Category Archives: Wildlife

Chris Packham launches shoestring wildlife series on YouTube

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Former Autumnwatch presenter describes 8 Out Of 10 Bats show as ‘the Sex Pistols of wildlife TV’

A new upstart is entering the big-budget world of wildlife film-making. After the BBC scrapped Autumnwatch, Chris Packham is launching his own nature show, which will be broadcast for two weeks on YouTube.

In stark contrast to the multimillion-pound Planet Earth III, which premiered on Sunday night with 97-year-old Sir David Attenborough narrating, 8 Out of 10 Bats, which begins on Monday evening, is an “anarchic” DIY operation that cost just £50,000 and features a diverse roster of teenage and 20-something naturalist presenters.

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Dominica’s mountain chicken frog disappears in ‘fastest extinction ever recorded’

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Ecological calamity on the Caribbean island demonstrates how quickly wildlife can be destroyed, scientists say

They were once so numerous they were cooked as the national dish of Dominica. Every year, thousands of mountain chicken frogs, roasted with garlic and pepper, were eaten by islanders and tourists.

Two decades later, the animal – one of the world’s largest species of frog – has in effect disappeared from the Caribbean island. A series of ecological disasters has reduced its former healthy, stable population of hundreds of thousands of animals to a total of 21 frogs, according to scientists’ most recent survey.

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‘It’s a poor product ’: leading UK chefs join campaign to cast farmed salmon off menu

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Ethical concerns over sustainability and welfare have seen venues offering new choices to ubiquitous ‘chicken of the sea’

Salmon has undergone a rapid transformation in recent decades. Once a special treat, it is now ubiquitous. From drinks reception canapés to wedding functions, Christmas smoked salmon or simply wrapped in foil and baked on a week night, salmon is everywhere.

Scotland is world renowned for salmon production, and the fish makes up 40% of its total food exports; it is also Britain’s most valuable food export. Healthy, low in saturated fats and high in omega-3, salmon is a success story.

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Seagulls force Venice’s Marco Polo airport to close briefly

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A number of flights delayed or redirected after unusually large number of birds ‘invade’ the runway

Venice’s Marco Polo airport has been forced to close briefly after an unusually large number of seagulls “invaded” the runway, leading flights to be delayed or redirected.

Various tools were deployed to ward off the gulls on Friday morning, including a falconer and an acoustic deterrent, according to Save, the airport’s management company.

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Canada rejects request to protect northern spotted owl habitat

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One wild-born owl remains in British Columbia, where logging concerns have destroyed the species’s old-growth forest home

Canadian cabinet ministers have rejected a plea by the country’s environment minister to save an endangered owl, casting doubt on the species’ survival in the coming years.

The Wilderness Committee environmental advocacy group announced on Wednesday that federal ministers had rejected a request for an emergency order to protect the northern spotted owl – a request submitted by environment minister Steven Guilbeault.

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Politicians, not public, drive U-turns on green agenda, says UN biodiversity chief

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People are ahead of governments, says David Cooper, who blames backtracking on parties seeking ‘wedge issues’ for electoral gain

Government backtracking on environmental promises is being driven by politicians and vested interests, not the public, the acting UN biodiversity chief has said, as he called for greater support for those experiencing short-term costs from green policies.

David Cooper, acting executive secretary for the UN convention on biological diversity (CBD), told the Guardian he believed the public mood was not moving against greater environmental protections, and that vested interests opposed to action on the climate crisis and nature loss were trying to frustrate progress.

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Orangutan killings in Borneo likely still occurring in large numbers

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Despite it being taboo and illegal to kill critically endangered primate, 30% of villages have evidence of killing in ‘last five to 10 years’

Orangutans on the island of Borneo continue to be illegally killed, likely in large numbers, even when there are nearby projects to save the critically endangered primate, according to new research.

Despite the taboo and illegal nature of killing orangutans, researchers heard evidence of a direct killing from at least one person in 30% of 79 villages surveyed in Indonesia’s Kalimantan region.

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At least 1,000 birds died from colliding with one Chicago building in one day

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McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, is largely covered with glass, making it a lethal obstacle for birds

At least 1,000 birds died from colliding into a single building in Chicago on Thursday, 5 October, as they migrated south to their wintering grounds. Volunteers are still recovering bird carcasses within 1.5 miles of McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, which is largely covered with glass.

“It’s the tip of an iceberg but it’s it’s a huge, huge amount of birds we found both dead and injured,” said Annette Prince, director of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, adding that this was the highest number of bird strikes that the group recorded from the grounds of one building in a single day.

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Australia’s emu war: John Cleese outrun in race to shoot movie of how flightless birds thwarted army’s machine guns

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An Australian take on how the emu won the 1932 battle premieres this month, before shooting on the UK comedian’s film has begun

A troupe of Australian comedians appears to have gazumped John Cleese to bring the bizarre story of the great emu war to the big screen.

In 1932, soldiers armed with machine guns were deployed in Western Australia to battle huge flocks of the giant native birds. Their annual migration from the arid interior to the coast had increasingly met the rapidly expanding wheat belt, to the delight of the emus and the horror of the farmers.

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Three bears that holed up in factory in Japan are captured and killed

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Official calls for use of hunting guns in towns to be made legal amid rise in number of marauding bears

Three bears that snuck into a tatami mat factory in northern Japan and were holed up inside for nearly a day have been captured and killed, according to town officials and media reports.

