Wildlife and conservation new, wild travel information and links for booking
Dugongs, a close relation of the sea cow, have not done well over the last few centuries. In places like Australia they still live in large numbers. In places like Thailand though there are only thought to be about 250 remaining.
They particularly dislike motorboats and often get injured by them. The lockdowns have therefore been an incredible gift to these animals, and it is fascinating to see how quickly their behaviour changes where humans are absent.
A drone shot this image
Research done in the UK though not published (despite being completed 2 years ago) clearly shows that badgers are highly unlikely to infect cattle.
Sugar cane companies managed to get the rights to the land on which this forest stands in controversial circumstances, yet they were given the right to clear the land.
Home to both around 5000 chimpanzees and Mangabeys, under the “common good of the citizens of Uganda act” from 1998, areas like this are held in trust and may not be leased out or sold by the government.
Continue reading “The Ugandan environmental authority allows clearing of Bugoma forest”The stereotypical image of wild lions, is generally that of a group lying on there back in the middle of the open plains, snoozing.
However, this is not necessarily the most common way that lions would have lived. We have to bear in mind that this would not have been the standard behaviour everywhere. Lion population estimates from the past vary wildly, however it is reasonable to be confident in a wild lion population in the hundreds of thousands back in 1950. Different people will estimate anything from 200,000 up to 500,000.
Continue reading “A place where the African Lion lives alone”President Carter installed 32 solar thermal panels on the white house 30 years ago. By 1986 Jimmy Carter had been replaced by Ronald Reagan – and unfortunately his priorities were different. He scrapped the research and development budget for renewables and eliminated any tax breaks that were encouraging deployment of solar or wind turbines.
When the white house had to have its roof fixed, Reagan used this as an excuse to remove the solar panels, despite the fact that they were still working fine.
Continue reading “The Raegan administration removed the solar panels from the white house, why and what does it show?”Albatrosses are known to be long lived birds. Wisdom, a Laysan albatross was first banded in 1956 and was at least 5 years old at the time. in her 70 years, she has reared at least 40 chicks.
Back in 2002 there were only 94 Iberian lynx left in the wild. This wild cat had declined for a number of reasons, unfortunately all down to humans.
The main threat to Iberian lynx was the loss of their main prey. Back in 1952 a doctor, fed up of rabbits overrunning his garden, introduced Myxomatosis. Myxomatosis is an illness, which kills rabbits. Within 2 years this illness had spread across Spain, and eventually went on to reduce the population by 95%.
Continue reading “Iberian Lynx continues to recover”Rajasthan madlyya Pradesh and Gujarat are all looking at potential sites were cheetah could be reintroduced. Given the precarious state of the cheetah population in Iran (thought to only be 50-60 animals) the reintroductions would come from Africa.
Continue reading “The possibility of reintroducing Cheetah to India is once again being looked at”I have written in the past, about a discovery made on a Japanese dump back in 2016 of a plastic eating enzyme. By working in the lab, scientists have been able to speed this process up 6 times, such that full recycling is thought to be possible of plastics within 2 years.
In South Africa, as much of the cheetah population as much of the cheetah population live either outside protected land or in reserves that are small, with space for only a few individuals. Cheetah, being small, cannot defend their kills from Leopards Lions and Hyena, as well as loosing many of their young to these bigger predators.
