Around The Web

Court rejects Allen Lambert’s claim dead birds of prey were planted on Norfolk estate by dog-walker with grudge against him

A gamekeeper found with a bag of nine dead buzzards on a pheasant-shooting estate has been found guilty of intentionally killing a protected species in what is England’s worst recorded case of poisoning birds of prey.

Allen Lambert, gamekeeper for 24 years at the Stody Estate in Norfolk, will be sentenced next month after being convicted of killing 10 buzzards and a sparrowhawk. Lambert was also found guilty of possessing illegal pesticides and other equipment including a syringe for injecting poison into eggs or meat baits, which prosecutors described as a “classic poisoner’s kit”.

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The Australian Heritage Council today welcomed the addition of the Murtoa No. 1 Grain Store in the Victorian wheat growing region of the Wimmera on the National Heritage List.

Australian Government today placed the ‘Cathedral of the Wimmera’ — The Murtoa No. 1 Grain Store on the National Heritage List.

Species across land, rivers and seas decimated as humans kill for food in unsustainable numbers and destroy habitats

• See picture gallery of wild animals facing decline

• George Monbiot: It’s time to shout stop on this war on the living world

The number of wild animals on Earth has halved in the past 40 years, according to a new analysis. Creatures across land, rivers and the seas are being decimated as humans kill them for food in unsustainable numbers, while polluting or destroying their habitats, the research by scientists at WWF and the Zoological Society of London found.

“If half the animals died in London zoo next week it would be front page news,” said Professor Ken Norris, ZSL’s director of science. “But that is happening in the great outdoors. This damage is not inevitable but a consequence of the way we choose to live.” He said nature, which provides food and clean water and air, was essential for human wellbeing.

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Agency application on ecological sustainability - call for public comments open from 1 October 2014 until 4 November 2014

Agency application on ecological sustainability - call for public comments open from 1 October 2014 until 4 November 2014

Living arboreal chinchilla rat thought to have been extinct is tracked down in Peruvian cloud forests, reports Mongabay

Below one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, scientists have made a remarkable discovery: a living, cat-sized mammal that until now was only known from fossils.

The Machu Picchu arboreal chinchilla rat (Cuscomys oblativa) was first described from two enigmatic skulls discovered in Incan pottery sculpted 400 years ago.

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Applications are now open for groups of research institutions to form research hubs to commence in January 2015. Applications close 5 November 2014.

Australia will host the Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit in Sydney on 12 November 2014.

Applications close 5.00 pm AEDT Thursday 30 October 2014.

There have been lots of stories about deadly spiders invading the UK, but the arachnids we’re most likely to meet won’t bite. So what should we look out for?

Spiders are in the news again. It happens this time every year. Why? Because now is the time for spiders, in their more-or-less annual life cycle, to reach maturity – in other words, their maximum adult size. And yes, some of them can seem very big. They especially grow large when they have had plenty to eat and, being insect predators, they have grown fat on the full and wholesome menu of all those flies and bugs that nice, warm, sunny 2014 has delivered in such abundance.

First, a key fact: all spiders are venomous. That’s how they catch their insect prey, by injecting venom down hollow fangs into their struggling victims. But they don’t really bite humans. We are much too big and taste foul. Think about it. The largest garden spider, seemingly the size of a ping-pong ball hanging ponderously in its web, just cannot get its delicate jaws open wide enough to bite even the daintiest finger. It would be like a human vainly trying to bite a giant pumpkin. Of Britain’s 600 different spider species, just half-a-dozen can open their mouths wide enough, and have fangs long enough to deliver a venomous nip. Despite tabloid horror headlines, it feels like a wasp sting. Even a mild cat scratch can become infected and ooze pus. Deaths from spider bites still hover around the zero mark.

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Lorries should have longer cabs, rounded noses and expanded glazed areas to increase visibility, Loughborough team says

Revamping lorry designs to overhaul blind spots in current models could save the lives of hundreds of cyclists and pedestrians every year, according to a new report by Loughborough University.

Lorries are responsible for over half of all cyclist deaths in London, a third across the UK as a whole, 43% of cycling fatalities in Belgium and 38% in the Netherlands.

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Draft conservation advice for the Posidonia australis seagrass meadows of the Manning-Hawkesbury ecoregion ecological community. Consultation period closes on 5 November 2014

Introducing extinct species to the landscape is called rewilding and advocates enthuse about the benefits. But opponents fear the impact could be devastating

• Rewilding made simple, an animated guide
  

A pair of highland ponies nibble grass as two kestrels swoop across the path. Up a rock face across this windswept valley deep in the Scottish highlands, a golden eagle is hunting for prey, its movements tracked by a GPS tag. Nearby are Scottish wildcats among the bracken – Europe’s rarest cat, with fewer than 400 left – plus red squirrels, black grouse, the occasional pine marten, shaggy highland cattle adapted to the harsh environment here, and, like much of the highlands, plenty of deer. Wild boar and moose roamed this corner of Sutherland until recently.

But if Paul Lister, the estate’s multimillionaire owner and the heir to the MFI fortune gets his way, two species not seen on this land for centuries could soon be added to the list: wolves and bears. Alladale estate, which Lister prefers to call a “wilderness reserve”, is one of the most ambitious examples of so-called “rewilding”, the banner under which a growing number of people are calling for the reintroduction of locally extinct species to landscapes. Bringing back species such as wolves, beavers and lynx, rewilding advocates say, can increase the diversity of other flora and fauna, enable woodlands to expand and help reconnect people with nature.

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Release of the Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: March 2014

Release of the Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: March 2014

Landcare and other community groups will share in up to $5 million, applications close 20 October 2014.

Agency application on ecological sustainability - call for public comments open from 19 September 2014 until 24 November 2014

The Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review is now underway following the setting aside of the management plans. A new website has been launched to provide ongoing information about the review. View the Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review website.

Draft Conservation advice for the Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland complex is open for public comment. Consultation period closes on 29 October 2014.