Buenos Aires has announced plans to close down its 140-year-old zoo, arguing that keeping wild animals in captivity and on display is degrading. Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta said that the zoo’s 2,500 animals will be gradually moved to nature reserves in Argentina which can provide a more suitable environment. The 44-acre zoo in the Palermo […]
Category: Wildlife
Lapwings close to fledging
Maridalen deserved a visit today and it gave me a chance to check up on some of the breeding birds. This season seems to have been a good one for many birds. We have had a hot May and June with little rain and many birds seem to have prospered due to this. Tits seem […]
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 […]
Summer Florida Birding Beach Tour: Part I
A very rare setting full strawberry moon was observed on the summer solstice this week with the occasion not to return again until June 2062. The moonset above (image 1) was photographed at Siesta Key Beach in June 2016. Celebrating the occasion was my birding expedition to Access #5 at Siesta […]
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 […]
Coludo chico (Lesser-grass Finch) Emberizoides ypiranganus
En escasas ocasiones estas aves típicas de pastizales abandonan su escondine naturar para posarse en los postes del costado del camino, estas fotos fueron obtenidas en Octubre del año pasado cuando antes de llegar al destacamento de la prefectura en Nemesio Parma este coludo se detuvo unos instantes a descansar antes de dirigirse nuevamente al […]
POLL: Should leopards be culled to protect endangered penguins?
A leopard killed dozens of endangered penguins at a nature reserve outside Cape Town earlier this month, prompting a renewed debate about how best to protect South Africa’s threatened species. Ranger Cuan McGeorge found the bloodied, lifeless bodies of 33 African penguins on 11 June scattered across Stony Point, a reserve at the sleepy holiday […]
Arabian Scops Owl at Al Mehfar Park – Tanoumah
Whilst birding the Al Mehfar Park area of Tanoumah, I heard a number of Arabian Scops Owls calling just after dark. A minimum of six birds were calling in a relatively small area suggesting the species is common in the correct mountain habitat. I managed to see one bird hunting in a relatively open position […]