FLORA FAUNA - AFRICA DAILY

Botswana hosts wildlife summits as elephants fight for survival

Mar 21, 2015 (AFP)

Wildlife experts and officials from around 30 governments will gather next week in Botswana to confront the threat that wild elephants could be heading for exti...

'Supertide' draws tens of thousands to France's Mont Saint-Michel

Mar 21, 2015 (AFP)

Thirty thousand people flocked to Mont Saint-Michel on Saturday to see the "tide of the century" surround the picturesque French landmark as two people drowned ...

Tiger meat, bear paws openly available in Laos: NGO

Mar 19, 2015 (AFP)

A resort complex in northwest Laos targeting Chinese visitors has become a "lawless playground" for the trade in illegal wildlife ranging from tiger meat to bea...

Tenth of wild bee species risk extinction in Europe: study

Mar 19, 2015 (AFP)

Nearly 10 percent of some 2,000 species of European wild bees are threatened with extinction, according to a study published Thursday. The study released by the...

Queen bee microbiomes are starkly distinct from worker bees

Mar 18, 2015 (SPX)

An Indiana University researcher and collaborators have published the first comprehensive analysis of the gut bacteria found in queen bees. Despite the importan...

Design and build of synthetic DNA goes back to 'BASIC'

Mar 18, 2015 (SPX)

A new technique for creating artificial DNA that is faster, more accurate and more flexible than existing methods has been developed by scientists at Imperial C...

2,000 snow geese die in US, avian cholera suspected

Mar 18, 2015 (AFP)

Two thousand migrating snow geese have died in the northwestern US state of Idaho likely due to avian cholera, according to the state's fish and game department...

Botswana MPs want wildlife hunting ban lifted ahead of talks

Mar 17, 2015 (AFP)

A week before Botswana hosts two key wildlife conservation conferences, a small group of lawmakers are seeking a review of a 2014 commercial hunting ban designe...

Florida conservationists report record numbers of manatees

Mar 16, 2015 (AFP)

Conservationists making an annual count of Florida's manatees said Monday they have tallied a record 6,000 -- a number that reflects years of effort to protect ...

Hungry sea lion pups reaching Calif. beaches, experts say

Mar 13, 2015 (UPI)

Some scientists believe climate change is having a major impact on the planet. Others believe the effects are more moderate. But one thing seems certain -- it's...

Ancient Africans used 'no fly zones' to bring herds south

Mar 11, 2015 (SPX)

Once green, the Sahara expanded 5,500 years ago, leading ancient herders to follow the rain and grasslands south to eastern Africa. But about 2,000 years ago, t...

Stuck-in-the-mud plankton reveal ancient temperatures

Mar 11, 2015 (SPX)

New research in Nature Communications showing how tiny creatures drifted across the ocean before falling to the seafloor and being fossilised has the potential ...

Pakistan fines Qatari royal for hunting with falcons without permit

Mar 11, 2015 (AFP)

Pakistani authorities have fined a Qatari royal $800 for hunting birds with falcons without a permit in the northwest of the country, officials said Wednesday. ...

After 60 million years apart, two fern genera form hybrid in the mountains of France

Mar 10, 2015 (SPX)

In an article published in the March 2015 issue of The American Naturalist, a team of researchers report on a fern from the French Pyrenees that is a recently f...

Mouse-tailed bat first mammal discovered hibernating at warm temps

Mar 10, 2015 (UPI)

Until now, hibernation was thought to be a biological strategy used exclusively during cold winter months. As such, places like the Middle East, where winter mo...

Ethiopia's 'Iron Lion Zion' cats fading fast

Mar 10, 2015 (AFP)

Ethiopia's black-maned lions once represented a former emperor, "Lion of Judah" Haile Selassie, and were immortalised in a song by reggae legend Bob Marley. Tod...

Botswana warns over elephant deaths ahead of anti-poaching summit

Mar 10, 2015 (AFP)

Botswana warned Tuesday that elephants were being killed at an "unsustainably high" rate as it prepared to host conferences on poaching of the animals later thi...

Catalina Island fox goes from endangered to abundant

Mar 09, 2015 (UPI)

In 1999, the Catalina Island fox was nearly wiped out by a canine distemper epidemic. The disease arrived on the island via a stowaway racoon. Fast-forward more...

More than two million migratory birds killed in Cyprus

Mar 09, 2015 (AFP)

More than two million migratory birds were killed in Cyprus last autumn to feed an illicit taste for the delicacy on the Mediterranean island, a conservationist...

'Extinct' Myanmar bird rediscovered after 73 years

Mar 07, 2015 (AFP)

A bird that was long thought to have gone extinct has been rediscovered in Myanmar after a team of scientists used a recording of the species' distinctive call ...