France’s bird population collapses due to pesticides – “The situation is catastrophic. Our countryside is in the process of becoming a veritable desert.”

20 March 2018 (AFP) –  Bird populations across the French countryside have fallen by a third over the last decade and a half, researchers have said. Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, the scientists said in a pair of studies – one national in scope and the other […]

Tens of thousands of starfish wash up on British beach following extreme change in temperature

By Lewis Pennock 4 March 2018 (The Independent) – Thousands of dead starfish washed up on a British beach following the ‘beast from the east’ weather snap.The spectacular scene in Ramsgate, Kent, was described as “like the armageddon” by wildlife enthusiast Lara Maiklem, 47, who photographed the phenomenon.She estimated “hundreds of thousands” of starfish and […]

Arctic spring starts 16 days earlier than a decade ago and arrives sooner than lower latitudes

By Kat Kerlin 2 March 2018 (UC Davis) – Spring is arriving earlier, but how much earlier? The answer depends on where on Earth you find yourself, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis.The study, published in Nature’s online journal Scientific Reports, found that for every 10 degrees north from the […]

Trump administration cancels decades-old protections for migratory birds – 17 former wildlife officials urge Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to suspend the “ill-conceived” opinion

By Elizabeth Shogren 26 January 2018 (High Country News) – The Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks have sparked a lot of outrage. But one recent action by the Interior Department drew unprecedented protest from a bipartisan group of top officials who go all the way back to the Nixon administration: a new legal opinion that attempts […]

“Decimated”: Germany’s birds disappear as insect abundance plummets 76 percent

By Morgan Erickson-Davis 27 October 2017 (Mongabay) – A new study in PLOS ONE reveals a 76 percent reduction in Germany’s flying insect biomass over the past 27 years while another reports the country’s bird abundance has declined 15 percent in just over a decade. While the causes behind the insect decline haven’t yet been […]

Penguin catastrophe leaves thousands of chicks dead with only two survivors – “It’s like ‘Tarantino does Happy Feet’, with dead penguin chicks strewn across a beach in Adélie Land”

By Manisha Ganguly 13 October 2017 (CNN) – A penguin colony in Antarctica has suffered a massive breeding failure, with only two chicks surviving the disaster. Terre Adélie (Adélie Land) is home to more than 18,000 pairs of Adélie penguins, but this year almost all the seabirds’ babies starved to death, a situation one expert […]

Another victim of Hurricane Maria: Puerto Rico’s treasured rainforest – “The whole forest is completely defoliated”

By Luis Ferré-Sadurní 11 October 2017LUQUILLO, Puerto Rico (The New York Times) – When you looked up, you could once see nothing but the lush, emerald canopy of tabonuco and sierra palm trees covering El Yunque National Forest. That was before Hurricane Maria obliterated the only tropical rain forest in the United States forest system. […]

Trump administration denies 25 animal species endangered protection – “This is a truly dark day for America’s imperiled wildlife”

By Doyle Rice 5 October 2017 (USA Today) – From walruses to turtles and woodpeckers to toads, the Trump administration Wednesday declined to list 25 species as endangered, noting that extra protection “is not warranted at this time.” Of particular concern to environmental groups is the Pacific walrus, which had been considered a candidate for […]

Poachers target Africa’s lions, vultures with poison

By Christopher Torchia 27 September 2017 JOHANNESBURG (Associated Press) – Hundreds of vultures in Namibia died after feeding on an elephant carcass that poachers had poisoned. Poachers in Zimbabwe used cyanide to kill dozens of elephants for their ivory tusks. In Mozambique three lions died after eating bait infused with a crop pesticide. Poisoning Africa’s […]

Oil spills perturb entire ocean food webs – Gulf of Mexico ecosystem may never recover

Heidelberg, New York, 10 July 2017 (Springer Nature) – Oil spills not only have a direct impact on species and habitats, but may also set off a cascade of perturbations that affect the entire food web. These are the findings of new research published in an article in the special issue on Ocean Spills and […]

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