Category Archives: Wildlife

Scandal strikes ‘Tour de France of pigeon racing’ as 11 birds die

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Club des Internationaux Français pulls its 2,000 birds from event citing safety fears

The Tour de France of international pigeon racing has been rocked by scandal and acrimony after 11 French birds were found dead on the eve of the competition in a suspected poisoning.

A further seven French pigeons are said to be seriously unwell prompting the Club des Internationaux Français (CIF) to urgently withdraw its 2,000 birds from the blue ribbon event citing concerns about safety and “fairness in this competition for all”.

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Landmark ruling sees Ugandan poacher jailed for killing Rafiki the gorilla

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Six-year sentence following death of one of country’s best-known silverback mountain gorillas is first of its kind

In the first conviction of its kind, a court in Uganda has jailed a poacher for six years after he admitted killing one of the country’s best-known silverback mountain gorillas in a national park.

Felix Byamukama, from Murole in the south-west district of Kisoro, pleaded guilty to illegal entry into a protected area and killing the gorilla named Rakifi and a duiker antelope. Byamukama had said earlier that he killed the animal in self-defence after he was attacked. It is the first time Uganda, home to 50% of the world’s mountain gorillas, has jailed someone for such an offence and the sentence has been widely welcomed by wildlife groups.

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Small crustacean can fragment microplastics in four days, study finds

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‘Completely unexpected’ finding is significant as harmful effects of plastic might increase as particle size decreases

Small crustaceans can fragment microplastics into pieces smaller than a cell within 96 hours, a study has shown.

Until now, plastic fragmentation has been largely attributed to slow physical processes such as sunlight and wave action, which can take years and even decades.

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‘Smelly and create great stains’: emus banned from pub in outback Australia town

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Kevin and Carol, friendly emus who wander the town of Yaraka in Queensland, have been barred from the only pub after leaving droppings on the floor and stealing toast

It can’t be easy being an emu in outback Australia at the best of times what with the heat and the perennial droughts.

But to be banned from your local pub for bad behaviour must now be added to the list of grievances inflicted upon the big birds.

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Almost 3 billion animals affected by Australian megafires, report shows

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Exclusive: Bushfires ‘one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history’, say scientists

Nearly 3 billion animals were killed or displaced by Australia’s devastating bushfire season of 2019 and 2020, according to scientists who have revealed for the first time the scale of the impact on the country’s native wildlife.

The Guardian has learned that an estimated 143 million mammals, 180 million birds, 51 million frogs and a staggering 2.5 billion reptiles were affected by the fires that burned across the continent. Not all the animals would have been killed by the flames or heat, but scientists say the prospects of survival for those that had withstood the initial impact was “probably not that great” due to the starvation, dehydration and predation by feral animals – mostly cats – that followed.

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Beloved Eel McPherson disappears from New Zealand pond during massive storm

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Owners hope the friendly shortfin eel, which delighted children in Whangārei for 35 years, made it out to sea during deluge

A shortfin eel named Eel McPherson, who was beloved by a New Zealand city for 35 years, has bid bon voyage to its backyard pool and disappeared during a once-in-500-years flood.

The eel was kept by a Whangārei man, George Campbell, for decades – first at a fish museum that he ran during the 1990s and later at his home – said Campbell’s granddaughter, Alyce Charlesworth.

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NSW minister urges Morrison government not to ‘smash through’ conservation law changes

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State Liberal Matt Kean calls on his federal counterpart to drop opposition to an independent environment protection authority

The New South Wales environment minister has called on the Morrison government not to “smash through” changes to national conservation laws and to drop its opposition to an independent environment protection authority.

In a significant intervention from a Liberal government minister, Matt Kean questioned his federal counterpart’s rush to introduce draft laws to change the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act while a major review was still under way, saying it was more important to get the detail right.

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Cost of preventing next pandemic ‘equal to just 2% of Covid-19 economic damage’

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World must act now to protect wildlife in order to stop future virus crises, say scientists

The cost of preventing further pandemics over the next decade by protecting wildlife and forests would equate to just 2% of the estimated financial damage caused by Covid-19, according to a new analysis.

Two new viruses a year had spilled from their wildlife hosts into humans over the last century, the researchers said, with the growing destruction of nature meaning the risk today is higher than ever.

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Most polar bears to disappear by 2100, study predicts

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Melting Arctic sea ice could cause starvation and reproductive failure for many as early as 2040, scientists warn

Scientists have predicted for the first time when, where and how polar bears are likely to disappear, warning that if greenhouse gas emissions stay on their current trajectory all but a few polar bear populations in the Arctic will probably be gone by 2100.

By as early as 2040, it is very likely that many polar bears will begin to experience reproductive failure, leading to local extinctions, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change.

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Rescuers struggle to free sperm whale trapped in netting off Sicily

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Divers and biologists trying to free whale caught in illegal netting near island of Salina

The Italian coastguard is struggling to free a sperm whale caught up in illegal fishing netting off the coast of one of Sicily’s Aeolian islands.

A team of divers and biologists have been working for more than 48 hours to help the whale close to the island of Salina. The whale’s huge size and agitated state has made the operation more challenging.

