Beefy brown bear, missing two canine teeth, prevails in vote that compares pre-hibernation weight gain in Katmai national parkBeefy brown bear 480 Otis has been named the winner of Alaska’s popular Fat Bear Week contest, an annual competition comparing…
you can call me queen bee
More Than Honey – “In 2013 Markus Imhoof used mini-helicopters and high-speed cameras to capture an extraordinary video of the inflight mating of a queen bee. The ejaculation of a drone bee is so powerful that his endophallus ruptures and he quickly di…
‘Genius dogs’ can learn names of more than 100 toys, study finds
Six canines, all border collies, have proved some possess a remarkable grasp of human languageYour dog might follow commands such as “sit”, or become uncontrollably excited at the mention of the word “walkies”, but when it comes to remembering the name…
‘Fallen stock’: what happens now to the UK’s unwanted pigs?
Strict guidelines govern how sick or injured animals are disposed of, leaving farmers with no cheap or easy optionsHundred of healthy pigs culled amid UK shortage of abattoir workersSick or injured animals on farms which are not able to be transported …
Hundreds of healthy pigs culled amid UK shortage of abattoir workers
Farmers warned that up to 120,000 animals face being slaughtered as they lack space to house them‘Fallen stock’: what happens now to the UK’s unwanted pigs?The slaughter of healthy pigs has begun on British farms, with farmers forced to kill animals to…
Scientists are still learning cool new things about gooey hagfish slime
Larger hagfish produce larger, stronger thread cells to better ward off predators.
‘Rogue’ paddleboarders and kayakers threaten seabird sanctuary
Human activity disturbs nesting of puffins and rare roseate terns at Coquet Island in NorthumberlandA bird sanctuary island in Northumberland, home to Britain’s rarest nesting seabird, is being threatened by an influx of “rogue” paddleboarders and kaya…
A birder’s eye view of Kakadu: ‘Don’t give up until you go to bed’
A far cry from twitching, at Bird Week in Kakadu national park, Alexis Buxton-Collins finds a chance to slow down“There are two rules you need to follow on board,” Luke Paterson informs me as I step on to a large flat-bottomed boat. The first is to kee…
Young country diary: the puffins had their lunch, then I had mine
Lundy, Devon: From the ferry we saw a festival of seabirds, but the puffins were the luckiest spot of allAboard the MS Oldenburg to Lundy, I sat next to Jamie, an ornithologist studying the island’s sparrow population. Jamie helped me spot and identify…
Toilet rats! Vermin are all over Britain – and they’re climbing up our waste pipes
The rat population exploded in 2020, they can each tread water for three days and they are biding their time before entering our bathroomsName: Toilet rats.Age: Nothing new, but an upward trend. Continue reading…