Hunting has always carried responsibilities that extend beyond the field. When a hunter understands not just how to handle a firearm safely but also why wildlife populations need active stewardship, the act of hunting becomes something larger than a personal pursuit. That shift in awareness is what hunter education, at its best, is designed to […]
The smiles on the faces of Iman Ebrahimi and his colleagues in the photograph are revealing: After more than a month of war in Iran, a tenuous ceasefire in mid-April offered a brief window for the team to travel to one of Ebrahimi’s favorite field sites. Maharloo Lake is the “hottest spot for flamingo breeding […]
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Sightings of humpback whales off Rio de Janeiro’s coast are surging as they recover from decimation due to commercial whaling, prompting an acceleration in the demand for whale-watching excursions to spot the huge marine creatures during their annual migration. The species’ population has jumped from around 2,000 to around 35,000 […]
UK red squirrels face a number of threats, but one of the most devastating is squirrel pox. This viral disease, carried harmlessly by invasive grey squirrels, has contributed significantly to their decline. What is squirrel pox? Squirrel pox is a fatal, yet easily transmitted disease that affects red squirrels. When did squirrel pox first arrive in […]
Bottlenose dolphins in the Adriatic are increasingly following trawlers to scavenge for food, with baby dolphins learning the technique from their parents, a study has found. “These days the easiest way to find [bottlenose dolphins] is to look for trawlers,” said Giovanni Bearzi, a co-author of the study and the president of Dolphin Biology and Conservation in […]
Jackals are members of the canid family with a reputation for cunning, opportunism and haunting twilight calls. Found across parts of Africa, Europe and Asia, they can occupy a range of ecological niches, hunting, scavenging and foraging on whatever is available. Long overshadowed by their showier cousins, such as wolves and wild dogs, these highly adaptable […]
When wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir uploaded 18 seconds of footage to YouTube, he thought little more about the small, pale cat seen digging a hollow in the sand in the remote dunes of south-west Libya. The video, however, posted in 2017, turned out to be the first material evidence that the sand cat (Felis margarita), the world’s only […]
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 […]