Earth

Tigers in the Sundarbans survive hardship

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News Desk : dhakamirror.com Tigers in the Sundarbans are in imminent danger of being hungry due to the rising spotted deer poaching. The big cats, well-known as the Royal Bengal Tiger in the southern mangrove forest of the country hunt spotted deer, monkey, and wild boar. According to a review study by the Implementation, Monitoring … Read more

No country for elephants

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Mostafa Yousuf
As if it wasn’t hard enough for elephants to survive in this country, in a tragic development, it was discovered that they are not just dying by electrocution. Shooting down the animals straight up has become seemingly rampant to protect encroached forest lands.
In Cox’s Bazar, 18 elephants were shot down in the span of three years, from 2019 to 2021. The Daily Star found this grim picture after piecing together the three years’ data. During this time, nine elephants were

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Snakes help monitor Fukushima Fallout

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Researchers have equipped snakes with tracking devices and dosimeters to measure the radiation levels in the vicinity of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, in which there were three core meltdowns in March 2011 – one of the largest anthropogenic releases of radioactive contamination in history.
Radiation leaks forced tens of thousands of people to flee the area. Many have returned in the 10 years since but

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Cheetah the best sprinter on earth

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The fastest cheetah on Earth has done it again, breaking her previous world record for the 100-meter dash and setting a new best time of 5.95 seconds.
This feat surpasses the fastest of all human 100-meter sprinters by almost four seconds.
Usain Bolt, a Jamaican sprinter now competing at the 2012 London Olympics, holds the human world record at 9.58 seconds in the

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Western black rhino declared extinct

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No wild black rhinos remain in West Africa, according to the latest global assessment of threatened species, the Red List, drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The IUCN reports that despite conservation efforts, 25% of the world’s mammals are at risk of extinction. As part of its latest work it has reassessed several rhinoceros groups.
As well as declaring the western black rhino

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The Jurassic cheetah

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Supercheetah
The Jurassic cheetah
Obaidur Rahman
Paleontologist from Senckenberg Research Institute, Weimar, Germany, recently unearthed the remains of a cheetah which might just have been the bloodiest killers of the ancient times wandering at one of the oldest known habitat of human beings. It is well known that the only remaining species of cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, is the fasted animal on Earth with the capability of running up to 70 mile-per-hour. But the

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Unique pig-nosed turtle is over-harvested in New Guinea

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Numbers of pig-nosed turtles have declined steeply over the past 30 years, researchers have discovered.
The unique reptile has become an international conservation icon, due to it having no close relatives and being considered the turtle most adapted to life underwater in freshwater ponds and rivers.
Yet demand for its eggs and meat in Papua New Guinea, one of the turtle’s main

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‘Ants can identify their worst enemy’

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A study of the ant species Temnothorax longispinosus has revealed that it can spot its worst enemy and react with appropriate aggression.
The ant colonies are often invaded by slavemaker ants, which steal their pupae. So when the ants spot a slavemaker, they attempt to kill it by biting and stinging.
But the insects do not waste their energy on less threatening intruders

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Birds eavesdrop on predator chipmunks

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Ground-nesting birds eavesdrop on chipmunks in order to protect their nests, according to scientists.
Ovenbirds and veeries live alongside egg-eating chipmunks in the Hudson Valley, New York, US.
Researchers have found that when simulated chipmunk calls are played, the birds nest up to 20 metres further away.
The study is the first to show that birds heed the chatter of non-avian species

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Wildlife in jeopardy

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Hunger, death on offer as forests vanish fast
The number of phone calls we receive every day is amazing. People call to say fishing cats have been killed or captured. Jungle cat kittens found. Vultures lying sick. And of course, tigers have been killed.
If we put together all these pieces of information, we get a terrifying bigger picture of what has been happening to our wildlife.
One thing is quite clear now. Our forests, or for that matter whatever is left, can no longer give food and shelter to wildlife. The animals are coming out of the little green cover that is left

