Scientists believe site in Guangxi with trees up to 40 metres tall may contain undiscovered species
An ancient forest has been found at the bottom of a giant sinkhole in China, with trees up to 40 metres (130ft) tall.
Scientists believe it could contain undiscovered plant and animal species.
Continue reading...Covid lockdowns in host country frustrate scientists as no date in sight for key UN conservation conference after two years of delays
China has been urged to name a date for a key UN nature summit this year, amid growing frustration with Beijing and concerns among experts that we are “sleepwalking through this cataclysmic climate extinction”.
After two years of delays, governments had been scheduled to meet in Kunming, China, for Cop15 in late April to negotiate this decade’s targets to halt and reverse the rampant destruction of ecosystems and wildlife crucial to human civilisation. It had been hoped the summit would be a “Paris moment” for biodiversity, with China holding the presidency for a major UN environmental agreement for the first time.
Continue reading...Nonhuman Rights Project argues that Happy the elephant’s right to ‘bodily liberty’ is being violated at the Bronx Zoo
Happy, by species, is an Asian elephant. But can she also be considered a person?
That question was before New York’s highest court on Wednesday in a closely watched case over whether a basic human right can be extended to an animal.
Continue reading...Conservationists and Inuit community relieved at decision on Canadian iron mine that threatened ‘extirpation’ of cetacean
The expansion of an iron ore mine in the Arctic that would have increased shipping and led to the “complete extirpation of narwhal” from the region has been blocked.
After four years of consultations and deliberations, the Nunavut Impact Review Board rejected a request from Baffinland Iron Mines Corp asking to significantly increase mining on the northern tip of Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. The area is home to one of the world’s richest iron ore deposits, and the densest narwhal population in the world.
Continue reading...Extreme ocean temperatures blamed for turning sea sponges white in more than a dozen sites on southern coastline
Sea sponges off New Zealand’s southern coastline have been found bleached bone-white for the first time, following extreme ocean temperatures.
A group of scientists from Victoria University of Wellington were alarmed to discover the sponges, which are typically a rich chocolate brown, were bleached in more than a dozen sites near Breaksea Sound and Doubtful Sound in Fiordland.
Continue reading...$20m permit buyback aims to help recovery of jackass morwong, redfish, john dory and silver trevally
The federal government will spend $20m to buy out fisheries in Australia’s south-east in part because the climate crisis is affecting population numbers of some species, making current fishing levels unsustainable.
The Australian Fisheries Management Authority will buy back vessel permits in the south-east trawl fishery, which is the largest commonwealth-managed fin fish fishery in Australia.
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Continue reading...Msituni was born with her front limb bending the wrong way, and her other front limb started to hyperextend
Over the past three decades Ara Mirzaian has fitted braces for everyone from Paralympians to children with scoliosis. But Msituni was a patient like none other: a newborn giraffe.
The calf was born 1 February at the San Diego zoo safari park in Escondido, north of San Diego, with her front limb bending the wrong way. Safari park staff feared she could die if they didn’t immediately correct the condition, which could prevent her from nursing and walking around the habitat.
Continue reading...Opposition says it will also provide a response to the Samuel review into Australia’s national environmental laws
Labor says it will establish a national threatened species program and provide a full response to the independent review of national environmental laws if it forms government.
In a policy announced Thursday evening the party promised $224.5m over the forward estimates for a national threatened species program that will include addressing the backlog of almost 200 overdue and outdated species recovery plans.
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, and Labor’s environment spokesperson, Terri Butler, said they would also work with state and territory governments to develop a national conservation strategy.
They did not say what the conservation strategy would entail.
Continue reading...Hawksbill turtles often travel circuitous routes for short distances – one swam 1,306km to reach an island just 176km away
How migrating animals like sea turtles navigate hundreds to thousands of kilometres across the open ocean has intrigued biologists since Charles Darwin. But some sea turtles might not really know where they’re going, new research suggests.
Analysis by an international team of scientists has mapped the movements of hawksbill turtles as they swam from their nesting grounds in the Chagos Archipelago to foraging sites also in the Indian Ocean.
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Continue reading...The birds’ wings are clipped to keep them from escaping their enclosure – leaving them unable to escape a predator
A wild fox in Washington DC, has chewed through a fence at the National zoo and killed 25 flamingos in the worst animal attack there in two decades.
