Rainforests are the oldest living ecosystems and without a shadow of a doubt, the most vital habitats on Earth. They cover only 6% of the Earth’s surface but yet they contain more than half of the world’s plant and animal species. According to the current estimates, around 40% to 75% of all biotic species are indigenous (see notes …
Category Archives: Animals
A cosmonaut’s view, just after launching a tiny satellite into the orbit
On August 15, 2018, two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station performed one of the longest spacewalks in the history of space exploration. During the spacewalk lasting 7 hours and 46 minutes, Expedition 56 Flight Engineers Sergey Prokopyev and Oleg Artemyev manually launched four small technology satellites and installed a German-led animal-tracking project named Icarus …
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We have an ethical obligation to relieve individual animal suffering
Last winter, unforgettable video footage online showed a starving polar bear, struggling in its Arctic hunting grounds. Because of global warming, the ice was thin and the food supply was scarce. The video generated a wellspring of sympathy for the plight of this poor creature, and invigorated calls for stronger efforts to combat climate change …
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Dinosaur-killer Asteroid Triggered a Global Warming [and it lasted 100,000 Years!]
Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid or comet at least 10 kilometers (6 miles) in diameter impacted a few miles from the present-day town of Chicxulub in Mexico (hence it is dubbed as the “Chicxulub impactor”, the “dinosaur-killer”), at around 64,000 kilometers per hour (40,000 mph). The impact has created a crater (Chicxulub crater) …
Most species hold their geographic range if we limit global warming to 1.5°C [new study]
If we limit global warming to 1.5°C rather than 2°C above the pre-industrial levels by the year 2100, the impacts of climate change would be much less dramatic, a new study says. According to the researchers, for vertebrates and plants, the number of species losing more than half their geographic range by 2100 will be …
Endangered animals more likely to get donated if they’re cute, study says
43% of Americans would be more likely to donate to an endangered animal if it was cute, according to a study titled “Selective Sympathy: Comparing Sentiment Toward the Appearance of Endangered Species” published by African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). A team at AWF has surveyed 1k Americans on how much they know about wildlife conservation, and …
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Here’s What did Ancient Earth Look Like
I stumbled upon an amazing web page showing what did ancient Earth look like. On the “Dinosaur Pictures and Facts” web page (dinosaurpictures.org), there’s also an interactive animation. On this page, you can either select the years (i.e. 600 million years ago) or jump to a particular event (i.e. first multicellular life) and see how ancient …
20 amazing lion facts about the most iconic big cat in the world
The Lion (Panthera leo) is the second-largest cat in the world, after the tiger. The lion and tiger are closely related and they share a very similar body type. As its scientific name suggests, Lion is one of the five members of the Panthera genus (see notes 1). Here are 20 amazing lion facts.
The Man Who Flies With Migrating Birds
Using a two-seater ultralight aircraft built by himself, Frenchman Christian Moullec flies with migrating birds since 1995. In that year, dubbed the “birdman“, Moullec, saw that lesser white-fronted geese were struggling with their migration from Germany to Sweden. Inspired by the work of the famous Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz (see notes 1), known as “the …
Crocodile Attack Database: CrocBITE
Several hundred attacks on humans by crocodilians are reported annually, both non-fatal and fatal. To improve our understanding of human-crocodile conflict (HCC), a database was launched back in 2016. The Worldwide Crocodilian Attack Database, “CrocBITE” website and database was co-funded in 2013 with a small grant ($10,000 AUD) from Australia’s Charles Darwin University. Where native …
