Hot, dry conditions bring numerous species into contact with people and pets, and not just in the bush. It’s good to know which is which
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The quickest way to tell the difference between an eastern brown snake and a copperhead is to nearly step on it. If it strikes, it’s an eastern brown. If it stays still as you jump back, it’s a copperhead.
Thankfully, the snake I nearly stood on this week as I walked distractedly through the horse yard was a copperhead. Lowland copperheads are the seventh most venomous snake in Australia, but they are also shy and only bite when severely provoked. They are pretty common here in the Macedon Ranges. This is the second time I’ve nearly stepped on this particular snake. I also didn’t see it when carrying washing out to the line last month. Both times it skedaddled.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
12/07/2024 - 14:00
12/07/2024 - 12:00
Plans of deportation and trade wars should concern farmers, yet they backed him by a three-to-one margin
Every year, farmers in California’s Central valley heavily rely on the labor of hundreds of thousands of immigrant agricultural workers to grow and harvest their crops.
But for many in a region that produces one-quarter of the country’s food, president-elect Donald Trump’s promise to deport millions of undocumented migrants – a move that could result in national agricultural output falling by up to $60bn – is not a threat to their livelihoods.
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12/06/2024 - 15:40
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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12/06/2024 - 14:00
New research estimates a 32% increase in deaths of people under 35 if greenhouse gases not radically cut
Extreme heat fueled by the climate crisis is often viewed as primarily a problem for vulnerable segments of the population, such as elderly people. But it is people aged under 35 that are set to suffer the brunt of heat-related deaths as temperatures climb, new research has suggested.
While older people are susceptible to heatwaves, they currently make up the bulk of cold-related deaths. As the world heats up, it will be younger people that will suffer disproportionately as the mortality burden shifts, with the new study estimating a 32% increase in deaths of people under 35 years old this century from heat if greenhouse gases emissions aren’t radically cut.
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12/06/2024 - 12:00
Former and current NFL and WNBA stars are ushering in a wave of athlete-farmers who see farming as a greater mission
When Jason Brown speaks to schoolchildren, they clamor to hear about his seven-year NFL career. A mountain of a man who stood six-three and weighed 330lbs in his prime, he excelled at center – gridiron speak for the innermost lineman who initiates offensive plays by “snapping” the ball between his legs to the quarterback.
Brown entered the draft in 2005 after standout years at the University of North Carolina. He quickly gained a reputation for being a human plow who relentlessly cleared pathways for some of the game’s best. He got paid well for it, signing a $20m free-agent contract with the St Louis Rams in 2009. At 26, he was the position’s highest paid player in the league, and he bought the toys to show it: the MTV Cribs-style house, the flashy cars to match.
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12/06/2024 - 11:20
Non-native species introduced by humans are among the main causes of global species decline -- they were partly responsible for 60 percent of the species that have become extinct worldwide in recent decades. In Central Europe, non-native mammals include species such as the Norway rat, the mouflon and the mink. Now a study shows that some of these species introduced by humans are themselves endangered in their native range.
12/06/2024 - 09:00
Here are some of the standout images from the 2024 Nature Conservancy Oceania photo contest.
The 2024 contest saw close to 2,000 entries from photographers in Australia, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea
Dead native birds and flying foxes found in SA town home to one of world’s largest lead smelters
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12/06/2024 - 09:00
High voltage required to use Aemo’s emergency backstop is a bit like stopping a car by driving into a tree, Vince Garrone says
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This week’s call by the Australian Energy Market Operator for “emergency backstop” mechanisms to switch off rooftop solar systems brings safety risks, because the high voltages needed exceed the limits that many appliances have safely been tested for.
That’s according to Vince Garrone, former power quality manager at Energex, Queensland’s biggest electricity distributor who called the situation ironic. Authorities, in using “brute force” to trip inverters, were creating the very high voltage conditions the device protection was designed to prevent.
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12/06/2024 - 07:41
Campaigners want rethink of national policy because of ‘wasteful knock-it-down-and-start-again approach’
Campaigners are calling for planning rules to consider the environmental implications of knocking down buildings after a controversial redevelopment of Marks & Spencer’s historic store on London’s Oxford Street was given the green light by the government.
Save Britain’s Heritage said national policy should consider the embedded carbon linked to a site when considering its future and prioritise reuse of historic buildings amid the climate crisis alongside issues such as preserving important architecture.
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12/06/2024 - 05:21
Hunting bigger, more experienced animals eradicates memories and knowledge crucial to group survival, research suggests
It’s not just humans who get wiser as they age – animals do too, according to a growing body of research. The bigmouth buffalo fish can reach 127 years old, the Greenland shark 392, and some sponges can live for 10,000 years or more. And age is not just a number: as animals get older they behave differently depending on their life experiences, gain richer knowledge of their environment, and often pass it on to younger members of their group, researchers say.
The problem is, we are killing off these older creatures. “Earth’s old animals are in decline,” researchers warned in a paper published in Science last month, which analysed more than 9,000 peer-reviewed papers. Few animals make it to old age, and the ones that do are vulnerable to being hunted or harvested by humans, because they are the biggest or have, for example, the largest antlers, horns or tusks.
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