Pesticides used on oilseed rape crops, whose bright yellow flowers have become an increasingly common sight across the British countryside, are harming native populations of wild bees, scientists have conclusively proved. Species that feed most on the flowers of the now-profitable cash crop used for vegetable oils and animal fodder are down by as much […]
Author: Supertrooper
All-Women ‘Army’ Protecting Rare Bird in India
On a cloudy day in July, in a remote village in northeastern India, Charu Das excitedly imitates the awkward movements of a stork with her hands. In a few months, the greater adjutant stork—called hargilla, which means “swallower of bones” in Sanskrit—will descend on this hamlet, situated in Assam’s Brahmaputra Valley, to breed in large […]
POLL: Should spear hunting of bears be banned?
Authorities in the Canadian province of Alberta have vowed to ban spear hunting and are weighing whether to lay charges against an American hunter after a video surfaced showing him killing a black bear with a spear. The video – one of several hunting videos posted to the YouTube account of Josh Bowmar – shows […]
POLL: Should the sale of elephant ivory be legalized?
World Elephant Day was not necessarily good news for Africa’s elephants: Pressure is mounting in southern Africa to lift the ban on the sale of ivory. In the mid-1980s, during the last great elephant poaching crisis, Africa lost nearly half its elephant population, roughly 600,000 animals, in a decade. But the world responded in 1989 […]
VOTE for the Best Photo of the Week 20 Aug 2016
Welcome to the “Best Photo of the Week” competition showcasing and celebrating the biodiversity of Planet Earth. Voting is easy and lots of fun. First click an image and browse through the slideshow. Then select the three images you like best of all and click the VOTE button at the bottom of the page. […]
Eight tagged golden eagles disappear in Scottish Highlands
Scottish grouse moor owners have been warned they face much tougher regulation after an inquiry was launched into the disappearance of legally protected golden eagles in the Highlands. Roseanna Cunningham, the Scottish environment secretary, ordered the review after eight golden eagles vanished in an area of the Monadhliath mountains known for its grouse shooting, south […]
POLL: Should the killing of giraffes be outlawed?
Documentary filmmaker David Hamlin recalls the adrenalin rush when he was flying over the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Garamba National Park in late June and spotted three giraffes standing in a small clearing. “Seeing these giraffes from the air was really exciting,” says Hamlin, who was on assignment for National Geographic. “Seeing them anywhere […]
Indochinese leopard has disappeared from 94% of its historical range
The Indochinese leopard is struggling to survive. Once widespread across southeast Asia, the leopard subspecies has been wiped out from much of its habitat, and now occurs only in six percent of its historical range, a new study published in Biological Conservation has found. “Nobody was expecting this,” co-author Jan F. Kamler, Southeast Asia Leopard Program […]