Category Archives: Wildlife

World Elephant Day: inside Kenya’s indigenously run sanctuary for orphans

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Established in 2016, the Reteti sanctuary rescues and rehabilitates young elephants so that they can be reintroduced to the wild. It is the first to be owned and run by an indigenous community

In the mountains of northern Kenya, a Samburu community has built a sanctuary for orphaned elephants. Reteti is the first indigenously owned and run sanctuary, which rescues and raises the orphaned elephants, and has the ultimate goal of reintroducing them to the wild.

The sanctuary isn’t just about saving elephants but about breaking down stereotypes and redefining wildlife management. It is the beginning of a transformation in the way the Samburu people relate to wild animals. This oasis where orphans grow up, learning to be wild so that one day they can rejoin their herds, is as much about the people as it is about the elephants.

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Hear be kiwis: New Zealand celebrates as distinctive cry of iconic bird returns

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Kiwi watchers have recorded the sound of the bird’s song at many sites that were silent just five years ago

It’s a frigid, early-winter night, and across the forests and farmlands of Northland, people are crouching in the dark. They’ve timed this night for the waning moon, so moonlight doesn’t disturb any visitors. Scattered through the night, they sit, silently, and listen.

The sound they’re all hoping for is a high-pitched, piercing cry, or guttural croak – a sign that Aotearoa’s threatened, iconic kiwi has returned to patches of forests that had fallen silent.

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Parents ‘tortured’ by death of baby after magpie swooped in Brisbane park

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Five-month-old Mia suffered critical injuries after her mother fell while trying to avoid the bird

The devastated aunts of a baby who died after her mother tried to protect her from a swooping magpie have described the feelings of torture the parents have been left with.

Mia was in her mother’s arms when a magpie swooped at them at a Brisbane park on Sunday.

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China’s wandering elephant herd heads home – video

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A famous elephant herd wandering in south-west China is finally heading towards home.

The herd of 14 wild Asian elephants crossed the Yuanjiang River in Yuxi City, Yunnan province, on Sunday night, a progress that the provincial government described as significant. As of Sunday night, the herd was still in Yuanjiang County, about 200km away from their original habitat in south-west Yunnan's Xishuangbanna.

The elephants attracted worldwide attention after they left the reserve in Yunnan province last year and walked more than 500km north. They reached the outskirts of Kunming, a major city, in early June, before turning south again.

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Spain bans small boats from stretch of water after orca encounters

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Two-week order on coast between Cape Trafalgar and Barbate is second time authorities have taken action

Spain has ordered small boats to steer clear of a stretch of the country’s southern coast after reports of more than 50 encounters with boisterous orcas, including as many as 25 incidents in which boats had to be towed to shore.

A two-week prohibition bars most vessels of 15 metres or less from sailing near the coast between Cape Trafalgar and the small town of Barbate. It is the second time in 13 months that Spain’s ministry of transport has taken action to address a spate of extraordinary orca encounters that have baffled scientists.

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‘The rabbit of the sky’: flocks of Canada geese plague New Zealand countryside

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The birds exist in a pest-control grey area, with no agency taking the lead, allowing the population to boom

They are aggressive, territorial, noisy and excrete more than a kilogram of faeces a day. Now huge flocks of Canada geese have made parts of rural New Zealand their home, bringing havoc in their wake.

The introduced birds are polluting waterways, damaging pasture and are so numerous in some places that they pose a threat to aircrafts, but little is being done to curb the problem.

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‘People think you’re an idiot’: death metal Irish baron rewilds his estate

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Trees, grasses and wildlife are returning as Lord Randal Plunkett recreates a vanished landscape in County Meath

Lord Randal Plunkett strides through the hip-high grass of Dunsany, a 650-hectare (1,600-acre) estate in the middle of Ireland, trailed by an invisible swarm of midges and his four jack russell terriers: Tiny, Lumpy, Chow and Beavis & Butt-Head.

The cattle and sheep are long gone, so too are the lawns and many of the crops. In their place is a riot of shrubs, flowers and trees, along with insects and creatures that call this fledgling wilderness their home.

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Venomous cobra missing in Texas after escaping from owner’s house

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  • West African banded cobra has not been yet found
  • Members of public warned not to approach snake

It can’t claim to be native to Grand Prairie, Texas, but a 6ft west African banded cobra was believed on Friday still to be roaming through the city of almost 200,000 on the outskirts of Dallas after escaping from its owner’s house.

Related: No 10 refuses stay of execution for alpaca Geronimo who tested positive for bovine TB

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Fledgling success as hen harrier continues to recover in England

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This summer will have highest number of fledged chicks since 2002, according to Moorland Association

The endangered hen harrier is continuing its recovery from near extinction in England with this summer set to have the highest number of chicks fledging since 2002.

Of 24 successful nests producing at least 77 fledged chicks this summer, 19 were on moors managed for red grouse, according to the Moorland Association.

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Delta blues: why estuaries are the canaries in the climate crisis coalmine

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These fragile ecosystems are where the impacts of the climate crisis are often felt first, say experts

The Ebro delta appears to be in robust health, to a casual observer. There is water gurgling in the canals and irrigation channels, and what appears to be a mighty river flowing into the sea. The dazzling green rice fields are dotted with ibis, egrets and redshanks.

