Rescuer hailed a hero on social media but risks penalty for interfering with shark controls
A man who rescued a whale calf trapped in nets off the Gold Coast from a small boat may face a fine of almost $27,000.
The man rescued the stricken animal on Tuesday morning as officials took more than two hours to respond.
Continue reading...Birds born in one of three nests at Knepp estate in West Sussex as part of breeding project
White stork chicks have hatched in the wild in the UK for the first time in centuries.
Eggs in one of three nests at the Knepp estate in West Sussex have hatched, the White Stork Project announced.
Continue reading...£500,000 government funding for project that ‘could revolutionise’ screening
Dogs are to be trained to try to sniff out the coronavirus before symptoms appear in humans, under trials launched with £500,000 of government funding.
Dogs have already been successfully trained to detect the odour of certain cancers, malaria and Parkinson’s disease, and a new study will look at whether labradors and cocker spaniels can be trained to detect Covid-19 in people.
Continue reading...Around 200 escaped goats stormed residential streets of San Jose, California, after breaking through a fence. The goats were rounded up and under control within minutes but 'everyone had to spend the next hour or so picking up their poop', Zach Roelands, a local resident, said.
Continue reading...Animals storm residential area of San Jose after breaking through a fence in incident caught on video
Nature is healing, and in some parts of northern California, nature is revolting.
About 200 goats broke through a fence in San Jose and briefly stormed the streets of a residential neighborhood on Tuesday evening, in clear violation of social distancing guidelines as well as the state shelter-in-place order.
Continue reading...Voiceover narrates fairy penguin’s high-stakes waddle from shoreline to burrows in parade that used to attract thousands of visitors nightly
With live sport now a scarce resource, BBC commentator Andrew Cotter has lent his distinctive voice to the fairy penguins of Phillip Island.
He has narrated the birds’ nightly waddle back to their burrows, turning Victoria’s famous penguin parade into a high-stakes, long-distance race.
Continue reading...Queen guitarist says ‘I won’t be able to walk for a while’ after injury during lockdown and lambasts Boris Johnson over coronavirus
Brian May has complained of “relentless pain” after he was taken to hospital following a gardening injury that tore muscles in his buttocks – and, while in recovery, made a sustained attack on Boris Johnson’s preparedness for coronavirus.
Writing on Instagram, the Queen guitarist said: “I managed to rip my gluteus maximus to shreds in a moment of overenthusiastic gardening. So suddenly I find myself in a hospital getting scanned to find out exactly how much I’ve actually damaged myself. Turns out I did a thorough job – this is a couple of days ago – and I won’t be able to walk for a while … or sleep, without a lot of assistance, because the pain is relentless.”
Continue reading...Otters are often scene playing with pebbles, throwing and catching them, known as 'stone juggling' and researchers from the University of Exeter believe they know why.
It was previously thought the game helped hone their foraging skills. The study revealed older and young otters tended to juggle more, but when the researchers tested them with food games, they were no better at solving them than adults, who are less likely to juggle.
Hunger was found to be a big factor in juggling and researches believe the action could be linked to excitement for food
Continue reading...Wharfedale, Yorkshire: There are moments of beauty, but the silence can also be eerie and strange, or mask an underlying hostility
In Lower Wharfedale, there are new kinds of silences everywhere. Around Beacon Hill, on the Chevin, the seismic roar of aircraft booming off to Edinburgh or Alicante from the airport nearby has given way to the white noise of a sunny heath in April; a silence textured with the bee-charged buzz of a goat willow, the delicate song of a dunnock, or the soft gloops of mating frogs in a pond. Along the verdant stretch of the Wharfe near Otley Mills, where peace is usually eclipsed by the rush of traffic on the A660, birdsong glitters in the fresh green trees like sun in a stream, and a dipper alerts me to its presence with the tiniest of chirps.
Related: Name that song - it's the perfect time to learn to identify birds
Continue reading...She-wolf in country’s north is pregnant, and newcomers from France or Italy spotted in south
Belgium is becoming “the wolf crossroads of Europe”, a conservation charity has said as it reported new sightings from France and Germany, while Flemish authorities separately announced the imminent arrival of wolf puppies.
Flanders’ environment minister, Zuhal Demir, announced that a pair of wolves in the north of the country were expecting cubs, four months after arrival in the area of a female wolf, Noëlla, who was billed as “a potential new love” for a previously lone wolf, August.
Continue reading...More than 100 birds have been living wild in England as part of conservation scheme
The first wild stork chicks to hatch in Britain for centuries are expected to emerge next month after three pairs of the huge white birds built nests in West Sussex.
Disdaining platforms constructed especially for them, the storks have created their stick nests in the heights of oak trees on the Knepp estate, the centre for a reintroduction project.
