Animals news

• Elk could return to UK after 3,000 years in rewilding project

  07-05-2025 18:51 via theguardian.com
  
  First stage of initiative will introduce ‘keystone’ species to beaver enclosures in Derbyshire and NottinghamshireElk could return to the UK after 3,000 years under plans by the Wildlife Trusts to reintroduce the “keystone” species into Britain’s landscapes.The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust wants to introduce elk into two existing beaver enclosures in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, with the hope of demonstrating that the large semiaquatic deer should be released to roa
  
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• A passion for pigeons – why we love a Columba | Letters

  05-01-2026 18:54 via theguardian.com
  Ross McQueen and Teresa Rodrigues share their admiration for birds in the much-maligned genus ColumbaI can only agree with Toussaint Douglass that we should do more pigeon-watching (The hill I will die on: Pigeons are working-class heroes and deserve some respect, 29 December). Ever since Covid, I have been entertained by the pair of wood pigeons that make their home on the windowsill of my flat.During lockdown, when the outside world was scary and remote, these wood pigeons cheerfully slapped t
  
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• How demand for elite falcons in the Middle East is driving illegal trade of British birds

  05-01-2026 09:51 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: data reveals hundreds of UK nests have been raided in the past decade amid growing appetite to own prized birds for racing and breedingIn the echoing exhibition halls of Abu Dhabi’s International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition, hundreds of falcons sit on perches under bright lights. Decorated hoods fit snugly over their heads, blocking their vision to keep them calm.In a small glass room marked Elite Falcons Hall, four young birds belonging to an undisclosed Emirati sheikh ar
  
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• Aliens: the spread of invasive plants and animals across Europe – in pictures

  04-01-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Erik Irmer has been documenting the spread of invasive plant and animal species that disrupt native ecology across Europe. He focuses on humans’ interactions with these plants and animals. Aliens is published by Fotohof Continue reading...
  
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• Jason White on plastic pollution in the food chain – cartoon

  03-01-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
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• Country diary: A wave of relief on the farm with the inheritance tax change | Andrea Meanwell

  03-01-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Tebay, Cumbria: Small farms like ours contribute to society, but we need help to survive. A huge cloud has lifted over our futureJust before Christmas I attended a farmers’ conference near Penrith, which included a presentation on the inheritance tax rules for agricultural land. An accountant worked through an example of a typical hill farm like ours: the bill worked out as £59,000 every year for 10 years.Between the farm and our off‑farm jobs, we can’t generate
  
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• We can still rely on the kindness of strangers | Letters

  02-01-2026 17:26 via theguardian.com
  Readers respond to an article by Martin Kettle about a lost wallet and restored faith in human natureI can readily confirm Martin Kettle’s points (Need cheering up after a terrible year? I may have just the story you’re looking for, 28 December). I tripped up while last-minute Christmas shopping in Nailsworth on Christmas Eve; couldn’t move, very painful. The passersby and staff from a nearby shop were helpful and sympathetic. They must have been busy, but they freely gave me t
  
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• True signs of feline feelings | Brief letters

  02-01-2026 17:18 via theguardian.com
  Dogs v cats | French potatoes | Suffolk rocks | Copper cables | A jab at M&S | Easter eggs – alreadyOn the A64 between York and Leeds, there used to be a large sign (Letters, 1 January) near its rehoming centre reading: “Dogs Trust”. Underneath, someone added: “Cats don’t”.
  Lindsay Walter
  York• Seen on a farm gate here in Norfolk: “Potatoes” – to which had been added “Twinned with Pommes de Terre”.
  Pau
  
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• A ban on trail hunting makes little sense | Letters

  02-01-2026 17:18 via theguardian.com
  Stopping trail hunts because some break the law is as logical as closing supermarkets because people shoplift, writes Lindsay Gilmour. Plus a letter from Roderick WhiteIf the government is going to stop all trail hunts because some break the law (Labour ‘alienating rural people’ with plan to ban trail hunting, says Countryside Alliance, 26 December), can we also expect a ban on supermarkets because some people shoplift, a ban on cars because some drivers break the speed limit, or a b
  
