Forensic necropsy of a female grizzly bear suggests she was killed by a goat, after the horns pierced the bear’s armpits and neck
With their long, sharp claws and frightening speed, few predators in Canada’s wild hinterlands attack as mercilessly as a hungry grizzly bear.
But in a rare turn of events, park officials say a mountain goat not only defended itself from becoming a meal, but was able to kill the attacking bear with its “dagger-like” horns.
Continue reading...A koala joey who fell from a tree while his mother was being harassed during the breeding season has recovered, and is back in the wild with her
A koala joey injured after falling from a tree as an amorous male koala aggressively pursued its mother has made a full recovery and is back in the wild.
The seven-month-old joey was found on the ground at a property in northern New South Wales.
Continue reading...Hartsop, Cumbria: I look down and notice a slug-sized, dark brown invertebrate clinging to my leg
A good September day can feel more like true summer than any other time of year, and this sunny, sultry Sunday in the Patterdale valley is an excellent example. The landscape has eased into a settled maturity: the hedgerows are full of dark fruits, the rowans are full of lipstick-red berries, and juvenile sparrowhawks call out from woods of deep, well-aged green. This late-summer lull feels like the equivalent of a piece of music resolving on a satisfying chord, the culmination of everything the year has been building towards.
I am on holiday here with my girlfriend and some of her family and friends, staying above the village of Hartsop, close to Brothers Water. This small, shallow lake is home to rare species such as the schelly (Coregonus stigmaticus) – a relic whitefish endemic to just four Lake District lakes – and a community of bottom-rooted plant species, some of which brush slimily against my legs as I go in for a quick dip. My companions are fazed by the reeds, but I wave away their concerns with the haughty confidence of a seasoned wild swimmer.
Continue reading...After asking for public help with their investigations, scientists have received thousands of reports and specimens of dead, shrivelled frogs
In the middle of Sydney’s lockdown, scientist Jodi Rowley has been retrieving frozen dead frogs from her doorstep.
Occasionally one will arrive dried and shrivelled up in the post.
Continue reading...A volunteer with the New York City Audubon found nearly 300 carcasses littering the sidewalks below the World Trade Center
Hundreds of birds migrating through New York City this week died after crashing into the city’s glass towers, a mass casualty event spotlighted by a New York City Audubon volunteer’s tweets showing the World Trade Center littered with bird carcasses.
This week’s avian death toll was particularly high, but bird strikes on Manhattan skyscrapers are a persistent problem that NYC Audubon has documented for years, said Kaitlyn Parkins, the group’s associate director of conservation and science.
Continue reading...Many Faroese horrified by what Sea Shepherd group claims was largest such massacre in the islands’ history
• Story contains graphic image that some may find distressing.
Even the staunchest defenders of traditional whaling in the Faroe Islands have condemned the “cruel and unnecessary” massacre on Sunday of a superpod of nearly 1,500 dolphins, which were driven into shallow waters of the Skálabotnur beach on the island of Eysturoy and left writhing for hours before being killed.
The Sea Shepherd group, which has been campaigning to stop the traditional Faroese “Grind” hunt since the 1980s, has claimed Sunday’s hunt was “the largest single killing of dolphins or pilot whales in the islands’ history”, with more animals perishing than in an entire season at the infamous “Cove” at Taiji, Japan.
Continue reading...Glue and duct tape used to fit rat snakes with dosimeters and GPS movement trackers to help researchers understand long-term effects of radiation
Researchers have used snakes fitted with tracking devices and dosimeters to measure radiation levels in the area around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which suffered triple meltdowns in March 2011.
The meltdowns in Japan caused by a giant tsunami released more radiation into the atmosphere than any nuclear disaster except Chernobyl in 1986.
Continue reading...Four men – three Irish and one English – said to be members of the Rathkeale Rovers gang were given prison terms
A French court has convicted eight men including members of an Irish crime gang for trafficking rhino horn and ivory between Europe and east Asia.
Four men – three Irish and one English – said to be members of the Rathkeale Rovers gang were given prison terms, though two were spared jail as the sentences were suspended.
Continue reading...Warm-blooded animals are changing beaks, legs and ears to adapt to hotter climate and better regulate temperature
Animals are increasingly “shapeshifting” because of the climate crisis, researchers have said.
Warm-blooded animals are changing their physiology to adapt to a hotter climate, the scientists found. This includes getting larger beaks, legs and ears to better regulate their body temperature.
Continue reading...A pair of squawking, thrashing, bald and violently pink twins arrived in the world in Madrid on Sunday.
Much to the relief of their mother and all those working to ensure the giant panda population continues to claw its way back from the brink.
