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The insects’ brilliant hues evolved in lush ecosystems to help them survive. Now they are becoming more muted to adapt to degraded landscapes – and they are not the only things dulling down
The world is becoming less colourful. For butterflies, bold and bright wings once meant survival, helping them attract mates and hide from prey. But a new research project suggests that as humans replace rich tropical forests with monochrome, the colour of other creatures is leaching away.
“The colours on a butterfly’s wings are not trivial – they have been designed over millions of years,” says researcher and photographer Roberto García-Roa, who is part of a project in Brazil documenting how habitat loss is bleaching the natural world of colour.
Amiga arnaca found in a eucalyptus plantation, where scientists observed butterflies were less colourful than in native forests
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Marineland’s warning comes after Canadian official blocked the transfer of the beluga whales to a theme park in China
Marineland has threatened to euthanize 30 beluga whales if Canada’s federal government does not provide financial support for the embattled Niagara Falls amusement park. The warning comes after the country’s fisheries minister blocked the transfer of the captive whales to a theme park in China.
Marineland, an amusement park, zoo, aquarium and forest occupying nearly 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of land in Ontario, has endured mounting scrutiny over allegations the animals are living in poor conditions. The park, which once saw millions of visitors, did not open for the summer season and is winding down its operations in anticipation of a sale. In February, a lawyer for the park said it was planning to “expeditiously” remove the remaining animals still on the grounds.
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Restricted now to the tropical north, the mysterious red goshawk is fast disappearing as a result of climate change and habitat loss
Setting up a base in the tallest tree, usually around a creek somewhere, the red goshawk will hunt beneath the canopy – chasing down speed demons such as the rainbow lorikeet and plucking them out of the air.
The soft thrum of their deep, powerful, metre-wide wings can be heard from the ground as they accelerate, before they silently swoop and bank like some feathered fighter jet.
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About 350,000 flee homes as heavy rain and winds sweep region, while Hurricane Priscilla forms near Mexico
Typhoon Matmo made landfall on the southern coast of China on Sunday afternoon, shortly after sweeping across the island province of Hainan. The powerful storm forced the evacuation of about 350,000 people, bringing torrential rain and damaging winds, especially between Wuchuan in Guangdong and Wenchang in Hainan. Ferry services were suspended and flights cancelled at Haikou Meilan airport.
Matmo, the 21st typhoon of the year, had sustained wind speeds of 94mph (151km/h) and dumped more than 50mm of rainfall in six hours in Chongzou and Qinzhou. The city of Nanning also had high rainfall totals.
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Eskdale, Lake District: In a traditional event that includes hound trials and wrestling, there’s also a ‘world champion’ title at stake
The familiar clink of the metal hurdles as they open and close tells me I’m “home”: at a shepherds’ meet. Since 1866, on the last Saturday in September, the shepherds of the Lake District have met in Eskdale to celebrate local livestock, crafts and produce. That may sound old, but it started as an additional show to the May Tup Fair, which dates to the 1700s.
I’m here representing one of the show sponsors, the National Trust, which provides the trophy and sash for the main prize – the world champion Herdwick sheep, the breed being native to this area. The trust owns more than 20,000 sheep in the Lake District, mainlyHerdwicks, and they are an important cultural collection. The sheep are hefted to the fells, where they live without boundaries and are taught the territories by their mothers. The permanence of a landlord’s flock of sheep ensures continued management of the farms, and makes it easier to take on a farm without having to buy livestock. Each flock also carries genes that adapt the animal to this landscape: a double layer of fleece, and extra long eyelashes to cope with the rain on west-facing fellsides.
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Locals say staff from the Philippines and elsewhere have made life better, and plan to take their case to a government body
A group of dairy cows are grazing on a grassy slope overlooking the Irish sea, a picture-postcard scene that wouldn’t be out of place on a VisitScotland advert.
These are just some of the 1,200 Holstein-Jersey cross cows kept at Dourie Farm, perched on the hill above Port William in Dumfries and Galloway in the south-west of Scotland. The area is known for its mild, moist climate, thanks to the warm air brought across the Atlantic by the Gulf Stream.
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As well as embracing ‘beautiful coal’, the president has set about obliterating clean energy projects
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El Chaltén is a paradise for hikers. But the seasonal influx of tourists stretches the sanitation infrastructure to breaking point – and even a legal victory has not provided a solution
When people in the Patagonian village of El Chaltén saw untreated waste flowing into waterways and found the sewage plant was faulty, they grew increasingly concerned about the health risks from pollution in two glacier-fed rivers, the Fitz Roy and Las Vueltas.
The incident in 2016 led Marie Anière Martínez, a conservationist with the Patagonian environmental organisation Boana, and Lorena Martínez, a Los Glaciares national park official, to form a group to investigate water contamination at the Unesco world heritage site.
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Critics say move to axe Bill Clinton’s ‘roadless rule’ that protected key old-growth forests will be devastating to environment
In 1999, Bill Clinton ascended one of the highest summits in Virginia to announce that “the last, best unprotected wild lands anywhere in our nation” would be shielded by a new rule that banned roads, drilling and other disturbances within America’s most prized forests.
But today, this site in George Washington national forest, along with other near-pristine forests across the US that amount to 58m acres, equivalent to the size of the UK, could soon see chainsaws whir and logging trucks rumble through them amid a push by Donald Trump to raze these ecosystems for timber.
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Some days it can feel as if climate catastrophe is inevitable. But history is full of cases – such as the banning of whaling and CFCs – that show humanity can come together to avert disaster
By Kate Marvel. Read by Norma Butikofer
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