Update from Wild Justice

 

 

 

Good afternoon!

 

Here are several pieces of good news to end the week.

 

  1. Heather burning restrictions in England: if you were one of our many supporters who signed our e-action (with Hen Harrier Action and RSPB) last August you will have been pleased with the measures brought in before Christmas to license moorland management in Scotland and today brings long-overdue movement from DEFRA in England. Today's announcement isn't perfect, we need to read it carefully, but it is bringing in significant change and reform to moorland burning practices over a very wide area of upland England from Yorkshire to Lancashire and from Derbyshire to Northumberland. If you participated in our e-action you helped bring that about. Thank you.

 

 2. Badger petition: our e-petition has passed 91,000 signatures and is heading very rapidly for 100,000 which should generate a Westminster Hall parliamentary debate. If you haven't already signed, then please have a look and see whether you can add your support - click here - thank you.

 

 3. Wales, gamebirds and general licences: we have heard from the Welsh government that they are planning to introduce restrictions on gamebird releases next year. Wild Justice will be involved in those discussions. We are also going to meet NRW to discuss their next steps on general licences.

 

 4. Gamebird releases, England: following our successful legal challenge over gamebird releases DEFRA will issue a consultation in early February. We have been involved in discussions about this. We will be encouraging our supporters to respond to the consultation through a future newsletter a few days after the consultation is launched.

 

5. General licences, England:  changes to the system that have been brought in followig the Wild Justice legal challenge are beginning to bite. See this blog about how Natural England is beginning to clamp down on casual killing of birds - click here. It's a start.

 

 

If you like what we are doing then please consider making a donation through   PayPal, bank transfer or a cheque in the post - see details here.  A very small number of people have been put off donating to us through bank transfer because of a slightly scary message - there is nothing to worry about but see here for more details - click here.

 

That's it for now. Have a good weekend!

 

Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).   Photo credit: heather burning, Sarah Hanson.

BBC: Little girl finds dinosaur footprint

 

IMAGE COPYRIGHTNATIONAL MUSEUM WALES

image captionThe footprint dates back 220 million years

A well-preserved dinosaur footprint has been discovered by a four-year-old girl on a beach.

Lily Wilder spotted it at Bendricks Bay, Barry, in the Vale of Glamorgan - and scientists believe it could help establish how they walked. 

The footprint, spotted in January, is 220 million years old and had been preserved in mud. 

While it is impossible to tell what type left it, the print is 10cm long and likely from a 75cm tall dinosaur.

National Museum Wales palaeontology curator Cindy Howells described it as "the best specimen ever found on this beach".

Read on...

PODCASTS: chupacabras

 Episode 22: El Chupacabra

Forging Into the Unknown With Carter and Josh - Podbean

Since the first claims of a Chupacabra sightings in 1995, these blood sucking creatures have popped up all over north and south America with ...

Easy Podcast: La fascinante historia del "Chupacabras" - Easy Español Easy Espanol The Chupacabras: mythical creature, wild animal or urban legend? Listen to our podcast on this terrifying beast & decide for yourself!

More on that Maine mystery animal

Trail Cam Photo Leads Experts to Question Mystery Animal in Maine wokq.com What is THAT? A recent trail cam photo really raised eyebrows on whether Lowell, Maine has its own version of the Chupacabra. The photo posted by ...

Chupacabras in Chile

 

'Evil' blood-sucking creature drains 50 livestock dry and vanishes without trace Daily Star According to Mr Choque, the Chupacabra is a zombie-like mythological entity that feeds off of the blood of cattle. He said: "At first when two or three ... Flag as irrelevant

The mystery of wombat droppings

 

Message Body

<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/29/box-seat-scientists-solve-the-mystery-of-why-wombats-have-cube-shaped-poo>

Unique physiology allows the Australian marsupial to produce square-shaped faeces that may aid communication

How wombats produce their cube-shape poo has long been a biological puzzle but now an international study has provided the answer to this unusual natural phenomenon.

The cube shape is formed within the intestines – not at the point of exit, as previously thought – according to research published in scientific journal Soft Matter on Thursday.

The paper expands upon preliminary findings first presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society's fluid dynamics division in Georgia in 2018.

