Giraffe researcher Julian Fennessy recently boarded a helicopter in Ethiopia’s Gambella National Park, which borders the turbulent new nation of South Sudan. His mission: To collar giraffes and collect tissue samples from the animals, which have been rapidly disappearing from Africa in what Fennessy calls a “silent extinction.” After successfully handling one of the Gambella […]
Category: News
Gannets flight tracked in real time for the first time via 3G
The vast distances gannets fly to catch fish are being tracked in “real time” for the first time using the 3G mobile network. People are being given the chance to see how Britain’s largest native seabirds journey through the English Channel from nests off Alderney in the Channel Islands to find food for their chicks, […]
Why Are Most of Tanzania’s Elephants Disappearing?
Tanzania’s elephant population has plummeted by more than 60 percent during the past five years, the country’s government announced this month. Elephants in this East African country—a major, if not the world’s biggest source of illegal ivory—were estimated to number only 43,330 at the end of 2014, down from 109,051 in 2009. Tanzania’s Minister of […]
Saving the dhole: The forgotten ‘badass’ Asian dog more endangered than tigers
Let’s start at the beginning: what’s a dhole? It’s not a giant fruit corporation. It’s not Homer Simpson’s catch phrase. It’s not welfare payment by a government. Dholes are actually wild canids, efficient predators and communal pack hunters. These rust-coloured carnivores roam the jungles and montane forests of Central and East Asia filling the humid […]
Black bear sighted in Indiana for first time in over 140 years
A black bear has been spotted in Indiana for the first time in more than 140 years, state wildlife officials said on Tuesday. Paw prints and a scat pile found in the north-west of the state were left behind by a young male black bear that is likely to have walked into the state from […]
Six fishy reasons why humans should steer well clear of the sea
A testicle-eating fish has arrived in America. The pacu, which is related to the piranha, is best known for attacking people in their most, er, sensitive areas. It’s not exactly nice to look at either, with creepy human-like teeth which according to a Danish fish expert are ‘perfect for crushing’. Eek. The evidence is mounting […]
Mystery as thousands of crabs wash up on California beach
Tiny tuna crabs have been beaching themselves on Southern California shores in unprecedented numbers. Marine Safety Lt. Michael Beuerlein told the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot that he had never seen an occurrence like it in his 34 years with the city. The crustaceans, which measure one to three inches in length, are not harmful to […]
Will Humans Survive the Sixth Great Extinction?
In the last half-billion years, life on Earth has been nearly wiped out five times—by such things as climate change, an intense ice age, volcanoes, and that space rock that smashed into the Gulf of Mexico 65 million years ago, obliterating the dinosaurs and a bunch of other species. These events are known as the […]