Young Country Diary is back, and taking pieces from children about the natural world in winter
Once again, the Young Country Diary series is open for submissions! Every three months, as the UK enters a new season, we ask you to send us a piece written by a child aged 8-14.
The article needs to be about a recent encounter they’ve had with nature – whether it’s climbing a tree, a chilly birdwatching trip, or watching a big beast like a red deer.
Continue reading...Growing list facing extinction and underresourcing of conservation means plans have not been updated
Hundreds of plans for the recovery of threatened species will reach their use-by date in the next six months as the government considers how to reform Australia’s flawed system of environmental protections.
Documents released to Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws detail how underresourcing, disagreement with state governments, and the growing list of species threatened with extinction have constrained the federal environment department’s ability to get on top of a backlog of conservation work.
Continue reading...Mammals were downgraded from endangered to threatened in 2017, even as pollution and habitat loss drive starvation
The deaths of almost 2,000 manatees in Florida’s coastal and inland waterways over the last two years has provoked an alliance of environmental groups to demand an urgent reclassification of the species to officially endangered.
The advocates, led by the non-profit Center for Biological Diversity, insist the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) made a critical error in 2017 by prematurely downgrading the status of the giant aquatic mammals from endangered to merely threatened.
Continue reading...The 500lb one-year-old moose fell through a basement window and became trapped, requiring six people to help get him out
Firefighters in Alaska got an unusual request for assistance last Sunday, from Alaska wildlife troopers.
“They were looking for some help getting a moose out of a basement,” said Capt Josh Thompson of Central Emergency Services on the Kenai Peninsula.
Continue reading...Tuan Tuan, gifted to Taiwan 14 years ago when relations were warmer, allowed to ‘continue to sleep’ after being anaesthetised
A panda given to Taiwan by China 14 years ago as a symbol of what were then warmer ties died on Saturday, after suffering seizures, Taipei zoo said.
Tuan Tuan and his breeding mate Yuan Yuan were given to Taiwan by Beijing in late 2008, at a time when relations between the two were more cordial.
Continue reading...Seriously injured victim airlifted to hospital after escaped animal went on rampage in Carmarthenshire village
An elderly man has been taken to hospital with serious injuries after being attacked and trampled by an “dangerously out-of-control” cow, police said.
Dyfed-Powys police received reports that the cow had escaped from Whitland Mart in Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Continue reading...Inadequate management and underinvestment in main Animal and Plant Health Agency facility has left country at risk, MPs warn
The UK’s main animal disease facility has been left to deteriorate to an “alarming extent” leaving the country vulnerable to major outbreaks on the scale of the devastating 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis, MPs have warned.
An inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee found that the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in Weybridge was “continually vulnerable to a major breakdown” because the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had “comprehensively failed” in its management of the site.
Continue reading...Return of one of one of Britain’s rarest fish confirmed after DNA found in water samples above fish passes
For nearly two centuries, one of Britain’s rarest fish has been shut out of its spawning grounds by large weirs.
But the endangered twaite shad has now returned to its historic spawning habitat on the River Severn, thanks to four new fish passes that enable the migratory fish to negotiate weirs and swim up river to lay eggs.
Continue reading...Adult ape sharing information and just wanted mother to look at foliage with no motive otherwise, scientists say
Chimpanzees show each other objects just for the sake of it, researchers have found, revealing it isn’t only humans who like to draw attention to items that have captured their interest.
As anyone who has spent time with a child knows, even very young humans like to point out objects to others. However, it was previously thought this behaviour only occurs in our species.
Continue reading...Tassal and Huon Aquaculture did not announce use of antibiotics, which may contribute to growth of antibiotic-resistant superbugs
More than a tonne of antibiotics was used to control a potentially deadly fish disease at two salmon farms in southern Tasmania earlier this year, but the companies and government made no public announcements at the time.
Reports submitted to the Environment Protection Agency by Tassal and Huon Aquaculture revealed wild fish had scavenged antibiotic-laced pellets below the salmon cages. One sample of three flathead caught off Coningham beach, 2km from the boundary of Tassal’s Sheppards lease, revealed antibiotics in the flesh of the fish above the reportable threshold. The monitoring reports were not made public until months after the disease outbreak.
