial waste.

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When Cyclone Alfred forced a wildlife hospital to close, this rescue koala found a new place to recuperate

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Laura Leaf had a sick possum for company when she spent three nights in a spare room at Mallory Wilson’s Nerang home

Laura Leaf, a rescued koala, was the last surgery of the day at Currumbin wildlife hospital, just hours before its doors were due to close to ride out Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

But after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery on Wednesday, Laura Leaf needed round-the-clock care – and the Gold Coast hospital’s intensive care unit was about to be shut.

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Butterfly population in US shrinking by 22% over last 20 years, study shows

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Drop in line with rate of overall insect loss as scientists point to habitat loss, pesticide use and the climate crisis

Butterflies may be among the most beloved of all creatures, routinely deified in art and verse, but they are in alarming decline in the United States with populations plummeting by a fifth in just the past two decades, according to the most comprehensive study yet of their fortunes.

The abundance of butterflies in the US slumped 22% between 2000 and 2020, the new analysis of more than 76,000 mostly regional surveys, published in Science, found. For every five butterflies fluttering daintily around at the start of the century, just four remain today.

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‘You just hope for the best’: rarely seen froglets – the length of a grain of rice – released into small patch of Victorian wilds

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Exclusive: More than 3,000 critically endangered Baw Baw frogs set free in a high-altitude forest to bolster dwindling population

More than 3,000 critically endangered Baw Baw frogs have been released in Victoria’s east as part of a record-breaking conservation breeding program.

Zoos Victoria’s reintroduction of 3,000 tiny froglets and 40 adult frogs into the high-altitude forests of the Baw Baw plateau, about 120km east of Melbourne, was the largest in its breeding program for the species.

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Canada goose fights off bald eagle in rare, symbolism-laden battle on ice

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Photographer captures 20-minute clash between birds emblematic of Canada and US amid high trade tensions

For the second time in weeks, a Canadian icon has emerged as the unlikely victor in an existential battle on the ice.

Mervyn Sequeira, an Ontario photographer, was out with his family on a recent morning when they spotted a bald eagle descending towards a frozen lake.

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