Experts hope he is resting and building up blubber reserves before returning to Arctic to look for mate
When Wally the walrus disappeared after more than five months of appearances around the UK and Ireland, interspersed with visits to France and Spain, observers feared the worst.
But after about three weeks at sea he re-emerged in Iceland, looking skinnier but much closer to his Arctic home.
Continue reading...The collapse of ecotourism during the pandemic and moves to lease land to big farms threaten vital conservation corridors
Kenyan elephants risk a slow extinction in a bleak, ever-shrinking “ecological island” in one of the country’s most picturesque and photographed landscapes, according to a government report.
The animals face a grim future as habitat loss is exacerbated by the pandemic’s impact on tourism, which is pushing landowners to sell off areas for development, and a growing trend towards a sedentary lifestyle among the pastoralist Maasai people, says the new 10-year management plan.
Continue reading...Up to 10 million straw-coloured fruit bats descend on Zambia’s Kasanka national park every year, dispersing millions of seeds as they go
David Mubiana will always remember the day he was shot. It happened in 2002, when his unit was ambushed by poachers with AK-47 rifles and a shotgun. He was wounded in the arm and stomach; one bullet rupturing his spleen. As a wildlife police officer in Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife, his job is inherently risky.
“Even if you fall down, you have to stand up and continue fighting. If we finish our wildlife, [our children] are not going to see what we are seeing today,” he says.
Continue reading...Twelve people infected so far with new strain against which vaccines may be ineffective
An outbreak among farmed mink of a mutant form of Covid-19 with the potential to be resistant to future vaccines has led to the Danish government bringing in tougher lockdown measures in parts of the country.
The measures were announced following the discovery of a new strain of the disease in animals bred for fur in the country’s northern regions.
Continue reading...Inquiry into encounters off coasts of Spain and Portugal says speed could be a factor
Experts investigating a series of extraordinary encounters between orcas and yachts off the coasts of Spain and Portugal believe the animals responsible may have been triggered to target boat rudders by an earlier “aversive incident” involving some kind of vessel.
Related: 'They were having a real go': man tells of orca encounter off Spain
Continue reading...A new research programme in Gabon is identifying the ‘isotopic fingerprint’ of the world’s most-trafficked mammal in the fight to beat smugglers
After a two-week chase through Lopé-Okanda national park, a mosaic of rainforest and savannah in central Gabon, David Lehmann and his Wildlife Capture Unit were celebrating – they had caught a giant pangolin nicknamed Ghost, the biggest on record.
The team – consisting of eco-guards, an indigenous tracker, a field biologist and a wildlife vet – hope that Ghost, who weighs 38kg and measures 1.72m from nose to tail, will give valuable insights in their fight against poaching.
Continue reading...When a bear starts feeding off garbage and loses its fear of humans it is quickly shot but an unlikely conservation partnership may be setting a different path
In early April, a young grizzly bear swam through the chilly waters off the western coast of Canada in search of food.
Related: Groggy grizzly bear caught emerging from hibernation in viral video
Continue reading...Study finds seal and sea otter populations in Alaska hit by killer infection that migrated from North Atlantic
A potentially deadly disease affecting marine mammals, including seals and sea otters, has been passed from the North Atlantic Ocean to the northern Pacific thanks to the melting of the Arctic sea ice.
Experts have long been concerned that sea ice melting in the northern oceans, caused by global climate heating, could allow previously geographically limited diseases to be transmitted between the two oceans.
Continue reading...With fewer than 20 left in the South American country’s Gran Chaco forest – the big cats could be classed as a ‘non-human person’
Argentina’s supreme court has been asked to recognize the legal rights of the South American jaguar, of which fewer than 20 individuals remain alive in the country’s Gran Chaco region.
The largest cat in the Americas once roamed the continent as far north as the Grand Canyon, but is now in decline across the entire western hemisphere.
Continue reading...Giraffe welcomes another newborn at New York zoo, two years after her previous pregnancy went viral
April the giraffe gave birth again on Saturday, in front of another enthralled YouTube audience.
Related: April the pregnant giraffe: live stream attracts millions – and YouTube censors
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