Every summer, a wave of intrepid migrants travel from north Africa to Europe, seeking a better life for their offspring. Many thousands, occasionally millions, reach Britain. The painted lady, a beautiful and powerful insect that is probably the most successful butterfly in the world, will star in a 90-minute BBC4 documentary in July in which […]
Category: News
New York’s whales to be studied for the first time
The habits of New York’s little-understood whale population are to be fully analysed for the first time, with scientists hoping the new information will help protect the marine behemoths that navigate one of the busiest shipping areas in the world. An acoustic monitoring buoy has been deployed off the coast of Long Island to eavesdrop […]
How Chili Condoms and Firecrackers Can Help Save Elephants
Fill a condom with chili powder. Mix in small rocks and sand for weight. Add a firecracker for a bang. Launch condom at elephant. Save elephant’s life. All it takes is one elephant rumbling through a field to destroy a family’s food supply for an entire year, so it’s no surprise that a farmer might […]
One Expert’s Better Way to Save Elephants
Accompanying Kenya’s widely-publicized ivory bonfire last April were announcements that the country’s wildlife service was moving toward “intelligence-based conservation,” with more emphasis on the pursuit of traffickers and smugglers rather than on the poachers who actually do the killing. “We know there is limitless supply of poor guys on the ground who are willing to […]
Brown Bears Use ‘Human Shield’ to Protect Their Cubs
You might think that winter is the most dangerous time of the year for a young animal. But for Scandinavian brown bear cubs, these next few weeks may determine whether the animal lives or dies. That’s because early May to mid-July is breeding season for Sweden’s brown bears. The males, in a desperate attempt to […]
Endangered sandpipers lay eggs in captivity for the first time
One of the world’s rarest birds has laid eggs in captivity for the first time, in what wildlife experts say provides new hope for the species’ tiny wild population. Only around 200 breeding pairs of critically endangered spoon-billed sandpipers remain in the wild, where they make an annual 10,000 mile round-trip between their Russian Arctic […]
Could we set aside half the Earth for nature?
As of today, the only place in the universe where we are certain life exists is on our little home, the third planet from the sun. But also as of today, species on Earth are winking out at rates likely not seen since the demise of the dinosaurs. If we don’t change our ways, we […]
Nepal’s extinct bird spotted after disappearing for 178 years
A team of bird-watchers stumbled upona bird that hasn’t been seen in eastern Nepal for almost 200 years. The red-faced liocichla (Liocichla phoenicea) hasn’t been spotted for 178 years and was thought to be locally extinct, according to Australian Geographic. A group of ornithologists spotted the bird on a 10-day bird watching tour. “We were […]