Category Archives: Wildlife

‘A kind of rat with thorns’: the comic book busting myths about the Madras hedgehog

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The elusive nocturnal creature is rarely seen in Tamil Nadu. One ecologist has made it his mission to spread the word through colourful adventures

The brightly coloured panels of Brawin Kumar’s comic book tell the story of how two children rescue a hedgehog from an unlicensed medicine man. The mother hedgehog is delighted to be reunited with her little one, as she has lost most of her offspring to road traffic.

Kumar, an Indian researcher and ecologist, came up with the idea of writing the book in Tamil to create awareness among children who live in and around the Madras hedgehog’s habitat. Many of those children will never have seen the nocturnal creature, which, unlike the British hedgehog, aestivates (lies in a state of torpor or dormancy) in the summer instead of hibernating in the winter.

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Bees give me a sense of calm: discovering nature in my back garden

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Their busy buzzing supplies the soundtrack to our summer – and by spotting them I’ve found a fresh sense of inner peace

Lockdown started, or reignited, a love of nature in many people. The RSPB reported a 70% increase in visitors to its website during the first lockdown. This came as no surprise to me; stuck at home, without the usual distraction of social engagement, my interest in nature grew. During the winter, I would look up into leafless trees trying to locate a bird whose loud call I could clearly hear. I even bought myself a pair of binoculars so I could acquaint myself with some of the local avian population.

But now I have a new hobby. As the warmer weather slowly arrives, I have been lowering my gaze towards the stirring flower beds and roadside verges, as well as rustling in the undergrowth in the hope of spotting my favourite insects. On a sunny day, there’s nothing better than sitting quietly by a patch of swaying flowers or under a blossoming tree to listen for the tell-tale sign of buzzing. This quintessential sound of summer connects me to the seasons and the natural world, even in the inner city, and fills me with joy. It is also a welcome break from staring at a screen all day. I wait peacefully, in anticipation and excitement of seeing different types of bees.

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Monkeys adopt ‘accent’ of other species when in shared territory – study

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Brazilian Amazon primates found to adapt their calls to get along better with their neighbours

Monkeys will use the “accent” of another species when they enter its territory to enhance communication, much like a British person living in the US might forgo their ‘tomahto’ for ‘tomayto, researchers have found.

Researchers investigated the behaviour of 15 groups of two roughly squirrel-sized primate species in the Brazilian Amazon: pied tamarins (Saguinus bicolor) and red-handed tamarins (Saguinus midas).

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Sex-mad and spectacular: 17 incredible facts about cicadas

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Once every 17 years, trillions of cicadas emerge from beneath the ground in the US. They taste like tinned asparagus, are sometimes attracted to power tools – and can number 1.3m an acre

Brood X is upon us. Across the US billions, if not trillions of cicadas have emerged from below the ground, a biblical plague that occurs every 17 years. Gene Kritsky wouldn’t miss it. “This is special,” he says. An entomologist at Mount St Joseph University in Cincinnati, Kritsky has studied periodical cicadas for nearly 40 years. Brood X, the subject of three of his books, holds a particular place in his heart. In the middle of back-to-back interviews during his busiest professional period since 2004 (“It happens, every 17 years”), he found time to share his favourite facts with us.

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Turkey struck by ‘sea snot’ because of global heating

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Increasing blanket of mucus-like substance in water threatens coral and fishing industry

When seen from above, it looks like a brush of beige swirled across the dark blue waters of the Sea of Marmara. Up close, it resembles a creamy, gelatinous blanket of quicksand. Now scientists are warning that the substance, known as sea snot, is on the rise as a result of global heating.

The gloopy, mucus-like substance had not been recorded in Turkish waters before 2007. It is created as a result of prolonged warm temperatures and calm weather and in areas with abundant nutrients in the water.

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‘A huge surprise’ as giant river otter feared extinct in Argentina pops up

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Conservationists thrilled at the sighting of the wild predator, last seen in the country in the 1980s

“It was a huge surprise,” said Sebastián Di Martino, director of conservation at Fundación Rewilding Argentina. “I was incredulous. An incredible feeling of so much happiness. I didn’t know if I should try to follow it or rush back to our station to tell the others.”

