Category Archives: Wildlife

Elusive deer spotted wearing high-vis jacket in Canada: ‘Who is responsible?’

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‘Double takes’ as British Columbia mountain community tries to figure out how local animal came to don neon jacket

In a town of fewer than 1,000 people, it can be hard to keep a secret. And yet no one in McBride, a mountain community in British Columbia, can figure out how a local deer came to be wearing a zipped-up high-visibility jacket – or why the day-glo-clad cervid has been so hard to track down.

The mystery began on Sunday, when Andrea Arnold was driving along the snowy outskirts of McBride on Sunday and witnessed a sight so baffling she slowed her vehicle to a crawl.

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Molly the magpie’s owners have licence for Instagram star revoked by Queensland supreme court

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Wildlife group claims win as environment department says granting licence for bird was ‘an error’

A magpie made famous on social media may again be separated from his canine friends after a special carers’ licence was revoked.

The supreme court overturned the licence just months after it was granted to Molly the magpie’s Gold Coast rescue family that includes his best mates, dogs Peggy and Ruby.

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Slovenian girl, 12, saves project aiming to reintroduce cicadas to New Forest

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Conservationists failed to capture elusive insects this summer, so Kristina Kenda offered to step in

When British conservationists flew to Slovenia this summer hoping to catch enough singing cicadas to reintroduce the species to the New Forest, the grasshopper-sized insects proved impossible to locate, flying elusively at great height between trees.

Now a 12-year-old girl has offered to save the Species Recovery Trust’s reintroduction project. Kristina Kenda, the daughter of the Airbnb hosts who accommodated the trust’s director, Dom Price, and conservation officer Holly Stanworth in the summer summer, will put out special nets to hopefully catch enough cicadas to re-establish a British population.

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US moves to list giraffes under Endangered Species Act for first time

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Climate crisis, habitat loss and poaching have reduced its numbers – but will Trump put the kibosh on protections?

They are the tallest animal to roam the Earth and have become an icon of children’s books, toys and awed wildlife documentaries. But giraffes are in decline, which has prompted the US government to list them as endangered for the first time.

Giraffes will be listed under the US Endangered Species Act, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed in a move that will cover five subspecies of the animal. The agency hopes the listing will crack down on the poaching of giraffes, as the US is a leading destination of rugs, pillowcases, boots, furniture and even Bible covers made from giraffe body parts.

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How a fatal bear attack led an Italian commune to rally against rewilding

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Brown bears, introduced into Trentino province 20 years ago, have begun to clash with the local human population

Franca Gherardini used to cherish the sublime views from her home in Caldes, a village surrounded by forests on the slopes of the Brenta Dolomites in northern Italy’s Trentino province.

But now she tries to shut out the scene as much as possible, rolling down the window canopy in the morning to avoid looking towards the area where her son, Andrea Papi, 26, was killed by a bear.

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Pint-sized crustacean named after New Zealand brewery to boost interest in marine life

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Tiny isopod is dubbed Pentaceration forkandbrewer in push to engage community with climate-threatened life in local waters

New Zealand scientists have named a tiny snowflake-like crustacean after a Wellington brewery, in an attempt to boost the public’s interest in local marine life.

The roughly 1.5mm marine isopod was found in the silty depths off New Zealand’s southern east coast. It helps decompose organic material that drifts to the seabed.

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Meat, oil and pesticide industry lobbyists turned out in record numbers at Cop16

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Questions raised over influence after 1,261 business and industry delegates registered for biodiversity summit in Colombia

Record numbers of business representatives and lobbyists had access to the UN’s latest biodiversity talks, analysis shows.

In total 1,261 business and industry delegates registered for Cop16 in Cali, Colombia, which ended in disarray and without significant progress on a number of key issues including nature funding, monitoring biodiversity loss and work on reducing environmentally harmful business subsidies.

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LED lights on underside of surfboards may deter great white shark attacks

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An Australian-led study using seal-shaped decoys found underside lighting disrupted ability of great whites to see silhouettes against sunlight above

Using LED lighting on the underside of surfboards or kayaks could deter great white shark attacks, new research suggests.

In an Australian-led study using seal-shaped decoys, underside lighting disrupted the ability of great whites to see silhouettes against the sunlight above, reducing the rates at which the sharks followed and attacked the artificial prey. The brighter the lights, the more effective the deterrent was.

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Oysters doing well in Firth of Forth after reintroduction, say experts

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Early signs of success seen in area where native European oysters were fished to local extinction by early 1900s

Thousands of oysters released into the Firth of Forth appear to be thriving again after a century-long absence from the Scottish estuary since they were lost to overfishing.

Marine experts from Heriot-Watt University who have helped reintroduce about 30,000 European flat oysters to the estuary said divers and underwater cameras showed they were doing well.

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Plans for a new national park in Wales met with opposition from local residents

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A proposal to protect part of rural Wales has sparked a furious debate over who the countryside is for

Plans to create a new Welsh national park stretching from the dunes of north-east Wales to the wild Berwyn mountains and the peaceful, wooded slopes of Lake Vyrnwy further south have captured the imagination of many ramblers, cyclists and other outdoor lovers.

But the Welsh government’s proposals to improve access to nature have been dismissed by an opposition group as creating “a play area for townies”, sparking a furious debate about who the countryside is for.

