After drawing delighted crowds since first sighted in Orkney the young male has swum 400 miles across the North Sea
A peripatetic walrus who became a local celebrity as he toured the north-east coast of Scotland has now been spotted in Norway, bringing to an end his Celtic sojourn.
The young male was christened Magnus after he after first hauled his estimated 2.5-metre frame out of the sea on to Stronsay pier in Orkney on 16 April.
Continue reading...Horses seized and several people questioned after animal rights activist shares video of race along country roads
A video showing an illegal horse race in Sicily, with spectators firing pistols into the air and brandishing Kalashnikov rifles, has prompted a police investigation that has led to the seizure of the animals.
The clip, reportedly filmed last Friday, shows two jockeys driving horse-drawn carts at breakneck speed along country roads in the town of Palagonia, near Catania, in eastern Sicily. Behind them, dozens of people follow on scooters, firing shots into the air. The footage was posted on social media by an animal rights activist named Enrico Rizzi.
Continue reading...Levels of Pfas in northern gannet eggs in Canada fell up to 74% over 55-year period of study
Levels of some of the most dangerous Pfas compounds have dramatically fallen in Canadian seabird eggs, which the authors of a new peer-reviewed study say illustrates how regulations are effective.
Researchers looked at Pfas levels in the eggs of northern gannets in the St Lawrence Seaway basin over a 55-year period. Pfas levels shot up from the 1960s through the peak of the chemicals’ use in the late 1990s and early aughts, then fell.
Continue reading...Thirty years after first person-to-person transmission was documented in Patagonia, scientists say global heating could increase world’s exposure
An outbreak in rural communities 30 years ago in the Patagonia area of Argentina led scientists, for the first time, to document person-to-person transmission of hantavirus, which until then had been known only to spread through contact with rodents.
Nearly a decade ago another outbreak, also in Patagonia, provided detailed evidence of inter-human transmission when an infected 68-year-old rural worker attended a birthday party in a small village. The infection spread and resulted in 11 deaths.
Continue reading...Water minister Rose Jackson calls drying in Gwydir region ‘devastating’ as bill passes upper house
Water flows to parched New South Wales wetlands where an urgent rescue mission to save dying wildlife unfolded are a step closer to resuming after legislation passed the state parliament’s upper house.
The water minister, Rose Jackson, told the parliament on Thursday night the impact of a halt to environmental flows in the internationally significant Gwydir region had been “devastating” as she introduced legislative amendments she said would allow flows to resume.
Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter
Continue reading...Julie, once a circus elephant, and Kariba, from a Belgian zoo, are to be moved to a former ranch in Portugal
Europe’s first large-scale elephant sanctuary, which is opening to offer a more natural environment for some of the 600 animals still held in captivity across the continent, is to receive its first arrivals.
Julie, Portugal’s last circus elephant, will be moved next month to the animal charity Pangea’s multimillion pound sanctuary in the Alentejo, 200km (124 miles) east of Lisbon, close to the border with Spain.
Continue reading...Biologists had guessed coyote paddled a shorter distance to former prison in the San Francisco Bay earlier this year
A lone coyote stunned biologists and others when earlier this year it paddled its way to the remote Alcatraz Island, a former federal prison in the San Francisco Bay surrounded by swift, choppy waters notorious for thwarting prisoners’ escapes.
At the time, biologists guessed the coyote swam from San Francisco, which is a little over 1 mile (1.6km) from the fortress. But it turns out the male coyote actually made an even longer swim from nearby Angel Island, 2 miles away.
Continue reading...San Diego Humane Society finds more than 400 animals at Julian facility, with malnutrition and injuries amid bankruptcy dispute
Authorities in California have rescued more than 400 animals, including horses, cats, dogs and goats, from a now shuttered sanctuary in San Diego county.
The San Diego Humane Society conducted the massive operation last week at Villa Chardonnay, a sprawling facility in Julian that had operated since 2003.
Continue reading...Marine experts criticise €1.5m privately funded operation as humpback’s fate remains unknown after release into Baltic
Marine biologists and whale experts have stepped up their criticism of a privately funded operation to release a humpback whale that was stranded for weeks off Germany’s Baltic coast after it emerged that a tracker fitted to the whale was not working.
The whereabouts and health of the young male whale – nicknamed Timmy after one of the sandbanks it was stranded on – remain unknown three days after it was transported in a water-holding barge pulled by a tugboat to waters off the coast of Denmark.
Continue reading...Big Dog Ranch Rescue made deal to buy 1,500 dogs from Ridglan Farms, a Wisconsin breeding and research facility
The first beagles removed from a Wisconsin dog breeding and research facility that was the site of recent protests seemed to know right away that they were safe.
