An Italian man is facing a hefty fine or possible prison term after the dried head of a critically endangered crocodile was found in his luggage at Turin’s Caselle airport. The man had arrived at the airport in the northern Italian city on a flight from Miami via Istanbul, the Turin unit of Italy’s financial […]
“I was once charged – fortunately, I could run faster than the photographer I was with…”
What inspired you to get into wildlife photography in the first place? I went to a lecture by the photographer Laurie Campbell. His first slide was a robin on a spade – a cliched shot, but on that huge screen, it blew me away. If not Scotland, where would you live? Somewhere cold and snowy. […]
Why are they killing this beautiful fish?
A deadly invader is taking over Caribbean reefs. In Honduras, local divers are turning the fight against lionfish into a competition. Lionfish are one of the Caribbean’s most destructive invasive species, capable of devastating native reef fish populations. In the coastal town of Tela, a group of engineers and divers have built their own specialised […]
It clatters like a machine gun, has a deadly prehistoric-looking beak, can live for 25 years and can grow up to a whopping 1.5m tall with a wingspan of 2.6m
This odd-looking bird is a charismatic giant that can live up to 25 years in the wild. It has piercing eyes and and can grow up to 1.5m tall with a wingspan of 2.6m. For some, its cartoon-like charm is magnetic, for others it’s a menacing-looking predator. It is hunted for its meat and eggs and threatened by […]
Study analyzes danger of parasites to Bengal tigers in South Asia
A typical roundworm measures roughly 2.7% of the average length of a Bengal tiger or weighs just three-millionths of one percent of the largest of the world’s big cats. Though these parasites do not pose a major threat to Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris), researchers across South Asia, the cat’s native range, warn that parasitic infections […]
“That puzzled us quite a bit.” Scientists found another astonishing thing about narwhals after X-raying their tusks
An international team of researchers has solved the mystery of how narwhal tusks acquire their twisted structure. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications. Narwhals are often called the ‘unicorns of the seas’, and not without reason. Back in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the narwhal tusk was often sold as a unicorn horn. The mythical […]
Superb fairywrens disappearing in Australia’s capital: Conserving insects could help save them
If you sit in an Australian park or garden for long enough, chances are you might catch a flash of brilliant feathers out of the corner of your eye: the superb fairywren. With its bright blue and soft brown plumage, it was voted Australia’s “bird of the year” in 2021, “narrowly defeating the tawny frogmouth […]
It’s covered in terrifying quills so, what could possibly eat a porcupine?
Can any animals eat porcupines? Surely not as porcupine quills present an impenetrable thicket to most predators. But these backward-pointing defences are only effective if the rodent can keep its assailant to its rear. What animals can eat porcupines? In North America, pumas and fishers (marten-like mammals) are skilled porcupine predators, outmanoeuvring their quarry to launch their attacks from the […]