Category Archives: Animals

‘Interspecies innovation arms race’: cockatoos and humans at war over wheelie bin raids

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Research shows Sydney residents devising increasingly sophisticated ways to keep highly intelligent but ‘bloody annoying’ birds out of household waste

Cockatoos and humans are locked in what Australian researchers have described as “an interspecies innovation arms race”.

Sydney residents are resorting to increasingly sophisticated measures to prevent sulphur-crested cockatoos from opening and raiding household wheelie bins, detailed in new research published in the journal Current Biology.

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Escaped chimpanzee returns to Kharkiv zoo on keeper’s bicycle

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Rare moment of joy in under-fire Ukrainian city as video shows Chichi being wheeled back on bicycle

A chimpanzee that escaped Kharkiv city zoo on Monday was persuaded to return by a zoo employee who wheeled it back on a bicycle.

Staff at the zoo in Ukraine’s second-biggest city were struggling to persuade Chichi, who had wandered around streets and a nearby park, to return to the zoo with them.

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US farmers face plague of pests as global heating raises soil temperatures

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Milder winters could threaten crop yields as plant-eating insects spread northwards and become more voracious, researchers say

Agricultural pests that devour key food crops are advancing northwards in the US and becoming more widespread as the climate hots up, new research warns.

The corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) is considered to be among the most common farm pests in the US, ravaging crops such as maize, cotton, soya and other vegetables. It spends winter underground and is not known to survive in states beyond a latitude of 40 degrees north (which runs from northern California through the midwest to New Jersey), but that is changing as soils warm and it spreads to new areas, according to research led by North Carolina State University.

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Tanya Plibersek urged to save Gouldian finches from NT defence development

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Conservationists call on government to reconsider project near Darwin after 100-plus birds were spotted in bushland marked for clearing

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, is being urged to intervene to save a population of endangered Gouldian finches threatened by a defence development in the Northern Territory.

The first stage of clearing has begun to allow a defence housing development in savannah woodlands at Lee Point, in Darwin’s north, having been approved in 2019.

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Larry4Leader: No 10’s Larry the cat ‘enters’ race to become next PM

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Downing Street’s ‘chief mouser’ has apparently thrown his collar in the ring to replace Boris Johnson

Twitter users were delighted to see billboards across London announcing that Larry the cat, No 10’s “chief mouser”, has thrown his collar into the ring to become the country’s next prime minister.

Either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will be declared as the new leader of the Conservative party on Monday, but the campaign team behind Larry4Leader has gone to extra lengths to ensure the tabby’s stance is known.

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‘We just want the truth’: British coastal towns fight for answers over mystery sealife deaths

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Question mark over freeport in Tees Valley after ecological disaster puts communities in the north east of England at loggerheads with the government

Stan Rennie has indelicate hands that aren’t good for typing. He’s not the kind of person who cares much for technology at all.

But over the last year, the fisherman has found himself spending less time outdoors and more time glued to his computer, tapping out stern emails to politicians and researching niche areas of environmental law. “It’s taken over his life,” his daughter Sarah, 36, says.

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Farmers in England to be allowed to use ‘lethal force’ on beavers

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Government guidance on rodents angers conservationists who say animals are a help not a hindrance to agriculture

Farmers in England will be allowed to shoot beavers if they threaten their crops, the government has revealed.

Conservationists have opposed the move, saying the animals are an “ally to farmers”, helping conserve water in times of drought, and are an endangered species that should be treasured. The rodents became extinct in the UK 400 years ago after they were hunted for their pelts, but in recent years they have been reintroduced to England and Scotland.

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How an alligator became an emotional support animal: ‘They said it was a midlife crisis’

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Joseph Henney’s main companion is not an ordinary alligator. ‘He tries to comfort people and is famous for his hugs’

Joseph Henney, 69, grew up on a farm in the same area of Dover, Pennsylvania he lives in now. From a young age, Henney was surrounded by a wide range of animals, such as cattle, coyotes, snakes and hogs, which makes owning a pet alligator perhaps the least surprising thing about him.

But Henney’s gator companion Wally is not an ordinary pet – he’s an official emotional support animal and one that is now somewhat famous after video of Henney and Wally walking together in Philadelphia’s Love Park went viral and triggered a slew of news headlines.

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A girl wanted to keep the goat she raised for a county fair. They chose to kill it

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A California lawsuit brought by the girl’s parents accuses law enforcement of traveling hundreds of miles to confiscate a beloved pet

When a young California girl purchased a baby goat last spring, the intention was to eventually sell it at a county fair livestock auction. But after feeding and caring for the animal for months, she bonded with the goat, named Cedar, and wanted to keep it.

Instead, law enforcement officers allegedly travelled hundreds of miles to confiscate the pet, who was eventually slaughtered.

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Ohio man who suffered 20,000 bee-stings expected to recover, family says

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Austin Bellamy has awoken from a medically induced coma after mistakenly cut into a bees’ nest while trimming a tree

An Ohio man who was stung at least 20,000 times by bees – and even ingested some of the insects – during a mishap while he was cutting tree branches is expected to recover, according to his family.

