Traditional fruit orchards are vanishing from England’s landscape – with serious consequences for wildlife, conservationists have warned. The National Trust says 60% have disappeared since the 1950s, putting local varieties of apples, cherries, pears, plums and damsons under threat. It is launching a £536,000 drive to reverse the decline of the orchards. Their trees provide […]
Already threatened by global warming, harvesting krill to supply omega-3 oil means danger for Antarctica’s penguins By Gerry Leape Fifty years ago, delegates from 12 nations – including the United States, Norway and Japan – gathered in Washington DC to discuss how to protect Antarctica, the only continent without a native human population. The result […]
By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News The Sidamo lark could soon be the first bird on mainland Africa to die out since modern records began, a survey shows. A survey has found that just a few hundred of the larks survive in Ethiopia. Unless action is taken to save it, the bird will disappear. While […]
The valiant effort to save North America’s biggest bird from extinction has suffered a setback –nearly one-fifth of the cranes have died in the last 12 months. Drought and a wasting disease are the latest threats. By Ed Struzik When the world’s last remaining flock of wild whooping cranes set off on its migration south […]
By MAX HASTINGS Cuckoos are almost part of our national DNA, yet a new book reveals Britain’s glorious songbirds are disappearing at an alarming rate This is the season of the year when the natural pageant of the British countryside begins to unfold in a fashion which has enchanted poets and pastoralists since the beginning […]
Warm summers are dramatically reducing populations of daddy long legs, which in turn is having a severe impact on the bird populations which rely on them for food. New research by a team of bird experts, including Newcastle University’s Dr Mark Whittingham, spells out for the first time how climate change may affect upland bird […]
by Abby Haight, The Oregonian Researchers were shocked when they counted breeding tufted puffins along the Oregon coast last summer. The numbers showed the charismatic seabird with the comical mask had become alarmingly scarce. From 6,560 tufted puffins in 1979 to a rough count of 142 found on Oregon’s cliffsides and rock islands last year. […]
By Andrew Darby, Hobart THE first evidence suggests that a predicted rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide will wreak havoc on krill, the tiny crustacean at the heart of the Antarctic food web. Although public sympathy for the crustacean is undetectable, polar life such as penguins, seals and whales would wither without it. Captive-bred krill at […]
