A bird-watcher has spoken about the horrifying moment an owl he was watching was shot. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, saw the short-eared owl shot in front of his eyes while birding on Broomhead Moor in the Peak District. Having stopped at the walking spot in the north of the national park on […]
Tag: birds of prey
What Should Be Done About Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle-Owl Loose in New York?
All eyes are on New York City’s latest avian celebrity: Flaco the Owl. In February, the Eurasian Eagle-Owl, a large species native to Europe and Asia, escaped his enclosure in the Central Park Zoo after an act of vandalism. News of his escape quickly spread, and almost immediately Flaco became a star of the local […]
Why Weasels Should be the New Poster Animal for Biodiversity Conservation
When you think of biodiversity loss, what animal comes to mind? If you’re like most people, you probably think of the panda. After all, pandas are beloved and widely recognized as a symbol of conservation efforts. But here’s the thing: while pandas are certainly at risk, they’re not the only animals in danger. Many species […]
Harpy eagles: The challenge of protecting the Amazon’s largest bird of prey
“Keeping the nest tree standing and protecting a small area around that tree is one of our goals,” says Tânia Sanaiotti, founder of the Harpy Eagle Project, 25 years old now. “If you leave only the nest tree there in the middle of nowhere, the nestling won’t be able to take its first flight. It […]
How a landmark bill and a small patch of land could save Florida’s panthers
Beyond the dirt tracks and swamps of the Florida Everglades lies a narrow, unremarkable strip of land that has taken on outsize importance in the battle to save the state’s critically endangered panthers. Barely 11 miles (18km) long and a mile wide, Chaparral Slough occupies a forgotten corner of south-west Florida, where cattle roam, cowboys […]
How birds of prey are exposing a toxic time bomb
Rui Lourenço first started collecting eagle-owl feathers because they were beautiful. Below the birds’ cliff-side nests in rural Portugal, he would find their shed feathers and bring them back to his ecology lab at the University of Évora. “It was just the typical curiosity of a naturalist,” he says. “Especially the flight feathers, they’re large, […]
A Literal Family Meal— Eagle Ended Up Adopting A Baby Hawk She Caught To Feed Her Eaglets
Found family is one of the tropes that I find very enjoyable; stories like this are very heartwarming, and they just have a way of tugging at everyone’s heartstrings. The main characters are usually humans though. I mean, fiction is kinda catered to human audiences. But what’s more lovely than found family in fiction? Real-life […]
Can AI stop rare eagles flying into wind turbines in Germany?
Small in size, sensitive of constitution and with only 130 breeding pairs surviving locally in the wild, the lesser spotted eagle of the Oder delta lives up to its name. In Germany, key questions over the country’s energy future hang on the question of whether artificial intelligence systems can do a better job of spotting […]