Ahead of the CITES conference for endangered species in Johannesburg, conservationists raise awareness on sharks and the threats they face from overfishing. https://youtu.be/s6WDVvNjZ8s
Environment
Greenland ice melting faster than thought
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Greenland’s highly unstable ice sheet is melting more than seven percent faster than previously thought, scientists said this week after discovering a hotspot beneath the Earth’s crust that was distorting their calculations. The study in the journal Science Advances raises concern about the increasing impact of melting ice on sea level rise, since Greenland is the second largest ice sheet in the world after the one in Antarctica. From 2003-2013 […]
Boracay’s Touch of a Millennial Dutch
By Caesar Vallejos Millennials change how the world travels. With their constant connection and love for technology, these digital natives have shaped new desires and expectations that redefine how the hospitality industry creates unique, shareable and memorable experiences that impact even on the mainstream travellers. In Boracay, the freshest change has come. Not necessarily the influx of younger visitors in the Philippine’s top tourist draw, but the new rule of a millennial in one […]
Coral fish stress out if separated from ‘shoal-mates’
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Coral fish become stressed and lose weight if they are separated from each other, hampering their chances of survival, an Australian study revealed Thursday. Scientists from James Cook University in Queensland state monitored blue-green damselfish from the Great Barrier Reef, isolating some, while allowing others to remain in their shoals to better understand why they prefer to socialise. Lauren Nadler, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Experimental […]
China aquarium refuses to deliver sad bear Pizza to UK
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese aquarium holding a forlorn-looking polar bear named Pizza said Tuesday it has “no need” for foreign interference, after activists offered to move the animal to a British zoo. Animals Asia, a Hong Kong-based organisation, created a petition calling for the closure of the Grandview aquarium in the Chinese city of Guangzhou that attracted half a million signatures. Photos of Pizza shared widely on social media show the bear lying listlessly […]
Science reveals male widow spider’s dastardly deeds
by Mariëtte Le Roux PARIS, France (AFP) — Whenever the “widow” spider is mentioned, people tend to sympathise with the hapless male — best known for its tendency to end up as a post-coital snack. Well, pity them no more. Widow spider males have developed a rather gruesome method of saving their own skins, scientists revealed on Wednesday. To avoid becoming the lunch of adult females, some males have taken to inseminating juveniles which have no […]
Nitrates poison water in California’s Central Valley
by Veronique DUPONT PORTERVILLE, United States (AFP) — In California’s Central Valley, where verdant fields of fruit and vegetables unfurl under sunny skies, the water that feeds them — and flows into taps across the region — contains a toxic and silent poison. The very same farmers who have tilled and cultivated the earth for decades in one of America’s biggest produce regions have also poisoned it, dumping millions of tons of fertilizer, which has […]
Endangered Hawaiian crow species shows knack for tool use
(Reuters) — A species of crow that is extinct in the wild is ‘highly proficient’ in using tools, according to research published on Wednesday (Sept. 14) in the journal Nature. Native to Hawaii, the Alala crow is now only the second species of crow species known to have the ability to make and use tools, the study found. Until now, tool use was the exclusive domain of the New Caledonian crow, a distant cousin of the […]
Lava lake visible atop Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano
For the first time in over a year, a volcano lake is visible on top of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. USGS/Reuters
‘Living fossil’ crabs mysteriously dying in Japan
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Hundreds of horseshoe crabs — known as “living fossils” because they are among the Earth’s oldest creatures — have been found dead in southern Japan, confounding experts who study the alien-like sidewalkers. Horseshoe crabs, known for their blue blood, are a regular summer visitor to tidal flats in southern and western Japan, including one near Kitakyushu city where they lay their eggs. Some invariably die in the process, but this year […]
Eats shoots and rarely breeds: giant pandas ‘still at risk’
by Julien GIRAULT CHENGDU, China (AFP) — The giant panda may have been taken off the endangered species list, but the emblematic black and white bear still faces a plethora of risks including epidemics and climate change, Chinese breeding centres say. Every morning, with the dawn light shimmering on their patchy coats the young residents of a panda breeding centre in southwestern China shred their favourite breakfast — bamboo. The Chengdu Research Base of Giant […]
Endangered red-eyed frog finds shelter in Nicaragua
NICARAGUA, Managua (AFP) — Thousands of red-eyed frogs (Agalychnis callidryas), an endangered species from the rainforests of Mexico, Central America and Colombia, finds protection from the effects of climate change in the Nicaraguan Montibelli reserve, in the southern mountains of Managua. https://youtu.be/1uhWZ7kU7Rg
