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Pigs' teeth and hippo poo: behind the scenes at London zoo
The Zoological Society of London zoo is home to more than 650 animal species. Photographer Linda Nylind was given exclusive access to spend time with the keepers and find out more about their daily routines
London zoo was established in 1828 and is the world’s oldest scientific zoo. Created as a collection for the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the animals from the Tower of London’s menagerie were transferred there in 1832 and it opened to the public in 1847. Today it houses more than 20,000 animals and almost 700 species.
ZSL is not funded by the state – it relies on memberships and fellowships, entrance fees and sponsorship to generate income.
Continue reading...Bloodhound record bid slips again
Couple donates bug collection worth $10m, a goldmine for researchers
Collection will help scientists piece together a large branch of insects’ family tree and be a resource for scientists who study natural controls on the environment
In two rooms of Charles and Lois O’Briens’ modest home in Tucson, Arizona, more than a million insects – a collection worth an estimated $10m – rest in tombs of glass and homemade shelving. They come from every continent and corner of the world, gathered over almost six decades; a bug story that began as a love story.
This week, the O’Briens, both octogenarians, announced that they would donate their collection, one of the world’s largest private holdings, to Arizona State University.
Continue reading...Earth Hour celebrates its 10 year anniversary
Tim Wilson condemns One Nation Islam stance, supports law change for same-sex marriage
Lives on the limestone: catkins and bugs in boles
Stoke Wood, Northamptonshire Hazel, as boles, can provide a rich hunting ground and my first unusual find is a pill millipede
The rolling limestone landscape exhibits the first signs of spring. Hawthorn buds burst with fresh green leaves and huge queen bumblebees career between blossoming sallow shrubs. Rockingham Forest once spanned these valleys and hills, and Stoke Wood is a salvaged fragment of that vast forest.
The wood has a rich ground flora; bluebell leaves push through in many areas, while elsewhere there are ankle-high seas of proud and pointed-leaved dog’s mercury, the plants already waving their unassuming tassels of green flowers.
Continue reading...Turnbull leaves open idea of carbon credits to meet emissions target
‘High quality units’ could lower cost of obligations, discussion paper says, despite previous opposition from Tony Abbott
The Turnbull government has left open the prospect of using international carbon credits to help meet Australia’s emissions reduction targets at lowest cost, a practice Tony Abbott ruled out when he was prime minister.
While Abbott used to characterise the trade of international credits as “money that shouldn’t be going offshore into dodgy carbon farms in Equatorial Guinea and Kazakhstan” – a new discussion paper, released on Friday, notes that “high quality international units could contribute to lowering the costs of meeting [Australia’s] 2030 target”.
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Fear and loathing about renewable grid in Coober Pedy
How the fossil fuel industry has screwed energy consumers
Qld looks to voltage changes to encourage more rooftop solar
Coalition sets climate parameters, as two more quit key advisory body
Breitbart's James Delingpole says reef bleaching is 'fake news', hits peak denial | Graham Readfearn
A claim like this takes lashings of chutzpah, blinkers the size of Trump’s hairspray bill and more hubris than you can shake a branch of dead coral at
It takes a very special person to label the photographed, documented, filmed and studied phenomenon of mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef “fake news”.
You need lashings of chutzpah, blinkers the size of Donald Trump’s hairspray bill and more hubris than you can shake a branch of dead coral at.
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