Japan’s return to commercial whaling in 2019 has left few buyers for Iceland’s meat
Iceland, one of the only countries that still hunts whales commercially, along with Norway and Japan, plans to end whaling from 2024 as demand dwindles, the fisheries minister has said.
“There are few justifications to authorise the whale hunt beyond 2024,” when current quotas expire, Svandis Svavarsdóttir, a member of the Left Green party, wrote in Morgunblaðið newspaper.
Continue reading...A kleptomaniac parrot briefly stole a GoPro camera and took it on a sweeping tour of a remote region of New Zealand. The kea took off with the device after it was placed outside by the Verheul family, who were hiking in Fiordland. The bird pecked off parts of the camera after it landed, before the device was recovered by the Verheuls
Continue reading...Clever corvids become newest weapon in Södertälje’s war against street litter
Crows are being recruited to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the streets and squares of a Swedish city as part of a cost-cutting drive.
The wild birds carry out the task as they receive a little food for every butt that they deposit in a bespoke machine designed by a startup in Södertälje, near Stockholm.
Continue reading...Government halts planned slaughter of animals in ‘wolf zone’, after campaigners secure injunction
Norway has halted a major hunt of wolves after campaigners secured a court injunction.
Twenty-five animals, within four packs, are in the “wolf zone”, an area of nature set aside to protect the predators, and these have been given a stay of execution by the courts after campaigners argued wolves in a conservation area should not be shot.
Continue reading...Photographer Dmitry Kokh discovered polar bears living in an abandoned weather station in Kolyuchin, in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation, while on a trip to Wrangel Island, a Unesco-recognised nature reserve that serves as a refuge to the animals
I had dreamed about photographing polar bears for a long time. Some time ago my hobby, wildlife photography, ceased to be just a hobby and turned into a large part of my life. And if you devote so much time to an activity then your goals should be ambitious. Most of all I like to take pictures of large marine animals, whether on land or under water. Not everyone knows, but zoologists classify polar bears as marine mammals since they spend most of their time on ice floes away from land. And their paws even have webbing.
There are only a few places on the planet where polar bears can be found in large numbers. One of them is Russia’s Wrangel Island, a nature reserve under Unesco protection that is often called a polar bear maternity ward. The place is very inaccessible, which may be bad for tourists but is great for the animals.
Polar bears living in an abandoned weather station in Kolyuchin, in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation
Continue reading...Research is first to document coordinated female-led pods ramming world’s largest animal and eating its tongue before it dies
From snatching sea lions off beaches to stunning fish with a strike of their tails, orcas are renowned for their highly specialised hunting techniques passed down over generations. Now, for the first time, killer whales have been recorded hunting the planet’s largest animal – the blue whale – in coordinated and brutal attacks.
Female-led pods of killer whales, also known as orcas, have been recorded killing and eating blue whales in three separate attacks off the coast of Australia since 2019, according to a paper published in Marine Mammal Science.
Continue reading...A primitive Australian fish living in a San Francisco museum is believed to be the oldest living aquarium fish in the world. Methuselah is a four-foot-long (1.2-meter) Australian lungfish, weighing around 40lb (18.1kg). The species has both lungs and gills and is believed to be the evolutionary link between fish and amphibians. The lungfish was brought to the San Francisco museum in 1938 from Australia and now lives at the California Academy of Sciences. The species is threatened and can no longer be exported from Australian waters so biologists at the academy say it's unlikely they'll get a replacement once Methuselah passes away
Continue reading...Six years ago poachers hacked off Sehawukele’s horns; now he’s back in a game reserve
A 10-year-old white rhino whose horns were brutally hacked off has returned to the wild after 30 operations over six years to repair the gash in his face.
His rescuers named the bull Sehawukele, meaning “God have mercy on us”. Called Seha for short, he was found by police stumbling near a fence in a reserve, so disfigured that he could barely hear or eat.
Continue reading...Team in Hampshire ties sausage to drone as ‘last resort’ to rescue Millie the jack russell from mudflats
As the tide rose, it began to look perilous for Millie the jack russell-whippet cross, who had defied the efforts of police, firefighters and coastguards to pluck her from treacherous mudflats.
So the rescuers had to think imaginatively, and came up with the idea of attaching a sausage to a drone and hoping the scent of the treat would tempt Millie to safety. It worked gloriously and Millie has been reunited with her grateful owner after following the dangling sausage to higher, safer ground.
Continue reading...Delayed legislation includes ban on trophy hunting imports and stricter sentences for puppy thieves
Some of the government’s most prized new animal welfare policies are being put on pause in what supporters see as a sneaky attempt to ditch the “woke” measures altogether.
Senior sources in the Conservative party have confirmed to the Guardian that a series of policies including a ban on trophy hunting imports, stricter sentences for puppy thieves and a ban on live exports of livestock have been put on pause after a campaign led by Mark Spencer, the chief whip.
Continue reading...There’s still much to learn about these ‘strange alien creatures’, but climate change likely to create ideal breeding conditions, expert says
Armadas of alien-like sea creatures have been washing up on Australian beaches thanks to the warm weather but experts warn people should look but not touch.
