The finning of sharks is not for the faint of heart. After hauling them aboard their vessels, the fishers cut off their fins, then toss them back into the ocean. Still alive, they sink to the bottom where they’re either eaten by other predators or die of suffocation. About 100 million sharks are believed to be […]
Category: Blogs
Penguin Awareness Day – Waddles Wednesday
Winds and ice, Not very nice. But mom and dad Make it not so bad. There are several species of us. But some of us are endangered: https://www.antarcticreport.com/articles/know-your-penguins-there-are-18-species
Shine for love or shine to kill – Australia’s glow worms and fireflies
Lying 80 kilometres west of Sydney, the Blue Mountains National Park is one of the most popular bushwalking destinations in NSW. More than 8 million people visit the mountains each year trampling over 140km of tracks and trails. But what not many people realize, is that when the darkness falls and the trails are deserted, […]
More proof. A walk-in-the-park really can boost our feelings of well-being – especially when there are wild songbirds along the way!
It’s not exactly news that spending time in nature benefits human health and well-being. But an experiment conducted by social scientists along some mountain trails in Colorado shows – it’s not just the wind in your face or the grandeur of the scenery we need to thank. They hid speakers along two trails in the […]
As giant ice shelves collapse amid global warming in the Canadian Arctic, experts call for more protection for the “Last Ice Area” and the diverse communities of plants and animals living there.
Using tools which included video taken by a robot submarine, a Canadian research team recently discovered an amazing array of plants and animals, living in the heart of Milne, the very ice shelf which broke apart just this summer north of Ellesmere Island (above), losing almost half of its mass. Dr. Derek Mueller, Professor of […]
Letter to the Editor: The Sumatran rhinoceros conservation to be classified a status of emergency and a protocol applied accordingly
The Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis is on the verge of extinction. Decades of well intentioned, “politically correct”, conservation activities have not changed its demise’ trend. Moreover a reversal of the situation is not going to happen in a few years unless the policy is changed. Due to a persistent status quo no rhino’s captures (but […]
Snarl for the camera! An international team of scientists and software developers use facial recognition technology to identify individual grizzlies in the wild.
Facial recognition techniques have long been used to identify primates, including humans. But, up ’til now, there’s really been no effective way of identifying wild species like the grizzly (brown) bear who, unlike the zebra or giraffe, lacks unique and consistent body markings. In co-operation with two US software developers, four scientists from the University […]
Jewels in the Crown: Introducing the Endemic Birds of Arabia
While the Republic of Yemen, which includes the island archipelago of Socotra, dubbed the “Galapagos of the Indian Ocean”, boasts the highest number of endemic bird species of any country on the Arabian peninsula, Saudi Arabia now stands as the easiest and safest country in which to see many of these singular gems. Not to […]