“They started within an hour or so coming up to us, wanting attention. Some crawled in people’s laps. Every single one of them are super sweet,” Lauree Simmons, the president and founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue, said on Sunday. “I think they are loving the attention. I just know they know they’re safe.”
Continue reading...Foil boarders were pursued by shark – likely a great white – off Santa Barbara before it lost interest and swam away
Ron Takeda and Tavis Boise were a few miles off the coast of Santa Barbara when they noticed the large mass trailing behind them.
“Tavis, is it a dolphin?” asked Takeda as he stood on his foil board, a specialized form of surfing, propelling himself through the waves. Boise, who was filming their run, recognized the question as an ominous sign – the veteran surfers are familiar enough with dolphins that Takeda should have recognized one immediately.
Continue reading...Anant Ambani revives offer to transport 80 animals, all descendants of Colombian drug kingpin’s pets, to India
It remains one of the strangest conundrums in modern zoological history – what to do with the descendants of Pablo Escobar’s hippos?
The animals – herbivores native to sub-Saharan Africa – were originally imported into Colombia by the drug kingpin for his own entertainment. But the beasts and their offspring were left to roam free after his death in 1993.
Continue reading...Rescuers hope to move young male humpback from Baltic to North Sea after being stranded for a month near Lübeck
Rescuers trying to save a stranded humpback whale off Germany’s Baltic coast have coaxed the mammal on to a barge in the hope the vessel can take it to safety in deeper waters.
Amid intense media attention, the high-stakes rescue mission, funded by two multi-millionaires, is being watched by hundreds of onlookers, many of whom are camped nearby to monitor the spectacle.
Continue reading...Man, 57, was watching snake-charming show when reptile crawled into his trousers, say German police
A German tourist has died after a snake crawled into his trousers and bit him as he watched a show in Egypt on a family holiday, police in Germany have said.
The 57-year-old man was watching the snake-charming show at a hotel in Hurghada, a popular beach holiday destination on the Red Sea, in early April.
Continue reading...Woman’s body found in Iwate prefecture last week, soon after a police officer was injured in bear attack nearby
Rested but famished bears emerging from hibernation in Japan are already coming into contact with humans, with the pace of sightings outstripping that seen in 2025, a record year for bear attacks.
According to media reports, the animals have been spotted with surprising frequency in urban areas in the country’s north-east, with authorities urging caution among people planning to spend the coming Golden Week public holidays in the countryside.
Continue reading...Languorous tree dwellers from Guyana and Peru died from ‘cold stun’ in warehouse with no power or running water
Wildlife officials in Florida said in a newly released report that dozens of sloths taken from South American rainforests for display at a controversial new tourist attraction in Orlando died in the care of their new owners.
An incident report from the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) said that 31 of the mammals procured from Peru and Guyana by the owners of a forthcoming attraction called Sloth World perished in a storage warehouse more than a year ago, between December 2024 and February 2025.
Continue reading...Family found creature under a bridge and are documenting its recovery in a fish tank on TikTok
An injured axolotl is on the road to recovery after being rescued from a river in Wales. “Dippy” was found under Dipping Bridge on the River Ogmore near Bridgend, south Wales, by a family who had stopped for a break while travelling on holiday last week.
Evie Hill, 10, told the BBC she lifted up a discarded mat in the shallows of the river, and nestled in the rocks was a 9in (22cm) axolotl, an aquatic salamander native to Mexico. It was pale in colour, with speckles, and had injuries to its tail and stomach believed to have been caused by a predator.
Continue reading...CSIRO researcher says there are reports of up to 4,000 mouse burrows per hectare in parts of Western Australia
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Grain growers are on high alert as mouse numbers in Western Australia reach plague proportions and numbers surge in South Australia.
Steve Henry, who researches mice and their impact on the grain industry at CSIRO, says more than 800 mice per hectare is considered a plague.
Continue reading...Soldiers were participating in ‘land navigation training’ when bear injured them in a ‘defensive attack’
Two US army soldiers have been injured after encountering a brown bear in a mountainous training area in Anchorage, Alaska, the military said on Friday.
The incident happened on Thursday as the soldiers were participating in a “land navigation training event” in Arctic valley, part of the joint base Elmendorf-Richardson’s training area.
Continue reading...More than 2,200 ants were found in Zhang Kequn’s luggage at Nairobi airport, with baggage destined for China
A Chinese national has been sentenced to a year in prison and fined by a Nairobi court for attempting to smuggle thousands of ants out of Kenya, a lucrative trade in east Africa that was exposed last year.
The insects are mostly destined for China, the US and Europe, where they become pets and can be worth about $100 each.
Continue reading...