Animals news

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• Beloved Alaska pet reindeer euthanized after cage tampering and possible poison

  02-04-2025 21:13
  
  Star, 8, began to lose weight after someone got inside pen, cut gate locks and sprayed substance over two-month spanA pet reindeer beloved by many in Alaska’s largest city has been euthanized, just weeks after someone tampered with his cage and possibly poisoned him, his caretaker said on Wednesday.“I don’t have an answer as to why he had to be put down other than it relates back to what happened,” said Albert Whitehead, who cared not only for the eight-year-old reindeer
  
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• Tell us about the people in your community working to protect our endangered species

  11-04-2025 17:00
  While the election is ignoring the issue of Australia’s extinction crisis, volunteers and community groups all around the country are doing their best to save our endangered species. We want to hear about themExplore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailAustralia is in the midst of what experts say is an extinction crisis, but the decline of the country&rsqu
  
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• Revealed: nearly 2m hectares of koala habitat bulldozed since 2011 – despite political promises to protect species

  11-04-2025 17:00
  Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystemsExplore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailNearly 2m hectares of forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a threatened species i
  
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• Week in wildlife: ospreys reunited, a monkey thief and a London fox cub

  11-04-2025 11:00
  
  The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Starlings fall to record low in UK’s 2025 Big Garden Birdwatch

  11-04-2025 07:00
  
  RSPB urges people to support threatened birds by cutting lawns less frequently and avoiding pesticidesFewer starlings than ever have been spotted by participants in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, raising fears for their numbers.The bird conservation charity is urging Britain’s gardeners to keep their lawns wild by not cutting them too often, and to avoid the use of pesticides, which reduce the number of insects to eat and can poison birds. Continue reading...
  
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• Have researchers really ‘de-extincted’ the dire wolf? No, but behind the hype was a genuine breakthrough | Helen Pilcher

  10-04-2025 16:50
  
  The pups are cute – and great for PR – but they’re modified grey wolves. The real work is being done with their red cousinsI’ve been waiting for this. Ever since researchers almost brought a wild goat species back from extinction in 2003, it was only a matter of time until someone came forward and said they had successfully “de-extincted” a species. Now, it has happened.This week, American biotech company Colossal Biosciences announced it had resurrected the d
  
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• Endangered yellow-bellied gliders and the tradie keeping watch over them – video

  10-04-2025 02:51
  Josh Bowell worries his kids may never see a wild yellow-bellied glider, one of the 2,000 Australian species listed as under threat. As scientists warn of an extinction crisis, the tradie is one of the passionate people protecting wildlife in his corner of south-east Queensland‘Endearing and fascinating’ yellow-bellied glider faces ‘inexorable slide’ into extinction Continue reading...
  
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• Can endangered species fight their own extinction? | Fiona Katauskas

  10-04-2025 02:45
  Sadly they’re no political animalsSee more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Endearing and fascinating’ yellow-bellied glider faces ‘inexorable slide’ into extinction

  09-04-2025 17:00
  
  Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystemsExplore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailAustralia’s most skilled aerial mammal, the yellow-bellied glider, is on an “inexorable slide” to extinction as global heat
  
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• Pet dogs have ‘extensive and multifarious’ impact on environment, new research finds

  09-04-2025 16:05
  
  Scale of environmental damage attributed to huge number of dogs globally as well as ‘lax or uninformed behaviour of dog owners’Dogs have “extensive and multifarious” environmental impacts, disturbing wildlife, polluting waterways and contributing to carbon emissions, new research has found.An Australian review of existing studies has argued that “the environmental impact of owned dogs is far greater, more insidious, and more concerning than is generally recognised&r
  
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• Mackerel stocks near breaking point because of overfishing, say experts

  09-04-2025 13:16
  
  North-east Atlantic mackerel in decline and Good Fish Guide says shoppers should look for other optionsMackerel stocks are nearing a “breaking point”, experts have said as the fish is downgraded as a sustainable option.People should be eating herring instead, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) said, because mackerel continues to be overfished by countries including Norway and the UK. Continue reading...
  
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• A moment that changed me: I brought a baby gorilla home – and learned so much about being a parent

  09-04-2025 07:55
  
  The seven months I spent hand-rearing Afia fast-tracked me through every stage of parenting: love, laughs and pride, followed by inevitable separation and lossIt was 2016, and I’d been a zookeeper for seven years. I lived with my partner and two stepchildren in a Victorian terrace house in Bristol. We’d met when her kids were four and eight, so I had not experienced the early baby stages, the sleepless nights, nappies and bottle-feeding.But that was about to change. Continue reading.
  
