Environment agency advised that the animal posed a danger to elderly woman in remote summer house in Westfjords
A rare polar bear that was spotted in a remote village in Iceland was shot by police after being considered a threat, authorities have said.
The bear was killed in the north-west tip of the country after police consulted the national environment agency, which declined to have the animal relocated, according to the Westfjords police chief, Helgi Jensson.
Continue reading...Marley, whose ‘incredible gift of empathy’ is said to help exploited women, beats thousands of cats to prize
A cat that offers comfort to trafficked women has been named cat of the year at a national ceremony.
Marley, a black and white cat who lives at a safe house for women who have been enslaved, exploited and trafficked, won the award because of his “gift of empathy”.
Continue reading...Arom Arunroj, 64, said she was doing the washing-up at about 8.30pm when the 20kg snake attacked her
A Thai woman has described being trapped in the coils of a 20kg (44lb) python for about two hours in her home before rescuers were able to free her.
Arom Arunroj, 64, was bitten several times by the snake, which had entered her home in Samut Prakan, a province south of Bangkok. She said she had been doing the washing-up at about 8.30pm when she suddenly felt something biting her leg. “I looked at it, and it was a snake,” she said in an interview broadcast on Thai media.
Continue reading...Culling after severe drought wiped out crops across region is also part of effort to decongest country’s parks
Zimbabwean authorities have set out plans to cull 200 elephants to feed communities facing acute hunger amid the worst drought in four decades.
The El Niño-induced drought has wiped out crops across southern Africa, affecting 68 million people and causing food shortages across the region. In Zimbabwe, 7.6 million people are set to face food insecurity from January to April next year, the height of the lean season, according to the World Food Programme.
Continue reading...Telford’s Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World urges public to report sightings of Cinnamon and not approach her
A zoo has issued a plea on social media for help in finding a capybara named Cinnamon which escaped from its habitat in Shropshire.
Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World posted to its Facebook page on Monday announcing its “beloved capybara” was at large.
Continue reading...The hoiho, which means ‘noise shouter’, triumphed in a year free from the usual scandals surrounding the competition
One of the world’s rarest penguins has been crowned New Zealand’s bird of the year, in an unusually sedate year for the competition, free from the foreign interference and voting scandals of previous events.
The endangered yellow-eyed penguin, or hoiho, is the largest of New Zealand’s mainland penguin species and is distinctive for the pale yellow band of feathers linking the eyes.
Continue reading...Researchers find two sites with fossils including saber-toothed salmon and megalodon, the huge prehistoric shark
Marine fossils dating back to as early as 8.7m years ago have been uncovered beneath a south Los Angeles high school.
On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that researchers had discovered two sites on the campus of San Pedro high school under which fossils including those of a saber-toothed salmon and a megalodon, the gigantic prehistoric shark, were buried.
Continue reading...A new bill forcing local authorities to remove homeless animals from city streets has led to a furious backlash
Next to the network of the highways that crisscross Turkey, among the lush forests or mountain peaks that dot the country, large stray dogs are a common sight. Most are pale white Akbaş dogs or Kangal shepherds, with their distinctive dark muzzle, pale golden coat and large bodies designed to herd livestock, although on the streets of Istanbul they are more commonly found lazing outside coffee shops, rotund and docile from a lifetime of treats.
In cities at least, the stray dogs are popular enough to be seen as part of the architecture. One particularly large and sleepy example that dozes outside an ice-cream shop on Istanbul’s main shopping street has become a local celebrity nicknamed “The Boulder”, complete with a string of rave reviews left by delighted tourists. The dog is marked as an Istanbul tourist attraction on Google Maps, which features a recommendation to avoid petting him.
Continue reading...Environment minister says country has more elephants than it needs while critics of hunt say they are a major tourist drawcard
Zimbabwe will cull 200 elephants as it faces an unprecedented drought that has led to food shortages, a move that tackle a ballooning population of the animals, the country’s wildlife authority has said.
Zimbabwe had “more elephants than it needed”, the environment minister said in parliament on Wednesday, adding that the government had instructed the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) to begin the culling process.
Continue reading...Pen-chan defies expectations to be reunited with keeper safe and sound after swimming 30 miles in open sea
A fugitive penguin in Japan has been found safe and sound two weeks after escaping into the sea and paddling for miles in what her keeper called a miracle.