Jellyfish expert Dr Lisa-ann Gershwin said bluebottles had been washing up on beaches across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania in “gobsmacking numbers” over the last few months thanks to the warmer weather.
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Continue reading...Authorities call for animals to be surrendered for ‘disposal’ after traces of virus detected at pet shop
Hong Kong has ordered thousands of hamsters be surrendered for “disposal” after traces of Covid-19 were found on 11 animals in a pet shop.
The order includes pets that were bought days before Christmas be handed over, with a warning not to “kiss or abandon them on the street” as Hong Kong and mainland China attempt to sustain a zero Covid strategy, attempting to suppress all outbreaks internally while maintaining tight border controls with the outside world.
Continue reading...Tracking a wild cougar and swapping its collar battery is all in a day’s work for the Olympic Cougar Project, a partnership between a coalition of Native American tribes, a renowned cougar expert and the Washington Department of Transportation
Continue reading...Conservation groups appeal to EU to take action against slaughter they allege flouts rules
Finland is joining Sweden and Norway in culling wolves this winter to control their population, as conservation groups appeal to the European Union to take action against the slaughter.
Hunters in Sweden have already shot dead most of their annual target of 27 wolves, while Finland is to authorise the killing of 20 wolves in its first “population management cull” for seven years.
Continue reading...Friends and colleagues pay tribute after the recent deaths of these groundbreaking naturalists, who shifted our understanding of the world and our future
Over Christmas and the new year, three of the world’s leading naturalists died. Thomas Lovejoy, a conservation biologist credited with popularising the term “biodiversity” and a passionate defender of the Amazon, died on 25 December. A day later, Edward O Wilson, known to many as the “modern-day Darwin”, died in Burlington, Massachusetts. On 2 January, Richard Leakey, a world-renowned Kenyan conservationist who helped establish Africa as the birthplace of humankind, died at his home in Nairobi.
From presidents to undergraduate students, thousands have paid tribute to the three men, whose achievements range from developing theories on forest and island ecosystems to reforming the Kenyan civil service and devising proposals to protect half the planet for nature. Alongside grand accomplishments, which were sometimes controversial, their passing has been a chance to reflect on the small and the mundane: fleeting interactions that inspired careers, kind words that propelled research projects, and generosity of spirit that has helped amplify the voices of those that practise and produce science.
Continue reading...It wouldn’t be Guardian Australia ‘best of’ series without a bird episode! The regent honeyeater is an endangered native Australian songbird, with only a few hundred left in the wild. A few years ago scientists noticed something odd – they were mimicking other birds, and unable to sing their own song. Environment reporter Graham Readfearn and Dr Joy Tripovich explain how this species lost its song, and whether teaching it how to sing again could help save it from extinction
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Continue reading...Analysis: As doctors monitor world’s first human recipient of pig heart, safety and ethical concerns remain
The world’s first transplant of a genetically altered pig heart into an ailing human is a landmark for medical science, but the operation, and the approach more broadly, raise substantial safety and ethical concerns.
Surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center spent eight hours on Friday evening transplanting the heart from the pig into 57-year-old David Bennett, who had been in hospital for more than a month with terminal heart failure.
Continue reading...Footage has emerged of a group of ostriches on the run through the streets of Chongzuo in China.
It is believed the ostriches escaped from a farm owing to the gate not being closed properly, according to local media.
No injuries were reported and the owner managed to recapture the majority of the ostriches with the help of the police.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday and no injuries were reported
Continue reading...The ‘exceptional find’ was discovered only feet from a badger’s den in the northern region of Asturias
A trove of 209 Roman coins in a cave in northern Spain – hailed by researchers as an “exceptional find” – is believed to have been uncovered by a badger desperately foraging for food.
The coins, dating from between the third and fifth century AD, were spotted in a cave in the municipality of Grado in the northern region of Asturias. They were found mere feet from the den of a badger, months after Storm Filomena dumped heavy snow across swaths of the country.
Continue reading...The Oscar-winning director’s new documentary explores warmth, joy and anger through the eyes of a farmyard animal. She reveals what it taught her about life
Andrea Arnold’s films are known for their spare dialogue, and in her first documentary it is more pared-backed than ever: Cow consists of 94 minutes of moos, with the odd off-camera interjection from farmhands. It is hardly a thriller (though the ending is pure Tarantino). But it is one of the most beautifully crafted and tender portraits of a life you are likely to see.
Arnold, who started her professional life as a rollerskating TV presenter on the children’s Saturday show No 73, began thinking about documenting an animal’s life nine years ago. Eventually she settled on a cow. “I thought a cow would be interesting because they work so hard, getting pregnant and giving milk their entire lives. It’s a huge job they do.” She chose Luma because she was told she had a big personality and was feisty. Arnold and her team spent four years, on and off, filming her. Why did she make Cow? “I wanted to show a non-human consciousness. I was intrigued as to whether we would be able to see her consciousness if we followed her long enough.”
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