About 6-7 million years ago, common rosefinches – which are today found across a vast expanse of northern Eurasia and are even occasional winter visitors to the British Isles – island-hopped their way from the Russian Far East across the Pacific Ocean and arrived in the newly formed, volcanic land masses of Hawaii. There, a […]
I remember the exact second when Marcus stopped asking permission to think. He was fourteen, standing in a marsh outside the school with binoculars, watching a great blue heron hunt. For weeks, he’d been the type of student who absorbed information passively—decent grades, zero engagement. But something shifted when he noticed the heron’s hunting pattern […]
Along the beaches of Cape Cod, volunteers are braving freezing winds to search for stranded sea turtles and other vulnerable animals that can no longer swim. Drawn north by warming seas, these young turtles become trapped when temperatures suddenly drop, leaving them cold stunned and close to death. It is a heartbreaking scene, but also […]
Like cholesterol clogging up an artery, it took just a couple of years for the quagga mussels to infiltrate the 5km (3-mile) highway of pipes under the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL). By the time anyone realised what was going on, it was too late. The power of some heat exchangers had dropped […]
In an isolated backroom of a nature reserve near Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, Wayra, a recently hatched condor chick, is a symbol of hope for Fernando Castro, a wildlife specialist. Castro, 33, says he sees in the small fluff of gray down the future of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) in Colombia. Wayra is the latest […]
Orcas and dolphins have been spotted for the first time working as a team to hunt salmon off the coast of British Columbia, according to a new study which suggests a cooperative relationship between the two predators. The research, published on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, shows interactions between northern resident orcas (also known […]
They can strike their victims with clenched talons at a devastating 200mph, casually crush a monkey’s skull in their claws, tear a large fish apart in seconds and inflict deep wounds on the heads of humans they see as a threat. Deadliest birds of prey Harpy Eagle The magnificent harpy eagles of Central and South […]
In a move that reverses nearly a decade of practice, California wildlife officials have quietly begun to allow killing mountain lions in order to protect another iconic native — bighorn sheep. Though limited to the Eastern Sierra — the steep, rugged home of a rare type of the wild sheep — it marks a sea […]