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Moreangels Mbizah has blazed a trail in Zimbabwe as the first black African woman to found a conservation organisation in the country
The turning point for Moreangels Mbizah came in 2014. The conservation biologist was in Hwange national park in Zimbabwe, scanning the savannah to monitor the movements of lions for her zoology PhD research.
The GPS signal told her something was wrong. One of the lions had strayed into a nearby village, putting itself and the local community at risk. Mbizah and her team took off to try to herd it back into its habitat.
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Nearly 60 countries back voluntary roadmaps to wean world off coal, oil and gas, at conference prompted by frustration with UN climate summits
Governments have been asked to develop national “roadmaps” setting out how they will end the production and use of fossil fuels, after a landmark climate meeting involving nearly 60 countries.
The voluntary plans will form the bedrock of a new initiative to wean the world off coal, oil and gas, the focus of two days of intensive talks in Colombia this week.
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With record temperatures bringing increased numbers of seals and dolphins, scientists say large predators could return to UK waters
Last year water temperatures in the North Sea reached record levels, with average surface temperatures a balmy 11.6C, the warmest since measurements started in 1969. And as waters continue to warm, a new study suggests great white sharks could start prowling British waters.
Olivier Lambert, from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, and colleagues studied whale fossils recovered from North Sea sediments dated to around 5m years ago. North Sea waters were warmer at this time and were home to several species of whale and shark. Fossilised tooth fragments embedded in the whale skulls revealed that sharks had feasted on them.
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Elusive nightingale ‘doing well’ at Northward Hill, Kent, but experts cite concerns around loss of habitat
The dawn chorus at RSPB Northward Hill in Kent is a riot of sound: the melodic robin, the two-tone cuckoo, the whitethroat’s scratchy warble. Even the garbling geese and mooing cows from the neighbouring Thames marshes add to the symphony.
But in late April one energetic singer hogs the limelight. For a few weeks after arriving from West Africa, the nightingale spends the night – and early morning – in complex song. As it searches for a mate and marks its territory, its song is at times as sweet and tuneful as a soul singer, at others as frantic as a car alarm.
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The bizarre vertical flight pattern has long puzzled experts but new research reveals why it may play a crucial role in the insect’s survival
On a spring evening along the banks of the River Thames, thousands of mayflies can be seen engaging in what may be one of the world’s oldest dances. In the fading light, the males make a steep vertical climb, flip over and float back to Earth – wings and tail outstretched in a skydiving posture so as to drop slowly through the sky.
Mayflies are among the world’s oldest winged insects, emerging roughly 300m years ago – long before dinosaurs walked the Earth. Even the Mesopotamian poem the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest pieces of literature, makes reference to the short-lived mayfly. Over the epochs, the insect’s basic design has changed very little compared with the fossils of their ancestors.
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Abernethy Forest, Scotland: On glorious mornings like this, with the woods ringing with sound and light, I’m glad there is extra protection from wildfires
In the pinewoods, the colours are slowly shifting, the birches to their spring green and the larch roses blossoming pink. The pair of pied wagtails have returned to our neighbour’s shed and the peewits are back on the marshes, though fewer in number (and there are two pairs of crows that maraud their territory).
The siskins have returned in numbers, huge skeins of geese have been flying north, and the swallows and housemartins are back earlier than usual, though they are still just passing through – “ours” are not yet here.
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A KCL study has found that exposure during the first trimester of pregnancy delayed speech development
Babies exposed to higher levels of air pollution in the early stages of pregnancy take longer to learn to speak than those exposed to lower levels in the womb, new research suggests.
A study by researchers from King’s College London found exposure to nitrogen dioxide and fine and ultra-fine particulate matter during the first trimester of pregnancy delayed speech development at 18 months.
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Researchers found the loss of just a few eggs to opportunistic predators could greatly increase the songbird’s risk of extinction within 20 years
Captured on one of Bianca McBryde’s tree-mounted cameras, the brush-tailed possum crawls into the frame, lowers its head into the nest and bites into the egg.
The snack was a shop-bought quail’s egg and the nest was artificial – a crafty construction made of half a tennis ball, some brown paint and fibres from the husks of coconuts.
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Authorities are yet to decide how they will move the body of the massive creature, which is attracting humans, eagles – and plenty of sharks
Thin strips of flesh hang down like rotten tinsel, swaying in the wind. Glistening fluid trickles on to the stone where insects buzz. On the windward side, the odour is masked by the salty air. But step downwind, and you enter a sickly, sour-sweet blend of garbage and rotting fish. A passing couple pull their T-shirts tight over their noses.
On a rock shelf at the southern end of Era beach, the estimated 25-tonne body of a sperm whale rests like a melted candle. Looking down at the rock pools, floating chunks of white fat bob in the water.
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Pace of sea-level rise has turned Outer Banks coastal area into a ‘canary in the coalmine’ for other east coast communities
Moving house has a more literal meaning on Hatteras Island, the slender hook of land that juts off the coast of North Carolina. After a slew of houses toppled spectacularly into the Atlantic Ocean recently, entire buildings are now being lifted on to wheels to flee the rapidly eroding coastline.
Since September, 19 homes have been lost to waves that tore them from their pilings, sending them crashing into other structures like bumper cars before breaking up in the ocean. Spooked homeowners have turned to the unusual services of Barry Crum, a lifelong Hatteras resident who has become the island’s main house mover.
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