The Guardian

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a coyote in the snow, a hungry ibis and giraffes on the move

Bringing children closer to nature is the first step to building the next generation of conservationists. Everyone should have that chance

• Matthew Gould is director general of the Zoological Society of London

It started with the monkeys. The Zoological Society of London, which I head, received a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to repurpose our Snowdon Aviary in London Zoo into an enclosure for colobus monkeys. This grant also enabled us to offer 100,000 heavily discounted tickets to community groups. We extended this so that anyone on benefits could buy a ticket for £3, which is a tenth of the cost of peak-season entry for an adult.

News of the £3 offer spread fast, and on the first day of February half-term it became clear that something extraordinary was happening. Literally thousands of families were descending on our zoos. Both London and Whipsnade had twice as many visitors as we had been expecting.

Matthew Gould is director general of the Zoological Society of London

National park in Senegal shows off three surprise new recruits in fight to save critically endangered species from extinction

A lioness in one of the world’s rarest lion populations has given birth to three cubs, new video footage shows, raising hopes that the critically endangered big cat can be saved from extinction.

In contrast to their southern cousins, west African lions have almost completely disappeared. Scientists believe between 120 and 374 remain in the wild, their historic range reduced to four populations clinging on in Nigeria, Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Researchers solve puzzle of how animal generates enough air flow 1,000 metres under water, where pressure is 100 times that at surface

The question of how the whale got its voice has been solved by scientists, who have discovered how the creatures use “phonic lips” in their nose to produce the loudest sounds in the animal kingdom.

The research also reveals that toothed whales, a group that includes killer whales, sperm whales, dolphins and porpoises, use three vocal registers equivalent to vocal fry (a low creaky voice), a normal speaking voice and falsetto.

Local campaigners succeed in bringing legal challenge after government overruled council’s rejection of project

Plans to drill for gas in the Surrey Hills will be put under judicial review and could be stopped, after local campaigners took the government to the high court.

Ministers previously gave the green light to three years of exploratory drilling at a site near Dunsfold on the edge of the Surrey Hills area of outstanding natural beauty.

A group of fishers searching for tuna were astonished when they encountered a shiver of sharks feeding about 15 miles off the coast of Louisiana last month. Dillon May, who filmed the animals on his camera, recounted that he and his girlfriend Kaitlyn Dix were aboard a friend's fishing boat when they noticed water movement. Initially, they assumed it was a tuna boil, caused by a school of tuna nibbling on food and agitating below the water's surface. However, they were amazed to discover that the disturbance was in fact a frenzy of hungry sharks thrashing in the water

Louisiana fisherman stumbles across scene of sharks gorging themselves on large pod of fish

Thinking he had spotted a “tuna boil”, and thereby found his own prey, a Louisiana fisherman soon realised he had instead stumbled across a huge group of sharks engaged in a feeding frenzy.

“Never seen anything like it,” Dillon May told Storyful, to whom he provided video of the remarkable scene.

Three defendants who glued themselves to City of London road in October 2021 face possible retrial

Three climate protesters who stopped traffic to bring rush hour chaos to the City of London face a possible retrial.

Dorset councillor Giovanna Lewis, 65, horticultural worker Amy Pritchard, 37, and screenwriter Paul Sheeky, 46, blocked traffic between Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street.

The carnivorous Phyllurus fimbriatus is only found in the wettest, rockiest pockets of Scawfell Island

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A new species of gecko that “looks like a little dragon”, with a beaky face and spiny leaf-shaped tail, has been discovered on an uninhabited Queensland island.

The new lizard was found on Scawfell Island, a rugged island about 50km offshore from the north Queensland city of Mackay.

The agency is familiar with dioxins, having researched its adverse effects, and if they test the soil in East Palestine for it, they will find it

The decision to release and burn five tanker cars of vinyl chloride and other chemicals at the site of a 38-car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, just over three weeks ago unleashed a gigantic cloud full of particulates that enveloped surrounding neighborhoods and farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

It is well documented that burning chlorinated chemicals like vinyl chloride will generate dioxins. “Dioxin” is the name given to a group of persistent, very toxic chemicals that share similar chemical structures. The most toxic form of dioxin is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin or TCDD. TCDD is more commonly recognized as the toxic contaminant found in Agent Orange and at Love Canal, New York and Times Beach, Missouri, both sites of two of the most tragic environmental catastrophes in US history.

