Dubbed the Taurasian tur, the newly-identified lineage is best represented by a 14,000-year-old genome sequenced from a specimen found in Direkli Cave, a camp site in the Central Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey used by Paleolithic hunters-gatherers for the seasonal hunting and processing of game including large numbers of wild goats. This forgotten lineage is […]
Tag: Climatic Change
The case for reintroduction of the wolf and other species should not be based on the promise of an ecological nirvana
In 1995, eight wolves were released in Yellowstone National Park from a white truck that had traveled 700 miles from Alberta, Canada. They were the first people to live in the park for 70 years, and the return of the most legendary predator to the most well-known national park in the world sparked research that […]
Poison used to kill lions and hyenas is indirectly killing Kenya’s vultures and other raptors
Darcy Ogada rarely spots raptors from her home in central Kenya any more. The birds were once a common sight in the industrial town of Thika, 25 miles (40km) north of Nairobi, but the region’s forests are rapidly declining, and the few remaining raptor populations face the added threats of poison and persecution. “It is […]
In search of the ‘forest ghost,’ South America’s cryptic giant armadillo
Arnaud Desbiez leads a team of biologists, but their work is more reminiscent of that of paleontologists. They trek through the Brazilian biomes of the Cerrado grasslands, the Atlantic Forest, and the Pantanal wetlands, looking for any indication of the presence of an animal rarely seen despite its size: the giant armadillo. “It’s basically a […]
The Golden Eagle in Scotland – As climatic changes take hold, what future awaits these iconic raptors in the 21st Century?
For thousands of years the Golden Eagle has survived against all the odds, finding safe refuge in one of Scotland’s most rugged and beautiful landscapes in the Western Highlands of Argyll. Here amongst the isolated glens of Glen Coe’s peaceful Blackmount Forest as many as eight pairs of Golden Eagles have continued to raise their […]