No people - this is not for listing who might be on their last legs... there are other places to do that. I'm saying this now, because otherwise, what would have been the opening sentence here might have seemed a bit macabre. [edit: actually - the whole paragraph would seem a bit iffy]

There are some things that it would be nice to see being made compulsory viewing. I don't think the compulsory part would need to last long. Some, just on their own merits, are so good.

The first episode of Blue Planet 2 was shown tonight on BBC 1 and it was amazing!!

I highly recommend it :) I won't say much about what was shown because there might be people who would like to see it but haven't yet. For those who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, here are 22 things to know about the new series :)

I am particularly starting this thread though, to give me and others, if there are any, a place to put things about penguins and insects and all the creeping, crawling, flying, swimming, rooted whatnots that others have no interest in or time to read about. Everyone is welcome to post of course, whatever their views :)

Blue Planet II tops ratings

Got the 1st series on DVD.

Got the 1st series on DVD.

We have all David Attenborough's series on DVD. My other half get's them for me for my birthday :) My daughter used to glue herself to the TV every episode right from when she was very little. I think that's why she bothered to learn to tell the time, so that she knew when "Davey was coming on" :)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/09/uk-will-back-total-ban-on-bee-harming-pesticides-michael-gove-reveals

The UK will back a total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe, the environment secretary, Michael Gove, has revealed.

The decision reverses the government’s previous position and is justified by recent new evidence showing neonicotinoids have contaminated the whole landscape and cause damage to colonies of bees. It also follows the revelation that 75% of all flying insects have disappeared in Germany and probably much further afield, a discovery Gove said had shocked him.

Neonicotinoids are the world’s most widely used insecticide but in 2013 the European Union banned their use on flowering crops, although the UK was among the nations opposing the ban. The European Commission now wants a total ban on their use outside of greenhouses, with a vote expected in December, and the UK’s new position makes it very likely to pass.

David Attenborough switched youthful ambitions for medicine to veterinary and marine conservation instead, and I can never thank him enough.

Your ambitions I presume? ;-)

We had a double beaching of adult humpbacks this year. A first for Aldabra. Tragically, re-floating them proved impossible and sadly, the accompanying juvenile we lost track of. :-(

Sad news one hopes will not be repeated.

Now gearing up for a turtle rodeo (next few days), but would like to wish everyone a happy and environmentally-friendly new year, as much as is humanly possible.

We shall be sedating our German Shepherd in preparation for the event, shortly. Happy new year to you, sir. :-)

Sudan, the last male northern white rhinoceros died on Monday, leaving his daughter and granddaughter the only remaining representatives of the species

:((

I'd have been in sooner to mention it but things made me not do that :/

To mourn, but also to celebrate, Sudan's life.


That's a photograph I took in Kenya in 1986, and have framed on my wall. It's almost certainly not Sudan himself, but one can represent all of the species.

That's a lovely photo, Richard :) Thank you for posting it.

That's a lovely photo, Richard :) Thank you for posting it.

Yes, I'm very pleased with it - the sense of movement and purpose, the impression I'm hiding in the bushes given by the depth of field on the leaves in the left foreground...

This is a more honest account of the situation.


Somewhere, there's another one with the armed ranger who was standing not far away, watchfully, just in case. But I haven't got that one online.

While I have the archive open:


Italy, I think.

:)

erm... those walls... do they come in mother-in-law-sized spaces...?

*slap keyboard and relevant hand*

Botswana's Ian Khama accuses Trump of 'encouraging' elephant poaching

The EU gets a mention too. Not a good one. As does the UK... *stomp off to bed*

:)

erm... those walls... do they come in mother-in-law-sized spaces...?

*slap keyboard and relevant hand*

As we call em "Out-Laws" in Australia.. No. One size fits all!

Came upon this.

Five rangers and a staff driver for Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were killed in an ambush April 9. A sixth ranger was injured in the ambush, but he is recovering.

The attack, carried out in the park's central region, was the deadliest in Virunga's history, and brings the park's death toll for the year to seven and to 175 in the past 20 years.

The park is known for its population of critically endangered mountain gorillas, among other endangered species.

https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/six-virunga-park-staffers-killed-ambush

@Stargate:

No. One size fits all!

... but are they meant to make such a racket...? ;)


@paul: Hello :) I'm not sure if we've chatted before, but that piece of news passed me by :( So thank you for linking to it.

Still on the subject of gorilla's, with my attention span currently set at non-existent, a search for learning sign language last night caused me to read this instead:

Koko - the gorilla who communicated with sign language (and loved cats amongst other creatures - like humans for example) died yesterday, aged 46. The read, to be honest, gloomed me out a bit :( so don't read it if you're prone to glooming but she apparently understood around 2,000 words of verbal English, and could "talk" back too!! :)

“Her impact has been profound and what she has taught us about the emotional capacity of gorillas and their cognitive abilities will continue to shape the world,” the Gorilla Foundation said.

sad tree news for me to bang on about now, people. Yes...

International scientists have discovered that most of the oldest and largest African baobab trees have died over the past 12 years.

The trees that have died or are dying are found in Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Zambia. They are all between 1,000 and more than 2,500 years old.

:(

There was something else I wanted to post too, also on trees, but I can't find a link for it and I'm a bit fuzzy on details. So I might need to search Aljazeera because that's where I think I saw it (although it could have been somewhere else entirely and it was awhile ago) but part of its focus was on just how much and where a lot of African rainforest wood is turning up. And it's not Africa. No... it's not even countries without perfectly good, well-managed logging resources of their own. Something that was said during the program, in particular stayed in my head and that was, that it was time to look at the trappings and ornaments of these dead trees in the same way we look at ivory.

https://www.apnews.com/fd69358335e447a5b8884ce52c210dac/Grieving-orca-highlights-plight-of-endangered-whales

Whale researchers are keeping close watch on an endangered orca that has spent the past week keeping her dead calf afloat in Pacific Northwest waters

Just an update on my last post, but from the BBC this time because it's been 16 days now.

Killer whales have been known to carry dead calves for as long as a week, but scientists believe this mother "sets a record".

"Maybe this is just her own way of just getting past the loss of another baby. She's probably lost two more in the past decade. It's got to be tragic for these animals to lose these babies, and it's happening at a record pace," said senior scientist Ken Balcomb, who works at the Centre for Whale Research, which studies the Southern Resident whale population.

Only about a third of the Southern Resident killer whales that have been born in the last 20 years survive. No pregnancies in the last three years have successfully produced viable offspring, the centre says.

That's not good news either :(

Another young whale in her pod, J50, is very emaciated and scientists are working out a rescue plan for the animal.

I don't know if they'll report back on that, but if they do... I'd really like it to be good news... because this thread is getting really depressing.

When I first read about the dead calf, the behaviour of the adults was interesting, but it's also sad to hear stories like that.
You can only pollute things so far, and then the unknown sides of nature start to be affected, even if governments and big business say the pollution levels are OK.

And a lot of Australia's wild life is being lost, because various branches of government are more interested in money.

I knew there was somewhere to post this, but didn't see it for the trees.

Save the Wildcats - video

Save the Scottish wildcat by protecting Clashindarroch Forest!

300,000 Scottish wildcat signatures and International Cat Day!

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