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by Kelly MACNAMARA Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — It may be one of the most recognisable symbols of conservation, but efforts to protect the giant panda have failed to safeguard large mammals sharing its habitats, according to research published Monday showing dramatic declines of leopards and other predators. The giant panda has won the hearts of animal lovers around the world and images of the bamboo-eating creature with its ink-blot eye patches have come […]
LOS ANGELES, California (AFP) — More than 1,300 firefighters were battling a blaze that was burning out of control Sunday in southern California, threatening thousands of people and homes east of Los Angeles. The so-called Apple Fire that broke out Friday near the city of San Bernardino has so far charred more than 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares), sending up columns of smoke visible from far away. It was so smoky that authorities declared an air […]
by Joshua Howat Berger Agence France-Presse RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — The number of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon last month rose 28 percent from July 2019, satellite data showed Saturday, fueling fears the world’s biggest rainforest will again be devastated by fires this year. Brazil’s national space agency, INPE, identified 6,803 fires in the Amazon region in July 2020, up from 5,318 the year before. The figure is all the more troubling […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Anglo-Dutch energy major Royal Dutch Shell posted Thursday a colossal net loss of $18.1 billion (15.4 billion euros) for the second quarter, blaming massive asset writedowns on the coronavirus-hit oil market. The performance, contrasting sharply with profit after tax of $3.0 billion a year earlier, was sparked by a huge $16.8-billion charge on chronic fallout both from COVID-19 and collapsing oil prices. The vast charge was taken “as a result […]
by Isgender GANBAROV with Emil GULIYEV in Baku Agence France-Presse BANKA, Azerbaijan (AFP) — The village of Banka in Azerbaijan should have plentiful supplies of water as it lies beside one of the country’s mightiest rivers, the Kura. But the river has shallowed dramatically this summer and has become contaminated with salty seawater, in what experts warn is an unfolding ecological disaster. “Our animals are dying. We don’t get water in time,” said farmer Maryam Hasanova, […]
OSLO, Norway (AFP) — Norway’s Arctic archipelago Svalbard on Saturday recorded its highest-ever temperature, the country’s meteorological institute reported. According to scientific study, global warming in the Arctic is happening twice as fast as for the rest of the planet. For the second day in a row, the archipelago registered 21.2 degrees Celsius (70.2 Fahrenheit) in the afternoon, just under the 21.3 degrees recorded in 1979, meteorologist Kristen Gislefoss told AFP. Later in the afternoon […]
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Vietnam, one of Asia’s biggest consumers of wildlife products, has suspended all imports of wild animal species “dead or alive” and vowed to “eliminate” illegal markets across the country. The directive signed by the leader of the Communist country follows an international scandal over the sale of wildlife, which has been blamed as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic in neighbouring China. It is a major victory for conservation groups who […]
by Maxime MAMET Agence France-Presse BOURGES, France (AFP) — At a museum in central France, researchers tenderly feed insects and kitten milk formula to tiny orphaned bats — creatures widely reviled for their role in human disease outbreaks, most recently COVID-19. The pandemic has triggered bat-killing sprees in communities from India and Peru to Cuba and Rwanda, but the mission of the team at the Bourges natural history museum is to protect the misunderstood winged mammals. […]
by Sara HUSSEIN TOKYO, Japan (APF) — An unprecedented global survey has revealed a shocking decline in the number of reef sharks, with the predators “functionally extinct” on nearly 20 percent of sites studied. The four-year study used more than 15,000 baited and remotely operated cameras — so-called “chum cams” — to obtain the first comprehensive picture of where reef sharks are thriving and where they are virtually non-existent. The results, from over 370 reefs […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Twin red-ruffed lemurs have been born at Singapore zoo, officials said Thursday, a rare double delivery that is a boost for the endangered saucer-eyed primates. It was the first birth at the zoo of the endangered creatures, which are native to Madagascar, in over a decade, Wildlife Reserves Singapore said. The arrival of the yet-to-be-named twins was “particularly special” because the creatures breed only once a year, it said. The fluffy […]
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AFP) — About 160 sea turtles, many of them injured after getting entangled in plastic waste, have been rescued after washing up on one of the world’s longest beaches in Bangladesh, an official and conservationists said Wednesday. The Olive Ridley turtles began floating to shore at Cox’s Bazar with a huge mass of plastic bottles, fishing nets, buoys and other debris at the weekend. Survivors were released back into the Bay of […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Conservationists have warned a sudden change in Myanmar’s law allowing the commercial farming of tigers, pangolins and other endangered species risks further fuelling demand in China for rare wildlife products. The Southeast Asian nation is already a hub for the illegal trafficking of wildlife, a trade driven by demand from neighbouring China and worth an estimated $20 billion worldwide. In June, Myanmar’s Forest Department quietly gave the green light to private […]