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• Colorado authorities suspect mountain lion attack after woman found dead near trail

  02-01-2026 15:03 via theguardian.com
  Other hikers had reported seeing the animal near the body and scared it away ‘by throwing rocks’ at itAuthorities in Colorado are investigating a suspected fatal mountain lion attack after a woman was found dead on a hiking trail in Colorado on Thursday.In a news release on Thursday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said that hikers reported seeing a mountain lion near a person lying on the ground on the Crosier Mountain trail in unincorporated Larimer county at around 12.15pm local
  
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• Rapid expansion of ring-necked parakeets in UK sparks concern

  02-01-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Bird organisations say more research on the species needed to control impact on other wildlifeIn the past 20 years, the soundscape in the ancient wild, rolling landscape of Richmond Park has been transformed. Once you would have heard the chirrup of the stonechat, the chirp of the greater spotted woodpecker or the song of the skylark. Today, the auditory power of one bird dominates.The bright green ring-necked parakeet increased 25-fold from 1994-2023 in the UK. They are still mainly based in th
  
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• ‘A place of darkness and light’: the uninhabited Japanese island that became a rabbit paradise

  02-01-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Once host to a poisonous gas research facility, Okunoshima is now an Instagram-friendly tourist destinationThe bunny-ear designs on the window aside, there is little to indicate that the ferry has arrived on an island teeming with rabbits. Then, moments after the passengers disembark, there is activity in the undergrowth. A single rabbit scampers out, wholly untroubled by its two-legged visitors. And then another.A short walk along the coast takes visitors deep into rabbit territory on Okunoshim
  
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• What makes an elephant abandon her calf – and is it a growing problem?

  02-01-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  A helpless baby elephant has won the Thai public’s sympathy but her case has shed light on the pressures facing herds across AsiaKhao Tom, a two-month-old elephant, plays with a wildlife officer, nudging his face and curling her trunk around his wrist. When she lifts her trunk in the air, signalling that she is hungry, the team at the rescue centre seems relieved – she has not been eating well. A vet prepares a pint-sized bottle of formula, which she gulps down impatiently.Khao Tom h
  
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• Week in wildlife: a hide-and-seek squirrel and an otter in a Christmas tree

  02-01-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I need to help’: Barnsley woman’s rabies death inspires dog-vaccinating mission

  02-01-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Robyn Thomson immunised thousands of animals in Cambodia after shocking death of her mother this summerIt was just a scratch. Among all the feelings and thoughts that she has had to wrestle with since the summer, disbelief is the emotion that Robyn Thomson still struggles with the most. “You never think it would happen to you,” said Robyn. “You don’t really think it happens to anyone.”Robyn’s mother, Yvonne Ford, had shown no signs of illness in the months aft
  
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• ‘It’s a matter of time before a farmer is seriously injured’: on the trail of hare coursers in Wiltshire

  01-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Police show the Guardian around hotspots for a rural crime that has links to international gangs – and is on the riseA cold, bright afternoon in the Vale of Pewsey and a couple of brown hares were nibbling away in a field of winter barley. It was a tranquil scene in this tucked-away corner of the English West Country but tyre tracks cutting through the crop were a sign of the violence that takes place when night falls.This is one of the hotspots in Wiltshire for hare coursing, in which cri
  
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• ‘Heartbreaking’: Florida wildlife groups decry state-sanctioned bear hunt

  31-12-2025 17:26 via theguardian.com
  Fifty-two black bears were killed in three-week hunt state officials said was necessary to reduce ursine populationWildlife officials in Florida say the slaughter of dozens of black bears during a controversial three-week hunt this month was a success, despite the opposition of protesters who condemned the “heartbreaking, bloody spectacle”.The Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) on Tuesday announced that 52 bears were killed between 6 and 28 December, and promised
  
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• How the climate crisis showed up in Americans’ lives this year: ‘The shift has been swift and stark’

  31-12-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Guardian US readers share how global heating and biodiversity loss affected their lives in ways that don’t always make the headlines The past year was another one of record-setting heat and catastrophic storms. But across the US, the climate crisis showed up in smaller, deeply personal ways too.Campfires that once defined summer trips were never lit due to wildfire risks. There were no bites where fish were once abundant, forests turned to meadows after a big burn and childhood memories of
  
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• ‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?

