Check out the fresh new nature shows on the app this week
In our opinion, you can never get enough nature documentaries. There’s something about sitting down and putting on a great show about the many animals that inhabit our grand old planet that really get’s us going. That’s why we’ve collated some of the most interesting natural history documentaries out there right now and bundled them … Continued
Inky the octopus pulls off great escape from NZ aquarium
In scenes that could have been lifted straight from Finding Nemo, an ingenious octopus has pulled off a daring escape from New Zealand’s National Aquarium. Inky, a rugby ball–sized octopus, managed to bust out of his tank under the cloak of darkness, before legging it across the floor, clambering down a 50-metre drainpipe and disappearing … Continued
World's longest snake caught in Panang, Malaysia
A new World Record for the longest snake ever caught may have just been set, with the reported discovery and capture of a gigantic reticulated python on a building site in Malaysia. Early estimates are claiming that the snake, spotted by workers during the construction of a flyover in Paya Terubong on the popular tourist … Continued
Deer were transported to Scotland's islands 5000 years ago by mysterious Stone Age animal traffickers
The sight of a stag tilting his crown of antlers back and splitting the morning mist with a mighty bellow has become an iconic image of Scotland, much depicted on everything from paintings to mousepads in tourist shops, but according to new research, the red deer in the Highland glens are distinct from those on … Continued
Wanted: volunteers to study penguins in Antarctica
Yesterday saw the launch of a new phase of Oxford University’s PenguinWatch, an ambitious project that began in 2014 and is aimed at recording the fortunes and monitoring the activities of Antarctica’s penguin colonies. However, for ‘PenguinWatch 2.0‘ to work properly, the British scientists need your help. By collaborating with a penguin census that has … Continued
Roar deal: Tigers officially extinct in Cambodia, but government plans to bring big cats back from the dead
Conservationists in Cambodia have conceded that tigers are ‘functionally extinct’ in the country. The kingdom’s forests were once patrolled by a healthy numbers of magnificent Indochinese tigers, but World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) this week reported that poaching has wiped the Cambodian population out completely, with the big cats and their prey species both … Continued
Orphaned elephants begin journey towards life in the wild
Orphaned Elephants Zambezi and Musolole have taken their first steps towards a life back in the wild. Last month they were relocated from the Lilayi Elephant Nursery outside Lusaka to the Kafue Release Facility in Kafue National Park. The translocation began very early in the morning at the nursery with both elephants being sedated for … Continued
The story behind the tiger that fell out of a truck in Doha and ran away, straight onto social media
A few weeks back an immature tiger became the latest in the series of exotic ‘pets’ to make headlines. According to this video posted on Facebook, the young tiger fell out of the back of a truck onto a jam-packed road in the Qatari metropolis Doha, and spent a few moments desperately seeking cover before … Continued
New Alaskan butterfly with antifreeze in its blood tells tales about climate change
A newly identified Alaskan butterfly, which is thought to be a hybrid of two ancient species that possibly mated prior to the last ice age, could be a valuable messenger for scientists studying climate change, according to a leading lepidopterist (butterfly boffin). But that’s not its only trick. Butterflies are cold-blooded creatures (although they have … Continued
Minke-eating mink? Norway accused of feeding fur farm animals with whale meat
As Norway’s whaling fleet prepares to hit the high seas to begin its annual hunt for minke whales, a report just released by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) suggests that market demand for whale meat is so low that unsellable stock is ending up as feed for animals being … Continued
The story behind the tiger that fell out of a truck in Doha and ran away, straight onto social media
A few weeks back an immature tiger became the latest in the series of exotic ‘pets’ to make headlines. According to this video posted on Facebook, the young tiger fell out of the back of a truck onto a jam-packed road in the Qatari metropolis Doha, and spent a few moments desperately seeking cover before … Continued
Unique species of frog discovered to wear fanciful arrays of ‘hats’ and even a butterfly crown
A rare and elusive species of frog has been discovered in the rainforests of South East Asia with a unique penchant for one particular type of ornamentation: wearing a vast array of fanciful hats and headpieces. The ‘pale pink frog’, whose Latin name Idrafloris hyphantes literally translates means ‘skilful flower holder’ was observed by researchers … Continued
Russia revives combat dolphin programme
As relations between Eastern and Western superpowers continue to cool, Russia looks poised to restart a programme mothballed after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which once saw dolphins and other intelligent marine mammals used for military missions. Accessing the government’s procurement website, Russian reporters revealed that an … Continued
