Beginning in late fall 2014 and lasting into 2016, an anomalous, massive marine heatwave nicknamed “the Blob” developed off the western coast of the U.S., covering all of Alaska‘s coastwater and extending as far south as Southern California, raising ocean temperatures by several degrees Celsius. The Blob had an extreme effect on Alaska in particular. […]
Two Tigers Couldn’t Be Apart–A Love Story Born of Restoring Big Cats in Russia After 50 Years
Conservationists have succeeded in restoring tiger populations in a region where they were virtually absent for more than 50 years in Russia. It took a decade; from 2012 to 2021 in the Pri-Amur region of Russia, but more than a dozen members of the largest subspecies of the world’s largest feline are now roaming the […]
Asiatic wild asses return to Saudi Arabia after 100 years
It’s been a century since an onager or Asiatic wild ass was last seen in Saudi Arabia. But in April this year, seven onagers were relocated from neighboring Jordan into one of Saudi Arabia’s nature reserves. One of the onagers has even birthed a female foal since then. “These are the first free running onager […]
VOTE for the Best Photo of the Month December 2024
Welcome to the “Best Photo of the Month” competition showcasing and celebrating the biodiversity of Planet Earth. Voting is easy and lots of fun. By popular request the number of images to be selected has been increased to six. First click an image and the slideshow will start automatically. Select the SIX images you like best […]
Armed conflict, not Batwa people, at heart of Grauer’s gorillas’ past decline in DRC park
A new study has concluded that the decline in Grauer’s gorillas in a sector of their main stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the result of the impacts of armed conflict, rather than the presence or absence of Indigenous communities. With the end of the Second Congo War in 2003, gorilla populations in […]
‘Divorce’ Rates of Seychelles Warblers Linked to Rainfall Fluctuations During Breeding Season
The amount of rain that falls affects our environment in various ways, from river flow to the availability of freshwater, but it can also shape the diversity and distribution of ecosystems within different regions of the globe. A new long-term study of Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) on Cousin Island has revealed that rainfall during the […]
Dead Birds Flying High review – intriguing naturalist portrait swerves the Nazi question
Here is a thoughtful, austere documentary by Sönje Storm that largely avoids the irony-potential hinted at in the title. It is about her great-grandfather, Jürgen Mahrt: a remarkable, self-taught naturalist and photographer from Elsdorf in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, who sold off some of the family farm that he inherited to pursue his great passion for the […]
Hundreds of whales to be harpooned as Iceland issues new hunting licenses
On Dec. 6, Iceland‘s caretaker government announced it had issued five-year licenses to hunt fin and minke whales in Icelandic waters. It granted the fin whale hunting license to Hvalur hf., the country’s only remaining fin-whaling company, run by billionaire Kristján Loftsson, and the minke-hunting permit to a ship owned by Tjaldtangi ehf., a whaling […]