Witnesses describe ‘total mayhem’ as horses run through centre of UK capital during rush hour
Four people have been taken to hospital after several military horses broke loose during a morning exercise and bolted through central London, colliding with vehicles.
Astonished witnesses described “total mayhem” as the runaway horses, including one white horse drenched in blood, ran through the rush-hour streets.
Continue reading...Celebrity fashion designer, who recruited couriers to transport bags from her native Colombia to US on commercial flights, receives 18-month sentence
A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities from Britney Spears to the cast of the Sex and the City TV series has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in Miami federal court on charges of smuggling crocodile handbags from her native Colombia.
Nancy Gonzalez was arrested in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, and later extradited to the US for running a sprawling multiyear conspiracy that involved recruiting couriers to transport her handbags on commercial flights to high-end showrooms and New York fashion events – all in violation of US wildlife laws.
Continue reading...Exclusive: 80% of Welsh dairy farms inspected, 69% of English ones, 60% in Scotland and 50% in Northern Ireland breaching regulations
The majority of UK dairy farms are breaking pollution rules, with vast amounts of cow manure being spilled into rivers.
When animal waste enters the river, it causes a buildup of the nutrients found in the effluent, such as nitrates and phosphates. These cause algal blooms, which deplete the waterway of oxygen and block sunlight, choking fish and other aquatic life.
Continue reading...Scientists estimate Vasuki indicus was up to 15m long, weighed a tonne and would have constricted its prey
Fossil vertebrae unearthed in a mine in western India are the remains of one of the largest snakes that ever lived, a monster estimated at up to 15 metres in length – longer than a T rex.
Scientists have recovered 27 vertebrae from the snake, including a few still in the same position as they would have been when the reptile was alive. They said the snake, which they named Vasuki indicus, would have looked like a large python and would not have been venomous.
Continue reading...Experts believe remains belong to a type of ichthyosaur that roamed the seas about 202m years ago
Fossils discovered by an 11-year-old girl on a beach in Somerset may have come from the largest marine reptile ever to have lived, according to experts.
The fossils are thought to be from a type of ichthyosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile that lived in the time of dinosaurs. The newly discovered species is believed to have roamed the seas towards the end of the Triassic, about 202m years ago.
Continue reading...Cambridge scientists critique research that concluded the disease is no longer a threat to the species’ survival
Cambridge researchers have challenged a previous study which had concluded a facial cancer that devastated the Tasmanian devil population was on the decline.
Devil facial tumour disease, a fatal cancer spread through biting and sharing of food, first emerged in the 1980s. The spread of DFTD led to the species being listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2008.
Continue reading...Westerners see elephants as pets, said Mokgweetsi Masisi, whose government threatened to send 30,000 elephants to Germany and the UK to demonstrate their dangers
Many Europeans value the lives of elephants more than those of the people who live around them, the president of Botswana has said, amid tensions over potential trophy hunting import bans.
Botswana recently threatened to send 30,000 elephants to the UK and Germany after both countries proposed stricter controls on hunting trophies. The country’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, said it would help people to understand human-wildlife conflict – which is among the primary threats to the species – including the experiences of subsistence farmers affected by crop-raiding by the animals.
Continue reading...Animal recaptured without harm, local outlet reports, and is safe with handlers after escaping Jordan World Circus
An elephant escaped from the circus and ambled through the streets of Butte, Montana, before being recaptured without harm, local news reported.
NBC Montana showed a video of the enormous pachyderm walking across a busy multi-lane street in front of stopped cars and gawping drivers. A later picture showed the elephant standing on a suburban house’s lawn.
Continue reading...The Piper PA-32, a single engine plane, crashed off the coast across from Trump’s LA golf club in Ranchos Palos Verdes
A pilot and his dog survived a plane crash off the California coast, swimming to shore where they were met by authorities responding to the incident.
A 911 call came in on Sunday afternoon at 5.22pm about a plane crashing into the ocean off the coast across from the Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles, in Ranchos Palos Verdes, the Los Angeles county sheriff’s department said on Tuesday.
Continue reading...The law will come into force in national parks within two years and in all of the country’s marine protected areas by 2030
Greece has become the first country in Europe to announce a ban on bottom trawling in all of its national marine parks and protected areas.
The country said will spend €780m (£666m) to protect its “diverse and unique marine ecosystems”.
Continue reading...Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen are allowed to keep the bird, which had become Instagram famous with their staffy, Peggy, but are forbidden from monetising it
Molly the magpie has been returned to its Gold Coast carers – but they are no longer allowed to make money from its 837,000 Instagram followers.