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12,000km in 357 days

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Sea turtle routes tracked
The first turtle that was tagged in Bangladesh with a satellite chip to track its journey last year has travelled over 12,000 kilometres in 357 days and is now coming back to Bangladesh coast from Sri Lanka.
Urmee, the name of the turtle, has crossed the path until March 23, 2011. It is now in the middle of the Bay of Bengal, 780 km east of the Chennai coast of India, 977 km northeast of the Sri Lankan coast, 662 km west of

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Bay the global hotspot

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More than 10,000 endangered whales and dolphins of six species have made the Bay of Bengal and the Sundarbans estuary a safe home, a month long survey reveals.
A group of Bangladeshi wildlife scientists headed by Dr Anisuzzaman Khan carried out the survey and recently revealed that the Bay is still a good abode of aquatic animals like whales, and dolphins commonly

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Amur tigers in population crisis

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The effective population of the critically endangered Amur tiger is now fewer than 14 animals, say scientists.
Approximately 500 Amur tigers actually survive in the wild, but the effective population is a measure of the genetic diversity of the world’s largest cat.
Very low diversity means any vulnerability to disease or rare genetic disorders is likely to be passed on to the next generation.
The findings are

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Rare goose spotted

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A rare species of goose was spotted for the first time in the country in Hakaluki Haor of Moulvibazar district last Saturday.
A group of bird watchers led by eminent bird specialists Dr Enam al Haque and Paul Thompson have found the ‘lesser white-fronted goose’ on the concluding day of the two-day bird enumeration session at the haor.
“This species of goose has been detected for the first

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Chernobyl birds small brained

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Birds living around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident have 5 percent smaller brains, an effect directly linked to lingering background radiation.
The finding comes from a study of 550 birds belonging to 48 different species living in the region, published in the journal PLoS One.
Brain size was significantly smaller in yearlings compared to older birds.
Smaller brain sizes

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Tiger numbers could triple if large-scale landscapes protected: study

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Asia’s tiger reserves could support more than 10,000 wild tigers – three times the current number – if they are managed as large-scale landscapes that allow for connectivity between core breeding sites, a new paper from some of the world’s leading conservation scientists finds.
The study, co-authored by WWF scientists, is the first assessment of the political commitment made by all 13 tiger range countries at November’s historic tiger summit to double the tiger

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Two new mammals found

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Two new species of mammals have been discovered in Bangladesh, taking the total number of mammals of the country to 124.
The Himalayan Striped Squirrel (Tamiops macclellandi) and Least Leaf-nosed Bat (Hipposideros cineraceus) are only the second and third new mammals to be found in the country in last five years.
The first new mammal, Yellow Martin, was found early this year.
Both the new species

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Historic tiger summit closes with plans to secure more financial backing

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St. Petersburg, Russia: The historic International Tiger Conservation Forum ended with crucial plans to discuss further financing options for the Global Tiger Recovery Programme approved at the meeting, kick-starting new efforts to double the number of wild tigers.
On the final day of the summit, delegates met briefly to hammer out key dates in the coming year to reach final agreement on how to pay for and monitor the recovery plan. This followed

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Over 1,000 Tigers Killed In Past Decade

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The illegal trade in tiger parts has led to more than 1,000 wild tigers being killed over the past decade, a report suggests.
Traffic International, a wildlife trade monitoring network, found that skins, bones and claws were among the most common items seized by officials.
The trade continues unabated despite efforts to protect the cats, it warns.
Over the past century, tiger numbers have fallen from about 100,000 individuals to

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U.S. military ingenuity applied to epidemic destroying honey bees

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A group of Montana researchers working with the United States military has proposed a new, unique answer to the ongoing global epidemic destroying honey bee colonies: A fungus and virus working in tandem, aided by mites, may be the cause.
The ongoing honey bee deaths are widespread, causing losses in the USA, Europe and Asia. The puzzling phenomenon has a name: Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Now, the parts to the puzzle seem to be coming

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