Category Archives: Wildlife

Mythic white sperm whale captured on film near Jamaica

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Type of whale immortalised in Moby-Dick has only been spotted handful of times this century

It is the most mythic animal in the ocean: a white sperm whale, filmed on Monday by Leo van Toly, watching from a Dutch merchant ship off Jamaica. Moving gracefully, outrageously pale against the blue waters of the Caribbean, for any fans of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville’s book of 1851, this vision is a CGI animation come to life.

Sperm whales are generally grey, black or even brown in appearance. Hal Whitehead, an expert on the species, told the Guardian: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fully white sperm whale. I have seen ones with quite a lot of white on them, usually in patches on and near the belly.”

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Nurdles: the worst toxic waste you’ve probably never heard of

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Billions of these tiny plastic pellets are floating in the ocean, causing as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardous

When the X-Press Pearl container ship caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean in May, Sri Lanka was terrified that the vessel’s 350 tonnes of heavy fuel oil would spill into the ocean, causing an environmental disaster for the country’s pristine coral reefs and fishing industry.

Classified by the UN as Sri Lanka’s “worst maritime disaster”, the biggest impact was not caused by the heavy fuel oil. Nor was it the hazardous chemicals on board, which included nitric acid, caustic soda and methanol. The most “significant” harm, according to the UN, came from the spillage of 87 containers full of lentil-sized plastic pellets: nurdles.

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Nobel-winning stock market theory used to help save coral reefs

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Portfolio selection rules on evaluating risk used to pick 50 reefs as ‘arks’ best able to survive climate crisis and revive coral elsewhere

A Nobel prize-winning economic theory used by investors is showing early signs of helping save threatened coral reefs, scientists say.

Researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland used modern portfolio theory (MPT), a mathematical framework developed by the economist Harry Markowitz in the 1950s to help risk-averse investors maximise returns, to identify the 50 reefs or coral sanctuaries around the world that are most likely to survive the climate crisis and be able to repopulate other reefs, if other threats are absent.

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Climate crisis pushes albatross ‘divorce’ rates higher – study

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Researchers say warmer waters mean birds are travelling further for food and becoming more stressed, triggering relationship breakdowns

Albatrosses, some of the world’s most loyally monogamous creatures, are “divorcing” more often – and researchers say global heating may be to blame.

In a new Royal Society study, researchers say climate change and warming waters are pushing black-browed albatross break-up rates higher. Typically after choosing a partner, only 1-3% would separate in search of greener romantic pastures.

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Frog back from the dead helps fight plans for mine in Ecuador

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Campaigners say if copper mine gets go-ahead in cloud forest, the longnose harlequin, once thought to be extinct, will be threatened again

Reports of the longnose harlequin frog’s death appear to have been greatly exaggerated – or, at least, premature. The Mark Twain of the frog world is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as extinct, which may come as a surprise to those alive and well in the cloud forests of Ecuador’s tropical Andes.

Known for its pointed snout, the longnose harlequin frog (Atelopus longirostris) is about to play a central role in a legal battle to stop a mining project in the Intag valley in Imbabura province, which campaigners say would be a disaster for the highly biodiverse cloud forests.

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‘It’s like hunting aliens’: inside the town besieged by armadillos

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Thanks to climate change, armadillos, native to southern America, are making their way up north. And there’s no sign of them stopping their relentless march

In the pitch dark, Jason Bullard adroitly shoulders his rifle and levels it at the object. “That looks like one!” he mutters. It turns out to be a fuse box. Another candidate, again aimed at with the gun, reveals itself as a rock.

In this town besieged by armadillos, anything with a passing similarity to the armored nemesis is under suspicion.

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New Zealand possum holds woman ‘hostage’ at her home

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Police say the animal, thought to be either an escaped pet or a juvenile, kept charging at the woman when she left her house

A possum has been released without charge after it held a woman “hostage” at her home, New Zealand police say.

Officers received a call late on Sunday night from a distressed woman who said “a possum was holding her hostage” at her home in the South Island city of Dunedin.

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Winter, celebrity dolphin given prosthetic tail, died of twisted intestines

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Clearwater Marine Aquarium mourns dolphin whose recovery after losing tail was chronicled in the film Dolphin Tale

Florida’s most famous dolphin, Winter, beloved by fans around the world and star of the movie Dolphin Tale, died of twisted intestines, according to necropsy results released by an aquarium on Saturday.

The dolphin’s intestines were in an area impossible to reach through surgery.

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The elephant in the room: a Thai village’s unwelcome guests – photo essay

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Humans have encroached on the animals’ habitat – now villagers face daily raids as the elephants break into their homes in search of food

It was around midnight when Kittichai Boodchan heard two loud crashes coming from in front of his home. He knew immediately what was happening. An elephant was outside, and it wanted the family’s stash of bananas.

Boonchuay, a local bull from the nearby Kaeng Krachan national park notorious for his habit of raiding the village in search of snacks, had come to call. Kittichai had earlier bought 200kg of bananas to sell and, although stored inside, the sweet scent had undoubtedly piqued Boonchuay’s interest.

