Animals news

• Republicans reject Trump's attacks on impeachment witnesses

  20-11-2019 02:19 via politico.com
  
  As the White House’sTwitter account blasted out a tweet on Tuesday disparaging a key impeachment witness, GOP Rep. Chris Stewart took a decidedly different tack.“So as one military family to another, thank you and your brothers for your service,” the Utah Republican added.Stewart’s unwillingness to lob personal attacks on Vindman, a decorated war hero and top national security aide, reflects a broader sentiment that has emerged in the House GOP conference as Democrats hav
  
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• World faces ‘deathly silence’ of nature as wildlife disappears, warn experts

  16-04-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Loss of intensity and diversity of noises in ecosystems reflects an alarming decline in healthy biodiversity, say sound ecologistsRead more: No birdsong, no water in the creek, no beating wings: how a haven for nature fell silentSounds of the natural world are rapidly falling silent and will become “acoustic fossils” without urgent action to halt environmental destruction, international experts have warned.As technology develops, sound has become an increasingly important way of meas
  
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• The killer whale trainers who still defend captivity: ‘I’m an endangered species myself’

  16-04-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The 2013 documentary Blackfish turned orca trainers into pariahs in the US. Now some are hitting it big in ChinaSome people spend a long time deciding what they want to do in life. Hazel McBride feels lucky that she’s always known. As a child in Scotland, she watched a VHS tape of Free Willy on repeat. That was the first time she felt a connection with killer whales. The second time was at age eight, on a trip to SeaWorld Orlando in 2000. Shamu was the animal world’s greatest celebri
  
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• No birdsong, no water in the creek, no beating wings: how a haven for nature fell silent

  16-04-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As the soundscape of the natural world began to disappear over 30 years, one man was listening and recording it allRead more: World faces ‘deathly silence’ of nature as wildlife disappears, warn expertsThe tale starts 30 years ago, when Bernie Krause made his first audio clip in Sugarloaf Ridge state park, 20 minutes’ drive from his house near San Francisco. He chose a spot near an old bigleaf maple. Many people loved this place: there was a creek and a scattering of picnic ben
  
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• I earned more as a bin worker than a veterinary nurse | Letters

  15-04-2024 18:27 via theguardian.com
  
  One former nurse describes the poor pay and working conditions she experienced at a vet practiceDebates surrounding the veterinary industry rage on while vet support staff and nurses, forever caught in the crossfire of abuse and accusations of heartlessness or money-grubbing, go unrecognised yet again (‘The vet presented it as: if you care, you pay’: who really profits from poorly pets?, 6 April).I believed I’d found my calling when I qualified as a registered veterinary nurse
  
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• Earthworm crowned UK invertebrate of the year by Guardian readers

  15-04-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Lumbricus terrestris claims landslide victory with 38% of vote, while Asian or yellow-legged hornet comes in last with 0.8%It’s a political earthquake! The common earthworm, the soil-maker, food provider and grand recycler, is the landslide winner of the inaugural UK invertebrate of the year competition.Lumbricus terrestris, also known as the lob worm, dew worm and nightcrawler, took a mighty 38% of the popular vote after readers nominated it to be added to the shortlist for the Guardian c
  
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• The pet I’ll never forget: Oscar the cat, who opened my eyes to the power of male friendship

  15-04-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  He looked like Brendan Gleeson and carried himself like a mob boss. Naturally he was my dad’s favourite child My dad is not a religious man – he goes to the pub when my mum goes to mass – but I’m sure that meeting Oscar was a spiritual experience for him. When they locked eyes across the scrubbed concrete floor of the shelter that Oscar presided over with mob-boss-like remove, an oath of loyalty was sworn. The other cats mewled in vain.I had walked in hoping for a grey ki
  
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• There’s no such thing as a benign beef farm – so beware the ‘eco-friendly’ new film straight out of a storybook | George Monbiot

  15-04-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A highly misleading new documentary claims soil carbon storage can redeem the livestock industry – it’s all so much ‘moo-woo’We draw our moral lines in arbitrary places. We might believe we’re guided only by universal values and proven facts, but often we’re swayed by deep themes of which we might be unaware. In particular, we tend to associate the imagery and sensations of our earliest childhood with what is good and right. When we see something that chimes w
  
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• Exploring why we photograph animals – in pictures

  15-04-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A new collection of wildlife photography aims to help understand why people have photographed animals at different points in history and what it means in the present. Huw Lewis-Jones explores the animal in photography through the work of more than 100 photographers in Why We Photograph Animals, supporting the images with thematic essays to provide historical contextPhotography on display at the Cheltenham science festival 4-9 June 2024 Continue reading...
  