  31-12-2025 12:00 via theguardian.com
  The bioscience startup has attracted billions in investment – and a flurry of criticism, but founder tells the Guardian plans to bring back the woolly mammoth will not be derailedDeath and taxes are supposed to be the things we can depend on in this life. But in 2025, the American entrepreneur Ben Lamm sold much of the world on the idea that death did not, after all, need to be for ever.This was the year the billionaire’s genetics startup, Colossal Biosciences, claimed it had resurre
  
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• What happened next: Valerie the dachshund taught us how to survive – and thrive

  31-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  We could learn a lot from the pampered sausage dog who became a canine Bear Grylls. Perhaps all of us are capable of more than we might expectWho among us hasn’t yearned, at least momentarily, to cast off the trappings of our comfortable lives and live wild, unfettered and free? This year someone showed us the way: a charismatic Aussie sausage dog (I believe that’s “snag” in local vernacular). Whether you already carry Valerie the miniature dachshund’s story in your
  
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• 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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• Bells and whistles: how our reporter prepared for visiting bear hotspot – video

  29-12-2025 16:17 via theguardian.com
  The town of Osaki has been making the headlines as a bear hotspot as Japan reels from a year of record ursine encounters and deaths. The Guardian’s Justin McCurry visited Naruko Onsen hot springs in the north-eastern town, equipped with bells and whistles to ward off any bearsJapanese town reeling from year of record bear encounters Continue reading...
  
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• The hill I will die on: Pigeons are working-class heroes and deserve some respect | Toussaint Douglass

  29-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  These unfairly maligned animals were nuggets for our ancestors and served for the UK during the second world warIs there something I would figuratively die on a hill for? Yes, there is – and as it happens, I’m sitting on a literal hill right now, feeding them. Pigeons. Why pigeons? Because it’s about time they get the respect they deserve.I like pigeons. Because they’re like me, working class. You can tell pigeons are working class because every pigeon looks knackered. It
  
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• A French Youth review – bullfighters grapple with the horns of valour and acceptance

  29-12-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Jérémie Battaglia’s captivating documentary follows two north African raseteurs battling bulls and systemic racism in southern FranceIn southern France, the ancient and controversial tradition of Camargue bullfighting remains to this day. In contrast to more lethal forms of the sport, participants – or raseteurs – win points by snatching various ribbons attached to the bulls, each of which comes with a cash prize up to thousands of euros. Following a group of athl
  
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• Brigitte Bardot’s image complicated by her support of the far right

  28-12-2025 19:14 via theguardian.com
  Film star turned animal rights activist was outspoken on immigration and future of FranceBrigitte Bardot – a life in picturesBrigitte Bardot, hailed as the French Marilyn Monroe, was the first major film star to channel her glamour and fame into supporting France’s far right, who she backed for more than 30 years.Up until her death on Sunday, Bardot had expressed her contentment at Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally party’s rising share of the vote before the
  
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• Brigitte Bardot’s image complicated by her controversial politics

  28-12-2025 19:14 via theguardian.com
  Film star turned animal rights activist was anti-immigration and was repeatedly convicted of racial hatred, particularly towards Muslims Brigitte Bardot – a life in picturesBrigitte Bardot, hailed as the French Marilyn Monroe, was the first major film star to channel her glamour and fame into supporting France’s far right, who she backed for more than 30 years.Up until her death on Sunday, Bardot had expressed her contentment at Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally p
  
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• ‘It would drive some people crazy’: Victoria’s French Island remains remote, and that’s how most like it

  28-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Just 70km from Melbourne yet only accessible by ferry, the island’s isolation is the source of its appeal and its biggest drawbackRead more summer essentialsApproaching French Island on the ferry at dawn, if you’re lucky you might be greeted by the sight of hundreds of ibis in flight. From far away, they look like starlings in murmuration, the flock constantly swelling and shifting like the sea far beneath them.Just 70km from Melbourne in the middle of Western Port Bay, French Island
  
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