Dawn in the Naliboki forest: mist over the marshes and bats skittering in birch trees. Above the clearing, stars are fading into a pale sky. We’re in deepest God-knows-where in one of Europe’s largest wild forests. Zoologist Vadim Sidorovich crouches in the half-light studying the track; I’m barely breathing, so intense is the silence. A […]
Category: News
A forestry boom is turning Ireland into an ecological dead zone
We all love trees. We think of woods and forests as green lungs, peaceful spaces, brimming with wildlife. So when Europe’s least forested country, Ireland, sets a target to increase tree cover from 11% to 18% by 2046, we should all applaud, shouldn’t we? Unfortunately the new woodland rising across Ireland is an ecological dead […]
Don’t drink and fly: ‘Tipsy’ birds cause havoc and crash into windows
“Tipsy” birds have been flying into windows and cars after bingeing on fermented berries, police in the US have said. The Gilbert Police Department in Minnesota has received a series of strange calls about the “confused” strangers, who appeared to be “under the influence”. It is believed an early frost meant the berries had fermented […]
DNA From Elephant Tusks Exposes the Cartels Killing Them
While poachers continue to put the future survival of Africa’s elephants at risk, scientists using DNA to track ivory and link the criminals behind the mass slaughter to the trade. With the exception of two government sales held in 1999 and 2008, the international trade in ivory has been banned since 1989, but the growing […]
Secret filming reveals hidden cruelty of licensed badger culls
Trapped in a cage and shot at close range, the badger takes almost a minute to die. Covert footage published online by the Observer, the first to be shared publicly, shows the main method of dispatching Britain’s largest indigenous carnivore as part of a controversial cull now being expanded by the environment secretary, Michael Gove, […]
Man shoots bear, bear sends man to the hospital
A hunter was hospitalized after the bear he shot tumbled down a ridge and hit him. Bears are big. Maybe that’s why some people get excited about shooting them, I don’t know. But here’s the thing, if you’re going to go shooting bears, you have to realize that the endeavor comes with some risks. Like, […]
‘Terror being waged on wildlife’, leaders warn
Humanity is waging a war of terror on wildlife across the globe, according to the head of a world-leading research institute who was previously a counter-terrorism expert for the UK government. Dominic Jermey, director general of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), also spent years in Afghanistan supporting the fight against terror, until leaving his […]
US plan to genetically alter crops via insects feared to be biological war plan
Government-backed researchers in America are aiming to use virus-carrying insects to genetically engineer crops – raising fears the technology could be used for biological weapons. A new article in the journal Science explores the shadowy program funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). The program aims to disperse infectious, genetically modified viruses […]