Animals news

• Country diary: Lapwings are birds of my childhood – finally they have returned | Kate Blincoe

  06-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: I have memories of seeing them at night, on our pyjama-clad safaris round the farm, but they haven’t been here for a decadeThere’s a shimmering in the sky and I can’t work it out. Driving, I can only snatch glimpses of flickering light. I pull into a lay-by near home. Now I can make out five or six broad-winged birds, flying in a loose flock. They are black and white and their motion reflects the low sun, flashing light and contrasting dark, like a&n
  
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• Humans rank among leading monogamous mammals, study finds

  10-12-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Human beings in 7th place out of 35 species on monogamy scale but behind moustached tamarins and Eurasian beaversHumans are playing in the premier league of monogamous mammals, according to a new ranking of animals by their reproductive habits, but we may need a new manager to beat the beavers.In the study from University of Cambridge, humans ranked 7th out of 35 species on the monogamy scale, pipping white-handed gibbons and meerkats, but lagging behind moustached tamarins and Eurasian beavers.
  
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• ‘We call him ... unbearable’: California homeowner laments uninvited beast

  10-12-2025 00:20 via theguardian.com
  The 550lb bear living under Ken Johnson’s home for two weeks is unmoved by ‘lure’, with caramel and cherry smellsA hefty 550lb black bear has laid claim to the crawl space under an Altadena home, marking the latest in a series of bear incursions into the Los Angeles community.On 25 November, homeowner Ken Johnson noticed the bear leaving the crawl space and later contacted California’s department of fish and wildlife for assistance removing it from below his home. Despite
  
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• This swine life: pig named Six Seven pardoned by Miami-Dade mayor

  09-12-2025 21:48 via theguardian.com
  Daniella Levine Cava wished the piglet ‘a long happy life’ in speech alluding to the several pardons issued by TrumpIt might not have been at the same level as pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys, or January 6 US capitol attack participants – but the mayor of Miami-Dade had her own Donald Trump moment Tuesday in ritually sparing the life of a pig named Six Seven.Daniella Levine Cava performed the seasonal stunt in the Cuban-themed Latin Cafe 2000 in the heart of Miami’s Little
  
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• Iain Douglas-Hamilton obituary

  09-12-2025 18:47 via theguardian.com
  Conservationist who devoted his life to the study and preservation of the African elephantThe British scientist Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who has died aged 83, became the world’s leading authority on the behaviour of African elephants and played a vital part in ensuring their conservation.His efforts to save the African elephant began in 1965 when, as an Oxford zoology graduate who had also just received his pilot’s licence, he flew his Piper Pacer bush plane from Nairobi down to Tanzan
  
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• Shouting at the class has never been OK | Brief letters

  09-12-2025 17:42 via theguardian.com
  Teaching methods | Holly stripped bare | Cricket in state schools | Flat Earth Society physics prize | Impact School of MotoringAs a retired teacher with family and friends who are still in the profession, I must take exception to John Harris’s assertion that our current method of education consists of “standing in front of 30 kids and shouting at them for an hour” (The right’s callous overdiagnosis bandwagon is rolling. Wes Streeting should not be on it, 7 December)
  
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• Man dies of rabies after kidney transplant from donor who saved kitten from skunk

  09-12-2025 17:15 via theguardian.com
  Michigan man received kidney transplant from donor who had fought off a skunk and was later found unresponsiveA Michigan man has died of rabies after receiving a kidney from another man who died of the disease when he was scratched by a skunk while defending a kitten, in what officials are describing as an “exceptionally rare event”.According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Michigan patient received a kidney transplant at an Ohio hosp
  
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• Man dies after saving kitten from skunk – and passes rabies to kidney recipient

  09-12-2025 17:15 via theguardian.com
  Michigan man received kidney transplant from donor who had fought off a skunk and was later found unresponsiveA Michigan man has died of rabies after receiving a kidney from another man who died of the disease when he was scratched by a skunk while defending a kitten, in what are officials are describing as an “exceptionally rare event”.According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Michigan patient received a kidney transplant at an Ohio
  
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• Merv review – a dog steals the show in Amazon’s by-the-book Christmas romcom

  09-12-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Charlie Cox and Zooey Deschanel co-parent a depressed dog in a serviceable attempt to appeal to animal lovers during the festive period It is a truth universally acknowledged, at least in my social circles, that co-parenting a dog is a bad idea. Most will tell you: shared canine custody arrangements prevent exes from moving on. It’s a logistical headache. It causes fights. It’s annoying for all involved (and then some). And apparently, in a revelation worthy of a straight-to-streamin
  
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• Retired greyhounds to continue to be rehomed overseas despite ‘distressing and sometimes fatal’ outcomes

  09-12-2025 06:33 via theguardian.com
  Independent review calls for sweeping restructure of NSW’s greyhound racing industry but government rejects key recommendations Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastRetired New South Wales greyhounds will continue to be rehomed overseas despite an independent review of the racing industry finding the practice is “distressing and sometimes fatal”.The state government has also rejected a recommendation to
  
