Animals news

• If you really care about animals, stop eating them | Letters

  30-12-2025 18:30 via theguardian.com
  Dean Weston says we are still killing animals by the billion, but praising ourselves for marginally reducing panic and pain, while Jo Barlow calls for transparency and truth about where our food comes from. Plus a letter from Scott MillerYour editorial applauds the government for rearranging the furniture in a burning house (The Guardian view on animal welfare: a timely reminder that cruelty is wrong, 23 December). Fewer cages, gentler gas, a close season for hares. All very civilised. Yet the c
  
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• ‘I never imagined we could buy an island’: how a community saved Mexico’s Galápagos

  30-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  When developers began circling Espíritu Santo island in the 1990s, a private conservation effort saw them off. But today the Unesco site faces a new threat: mass tourismOn a clear day over the Sea of Cortez, Espíritu Santo looks untouchable. Turquoise water laps at the shores of the island’s rocky coves; whale sharks cruise past snorkellers; seabirds caw over ancient cliffs. The pristine island and its Unesco-protected surroundings – informally called “Mexico&rsqu
  
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• UK’s warmest spring on record led to rise in songbirds breeding, data shows

  30-12-2025 12:38 via theguardian.com
  Dry and warm 2025 spring gave glimmer of hope for threatened wild birds but many remain in long-term declineThe warmest and sunniest spring on record this year led to an increase in the breeding of some of Britain’s best-loved songbirds, data has shown.Scientists said the dry and warm spring had provided a glimmer of hope for threatened wild birds. In the 2025 breeding season, from May to August, there were higher than average breeding successes for 14 species including the chiffchaff, gar
  
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• Country diary: Meet Houdini, the three-legged hedgehog who’s moved in for winter | Kate Bradbury

  30-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Hove, East Sussex: I’ve had to create a halfway house for him, between the rescue centre and the wild. Only, he’s named after an escapologist for a reasonIn the dark, a three-legged hedgehog trundles clumsily by, gathering leaves to make his bed more comfortable, although apparently not comfortable enough to hibernate. This may be his eighth winter; hedgehogs lose pigment with age and his bright pink nose suggests he’s well over five – the average age of a wild hog. Excep
  
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