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Outrage against Canada’s Marineland theme park after fifth beluga dies

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Most recent fatality marks 17th beluga to die at Niagara Falls, Ontario, aquarium since 2019

A fifth beluga has died at Canada’s Marineland, as questions mount over the future of both the controversial theme park and one of the world’s largest populations of captive whales.

The most recent fatality marks the 17th beluga to die at the Niagara Falls aquarium since 2019.

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Shetland man’s bond with otter becomes subject of award-winning film

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Documentary about Billy Mail’s connection with orphaned pup Molly airs on National Geographic next week

National Geographic will be streaming a new documentary about an unlikely bond between a man and an otter in Shetland.

Billy Mail met Molly, a starving pup, in 2021 when he saw her jumping off a pontoon into the sea near his Shetland home. Mail wanted to see how close he could get to her before she fled. But it turned out that Molly had no intention of running away.

Billy and Molly: An Otter Love Story will be available from 14 November on Disney+, and will air on 15 November on National Geographic

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Shark bites off surfer’s leg in Hawaii

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A 61-year-old man was surfing on Friday morning when a shark bit him, completely severing his leg

A shark bit a Maui surfer on Friday and severed his leg, authorities said.

The man, 61, was surfing off Waiehu Beach Park on Friday morning when a shark bit him. Police officers who arrived to the scene first tried to control the bleeding with tourniquets. His right leg was “completely severed just below the knee,” Maui county said in a news release.

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‘You have to disguise your human form’: how sea eagles are being returned to Severn estuary after 150 years

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Use of bird hand-puppets to rear young among innovative methods unveiled as part of project to restore species

Sea eagles were last seen soaring over the shimmering mud flats and brackish tidal waters of the Severn estuary more than 150 years ago. Now wildlife charities have unveiled innovative plans to bring the raptor back to the estuary, which flows into the Bristol Channel between south-west England and south Wales, by 2026.

“Sea eagles used to be common in these regions. But they were wiped out through human persecution,” says Sophie-lee Williams, the founder of Eagle Reintroduction Wales, which is leading the project. “We strongly believe we have a moral duty to restore this lost native species to these landscapes.”

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They have tentacles and taste great in pasta. What are the strange barnacles washing up on Australian beaches?

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Bondi beach’s newest residents may look strange to human eyes, but goose barnacles are a normal part of the natural marine environment

Goose barnacles look as strange as their name, with a long, noodle-like stalk emerging from smooth white plates. The crustacean, also known as percebes, is also extremely expensive – in Europe, where it’s enjoyed as a delicacy, a kilo might cost hundreds of dollars.

And this week, a bunch washed up at Horseshoe Bay, south of Adelaide.

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Peanut the Instagram-famous squirrel is seized by New York officials

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Wild squirrel that was taken in by Mark Longo seven years ago was confiscated after conservation officials received reports of ‘potentially unsafe housing of wildlife’

A New York man who turned a rescued squirrel into a social media star called Peanut is pleading with state authorities to return his beloved pet after they seized it during a raid that also yielded a raccoon named Fred.

Multiple anonymous complaints about Peanut – also spelled P’Nut or PNUT – brought at least six officers from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to Mark Longo’s home on Wednesday, Longo said.

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Hard-hit Defra to have budget slashed further despite warnings

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Department’s finances were slashed during austerity and campaigners say more cuts will stall progress to meet nature and climate targets

Rachel Reeves has been urged not to cut the government’s environment funding in the budget as analysis shows the department’s finances were slashed at twice the rate of other departments in the austerity years.

Between 2009/10 and 2018/19, the environment department budget declined by 35% in monetary terms and 45% in real terms, according to Guardian analysis of annual reports from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency and Natural England. By comparison, the average cut across government departments during the Conservative austerity programme was about 20%. During the first five years of austerity, it was the most cut department.

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Hedgehogs ‘near threatened’ on red list after 30% decline over past decade

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The mammals were once common across Europe but urban development has pushed them towards extinction

Hedgehogs are now listed as “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list after a decline in numbers of at least 30% over the past decade across much of their range.

While hedgehogs were once common across Europe, and were until now listed as of “least concern” on the red list, they are being pushed towards extinction by urban development, intensive farming and roads, which have fragmented their habitat.

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High-flying life of Australia’s birds revealed in new detail – thanks to weather radars

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Researchers gain deeper understanding of bird migration in study that could have ‘profound’ implications for windfarms

The yearly travel plans of birds up and down Australia’s east coast have been revealed for the first time, using the same tool that tracks the weather – a development experts say could have “profound” implications for conservation as more windfarms are built.

Scientists have used weather radars to show that bird migration across eastern Australia occurs in structured patterns. While many Australian bird species are known to be seasonally migratory, scientists previously did not know to what extent a distinct system existed.

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‘It’s a big lever for change’: the radical contract protecting Hamburg’s green space

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Citizen power forced Germany’s greenest city-state into a binding agreement balancing housing and nature

When Fritz Schumacher laid out his vision for Hamburg a century ago, the sketch looked more like a fern than a town plan. Fronds of urban development radiated from the centre to tickle the countryside, bristling with dense rows of housing. The white spaces in between were to be filled with parks and playgrounds.

Schumacher was Hamburg’s chief building officer in the early 20th century, and a pioneer of green cities with widespread access to nature. “Building sites emerge even if you don’t invest in them,” he warned in 1932. “Public spaces disappear if you don’t invest in them.”

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