Pen-chan, a female Cape penguin born and raised in captivity, who had never swum in the open sea before or fended for herself, absconded from an event in the central Aichi region on 25 August.
Continue reading...Conservationists and botanists express concern over plans for Qatari-funded upscale resort on Assomption Island
The habitat of the largest giant tortoise population in the world is threatened by a Qatari-funded hotel development that aims to bring luxury yachts, private jets and well-heeled tourists to a remote island in the Indian Ocean, conservationists have warned.
Plans for an upscale resort on Assomption, which is part of the Aldabra island group, are currently under discussion by the Seychelles authorities, and construction is already finished on an airport expansion that would allow bigger aircraft to land on the 11.6-sq-km (4.5-sq-mile) coral island.
Continue reading...The Project hopes competition will raise big money for underfunded organisations working to protect beloved species
Tense competition is brewing between the greater glider and the koala in Australia’s marsupial of the year vote but there are hopes a silky-tailed species that “mates themselves to death” could win over voters and maybe even save it from heading towards extinction.
Network Ten’s The Project launched the competition in collaboration with organisations and charities that work with or help preserve the habitat of marsupials, many of them endangered, in a bid to raise funds for them.
Continue reading...Park in Borno state says more than 80% of its animals have been killed and urges residents to take precautions
Floods in northern Nigeria have killed more than 80% of the animals in a large zoo housing wildlife from lions and crocodiles to buffalo and ostriches, the facility has said.
“Some deadly animals have been washed away into our communities, like crocodiles and snakes,” the Sanda Kyarimi Park zoo added in a statement on the floods in the northern Borno state, urging residents to take precautions.
Continue reading...Young bird was believed to have attacked and injured at least four people in a week across wide area
A young golden eagle has been killed after reportedly attacking and wounding at least four people, including a 20-month-old toddler, in a large area of central and southern Norway.
The public broadcaster NRK said that in the most recent attack on Saturday the bird swooped on the girl, who was was playing in her family’s farmyard in the central Trøndelag region, despite being beaten away by her mother and a neighbour.
Continue reading...Eels use tail-first technique to back up digestive tract of fish towards oesophagus before coming out of gills
It sounds like the plot of a horror movie – a predator swallows its prey only for the creature to burst out of its captor’s body. But it seems Japanese eels do just that.
Scientists in Japan have discovered that when swallowed by a dark sleeper fish, the eels can escape.
Continue reading...Creating a fox-proof haven for endangered eastern quolls required a high, encircling fence. But what about the other wildlife?
Eastern long-necked turtles are known for their “ridiculously cute grin”, says Nick Dexter, and a much less charming ability to release a pungent stink to ward of predators.
But what they’re not good at, unsurprisingly, is climbing fences.
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Continue reading...The virile bird was euthanized by Maryland zoo due to health problems, and is survived by Mrs Greedy
A zoo in Baltimore is mourning the death of an African penguin that helped save his kind from extinction by leaving behind more than 200 descendants while living far longer than expected.
The remarkable creature in question is Mr Greedy, who was euthanized because of health problems related to his age: 33, or well past African penguins’ 18-year median life expectancy, said an announcement from his home, the Maryland zoo.
Continue reading...Siberian kitten at No 10 may get frosty reception from chief mouser Larry, who took on George Osborne’s cat, Freya
On the face of it, the kitten that joined Keir Starmer’s family appears to have had a peaceful first week at an address where feline and human rivals have been known to get their claws out.
The arrival of the Siberian cat – as yet unnamed in public – was revealed on Monday by the prime minister, who said his children had been pushing for a dog to join them at Downing Street.
Continue reading...Our study links urbanisation, particularly the increase in built infrastructure and the loss of green space, to a decline in the bird communities we find most attractive
The birds that fill our mornings with songs and our parks and gardens with colour are disappearing from our cities, our new study has found.
We examined 82 bird species across 42 landscape types in Brisbane. The range of landscapes encompassed parks, bushland reserves, and industrial and residential areas.
Continue reading...Seabirds are in a precarious position as their breeding areas are threatened by climate breakdown and overfishing
Five seabirds have been added to the UK’s conservation red list, meaning they are at dire risk of local extinction.
The government has been urged to act as the arctic tern, Leach’s storm petrel, common gull, great skua and great black-backed gull join other seabird species such as the puffin on the list after severe population declines.
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