Incident reportedly happened after baby elephant slipped over falls
Six wild elephants have died while trying to save each other after falling into a waterfall at the Khao Yai National Park in Thailand.
Two others were saved during the incident on Saturday at the Haew Narok waterfall in the north-eastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, officials said.
Continue reading...Naya, the first wolf sighted in Belgium for a century, believed to have been killed by hunters
Environmental groups are offering a €30,000 (£27,000) reward for information that helps identify who killed Naya, the first wolf sighted in Belgium for a century when she entered the country last year.
The wolf’s arrival completed the return of the predator to every mainland country in Europe, turning back decades of persecution.
Continue reading...The pterosaur, which had a four-metre wingspan, lived about 90 million years ago and was capable of crossing continents
In the heart of Queensland, palaeontologists have found the fossilised partial skeleton of a new winged dinosaur species capable of crossing continents.
The pterosaur, with a four-metre wingspan, may have lived about 90 million years ago.
Continue reading...Alligator found near a pond on the Gator Country property. A number of his smaller friends, however, are still missing
Residents of Beaumont, Texas, who saw this summer’s alligator horror movie Crawl might have suffered more sleepless nights this week, after the largest gator ever captured in the US was reported missing amid flooding caused by Tropical Storm Imelda.
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Continue reading...Expert Steven Amstrup says ‘the longer the sea ice is gone from the productive zone the tougher it is on the bears’
The loss of Arctic ice from glaciers, polar land and sea is declining faster than many scientists expected, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report on oceans and the cryosphere said this week.
That’s bad news for polar bear populations, a top expert involved in field studies on the endangered animals has told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Heat stress guidelines would ‘prohibit or substantially reduce’ live export during northern summer says new policy document
The RSPCA has accused the federal government of making a “backflip on animal welfare safeguards” with the release of a policy document outlining options for the live export of sheep to the Middle East.
The discussion paper, released on Friday, outlines four possible options to govern the live sheep export trade from Australia to the Middle East from 2020 onwards.
Continue reading...More than one in four birds have been lost across diverse groups and habitats, in what researchers describe as a ‘wake-up call’
The US and Canada have lost more than one in four birds – a total of three billion – since 1970, culminating in what scientists who published a new study are calling a “widespread ecological crisis”.
Researchers observed a 29% decline in bird populations across diverse groups and habitats – from songbirds such as meadowlarks to long-distance migratory birds such as swallows and backyard birds like sparrows.
Continue reading...Chuang Chuang reportedly collapsed after eating bamboo in Chiang Mai Zoo
The sudden death of a giant panda on loan to a zoo in Thailand has sparked outrage in China and calls for no more of the bears to be lent to the country.
Chuang Chuang, a 19-year-old male, reportedly collapsed on Monday afternoon after eating bamboo in Chiang Mai zoo in northern Thailand, according to Thai media.
Continue reading...Inbreeding blamed as only 61 of 147 big cats survive after removal from tourist attraction
More than half of the 147 tigers confiscated from a Thai temple have died, park officials have said, blaming genetic problems linked to inbreeding at the once money-spinning tourist attraction.
For years, the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in the western province of Kanchanaburi attracted hordes of tourists who could be photographed – for a fee – next to scores of tigers.
Continue reading...Seventy-six-year-old suffered head injuries when he veered off a bike path and hit a fence post in Wollongong
A man has died of head injuries after he was startled by a magpie and crashed his bicycle in Wollongong.
The 76-year-old was riding a pushbike on an off-road path alongside Nicholson Park at Woonona on Sunday morning when he veered off to avoid a swooping magpie, witnesses reported.
Continue reading...Environmental organizations say ‘very concerning’ move could open floodgates for importing other endangered species
The Trump administration has authorized a Florida man to bring back the “skin, skull, teeth and claws” of a lion he hunted in Tanzania, granting the first permit to import a lion from that country since the species gained protection under the US Endangered Species Act.
Environmental organizations say the move could open the floodgates for importing other endangered species like lions and rhinos. A freedom of information request made public by the US Fish and Wildlife Services also revealed that the hunter, Carl Atkinson, was represented by lawyer John Jackson III, who is also a member of the Trump administration’s International Wildlife Conservation Council, a controversial advisory board that promotes trophy hunting.
