March 02, 2023
South Africa: Roads and Power Lines Put Primates in Danger - South African Data Adds to the Real Picture
About 25 million kilometres of new roads are expected to be built around the world by 2050. Along with power lines and railways, roads cut through the landscape everywhere,… Read more »
February 22, 2023
Africa: In Defence of Vultures, Nature's Early-Warning Systems That Are Holy to Many People
With their long, featherless necks and stern-looking faces, vultures are an easy target for people's fear and loathing. In books and films, they usually appear as a forewarning of… Read more »
January 26, 2023
Africa: It'll Take 150 Years to Map Africa's Biodiversity - And We Can't Protect What We Don't Know
The African continent is bursting with biodiversity. In a 2016 report, the United Nations Environment Programme wrote: Read more »
January 20, 2023
South Africa: Tigers in South Africa - a Farming Industry Exists - Often for Their Body Parts
A tiger escaped from a residence and roamed the countryside outside Johannesburg, South Africa, for four days this month. It attacked a man and killed several animals, and was… Read more »
January 17, 2023
Angola: Peatlands Trap Carbon and Clean the Region's Water - How We Mapped This Newly Found Landscape #AfricaClimateHope
Ask most people what they picture when thinking about natural "carbon sinks" - ecosystems that absorb and store greenhouse gases - and they'll probably describe a forest.… Read more »
Africa: Underwater Noise Is a Threat to Marine Life
Oceans are full of sound. Waves, earthquakes and calving icebergs all contribute to the underwater soundscape. But so do human activities, and this can be a problem for marine life… Read more »
January 11, 2023
Africa: Elephant Poaching Rates Vary Across Africa - 19 Years of Data From 64 Sites Suggest Why
It's a grim and all too common sight for rangers at some of Africa's nature reserves: the bullet-riddled carcass of an elephant, its tusks removed by poachers. African elephant… Read more »
Africa: Penguin Feathers Help Inspire New De-Icing Techniques
Walking down a road during a white winter comes with its own set of challenges: the frigid cold, stepping around slippery ice on roads and the need to switch sidewalks to avoid… Read more »
January 10, 2023
South Africa: First Study to Estimate 'Blue Carbon' Storage in South Africa Is Useful for Climate Strategy #AfricaClimateHope
Marine ecosystems have a valuable role to play in mitigating the effects of climate change. That's because such ecosystems - and, particularly, vegetated tidal ecosystems like… Read more »
January 11, 2023
Africa: Mountain Environments Are Key to Biodiversity - but the Threats to Them Are Being Ignored #AfricaClimateCrisis
Mountains are home to more than 85% of the world's amphibian, bird and mammal species. Lowland slopes are rich in animal and plant species. And rugged, high-elevation environments,… Read more »
January 09, 2023
Africa: Invasive Rats Are Changing Fish Behaviour On Coral Reefs - New Study
Coral reefs are degrading rapidly to the extent that their marine inhabitants must either adapt or die. For many animals, including reef fish, behaviour is one of the first… Read more »
January 05, 2023
Africa: Quiet, Please - Human Noise Is Interfering With the Sex Lives of Grasshoppers
Grasshoppers have a bad reputation. They're not popular with gardeners And locusts, a type of swarming grasshopper, can do huge damage to vegetation and crops when they're in a… Read more »
Africa: Climate Change Is Leaving African Elephants Desperate for Water
African elephant numbers have dropped from about 26 million in the 1800s to 415,000 today. While this is largely due to European colonisation, poaching and habitat loss, these… Read more »
December 21, 2022
Africa: Biodiversity Treaty - UN Deal Fails to Address the Root Causes of Nature's Destruction
A major biodiversity conference, recently concluded in Montreal, Canada, was billed as the event that will decide the "fate of the entire living world". All well then that the… Read more »
December 16, 2022
Africa: Children Born Today Will See Literally Thousands of Animals Disappear in Their Lifetime, As Global Food Webs Collapse
Climate change is one of the main drivers of species loss globally. We know more plants and animals will die as heatwaves, bushfires, droughts and other natural disasters worsen. Read more »
December 22, 2022
South Africa: Sabretooth Cats Hunted On South Africa's Coast 5 Million Years Ago - This Old One Was in Pain
Over five million years ago, before our ancestors dominated the landscape, southern Africa's west coast was home to a diverse array of prehistoric beasts. Among them were hyenas,… Read more »
December 14, 2022
Tanzania: Why Humans Walk On Two Legs - Some Old Theories Put to the Test
There's no trait that distinguishes humans from all other mammals more clearly than the way we walk. Human habitual bipedalism - obligatory walking on two legs - has long been a… Read more »
December 04, 2022
Africa: A Dangerous Pesticide Isn't Being Monitored in Key Bird of Prey Populations - We're Shedding Light On That Gap
It was once regarded as a miracle chemical to protect against disease and improve global food production. The man who discovered its properties even won a Nobel Prize for medicine.… Read more »
November 24, 2022
Africa: We Discovered a New Species of Owl - but We Already Think It's in Danger
As part of an international team of scientists we have confirmed a new species of owl after decades of speculation that it exists on Príncipe Island, part of the Democratic… Read more »
Kenya: Community Wildlife Conservation Isn't Always a Win-Win Solution - The Case of Kenya's Samburu
Community-based wildlife conservation is often promoted as a win-win solution. The idea behind this approach is that the people who live close to wildlife can be involved in… Read more »
November 17, 2022
Ethiopia: Civet Musk, a Precious Perfume Ingredient, Is Under Threat.
The African civet -- an animal closely related to the mongoose and widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa -- is among four mammals known to secrete scented compounds. Civets… Read more »
November 14, 2022
South Africa: Mangrove Forests Won't Be Able to Spread Further in South Africa, So Protecting Them Is Crucial #AfricaClimateCrisis
Mangrove forests are a common sight in some tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world like Indonesia, Florida in the US, parts of Brazil and Australia. They can also be found on… Read more »
November 13, 2022
Africa: Climate Change and Wildlife - 3 Studies That Reveal the Devastating Toll On Africa's Animals
Climate change has produced a number of threats to wildlife. Over time, changing rainfall patterns have transformed habitats and forced animals to move. Increasing temperatures are… Read more »
November 08, 2022
Africa: Birds Evolve Different Body Temperatures in Different Climates - New Study of 53 African Species
During the northern hemisphere summer of 2022, yet another round of extreme heat waves roasted Eurasia, North America and northern Africa - a stark reminder that these conditions… Read more »
November 01, 2022
South Africa: Large Tortoises Lived in South Africa Long Ago - How We Recorded Their Fast-Disappearing Traces
In 1835 Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, was exploring an island in the Galápagos archipelago when he encountered "two large tortoises, each of which… Read more »