Bangladesh police kill six alleged tiger poachers From BBC Asia Six suspected tiger poachers have been shot dead in a gunfight with Bangladeshi police at a hideout in the world’s largest mangrove forest. Police seized three tiger pelts which they said were from animals that appeared to be freshly killed. … Continue reading
Four-legged snake ancestor ‘dug burrows’ By Jonathan Webb Science reporter, BBC News A 113-million-year-old fossil from Brazil is the first four-legged snake that scientists have ever seen. Several other fossil snakes have been found with hind limbs, but the new find is estimated to be a direct ancestor of … Continue reading
Polar bears fail to adapt to lack of food in warmer Arctic By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News Polar bears are unable to adapt their behaviour to cope with the food losses associated with warmer summers in the Arctic. Scientists had believed that the animals would enter a … Continue reading
Watch This Ex-Circus Lion Feel Grass For The First Time by Morenike Adebayo iflscience.com Let’s face it – we’re all looking forward to retirement and crossing off a lot of firsts from that mounting to-do list. For one lucky ex-circus lion, this meant for the first time feeling grass … Continue reading
Terrifying ‘dementor’ wasp species named for evil spirits from Harry Potter From Treehugger.com By Margaret Badore (@mbadore) Science / Natural Sciences A species of wasp discovered in Thailand has been named for evil spirits invented by J. K. Rowling in her Harry Potter books. In the series, Dementors are … Continue reading
Australian student confirms that giant plasma tubes are floating above Earth CHRIS PASH, BUSINESS INSIDER Astronomers have for the first time captured visual evidence of the existence of tubular plasma structures in the inner layers of the magnetosphere surrounding the Earth. “For over 60 years, scientists believed these … Continue reading
The hitchhiking snakes of the Caribbean BBC By Rob Crossan Aruba For a long time no-one could understand how Aruba’s boa constrictors spread across the island so quickly. Then they realised – the snakes could easily travel miles by hiding under car bonnets and hitching a lift. This might be the … Continue reading
$7 million could save Madagascar’s lemurs Jeremy Hance mongabay.com Last year, scientists released an emergency three-year plan that they argued could, quite literally, save the world’s lemurs from mass extinction. Costing just $7.6 million, the plan focused on setting up better protections and conservation programs in 30 lemur hotspots. However, … Continue reading
By News from Elsewhere… …as found by BBC Monitoring Denmark: Scientists find new ‘pretty’ fungus species Hirticlavula elegans was found in the forests of northern Denmark, and at 1mm in height it’s quite tricky to spot without a magnifying glass, one researcher tells the Videnskab news website. “It is very, … Continue reading
From the BBC Obama push to expand Alaskan refuge US President Barack Obama is to propose setting aside the majority of Alaska’s national wildlife refuge as a wilderness area. This would halt the possibility of fossil fuel exploration in the refuge’s potentially oil-rich coastal plain. The proposal drew an angry … Continue reading
