Fire in black sheoak forest of East Gippsland would destroy the birds’ food supply, conservationist says
Glossy black cockatoos could be pushed towards extinction in Victoria if planned burns of 13,000 hectares of forest go ahead, ecologists and conservationists warn.
The Victorian government is being urged to abandon the burn, which is intended to reduce bushfire risk.
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Continue reading...Healesville sanctuary releases 21 critically endangered birds in hopes a new wild population will thrive
For the first time in 42 years, critically endangered helmeted honeyeaters have returned to Cardinia in south-east Victoria, where they were found until the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983.
Helmeted honeyeaters are charismatic, energetic and curious, according to Dr Kim Miller, the manager of threatened species at Healesville sanctuary.
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Continue reading...Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystems
Nearly 2m hectares of forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a threatened species in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia.
The scale of habitat destruction in Queensland and New South Wales – states in which the koala is formally recognised as being at risk of extinction – has continued despite political promises it would be protected.
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Continue reading...While the election is ignoring the issue of Australia’s extinction crisis, volunteers and community groups all around the country are doing their best to save our endangered species. We want to hear about them
Australia is in the midst of what experts say is an extinction crisis, but the decline of the country’s unique wildlife and the state of the environment has not been mentioned by the major parties this election campaign.
This week, Guardian Australia launched a new series, Last Chance, to put a spotlight on everyday people standing up for endangered species in their local environment.
Continue reading...Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystems
A rare “bum-breathing” turtle found in a single river system in Queensland has suffered one of its worst breeding seasons on record due to flooding last December. It has prompted volunteers to question how many more “bad years” the species can survive.
A freshwater species that breathes by absorbing oxygen through gill-like structures in its tail, the Mary River turtle is endemic to south-east Queensland. Its population has fallen by more than 80% since the 1960s and its conservation status was upgraded from endangered to critically endangered last year.
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Continue reading...Zoos Victoria wildlife detection dogs uncovered the ‘bloody gorgeous’ reptiles in return for treats and cuddles
Wildlife detection dogs successfully sniffed out 13 critically endangered earless dragons in previously unknown burrows in Melbourne’s west, after a training program launched by Zoos Victoria in 2023.
The Victorian grassland earless dragon – Australia’s most imperilled reptile – had not been seen for 50 years and was thought extinct before its remarkable rediscovery on privately owned grassland in 2023.
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Continue reading...More than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline, UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme finds
Last summer was the fifth worst in nearly half a century for butterflies in Britain, according to the biggest scientific survey of insect populations in the world.
For the first time since scientific recording began in 1976, more than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline.
Continue reading...Nine-hectare site home to 57 species including rhino, zebras and ostriches in UK’s biggest such development
“Although we are trying to replicate Uganda and Kenya we are actually in Cheshire so the weather is slightly different,” admits Chester zoo boss, Jamie Christon, on a fresh and very grey Monday morning.
But ignore the chilliness and screw your eyes and you could well be transported to a sweeping African savannah where, one day, there will be giraffes, zebras, antelopes and ostriches roaming majestically side by side.
Continue reading...The Labor Environment Action Network says it won’t ‘sugar coat’ its reaction after working ‘so hard’ on obtaining commitment for EPA
Labor’s grassroots environment action network has told its members it does not support legislation that Anthony Albanese rushed through parliament this week to protect salmon farming in Tasmania, describing it as “frustrating and disappointing”.
In an email on Thursday, the Labor Environment Action Network (Lean) said it would not “sugar coat” its reaction to a bill that was introduced to end a formal government reconsideration of whether an expansion of fish farming in Macquarie Harbour, on the state’s west coast, in 2012 was properly approved.
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Continue reading...Critics say industry threatens the endangered Maugean skate and laws were rushed through with ’no proper process’
Controversial legislation to protect the Tasmanian salmon industry has passed parliament after the government guillotined debate to bring on a vote in the Senate on Wednesday night.
Government and Coalition senators voted in favour of the bill, which was designed to bring an end to a formal reconsideration by the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, into whether an expansion of fish farming in Macquarie harbour in 2012 was properly approved.
