Category Archives: Animals

Hundreds of labradoodles in urgent need of homes after RSPCA Tasmania shuts down puppy breeder

Posted on by

Tasmanian Labradoodles agrees to close to avoid charges laid for alleged overbreeding

More than 250 labradoodles – many who have never been in contact with a human – are in “urgent” need of a home after RSPCA Tasmania shut down the state’s biggest puppy breeder over animal welfare concerns.

Tasmanian Labradoodles surrendered all of its dogs last Friday in a “landmark out-of-court agreement” that led to the immediate and permanent closure of the business, the RSPCA said in a statement.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Midges thriving in wet Scottish summer – and experts say worse is to come

Posted on by

Tourist hotspots including Ullapool and Fort William badly hit as biting insects enjoy damp, humid conditions

Scotland’s wet summer is providing perfect conditions for surges of midges, with experts saying worse is yet to come.

This week the Scottish Midge Forecast predicted high numbers of the biting insects, reaching peaks of four and five on a scale of one to five.

Continue reading...

Romania to step up cull of brown bears after hiker killed

Posted on by

MPs approve cull of 481 bears this year, up from 220 last year, to control ‘overpopulation’ of protected species

Romania’s parliament has approved the culling of almost 500 bears this year in an effort to control the “overpopulation” of the protected species after a deadly attack on a hiker sparked nationwide outcry.

The country is home to 8,000 brown bears, according to the environment ministry, Europe’s largest brown bear population outside Russia.

Continue reading...

Wildlife rescue group Wires faces crunch vote amid volunteer discontent over funds raised after bushfires

Posted on by

Donations grew dramatically after Australia’s black summer but animal carers say they didn’t receive enough

Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organisation faces a landmark vote on Sunday, as members unhappy with the distribution of donations after the black summer bushfires attempt to change its constitution.

The income of the Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (Wires), based in NSW, ballooned from $3m to more than $100m thanks to the success of its fundraising campaign after the catastrophic fires of 2019-20, which burned millions of hectares of land and reportedly killed or displaced 3 billion animals.

Continue reading...

‘Africa’s most resilient lion’ and his brother filmed making record-breaking swim across dangerous African river

Posted on by

A team led by an Australian researcher captured the pair swimming about 1.5km after two failed attempts

A record-breaking swim by two lion brothers across a predator-filled African river has been documented by a team led by a researcher from an Australian university.

The two-male lion coalition was filmed crossing the Kazinga Channel in Uganda at night using high-definition heat detection cameras on drones.

Continue reading...

Man in China caught smuggling 100 live snakes in his trousers

Posted on by

Traveller stopped by customs as he sought to slip out of Hong Kong into the border city of Shenzhen

A man has been caught trying to smuggle more than 100 live snakes into mainland China by cramming them into his trousers, according to the country’s customs authority.

The unnamed traveller was stopped by customs officers as he sought to slip out of semi-autonomous Hong Kong and into the border city of Shenzhen, China Customs said in a statement on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Canada: grizzly bear hunting quietly reinstated in Alberta

Posted on by

Conservationists say it’s a ‘slap in the face’ to those who are trying to save the threatened species

The Canadian province of Alberta has quietly reversed a two-decade ban on hunting grizzly bears, in what conservations described as a “slap in the face” amid continuing debate over the future of the threatened species.

Alberta first banned the hunting of grizzly bears in 2006 after the population of the species, which once reached as many as 9,0000 bears, collapsed due to generations of overhunting, agriculture development and urbanization.

Continue reading...

Shark bites teen training to be a lifeguard in Florida

Posted on by

Teen’s injuries weren’t considered life-threatening in shark attack, which are rare incidents, though Florida is US and world leader

A shark bit a Florida teen on the leg during a lifeguard training camp on Monday morning, officials said.

The attack on the 14-year-old boy in question occurred near the Ponce Inlet lifeguard tower shortly before noon, Volusia county beach safety officials said. The lifeguard trainee had been practicing water entries when he landed on a shark.

Continue reading...

Spanish tourist trampled to death by elephants in South Africa

Posted on by

Officials say 43-year-old man left his vehicle to take pictures of a breeding herd at Pilanesberg national park

A Spanish tourist has been trampled to death by elephants in a South African national park after apparently trying to take pictures of a breeding herd that included three calves.

The 43-year-old man was killed on Sunday morning at Pilanesberg national park about 130 miles (210km) north-west of Johannesburg.

Continue reading...

Modern-day dingoes already established across Australia thousands of years ago, research finds

Posted on by

Newly recovered DNA shows the predators share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs and are descended from ancient animals from China

Scientists have for the first time recovered DNA from the remains of dingoes between 400 and 2,700 years old to find the predator’s population was well established across the Australian continent thousands of years ago.

According to the researchers, modern dingoes share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs introduced into Australia from Europe but are instead descended from ancient dogs and wolves from China and the Tibetan plateau. Dingoes were closely related to modern New Guinea singing dogs, the research confirmed, with both sharing a common ancestor.