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• Licence to trill: Molly the magpie returned to Queensland carers after special wildlife permit granted

  15-04-2024 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen are allowed to keep the bird, which had become Instagram famous with their staffy, Peggy, but are forbidden from monetising itFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastMolly the magpie has been returned to its Gold Coast carers – but they are no longer allowed to make money from its 837,000 Instagram followers.The department of environment, science and innovation approved
  
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• Country diary 1974: adders find their place in the northern sun

  15-04-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  19 April 1974: They seem to put in an appearance as the weather turns warmer and you often see them lying onunpaved forest tracksNORTHUMBERLAND and DURHAM: The viper or adder is a common enough reptile of these two northern counties. They seem to put in an appearance as the weather turns warmer. Adders love to lie coiled on some rock in the rays of the sun. You often see them lying on the unpaved forest tracks which run through heatherland and the vast conifer forests. The southern flanks of the
  
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• Country diary: All of life is in these farmyard geese | Kate Blincoe

  15-04-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: There’s such comedy in their waddling aggression, and such tragic hope in their clutch that just won’t hatchThere’s a hissing noise, then a peal of nervous laughter. The grey gander is on the rampage again, chasing anyone who comes within a few metres of him and his goose. Usually the pair are sedate, waddling around together, orange beaks grazing the grass. They’re just another couple of farmyard characters among an assorted bunch of dogs, hor
  
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• ‘A glittering new world of intrigue’: the rich stories Britain’s insects have to tell

  13-04-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The fascinating, strange and sometimes hilarious insect world awakens in spring outside our doorsCast your vote for the UK invertebrate of the year I never expected a later-life love affair. But a few years ago, I was commissioned to write a book on garden insects and the earth moved. All of a sudden, I realised that my garden wasn’t just full of six-legged aliens, but characters, all with stories to tell, some of which were often bizarre and others hilarious. A few metres from my backdoor
  
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• ‘The anti-pet of bourgeois life’: why the world needs big cat energy

  13-04-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Whether by striking workers, poets or Pussy Riot, our feline friends have long been used as a symbol of resistance – radical by nature, they refuse to be tamedIn the 60 years since Julie Andrews sang about the cheering possibilities of whiskers on kittens, the fetishisation of the feline form has only grown stronger. Earlier this year, Somerset House even opened a Hello Kitty cafe as part of its Cute exhibition. By way of balance there is, of course, a jokey online culture a
  
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• UK invertebrate of the year: vote for your favourite

  13-04-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Over the past two weeks we’ve gone in search of the UK’s invertebrate of the year. Now it’s your chance to chooseMost of life on Earth is not like us at all. Barely 5% of all known living creatures are animals with backbones. The rest – at least 1.3 million species, and many more still to be discovered – are spineless. They are the invertebrates, animals of wondrous diversity, unique niches and innovative and interesting ways of making a living on this planet, which
  
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• Bonobos not the peace-loving primates once thought, study reveals

  12-04-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Male-on-male aggression more frequent among bonobos than chimps, but aggression between males and females less commonBonobos are not quite the peace-loving primates they have long been considered, researchers say, after finding that males show more aggression towards each other than chimpanzees.Bonobos and chimpanzees are humans’ closing living relatives. While chimpanzees are known to show aggression against each other – sometimes to the point of death – bonobos have long been
  
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• The week in wildlife – in pictures: greedy pelican and capricorn rising

  12-04-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• House sparrow tops Big Garden Birdwatch charts for 21st year in a row

  12-04-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Blue tits, starlings, wood pigeons and blackbirds next most sighted in RSPB survey involving 600,000 participantsA friendly if slightly tuneless chirp is the most ubiquitous birdsong in British gardens with the house sparrow topping the Big Garden Birdwatch charts for the 21st consecutive year, according to the annual RSPB survey.Blue tits, starlings, wood pigeons and blackbirds were the next most-sighted birds by more than 600,000 participants in the world’s largest wildlife garden survey
  
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• I’m a popular cyclist – but only when I bring my toy poodle along for the ride | Steven Herrick

  11-04-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It should not take a small dog to alert us all to the fact that cyclists are at-risk road usersI am a middle-aged man on a bicycle. I wear Lycra. According to the mainstream media, I’m a free-loading, red-light dodging, unregistered road warrior cruising on expensive cycle paths that would be better redesigned as traffic lanes.Yet every day I cycle, people smile at me. Tradies in utes lean out the window and give me the thumbs up. The other day a young woman stopped me and asked if she cou
  
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• What should you do if a cow attacks? I’ve finally found the answer | Adrian Chiles

  11-04-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Run away or stand still? Make yourself look big or make yourself look small? I asked a dairy farmer how to react when a walk in the country turns nastyMany has been the time I’ve dragged my daughter out for a walk, and everything is ticking along nicely until the footpath takes us through a field of cows. She says she’s scared; I say she’s being silly. She breaks into a run; I don’t. And the cows don’t take a blind bit of notice.I thought all cattle encounters were
  
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• ‘So weird and beautiful’: readers’ nominations for invertebrate of the year

  10-04-2024 15:39 via theguardian.com
  
  We asked readers for their favourite spineless wonders and were not disappointed. There are a few days left for nominationsInvertebrate of the year 2024: all hail Earth’s spineless heroesNominate your UK invertebrate species of the yearTunnellers, fliers, crawlers: your nominations for the UK invertebrate of the year have been pouring in, paying tribute to these wonderful creatures and testifying over and over again to the wonder and awe that they inspire.We still have a few days till the
  
