Deep within the grasslands west of Melbourne, Australia, a population of Victorian grassland earless dragons has been quietly living and reproducing out of sight of humans. So out of sight, that there hasn’t been a verifiable record since 1969 despite several targeted searches, and many feared that the species was extinct. However, in January 2023, […]
Category: Wildlife
A little bird told her: scientist wins $100,000 prize for decoding birdsong
A scientist who decoded the vocalisations that a bird uses to communicate has won a $100,000 prize for making progress towards a world in which humans can talk to the animals – without being met with a blank response. Dr Julie Elie at the University of California, Berkeley, was awarded the 2026 Coller-Dolittle prize for […]
“Just sat there on deck.” Researchers weren’t expecting to see this onboard when they came back from their dive
Researchers studying kelp forests around the Shetland Islands were greeted by a surprise visitor that had snuck onboard their boat. “We walked out onto the deck of the boat and, to our surprise, there was a sea otter just sat on the deck,” says Dr Dan Smale, senior research fellow at the Marine Biological Association, which shared the […]
‘Flamin’ cockatoos’ have lost much of their habitat to bushfires. Can the species survive?
At the entrance to Wyperfeld national park, in north-west Victoria, more than a dozen pink cockatoos are sprinkled across a hedge row of pine trees like Christmas decorations. These are Aleppo pines, not the native conifers that the birds rely on for nesting habitat and as a primary source of food. Still, the feathered ornaments appear […]
I’ve caught the baby wombat”: 10 unbelievably idiotic and foolish acts committed by tourists that will have your blood boiling
Tourists, eh? What are they like? There’s clearly something about going on holiday that turns off the part of the brain that deals with common sense. Mix that with a devil may care ‘we’re on holiday, let’s do it’ attitude and a wild animal or two, and you’ve got a potent recipe for disaster, says Dixe […]
How a tiny blue gecko became a conservation comeback story
Williams electric blue day gecko is a small Tanzanian reptile whose recovery shows what focused conservation can do, reports Mongabay contributor, Manuel Fonseca. Once heavily collected for Europe’s pet trade, the species is now rebounding because pressure from trade has eased, captive breeding has reduced demand for wild animals, and local people are helping restore the […]
There are too many koalas in South Australia. Scientists have a solution – but it could cost millions
Research published in Ecology and Evolution estimates that the koala population in South Australia’s Mount Lofty Ranges accounts for about 10 per cent of all koalas in Australia – and this density could threaten the long-term survival of the species. To evaluate how this population density could affect future koala populations, scientists combined advanced spatial modelling with thousands of citizen science […]
The Sloth World Tragedy Is a Warning We Cannot Afford to Ignore
When more than fifty wild sloths died in a Florida warehouse before a planned tourist attraction ever opened its doors, the story made headlines for its heartbreak. But scientists, epidemiologists, and veterinary pathologists say the tragedy points to something far larger than one mismanaged business — it reveals a systemic vulnerability at the intersection of […]