Madrid’s Zoo Aquarium announced the birth of the as-yet-unnamed cubs on Monday,.
The siblings are the fifth and sixth cubs born in the zoo to Hua Zui Ba, a female panda, and her partner, Bing Xing, who are on loan from China.
In an update on Tuesday, the zoo said the cubs had been weighed, clocking in at 0.171kg and 0.137kg respectively, and that their umbilical cords had been tied and disinfected.
Number of species of sharks, rays and chimaeras facing ‘global extinction crisis’ doubles in a decade
A third of shark and ray species have been overfished to near extinction, according to an eight-year scientific study.
“Sharks and rays are the canary in the coalmine of overfishing. If I tell you that three-quarters of tropical and subtropical coastal species are threatened, just imagine a David Attenborough series with 75% of its predators gone. If sharks are declining, there’s a serious problem with fishing,” said the paper’s lead author, Prof Nicholas Dulvy, of Canada’s Simon Fraser University.
Continue reading...Five Star Movement’s Virginia Raggi accuses Lazio regional government of failing to tackle problem
Rome’s mayor has opened a criminal lawsuit against the surrounding Lazio regional government over “the massive and uncontrolled presence of wild boar in Italy’s capital”.
In recent years, Rome’s citizens and farmers have protested about wild boar wreaking havoc on their land and causing fatal car crashes. The animal is believed to be responsible for an average of 10,000 road accidents a year in the country.
Continue reading...Dogs seem to be able to grasp notion of human intention, say researchers
From a canny look to a quizzical grumble, dogs have long conveyed the impression they know more about what their owners are up to than what might be expected. Now researchers have found fresh evidence of canine savviness, revealing dogs seem to be able to tell whether human actions are deliberate or accidental.
While theory of mind – the ability to attribute thoughts to others and to recognise that can result in certain behaviours – is often thought to be uniquely human, the study suggests at least some elements may be common to canines.
Continue reading...After a four-year legal battle, Helen Macdonald gave an emotional statement after her alpaca was forcibly removed from his home in Gloucestershire and put down.
Macdonald said the UK government did not engage in good faith and that 'all the time they were simply planning to murder Geronimo'.
She went on to accuse the government of falsifying Geronimo’s positive bovine tuberculosis test, and that she would not accept the postmortem results if there was not an independent witness present
Goffin’s cockatoos on Indonesia’s Tanimbar Islands crafted three different types of tools from tree branches to obtain seeds from sea mangoes
Australian bird of the year 2021: nominate your favourite for the shortlist
Wild cockatoos have been observed using three types of tools as “cutlery” to extract seeds from tropical fruit.
Researchers made the discovery while studying Goffin’s cockatoos on the Tanimbar Islands, a remote archipelago in Indonesia.
Continue reading...For those aboard a recent whale watching cruise off Cape Cod, the decomposing carcass of a year-old humpback calf floating in the waters of the Stellwagen Bank national marine sanctuary made for a heartbreaking sight.
Related: Experience: I was attacked by two sharks at once
Continue reading...The great white swiped for my head, but missed, because another had got there first
It was a warm winter’s day in South Africa and I planned to go surfing at Nahoon Reef. I was 15 and had just finished my first day back at school after the winter break. The reef is famous among surfers for its powerful waves and popularity with sharks. If you see lots of birds diving into the reef or notice a strong fishy smell in the air, you should not surf there.
But on that day in July 2000, the waves were perfect, just over head high, and there was no wind. The water was warm for winter, too. The conditions were too good to resist.
Continue reading...Some females found to have evolved with bright plumage, which seems to protect against male aggression
They may zip around looking cute and sociable, but the world of hummingbirds is rife with aggression. Now it looks like some female hummingbirds have evolved to avoid this – by adopting the bright plumage of their male counterparts.
US researchers captured more than 400 white-necked Jacobin hummingbirds in Panama.
Continue reading...Unable to travel to a family funeral due to Covid, Ben Jackson used his sheep in a farewell message
A sheep farmer stuck in lockdown in New South Wales who was unable to attend his aunt’s funeral has honoured her memory with the ultimate tribute: a love heart made from sheep.
Ben Jackson from Guyra couldn’t make it to Brisbane to be with his aunt during her final moments after a two-year fight with cancer that began at the start of the pandemic.
Continue reading...There have been 40 attacks in Stanley Park in the last nine months, four times the total over past 30 years
Coyotes are stalking and biting visitors in a popular Vancouver park in record numbers, in a mysterious surge of attacks that is baffling experts and dividing the city.
In the roughly nine months since December 2020, 40 coyote attacks in Stanley Park have been reported, including one last week where a 69-year-old man was bitten on the leg while walking on a trail. None have so far been fatal.
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