The crowned eagle is considered Africa’s most powerful raptor. Built for ambushing prey among the trees, it kills monkeys and antelopes almost four times its own weight, crushing their skulls in its enormous talons. Its prowess may even have made it a hunter of our distant ancestors. Yet its strength offers little protection against the disappearance of […]
Six beluga deaths cast a shadow over rescue from Canada’s Marineland
Six members of a pod of 30 belugas, a fifth of the whales that were transferred from a marine park in Canada to facilities in the U.S. and Spain as part of a massive rescue operation, have died in the last two months. They were transported to the facilities in July and August after languishing […]
Lurking beneath the surface, this deadly reptile strikes fear with glowing red eyes and teeth built to grip struggling prey — including humans
At night on an Amazonian lake, a torch beam catches two eyes glowing red just above the water. The rest of the enormous reptile is hidden below the surface. It is an arresting glimpse of the world’s largest caiman, a predator that can exceed 5m in length and has even been observed eating juvenile members […]
Loss of a rare lake reveals how warming has hit the Canadian Arctic’s ‘planetary fridge’
When an ice shelf blocks a polar fjord, it sparks the creation of an ecosystem like no other: the epishelf lake. Meltwater pools up behind the ice shelf, floating above the denser seawater, with both freshwater and marine species found in distinct layers within the same water column. But Canada’s last known epishelf lake, at […]
Experts tested whales’ teeth for nuclear fallout – and accidentally found the oldest killer whale on record
By analysing the teeth of five whales who died on Scottish shores in the past three decades, researchers created a ‘dental time machine’ – allowing them to reconstruct the life stories of the animals and identify one of the oldest male killer whales on record. The study, which relied on traces of radioactive fallout trapped in […]
‘Crucial opportunity to act’ as study finds most of Europe’s wild bee species in decline
Most of Europe’s wild bee species and about half of its hover fly species have declined over the last century, a study has found, as a UN biodiversity summit begins in Armenia. Records since 1921 show more bee species are declining than increasing in all parts of Europe except the Alpine region. The richness of […]
It might look like a beautiful flower but it’s actually a deadly predator… Meet a very innocent-looking, cold-hearted mass killer
One of the world’s most beautiful insects, the orchid mantis, is just too beautiful to be taken seriously as a deadly predator – but that’s what it is says Stuart Blackman. Camouflage is usually about hiding. And plenty of insects deploy colours and patterns that allow them to blend in amongst flowers. But this gorgeous denizen of Southeast Asian forests doesn’t want to hide; it wants […]
Florida fisher dragged into water and killed by 12ft alligator
A man fishing at a pond in Florida was killed on Friday by an alligator that was almost 12ft long in a rare kind of animal attack, according to authorities and media reports. Steve Hamilton, 71, was on the shoreline in the community of Winter Garden when the animal dragged him into the water, the […]