Environment

The most amazing underwater pictures in the world have been revealed - including a close-up snap of an angry crocodile. More than 6,000 pictures were entered for the underwaterphotography.com contest across 17 categories - from macro close-ups to wide angle shots, with two Brits claiming gold medals. A lemon shark glides through the late-afternoon sunlight off the coast of Grand Bahama Tanya Houppermans One of these was Tom St George who scooped a gold in the Wide Angle/Marine Life category...

Giant dinosaurs bigger than a double decker bus roamed the Isle of Skye 170 million years ago, say scientists. Dozens of footprints belonging to early sauropods - the largest animals ever to walk the planet - have been unearthed in a lagoon on the remote Scottish hideaway. Others were made by the older theropod cousins of T Rex as herds splashed about in the muddy shallows off the north east coast. They were identified by their claws. The discovery adds...

Pupils, in deprived areas, are "filling their pockets" with food from school canteens, in desperation, due to poverty. These troubling findings have been gathered from a survey of 900 heads, teachers and school support staff of the National Education Union (NEU). Nearly nine out of ten (87%) say that poverty is having a significant impact on the learning of their pupils and 60% believe that the situation has worsened since 2015. Worryingly, of these a third (33%) think it has...

Donald Trump's proposed US-Mexico border wall could devastate surroundings wildlife, according to experts. Conservation biologists at The University of Texas at Austin found that a border wall could harm endangered plants and animals - and destroy the region's growing ecotourism industry. The scientists examined what would happen if more of Texas' roughly 1,200 miles of border with Mexico were to be walled off. Many miles of new barriers are set to be built on federal lands, most of which are...

  Fishermen are kicking off because naughty dolphins keep wrecking their nets - and stealing their catch. New research has discovered fishing nets suffer six times more damage when dolphins are around. And the problem is only going to get worse for fishing fleets, as overfishing is forcing dolphins and boat captains closer together than ever before. University of Exeter researchers studied the impact of bottlenose dolphins on fisheries off northern Cyprus. They said Mediterranean overfishing had created a "vicious...

Britain's biggest butterfly faces being wiped out by climate change, say scientists. The Swallowtail is only found in the fens and marshes of the Norfolk Broads - making it the rarest in the UK. Global warming is placing it at risk of extinction - along with the picturesque county's bees, bugs, birds, trees and mammals, a groundbreaking study warns. David North, head of People and Wildlife at Norfolk Wildlife Trust, said: "The likely impacts of climate change on our wildlife...

Bill Oddie is to deliver 70,000 signatures calling for a Foie Gras free Britain to parliament today. The celebrity joins Chris Packham, Ricky Gervais and Evanna Lynch in calling for an import ban post-Brexit. Animal Equality, the animal protection organisation behind the campaign, has documented the extreme suffering of ducks and geese on dozens of foie gras farms in France and Spain. The group launched the petition in June 2017 after a poll found overwhelming support for a UK import ban...

Parts of the Amazon previously thought to have been almost uninhabited were really home to thriving populations of up to a million people, new research shows. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that there were hundreds of villages in the rainforest away from major rivers, and they were home to different communities speaking varied languages who had an impact on the environment around them. Huge parts of the Amazon are still unexplored by archaeologists, particularly areas away from major rivers. People had...

A couple claim they have been 'bullied' out of the Hobbit-style mud hut they built to combat an allergy to modern life. Nature-loving Kate Burrows, 46, and her partner Alan, 48, have left the unique home they fashioned out of the earth, tree trunks and straw after a council took enforcement action against them. Kate says she was forced out of her previous rented house by permanent flu -like symptoms as she was allergic to the mains water, electricity, wi-fi...