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• Country diary: A close encounter with a buzzard – close enough to make me wonder | Ed Douglas

  09-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Hargatewall, Derbyshire: Cycling towards a frosty Kinder Scout, I was waylaid by a raptor so settled she wouldn’t even move for a passing tractorNorth of Hargatewall, the country has an austere quality, a high limestone plateau with a tracery of walls the colour of old bones dividing oblongs of pasture. The hamlet’s name has nothing to do with gates or walls. It’s derived from Old English words meaning “herd farm by the spring”, a clue to the deep roots that farming
  
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• Country diary: A close encounter with a buzzard – but something’s not quite right | Ed Douglas

  09-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Hargatewall, Derbyshire: Cycling towards a frosty Kinder Scout, I was waylaid by a raptor so settled she wouldn’t even move for a passing tractorNorth of Hargatewall, the country has an austere quality, a high limestone plateau with a tracery of walls the colour of old bones dividing oblongs of pasture. The hamlet’s name has nothing to do with gates or walls. It’s derived from Old English words meaning “herd farm by the spring”, a clue to the deep roots that farming
  
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• It’s the world’s rarest ape. Now a billion-dollar dig for gold threatens its future

  09-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Tapanuli orangutans survive only in Indonesia’s Sumatran rainforest where a mine expansion will cut through their home. Yet the mining company says the alternative will be worseA small brown line snakes its way through the rainforest in northern Sumatra, carving 300 metres through dense patches of meranti trees, oak and mahua. Picked up by satellites, the access road – though modest now – will soon extend 2km to connect with the Tor Ulu Ala pit, an expansion site of Indonesia&r
  
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• The Traveller community’s London Christmas drive – in pictures

  08-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Photographer Jill Mead joined the Traveller community’s London Christmas drive on Saturday – a 14-mile trip by 200 or so horse-drawn carts and carriages through the capital, stopping at Buckingham Palace, Soho and Borough Market Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: Lapwings are birds of my childhood – finally they have returned | Kate Blincoe's

  06-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: I have memories of seeing them at night, on our pyjama-clad safaris round the farm, but they haven’t been here for a decadeThere’s a shimmering in the sky and I can’t work it out. Driving, I can only snatch glimpses of flickering light. I pull into a lay-by near home. Now I can make out five or six broad-winged birds, flying in a loose flock. They are black and white and their motion reflects the low sun, flashing light and contrasting dark, like a&n
  
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• Just not that into ewes: ‘gay sheep’ escape slaughter and take over a New York catwalk

  05-12-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Designer Michael Schmidt’s 36-piece collection was made from the wool of rams who have shown same-sex attractionWhen a ram tips its head back, curls its upper lip, and takes a deep breath – what is known in the world of animal husbandry as a “flehmen response” – it is often a sign of arousal. Sheep have a small sensory organ located above the roof of the mouth, and the flehmen response helps to flood it with any sex pheromones wafting about.Usually, rams flehmen whe
  
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• Week in wildlife: a studious deer and a partying raccoon

  05-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• 60,000 African penguins starved to death after sardine numbers collapsed – study

  05-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Climate crisis and overfishing contributed to loss of 95% of penguins in two breeding colonies in South Africa, research findsMore than 60,000 penguins in colonies off the coast of South Africa have starved to death as a result of disappearing sardines, a new paper has found.More than 95% of the African penguins in two of the most important breeding colonies, on Dassen Island and Robben Island, died between 2004 and 2012. The breeding penguins probably starved to death during the moulting period
  
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• 60,000 African penguins starve to death after sardine numbers collapse – study

  05-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Climate crisis and overfishing contributed to loss of 95% of penguins in two breeding colonies in South Africa, research findsMore than 60,000 penguins in colonies off the coast of South Africa have starved to death as a result of disappearing sardines, a new paper has found.More than 95% of the African penguins in two of the most important breeding colonies, on Dassen Island and Robben Island, died between 2004 and 2012. The breeding penguins probably starved to death during the moulting period
  
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• Baby fur seal wanders into a bar in New Zealand

  05-12-2025 03:18 via theguardian.com
  The surprise visitor waddled around the pub during what’s known as ‘silly season’ where seals pop up in unexpected placesOn a wet, lazy Sunday evening a baby fur seal waddled into a craft beer bar in Richmond, at the top of New Zealand’s South Island. Accustomed to seeing animals in the pet-friendly bar, co-owner Bella Evans initially assumed the visitor was a dog before she took a closer look.“Everyone was in shock,” Evans said. “Oh my gosh. What do we
  
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• US student who took four chickens after breaking into slaughterhouse sentenced to 90 days in jail