Dr Scott Carver, wildlife ecologist at the University of Tasmania and one of the authors of the research paper, said "there were wonderfully colourful hypotheses around but no one had tested it".
 
There was speculation that wombats had a square-shaped anus sphincter, that the faeces get squeezed between the pelvic bones, as well as the "complete nonsense" idea that wombats pat the faeces into shape after they deposit them.

The project originated four years ago when Carver was dissecting a euthanised wombat hit by a car and noticed the cubes in the last metre of the wombat's intestine. Carver described it as an "isn't that odd moment".

"The thing that is striking, how do you produce cubes inside essentially a soft tube?"

The team of researchers in Australia, including the head veterinarian at Taronga zoo, Larry Vogelnest, tested the tensile strings of the intestine while physicists in the US based at the Georgia Institute of Technology created mathematical models to simulate the production of cubes.

The team discovered big changes in the thickness of muscles inside the intestine, varying between two stiffer regions and two more flexible regions.

"The rhythmical contractions help form the sharp corners of the cubes," Carver said.

Read on...

An experiment demonstrating how mangroves protect coastlines. Other habitats such as coral reefs and kelp forests also provide a similar function...... (via Louis)

Chupacabras blamed for animal attacks in Chile

 Chupacabra Blamed for 50 Mysterious Young Animal Deaths in Chile

Mysterious Universe

If that's not a Chupacabra modus operandi – what is it? "He makes a hole in them and not in the neck but in the side, he does not eat the meat, nor the .

 

Mangrove trees: marvellous, magnificent and - frankly - miraculous

They say that if trees produced Wi-Fi we’d be planting millions.

Instead, they ‘only’ help us breathe.

And for mangroves that is barely the beginning.

These quite extraordinary life forms are responsible for defending coastlines, harbouring monkeys, protecting reefs, providing nurseries (for sharks, that is), supporting communities and averting human-induced climate chaos at a rate better than pretty much any other tree.

They are the silent superheroes of the natural world.

They store carbon ten times more efficiently than any other forest - gargantuan storage equal to the annual emissions of China and the US combined. Put plainly, a lot.

But all that carbon is being released, all those communities are losing their livelihoods, all those sharks and reefs and monkeys are losing their lives.

Humanity’s disregard for the things that help us survive has meant mangroves are being pushed to breaking point. They are, quite literally, snapping under the pressure for our commercial benefit.

Their roots are being ripped from the ground and their trunks hacked apart for timber.

The havens for marine life are being obliterated and replaced with thick black excess from charcoal production and oil extraction.

Their habitat is being battered by roadbuilding, port construction and tourist infrastructure, because these mangrove trees are deemed to be dispensable.

It is nothing short of a massacre.

Less than half of the original expanse of these carbon-capturing wonders remains.

If this continues, the consequences could not be more serious. Whether mangroves survive or not will play a monumental part in the future of billions of people, billions of animals - and of our planet.

Our survival depends on them.

And their survival depends on people like you.

To turn this around we need support to increase our mangrove protection work across the globe - right now.  Through your donations we are purchasing land dedicated to the protection, and restoration, of mangrove trees.

In the battle against climate change, we must not take our strongest allies for granted. The losses can’t go on - we must ensure there are enough of them to keep our planet thriving for generations to come. And with your support, we’ll do just that.

STANDING BY OUR NATURAL DEFENDERS

 

Please help save them. We must protect these trees in order to protect our planet - and if everyone reading this donates just £3 - you could help fund these projects and restore our natural regulators. Thank you.

BBC: Bog beetles finally reveal their remarkable age

IMAGE COPYRIGHTNHM

image captionAs big as your thumb: If alive today they'd be among Britain's biggest beetles

It's amazing what treasures are tucked away in the collections of London's Natural History Museum - some not fully recognised yet even by the curators.

Take the example of two beetles wedged in the grooves of a piece of oak that was dug from a peat bog in the 1970s.

The insects were donated to the London institution by a farmer concerned they might be an invasive species. They weren't, and so were put in a drawer. 

Only now have they been examined and shown to be nearly 4,000 years old.

The beetles are Oak Capricorns (Cerambyx), a species not previously known to have ever existed in Britain.

About the size of your thumb, they have wonderful long antennae. And if alive today and resident in the UK, they would certainly be among the country's largest beetles.

Read on...

