Wildlife releases are usually joyous events. Uplifting scenes of animals cautiously nosing the air as they take their first tentative steps into freedom warm our hearts. However, new research suggests the wild can be a “death trap,” especially if the released individuals lack the essential skills to find food and integrate with wild populations, or […]
7 astonishing underwater kingfisher photos that show the beautiful bird is just as at home below the surface as above it
These remarkable photographs show how a kingfisher dives and the ingenious way it is adapted for underwater The common kingfisher, or Alcedo atthis, is an iconic sight on the riverbanks and wetlands of the UK. Azure blue with an orange and white sheen, they offer a fast moving streak of colour among reeds and waterways. But despite their […]
Older Male Whales More Successful at Mating Because They’re Better Singers, Shows Study
Older male whales are more successful at mating than their younger rivals because they are better singers, suggests new research. The older singing whales are increasingly successful at birthing offspring compared to younger males, with the findings suggesting that the humpbacks may need time to learn and refine their singing and competitive tactics—giving experienced males […]
Australia hands record prison sentence to reptile smuggler in trafficking crackdown
The seizure of dozens of live Western blue-tongued lizards, bearded dragons and spiny-tailed skinks covertly packed into popcorn bags, biscuit tins and women’s handbags have led to the longest prison sentence ever doled out to a wildlife smuggler in Australia. On February 13, a New South Wales District Court sentenced 61-year-old Neil Simpson to eight years […]
“Hunger drives the lizard to make a second attempt.” Watch brutal BBC footage of an opossum fighting off a huge lizard to save her babies
In footage captured for the BBC TV film Komodo: The Deadly Bite, a monitor lizard tries to steal from an opossum nest Monitor lizards are the world’s second largest lizard (after the Komodo dragon). There are 50 species of monitor lizard and all but two are carnivorous. The lace monitor, also known as the tree […]
Do tigers get a taste for human flesh after a first bite?
Tigers are best admired at a distance. It’s far easier to appreciate these biggest of big cats when there’s no danger of being eaten by one. And the fact is that, while most tigers stick to a diet of deer, pigs and buffalo, they do sometimes kill and eat people. Between 2020 and 2024, tigers killed 378 people […]
Petition: Find Who Allegedly Killed a Protected Bald Eagle
Bald eagles are the national bird in the U.S., and have only recently recovered from being an endangered species. They are federally protected – meaning it is illegal to kill them. But that didn’t stop someone in the southern state of Louisiana from shooting and mortally wounding one of these majestic birds. Sign the petition […]
Forget gender wars! These bizarre birds have had equality sorted for some 44 million years – watch them in action
The strange-looking Picathartes have lived in the Congo for 44 million years. Bald-headed birds that mate for life and breed in the rainy season, they build their nests out of mud on the underside of overhanging rocks on a cliff or cave roof to stay dry. This has also earned them the alternative name of rockfowls. The ground-loving birds have intriguing ways of […]