Other Animals

In one of the biggest mobilizations of resources and talent ever organized to save an insect, the state of California is teaming with conservation groups, biologists and scores of citizen scientists to rescue the western monarch butterfly from the brink of extinction. To do this, they are placing their hopes on an unassuming, poisonous plant

About 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds, a newspaper reported Friday. Two drones were flown illegally over the Bolsa Chica ecological reserve in Huntington Beach in May and one of them went down in the wetlands, the Orange County Register

Dozens of birds have been killed through poisoning amid concerns that methods to eradicate a growing mouse plague in eastern Australia are hitting other wildlife. The New South Wales Environmental Protection Agency has asked the public to “think carefully” about the amount and location of mouse bait being used, after an investigation confirmed that some

Back in the early ‘70s, Atari released a simplistic but effective video game named Pong. Just two vertical bars on both sides of the screen and a floating ball moving its sprites from across 720 pixels of screen space. The ball was manipulated by a player (or two) in a competitive bid to earn the

Wildlife campaigners are suing Scotland’s nature conservation agency for allowing farmers to kill wild beavers, arguing that it is in breach of its duties to protect vulnerable species. Trees for Life, a charity that campaigns for rewilding, has accused NatureScot of failing to protect beavers and insists the animals should be humanely trapped and relocated

Corals will bleach, penguins will lose their Antarctic ice floes, puffins around the UK coast will be unable to feed their young, and the black-headed squirrel monkey of the Amazon could be wiped out if the world fails to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Beyond a 1.5C rise, many species will face

Humans have long been fascinated with wildlife, and as time has gone on, many are trying to find more ethical ways to get the chance to come face to face with animals they can’t see in their daily lives. As people become more eco-conscious, their sympathy for animals that have been taken from the wild

JAKARTA — Orangutans in Borneo have been found to physically waste away when fruit is scarce — a finding with dire implications as human-driven climate change and the destruction of their habitat put their food supply under even greater threat. In a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers collected and analyzed urine

Two of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s most prolific wildlife traders have been handed jail terms this year, in a rare spell of conservation wins for Congolese law enforcement. Salomon Mpay 51, was arrested at a Kinshasa hotel on Jan. 30, following a two-year joint investigation between the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature

ANCHORAGE, Alaska— The Biden administration issued a proposed rule today allowing oil companies operating in the Beaufort Sea and Western Arctic to harass polar bears and Pacific walruses when drilling or searching for oil for the next five years. “It’s maddening to see the Biden administration allowing oil companies to continue their noisy, harmful onslaught

The last time Schwartz’s tracking monitor registered his location, he was standing at the edge of the “highway of death”. A massive male giant anteater, he was roaming his habitat in the Brazilian Cerrado – a vast tropical savanna that neighbours the world’s largest tropical wetland, the Pantanal – when he disappeared next to the

Two escaped tigers killed their keeper in China and were shot dead, state media reported, in the latest incident underlining the country’s chaotic handling of dangerous animals. Tuesday’s incident in central Henan province comes with authorities still hunting for one of three leopards that escaped in eastern China, in a separate case that shocked the

There once was a time when the skies of Rio de Janeiro were filled with the colorful and noisy flight of blue-and-gold macaws. And while their population is indeed decreasing (according to the IUCN assignation for the species), they are listed by the watch organization as Least Concern for their conservation status. But the blue-and-gold

Hunters have been condemned by English Heritage over pictures they took posing with dead muntjac deer at one of the organisation’s properties. Officials said that some of the hunters were not “respectful” to the deer, which were shot as part of a cull at Wrest Park, in Bedfordshire. The group were believed to have paid

EXCLUSIVE: Website BookYourHunt has up to 5,000 hunts available and prey includes zebras at a starting price of £743 for a killing spree and Cape buffalos at £2,283 Almost all the animals on BookYourHunt are exempt from forthcoming UK legislation aimed at banning the import of hunting souvenirs such as skins, antlers and heads. The