Continue reading...Aura, born when just 94 Iberian lynxes remained, dies in Spain at record age and leaves a ‘phenomenal legacy’
A grumpy, strong-willed Iberian lynx called Aura that helped snatch her species from the jaws of extinction, and whose genes live on in more than 900 of the spotted and tufty-eared felines, has died in southern Spain at the record age of 20.
When Aura was born in Andalucía’s Doñana national park in 2002, there were a mere 94 Iberian lynxes on the peninsula. Decades of eradication efforts, together with a massive drop in rabbit numbers because of myxomatosis and rabbit hemorrhagic disease – not to mention human encroachment – had left the animals on the brink of disappearing.
Continue reading...Australian Wildlife Conservancy to manage the site allowing ecologists to restore crucial habitat for multiple species
Almost 4,000 hectares of koala habitat in the Hunter region of New South Wales will be protected after the land was privately acquired for conservation.
Sydney philanthropists Andrew and Jane Clifford bought the property north of Newcastle, which scientists from the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) estimate is habitat for more than 100 vertebrate species, including the endangered koala and 11 other animals listed as threatened.
Continue reading...Exclusive: charities say animal abusers are not being held to account as figures show small number of inspections
Just one in 300 complaints about animal welfare at UK farms led to a prosecution over the last four years, with half of the accused holdings not even inspected, analysis has shown.
A report by Animal Equality and the Animal Law Foundation also said that fewer than three in 100 of the UK’s estimated 291,000 farms had an annual inspection by a public body between 2018 and 2021.
Continue reading...The 50-year-old, who survived the encounter, is being treated for the wounds to her upper right thigh
A California woman has given her first interviews about surviving a shark attack while swimming off the coast of San Diego.
Lyn Jutronich, 50, said she was resting in the water during her morning ocean swim when something rammed her hard out of the water.
Continue reading...Former president Moon Jae-in says he will give up gift of Pungsan dogs if no support from Yoon Suk-yeol
South Korea’s former president Moon Jae-in has said he plans to give up a pair of dogs sent by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, as a gift after their 2018 summit, citing a lack of support from his successor.
Moon has raised the white Pungsan dogs, named Gomi and Songgang, since their arrival and took them to his personal residence after his term ended in May.
Continue reading...Scientists have long sought to farm the scarce seafood staple, but critics say animals are not suited to intensive methods
Scientists in Japan say they have developed a groundbreaking method of farming squid that could solve shortages of the seafood staple, amid warnings from environmental groups that aquaculture is incompatible with the animal’s welfare.
Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) say their system produced a reliable supply of squid and has the potential to be commercialised.
Continue reading...Father of two staying overnight on ‘roar and snore’ experience says family told to flee tents and ‘it was pretty shocking – imagine facing a lion’
Five lions broke out of their enclosure at Sydney’s Taronga zoo, forcing staff and visitors to hide in “safe zones” and triggering a review of zoo safety.
The lions – four cubs and one adult – were seen outside their enclosure about 6.30am on Wednesday. A “code one” alert soon after sent the zoo into lockdown. Police were called at 7.10am and the lions returned to their enclosure just before 9am.
Continue reading...Assam, Nagaland and Manipur officials also confiscate catapults and nets to ensure birds can recuperate
Officials in north-east India have banned the use of guns and airguns and confiscated catapults and nets in an effort to safeguard the small Amur falcons that make an autumn pit stop on their way to sunny South Africa.
Forest officers were patrolling areas of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur states to make sure no one disturbs the long-distance travelling raptors who stop briefly in India.
Continue reading...Global heating is warming waters, changing salmon and tuna migration – and hurting fisheries
There is little at Shiogama seafood market to suggest that Japanese consumers could one day be deprived of their favourite seafood – from giant crab’s legs simmering in a winter nabe hotpot to spheres of salmon roe resting on a bed of rice wrapped in nori seaweed.
Stalls heave with huge sides of bluefin tuna, expertly transformed into more manageable portions by knife-wielding workers, while early-morning shoppers pause to inspect boxes of squid, flounder and sea pineapples landed only hours earlier.
Continue reading...Dogue, run by a trained chef, has garnered outrage for the high cost of pampering pups but pet parents have been supportive
San Francisco is a foodie heaven with plenty of Michelin-starred restaurants. And San Franciscans love dogs. So it might come as no surprise that an entrepreneur has decided to combine the two passions, creating what’s believed to be the first restaurant exclusively for man’s best friend.
Dogue, which rhymes with “vogue”, opened last month in the city’s trendy Mission District.
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