All posts by Nick Piludu
The New Living Planet Report 2014 Is Out, And It’s Not Good News
Every year the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and their partners publish their Living Planet Report, an assessment of the status of our planet’s natural capital. The new edition was published this week and, in the words of WWF International Director General Marco Lambertini, it’s “not for the faint-hearted”. The Report measures three different key indicators […]
Continue readingWestern And African Views On The Beauty Of Wildlife
What makes us want to protect wildlife? It’s not a secret that, in many cases, it’s how cute the animals are. We are happy to use our money to help out cool, charismatic animals that we enjoy watching – wolves, tigers, whales, and so on. But protecting a spider, or a worm? Well, let’s say […]
Continue readingThey Shoot Giraffes, Don’t They? Why Copenhagen Zoo Euthanized Marius The Giraffe
Last Sunday, February 9th, Copenhagen Zoo decided to euthanize one of their giraffes, Marius. The male giraffe calf was killed with a shot in the head, and fed to the carnivores in the zoo. It’s a dark, sad story, and it obviously caused a strong reaction in the public. But what happened? Why did young […]
Continue readingEffect Of Climate Change On Biodiversity: New Studies On Penguins And Butterflies
It’s a generally accepted fact that climate change is having harmful effects on biodiversity worldwide. You might have heard, for instance, stories about species moving north as countries in lower latitudes get warmer. The gravity of these phenomena is often downplayed by climate change sceptics, perhaps because they only seem indirectly connected to climate. Two recent […]
Continue readingAre We Back To Having Too Many Wolves?
It’s not always easy to be a wolf. People have an innate fear of top predators, pastoralist cultures saw them as a threat for centuries, and well, fairytales didn’t really help in the marketing department. This resulted in the species being eradicated from much of its natural range in the 1800. By the mid-1900s, however, […]
Continue readingNew species of sharks discovered and the cute Leoparda guttulus
Yesterday we talked new species discovered in 2013, including the the olinguito, the new Targaryen sea slug, and four legless lizards. Today we continue our discussion of new species. We have two new sharks, a transparent fish, a new tapir and a new jungle cat. Ready?
Continue readingIt’s A Big World: New Species Discovered In 2013
Earlier in the year I heard somebody saying that they were born in a time when there is nothing left to explore in the world, but luckily they still have the Internet to discover. I got quite annoyed, obviously. There’s plenty left to explore, if you feel like working hard and spending time in places […]
Continue readingThe Climate Of Middle Earth
As The Big Bang Theory made clear, scientists love The Lord of the Rings. Hell, I read the book eleven times myself. So you can imagine my delight in discovering that a scientist who calls himself Radagast the Brown just published a paper called “The Climate of Middle Earth”, on how he used real climate […]
Continue readingMelissa Bachman and her lion hunt
A few days ago, an American huntress called Melissa Bachman got a lot of attention for publishing a picture on her Facebook and Twitter pages. In the picture, Ms. Bachman stands on top of a dead male lion, with a proud smile on her face and a rifle in her hand. The caption says “An […]
Continue readingBlackfish and the fight to end marine mammal captivity
Blackfish is the name that Native American used to call orcas when they saw them in the ocean. And Blackfish is the title of a 2013 documentary about orcas in captivity, with a focus on the tragic accident that saw star orca Tilikum brutally attack and kill his trainer Dawn Brancheau. Blackfish is the story […]
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