At first, being hugged to death by a giant anteater doesn’t sound like such a bad way to go. It’s up there with being caressed by kittens, nuzzled by lambs or tickled by baby goats. But there’s a catch. You may have seen videos of anteaters standing on their hind legs, arms outstretched as if inviting you […]
Tag: Goats
Nepal’s high-altitude wildernesses & wildlife are increasingly under threat (commentary)
Changes like increasing geological and glacial instability driven by the warming climate are a growing concern across the Himalayas. Our hearts go out to the thousands of families across Nepal, China, and around the world grieving their loved ones and searching for those missing after the recent catastrophic flash flood at the Nepal-China border. Though […]
“It screams, chatters and whistles”. It might look like a dog but it definitely doesn’t sound like a dog with its freaky, spine-tingling vocals…
Sure, dogs bark, growl and howl. But did you know they can scream, chatter and whistle, too? The dhole or ‘whistling dog’ is a formidable and co-operative hunter that relies on these strange vocalisations to communicate with pack members across dense vegetation and bring down prey far larger than itself. With a russet coat and […]
Electric fences help farmers and elephants coexist in Zambian borderlands
LUNDAZI, Zambia — “It’s not possible [to coexist with elephants], because they are animals and we are human beings — they should have their own home,” says Esnart Banda, a Zambian farmer whose maize and tobacco fields lie 5 meters, just 16 feet, from the boundary of Malawi’s Kasungu National Park. Just two thin strands […]
Huge carnivores are roaming the streets of this Ethiopian city. What they’re doing could be saving people $100,000 USD per year
Climate change has an unlikely new ally. In Ethiopia, urban scavengers, such as hyenas and hooded vultures, are preventing over a thousand tonnes of carbon emissions every year, just by eating rotten meat. The findings are reported in Ecological Solutions and Evidence. Scavenging animals are a common feature of large Ethiopian cities, where they live in the […]
Ancient elephant migration routes are being blocked off – can anything stop the rising death toll?
At nearly 3.5-metres tall and weighing as much as a bus, you could be forgiven for assuming that Goshi – one of an estimated 30 “super-tusker” elephants left in Africa – would be easy to find. The radio tracker picking up his signal beeps encouragingly, indicating the giant bull is within 200 metres. But the […]
In the hills of Italy, wolves returned from the brink. Then the poisonings began
High on a mountain pass near the town of Cocullo in central Italy lay six black sacks. Inside were nine wolves, including a pregnant female and seven youngsters – an entire pack. They had eaten slabs of poisoned veal left out a few days earlier, dying over the hours that followed, snarls of pain fixed […]
In the drylands of northern Kenya, a ‘summer school’ for young researchers
ISIOLO, Kenya — A hot wind sweeps across the rocky brush of Camp Simpirre in northern Kenya’s Isiolo county. Baboons cross the pathway to the dinner hall; vervet monkeys patter across the tin roof that shades an assembled group of 47 researchers and academics from the beating midday sun. The night before, some were jolted […]