However, all is not what it seems. The Ebro, the only one of Spain’s three great rivers that flows into the Mediterranean, is one of the most abused and exploited in Europe.

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Evolutionary ‘trap’ leading young sea turtles to ingest plastic, study says

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Researchers find fragments in innards of species that have adapted to develop in open ocean, which has highly polluted areas

Young marine turtles are swallowing large quantities of plastic, with ocean pollution changing habitats that were once ideal for their development into a risk, researchers have found.

The impact of plastic on wildlife is a growing area of research, and studies have revealed harrowing cases of marine animals sustaining injuries or dying after ingesting such material or becoming entangled in it.

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Baked barnacles, scorched cherries: the disastrous impact of heatwaves on plants and animals

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More than a billion sea creatures across the Pacific north-west perished in this year’s heatwave. And it’s just a taste of what’s to come

When forecasts foreshadowed the Pacific north-west’s devastating heatwave at the end of June, marine biologist Christopher Harley was alarmed and intrigued.

Then came the smell, and his feelings somberly shifted.

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Decimated by famine, Florida’s manatees face an uncertain future

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2021 is already the deadliest year on record for Florida manatees. Scientists and activists are scrambling to avert further disaster

On a bright morning in July, a crowd gathered on a boat ramp in St Augustine, Florida, awaiting the arrival of a young male manatee named Gerard. The marshy Matanzas River gently flowed around oyster beds and sawgrass islands as biologists organized their equipment. Nearby about a dozen onlookers paced by the shore, waiting to catch a glimpse of Gerard’s return to the wild following weeks of captivity.

Earlier in spring, beachgoers discovered Gerard stranded and sunbaked in Palm Coast, about 25 miles south of St Augustine, on the Atlantic Ocean. Samaritans draped wet towels over the feeble marine mammal, keeping him cool and shaded from the subtropical sun, as a rescue team raced to the scene. Gravely thin, Gerard was transported to Jacksonville Zoo, where he spent the next 10 weeks in critical care until he was plump enough to re-enter the wild.

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Genetic engineering test with mosquitoes ‘may be game changer’ in eliminating malaria

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UK scientist says gene-drive study rendering female insects infertile may lead to ‘self destruct mosquito’ field tests within 10 years

Scientists have successfully wiped out a population of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes by using a radical form of genetic engineering to render the females infertile – in the most advanced and largest ever test of use of the technology to fight the disease.

As well as bringing fresh hope in the fight against one of the world’s biggest killers, the study lays the foundations for further trials of gene-drive technology, which could mean self-destroying mosquitoes being released into the wild within 10 years.

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Blue ticked off: the controversy over the MSC fish ‘ecolabel’

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The MSC’s coveted blue tick is the world’s biggest, and some say best, fishery ecolabel. So why is it in the headlines – and does it really do what it says on the tin?

This month, two right whales in the Gulf of St Lawrence were found entangled in fishing gear. One, a female, was first spotted entangled off Cape Cod last year, but rescuers were not able to fully free her; the other, a male, is believed to have become entangled in the Gulf.

Hunted to near extinction before a partial whaling ban in 1935, North Atlantic right whales are once more critically endangered, with only 356 left. The main threat remains human contact: entanglement in fishing gear, and ship strikes. Fatal encounters, caused in part by the whales’ migratory shift into Canada’s snow crab grounds, have soared: more than a tenth of the population died or were seriously injured between 2017 and 2021, mostly in Canada and New England.

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The insect apocalypse: ‘Our world will grind to a halt without them’

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Insects have declined by 75% in the past 50 years – and the consequences may soon be catastrophic. Biologist Dave Goulson reveals the vital services they perform

I have been fascinated by insects all my life. One of my earliest memories is of finding, at the age of five or six, some stripy yellow-and-black caterpillars feeding on weeds in the school playground. I put them in my empty lunchbox, and took them home. Eventually they transformed into handsome magenta and black moths. This seemed like magic to me – and still does. I was hooked.

In pursuit of insects I have travelled the world, from the deserts of Patagonia to the icy peaks of Fjordland in New Zealand and the forested mountains of Bhutan. I have watched clouds of birdwing butterflies sipping minerals from the banks of a river in Borneo, and thousands of fireflies flashing in synchrony at night in the swamps of Thailand. At home in my garden in Sussex I have spent countless hours watching grasshoppers court a mate and see off rivals, earwigs tend their young, ants milk honeydew from aphids, and leaf-cutter bees snip leaves to line their nests.

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Cockatoos in Sydney learning from each other to bin-dive for food, study finds

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Sulphur-crested cockatoos’ ability to pry open bins has spread across 44 suburbs in only two years

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are learning from each other to open wheelie bins in order to scavenge for food and the behaviour is rapidly catching on across Sydney, according to new research.

With help from the public, Australian and German ecologists have documented cockatoos learning the bin-diving behaviour through social interactions, with reported sightings of the behaviour growing across Sydney in recent years.

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Deadly coral disease sweeping Caribbean linked to wastewater from ships

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Researchers find ‘significant relationship’ between stony coral tissue loss disease and nearby shipping

A virulent and fast-moving coral disease that has swept through the Caribbean could be linked to waste or ballast water from ships, according to research.

The deadly infection, known as stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), was first identified in Florida in 2014, and has since moved through the region, causing great concern among scientists.

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