Amur leopards born at Twycross Zoo

It's really good news!

A pair of Amur leopards, which are said to be the rarest big cats in the world, have been born in Leicestershire.

Twycross Zoo said its new cubs were born in June and could one day be reintroduced into the wild.

There are about 50 wild Amur leopards in China and south-eastern Russia but they are close to extinction because of poaching and illegal logging.

From BBC News

Antarctic fur seals feel climate impacts

Changes in the Antarctic climate are showing up in the fur seal population, say scientists.

Over the study period, the birth weight of pups was seen to fall significantly

Three decades of data show the females of this species are being born smaller, and those that do survive to motherhood are breeding later in life.

Subtle changes in their genetics are also being recorded.

Researchers tell the journal Nature that a shift in a dominant climate pattern has affected the supply of the seals' primary food source - krill.

"There has been a significant reduction in the size and the mass of the pups at birth," explained Dr Jaume Forcada from the British Antarctic SURVEY (BAS).

Dr Iain Staniland from the British Antarctic SURVEY explains how warming seas are reducing the food supply for Antarctic seals

"Over 27 years, we see pups being born with 80% less body mass. We also see the females breeding later in age - at least by one or two years.

"And when they start breeding, they are bigger than they used to be 30 years ago. This kind of thing has been seen before in all sorts of mammals, and is classically an indication of food stress."

The fur seals gather in huge numbers on beaches of Bird Island and all around South Georgia

The study was centred on South Georgia, a British Overseas Territory (BOT) in the South Atlantic that falls within the influence of Antarctic waters.

BAS has a long-term monitoring station on the territory's Bird Island, from where it has tracked the behaviour and health of the furs since the early 1980s.

In their report, the researchers tie the declining performance of the population directly to the increasingly unreliable provision of krill.

In particularly bad years when there are few krill at South Georgia, all the predators that depend on them will suffer poor breeding success, and the beaches will be littered with dead pups and penguin chicks.

From BBC News Sci/Environment

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Petition to move 'sad' polar bear to Canada

Nearly 200,000 people have signed a petition to get a despondent polar bear moved from Argentina to Canada.

Arturo is the only polar bear currently housed in Argentina

Arturo, nicknamed "the world's saddest animal", lives alone in a concrete enclosure in Mendoza, where temperatures can top 100F (38C).

The bear, 29, has been seen pacing in his pen and showing behaviour some have likened to depression.

Photos of him circulated online have led hundreds of thousands of people to urge his transfer to a zoo in Winnipeg.

The director of the Mendoza Zoo said earlier this year it would be unsafe to move the bear due to his age, but that hasn't stopped some high-profile support for a move.

"If you love animals the way I do, you're going to want to sign the petition to save the Argentinian polar bear, Arturo," former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

"His current living situation is very sad, and he deserves to be saved."

Animal rights groups have expressed concern for Arturo, whose enclosure partner, Pelusa, died two years ago.

An online petition calling on Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to transfer Arturo to Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg has garnered a great deal of attention.

The Canadian zoo - which opened its International Polar Bear Conservation Centre earlier this month - has previously said it would accept Arturo, but the decision to transfer him rests with the Argentinian zoo.

From BBC News http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28374086