A patrolling official spotted the bears, believed to be a parent and two cubs, as they entered the factory on Wednesday morning in Misato, a town in Akita prefecture, where there have been a number of reported bear attacks in or near residential areas.

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‘Bedbugs don’t discriminate’: Paris ‘scourge’ sparks fears of international infestation

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After French capital hosted fashion week and Rugby World Cup there are concerns the problem will spread

Paris is burning its luggage and bed linen as it battles a “scourge” of bedbugs, stoking fears of infestation around the world as pest controllers report an uptick in inquiries and transport operators and hoteliers seek to assuage concerns.

The city of light is reportedly under siege from the nocturnal bloodsuckers, leading the French transport minister, Clément Beaune, to meet transport operators. “It’s a real nightmare,” says Yacine, a schoolteacher in Paris who declined to give his surname. “I’m so afraid to take the Métro, I don’t go to the cinema – it’s very alarmant.”

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‘Bear attack bad’: final message of Canadian couple killed by grizzly

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Officials say can of bear spray was emptied before attack in Banff national park in which Doug Inglis and Jenny Gusse, both 62, died

The final text message contained just three words: “Bear attack bad.”

Sent from a satellite device to family and rescue teams, it signalled that an autumn camping trip in Banff national park had gone terribly wrong.

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The 2023 Australian bird of the year is …

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… to be announced at 12.30pm AEDT. Follow our live blog from 11.30am for the red carpet, emotional speeches and all the reaction

The campaigns are over. The votes are in. The scrutineers are in the tally room.

The winner of the 2023 Guardian/BirdLife Australian bird of the year will be announced at 12.30pm AEDT on this website, after voters culled a field of 50 down to 10 for the final day of voting on Thursday.

Find all our bird of the year content

Guardian Australia has produced a glorious A3 poster of Australian birds that can be downloaded here as a high-resolution jpeg or pdf to be printed out. (The pdf is a large file so may take a while to load.)

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Similar numbers of male and female turtles hatched at Coral Sea site give hope for survival of species

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Sex determination of sea turtles is temperature dependent, with the proportion of female hatchlings increasing when nests are warmer

Similar numbers of female and male green and hawksbill turtles are hatching in the Coral Sea’s Conflict Islands, new research suggests, despite global heating increasingly leading to “extreme feminisation” of sea turtles.

Sea turtles are particularly susceptible to the effects of global heating because their sex determination is temperature dependent, with the proportion of female hatchlings increasing when nests are warmer.

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Baby beaver born in London for first time in 400 years

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Arrival result of Enfield reintroduction scheme, started last year as part of natural flood defence project

A baby beaver has been photographed in London for the first time in 400 years, 18 months after an initiative began to reintroduce the species to the capital.

Enfield council began London’s beaver reintroduction programme last year as part of a wider rewilding and natural flood-management project.

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Australian gardener becomes first person to survive deadly flesh-eating bacteria

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Woman treated with antibiotics and hyperbaric oxygen therapy to survive infection by pathogen that causes blackleg disease in cattle and sheep

An Australian woman has became the first documented person in the world to survive a pathogen that is usually the cause of the deadly “blackleg” disease in cattle and sheep.

The woman’s doctors this week published the case in the Medical Journal of Australia, detailing the successful treatment of the pathogen, after the only other two known cases in humans – one in the US and the other in Japan – had proved fatal.

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South Australia farmer catches spotted quoll in first official state sighting for 130 years

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Pao Ling Tsai thought his chickens were being taken by a cat but instead he trapped an animal thought extinct on the Limestone Coast

A South Australian farmer trying to protect his chickens has caught a spotted quoll – a species not recorded in the state for over 130 years.

Pao Ling Tsai lost one of his chickens to a predator earlier this week but managed to take some photographs of the animal before it escaped. Unsure of what he had seen, he contacted South Australia’s national parks and wildlife service and they set up a trap.

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New nature reserve to act as ‘green beating heart’ for Norwich

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Sweet Briar Marshes has been created in heart of city with fewer public footpaths than any other in England and Wales

Hidden between a hectic ring road, a chemicals factory and housing estates are 36 hectares (90 acres) of “a green beating heart, pumping nature” into the surrounding city.

Traffic noise and sirens are muffled by ancient oaks, while late-season dragonflies sweep over hawthorns laden with blood-red haws as a kestrel hovers, head down, searching for field voles hiding in the tufty grasses.

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Brown bear cubs in Japan die of starvation amid salmon shortage

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Experts blame rising sea temperatures caused by climate crisis for cub deaths at Unesco heritage site

As many as eight in 10 brown bear cubs born this year in a remote part of northern Japan have died amid a shortage of salmon, with experts blaming rising sea temperatures caused by the climate crisis.

Along with acorns, pink salmon are an important source of food for the estimated 500 brown bears living along Hokkaido’s Shiretoko peninsula, a Unesco world heritage site known for its dramatic coastline and wild animals.

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Bird of the year 2023: six underbirds that deserve your vote

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Some of Australia’s most recognised feathered denizens have been flying under the popularity radar for far too long

Is there anything more thrilling than seeing an underbird soar? Keep that in mind when casting your vote in this year’s Guardian/Birdlife Australia bird of the year poll.

Previous polls have revealed a shocking bias. Support for some of Australia’s most recognised birds has been consistently weak. Let’s ruffle some feathers and give these underbirds a chance.

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