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Strike me pink: Australia’s last two flamingos resurrected as gay emblems

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Birds Chile and Greater, painstakingly restored by taxidermists, will be on display at SA Museum as part of Feast festival

Australia’s last flamingos will go on display this weekend after taxidermists restored the magnificent pink birds.

The last flamingo in Australia (named Chile) died in 2018, the second last (Greater) in 2014 – but they have been resurrected as gay emblems for South Australia’s Feast festival.

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‘Super rare’: Antarctic penguin washes up in New Zealand, 3,000km from home

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Expert say the bird’s presence is a reminder of the threats penguins face due to warming waters and changing habitats

An Antarctic penguin has traversed 3,000km of icy waters to find himself far from home and on new and puzzling shores: the south-eastern coastline of New Zealand.

The Adélie penguin in question, affectionately named “Pingu” by locals, was spotted looking somewhat lost at Birdlings Flat, a small settlement on New Zealand’s South Island.

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Nature under threat: a Cop26 photographic competition – in pictures

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The Earth Project, in collaboration with Nature Picture Library photography competition, aims to raise awareness of the huge challenges faced by nature, as well as the impacts of climate change on global ecosystems. Some of the world’s leading photographers came together to illustrate nature under threat, linking to one of the main goals of Cop26: to help protect and restore ecosystems in countries adversely affected by the climate crisis

  • The overall winning images, by Rivoni Mkansi of a rhino being dehorned to deter poaching; by Doug Gimesy of little blue penguins silhouetted against Melbourne city, and by Jo-Anne McArthur of pigs in an industrial farm, were selected by an online vote for three galleries

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New Zealand finally welcomes godwit two months after it was blown 2,000km back to Alaska

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The bird has failed to complete the non-stop, 12,200km journey three times in the past year

A plucky migrating godwit that captured New Zealand’s attention after it was forced to make a dramatic U-turn back to Alaska after 33 hours of non-stop flight has finally touched down in the country.

Every year, the Eastern bar-tailed godwits, or kuaka in Māori, make one of the longest avian migration flights in the world, travelling from their breeding ground in the Arctic, across the Pacific, to New Zealand.

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Latin American countries join reserves to create vast marine protected area

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‘Mega-MPA’ in Pacific will link waters of Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica to protect migratory turtles, whales and sharks from fishing fleets

Four Pacific-facing Latin American nations have committed to joining their marine reserves to form one interconnected area, creating one of the world’s richest pockets of ocean biodiversity.

Panama, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica announced on Tuesday the creation of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR) initiative, which would both join and increase the size of their protected territorial waters to create a fishing-free corridor covering more than 500,000 sq km (200,000 sq miles) in one of the world’s most important migratory routes for sea turtles, whales, sharks and rays.

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Best bird a bat: tiny flying mammal wins New Zealand bird of the year competition

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No stunt, say organisers, who wanted to raise awareness of the pekapeka-tou-roa, which faces the same threats as native birds

In a huge upset to New Zealand birds, but a win for one of the country’s only native land mammals, a bat has swooped in “by a long way” to take out the annual bird of the year competition.

Forest and Bird, which runs the election, thew the bat among the pigeons as a surprise entry this year. The pekapeka-tou-roa, or long tailed bat, is one of two bats in the country and one of the rarest mammals in the world. It is as small as a thumb, and the size of a bumblebee when it is born.

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Boom time for Cape Verde’s sea turtles as conservation pays off

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The number of nesting sites on the archipelago has risen dramatically, but global heating sees male population plummet

It’s nearly midnight as Delvis Semedo strolls along an empty beach on the Cape Verdean island of Maio. Overhead, the dense Milky Way pierces the darkness. A sea turtle emerges from the crashing waves and lumbers up the shore. Then another. And another.

Semedo is one of about 100 local people who patrol Maio’s beaches each night during nesting season to collect data on the turtles and protect them from poachers. This year has been busier than usual. Sea turtle nests on the islands of Sal, Maio and Boa Vista – the primary nesting grounds for loggerheads in Cape Verde – have soared in the last five years. Cape Verde’s environment ministry puts nest numbers in 2020 across all 10 islands at almost 200,000, up from 10,725 in 2015.

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Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ are people too, US court rules

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Recognition as ‘interested persons’ is a legal first in the US, allowing animals to have their interests heard in court

The offspring of hippos once owned by Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar can be recognized as people or “interested persons” with legal rights in the US following a federal court order.

The case involves a lawsuit against the Colombian government over whether to kill or sterilize the hippos, whose numbers are growing at a fast pace and pose a threat to biodiversity.

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Current approach to wildfires risks lives and wastes money, say experts

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Researchers call for new firefighting techniques that focus on managing landscapes, as global heating sees increase in blazes

A new approach is urgently needed to tackle global wildfires as current methods are no longer working, draining the public purse and placing lives at risk, according to experts.

This summer saw some of the worst wildfires in history and underscored the destructive impacts of global heating. As Cop26 approaches and is expected to shine a light on the importance of protecting ecosystems and building defences to avoid loss of homes and lives, experts say a lack of foresight and funding worldwide means harmful wildfires will continue to rage, putting communities and firefighters in danger.

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