BBC: UK government backs birth control for grey squirrels

image captionThe greys were introduced to Britain from North America in the 19th Century

The UK government has given its support to a project to use oral contraceptives to control grey squirrel populations. 

Environment minister Lord Goldsmith says the damage they and other invasive species do to the UK's woodlands costs the UK economy £1.8 billion a year.

The bizarre-sounding plan is to lure grey squirrels into feeding boxes only they can access with little pots containing hazelnut spread.

These would be spiked with an oral contraceptive.

Lord Goldsmith says the damage from squirrels also threatens the effectiveness of government efforts to tackle climate change by planting tens of thousands of acres of new woodlands. 

On Tuesday, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told BBC News: "We hope advances in science can safely help our nature to thrive, including through the humane control of invasive species."

A partnership of conservation and forestry organisations called the UK Squirrel Accord (UKSA) is behind the proposal.

Read on...

Oldest grizzly bear

Grizzly bear captured in Yellowstone confirmed as the region's oldest Fox News FACES BACKLASH FOR BIGFOOT 'HUNTING SEASON,' SAYS HE'S BEEN CALLED AN IDIOT. The grizzly bear was identified as Grizzly 168, the

BBC: Felixstowe seal released from fishing net

 

IMAGE COPYRIGHTIAN POPE EVERYTHING FELIXSTOWE

image captionThe seal was seen with fishing net around its neck on Saturday morning

A seal which was trapped in a fishing net has been saved by a member of the public who managed to cut the netting. 

The mammal was seen struggling on the shore in Felixstowe, Suffolk, on Saturday morning. 

Jo Collins from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue said someone spotted the seal and managed to set it free on Sunday afternoon. 

"I'm so relieved as the outcome could have been a lot different," she said.

Read on...

BBC: Loyal dog's six-day wait for poorly owner outside Turkish hospital

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-55779275

Mysterious, 20-million-year-old tunnels in the ancient ocean floor came from 6-foot-long carnivorous worms, a study found (via Louis)

An illustration of a bobbit worm in its undersea tunnel. 

Courtesy of Ludvig Löwemark

• Bobbit worms explode out of tunnels on the ocean floor to ambush prey.
• According to a new study, these worms had 6-foot-long carnivorous ancestors that burrowed under the Pacific Ocean.
• Researchers found 20-million-year-old tunnels made by these prehistoric worms in Taiwan.

Read on...

CNN: An extremely rare white kangaroo was born at a zoo in New York (Via Louis )

Cosmo and his dad, Boomer.

(CNN)A New York zoo has welcomed a baby red kangaroo with a rare condition that left park employees shocked.

Cosmo, the newest joey at Animal Adventure Park, was born with leucism, an incredibly rare condition that causes the partial loss of pigmentation in an animal's skin and fur. Unlike albinism, leucism does not cause a lack of pigmentation in the eyes. 

The baby was born at the animal park in Harpursville five months ago but was removed by keepers from his mother's pouch for the first time on January 15.

Read on...

Huge catfish in Paris

 M

River monster! Moment huge catfish dubbed the 'Loch Ness of La Seine' by watching crowds is ... Daily Mail The massive catfish, which was nicknamed an 'ancient dinosaur' and 'monster', was released back into the river afterwards. Locals shocked as 'Loch ...

BBC: New light shed on Charles Darwin's 'abominable mystery'

 

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES

image captionCharles Darwin transformed the way we see the natural world

A scientist has shed new light on the origins of Charles Darwin's "abominable mystery".

The famous naturalist was haunted by the question of how the first flowering plants evolved.

Darwin feared this inexplicable puzzle would undermine his theories of evolution, says Prof Richard Buggs.

Forgotten historical documents show a rival scientist was arguing for divine intervention in the rise of the flowering plants.

This greatly vexed Darwin in his final months, says the evolutionary biologist at Queen Mary, University of London.

Read on...

Zoo takes extra COVID-19 precautions with pregnant gorilla

 

Calgary Zoo takes extra COVID-19 precautions with pregnant gorilla by limiting human contact CBC.ca "We actually had based our precautions based on the big cat experiences, the fact that a number of big cat species — lions, tigers, snow leopards ... Zoo Gorillas Test Positive For Coronavirus And Cough After 'Catching From Human' - LADbible Full Coverage