Seventy-five square metres of farm near Leeds set alight after copper in pedometer battery reacted with dung and dry hay
Firefighters in North Yorkshire have tackled a blaze that broke out after a pig swallowed a pedometer which then combusted in its pen after excretion.
The fire crews were called to a blaze covering 75 square metres at four pigpens in Bramham, near Leeds, on Saturday afternoon.
Continue reading...The number of people worldwide infected with the new coronavirus has exceeded 100,000 and the disease is continuing to spread, but what role do pets - if any - have in the outbreak?
After a dog in Hong Kong reportedly tested ‘weak positive’ for coronavirus, causing some alarm among pet owners, the Guardian’s Helen Davidson answers some of the most pressing questions surrounding domestic animals and coronavirus
Turkish Angora roams tattoo parlours, office towers and churches, posing for social media snapshots along the way
A feline that roams New Zealand’s capital city and is welcomed into tattoo parlours, hairdressers and office towers has become a social media star, with 30,000 followers who track his every movement online.
Mittens first came to attention in 2018 after repeatedly wandering inner-city dwellings, including the university, the post office, and a Catholic church. Mittens was also reportedly taken to the police station by concerned locals.
Continue reading...Teams allowed to take beach route to get to Netherlands’ first F1 grand prix in 35 years
The return of Formula One to the Netherlands after 35 years has become mired in controversy after two racing teams got the green light to drive across a beach nature reserve to ensure their staff avoid traffic on the way to the circuit.
The teams of Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri will be allowed to drive from their hotels along two miles of beach within the Noordvoort reserve, a popular resting spot for seals and breeding birds located between the Zandvoort racetrack and the North Sea.
Continue reading...Scientists found substantial divergences between Chinese red pandas and Himalayan red pandas in three genetic markers
Red pandas, the bushy-tailed and russet-furred mammals that dwell in Asia’s high forests, are not a single species but rather two distinct ones, according to the most comprehensive genetic study to date on these endangered animals.
Scientists said on Wednesday they found substantial divergences between the two species – Chinese red pandas and Himalayan red pandas – in three genetic markers in an analysis of DNA from 65 of the animals.
Continue reading...Officials says move reflects bond between pets and people – ‘the consensus of all human civilisation’ – rather than coronavirus fears
Shenzhen is set to become the first city in mainland China to ban the eating of dogs and cats, if a draft regulation released by the municipal government in a wider push to restrict the consumption of wild animals is approved.
On Monday, China’s National People’s Congress issued an order to ban all consumption of wild animal meat and further restrict the wildlife trade nationwide. The measures are expected to be enshrined in the country’s wildlife protection law later this year.
Continue reading...The army has been called in to eliminate the insects swarming across Africa, but their mission is dangerous and unending
Sitting at a plastic table in the garden of Timisha hotel in Soroti, eastern Uganda, Major General Samuel Kavuma takes a drag of his cigarette and looks down at his phone, which has barely stopped ringing for the past hour.
A military figure for nearly 40 years, Kavuma fought the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgent group. Now, he’s become the “locust commander”, the man leading the fight against the country’s worst locust outbreak in decades.
Continue reading...NSW police say they were called to incident next to University of Sydney in Camperdown area of the city
Three baboons have been recaptured after they were spotted on the loose at a major Sydney hospital, triggering a police response and a flurry of interest online.
Police told Guardian Australia on Tuesday evening that they were attending “an incident of that nature” when asked if reports of baboons on the loose were true.
Continue reading...Peacocks, porcupines and pangolins among species bred on 20,000 farms closed in wake of virus
Nearly 20,000 wildlife farmsraising species including peacocks, civet cats, porcupines, ostriches, wild geese and boar have been shut down across China in the wake of the coronavirus, in a move that has exposed the hitherto unknown size of the industry.
Until a few weeks ago wildlife farming was still being promoted by government agencies as an easy way for rural Chinese people to get rich.
Continue reading...Several people hospitalized in Pasadena after Africanized bees emerge from hotel’s eaves: ‘Something set them off’
A swarm of as many as 40,000 Africanized bees sent several people to hospital and closed a street in California, after swarming from the eaves of a Howard Johnson Inn.
Related: Ursus urbinus: 'elderly' 400lb bear spotted roaming Los Angeles suburb
Continue reading...New campaign includes advice on how to prevent and treat an infestation, and a number to call for expert help
The French government launched a campaign Thursday, complete with an emergency number, to combat an influx of unwelcome visitors that have left Parisians in despair: bedbugs that have settled in homes and hotels to feed, uninvited, on human blood.
