Animals
‘Free-range’ label to stay when chickens locked down to contain bird flu
A new strain of bird flu has infected the rest of the world and could enter Australia at any moment. When it does, poultry producers will be on red alert.
- by Mike Foley
Latest
Exclusive
Brumby cull
Total removal of feral horses planned for some national parks
In Kosciuszko National Park, the government must by law retain 3000 brumbies. But in other national parks in NSW and Victoria, the goal is zero feral horses.
- by Bianca Hall and Caitlin Fitzsimmons
This elephant uses a hose to give herself a shower every day
At Berlin Zoo, while Mary provided an elephantine example of tool use, another animal got up to such mischief it resembled a watery prank.
- by Emily Anthes
Elephant learns to use hose for daily shower
In the Berlin Zoo, Mary, an Asian elephant, demonstrated another example of clever elephantine tool use.
Emperor penguin swims to Australia in longest recorded journey
The young male emperor penguin probably swam from eastern Antarctica and was malnourished on arrival. It will need to make its own way home.
- by Kieran Kelly
Opinion
Biodiversity
I took a Perth kid to the Queensland rainforest. Was I doing something wrong?
We’d looked forward to this spectacular trip so much, and yet at the start I could not quieten the sense of wrongness that had been troubling me for so long.
- by Emma Young
Seeing the world’s loneliest animal moved me to tears. Now there’s hope
The northern white rhino is on the brink of extinction. But a laboratory in Germany may now have the means to save them.
- by Sue Williams
Exclusive
Biodiversity
Licence to kill: Millions of Australian native animals legally slaughtered
Australians took out licences to kill more than 1.2 million native animals and birds last year alone, with kangaroos and wallabies comprising almost half the animals killed.
- by Bianca Hall
Exclusive
Wildlife
WIRES risks mass exodus as internal warfare comes to a head
Australia’s largest and richest wildlife rescue charity has introduced a structural change that lessens oversight of what remains of the $100 million raised during the Black Summer bushfires and curtails the rights of volunteers.
- by Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Hephner the Alpaca sneezes and sprays the King
He wore his best crown and gold bow tie. Hephner the Alpaca almost delivered King Charles a dose of camelid snot.
- by Shane Wright
Explainer
Biology
‘Avian architecture’: Why birds’ nests are truly grand designs
Some are cup-shaped, some have domes, others have been likened to apartment complexes. How do birds build their nurseries?
- by Jackson Graham