A PLAN to reintroduce white-tailed eagles into the East of England has triggered concerns the birds of prey may swoop on piglets, lambs and even pets. Natural England has granted permission for this species of large sea eagles to be released in Norfolk, with the hope that a breeding population can be established by 2026

Seventy-two percent of the earth’s surface is covered in salt water, and there are over 230,000 known species inhabiting the earth’s oceans, with up to 2 million species remaining a mystery. Only about 5 percent of the earth’s oceans can be considered explored. This leaves us with a lot to discover about the oceans and

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

People in Cumbria are being urged to watch over a pair of hen harriers who have begun nesting on a nature reserve as police investigate the disappearance of two other of the endangered raptors. Two male hen harriers vanished from RSPB Geltsdale last week in what the police described as “suspicious circumstances”, just when both

A tropical continental island located close to the Indian subcontinent, endemic fauna and flora form an integral part of Sri Lanka’s rich biodiversity. The island’s biodiversity is globally recognized for both its diversity and endemism of fauna and flora, and this is true of its dragonflies and damselflies, or odonates in general. With 130 known

As the morning light reached through the canopy, Richard Gelo turned to his crops and waited for signs of movement. The visitor he was expecting first found his farm nearly a year ago. Since then, these occasional pit stops had become regular. Before long, Mr. Gelo’s guest emerged from the thick jungle of the Okapi

Hyacinth macaws roost in a tree in Brazil’s Pantanal region. Photo courtesy of the Instituto Arara Azul This month we travel to the Pantanal of Brazil, the world’s largest tropical wetland. It is a magical place, an epic ecosystem. Most years, the grasslands flood from torrential rains, and then the water slowly subsides leaving behind

An animal trainer in far eastern Russia has been caught on film hitting and kicking two beluga whales – causing a fierce backlash. Dmitry Bachinsky, 32, who works at the Primorsky Oceanarium in Vladivostok, was caught on film lashing out at two whales, named Nil and Lear. According to animal rights campaigners, Bachinsky was attempting

The badger cull policy has cost the lives of more than 140,000 badgers since 2013, in the largest destruction of a protected species in living memory. Badgers have been shot across a geographical area stretching from Cornwall to Cumbria at an estimated public cost of over £70m, when the costs of policing, training, monitoring, equipment,

For trophy hunters, the big five are the toughest, most dangerous animals to kill, but a photography project has turned the meaning of shooting on its head, creating a new list of the five most fantastic creatures to capture on camera. More than 50,000 people from around the world voted for animals they most liked

JAKARTA — To improve ecosystem management in Borneo, look at the population trends of key bird species on the island, researchers say. The scientists from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and Indonesia’s Tanjungpura University have found that six Bornean bird species are strong indicators of intact forests — mixed dipterocarp and heath —

The Bornean subspecies of the Rajah scops-owl (Otus brookii) was first described from the montane forests of the Malaysian state of Sabah in 1892. Since then, however, its whereabouts have been a mystery. It was not until 2016 that a group of researchers documented the first sighting of a live individual in more than a

A lucky orca enthusiast has captured some incredible photos of a newborn calf swimming with its mother off the coast of Scotland. The orange-tinted baby was accompanied by four older killer whales as it played in the Moray Firth, near Duncansbayhead, Caithness. Wildlife enthusiast Karen Munro, 44, travels around Scotland from her home in Thurso,

The purportedly simple task called “match-to-sample” seems straightforward and forms the basis of many more advanced types of studies. In the picture to the right, the subject first sees a red and a green circle (a). After a short delay, that screen disappears, and another with only one circle appears (b). After another short delay,

Snakes may not be the most popular pets, but if you get yourself familiar with them and learn how to take care of them, you just might be the happiest owner in the world. There’s no denying that these creatures are fascinating. If you handle them properly, you should know that in that case most