On Tuesday, zoo officials announced that in addition to the 25 American flamingos that were killed early on Monday in their outdoor habitat, three more were injured. A northern pintail duck was also killed by the fox.
Continue reading...DNA study finds rarest cetacean, only found in Gulf of California, has enough genetic diversity to recover – if gillnet ban is enforced
Scientists studying the DNA of the world’s smallest cetacean and rarest marine mammal, the vaquita porpoise, have made a surprising and bittersweet discovery.
With a tiny population of fewer than 10 individuals left, the mammal was assumed by conservationists to be at a similar risk of harmful mutations and inbreeding as other species with small gene pools.
Continue reading...Bear had wandered hundreds of kilometres south of species’ territory in incident experts say could become more common
Canadian police have shot and killed a polar bear that wandered into a Quebec community hundreds of kilometres south of the species’ normal territory, in an incident that experts warn could become more common as sea ice coverage becomes more unpredictable thanks to global heating.
The Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police service, warned residents this weekend that a polar bear had been spotted near the town of Madeleine-Centre – the first time the Arctic’s apex predator had been spotted in the community.
Continue reading...Tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover in 2021, including forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss, finds World Resources Institute
Pristine rainforests were once again destroyed at a relentless rate in 2021, according to new figures, prompting concerns governments will not meet a Cop26 deal to halt and reverse deforestation by the end of the decade.
From the Brazilian Amazon to the Congo basin, the tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover last year, including 3.75m ha of primary forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss.
Continue reading...The canine is an intermediary between wolves and domestic dog breeds, research shows
Dingoes are genetically distinct from domestic dogs and their evolution has been shaped by Australia’s environment, scientists who have fully decoded the dingo genome have said.
An international team of researchers have analysed the genetic makeup of a pure desert dingo called Sandy Maliki, finding that dingoes are an intermediary between wolves and domestic dog breeds.
Continue reading...Footage shows five-year-old humpback in Canadian waters stalking and ambushing group more used to role of attackers
An aggressive humpback whale appeared to turn the tables on a pod of orcas off the Canadian coast, stalking then ambushing the group that more usually would have been attacking it.
The rare occurrence took place on the Salish Sea between British Columbia and Washington state and was witnessed and recorded by enthralled tourists on a whale-watching trip.
Continue reading...Bear walks 150km ‘home’ to Abruzzo town three weeks after being returned to natural habitat
An errant bear has reappeared in his favourite Italian town after a failed attempt to rewild him.
The two-year-old Marsican brown bear, affectionately known as Juan Carrito, walked 150km “home” to Roccaraso, a small mountain town in the Abruzzo region, bypassing several other towns along the way.
Continue reading...University of Newcastle scientists suggest frozen sperm could be used to impregnate females in breed-for-release programs
Freezing koala sperm could become a key part of a strategy to save koalas from extinction by 2050.
University of Newcastle scientists Lachlan Howell and Ryan Witt say koala “biobanking”, could be harnessed with IVF technology to help the endangered species reproduce.
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Continue reading...Scientists say bleaching could be ‘canary in the coalmine’ for climate impact as eastern Tasmanian sea temperatures rise
Bleaching in marine sponges in temperate waters off Tasmania’s east coast has been observed for the first time, with scientists warning the discovery could be an indicator of climate change in deeper reef systems.
Researchers at the University of Tasmania’s Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies used seafloor surveys to discover the bleaching of cup sponges in the Flinders commonwealth marine reserve after heatwave events.
Continue reading...Global heating speeding up their decline as terrain of newly discovered alpine species disappears
Six new alpine species of New Zealand’s most unusual and beloved insect – the wētā – have been discovered, but it is a bittersweet victory, with another piece of research describing the threat global heating poses for their snowy mountain habitat.
Wētā belong to the same group of insects as crickets and grasshoppers, and there are between 70 and 100 species of wētā endemic to New Zealand. They are wingless and nocturnal, and some, including the wētāpunga, are among the heaviest insects in the world – comparable to the weight of a sparrow.
Continue reading...Conservationists say the farms are a danger to sea lions and other marine mammals, who can become entangled in their nets
Dozens of thieving sea lions in western Canada have spent the last few weeks gorging on fish after brazenly slipping into an industrial salmon farm – and ignoring all attempts to make them move on.
Cermaq, the aquaculture giant with operations in Norway, Chile and Canada, says the wily predators were able to evade netting and electric fences in late March as part of a “breach event” at the Rant Point farm near Tofino in British Columbia.
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