~theguardian-world | Bookmarks (43)

Body of 16-year-old boy discovered with injuries ‘consistent with a crocodile attack’ as wildlife officers search for animalFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastA teenager has died after a suspected crocodile attack off an island in the Torres Strait, police have confirmed.Thursday Island water police launched a search and rescue...

Scientists estimate Vasuki indicus was up to 15m long, weighed a tonne and would have constricted its preyFossil vertebrae unearthed in a mine in western India are the remains of one of the largest snakes that ever lived, a monster estimated at up to 15 metres in length – longer than a T rex.Scientists have recovered 27 vertebrae from the snake, including a few...

Notorious for drawing large crowds, Emerson was removed by officials who were surprised to find him back in Victoria in a weekLast week, gun-wielding conservation officers stuffed a 500lb elephant seal in the back of a van, drove him along a winding highway in western Canada and left him on a remote beach “far from human habitation”.The plan was to move the young seal...

Hairy-nosed otters and cats that catch fish are among the startling diversity of creatures making their home in threatened habitatsOne of the most comprehensive biodiversity surveys ever carried out in a mangrove forest has revealed that an astonishing array of wildlife makes its home in these key, threatened habitats.Hundreds of species – from bats to birds and fish to insects – were identified during...

The marine mammals are increasingly endangered as warmer waters push them into ship traffic and fishing gearA North Atlantic right whale has been spotted entangled in rope off New England, worsening an already devastating year for the vanishing animals, federal authorities said.Right whales number less than 360 and are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships. The entangled whale was seen...

Residents call for felony charges after Cody Roberts reportedly taped animal’s mouth shut, took photos and killed it behind barA Wyoming hunter who reportedly ran over a gray wolf with a snowmobile, taped the creature’s mouth shut, took a picture with it inside a local bar and then shot it to death behind the tavern has ignited calls for stiffer penalties in such an...

Walker Corporation had proposed 3,000 apartments, marina and shops for the site, which is a critical habitat for the endangered eastern curlew • Toondah Harbour: should a wetland home to endangered birds become $1.3bn worth of shops, high-rises and a marina?• To the moon and back with the eastern curlewThe environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, has announced she will reject an apartment and...

German’s appointment to head Convention on Biological Diversity follows global failure to meet any targets on protecting ecosystemsThe next UN biodiversity chief will be Astrid Schomaker, an EU civil servant who will be entrusted with helping the world confront the ongoing catastrophic loss of nature.Schomaker has been a career official with the EU commission for 30 years. A surprise appointment, she will be tasked...

Monitoring station detects predatory species using artificial intelligence and sends alert so nests can be tracedAn early warning system designed to track and trace predatory Asian hornets using artificial intelligence has been unveiled by experts from a British university.Researchers from the University of Exeter have invented a system that draws hornets to a monitoring station. They land on a sponge cloth impregnated with food...

Meteorologist says bears were not aggressive but they fired signal gun to scare them awayKatarzyna Kudłacz was preparing a breakfast of scrambled eggs at a research station on Svalbard when she looked up to see she had three unexpected guests.Shocked and in awe, the meteorologist immediately alerted her colleagues to the female polar bear and her two cubs peering into the Polish research station...

Natural England-backed scheme at most southerly tip of UK will nurture lichens, liverworts and wildflowersThe landscape at the most southerly tip of mainland Britain is expansive and grand: rolling heath and grasslands, spectacular cliffs, crashing waves.But a recovery project funded by Natural England is focusing on unique and vital “microhabitats” found in sometimes overlooked spots on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall. Continue reading...

Eccentric Victorian owner of Waterton Park, near Wakefield, made pioneering decisions to protect wildlifeA Yorkshire parkland regarded as the world’s first nature reserve – which was created by an eccentric pioneering 19th-century environmentalist – has been given a Grade II listing.Historic England said Waterton Park, near Wakefield, was the earliest known example of a landscape designed specifically to attract and protect native wildlife. Continue...

