Environment

An escaped wolf has been shot dead by keepers just months after giving birth to cubs -- the first to be born at the wildlife park in its forty-seven-year history. The female named Ember managed to get out of her enclosure at Cotswold Wildlife Park on Friday. Staff tried to tranquilise the three-year-old Eurasian wolf after it was found wandering just outside the park's perimeter towards the A361 but say it was out of range. Visitors at the park were...

Man has produced more than 9.1 BILLION tonnes of plastic since the 1950s - but just nine per cent has been recycled, according to a new study. And, If current trends continue, the researchers warned more than 13 billion tons of plastic waste will be discarded in landfills or dumped in the environment by 2050 - around 35,000 times as heavy as the Empire State Building in New York. The mind boggling total amount of plastic manufactured since the material...

Plunging into a Scottish loch, this majestic Osprey emerges triumphant with a big fish supper. These spectacular pictures capture the moments the majestic bird of prey folds its wings and plunges down into the water. The pics were taken by former poacher turned wildlife photographer Bill Doherty. The 62 year old, from Ashington in Northumberland has been photographing the iconic birds for the last eight years. An Osprey fishing on a private loch near Aviemore, Highland.  Bill, who is now...

Fluctuations in sea surface temperature are a factor in causing persistent droughts in North America and around the Mediterranean, new research suggests. A team from the universities of Exeter, Montpellier and Wageningen analysed data from 1957–2002 and found sea surface temperatures in the North Pacific and North Atlantic became increasingly variable, and extremes lasted for longer. Ocean temperatures are a major driver of conditions on land, and the researchers showed that the changes they observed correlated with increases in land...

Britain is in danger of "sleepwalking" into a post-Brexit future with hugely increased food prices and unsafe and insecure food supplies, a report has claimed. This worrying study was compiled by academics from three top universities. They believe that the UK’s population expect low food prices and guaranteed supply for anything they need. Over the last twenty years Britain has benefited from a wealth of food and choice of food groups, even for the poorest in society. The report highlights...

A flytipper who illegally dumped more than 60 TONNES of rubbish was let off with a £50 fine. Lance Morris, 47, dumped the waste - including old tyres and timber - in Croydon, south London, over a three-year period. But the litter mountain cost Croydon Council thousands of pounds to clear up. Morris didn't have the necessary licences to carry or store the waste, and gave the "false impression" that he was working as a builder. He claimed the waste...

They say elephants never forget, but crafty squirrels can remember how they got into a garden birdfeeder... two years later. And they are also able to use those skills to solve a redesigned version of the same test within half a minute. The intelligence of the pesky rodents is well known, but the new findings shed fresh light on just why they are such a nuisance. Despite their amusing antics, keeping neighbourhood grey squirrels out of a birdfeeder is usually...

A trillion tonne iceberg has broken away from the Antarctic ice shelf in what has been described by scientists as an event which will change the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula forever. Researchers have been monitoring a huge crack in the Larsen C Ice Shelf for some time and say the iceberg, which is more than a quarter the size of Wales, was "hanging by a thread". The 5,800 square kilometre (2,200 square mile) mass weighing more than a trillion tonnes has now...

Fish are shrinking because of climate change, a leading marine ecologist has warned. By 2050, the size of fish could shrink by 10 – 20 per cent, Dr William Cheung, a marine ecologist at the University of British Columbia, Canada, forecast. Dr Cheung, who gave a keynote address at the 50th Anniversary Symposium of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles at Exeter University this week, said some fish in the North Sea, including haddock, were already getting smaller. He...