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Dara McAnulty and Benedict Macdonald – Wainwright Nature Prize

Diaries of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty won the 2020 Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing. McAnulty is the youngest ever winner of this prize. “The Diary of a Young Naturalist is a significant nature book – made all the more so because it is Dara McAnulty’s first, completed before his 16th birthday,” says Julia Bradbury, TV presenter and chair of the judging panel for the UK Nature writing category. “Our Wainwright Prize winner this year is nuanced, passionate and caring. It’s...

Badger cull very sad update!

Largest ever cull authorised this autumn – bringing the total shot to 35% of UK’s badger population The Wildlife Trusts are aghast that more than 70,000 healthy badgers will be shot this autumn in the government’s largest ever seasonal cull.  The move comes despite the government’s promise just six months ago to support badger vaccination and move away from shooting this protected species. The cull will result in the deaths of badgers which have been vaccinated by volunteers in government-funded programmes. ...

Reducing plastic bags not enough

From shocking footage of an albatross chick killed by a plastic toothpick to images of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and recent coverage of the increase in litter left behind by visitors to the British countryside during the pandemic, there is no shortage of evidence of the harm and ugliness caused by plastic – reports The Guardian ( https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/04/the-guardian-view-on-plastics-reducing-bag-use-is-not-enough?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco ) Public awareness of the problem has grown rapidly over recent years in many countries, and led to new legislation. But while environmental organisations work hard...

STEM : ‘wet’ student’s appetite!

Your students might grab a glass of water to drink, turn the tap on to brush their teeth, take a shower at night, and fill their dog’s water bowl—all without even thinking about water quality. As an educator, you want to teach them about where their water comes from and why it’s important to keep natural water sources (such as rivers, lakes, and oceans) clean. Pollution can take many forms, and it’s often hard to know how clean a water...

We are at a cross roads – Attenborough

MORE than 60 years after he first graced our TV screens, Sir David Attenborough’s passion for the natural world is greater than ever. The national treasure is a man on a mission. Now 94, our best-known naturalist believes the planet CAN be saved from global warming — and without us giving up life’s pleasures. Those famous bright-blue eyes glint like a schoolboy’s as Sir Daviddiscusses what we can do to tackle the looming ­climate crisis. Arms outstretched on the table, he...

Breathtaking natural images

Now in its fifty-sixth year, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) competition and exhibition showcases the beautiful wildlife of the Earth by talented photographers across the world. This year’s competition attracted almost 49,000 entries from professionals and amateurs across 86 countries. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London (NHM). The competition was originally founded in 1965 by BBC Wildlife Magazine, then called Animals. The NHM joined forces in 1984 to create the competition as...

Invasive species threat to World Heritage

A new paper indicates that impacts on natural World Heritage sites from invasive alien species, such as house mice, Argentine ants and rainbow trout, may be greater than previously assessed. It presents results of a proposed framework tested in seven affected sites, recording the presence of more invasive alien species in almost all cases. The authors, a team of international scientists including from IUCN, call for improved monitoring and reporting as a first step towards more effective protection. Natural World...

It’s mind-blowing!

Astronomers have detected the most powerful, most distant and most perplexing collision of black holes yet using gravitational waves. Of the two behemoths that fused when the Universe was half its current age, at least one — weighing 85 times as much as the Sun — has a mass that was thought to be too large to be involved in such an event. And the merger produced a black hole of nearly 150 solar masses, the researchers have estimated, putting...

‘Lost’ elephant shrew found

A sengi species ‘lost’ for half a century has been rediscovered in a surprising location A small mammal that has not been by scientists seen the late 1960s has been found, and in a new country. ( source and full article- https://www.discoverwildlife.com/news/a-sengi-species-lost-for-half-a-century-has-been-rediscovered-in-a-surprising-location/ ) Sengis, also known as elephant-shrews, are a group of small insectivorous mammals. The Somali sengi had not been seen in the wild there for half a century, and was considered lost to science. It was known from...