Continue reading...Electrophorus voltai can deliver a jolt of 860 volts, much more than existing record of 650 volts
DNA research has revealed two entirely new species of electric eel in the Amazon basin, including one capable of delivering a record-breaking jolt.
The findings are evidence, researchers say, of the incredible diversity in the Amazon rainforest – much of it still unknown to science – and illustrate why it is so important to protect a habitat at risk from deforestation, logging and fires.
Continue reading...Owners told to keep pets away from other canines after sickness found in 14 of 18 counties
A mystery sickness has struck dozens of dogs in Norway, killing at least 25 and prompting authorities to warn owners to keep their pets on a lead and away from other canines until the cause is established.
Ten dogs fell ill on Saturday and Sunday, the national food safety authority said, four of which have since died. While most cases have been in the capital, Oslo, the illness has been reported in 14 of the country’s 18 counties, including the far north.
Continue reading...Daily life is fraught with danger for people living in remote areas of a country where health funding is as scarce as specialist medicine
All photographs by Hugh Kinsella Cunningham
In the vast jungles that cover the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the world’s most invisible health crises burns on. The country’s extensive equatorial forests are home to numerous species of venomous snakes, but their habitat is shared by secluded communities that are being forced to look further and further afield for their resources due to poverty and the pressures of conflict and climate change.
It puts DRC at the centre of an issue Médecins Sans Frontières has called a “neglected crisis”: death by snake bite.
Continue reading...Fishermen report seeing ‘snouts in the dark’ on Malacca Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes
A mystical Malaysian island is grappling with a “sea-borne invasion” of wild boar, which some believe are swimming kilometres across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes before destroying crops.
“The sea-borne invasion of wild boars leaves us in despair as the animal population is increasing,” said Norhizam Hassan Baktee, chairman of the Malacca agriculture committee, of the influx on the island of Pulau Besar.
Continue reading...City authorities unveil machine that tempts rats with bait before dropping them into vat of alcohol
New York has unveiled its latest weapon in the city’s long-running war against rats – an alcohol death trap.
Rodents are one of the more unappealing aspects of life in America’s largest metropolis, often seen scurrying between subway tracks and sniffing around garbage bags.
Continue reading...Competition to name Meng Meng’s twins intensifies pressure on German government
They may have captured the public’s imagination, but the tiny, pink panda cubs born at Berlin zoo a few days ago have also spurred a national debate about whether panda diplomacy is blinding Germany to the Chinese government’s human rights record.
As visitors and journalists queue around the block to catch a glimpse of Meng Meng’s cubs, a competition to name them has increased pressure on the government of Angela Merkel, who kicked off a trip to Beijing with a large economic delegation on Thursday.
Continue reading...Hills Shire council said it had received 40 complaints over three years about the magpie, and several people had been injured
A local council in Sydney’s north west has said a decision to shoot dead a “particularly aggressive magpie” that had allegedly swooped and injured people for years was “not taken lightly”.
The Hills Shire council had received 40 complaints over the past three years, with confirmed injuries, including people sent to hospital as a result of being swooped by the magpie on Old Windsor Road in Bella Vista.
Continue reading...Concern in New Zealand that trend of taking photographs with penguins and other creatures is having impact on feeding, breeding and birth rates
At the International Penguin Conference in New Zealand, the experts were worried. Among sobering discussions about the perils of the climate crisis and habitat loss, the unlikely issue of wildlife selfies photobombed the agenda, with increasing concern that the celebrity-fuelled search for that perfect shot is affecting animal behaviour.
Professor Philip Seddon, the director of Otago University’s wildlife management programme, said: ‘We’re losing respect for wildlife, we don’t understand the wild at all.”
Continue reading...Meng Meng delivered two cubs, which must eventually be returned to China
Berlin zoo has said its resident panda Meng Meng has delivered twins, the first time one of the endangered animals has given birth in the country.
“Meng Meng became a mom – twice! We are so happy, we are speechless,” the zoo tweeted on Monday, posting a video of Meng Meng guiding one of her pink cubs to feed.
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