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• Birdwatch: The wader with a muddy name whose numbers are in steep decline

  09-04-2025 07:00
  
  Black-tailed godwits’ scientific name means ‘muddy muddy’, a moniker that doesn’t do justice to their eleganceWhen the tide is out on my Somerset coastal patch, there’s so much mud it looks as if you could walk all the way across the bay to Wales.That seemed apt when I came across a flock of black-tailed godwits, whose scientific name, Limosa limosa, literally means “muddy muddy”. The name seems inappropriate for such an elegant bird, although their long
  
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• The de-extinction of the dire wolf – is Jurassic Park really happening?

  08-04-2025 16:52
  
  These wolves were extinct for 10,000 years. Now, the DNA of their ancestors has brought them back to life. Should we be thrilled or terrified that these carnivores are back in action?Name: Dire wolves.Age: About 125,000 years old. Continue reading...
  
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• Emotional support animals may be a thing, but seven tigers? Sorry, this fad has gone far enough | Elle Hunt

  08-04-2025 12:00
  
  Dogs in court, alpacas on trains … the debate shows how much we lean on animals, and how little we regard their wellbeingIt’s not the first time that the justice system has been accused of going to the dogs – but it may be the first time it’s been meant literally.According to recent reports, defendants and witnesses in England and Wales have taken to bringing pets to court with them for emotional support, “causing chaos”. Judiciary officials have advised judg
  
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• The Penguin Lessons is the latest film to teach us animals rescue men from loneliness

  08-04-2025 11:26
  
  The comedy, about a curmudgeon played by Steve Coogan and his waddling new friend, joins a subgenre of movies from King Kong to John Wick – in which men are emotionally and socially rescued by animalsThe penguin at the centre of The Penguin Lessons, a new movie by Peter Cattaneo, is nothing if not hard-working. The film, adapted from the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, uses the political turmoil of Argentina in 1976 as a backdrop for the personal transformation of an English teacher at a boys&
  
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• The Penguin Lessons is just the latest film that teaches us how animals rescue men from loneliness

  08-04-2025 11:26
  
  The comedy, about a curmudgeon played by Steve Coogan and his waddling new friend, joins a subgenre of movies from King Kong to John Wick – in which men are emotionally and socially rescued by animalsThe penguin at the centre of The Penguin Lessons, a new movie by Peter Cattaneo, is nothing if not hard-working. The film, adapted from the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, uses the political turmoil of Argentina in 1976 as a backdrop for the personal transformation of an English teacher at a boys&
  
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• Country diary: There’s no better plasterer than a nuthatch | Nic Wilson

  08-04-2025 06:30
  
  Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire: I’m watching one prepare her nest, daubing and filling every gap with whatever claggy muck she can get her bill onThe bowling club car park is almost deserted. Above my car, three wood pigeons peck at ash flowers that hang like clusters of tiny fists, while I watch the trees through my binoculars from the driver’s seat, hoping I’ve arrived in time to catch a “mud‑dabber” in action for the third consecutive sprin
  
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• AI piano analogy does not play well for me | Brief letters

  07-04-2025 18:31
  
  Tech in creative industries | Reform rubbish | The English exit | Harris’s hawk | The F wordJohn Hinkley says artificial intelligence “is a tool – like a piano is to a composer” (Letters, 31 March). I don’t find this a realistic comparison. No matter how many times a pianist uses her piano to compose or to play her own or others’ works on it, the piano will never appear alone on stage, playing its own compositions and taking the pianist’s place. It seems
  
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• When sadness strikes I remember I’m not alone in loving the wild boundless beauty of the living world | Georgina Woods

  07-04-2025 17:00
  
  Nature will reclaim its place as a terrifying quasi-divine force that cannot be mastered. I find this strangely comfortingExplore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailAt times my work takes me to the big city and the tall buildings where people with power make decisions that affect the rest of us. While I am there, crossing busy roads, wearing tidy clothes and car
  
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• Earless dragons were presumed extinct in Australia – now Daisy and Kip have sniffed out 13 of them

  07-04-2025 17:00
  
  Zoos Victoria wildlife detection dogs uncovered the ‘bloody gorgeous’ reptiles in return for treats and cuddles Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereWildlife detection dogs successfully sniffed out 13 critically endangered earless dragons in previously unknown burrows in Melbourne’s west, after a training program launched by Zoos Victoria in 2023.The Victorian grassland earless dragon – Australia’s most imperil
  
