In America over the past few months, a battle has been raging over big cat burgers. Lion meat, sourced from captive-raised populations in the US, crops up in restaurants every once in a while, and each time it provokes the same response: at one pole, rage about the unsound ethics of eating the ‘king of […]
Tag: predators
Monitor lizards vanishing to international trade in pets and skins
The world’s monitor lizards remind us that the world was once ruled by reptiles: this genus (Varanus) includes the world’s biggest lizards, such as the stunning Komodo dragon and many other island kings. A large number beautifully-colored and patterned, these lizards are known for their intelligence and their apex role in many island food chains. […]
Giant, hot-pink slugs found in Australia
Australia is home to some of the world’s most unique wildlife, from flightless birds capable of disemboweling a man to giant glow-in-dark earthworms. Now a new creature can be added to that list: large, bright pink slugs. The existence of 8-inch fluorescent pink slugs on Mount Kaputar, a 5,000-foot peak in New South Wales, has […]
Why the lynx effect would send Scotland wild
As Edinburgh Zoo’s panda freakshow continues to captivate the witless and the infantile, a real Scottish animal has been allowed to die. Under the noses of Scottish Natural Heritage, which likes to be known as the nation’s leading conservation body, the Scottish wildcat has all but been extinguished from the Highlands. The importance of this […]
Bumblebees take off with a special fungus weapon to save strawberries
Squadrons of bumblebees are being deployed in a novel attempt to prevent grey mould turning the summer’s strawberries into fluffy mush. The bees are routed via a one-way system in their hive through a tray of harmless fungus spores which, when delivered to flowers, ensure that the grey mould cannot take hold as the fruit […]
Twig-Mimic Caterpillar
I was walking on the path that circles Pakim Pond in the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest in New Jersey last week. I walked into a gossamer thread that I thought was a spider web. I turned out to be a caterpillar’s silken support line. I looked down and saw a “twig” sticking out of […]
Snowy tigers and giant owls: conservation against the odds in Russia’s Far East
The Russian Far East is one of the wildest places on Earth: where giant tigers roam snow-covered forests and the world’s biggest owls stalk frozen rivers. Bordering northern China and North Korea, the forests of Primorye are known for the diversity of habitats, including coastal forests along the Sea of Japan, vast coniferous forests in […]
13 year search for Taiwan’s top predator comes up empty-handed
After 13 years of searching for the Formosan clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa brachyura), once hopeful scientists say they believe the cat is likely extinct. For more than a decade scientists set up over 1,500 camera traps and scent traps in the mountains of Taiwan where they believed the cat may still be hiding out, only […]