A woodcut illustration of the 1684 frost fair on the River Thames in London.Photograph: Science History Images/Alamy
The ‘little ice age’ of the 14th to the 19th centuries brought cold winters to Europe and unusual weather globally. Studying how humans adapted could be valuable
In early February 1814, an elephant walked across the surface of the Thames near Blackfriars Bridge in London.The stuntwas performed during thefrost fair, when temperatures were so cold that for four days the top layers of the river froze solid. Londoners promptly held a festival, complete with what we might now call pop-up shops and a lot of unlicensed alcohol.
Nobody could have known it at the time, but this was the last of the Thames frost fairs. They had taken place every few decades, at wildly irregular intervals, for several centuries…
If approved for funding, the telescope will launch in 2026.
An artist’s depiction of a collection of exoplanets.(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
China could soon begin its first space-based hunt for exoplanets, if a proposal from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SAO) gets the go-ahead this summer.
The Earth 2.0 Telescope would spend four years orbiting sun-EarthLagrange point2, about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) fromEarth. There, it would fixed its seven telescopes on a portion of the sky toward the galactic center and watch for signs of dimming as planets transit, or pass in front of, a star as they orbit.
The main targets are roughly Earth-sizeexoplanetswith similar orbits around sun-like stars. This requires high sensitivity to spot the signals of small-planet transits, as well as long-term monitoring to glimpse planets that take an Earthly year to go around their star.
IT WAS A PLEASANT hike through the high desert until I glanced into the dead eyes of an emaciated coyote splayed beneath the low branches of a piñon pine. My husband, dog, and I were out enjoying a warm spring day, wandering the back acres of Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary’s property in northwestern New Mexico where we lived and worked for the betterment of seventy canids rescued from the exotic pet trade. The carcass was only a five-minute walk from home.
Forty-four states continue to permit trapping on public lands, endangering wildlife, pets, and people. Photo byTom Koerner/USFWS.
Though I didn’t know it then, this was our second meeting. In the first, the animal was very much alive. Now it was recently deceased, so fresh its eyes, skin, and patches of fur…
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Agriculture experts have confirmed Washington state’s second outbreak of bird flu, this time in a non-commercial flock in Spokane County.
The affected flock is a mix of about 75 geese, chickens, ducks and guinea fowl and they were euthanized.
A private veterinarian submitted a dead goose that exhibited unusual behavior prior to death, including walking abnormally, shaking its head, not moving, and exhibiting a lack of fear of humans.
The presence of H5N1 avian influenza virus in the flock was detected by Washington State University’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory and confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory on Saturday.
This is the second detection of the virus in Washington state this year, following last week’s confirmation in Pacific County, also in a backyard flock. There are no detections in commercial poultry in the state.
WATCH: With cases of avian flu on the rise in Canada and in Saskatchewan, the Forestry Farm Park and Zoo is taking precautions with its birds and experts offer their advice on staying clear of interaction with wild birds in Saskatoon.
Buy NowA black vulture swoops in on another bird as it had been feeding on the carcass of a dead skunk at the corner of Pitney and Millcross Roads in Lancaster on Monday, April 25, 2022.Suzette Wenger
A highly contagious strain of avian flu has been detected in some of more than a hundred deceased black vultures found and removed from an area near the Conowingo Dam.
The dead birds were found over the past two weeks. In an attempt to limit the illness’s spread, especially to domesticated poultry operations, the hydroelectric dam’s owners closed a pair of trails in the area, which is…
Climate prediction centers, led by the U.K. Met Office, said Monday in an annual update that the chance of the planet temporarily exceeding the key global temperature limit had significantly increased.
As recently as 2015, climate scientists had said there was zero chance of surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius in the following five years.
However, the likelihood of exceeding this temperature limit was upgraded to 10% in the years between 2017 and 2021, before climbing to nearly 50% for the 2022-2026 period.
ARussian bomber fired three hypersonic missiles at the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa on Monday night, Ukrainian officials said, as part of a barrage that leveled a number of civilian targets including hotels and a shopping mall.
It is not the first time Moscow has deployed its Kinzhal hypersonic missile during its invasion, but it does appear to be a relatively rare occurrence.
Russia said it used Kinzhal missiles Ukraine in mid-March — a claim later confirmed by US officials to CNN — in the first known use of the weapon in combat.
In March, US President Joe BidenconfirmedRussia’s use of the Kinzhal missile, describing it as…
While most agree that the recent coyote attack on a toddler was tragic and terrifying, wildlife experts and residents seem to be at odds with what should be done about the coyote population.
“He charged me,” said one resident. “I woke all my neighbors up screaming, they thought someone was being murdered.”
Residents shared their scary encounters with coyotes during Huntington Beach’s recent Town Hall meeting with some saying that coyotes had followed them home. The emotional crowd called on the city and Orange County to act after police were forced to shoot two coyotes that seriously injured a toddler.
Many residents claim that there are too many roaming around the area, with many people feeling unsafe in their own yards.
“I cruise around at night [because] that’s the only time I get to exercise and I literally see five and six in packs cruising up and down the streets,” said one resident.
Experts admitted that the exact number of coyotes in the area, but the Orange County Animal Care and Department of Fish and Wildlife pushed back and claimed that humans are attracting wild animals by leaving trash out or allowing their pets out alone.
Some of the solutions were rebuked by experts claiming that relocation wouldn’t work and sterilization would be too expensive and impractical. They insisted that the best answer would be to remove the items that draw coyotes near humans and pets.
But many said that approach would only work if everyone participates and if those who disobey are held accountable.
“There’s a lady over there feeding the coyotes scrambled eggs,” said one resident. “She’s chasing after them with a plate trying to feed them and she thinks if you feed the coyotes they won’t be hungry and go after our pets. I mean that’s how idiotic some of these people are.”
This was an information-gathering meeting and the city did not make any decisions on what to do with coyotes. However, the aggressive solutions put forth by some worried some animal activists.
On Feb. 24, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC)voted to lift a 51-year-old ban on black bear huntingin three designated bear sanctuaries in Western North Carolina and to rename all 22 bear sanctuaries in the state to “designated bear management units.”
The decision was made to stabilize an increasing bear population and reduce human-bear interactions by “removing problem bears and reversing human-conditioned behavior,” according to the NCWRC. The decision was met withbacklash from opponents, who say hunting may not target the bears actually involved in human interactions and who favor interventions that address the human side of the problem.
“The more knowledgeable you are, the more you understand bears, the more willingness you have to coexist,” said Bill Lea, a black bear photographer and retiree of the U.S. Forest…