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• Nominations for UK invertebrate species of the year

  10-04-2024 15:39 via theguardian.com
  
  We asked readers to nominate our favourite spineless wonders and were not disappointed. There are a few days left for nominationsInvertebrate of the year 2024: all hail Earth’s spineless heroesNominate your UK invertebrate species of the yearTunnellers, fliers, crawlers: your nominations for the UK invertebrate of the year have been pouring in, paying tribute to these wonderful creatures and testifying over and over again to the wonder and awe that they inspire.We still have a few days til
  
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• Outrage after US hunter who reportedly took wolf in bar and killed it only fined

  10-04-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Residents call for felony charges after Cody Roberts reportedly taped animal’s mouth shut, took photos and killed it behind barA Wyoming hunter who reportedly ran over a gray wolf with a snowmobile, taped the creature’s mouth shut, took a picture with it inside a local bar and then shot it to death behind the tavern has ignited calls for stiffer penalties in such an egregious case of animal abuse.Cody Roberts, 42, is at the center of the uproar after being ticketed and fined a couple
  
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• Molly the magpie set to be reunited with carers ‘very soon’, Queensland premier says

  10-04-2024 07:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Steven Miles says ‘good news’ as government finds way for seized bird to be returned to couple and Peggy, their Staffordshire bull terrierFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastInstagram-famous Molly the magpie could be flying home “very soon” after the Queensland premier declared there was a clear pathway to return the bird to its Gold Coast carers.Steven Miles threw his support behin
  
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• Molly the magpie set to be reunited with carers ‘very soon’ after Queensland premier intervenes

  10-04-2024 07:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Steven Miles says ‘good news’ as government finds way for seized bird to be returned to couple and Peggy, their Staffordshire bull terrierInstagram-famous Molly the magpie could be flying home “very soon” after the Queensland premier declared there was a clear pathway to return the bird to its Gold Coast carers.Steven Miles threw his support behind the Gold Coast couple, who cared for the animal after it was seized from them last month due to lack of a wildlife carer&rsqu
  
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• Tanya Plibersek’s proposal to save Toondah Harbour is a win for both threatened species and people power | Judith Hoyle

  10-04-2024 03:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Once a trickle, the movement to save Queensland’s Toondah Harbour has become a tidal wave – and a testament to the power of community in environmental conservationIt started with three friends walking their dogs.When locals Chris Walker, Stephen MacDonald and Tom Taranto learned one morning that Australia’s largest private developer, Walker Corporation, had their eyes on Toondah Harbour they were shocked into action. A movement began, initially a trickle but soon to become a ti
  
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• Tanya Plibersek’s proposal to save Toondah Harbour is a win for both threatened species and people power

  10-04-2024 03:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Once a trickle, the movement to save Queensland’s Toondah Harbour has become a tidal wave – and a testament to the power of community in environmental conservationIt started with three friends walking their dogs.When locals Chris Walker, Stephen MacDonald and Tom Taranto learned one morning that Australia’s largest private developer, Walker Corporation, had their eyes on Toondah Harbour they were shocked into action. A movement began, initially a trickle but soon to become a ti
  
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• Fox bones at ancient burial site suggest animal may have been kept as pet

  10-04-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Clues at Argentina site raise possibility mammal was buried with human owners about 1,500 years agoThe remains of a fox unearthed at a human burial site in Argentina dating back 1,500 years has raised the possibility the animal may have been kept as a pet, research suggests.Experts say the remains predate the arrival of domestic dogs in Patagonia, which occurred about 700–900 years ago, with a number of clues suggesting the fox was seen as valuable, and may even have been a companion to th
  
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• What Fifi the dog’s final months can show us about cancer treatment and caring until the end | Ranjana Srivastava

  09-04-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  After a decision to spare Fifi further interventions, she lives a full two months more – and teaches us a few things along the way“Ranjana, how long can Fifi live with liver cancer?”An unexpected aspect of being an oncologist (for humans) is being approached for advice about pets (usually dogs) with cancer. Bruno, Marco, Maisie, Ziggy, Chloe, Tiger, Muppet, Jessie, Bella, Buddy, Johnny, Wilfred. Apart from my own Odie, the dogs of my friends form the backdrop of my life. Not al
  
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• Crabs, kelp and mussels: Argentina’s waters teem with life – could a fish farm ban do the same for Chile?

  09-04-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  While the ecosystem is thriving off the coast of Argentina, the proliferation of salmon farms in Chile’s waters is threatening marine life, say criticsA rocky path, strewn with thick tree roots, leads from a dirt road down to a small green hut overlooking the choppy waters of the Beagle Channel, a strait between Chile and Argentina. The shack is home to Diane Mendez and her family but doubles as Alama Yagan, one of nine restaurants in the fishing village of Puerto Almanza.The village, in A
  
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