16 h. ago The missing lynx: how the rise of border walls has split up wildlife populations

In an age of growing hostility to migrants, there are 10 times more barriers on borders than when the Berlin Wall fell. But as well as the human cost, animals are unintended victimsThe lynxes of the Białowieża forest once freely prowled through 1,420 sq km (548 sq miles) of ancient woodland. Then, in 2022, the habitat was abruptly sliced in two. Poland built a 115-mile (186km) wall across its border with Belarus to stop refugees and migrants entering the EU. About 15 lynxes were left stranded on the Polish side of the forest, forced into a genetic bottleneck.The 5.5-metre high barrier, which is topped with wire and cameras, also dissects the forest’s population of bison, wolves and elk. Researchers monitored 10 sites along the border, walking along sections and counting signs of humans and wildlife. Continue reading...

Events

63 h. ago The dos and don’ts of good petiquette: four cardinal rules for dog owners

Dog walks can be a fraught time for both humans and their unruly friends, but follow these well-learned good behaviours and you’ll be the envy of the parkAcross the hours of the day and the seasons of the year, Naseby Park is the place we return to, my dog and I. Surrounded by red sandstone tenements in Glasgow’s West End, and roughly the size of a football pitch, this is where we first walked our four-year-old labrador Brèagha (Scots Gaelic for beautiful and she is, uncommonly so, thanks for asking). All I know about the etiquette of dog walking has been gleaned from the humans and animals who have paced its perimeter with us, and these are cardinal rules I have learned Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago 'Worrying' surge in Victorian disease resistant to antibiotics is 'ticking time bomb', expert warns

Cases of a Victorian-era lung disease continue to rise in England and experts warn its growing resistance to antibiotics is a "huge concern"

Events

4 d. ago 'My breast implants could be toxic – it feels like a ticking time bomb in my chest'

Mum Abby Squires paid £5,000 to have fake breasts implanted into her chest in 2009 – but now fears they could kill her after watching a video on social media about the products being recalled

Events

8 d. ago DOMINIC LAWSON: For all the scientists' new efforts to talk to the animals, I don't think humans will ever be speaking Dolphinese

Like millions of Britons of a certain age, my childhood was made more joyous by Johnny Morris, the presenter of the TV programme Animal Magic.

Science

1 week ago The Elephant in the Room by Liz Kalaugher review – how we make animals sick

From frogs to ferrets, an eye-opening account of the ways we affect the health of other species – and vice versaBefore entering Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden, visitors must walk over disinfecting mats to rid their shoes of bacteria or other pathogens. Next to the mats is a sign whose admonition seems at once both practical and religious: “Cleanse your soles.” Whenever I visit, as I often do, this sign always makes me smile: this ritualised cleaning is an important measure to prevent outbreaks of disease among the garden’s 730 species, but it also seems to be some kind of spiritual act.Anyone tempted to jump that mat should read Liz Kalaugher’s new book, a wide-ranging, thorough and persuasive investigation of the ways in which we have made non-human animals sick. Her book reads as a kind of shadow history of human endeavour and innovation, tracing the calamitous price that trade, exchange and intensive farming have exacted on everything from frogs to ferr...

Politics

1 week ago The Penguin Lessons review – Steve Coogan seabird comedy drama tries to sell feelgood mood

Coogan does his best, but there’s a tonal mismatch here: the animal-teaches-lonely-human narrative jars with a depiction of lives in totalitarian ArgentinaHere is a well-meaning, awkward tonal jumble of a movie, based on the bestselling memoir by former teacher Tom Michell; it is a quirky true-story heart warmer, in which an adorable penguin is apparently supposed to redeem not merely the human hero’s personal heartbreak but maybe even the agony of Argentina during the 70s junta. It stars Steve Coogan, who has often in the past shown brilliant technique as a straight actor, and in Philomena with Judi Dench proved he is perfectly capable of carrying an un-ironised emotional story. But his performance here is bafflingly underpowered and opaque, as if he is slightly perplexed by the script he’s been given.Coogan plays Tom, who takes a job in Peronist Argentina in 1976, teaching English at a stuffy private school for the sons of wealthy expatriates, and is wary of the overbearing headte...

Events

1 week ago Humans could chat to dolphins with AI but Google boffins admits to words problem

Clever cogs at Google have developed a new model of AI that could reveal the secrets behind how dolphins communicate, opening the door to the chance of humans being able to chat to the animals

Politics

1 week ago The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism | Moira Donegan

The trip leaned on a vision of women’s empowerment that is light on substance and heavy on a childlike, girlish sillinessThere are some spectacles of US decadence and decline that almost seem too on the nose – the sort of orgies of vulgar provocation or fantastic lack of self-awareness that exceed the limits of parody, so that if they were in a novel, you’d think the writer was laying it on a little thick. Among these is the all-female flight by Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-owned rocket tourism company, which on Monday launched a phallically shaped pod full of women – including the pop star Katy Perry and Bezos’s partner, Lauren Sánchez – on a brief trip into space.The flight, which was promoted for months in advance, was touted as a triumph of feminism, a win for science and an embrace of the kind of expansive, curious human spirit of striving and possibility that once animated both. Instead, the flight served as a kind of perverse funeral for the America that once enabled both scie...

Politics

1 week ago Tiny detail on animal bone changes what we know about our human ancestors

The first evidence that hominins butchered several animals at the site in Romania at least 1.95 million years ago has been revealed

Politics

3 w. ago Filthy farms and markets are ticking time bombs for new deadly viruses that can jump from animals to humans

Health experts have warned that the fur trade should be banned, calling it a ticking time bomb

Events

3 w. ago World's worst 'pandemic breeding grounds' as depraved animal markets spark virus fears

Experts have warned that filthy farms and markets packed full of sick, distressed animals around the world are potential breeding grounds for deadly new viruses that can jump from animals to humans

Events

3 w. ago What is zoonosis? Worrying new disease development explained

Officials have warned that the massive global animal trade could cause more potentially deadly diseases already circulating amongst animals to jump to humans and trigger pandemics

Politics

3 w. ago Health experts warn fur trade and factory farms could spark new pandemics

Some of the world's leading health experts have warned that to prevent future pandemics the fur trade should end - calling it a ticking time bomb.

Events

3 w. ago Health experts call for ban to prevent pandemics after first

Zoonotic diseases have been on the rise in recent years with Covid-19, Ebola, Zika and HIV all believed to have jumped to humans from animals

Events