Continue reading...

NSW greyhound racing board could be sacked after minister issues ‘show cause’ notice

Posted on by

Greyhound Racing NSW allegedly breached licence that stipulates it must immediately disclose anything that brings industry into disrepute

The New South Wales minister responsible for greyhound racing has threatened to sack the industry’s governing board over its alleged failure to properly manage a series of complaints over how it operates and other matters.

Guardian Australia understands the racing minister, David Harris, issued a show cause notice to the Greyhound Racing NSW board on the grounds it had breached the terms of its operating licence, as the sector faces criticism over rising dog injuries and its adoption programs.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Fangs and toilet seat-shaped head: giant salamander-like fossil found in Namibia

Posted on by

About 2.5 metres long, creature was an apex predator 280m years ago, before age of dinosaurs, say scientists

A giant 280m-year-old salamander-like creature that was an apex predator before the age of the dinosaurs has been discovered by fossil hunters in Namibia.

The creature, Gaiasia jennyae, was about 2.5 metres long, had an enormous toilet seat-shaped head and fearsome interlocking fangs. It lurked in cold swampy waters and lakes with its mouth wide open, preparing to clamp down its powerful jaws on any prey unwise enough to swim past.

Continue reading...

A third of land set aside for restoration in worse state than before, Australian offset audit finds

Posted on by

Federal review sparks fresh warnings that biodiversity scheme is increasing risk of animals going extinct

A review of some of the areas chosen for nature restoration as part of Australia’s biodiversity offset system has found a third are in worse condition than before, prompting fresh warnings that the scheme is increasing the risk of animals going extinct.

In one instance, the majority of a site that should have provided grey-headed flying fox and koala habitat was found to be “cleared paddock with negligible foraging value”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘Like the devil on meth’: New Zealand feral cat killing competition produces record haul

Posted on by

Contest condemned by animal rights groups sees children and adults hunt cats, which threaten native wildlife

A controversial competition that allows children to hunt feral cats in rural New Zealand for cash prizes has produced its biggest haul yet, with roughly 340 animals killed – about 100 more than last year’s event.

The annual North Canterbury fundraising event, which wrapped up this weekend, is open to children and adult participants and targets deer, pigs, ducks, possums and rabbits.

Continue reading...

Rare white buffalo sacred to Lakota not seen in Yellowstone since birth

Posted on by

Park staff say they have not been able to locate calf, who fulfilled Lakota prophecy and is named Wakan Gli

A rare white buffalo calf in Yellowstone national park has not been seen since its birth on 4 June, according to park officials.

In a statement released on Friday, the National Park Service (NPS) confirmed that a white buffalo calf was born in Lamar Valley earlier this month, adding that the park’s buffalo management team had received numerous reports of the calf on 4 June from park visitors, professional wildlife watchers, commercial guides and researchers.

Continue reading...

More than 100 dolphins stranded in shallow water around Cape Cod

Posted on by

Volunteers work to herd Atlantic white-sided dolphins found Friday in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, into deeper water

More than 100 dolphins have become stranded in the shallow waters around Cape Cod on Friday in what an animal welfare group is calling “the largest single mass stranding event” in the organization’s 25-year history.

A group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins were found Friday in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, about 100 miles south-east of Boston, in an area called the Gut – or Great Island at the Herring River – which experts have said is the site of frequent strandings, due in part to its hook-like shape and extreme tidal fluctuations.

Continue reading...

Florida shark attack leaves man in critical condition

Posted on by

Swimmer off Fernandina beach was rescued by Nassau county marine unit after distress call from boat on Friday

A shark attack off Florida’s Atlantic coast left a man with a “severe bite to his right arm” on Friday, authorities say, leaving him in critical condition from blood loss.

The Nassau county sheriff’s office marine unit, which was patrolling off the coast of Fernandina beach near the Florida-Georgia border, said it had received a distress call from a boat on Friday and had applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

Continue reading...

Protecting just 1.2% of Earth’s land could save most-threatened species, says study

Posted on by

Study identifies 16,825 sites around the world where prioritising conservation would prevent extinction of thousands of unique species

Protecting just 1.2% of the Earth’s surface for nature would be enough to prevent the extinction of the world’s most threatened species, according to a new study.

Analysis published in the journal Frontiers in Science has found that the targeted expansion of protected areas on land would be enough to prevent the loss of thousands of the mammals, birds, amphibians and plants that are closest to disappearing.

Continue reading...

Pirates of the Caribbean actor Tamayo Perry dies in shark attack

Posted on by

The actor, who also appeared in Blue Crush and Hawaii Five-0, was a lifeguard and professional surfer, described as a ‘legendary waterman’

Pirates of the Caribbean actor Tamayo Perry has died following a shark attack in Hawaii.

Perry, who also appeared in Blue Crush and Hawaii Five-0, was surfing at Malaekahana beach on the Hawaiian island of Oahu when he died on Sunday afternoon.

Continue reading...