Kindia : les retards des chantiers de ponts aggravent les difficultés des populations en pleine saison des pluies

Can Bolivia’s historic big cat release help change jaguar conservation in the country?

Poaching and wildfires have driven the country’s jaguar population to a critical level, and until now even rescued animals faced life in captivity. A new approach to rehabilitation could change that – but critics are unsureA tentative paw emerged from a steel cage on to the sandy riverbed deep in the Bolivian rainforest. Then, another. Slowly, the female jaguar looked right, left and right again, as if waiting to cross a busy road. Then, muscles stiff from the long journey, it strolled away and disappeared into the undergrowth.Yaguara had been in captivity since August 2024, after being orphaned as an eight-month-old cub amid Bolivia’s worst recorded wildfire season. As the fires raged, burning more than 10 of the country’s surface area, authorities handed the cub over to a team of veterinarians from the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY), a wild-animal rescue centre. Continue reading...

20 animals that look like nothing else on Earth

Evolution, millions of years of selection pressure, and the specific ingenuity of survival have produced animals who are still being studied and imitated by researchers

Celebrate Father’s Day with seven whimsical and weird animal dads

From tiny hamsters to giant salamanders, here are some of the most unusual examples of fatherhood across the animal kingdom

Country diary: Bright and bohemian, this moth could be a David Hockney | Paul Evans

The Marches, Shropshire: Scarlet tiger moths are on the wing at our allotment, taking advantage of the sunny days – and our human activityThe jackdaw takes three hops and is airborne, swinging into a warm dry wind, back over the fence to the northern side of the plateau. Jackdaws and rooks lift from careful stepping into the wind to fly and call, mingling with singing voices from the school nearby. The corvids are shadowing the sheep, Soay/Hebridean cross breeds that graze the Old Oswestry hillfort or Hen Ddinas (Old City in Welsh). Black birds, black sheep, green grass.This scene echoes through a thousand years of occupation until the Roman conquest on this high space ringed with earthwork ramparts. The sheep are the closest to those farmed by the iron age tribal people of the Cornovii – the people of the horn. Impressive and tough, these horned black sheep step out of history with the same confidence in their place here as the birds. Continue reading...

Forget Dracula: The surprising reasons Northern Ireland needs bats more than ever

From tiny pipistrelles to water-skimming Daubenton’s bats, these fascinating mammals play a crucial role in our environment. Yet misconceptions continue to cloud their reputation, writes Lorraine Wylie