Japan has just slaughtered hundreds of pregnant minke whales
According to a report just released by the National Geographic’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Japanese whalers have recently slaughtered 333 minke whales, including more than 200 pregnant females, under the guise of scientific research. Four whaling ships returned to port on Wednesday, after a 115-day expedition to the Antarctic, and their bloody haul was documented … Continued
7 reasons to stop being worried about shark attacks
The thought of being attacked by a shark is universally terrifying. Being literally out of your depth in an ocean full of these impressive predators is something most of us try not to think about during a visit to the beach. Indeed it can be enough to put some people off swimming in the sea … Continued
Record-smashing seaside survey reveals surprises all along UK's coastline
The results from the biggest nature survey ever conducted along the coastline of Britain have just come in, and they contain some super surprises, with multiple species being ‘rediscovered’ or found for the first time in various regions where their presence had never been previously recorded. The interactive survey was conducted by the National Trust … Continued
Meet Brian, a newly discovered surfing spider from Australia
A species of spider just discovered in Queensland, Australia, has been observed surfing waves, swimming and diving underwater to catch its prey, which can include animals as big as frogs. The spider, which can grow to the size of an adult human’s palm, has been called Brian after the noted American theoretical physicist Brian Greene, … Continued
We are the rangers: Mapping a message of conservation into Minecraft
It’s been called Lego for the digital age, the popularity of Minecraft—created by Microsoft-owned developer Mojang—lying in the game’s ability to let anyone dive right in and create anything they could possibly imagine. Now a new community-made and charity-backed map of the game is going one step further, creating an interactive world to help teach … Continued
SeaWorld era of performing orcas is effectively dead and buried
American aquatic theme-park empire, SeaWorld, has just announced that it will stop breeding orcas in captivity with immediate effect, and will begin phasing out its killer whale theatrical shows. The move comes after several years of very high-profile negative coverage and controversy, including claims of mistreatment of orcas, which began in earnest following the death … Continued
NASA report reveals scorched Earth
Figures just released by NASA have revealed that the surface temperature on Planet Earth absolutely soared in February this year, as the world experienced the most dramatic and biggest month-on-month increase in global warming since records began. Information released by the space agency—which has been described by scientists such as Dr Jeff Masters and Bob … Continued
Spatial Awareness—5 years of cosmic exploration and revelation
As a new joint Euro-Russian space mission blasts off on a mission to Mars, to discover whether the planet’s methane is being produced by windy alien microorganisms living just below the red crust, we take a trip through the last five brain-blowing years of space exploration. Over the last half-decade, our understanding of the cosmos … Continued
Life of the foxes surviving in suburbia
It’s a curious paradox that those of us living in urban and suburban parts of the UK often rub shoulders more closely with wildlife than country folk do. But how did these animals end up in such incongruous living conditions, how do they survive and do humans and wildlife always make good neighbours? Driven out … Continued
Ocean hum blamed on farting fish from twilight zone
The source of a baffling buzzing noise emanating from the midst of the Pacific Ocean, which has been driving scientists to distraction for years, may have finally been figured out: according to a team from the University of California, who dangled microphones 1000 metres into the depths, it’s probably being caused by farting fish. The … Continued
Gorillas sing for their supper
Gorillas hum and sing little tunes while eating certain foods, using a form of vocalisation that is completely distinct from the noises they make when engaged in any other activity, a new study has revealed. Zookeepers have long observed this humming habit in captive gorillas, and they say that the song becomes louder the more … Continued
New Guinea's rainforests are being destroyed with apparent impunity
It’s becoming hard to see the (rain) forests for the (felled) trees on the island of New Guinea at the moment. With a legal farce involving a renowned large-scale timber thief playing out in West Papua, a new report has also just revealed that an area of Papua New Guinea’s rainforests larger than Australia’s entire … Continued
Church of the chimp: Primates seen performing rituals and building shrines
Wildlife researchers have witnessed and filmed startling habitual behaviour being exhibited by wild chimpanzees that suggests the animals are treating certain trees as ‘sacred’, in a similar way to early humans. In rituals first noted in the Republic of Guinea, chimps were seen throwing rocks at a particular tree. In itself, this might seem unremarkable, … Continued