Austin Bellamy, 20, climbed high into a lemon tree in Ripley, Ohio, last Friday to help trim it when he mistakenly cut into a bees’ nest, his mother, Shawna Carter, has recounted, in addition to authorities’ accounts of his injuries.

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Let them eat bugs: UK urges hunger-stricken African nations to farm insects

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Aid projects in DRC and Zimbabwe encourage rural inhabitants to eat insects rich in vitamins and minerals

UK aid spending is encouraging hunger-stricken Africans to eat insects, with projects aiming to develop the practice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe.

Edible insects have long been touted as a resource-efficient source of protein, requiring less land and water than conventional livestock. However, taste and cultural resistance have proved to be stumbling blocks in extending the practice in many parts of the world.

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Spanish region urges ‘respect for bulls’ after seven deaths at fiestas

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More than 300 festival goers also injured during 2022’s Bous al Carrer festivities

Authorities in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia are calling on festival goers not to “lose respect for bulls” after seven people were killed by the animals during this year’s Bous al Carrer bull-running fiestas.

The summer festivities – which translate as “bulls on the street”, and which are held in towns and villages across Valencia – have also resulted in more than 300 injuries in the past two months.

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Mystery surrounds cluster of satin bowerbird deaths in the Gold Coast hinterland

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Landowner and bird experts cast doubt on Queensland government’s rat poison theory

In a town perched atop the rainforest hinterland of the Gold Coast, one of Australia’s most charismatic birds is suddenly and mysteriously dying.

Rumours and misinformation are swirling around Tamborine Mountain to explain the spate of satin bowerbirds deaths, with fingers pointed at everything from rat poison to 4G phone towers.

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Australian racing industry ‘failing miserably’ to rehome greyhounds as adoption flatlines

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Welfare group says breeding numbers are still too high and surpass the industry’s capacity to rehabilitate the dogs

The rehoming of Australian racing industry dogs has flatlined in the last three years, according to research by the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds.

Just over 2,000 dogs were rehomed annually by industry adoption bodies, a figure that has not increased since 2017-18, a CPG report found.

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More than 100 hen harriers fledge in England for first time in a century

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Conservationists welcome successful breeding season but say birds remain at risk of being illegally killed

Nearly 120 rare hen harrier chicks have fledged in England this year, the highest number for more than a century, England’s conservation agency has said.

Natural England and its partners recorded 119 hen harrier chicks successfully fledging from nests across uplands in County Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and Yorkshire. A fledgling is a young bird that has grown enough to acquire its initial flight feathers and is preparing to leave the nest and care for itself.

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Swift parrot recovery plan changes downplay logging threat, experts say

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Exclusive: Revisions revealed through FOI are more focused on protecting forestry industry than preventing species going extinct, scientists argue

Tasmanian and federal bureaucrats pushed for a recovery plan for a critically endangered parrot species to be changed to remove and downplay scientific evidence that logging was the biggest threat to its survival.

Scientists said the proposed changes to the recovery plan for the swift parrot – revealed in draft versions made available under freedom of information laws – were more focused on protecting the forestry industry than preventing the species going extinct.

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Australia’s rabbit invasion traced back to single importation of 24 animals in 1859, study finds

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Population then exploded in what researches say was ‘the fastest colonisation rate for an introduced mammal ever recorded’

The Australia-wide rabbit invasion resulted from a single introduction of just 24 animals in 1859, new research has confirmed.

Using historical and genetic data, scientists have pinpointed the origins of what they call “the fastest colonisation rate for an introduced mammal ever recorded”.

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Game over – the Ritz takes grouse off the menu in victory for environment campaigners

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Some restaurants are listening, with Corrigan’s not sourcing from intensive shoots and the Ritz not serving a Glorious Twelfth dish

From 12 August to early December, it’s usually possible to walk into old-fashioned fine dining establishments across the country and order the rare British delicacy that is grouse, frequently served with bread sauce and game chips.

But those hoping to eat the tiny game bird in the gilded Ritz dining room in London will be out of luck this year, as the world-famous hotel has quietly removed it from the menu after an outcry from environmental campaigners.

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No puppy love: post-lockdown lifestyles and cost of living are driving Australians to surrender their pets

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Animal shelters nearing capacity are encouraging people to adopt by slashing fees and hosting events to make room for other animals in need

The end of Covid lockdowns and the spiralling cost of living have left animal shelters overflowing, with organisations now forced to host adoption drives and slash their fees in an effort to get more animals out of shelters and into their forever homes.

This was in stark contrast to the high adoption rates and shelter shortages across Australia during the early days of the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.

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Canada zoo finds escaped wolf pups in moment of joy tinged with tragedy

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Four days after a ‘suspicious’ break-in, one pup is found safe and another appears to have been hit by a car

Emotions are bittersweet at a Canadian zoo after a runaway wolf pup was safely located after four days on the loose, but another was found dead along a road.

Conservation officers and zoo staff in Canada have spent the last four days searching for a runaway wolf after mysterious break-in freed a pack of the predators from the popular zoo.

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