What at first might seem like a remarkably bad idea is actually a well-planned assault. In southern Africa, traditional python hunters display their technique for capturing and killing the enormous reptiles. African rock pythons (python sabae) are among some of the largest snakes in the world, reaching over 6 m in length. While their relatives [...]
Continue reading about These Guys Catch Pythons With Their Bare Hands
Scientists are investigating whether flying foxes are involuntarily reacting to the loss of habitat in Queensland by spreading deadly viruses including Hendra.
A horse veterinarian died from the Hendra virus earlier this month and five horses were destroyed after an outbreak at the Redlands Veterinary Clinic in south-east Queensland.
Researchers are looking into a rising number of [...]
Continue reading about Flying foxes ‘may be spreading Hendra virus’
Conservationists yesterday attacked a decision by the international community to allow China to buy stockpiles of elephant ivory saying it would lead to more elephants being killed in Africa.
A meeting of the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), in Geneva, agreed that China could bid for up to 108 tonnes of ivory, collected [...]
Continue reading about New fears for elephants over ivory sale to China
Researchers in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Gabon, Germany, Japan, Rwanda, the United Kingdom, and the United States have found that simian foamy virus (SFV) is widespread among wild chimpanzees throughout equatorial Africa.
Recent studies have shown that humans who hunt wild primates, including chimpanzees, can acquire SFV infections. Since the long-term consequences of [...]
Continue reading about Simian Foamy Virus Found To Be Widespread Among Chimpanzees
With Majesco’s Wild Earth African Safari, families who own a Nintendo Wii can experience what it is like to go on a safari for a mere $30.
While the game isn’t the same as riding in a jeep with a guide, marveling at the wonders of the Serengeti, it does create an interactive nature simulation that [...]
Continue reading about Roam the Serengeti in ‘Wild Earth African Safari’
Humans are likely the source of a virus that is making chimps sick in Africa, new research suggests.
After studying chimpanzees in Tanzania for the past year, Virginia Tech researcher Taranjit Kaur and her team have obtained data from molecular, microscopic and epidemiological investigations that demonstrate how the chimpanzees living there at Mahale Mountains [...]
Three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame have gone to the dogs, so why can’t Cheeta the chimp get some love? The animal actor, whose credits include the 1967 comedy “Dr. Doolittle” and the “Tarzan” movies, is trying for the seventh time to get a sidewalk star and become the first monkey to get [...]
Continue reading about Ape Applicant Vies for Star on Walk of Fame
The Kasese district security committee has asked the management of the Elizabeth National Park to restrain wild animals from attacking neighbouring communities.
The resident district commissioner, Capt. James Mwesigye, recently said the committee had received several complaints from the population about stray animals were destroying their crops.
He identified elephants as the most notorious.
“When pastoralists graze in [...]
Continue reading about Park in Uganda asked to tame wild animals
Dave Tosh, from the School of Biological Sciences at Queens University, found the greater white-toothed shrew in Tipperary and Limerick while working with University College Cork and BirdWatch Ireland. Its natural range is in parts of Africa, France and Germany and before now the closest it has been spotted to Ireland is in the Channel [...]
Continue reading about For Good Or Ill, Ireland Gains Another Mammal Species
East Africa’s Lake Tanganyika has a highly diverse fauna which closely resembles marine animals. A researcher at the University of Zurich has traced the origins of the freshwater herring of the Lake to a marine invasion which occurred in West Africa 25 to 50 million years ago, coincident with a major oceanic incursion into the [...]