The department of environment, science and innovation approved a special licence for Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen, who have cared for it since it fell from the nest in 2020.
Continue reading...Blue tits, starlings, wood pigeons and blackbirds next most sighted in RSPB survey involving 600,000 participants
A friendly if slightly tuneless chirp is the most ubiquitous birdsong in British gardens with the house sparrow topping the Big Garden Birdwatch charts for the 21st consecutive year, according to the annual RSPB survey.
Blue tits, starlings, wood pigeons and blackbirds were the next most-sighted birds by more than 600,000 participants in the world’s largest wildlife garden survey.
Continue reading...Clues at Argentina site raise possibility mammal was buried with human owners about 1,500 years ago
The remains of a fox unearthed at a human burial site in Argentina dating back 1,500 years has raised the possibility the animal may have been kept as a pet, research suggests.
Experts say the remains predate the arrival of domestic dogs in Patagonia, which occurred about 700–900 years ago, with a number of clues suggesting the fox was seen as valuable, and may even have been a companion to the hunter-gatherers it lived with.
Continue reading...Walker Corporation had proposed 3,000 apartments, marina and shops for the site, which is a critical habitat for the endangered eastern curlew
• Toondah Harbour: should a wetland home to endangered birds become $1.3bn worth of shops, high-rises and a marina?
• To the moon and back with the eastern curlew
The environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, has announced she will reject an apartment and retail development on an internationally important wetland at Queensland’s Moreton Bay.
Plibersek said on Tuesday she would refuse Walker Corporation’s Toondah Harbour project – first proposed eight years ago and opposed by a long-running community campaign backed by scientists and conservationists – because it would have an unacceptable impact on the Ramsar site.
Continue reading...Frantic giraffes, barking gibbons, randy tortoises … previous solar eclipses have revealed varied responses to sudden onset of darkness
Not every scientist’s attention will be focused on the skies during Monday’s solar eclipse. Animal behaviorists at several zoos across its pathway will be watching creatures great and small for their reactions to the sudden, unexpected darkness.
The research is an extension of their observations from 2017’s most recent total eclipse in the US, when usually sedentary tortoises started rutting, frantic giraffes ran around aimlessly, and siamang gibbons embarked on an abrupt and tumultuous chorus of screams and barks.
Continue reading...Environmental and animal welfare groups call on lender to phase out support for ‘industrial’ livestock operations
The private sector arm of the World Bank is facing claims that it contributes to global heating and the undermining of animal welfare by providing financial support for factory farming, including the building of pig farming tower blocks in China.
A coalition of environmental and animal welfare groups is calling on the World Bank to phase out financial support for large-scale “industrial” livestock operations. More than $1.6bn was provided for industrial farming projects between 2017 and 2023, according to an analysis by campaigners.
Continue reading...Primates are symbol of Lopburi but residents have had enough as monkeys resort to violence to get food
Mischievous long-tailed macaques are, for many, a symbol of the Thai city of Lopburi. Tourists flock to the city’s ancient temple to feed the macaques fresh fruit and photograph them as they maraud the streets. But, increasingly, residents say they have had enough.
This week, after growing complaints from residents, wildlife officials announced a plan to round up 2,500 of the urban monkeys and place them in large enclosures. It follows an incident in March where a woman’s knee wasdislocated after she was kicked in the back by a monkey that wanted her food. Separately, a man lost control of his motorcycle after a monkey tried to grab a bag of food from him.
Continue reading...Dog that had gone missing was discovered in Michigan clean and well-fed: ‘Whoever had her took good care of her’
Nearly nine months after his disappearance, a dog that had gone missing in California was discovered more than 2,000 miles away in Michigan.
A resident in Harper Woods, a Detroit suburb, contacted police in late March to report a stray dog in her neighborhood. Police collected the terrier mix, named Mishka, and brought her to an animal welfare group.
Continue reading...Monitoring station detects predatory species using artificial intelligence and sends alert so nests can be traced
An early warning system designed to track and trace predatory Asian hornets using artificial intelligence has been unveiled by experts from a British university.
Researchers from the University of Exeter have invented a system that draws hornets to a monitoring station. They land on a sponge cloth impregnated with food and an overhead camera captures images.
Continue reading...Meteorologist says bears were not aggressive but they fired signal gun to scare them away
Katarzyna Kudłacz was preparing a breakfast of scrambled eggs at a research station on Svalbard when she looked up to see she had three unexpected guests.
Shocked and in awe, the meteorologist immediately alerted her colleagues to the female polar bear and her two cubs peering into the Polish research station in Hornsund, in the south of the Norwegian archipelago, their noses pressed up against the window.
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