A third of ‘protected’ nature zones are quietly being ruined
17 May 2018
The world’s nations have set up 200,000 protected areas in which nature is supposed to flourish, but in many cases the protection is pretty much theoretical
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Premium
Colombia’s peace deal unwittingly unleashed hell on the Amazon
8 May 2018
Ever since Colombia signed a historic peace deal with the FARC guerrillas, farmers and criminal gangs have been burning its portion of the Amazon rainforest
Giant sea spiders sit and wait for prey to knock themselves out
2 May 2018
Huge sea spiders move excruciatingly slowly, but they can still catch prey animals that move much faster than them – because their prey sometimes crash into the seafloor
The European Union has decided to ban bee-killing pesticides
27 April 2018
European Union member states have voted to ban the outdoor use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been linked to declines in pollinating insects
Much of nature is near collapse and that means society is too
23 March 2018
An assessment of Earth’s biodiversity predicts catastrophic losses within decades, with severe knock-on effects for human civilisation like shortages of food
Two herbivores gang up and silence a plant's cries for help
14 March 2018
Caterpillar presence mutes broccoli's production of chemicals that attract aphid parasitoids, allowing both pests to wreak havoc
A deadly predator could save the UK’s threatened red squirrels
7 March 2018
Britain’s native red squirrels have been retreating for decades in the face of invasive grey squirrels, but predators called pine martens could help save them
People are slaughtering orangutans and wiping them out
15 February 2018
The population of Bornean orangutans fell by almost half in just 16 years, and it was not a sad by-product of deforestation: many apes were killed deliberately
Plants use sand armour to break teeth of attacking caterpillars
28 December 2017
Some plants are coated in sand, and it seems the sand grains act like medieval armour that protects these “psammophorous” plants from munching caterpillars
Freeloading mites are squatting on spider webs and stealing food
1 November 2017
A newly-discovered species of mite sets up home on a spider’s web and nibbles away at any insects the spider catches – and the spider doesn’t seem to mind