  05-12-2025 02:20 via theguardian.com
  Zoe Rosenberg, 23, studying at UC Berkeley, had said it was a ‘rescue’ and ‘will not apologize’ for her actionsA California student has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after breaking into a Petaluma poultry slaughterhouse and taking four chickens in an effort she called a “rescue”.Zoe Rosenberg, a 23-year-old student at the University of California, Berkeley, was convicted of felony conspiracy and three misdemeanor counts in October. On Wednesday, a judge se
  
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• Red squirrels expand across Highlands after 10-year reintroduction drive

  05-12-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Rewilding charity helps bolster Scottish stronghold of species that once came close to extinction in UKRed squirrels have expanded their range across the Highlands by more than a quarter after a 10-year reintroduction programme moved hundreds to new homes.The species once came close to extinction in Britain when foresters killed them as pests and their natural habitat was destroyed. A deadly virus carried by invasive grey squirrels has hampered their recovery. Continue reading...
  
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• US student who took four chickens after breaking into a farm sentenced to 90 days in jail

  04-12-2025 22:34 via theguardian.com
  Zoe Rosenberg, 23, studying at UC Berkeley, had said it was a ‘rescue’ and ‘will not apologize’ for her actionsA California student has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after breaking into a Petaluma poultry and taking four chickens in an effort she called a “rescue”.Zoe Rosenberg, a 23-year-old student at the University of California, Berkeley, was convicted of felony conspiracy and three misdemeanor counts in October. On Wednesday, a jury sentenced her to 9
  
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• The snail farm don: is this the most brazen tax avoidance scheme of all time?

  04-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Terry Ball – renowned shoe salesman, friend to former mafiosi – has vowed to spend his remaining years finding ways to cheat authorities he feels have cheated him. His greatest ruse? A tax-dodging snail empireIt is a drizzly October afternoon and I am sitting in a rural Lancashire pub drinking pints of Moretti with London’s leading snail farmer and a convicted member of the Naples mafia. We’re discussing the best way to stop a mollusc orgy.The farmer, a 79-year-old former
  
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• ‘It moved … it was hopping!’ One man’s search for a wild wallaby in the UK

  04-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Reports of escaped wallabies are on the rise, especially in southern England. But how easy is it to spot these strange and charismatic marsupials – and why would a quintessentially Australian creature settle here?It was about 9.30 or 10 on a dark, late November night; Molly Laird was driving her pink Mini home along country lanes to her Warwickshire cottage. Suddenly, the headlights’ beam picked up an animal sitting in the road. “I thought it was a deer at first,” Molly t
  
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• Having a dog can boost teenagers’ mental health, say scientists

  03-12-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Researchers find children who own dogs score lower for social problems, aggressive behaviour and delinquencyHaving a dog in the home could help boost teenagers’ mental health, research suggests, with scientists adding this could in part be down to the sharing of microbes.Prof Takefumi Kikusui, of Azabu University in Japan, who led the work, said being with dogs could reduce owners’ stress and stimulate the release of the bonding hormone oxytocin. Continue reading...
  
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• Drunk raccoon found passed out in Virginia liquor store

  03-12-2025 14:56 via theguardian.com
  Store employee found masked bandit sleeping off a bender after invading booze store and tippling a tad too muchA liquor store employee in Virginia was startled on Saturday to discover smashed whisky bottles on the floor of the shop and, upon entering the bathroom, an apparently drunk, sleeping and spread-eagled raccoon.“He fell through one of the ceiling tiles and went on a full-blown rampage, drinking everything,” Samantha Martin, an local animal control officer, told the Daily Mail
  
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• NIH funds new cat experiments despite pledge to phase them out, watchdog reports

  03-12-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  White Coat Waste finds $1.7m in NIH grants for cat research months after officials said they were working to end studiesThe US National Institute of Health is continuing to fund new laboratory experiments on cats despite saying that they are “working tirelessly” to “phase out” such projects.In July this year, Dr Nicole Kleinstreuer, the NIH acting deputy director, announced in a podcast with Dr Jay Bhattacharya, the NIH director. that she doesn’t think the NIH shoul
  
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• Country diary: A broken leg and singing crossbills – am I having a strange dream? | Nicola Chester

  03-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Inkpen, Berkshire: Drifting in and out of sleep on the woodland floor, I’m in searing pain, but far from aloneIt was nobody’s fault, but here I am, lying on the damp floor of a wood, half a mile from the road. Drifting down with the falling leaves are the voices of two women, too easily accepting of blame. I reassure them and try to sit up, but the high singing in my ears turns to static, the edges of the wood begin to pixelate, and I lie 
  
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• ‘Iconic swamp king’: San Francisco’s beloved albino alligator dies aged 30

  03-12-2025 02:24 via theguardian.com
  Claude, the de facto mascot for a local museum, was the subject of a children’s book and regularly received fan mailClaude, the beloved albino alligator who called the California Academy of Sciences home for the better part of two decades, has died at age 30.The San Francisco museum announced his death on Tuesday and said that the reptile had in recent weeks received treatment for a “suspected infection”. Claude, with his unusual white scales, had become a sort of mascot for th
  
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