After disappearing from France in the 1950s, the insects have made a resurgence, according to the ministry of housing, which cited international travel and growing resistance to insecticide as the main causes.
Continue reading...Driver Shaun Kirchmann spotted an entire family of the wild cats crossing the road in the Canadian Province of Manitoba as he made his weekly commute home. He pulled over and filmed the mother lynx and her five kittens before they disappeared into the trees. The wild cats spend much of their life hidden in thick forest and are rarely seen in groups
Continue reading...The wild cats which are larger than bobcats spend much of their life hidden in thick forest and are rarely seen in groups
It is one of Canada’s stealthiest predators, so spotting a single lynx is rare enough for travelers in the country’s hinterland.
But a driver in the western province of Manitoba recently managed to capture on video an entire family of the wild cats as they crossed the road.
Continue reading...It is estimated that more than 30,000 pets have been left stranded after the Chinese government sealed off Wuhan following the coronavirus outbreak.
In response, people trapped in Wuhan have been volunteering and checking in on the animals whose owners are stuck outside the city. Here's Ye Jialin's story of helping those who are currently not allowed to return home
Daily Beast reporters say Reince Priebus was repeatedly asked about the rotund, hairy omnivores during briefings on healthcare and foreign policy
Of all the topics to occupy the mind of the most powerful person in the United States, one would not expect badgers to make a frequent appearance.
But the rotund, hairy omnivores were apparently an alarmingly regular topic of conversation in the White House during the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency, according to Daily Beast reporters Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng.
Continue reading...Research shows abundance at sites in Europe has plunged by up to 80% in two decades
Two scientific studies of the number of insects splattered by cars have revealed a huge decline in abundance at European sites in two decades.
The research adds to growing evidence of what some scientists have called an “insect apocalypse”, which is threatening a collapse in the natural world that sustains humans and all life on Earth. A third study shows plummeting numbers of aquatic insects in streams.
Continue reading...This coolly even-handed documentary dips into the lives of an ivory poacher and a stressed-out wildlife ranger trying to obstruct the illegal trade
Jon Kasbe’s documentary When Lambs Become Lions has been much praised on the festival circuit, and it is cleverly and effectively made, seeking to grip you the way a thriller would. Yet I’m not sure that I was completely on board with this film, which appears to have smoothly carpentered its narrative in the edit. Is it almost too good to be true?
The film gives us a coolly even-handed study of some ivory hunters in Kenya – and also the rangers, the hunters of the hunters, who have to roam through the landscape, in their camouflage gear and assault rifles, on the lookout for those who are illegally killing elephants for their tusks.
Continue reading...After grueling training, a rare few civilians and their dogs are allowed to participate in criminal investigations by searching for cadavers
Rob Ward keeps baby wipes, canned soup, and bottled water in his truck. “If I need a bath or a meal, there it is,” he explained in a Walker, Louisiana Waffle House. Calls can come at anytime, and his truck remains loaded, his bag packed.
Today is a rare day off from both of his jobs: a nine to five at a printing company and volunteer work looking for dead bodies with his Australian shepherd, Niko. Ward and Niko are one of approximately 500 volunteer cadaver dog-handler pairs across the country who assist law enforcement in recovering human remains.
Continue reading...The four were members of a group known as the Hirwa family that had crossed into Mgahinga national park from Rwanda
Four endangered mountain gorillas, including three adult females, have been killed by an apparent lightning strike in a Ugandan national park, a conservation group has said.
A post-mortem examination has been performed on the four, including a male infant, who died on 3 February in Mgahinga National Park in south-west Uganda.
Continue reading...Officials claim there are no tigers in Goa. But the poisoning of a mother and three cubs has forced the issue into the open
As a child living in the Vagheri hills at the foot of the Western Ghats, Rajendra Kerkar would often hear the majestic roar of tigers echo across the mountains. It was never greeted with fear by the villagers in this remote corner of northern Goa; the name Vagheri translates as “home of the tigers” and coexistence with India’s national animal was part of their way of life.
Yet according to state authorities, these tigers do not exist; or if they do, they are just passing through. Unlike other states in India, where the presence of tigers has been celebrated, embraced and in many cases exploited for tourism, Goa’s tigers have instead been subjected to a strange charade, whereby their existence has repeatedly been denied or covered up by those in government.
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