Scientists investigate thousands of dead Antarctic penguins for bird flu

Reuters Has bird flu already killed hundreds, if not thousands of penguins in Antarctica? That’s what researchers are seeking to find out after a scientific expedition last month found at least 532 dead Adelie penguins, with thousands more thought to have died, according to a statement from Federation University Australia. Researchers wearing protective suits collect […]
Postcards: Changing climate pushes migrating birds from parched Tunisian wetlands

JIHED ABIDELLAOUI, of Reuters, reports from Tunis…
Habitat at risk as Ukrainians crowd river seeking respite from war

Tylihul Estuary, Ukraine Reuters Kite surfers bounce along the gentle waves. A speedboat pulls children on an inflatable raft. Families soak up sunshine on a narrow beach. With most of Ukraine’s Black Sea Coast either occupied by Russian troops or in their line of fire, families seeking respite from life in a war zone are […]
Under threat: In Kenya, climate change shrinks Maasai Mara wildebeest migration

NITA BHALLA, of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports that one of the world’s great wildlife spectacles may be at risk of collapsing within decades as more frequent droughts and floods disrupt the Maasai Mara’s fragile ecosystem…
“Occupied and empowered”: Zimbabwe’s women-only rangers fight poachers and poverty

FARAI SHAWN MATIASHE, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports that the Akashinga unit offers a rare chance for poor and marginalised women, like school drop outs and abuse survivors, to build a career and protect nature…
Australia’s “black summer” bushfires killed or harmed more than 60,000 koalas – WWF

Sydney, Australia Reuters More than 60,000 koalas were killed, injured or displaced in Australian bushfires last summer, the World Wide Fund for Nature has estimated, in what it called a deeply disturbing number for a species already in trouble. Last summer’s bushfires, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison has dubbed Australia’s “black summer”, also killed 33 […]
As world falls behind on UN wildlife targets, bright spots offer hope

London, UK Reuters All the world’s governments have fallen short on pledges made a decade ago to protect wildlife, though cases of conservation show that the destruction of nature can be slowed, and even reversed, according to a UN report published on Tuesday. The report outlined recommendations for far-reaching changes in sectors from farming to […]
Wildlife populations in free fall as forests cut to grow food

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Thomson Reuters Foundation The average size of wildlife populations has plummeted by two-thirds worldwide since 1970 as forests were felled to grow food, green group WWF said Thursday, warning that harming ecosystems hikes the risk to humans of infectious diseases like COVID-19. Land conversion for farming and the wildlife trade were key […]
A Sustainable Life: Turn off the porch light – six easy ways to stop light pollution from harming our wildlife

In an article first published on The Conversation, academics EMILY FOBERT, KATHERINE DAFFORN and MARIANA MAYER-PINTO look at how you can help reduce light pollution impacts on wildlife…
Rescuer opens home to baby flying foxes orphaned by Australian bushfires

Bomaderry, Australia Reuters Janine Davies lifts out a three-week-old baby flying fox from its makeshift home of a towel draped over a rack in her bathroom and gently feeds it milk using a tiny bottle. Like any mother of a newborn, Davies is running on little sleep as she cares for around 50 grey-headed flying […]