Non-native house mice are to be removed from Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean to protect the wandering albatross and other endangered seabirds, in the world’s largest eradication programme of its kind. Mice accidentally introduced on to the remote island by 19th-century seal hunters have thrived in warmer and drier conditions over the past […]
Tag: invasive species
Discover the Wildlife in Your Backyard with the WildTracker Project
Have you ever wondered what creatures share your backyard? Meet the Marshall family from Tinderbox, south of Hobart, Australia, who recently embarked on an exciting journey to find out what animals live on their property. Thanks to the Tasmanian Land Conservancy’s WildTracker project, a citizen science program, the family is discovering the fascinating array of […]
Rogue Iguana Causes Massive Power Outage Before Dying; How Did They Become an Invasive Species in Florida?
The war between the invasive iguanas and the people of Florida continues as an unfortunate event in Palm Beach that happened on Wednesday, December 7. Local newspaper Sun Sentinel reports that a rogue iguana caused a large-scale power outage in Lake Worth Beach after climbing onto a power grid’s transformer, which affected roughly 1,400 households […]
Australia Aims to End Species Extinctions — Can Its New Plan Succeed?
Australia has one of the highest rates of species extinctions in the world, but it has just announced an initiative to preserve 30% of the country’s land mass by 2030 in order to bring species extinctions down entirely to zero. Australia is home to many unique plants and animals, but increasing extreme weather events, including […]
It’s time cats were recognized as a major environmental issue
The Macquarie Island parakeet was, by all accounts, an elegant parrot endemic to the island off southern Tasmania that shared its name. We will never really know, because the last of its species was seen in the 1880s. The lesser bilby inhabited warmer climes – it was found predominantly in the sandy deserts of central […]
‘You’ve got to remove every rat’: the race to protect Round Island
As the boat weaves between the jagged rocks of the Scilly archipelago off the coast of Cornwall, Round Island, uninhabited but for a lonely Victorian lighthouse, comes into view. Those on board preparing for their visit are not armed with cameras and binoculars but with buckets of toxic cereal bait and rat traps. When signs […]
‘Generally ignored’ species face twice the extinction threat, warns study
Plants and animals that do not have enough data to be properly assessed appear to be at twice the risk of extinction as those that have been evaluated, meaning more species may face being wiped off the planet than previously thought, a study has warned. Researchers looked at the extinction risk of species assessed on […]
Call for hippos to join list of world’s most endangered animals
Hippos could be added to the list of the world’s most endangered animals because of dwindling populations caused by the climate crisis, poaching and the ivory trade. The semi-aquatic mammals are found in lakes and rivers across sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated population of 115,000-130,000. As well as the trade in ivory – found in […]