The cause of the excitement was the sighting, last week, of a wild giant river otter – an animal feared extinct in the country due to habitat loss and hunting – on the Bermejo River in Impenetrable national park, in north-east Argentina’s Chaco province. The last sighting of a giant otter in the wild in Argentina was in the 1980s. On the Bermejo, none have been seen for more than a century.

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Green growth: the save-the-mangrove scheme reaping rewards for women in Kenya

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A community project on the Lamu archipelago trains women in preserving this vital ecosystem and provides business loans

Kenya’s mangroves have been harvested for centuries, the timber used in shipbuilding and for ornate doors and furniture as well as shipped across the Indian Ocean and around the world.

The Lamu archipelago accounts for more than half of Kenya’s mangrove forests. But across the country an estimated 40% of this precious commodity has been degraded, as more mangroves have been cut to provide construction materials and charcoal for cooking, and oil leakages from cruise liners and ships that pass along the coast kill off young saplings. The area has become one of the most degraded marine ecosystems in east Africa.

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Big cats seized by US authorities from Tiger King zoo in Oklahoma

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Animal park that featured in 2020 Netflix series investigated in possible violation of Endangered Species Act

US authorities have seized 68 big cats from an Oklahoma animal park that featured in the 2020 Netflix series Tiger King, the Department of Justice has said.

In an affidavit of more than 50 pages, prosecutors said they believed a jaguar, seven lions, 46 tigers and 15 lion-tiger hybrids owned by Jeffrey Lowe and his wife, Lauren Lowe, had been sold, purchased or transported, which would be a violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

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Climate crisis behind drastic drop in Arctic wildlife populations – report

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Native shorebirds and caribou among species at risk as survival strategies are upended

A drastic drop in caribou and shorebird populations is a reflection of the dire changes unfolding on the Arctic tundra, according to a new report from the Arctic Council.

The terrestrial Arctic spans approximately 2.7m sq miles (7m sq km), marked by extreme cold, drought, strong winds and seasonal darkness. Species living in this environment have adapted to thrive in the harsh conditions. But the climate crisis has upended such survival strategies, according to the State of the Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity report, published by the council’s Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (Caff) working group.

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Securing a swift return: how a simple brick can help migratory birds

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Many swifts flying back to Britain will find their summer nests lost to building renovations. But bird bricks are offering them an alternative home

Eagerly anticipated by many, it is a thrilling moment when you first hear the distinctive screech or catch sight of the long, tapered wings of the first swifts arriving for the summer. For thousands of years they have looped to the British Isles from Africa to raise the next generation, taking advantage of the long daylight hours in the north and the opportunity to scour the skies for insects from dawn to dusk.

Since they left Britain’s shores in August last year, these remarkable birds will have flown some 14,000 miles without stopping; feeding, sleeping, drinking and preening themselves on the wing. The birds returning now are likely to be at least four years old – the breeders. They head straight back to their nesting holes under eaves or gaps in stone and brickwork that they claimed and defended last summer. Within a few days their mate will arrive and, having spent nine months living independently, they will start to preen each other’s feathers within the nesting hole, crooning softly and bonding once again.

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World is home to 50bn birds, ‘breakthrough’ citizen science research estimates

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University of New South Wales led study suggests six times as many individual birds as humans but that many species are very rare

There are about 50 billion individual birds in the world, according to new research that uses citizen science observations to try to estimate population numbers for almost 10,000 species.

The paper, led by scientists at the University of New South Wales, suggests there are about six times as many birds on the planet as humans – but that many individual species are very rare.

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‘I’m seen as the fool’: the farmers putting trees back into the UK’s fields

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It’s hoped a 12-year trial in Devon will persuade policymakers to back silvopasture to benefit the soil, livestock and climate

Andy Gray stands beside an enormous hill of bare red earth and smiles with a hint of mischief. This is his best field, its soils known as Crediton red land. The region was once known for producing swedes prized by Covent Garden market. Now, every six metres, planted in rows 14 metres apart, stands a tree guard shielding a young oak, aspen or alder.

“You can grow anything on it and I’m planting trees,” says Gray, a 16th-generation Devon farmer. “I’m seen as the fool on the hill. One neighbour said ‘you might as well concrete it over and build houses’. They could be right. Who knows?”