Fancy a plate of fangers and mash? Some researchers say python farms on a commercial scale could provide sustainable alternative proteinGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastDr Daniel Natusch has eaten python in almost every way imaginable.“I’ve had it barbecued. I’ve had it in satay skewers. I’ve had it in curries. I’ve had it with Indigenous people in...

Soon it will head back north to the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea where it can breed undisturbedI opened the windows to the hide and was greeted by a mass of birds. Hundreds of cormorants, gulls, herons, egrets, ducks and waders, all feeding frantically as the rising tide covered up the fertile mud. Overhead, black kites patrolled half-heartedly, occasionally provoking the other...

Another 78 people taken to hospital after consuming delicacy, which is known to cause food poisoningEight children and an adult have died after eating sea turtle meat on Pemba Island in the Zanzibar archipelago, and 78 other people have been taken to hospital, authorities said on Saturday.Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy in Zanzibar but it periodically results in deaths from chelonitoxism, a...

Scientists and vets are urging the president to afford the world’s most traded species better protectionsFrance’s hunger for frogs’ legs is “destructive to nature” and endangering amphibians in Asia and south-east Europe, a group of scientists and vets have warned.More than 500 experts from research, veterinary and conservation groups have called on Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to “end the overexploitation of frogs” and...

Bangkok customs officers arrest six after finding 87 animals, including lizards, birds, a monkey and snakesThai customs officials have arrested six Indian nationals for attempting to smuggle dozens of wild animals, including a red panda and cotton-top tamarin monkey, out of the country.Officers found 87 animals, including monitor lizards, birds and snakes, packaged inside the suspects’ checked luggage at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport. They were...

Logging stopped as Australian Agribusiness Group says its teams have resolved to increase efforts ‘on the protection of the local animal population’ and that they ‘are operating well beyond what is considered best practice for wildlife management’WARNING: contains images some viewers may find distressingFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastGovernment...

Report links rise in birds trapped for human consumption to cuts in anti-poaching resources in area of British military baseMore than 400,000 songbirds were trapped and killed in Cyprus last autumn as part of a recent increase in wildlife crime, according to a new report.Organised crime networks use decoys and speakers playing birdsong to lure these small birds – including garden favourites such as...

Froglets from species classed as near-threatened arrive for the second time at Cotswolds wildlife parkA frog species that is in a “perilous state” due to an infectious disease has been successfully bred at a wildlife park in Oxfordshire.Keepers at the Cotswold wildlife park in Burford have again bred the near-threatened cinnamon frog, four years after it became only the second zoological collection in Europe...

The environment minister Susana Muhamad says nature is a ‘pillar’ of fighting the climate crisisThe next round of global biodiversity negotiations will put nature at the heart of the international environment agenda, Colombia’s environment minister has said, as the country prepares for the Cop16 summit.Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister, who is expected to be the Cop16 president, said the South American country would use...

The animal translocation scheme by wildlife NGOs including African Parks, once headed by the royal, has been dogged by controversyFour more people have died after an elephant translocation overseen by two wildlife organisations, including one that was headed by Prince Harry, in a protected area in Malawi. The recent deaths bring the total fatalities connected to the relocated elephants to seven.In July 2022, more...

Research reveals area size of France is under threat by restoration projects taking place in unsuitable landscapesMisguided tree-planting projects are threatening crucial ecosystems across Africa, scientists have warned.Research has revealed that an area the size of France is threatened by forest restoration initiatives that are taking place in inappropriate landscapes. Continue reading...

Experts say the endangered insect numbers fell by 59% this year, blaming pesticide use and climate change for the reductionThe number of endangered monarch butterflies at their wintering areas in Mexico has dropped by 59% this year to the second lowest level since record keeping began, experts said, blaming pesticide use and climate change.The annual butterfly count doesn’t calculate the individual number of butterflies,...