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Continue reading...PM’s pledge to protect Tasmanian industry will weaken laws already failing to protect natural sites and at-risk species, environmentalists say
Former Greens leader Bob Brown has urged the minor party not to preference Labor ahead of the Liberal party in Tasmanian seats at the upcoming election if the Albanese government legislates to effectively exempt salmon farming from national environment laws.
Conservationists have sharply criticised Anthony Albanese’s pledge that he will rush through legislation next week to protect the salmon industry in Macquarie Harbour, on the state’s west coast, from the potential results of a long-running legal review.
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Continue reading...Deal will restrict fishing near colonies on Robben Island and Bird Island for 10 years, after long debate between industry and conservationists
Efforts to stop the critically endangered African penguin from going extinct took a step forward on Tuesday after South African conservationists and fishing industry groups reached a legal settlement on no-fishing zones around six of the penguins’ major breeding colonies.
Sardine and anchovy fishing will not be allowed for 12 miles (20km) around the penguin colony off Cape Town on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, and Bird Island, across the bay from Gqeberha, also known as Port Elizabeth. There will be more limited closures around four other colonies, according to a court order formalising the agreement.
Continue reading...Cuttings of tree captured by John Constable being planted on restored Devon floodplain
Captured by John Constable in one of his most celebrated paintings, the black poplar tree was once as common as oak and beech in Britain.
Now the rarest and most threatened native species in the country, the National Trust is creating a living gene bank of the black poplar to ensure Constable’s The Hay Wain does not become a tribute to an extinct breed.
Continue reading...Drop in line with rate of overall insect loss as scientists point to habitat loss, pesticide use and the climate crisis
Butterflies may be among the most beloved of all creatures, routinely deified in art and verse, but they are in alarming decline in the United States with populations plummeting by a fifth in just the past two decades, according to the most comprehensive study yet of their fortunes.
The abundance of butterflies in the US slumped 22% between 2000 and 2020, the new analysis of more than 76,000 mostly regional surveys, published in Science, found. For every five butterflies fluttering daintily around at the start of the century, just four remain today.
Continue reading...Exclusive: More than 3,000 critically endangered Baw Baw frogs set free in a high-altitude forest to bolster dwindling population
More than 3,000 critically endangered Baw Baw frogs have been released in Victoria’s east as part of a record-breaking conservation breeding program.
Zoos Victoria’s reintroduction of 3,000 tiny froglets and 40 adult frogs into the high-altitude forests of the Baw Baw plateau, about 120km east of Melbourne, was the largest in its breeding program for the species.
Continue reading...Bumblebees declined by almost a quarter compared with the 2010-2023 average, according to conservation charity
Figures show 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees in the UK since records began.
Bumblebee numbers declined by almost a quarter compared with the 2010-2023 average, according to data from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. The researchers said the drop was probably due to the cold and wet conditions in the UK last spring.
Continue reading...Vets are undertaking a necropsy to determine why beloved 20-year-old animal suddenly died on Saturday morning
Vets at Melbourne zoo are investigating the sudden death of 20-year-old western lowland gorilla, Kimya.
In a statement, Zoos Victoria said the gorilla’s death was “unexpected” and that staff were “devastated” at the news.
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Continue reading...Program is meant to help the endangered northern spotted owl – and it’s only C$5! – but rat lovers are not amused
Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold. And for an endangered owl breeding program in Canada, it’s also a dish best served dead.
For the price of a coffee, spurned and disgruntled lovers can revel in the satisfaction of having a dead rat named after an ex, before it is fed to a northern spotted owl.
Continue reading...Critically endangered bird detected after analysis of tens of thousands of hours of song meter recordings
Critically endangered plains-wanderers have been found living in Melbourne’s west for the first time in more than 30 years.
Notoriously elusive and difficult to spot, the rare birds were detected on two pockets of remnant grassland by Zoos Victoria, with the help of AI.
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Continue reading...Team has produced more than 20 embryos using method used in humans, though there are no plans for live joeys
Scientists have produced kangaroo embryos through in vitro fertilisation for the first time, in a development they say could help conservation of endangered animals.
Australian researchers at the University of Queensland made the eastern grey kangaroo embryos using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a technique widely used in human IVF, in which a sperm is injected into a mature egg.
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