Who hasn’t seen an animal on the side of the road, struck by a vehicle? Collisions with vehicles are a leading cause of mortality for various species and are the result of the fragmentation of wildlife habitats. Roads and other infrastructures impede animals’ movement and ecological connectivity. Animals depend on this connectivity in their habitats […]
Ultrasound repellers could keep hedgehogs off roads, scientists hope
Hedgehogs have been discovered to hear high-frequency ultrasound, raising hopes that they could be deterred from dangerous roads with ultrasound repellers. Vehicles are estimated to kill up to one in three hedgehogs, a big factor in the much-loved mammal’s drastic decline across Europe over recent decades. Researchers at the University of Oxford collaborated with colleagues in Denmark to test […]
Can a human outrun a crocodile? Just how fast are these deadly, ferocious reptiles?
I believe it was the renowned biologist, Charles Darwin who once said, “Never smile at a crocodile. Never tip your hat and stop to talk a while. Don’t be taken in by his welcome grin. He’s imagining how well you’d fit within his skin.” How do crocodiles run on land? This, it turns out, is […]
Toxins of the Past and Present: Why We Need the EPA
The water we drink, the air we breathe, and the wildlife we love are all at risk without the necessary environmental protections and regulations to keep us safe from harmful toxins and pollutants. At this very moment, long-standing programs and staff are being slashed from the agency charged with this very purpose: the Environmental Protection […]
Beautiful Tortoiseshell Butterfly Recolonizes England Decades After Elm Disease Had Eliminated it
The butterfly-mad British are celebrating what seems to be a permanent return of this large and spectacular species after Dutch elm disease killed it off from the island. Unlike the small tortoiseshell butterfly, the large tortoiseshell butterfly hasn’t been a resident of the UK since the 1960s, but after several years of continuous widespread sightings, […]
Study finds livestock pushing lions away from shared rangeland in Kenya
Lions, Africa’s largest predators, are a near-universal source of fear for the continent’s wildlife. But in Kenya, it’s the king of the jungle that’s now becoming fearful — of domestic livestock. In Kenya, most wildlife is found outside formally protected areas. The lions, zebras and elephants that attract tourists mostly live in pastoralist rangeland. […]
Huge carnivores are roaming the streets of this Ethiopian city. What they’re doing could be saving people $100,000 USD per year
Climate change has an unlikely new ally. In Ethiopia, urban scavengers, such as hyenas and hooded vultures, are preventing over a thousand tonnes of carbon emissions every year, just by eating rotten meat. The findings are reported in Ecological Solutions and Evidence. Scavenging animals are a common feature of large Ethiopian cities, where they live in the […]
“My stomach lurched as the hippo drifted in our direction, only her pink, sweaty face visible – like a shark’s fin.”
It was a misty morning, soon to be scorching, like every day in Niger, when we arrived at the riverbank. I was 17, living in the capital, Niamey, while my mother worked as a diplomat at the US embassy. It was the Christmas holidays and my mother, keen for my sister and I to experience […]