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‘So happy I have this on bodycam’: Bemused US police catch kangaroo on the run – video

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Police officers captured an unlikely suspect bouncing through a Florida neighbourhood on Thursday morning. One officer is heard saying: 'I am so happy I have this on bodycam. Bob, in your how many years have you ever seen a kangaroo?' After receiving a call about a kangaroo running loose, Fort Lauderdale police officers managed to tie a lead around the two-year-old male and place him in a squad car. The marsupial was taken to a stable where the police department keeps its horses.

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Killing nearly 500 wolves in a year failed to protect endangered caribou – study

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  • British Columbia performed cull as part of caribou recovery plan
  • Focus on wolves ignores complex web of factors, researchers say

With their ability to glide silently through snow drifts and vanish into forests, mountain caribou have been called the grey ghosts of western Canada’s alpine region.

But in recent years, a steep drop in their population has raised fears the knobby-kneed ungulates may disappear forever.

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Andean condor can fly for 100 miles without flapping wings

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World’s largest soaring bird flaps wings only 1% of time in flight, study shows

A study sheds light on just how efficiently the world’s largest soaring bird rides air currents to stay aloft for hours without flapping its wings.

The Andean condor has a 3-metre (10ft) wingspan and weighs up to 15kg (33lbs), making it the world’s heaviest soaring bird.

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European hamster and caterpillar fungus on brink of extinction

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Update to IUCN red list warns of hamster’s falling birth rate and high demand for fungus

Hamsters and fungi may not be poster species among those threatened with extinction but are no less important in ecosystems, according to an updated list of the world’s most fragile species.

The European hamster once scurried across much of Europe and Russia but has now vanished from most of its original range and on current trends will go extinct within 30 years, according to the update of the IUCN red list, the global database of species on the brink.

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Group of rare Cross River gorillas caught on camera in Nigeria

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Conservationists hope first known camera-trap images of species are sign of resurgence

Rare images of a group belonging to one of the most endangered gorilla subspecies in the world suggest their numbers could be recovering after decades of persecution, conservationists in Nigeria have said.

Seven Cross River gorillas including infants of varying ages can be seen in the first known camera-trap images of the species, taken in the Mbe mountains in south-east Nigeria by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

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Sir David Attenborough makes appeal to save charity behind London and Whipsnade zoos – video

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The naturalist has appealed for donations to save conservation charity ZSL, which has been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The charity's director, Dominic Jermey, said the zoos would be unable to recoup the money lost even though they had been allowed to reopen, because of social-distancing measures and heavily restricted visitor numbers. He said: 'Unlike any other UK zoo, our zoos are the lifeline for groundbreaking research at the world-renowned ZSL Institute of Zoology and fund our global conservation projects – work that has never been more vital.'


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Scientists put forward plan to create universal species list

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Single classification system could end centuries of disagreement and improve global efforts to tackle biodiversity loss

A plan to create the first universally recognised list of species on Earth has prompted hopes of an end to centuries of disagreement and confusion over how to classify the world’s library of life.

The 10-point plan aims to finally bring order with an authoritative list of the world’s species and a governance mechanism responsible for its quality. Researchers hope a single recognised list would improve global efforts to tackle biodiversity loss, the trade in endangered wildlife, biosecurity and conservation.

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Coronavirus: world treating symptoms, not cause of pandemics, says UN

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Ongoing destruction of nature will result in stream of animal diseases jumping to humans, says report

The world is treating the health and economic symptoms of the coronavirus pandemic but not the environmental cause, according to the authors of a UN report. As a result, a steady stream of diseases can be expected to jump from animals to humans in coming years, they say.

The number of such “zoonotic” epidemics is rising, from Ebola to Sars to West Nile virus and Rift Valley fever, with the root cause being the destruction of nature by humans and the growing demand for meat, the report says.

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Why we need sharks: the true nature of the ocean’s ‘monstrous villains’

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Why did dolphins get Flipper while sharks got Jaws? These majestic, diverse animals bring balance to the ocean ecosystem – and they’re in grave danger

Each day, as the sun sets over the coral-fringed Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia, an underwater predator stirs. As predators go, it’s not especially big or ferocious – an arm’s length from head to tail, with a snuffling, moustachioed snout.

What’s unique is that it doesn’t so much swim along the seabed as walk. Using its four fins as legs, and twisting its spine like a lizard, it can emerge from the water and hold its breath for an hour, strutting across the exposed reef and clambering between tide pools to find prey.

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‘An ashram for the hummingbird’: the Trinidad haven for world’s tiniest bird

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Theo and Gloria Ferguson have created a garden specially designed to attract hummingbirds – and hundreds visit daily

At the foot of Theo and Gloria Ferguson’s property stands a giant silk cotton tree. Reminiscent of those enchanted species in children’s fables, this ancient sentinel’s huge varicose limbs yawn upwards and outwards, towards a canopy of leaves that scratch the sky. Eight adults linking arms would struggle to encircle its vast girth, proof of the aeons it has stood guarding the edge of Trinidad’s Maracas valley.

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