Environment

First fluorescent frog found in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — The first naturally fluorescent frog was discovered recently in Argentina — almost by chance, a member of the team of researchers told AFP Thursday. Argentine and Brazilian scientists at the Bernardino Rivadaiva Natural Sciences Museum made the discovery while studying the metabolic origin of pigments in a tree-frog species common to South America. Under normal light the frog’s translucent skin is a muted yellowish-brown color with red dots, but when […]

Great Barrier Reef may never recover from bleaching: study

PARIS, France (AFP) — Australia’s Great Barrier Reef may never recover from last year’s warming-driven coral bleaching, said a study Wednesday that called for urgent action in the face of ineffective conservation efforts. Record-high temperatures in 2015 and 2016 drove an unprecedented bleaching episode, which occurs when stressed corals expel the algae that live in their tissue and provide them with food. Bleached coral is more susceptible to disease, and without sufficient time to recover […]

Antarctic penguin numbers double previous estimates: scientists

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Almost six million Adelie penguins are living in East Antarctica, more than double the number previously thought, scientists said Wednesday in findings that have implications for conservation. Research by an Australian, French and Japanese team used aerial and ground surveys, tagging and resighting data and automated camera images over several breeding seasons, which allowed them to come up with the new figure. They focused on a 5,000 kilometre (3,100 mile) stretch of […]

Climate change drives thirsty koalas to special water stations

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) — Thirty kilometers (18.6 miles) south of the outback New South Wales town center of Gunnedah, semi-retired farmer Robert Frend is hoping to save an Australian icon, the koala, from dying of thirst. The marsupials are known to get their water from chewing on eucalyptus leaves. But in 2009, 25 per cent of the koala population in Gunnedah – the self-proclaimed “koala capital of the world” was lost due to a heatwave. […]

Curbing pollution can prevent 3 million Chinese deaths a year: study

PARIS, France (AFP) — China can avoid three million premature deaths each year if it slashes a type of fine-particle air pollution to United Nations-recommended levels, a study said Wednesday. The average daily particle concentration in 38 of China’s largest cities between January 2010 and June 2013 was about 93 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) of air, researchers reported in The BMJ medical journal. This was way over the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of […]

Reso on Paris Agreement approved on final reading in Senate

(Eagle News) — Senators on Tuesday posed no objections to the ratification of the Paris Agreement, with all 22 senators present concurring. “I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to my colleagues’ unanimous support on this historic day of the Senate’s concurrence in the accession to the Paris Agreement,” Senator Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on climate change, said. She said the country’s accession to the Paris Agreement “strengthens its role in climate […]

British-owned cruise ship damages pristine Indonesian coral reef

by Awa Mulalinda Agence France-Presse A British-owned cruise ship has smashed into pristine coral reefs, causing extensive damage in a remote corner of Indonesia known as one of the world’s most biodiverse marine habitats, researchers and officials said Tuesday. Raja Ampat in eastern Indonesia has long been a top attraction for intrepid travelers and avid divers, home to palm-fringed islands surrounded by an underwater kaleidoscope of coral and fish. But the 4,200-ton Caledonian Sky slammed […]

Thousands of hectares of mangroves ‘die of thirst’ in Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Thousands of hectares of mangroves in Australia’s remote north “died of thirst” last year, scientists said Tuesday, in the largest climate-related incident of its kind ever recorded. Some 7,400 hectares (18,000 acres), stretching 1,000 kilometers across the semi-arid Gulf of Carpentaria, perished, according to researchers from Australia’s James Cook University. The so-called die-back — where mangroves are either dead or defoliated — was confirmed by aerial and satellite surveys, with subsequent […]

Storm destroys Malta’s famous rock window

VALLETA, Malta (AFP) — Gale force winds and huge waves on Wednesday destroyed the iconic Azure Window, a coastal rock formation on the Maltese island of Gozo. The Azure Window, believed to have formed naturally in the mid-19th century, has become a landmark of Gozo and the island’s natural beauty. The massive rock arch landmark, with its flat top over the blue sea at Dwejra, is a staple image for Maltese tourist brochures. It seemed to […]

Zoo elephant gets shiny brass caps for his cracked tusks

CALIFORNIA, United States (Reuters) — Vus’Musi, a 13-year-old male zoo elephant in California, got a shiny new replacement for his worn-out tusks after a Fresno zoo capped them with brass. The Fresno Chaffee Zoo said on Thursday (March 9) that Vus’Musi had a history of being rough with his tusks and that they had become worn and cracked at his former zoo in San Diego. The cracks could have led to the tusks actually breaking, […]

Bumblebees have smelly feet to help them eat: study

by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Bumblebees have smelly feet, scientists revealed on Tuesday. Moreover, the odour in their tiny footprints is so potent that other bees can detect it hours after they had visited a flower, a team wrote in the journal Scientific Reports. Adding to the intrigue, experiments showed that bumblebees can distinguish the smell of their own feet from those of other bees. “This is the first […]

Most primate species at risk of extinction, says report

Reuters — Sixty percent of the world’s primates are at risk of extinction. That’s the stark warning issued by 31 of the world’s leading primatologists. The academics have published an article in the journal Science Advances entitled ‘Impending extinction crisis of the world’s primates: Why primates matter’. They warn that without immediate efforts to protect tropical forests from “unsustainable pressures”, humans could precipitate a mass extinction of our closest biological relatives. The report also states […]