Monarch production will not be replicated next year, experts warn, as above average temperatures will cause problems
The population of monarch butterflies wintering in central Mexico is up 144% over last year, according to new research.
Related: 'It's a sad reality': a troubling trend sees a 97% decline in monarch butterflies
Continue reading...Three-year-old Casey Hathaway said a bear helped him survive two nights in the woods but animal experts say it would be a first
The story of a three-year-old boy who said he survived two nights alone in the woods due to the assistance of a friendly bear should not encourage people to seek out their own relationships with bears, a leading ursine expert has warned.
Related: Three-year-old boy missing in woods for two days says friendly bear kept him safe
Continue reading...The next 15 megacities #10: As Malaysia’s ever-expanding capital swallows up their rainforest habitat, the macaques are turning to guerrilla warfare
The gang stop and stare, attention spiked by our car doors slamming. Ten pairs of eyes flit between our backpacks and our faces. Is it worth mugging us? Do our bags contain bananas or useless, inedible wallets and cameras? The monkeys of Kuala Lumpur’s Ampang district decide against it and head further down the road in the hunt for victims. The morning joggers here run with sticks.
“Twenty years ago this was jungle,” says Viswa Hattan, an accountant jogging in the area. Gated high-rises loom ahead of us, the roads leading to them flanked by forest too dense to enter without machetes. Four macaques, babies clinging to their chests, loiter on a metal road barrier uphill from a construction site. “This was their area,” says Hattan as a nearby male macaque begins vigorously masturbating. “We’ve taken it from them.”
Continue reading...Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher, came face-to-face with what could be one of the largest great whites ever recorded
Two shark researchers who came face to face with what could be one of the largest great whites ever recorded are using their encounter as an opportunity to push for legislation that would protect sharks in Hawaii.
Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher and conservationist, told the Associated Press that she encountered the 20ft (6m) shark Tuesday near a dead sperm whale off Oahu. The event was documented and shared on social media by her fiance and business partner, Juan Oliphant.
Continue reading...Two missing Humboldts were found this week in Strelley Village after a tipoff
Two penguins have been found by police officers after they were stolen.
The pair of Humboldt penguins were taken in November last year from a zoo in Nottinghamshire.
Continue reading...Millions of amateur naturalists around the world are tuning in to the secret lives of albatrosses as New Zealand rangers employ YouTube in a bid to save the mysterious giant sea birds.
Continue reading...What tickles your fancy when land meets sea? Brad Farmer recommends choosing your ‘best beach’ discerningly
• Vote for Australia’s best beaches
• Open thread: tell us about your favourite beach
As a child, a day at the beach was pure bliss and the salty, splashing, bucket and spade days went on to form the greatest of lasting memories. Now, as an adult, each time I go to the beach – any beach – the ephemeral experience on this thin strip of sand where land meets sea still fascinates and delights me as a celebration of the senses.
I have my favourites of course, many from those carefree, halcyon days as a sun-kissed kid. But are they the “best” beaches of Australia’s honour roll of 11,761 beaches and does it really matter?
Continue reading...Mikołaj Golachowski describes plan as ‘evil’ and warns of environmental consequences
Conservationists have branded plans by the Polish government to cull almost the entire wild boar population of the country as “pointless, counterproductive and evil”.
In a move to tackle an epidemic of African swine fever, the Polish government has ordered a series of hunts, beginning this weekend, with the aim of killing the vast majority of the country’s population of around 200,000 wild boar.
Continue reading...Proposal is intended to protect African elephants from being poached for their tusks
The long-extinct woolly mammoth could gain protected status in an unprecedented attempt to save the African elephant from the global ivory trade.
If approved, the protection of the mammoth under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) could prove vital in saving its modern relatives. The proposal by Israel would close a loophole that enables the trafficking of illegal elephant ivory under the guise of legal mammoth ivory, which is almost identical in appearance.
Continue reading...Girl to be transferred from Hamilton Island to have bite on foot treated, while woman was bitten on leg
A child and a woman have been bitten by a shark in the Whitsundays.
Related: Shark attack: five survivors on what it's like when a great white tries to eat you
Continue reading...New Zealand’s whale whisperers worry that manmade changes in the ocean are behind the spike in beachings
Whale whisperer Hori Parata was just seven years old when he attended his first mass stranding, a beaching of porpoises in New Zealand’s Northland, their cries screeching through the air on the deserted stretch of sand.
Seven decades later, Parata, 75, has now overseen more than 500 strandings and is renowned in New Zealand as the leading Māori whale expert, called on by tribes around the country for cultural guidance as marine strandings become increasingly complex and fatal.
Continue reading...Human reactions to shark attacks have fascinated Fiona Adolph for more than a decade. Here she examines a global hotspot, Western Australia
On a whisper-still January dawn, the most terrifying day of Allan Oppert’s life began unremarkably and with a feeling of deep calm.
Like most Sundays, he woke to a knock on the door from his friends Dan and Dave. At Allan’s neat house in the small seaside town of Binningup, in the south-west corner of Western Australia, the three men drank strong coffee before towing Allan’s boat to a nearby ramp where three friends were launching another vessel. The two groups were heading out on the ocean together, a familiar arrangement aimed at ensuring safety.
Continue reading...Almost half of proposed area of construction falls within hunting and roaming zone that is essential to animal’s survival
The extinction of the endangered Florida panther could be hastened by a large development proposed for the state, environmental groups are warning, as a major project is expected to win approval from the Trump administration as early as April.
Continue reading...Fears for native biodiversity as climate ideal for propagation
The raucous squawking comes first. Then they are seen, banking and diving before they crash-land on trees.
If Greeks had been told, not long ago, that their skies would become the preserve of ring-necked parakeets, the response would have been one of incredulity.
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