Category Archives: Animals

Shark tale? Video of large fish in flooded Florida yard goes viral

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Man films fish ‘flopping around’ in neighbour’s garden but experts are split over identification

Photos and videos of sharks and other marine life swimming in suburban floodwaters make for popular hoaxes during heavy storms. But a mobile phone video filmed during Hurricane Ian’s assault on south-west Florida isn’t just another fishy story.

The video, which showed a large, dark fish with distinct dorsal fins thrashing around an inundated Fort Myers back yard, racked up more than 12m views on Twitter within a day, as users responded with disbelief and comparisons to the “Sharknado” film series.

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Spanish police seize smuggled baby eels worth €270,000

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Dozens arrested in operation as officials warn of resurgence in trafficking of endangered elvers

Spanish police have arrested 29 people after seizing 180kg of critically endangered young European eels with a value on the hidden market of €270,000 (£237,000).

The Guardia Civil said the operation, in collaboration with Europol, had also led to 20 arrests elsewhere in Europe.

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Slug numbers appear to shrivel after UK heatwave

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Zoologists say they have never seen this low a number, after unprecedented hot weather

As dewy dawns break across the UK’s pumpkin patches and allotments, gardeners across the land are waking up to the absence of at least one slippery pest. Slug numbers appear to have shrivelled as a result of the ongoing drought.

“I went to survey a woodland site last week and it took me over 30 minutes to locate a slug. Usually, I would expect to find them under almost every log in that habitat,” said Jake Stone, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge. “I thought that there would be fewer around, but I’ve never seen this low a number. But I suppose that’s to be expected, because it’s rarely been this hot and dry.”

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Weak controls failing to stop illegal seafood landing on EU plates, investigation shows

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EU financial watchdog blames small fines and feeble controls in some states for amount of illegal seafood


Illegally fished seafood continues to end up on the plates of EU citizens due to weak controls and insignificant fines in some member states, auditors have found.

The European Union, the world’s largest importer of fishery products, requires member states to take action against fishing vessels and EU nationals engaged in illegal fishing activities anywhere in the world.

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Turtle concern: Australian businessman denies threatening to sell Conflict Islands to China

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Ian Gowrie-Smith says he was frustrated the Australian government did not respond to urgent funding request for turtle conservation

The owner of 21 tropical islands off the coast of Papua New Guinea says he never threatened to sell them to China and his main aim is to save the turtles that nest there.

Ian Gowrie-Smith, an Australian businessman and investor, bought the Conflict Islands, which lie less than 1,000km from the Australian coast, almost two decades ago.

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‘Alien goldfish’ may have been unique mollusc, say scientists

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Researchers think they may have solved enduring mystery of where Typhloesus wellsi sits on tree of life

The mystery of a bizarre creature dubbed the “alien goldfish”, which has baffled fossil experts for decades, may have been solved, according to scientists who say the animal appears to have been some sort of mollusc.

Typhloesus wellsi lived about 330m years ago and was discovered in the Bear Gulch Limestone fossil site in Montana in the late 1960s, with the remains of other species subsequently identified.

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Antarctic researchers gain insights from on high as they count seals from space

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Scientists used satellite images and more than 300,000 volunteers to count Weddell seals, a key Southern Ocean indicator species

Researchers believe they have accurately estimated Antarctica’s Weddell seal population for the first time – using images from space and the eyes of hundreds of thousands of citizen scientists.

Weddell seals are a key indicator species in the Southern Ocean, for both sea ice fluctuations and shifts in the food web. They can live up to 30 years in the harsh conditions of the coastal sea ice of Antarctica, but until recently, counting them has been risky and cost-prohibitive.

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Moves as smooth as silk: scientists uncover Australian ant-slayer spider’s hunting secrets

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With stealth followed by speedy acrobatics, Euryopis umbilicata can successfully catch banded sugar ants twice its size

A mid-air cartwheel, the judicious use of sticky silk and a quick rappel down a tree, all in the blink of an eye: researchers have identified how the Australian ant-slayer spider captures prey twice its size.

The acrobatic behaviour of the Australian ant-slayer spider, Euryopis umbilicata, as it hunts and eats banded sugar ants has been documented by scientists for the first time.

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EU slammed over failure to protect marine life from ‘destructive’ fishing

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Strict no-take policies urged by scientists, who note there is less protection in 59% of marine protected areas than outside MPAs

The waters of the EU are in a “dismal” state, with only a third of fish populations studied in the north-east Atlantic considered to be in good condition, according to more than 200 scientists and conservationists.

The analysis, issued on Monday, follows a scathing report from the European court of auditors two years ago, which warned that the EU had failed to halt marine biodiversity loss in Europe’s waters and to restore fishing to sustainable levels.

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‘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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