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‘Beavers are just being beavers’: friction grows between Canadians and animals

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Beavers cause internet outages, steal posts and even put 30 sq km of a town underwater – but experts say the animals have a profound effect on ecosystems

At first, the theft of wooden fence posts seemed like a crime of opportunity – amid soaring lumber costs, stacks of wood have gone missing from construction sites across North America.

But officers in the Canadian prairie community of Porcupine Plain, Saskatchewan, soon identified the culprit: local beavers had stolen the posts to build their dam.

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Campaigners lose court case to stop Ugandan forest clearance

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Court ruling gives go-ahead for sugar plantation in Bugoma forest, home to endangered chimpanzees

Conservationists in Uganda have condemned as “shallow and absurd” a court ruling that authorised the government to allow swathes of a tropical forest to be cleared for a sugar-cane plantation.

Three environmental groups had taken the government to court over a decision to allow Hoima Sugar Ltd to build on 5,500 hectares (13,500 acres) in the Bugoma Forest Reserve.

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Cod almighty: how a ‘mythical’ Faroes delicacy has vanished

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A giant cod that was once a fishing staple is now so rare it has become the preserve of a few fine diners

It was no ordinary cod that Teitur Christensen was preparing. The head chef at Barbara Fish House, one of four restaurants located in tiny wooden houses in Tórshavn, the Faroe Islands’ capital, Christensen was hosting what has become known as a “Bank evening”, because of the main dish. In the small cosy rooms of these ancient houses – one of which was built more than 500 years ago – his team was getting ready to serve what has become an almost mythical fish: the Faroe Bank cod.

The Faroe Bank cod’s reputation is partly built on its size. It is huge: a three-year-old specimen is already twice as large, on average, as the Atlantic cod. But it is also legendary because of its rarity. A genetically distinctive member of the cod family, it was once plentiful before being nearly fished to extinction. In 2008, all commercial fishing of Faroe Bank cod was banned. Only the Faroe Marine Research Institute (Famri) is now allowed to catch them, when its researchers survey the fish population twice a year.

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Trillions of brood X cicadas move closer to emergence as soil temperatures rise

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Great Eastern Brood set to emerge in the last two weeks of May and into early June, with hordes of bugs to push up from underground

Brood X, otherwise known as the great cicada hatching of 2021, is drawing closer as soil temperatures in some parts of America move closer to 64F (18C) – the trigger, according to scientists, for trillions of the insects to push up to the surface and into the trees to mate.

Related: If we want to save the planet, the future of food is insects

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Officials suspect Goiat the bear of Catalan livestock attacks

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Val d’Aran regional government in Spain believes there are ‘several indications’ animal is responsible

Experts are analysing samples taken from the scenes of four recent attacks on livestock in northern Catalonia to determine whether they herald the return of a brown bear called Goiat who has become notorious for his depredations.

Goiat, who was brought to the region from his native Slovenia in June 2016 as part of an EU project to consolidate the bear population in the Pyrenees, is loathed by many farmers in and around the Val d’Aran because of his taste for sheep, goats and horses.

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‘They’re chilling’: endangered condors take up residence outside California woman’s home

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More than 15 rare birds, whose population is at about 160 in the state, showed up at Cinda Mickol’s home – and they’ve made a mess

Giant California condors are rare – but not at Cinda Mickols’ home.

More than 15 condors, an endangered bird whose population hovers at around 160 in the state and under 500 in the US, have recently taken a liking to Mickol’s house in Tehachapi – and they’ve made quite a mess.

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More than 45,000 vie for one of 12 spots to help thin Grand Canyon bison herd

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Skilled shooters are needed to kill the 2,000-pound animals that have been trampling archaeological and other resources

More than 45,000 people are vying for one of a dozen spots to help thin a herd of bison at Grand Canyon national park.

The odds aren’t as good as drawing a state tag to hunt the massive animals beyond the boundaries of the Grand Canyon, but they’re far better than getting struck by lightning or winning the Powerball.

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Liechtenstein prince accused of shooting Romania’s largest bear

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Environmental groups say Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein shot bear, named Arthur, in a protected area

Environmental groups have accused a prince from Liechtenstein’s royal family of shooting and killing the largest bear in Romania, in contravention of a ban on the trophy hunting of large carnivores.

The Romanian NGO Agent Green and the Austrian NGO VGT alleged in a statement that the bear, who was called Arthur, was shot in March in a protected area of the Carpathian Mountains by Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein.

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