Continue reading...Leading US biologist Thomas Lovejoy says to stop future outbreaks we need more respect for natural world
The vast illegal wildlife trade and humanity’s excessive intrusion into nature is to blame for the coronavirus pandemic, according to a leading US scientist who says “this is not nature’s revenge, we did it to ourselves”.
Scientists are discovering two to four new viruses are created every year as a result of human infringement on the natural world, and any one of those could turn into a pandemic, according to Thomas Lovejoy, who coined the term “biological diversity” in 1980 and is often referred to as the godfather of biodiversity.
Continue reading...Police in Russia's southern city of Krasnodar stopped traffic on a busy road to allow a family of ducks to cross safely. In a video that has gone viral on Russian social media, police are seen moving a traffic sign to stop the flow of cars and guide the ducks to the side of the road. The incident reportedly happened near a police checkpoint that was set up to enforce restrictions on movement in the city due to the coronavirus pandemic. The ducks reportedly made it safely to their destination — a pond a few hundred metres away.
Continue reading...More than 11,000 cases of dead and sick birds reported in past fortnight
Thousands of blue tits have been found sick or dead in Germany, prompting an investigation by conservation groups and scientists.
More than 11,000 cases of dead and sick birds, mostly blue tits, have been reported to the German conservation group NABU in the past fortnight. Most of these are reported from the west of Germany.
The blue tit is found across Europe and is one of the most common visitors to UK gardens. They eat insects, caterpillars, seeds and nuts and can be spotted all year round in the UK, with the exception of some Scottish islands.
According to NABU, symptoms of the diseased birds include breathing problems, no longer taking food and making no attempt to escape when approached by people. The group is advising people to stop feeding or providing drinking troughs for birds to reduce the risk of transmission between them.
The first laboratory test results on the dead birds have found a bacterial infection (Suttonella ornithocola) that has been known in the UK since the 1990s and which affects birds similarly. The infection was reported in Germany in 2018. Further test results on birds are expected over the next few days.
The infection discovered causes pneumonia in tits – predominantly blue tits – and they become lethargic with fluffed-up plumage and breathing difficulties. There are no reports of this affecting any other animals apart from birds.
Lions and wild dogs have been filmed relaxing in the the greens of Skukuza golf club in Kruger National Park in South Africa as visitors stay away during the coronavirus outbreak.
Jean Rossouw, captain of the golf club, located within the park, captured videos and images of lions and hyenas on the green in the early morning
‘Stink flirting’ observation may be first finding of primate sex pheromones, say scientists
An irresistible floral scent dabbed on the body may sound like a cliche from a perfume advert, but it appears to play a role in how male ring-tailed lemurs attract a mate.
Researchers in Japan say they have identified the odours males waft at females, and shown the latter’s attention is indeed captured by the pong.
Continue reading...WWF has compiled a list of animal species whose social behaviours make them self-isolation experts. Humans are social beings: we rarely go a day without some form of interaction – either in the workplace, at the shops or at home. The coronavirus crisis is forcing people around the world to spend more time than ever alone, prompting many to rely on digital communication to connect to loved ones.
For many species in the animal kingdom, however, self-isolation is not a new concept. It’s in their instinct. From land mammals to ocean species, many choose to live in solitude outside of essential activity: to eat and to breed
Continue reading...Along with up to 30 new marine species, scientists have found a 150-ft example of a siphonophore, a string-like deep-sea predator
Scientists exploring the deep sea off Australia’s coast have discovered as many as 30 new marine species – and what may be the longest animal ever seen.
The discoveries were the result of expeditions into Western Australia’s underwater canyons. One of the biggest discoveries was a siphonophore measuring an estimated 150 feet (46 metres). Siphonophores are deep-sea predators made up of many small clones that act together as one and spread out like a single long string in the water. Researchers think this particular siphonophore may be the longest yet found.
Continue reading...Dame Jane Goodall also reveals Duke of Sussex is finding departure from UK ‘a bit challenging’
The British primatologist Dame Jane Goodall believes the Duke of Sussex will give up hunting because of his wife’s dislike for the sport, and thinks he has been finding life “a bit challenging” since the couple moved to North America.
Goodall, 86, a friend of the pair who has been a guest at their Frogmore Cottage home in Windsor, said in an interview with the Radio Times that Harry and his brother, the Duke of Cambridge, were champions of the natural world – “except they hunt and shoot”.
Continue reading...Swallows and swifts on their annual flight from Africa to Europe have been found dead across Greece
Thousands of swallows and swifts migrating from Africa to Europe have been left dead by high winds battering Greece, bird watchers say.
The birds have been found in the streets of Athens, on apartment balconies in the capital, in the north, on Aegean islands and around a lake close to the seaport of Nauplia in the Peloponnese.
Continue reading...