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• Gopher tortoises find new home on Florida coast after astonishing journey to flee hurricane

  07-04-2025 13:00
  
  ‘Everybody in the ecosystem benefits from gopher tortoises being there,’ says ranger at park where the animals settledDozens of gopher tortoises survived a perilous sea crossing after being swept from their homes during Hurricane Helene last summer, and are enjoying a new lease of life on a remote stretch of Florida coastline.Rangers at Fort de Soto county park near St Petersburg say that before the September storm only eight of the vulnerable species were known to be living there. C
  
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• ‘We made everything bear-proof’: the Italian village that learned to love its bears

  07-04-2025 11:00
  
  By learning to live with its ursine neighbours, mountainous Pettorano sul Gizio has drawn tourists and new residents, bucking a trend of rural declinePettorano sul Gizio is a medieval mountain town full of alleys, watchful cats and wooden doors locked sometime in the last century. In the lower parts of town, rustic charm turns into abandonment – branches grow out of walls and roofs have fallen in. The only bar closed at Christmas, after the owner died. Some “For Sale” signs hav
  
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• It’s heroic, hardy and less than a millimetre long: meet the 2025 invertebrate of the year | Patrick Barkham

  07-04-2025 08:00
  
  Guardian readers around the world voted in the this year’s contest, celebrating our spineless, friendly neighbours. But which creature won?If you didn’t vote in the recent ballot, you missed out. Here was a vote where all 10 candidates were creative and morally upstanding, a vote unsullied by dubious lobbies, dodgy polls or demagogues. And if you’re seeking inspiration from a figure of strength who is also strangely cute then look no further than the winner of 2025: Milnesium t
  
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• Scientists target queen bees in search of secret to longer life

  07-04-2025 07:00
  
  UK’s £800m research body backs project that could unlock radical therapies to extend human lifespansThe curious case of the queen bee has long had scientists pondering whether the head of the hive harbours the secret to a long and healthy life.While queen bees and workers have nearly identical DNA, the queens enjoy what might be regarded as royal privileges. They are larger, fertile throughout life and survive for years compared with workers, who last a few months at best. Continue r
  
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• Scientists hoping to target queen bees in search of secret to longer life

  07-04-2025 07:00
  UK’s £800m research body backs project that might unlock radical therapies to extend human lifespansThe curious case of the queen bee has long had scientists pondering whether the head of the hive harbours the secret to a long and healthy life.While queen bees and workers have nearly identical DNA, the queens enjoy what might be regarded as royal privileges. They are larger, fertile throughout life and survive for years compared with workers, who last a few months at best. Continue r
  
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• Rainbow lorikeet is our most commonly spotted bird, Australia’s largest citizen science event finds

  07-04-2025 00:00
  
  About 57,000 people participated in the Aussie Bird Count, with the lorikeet joining the noisy miner and magpie in the top three spotsGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastThe rainbow lorikeet and its colourful plumage has topped Australia’s largest citizen science event as the most numerous bird recorded across the country.More than 4.1m birds were counted as part of BirdLife Australia’s annual Aussie Bird Count, a week-long event which involved 57,000 part
  
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• Is eating farmed salmon worth snuffing out 40m years of Tasmanian evolution? | Tim Flannery

  06-04-2025 21:06
  
  Without the strongest conservation efforts, it can’t be long before the Maugean skate – and other marine living fossils in Australia – are wiped outExplore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionAustralia is justly famous as a place where ancient species, long extinct elsewhere, live on. After aeons of adversity, Australia’s living fossils often survive only in protected habitats: the Wollemi, Huon and King Billy pines, the Queens
  
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• Who will win bigly from Trump tariffs? | Brief letters

  06-04-2025 18:39
  
  Money-making potential | Cost of living alphabet | Antisocial cats | The value of bin collectors | ManspreadingAfter Donald Trump raised a range of tariffs, the US stock market tanked (Report, 4 April). If Trump rescinded these, within weeks the stock market would bounce back. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know in advance when that was going to happen? Somebody could make a great deal of money.
  John Kinder
  Romsey, Hampshire• In the past, we referred to the ABC of the cost of
  
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• From blackening skies to barely casting a shadow – the Carnaby’s cockatoo faces a bleak future

  06-04-2025 17:00
  
  Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystemsExplore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailLess than a lifetime ago, great flocks of Carnaby’s cockatoos cast large shadows over Perth. Now, the long-term clearing of eucalypt fo
  
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