We know from watching the movie Fly Away Home with Anna Paquin that Canadian geese bred in captivity identify and imprint on the first mother they see. We also learn that Canadian geese can learn to fly with airplanes, and then evetually rewild. True story. Does the Fly Away Home theory really work for all birds?
Reputed travel companies such as Wildfoot Travel work towards minimizing the effect of human activity on the animal population. This can involve taking steps to lessen chaos, cut down on pollution, and steer clear of actions that upset the balance of ecosystems.
Such studies will include monitoring wild populations to assess survival, dispersal, and breeding success.
Oryx, giraffes and cheetahs – species once facing regional extinction – are making a robust reappearance on a desert island off the coast of Abu Dhabi. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan al-Nahayan, founder of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), created the remote nature reserve in 1971. Forty years after Sir Bani Yas island received its first ‘imported’ […]
The world went wild last week over an unforgettable image of a weasel riding bareback on a woodpecker in flight. It is difficult to imagine a more astonishing moment that the one captured by amateur British photographer Martin Le-May, unless maybe if that woodpecker had a camera strapped to his chest. But that sort of nutty nature photography could only happen […]
How do you feel about jewelry made from dead animals? I’m not talking about fetish jewelry where teeth, bones, and vertebrae turn into sinister charms, but tasteful pendants and earrings made more colorful by adding real insect wings.
When Noah was told by God to load two of all animals onto a special hand-built ark, there was no mention of the blind shrimp species found only in Israel. There probably was no need to protect the small crustacean living happily underwater – until now.
Only 177 countries behind the times, Lebanon has finally joined the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), The Daily Star reports. One of the last Middle Eastern countries to get on board, Lebanon has not done well to protect the 100 or so species in the country that are […]
Holiday shopping can be challenging for an ex-pat in the Middle East, but need it also be horrifying? In Jordan, import duties bloat retail prices. Clay pots and intricate mosaics are too unwieldy to mail, and puppies gestate in less time than it takes for a package to ship back to the States. With […]
There are still a few Iranian Asiatic cheetahs in the wild, but they too are on the brink of disappearing. Global cheetah populations have plummeted over the past century, from an estimated 100,000 cheetahs in 1900 to fewer than 10,000 today. And once upon a time, cheetahs roamed the deserts of Iran. But international scientific surveys recently […]
The Hula Valley Bird Park offers unique bird and nature-watching opportunities. We birdwatchers sat in a covered safari wagon as lines of cranes criss-crossed the evening sky. More and more cranes began to appear, and soon the air was full of powerful-looking birds calling in hoarse, creaking voices. Hundreds landed to roost in a field […]
A lion even more sickly than this one was stuffed and put on display in a Gaza zoo. Animals are among the first victims of political crisis, and nowhere is this more evident than in Gaza. The Times of Israel journalists recently toured the Gaza Strip’s unofficial Khan Younis Zoo and found mangled animals stuffed […]
Goldfish have made up a small part of the Iranian New Year festivities for thousands of years, but some activists want this practice to end. A longstanding Zoroastrian tradition, the Iranian New Year known as Nowruz is a time for spring cleaning, visiting friends, banishing the old, and preparing for the new. Beginning at the […]
In the video below the jump, Maltese hunters are depicted shooting Eagles, Falcons, Vultures and other protected bird species. The Avian Influenza outbreak had at least one positive outcome in Egypt: it kept both local and migratory birds safe from hunters. But last year in December the government re-opened the country to what seems to be […]
10 King and 10 Gentoo Penguins imported from Texas are now living at Ski Dubai – an indoor ski slope in the desert! Picture : © Samuel Blanc / www.sblanc.com It’s bizarre enough that Dubai has an indoor ski slope despite outdoor summer temperatures averaging at over 40 degrees Celsius, but now a colony of penguins has […]