Stephen Lester is a toxicologist and the science director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, a project of the People’s Action Institute

Crossbench senator’s support is crucial if government is to introduce planned revamp of safeguard mechanism

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The independent senator David Pocock has urged the Albanese government to quickly implement all recommendations from a review of Australia’s carbon credit system, given that it wants to introduce a climate policy that relies heavily on offsets.

Pocock’s is a key vote if the government is to introduce a planned revamp of the safeguard mechanism, a scheme that is meant to reduce carbon pollution from 215 big polluting industrial and resources sites.

IEA records rise of less than 1% from energy use in 2022, but 7% reduction needed every year this decade to meet emissions goal

Global carbon dioxide emissions are still rising but may at least be reaching a plateau, research from the International Energy Agency has shown.

CO2 from energy – by far the biggest source of emissions – increased by less than 1% in 2022. This was despite the turmoil in energy the markets caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Stop relying on big corporations and start being more self-sufficient. And then discover your own lettuces taste better

When vegetable shortages hit supermarkets earlier this month, I was probably less concerned than most salad lovers. I’ve been an urban gardener for seven years, growing my own food in an 8x5m space in London. It all began for me as a tribute to my grandfather, who taught me everything I know about gardening and the living soil around us: how to use every part of the fruit and vegetables I grow; the importance of micro-organisms; using organic practices to nurture plants and protect Mother Earth.

Now, I’m on a mission to help other people to grow their own food, to recreate the missing link with nature and to reduce their impact on the environment. I want to empower people with the knowledge to start their own supply of homegrown food, in order to stop relying completely on big corporations and start being more self-sufficient. You don’t need any specific skills to do this: by following some easy and basic steps you will be able to grow your own organic food at home.

Conservationists condemn latest cull as ‘trophy hunting’, while hunters admit it is ‘about the excitement’

Sweden has issued licences to hunters to kill a total of 201 lynx, weeks after dozens of wolves were killed in the country’s biggest wolf cull in modern times.

The number of licences to kill lynx throughout March, issued by Sweden’s country administrations, is more than double the number in recent years.

The best mages from the magazine’s annual competition, with categories for travel, wildlife, urban settings, people, food, landscape and portfolio

Analysis for Friends of the Earth also finds lower-income areas have far fewer trees than wealthier ones

Nearly half of English neighbourhoods have less than 10% tree cover, with lower-income areas having far fewer trees than wealthier ones, analysis has found.

England’s tree cover is just 12.8%, according to the research by Friends of the Earth, with only 10% made up by woodland – paling in comparison with the EU, where woodland cover stands at 38%.

Wealthy countries and businesses should act now to ensure success of historic nature agreement signed at Cop15 in Montreal

Governments and businesses must start implementing this decade’s deal to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems as soon as possible, the acting UN biodiversity chief has said, urging rich nations to tackle overconsumption of the planet’s resources.

David Cooper, the new acting executive secretary for the UN convention on biological diversity (CBD), said countries and corporations must immediately act on December’s historic agreement in Montreal, which includes targets to protect 30% of Earth, reform $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and address and disclose the impact businesses have on biodiversity.

A detailed reading of the company’s climate change report reveals a different picture from that of its headline claims

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Australia’s biggest oil and gas company, Woodside, came out with its annual climate change report this week.

“Woodside aims to thrive through the energy transition by building a low-cost, lower-carbon, profitable, resilient and diversified portfolio,” the company said, while also reporting an eye-watering $7.7bn profit for 2022.

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Study adds to fears Amazon is approaching tipping point after which it will not be able to generate its own rainfall

For the first time researchers have proven a clear correlation between deforestation and regional precipitation. Scientists hope it may encourage agricultural companies and governments in the Amazon and Congo basin regions and south-east Asia to invest more in protecting trees and other vegetation.

The study found that the more rainforests are cleared in tropical countries, the less local farmers will be able to depend on rain for their crops and pastures.

Once-abundant giant lacewing was believed extinct in eastern US but mislabelled specimen hints at surviving populations

A giant Jurassic-era insect missing from eastern North America for at least half a century has been spotted clinging to the side of a Walmart big box in Arkansas.

The identification of the giant lacewing – Polystoechotes punctata – in an urban area of Fayetteville, Arkansas, sent scientists into raptures. The discovery of a species that was abundant in the age of the dinosaurs but which was thought to have disappeared from large swaths of North America has stoked speculation that there may be entire populations tucked away in remote parts of the Ozark mountains.