Welcome to the “Best Photo of the Week” competition showcasing and celebrating the biodiversity of Planet Earth. Voting is easy and lots of fun. First click an image and browse through the slideshow. Then select the three images you like best of all and click the VOTE button at the bottom of the page. […]
Vautours fauves – Gyps fulvus
Griffon vultures – Vautours fauves – Gyps fulvus – Accipitriformes – Accipitridae In hide for stags, I am sitting on the ground against one of the 2 rocks in the field and literally hidden by a few grass stalks; the camera fixed on the tripod 40 cm above the ground and the camouflage net over […]
POLL: Should Namibia’s cape fur seal trade be banned?
Namibian Sunshine isn’t what you might think. It’s oil derived from the blubber of the Cape fur seal, advertised online as rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and allegedly more readily absorbed by the human body—given its mammalian source—than fish oil. Since 2005 Namibia has exported almost 33,000 gallons of sunshine, nearly a third to China. […]
New Zealand kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, faces extinction
The world’s only alpine parrot is at threat of extinction in New Zealand as numbers plummet in the face of threats from non-native predators and human development. The kea is the world’s only mountain-dwelling parrot and also one of the most intelligent species of bird known for their playfulness and novelty-seeking nature. The birds, which […]
POLL: Should buzzards be killed to protect pheasants?
Tim Boxall points at a shape in the field bordering the seven-acre wooded pen where he keeps 1,500 pheasants. “Here you are,” he says. “Look! There’s one over here.” He bends down and prises the remains of a pheasant from the long grass. “That’s a buzzard kill, you can tell by the way it’s been […]
British conservationist takes to the skies for 4,500-mile migration with swans
A British conservationist took to the skies in a motorised paraglider on Monday morning for the start of a daring 4,500-mile expedition across the Russian Arctic that will attempt to shed light on the decline of the UK’s smallest, shyest species of swan. For the next 10 weeks, Sacha Dench, 41, will act as a […]
POLL: Should moose be added to the endangered species list?
I’m on an early morning tour bus with Vince Crichton, retired wildlife biologist and renowned moose expert. In between telling moose stories and pointing out other wildlife, like a red-tailed hawk, Crichton pauses to say, “Fresh tracks.” Soon afterward two moose, as fleet as they are massive, dart through the trees, away from our vehicle. […]
Hawaiian crow could help us learn about evolutionary origins of tool-using behavior
There are only a handful of bird species known to use tools for foraging in the wild, and now the ‘Alalā, or Hawaiian crow, can be counted as one of them. According to a study published in the journal Nature this week, the New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides), which inhabits only the main island of the […]