Somewhere bleak and unforgiving in Scotland, a golden eagle is suffering an agonising death. The young bird of prey was photographed last week with a metal trap clamped around its leg in the Crathie area of Deeside in Aberdeenshire. The tourist who took this distressing image sent it to the police who expressed serious concerns […]
Tag: predator

Like Her Mother, Another Famous Yellowstone Wolf Killed by Trophy Hunter
In 2012, a hunter in Wyoming shot and killed Yellowstone National Park’s most famous wolf—alpha female of the Lamar Canyon pack, known as 832F or 06 for the year she was born—not far from the park’s protected area. After that tragedy, 06′s daughter, named 926F or “Spitfire,” took over as the alpha for the pack. […]

Hunting, agriculture driving rapid decline of jaguars in South America’s Gran Chaco
New research finds that one-third of critical jaguar habitat in the Gran Chaco, South America’s largest tropical dry forest, has been lost since the mid-1980s. According to the study, led by researchers at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin) and published in the journal Diversity and Distributions this week, deforestation driven by agricultural expansion — mainly […]

Another County Suspends its Contract with Cruel Wildlife-Killing Program
Conservationists are celebrating another win for wildlife with an announcement that another county in California has suspended its contract with Wildlife Services, a program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that has come under increasing fire for its cruel and wasteful war on wildlife. Although it sounds like a program that should be […]

Urban-Dwelling Leopards May Be Protecting Humans From Rabies
City-dwelling leopards may sound like a major threat to human safety, but these predators could actually be protecting urban residents from rabies. Big cat sightings have been on the rise in Asian cities,as urban sprawl forces animals like leopards to either roam further afield or to travel into cities to find prey. The influx of […]

POLL: Would you support the reintroduction of the wolf in the UK?
For anyone raised on Grimms’ fairytales – or wary of cows, hostile-looking geese – there have always been certain obvious difficulties with ambitious rewilding campaigns. Reintroducing beavers is one thing. Boars: maybe. But among the more appealing aspects of life in Britain, for the nervous, is the relative certainty of never encountering a wolf pack. […]

11 Wondrous Facts About Praying Mantises
From extreme camouflage to sexual cannibalism, these pious-looking carnivores are as exquisite as they are fearsome. Named for their prominent front legs that fold together in a supine gesture suggesting an act of devotion, the praying mantis comes off as supine and soulful. You might think of them as docile things, moving about slowly, nibbling […]

14 Incredible photos of African predators in action
Africa’s iconic predators—lions, leopards, hyenas, and wild dogs—are most known for being cunning, stealthy, and vicious. But these meat-eaters are often misunderstood. The fiercely loyal African wild dog lives in close-knit packs, caring for the babies of the matriarch and patriarch, communicating by touch, and nurturing those who are sick or injured. Vultures rarely attack […]