Rare Rothschild giraffe born at Chester zoo

Chester Zoo are celebrating the arrival of a very rare baby giraffe

Well done, guys!

Millie is less than a week old, but she's already a whopper at 6 feet tall!

She's a baby Rothschild giraffe, which are an endangered species and there are only thought to be 670 left in the wild.

The animals got their unusual name from a famous zoologist, Lord Walter Rothschild, who founded the National History Museum in Hertfordshire.

The tall creatures are normally live in Kenya, Uganda and Sudan in Africa.

They can be identified by having wider dividing white lines on their skin and by having no spots beneath the knees.

In the past, giraffes were hunted for their tails, which were used as good-luck charms, sewing thread and even fly swats.

From CBBC News

Cash stopping sea bed protection says government

The UK government have said a lack of money is stopping them from protecting wildlife in the seas around the UK.

Bad News!

Environment ministers say the country's current financial problems mean they haven't been able to secure as many areas as they had hoped to.

Originally 127 areas were selected to become special Marine Conservation Zones but now it's thought only 31 will be created.

The final decision will be made on Sunday.

Jolyon Chesworth from the Wildlife Trusts said: "We are disappointed at the rate of progress. The government has an international obligation to protect wildlife in the seas."

Around the world just 0.6% of the world's oceans have been protected, compared to almost 13% of our planet's land area.

From CBBC News

Northern lights: spectacular footage captured in Iceland

The Powers of Nature : tameless, surprising, strong and unpredictable

This footage of the northern lights was filmed on 17 March near Gullfoss and Skaftafell in Iceland with multiple DSLR cameras. The northern lights, or aurora borealis, is one of the most sublime and magnificent natural phenomena on Earth. The glow is caused by high-energy electrons colliding with oxygen atoms and nitrogen molecules.

In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis (or the northern lights), named after the Roman goddess of dawn,Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas, by Pierre Gassendi in 1621. Auroras seen near the magnetic pole may be high overhead, but from farther away, they illuminate the northern horizon as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red, as if the Sun were rising from an unusual direction. Discrete aurorae often display magnetic field lines or curtain-like structures, and can change within seconds or glow unchanging for hours, most often in fluorescent green. The aurora borealis most often occurs near the equinoctes. The northern lights have had a number of names throughout history. The Cree call this phenomenon the "Dance of the Spirits". In Europe, in the Middle Ages, the auroras were commonly believed a sign from God.

Its southern counterpart, the aurora australis (or the southern lights), has almost identical features to the aurora borealis and changes simultaneously with changes in the northern auroral zoneand is visible from high southern latitudes in Antarctica, South America,New Zealand, and Australia. Aurorae occur on other planets. Similar to the Earth's aurora, they are visible close to the planet's magnetic poles. 

From The Guardian and Wikipedia

Butterflies 'at risk of extinction' due to sodden 2012

The UK's butterflies suffered a 'catastrophic' year in 2012, with most species declining, a new study shows.

Of the 56 species that were looked at, 52 saw their numbers drop compared to 2011.

Thirteen had their worst year since 1976.

The year 2012 was one of the wettest on record and it's thought this meant the creatures struggled to find food and shelter.

Threatened butterfly species were already experiencing declines before last year's wet weather, but now wildlife experts warn struggling butterflies could become extinct in some areas of the UK.

In the study only four species saw their numbers increase.

These include the grass-feeding Meadow Brown whose numbers rose by a fifth and the Scotch Argus which thrives in damp conditions - its numbers increased by over 50 per cent.

From CBBC News

Wind power: clean, sustainable, and affordable

Wind power generates electricity with...

• No air emissions
• No fuel to mine, transport, or store
• No cooling water
• No water pollution
• No wastes

Wind power can reduce pollution generated by fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas. A typical (750 kW) wind turbine provides enough power for 328 typical (non-electric heating) homes.

Of course, windpower does require land for siting turbines. Some people don't like the way wind turbines look. Others find them visually appealing. A few wind projects have harmed some birds. And some pollution is produced when wind turbines are manufactured and installed, as with all energy options.

Photo credit: Warren Gretz, DOE/NREL.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle-The 3rs

Copious amounts of garbage resulting from a consumption-driven and densely populated society have led waste managers to adopt and promote an approach to the waste problem summarized by the phrase "reduce, reuse and recycle" -- the waste hierarchy. This slogan reminds consumers of the actions they can take to minimize the burdens that their waste creates: reducing waste, reusing waste when possible and recycling waste into goods for tomorrow.

What is Ecology?

Ecology is an interdisciplinary field that includes biology and Earth science. The word "ecology" ("Ökologie") was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel(1834–1919). Ancient Greek philosophers such as Hippocrates and Aristotle laid the foundations of ecology in their studies on natural history. Modern ecology transformed into a more rigorous science in the late 19th century. Evolutionary concepts on adaptation and natural selection became cornerstones of modern ecological theory. Ecology is not synonymous with environment, environmentalism, natural history, orenvironmental science. It is closely related to evolutionary biology, genetics, andethology. An understanding of how biodiversity affects ecological function is an important focus area in ecological studies. Ecologists seek to explain:

• Life processes and adaptations
• Distribution and abundance of organisms
• The movement of materials and energy through living communities
• The successional development of ecosystems, and
• The abundance and distribution of biodiversity in the context of the environment.

Ecology is a human science as well. There are many practical applications of ecology in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management(agroecology, agriculture, forestry, agroforestry, fisheries), city planning (urban ecology),community health, economics, basic and applied science, and human social interaction (human ecology). Ecosystems maintain biophysical feedback mechanisms that modulate metabolic rates and evolutionary dynamics between living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components of the planet. Ecosystems sustain life-supporting functions and produce natural capital through the regulation ofcontinental climates, global biogeochemical cycles, water filtration, soils, food, fibres, medicines, erosion control, and many other natural features of scientific, historical, economic, or intrinsic value.

From Wikipedia

Why such a fuss about extinction?

Article by David Shukman from BBC -Sci/Environment

What is wrong with extinction? I realise this question is the conservation equivalent of a landmine - or an elephant trap. And that it is likely to ruffle a lot of fur.

No doubt a controversial topic!

Would the world be better if velociraptors still existed?

But I ask because I am merely wondering whether we sometimes forget a grim reality of the story of life on Earth - that extinction has always been with us.

In fact, it has quite often been good for us.

We are certainly far better off without velociraptors slashing their way through our cities. Our streets are safer with no sabre-toothed tigers. And imagine trying to swat one of those monster prehistoric insects like a vulture-sized dragonfly.

The question of extinction most recently surfaced at the talks on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) - the treaty meant to save endangered species from the devastating effects of trade.

The slaughter of rhino, the decimation of elephant, the forlorn last stand of the tiger - all had their profiles raised as the delegates in Bangkok negotiated their fate.

And anyone hearing the protests and the campaigns, and the shocking statistics about the losses, might be forgiven for thinking that extinction was some new kind of evil that was not invented until rapacious and uncaring mankind came along.

I should state right now that some of the most ghastly examples are indeed entirely the result of man's activities, sometimes unwittingly, sometimes carelessly.

Natural order

However, taking a long view, extinction has been part of the natural order of things throughout Earth's history.

The most famous mass wipe-out was the loss of the dinosaurs. And four other great die-offs have been identified - one of them killing off something like 90% of species.

But there is so-called "background" extinction as well - species fading out year by year, creatures quietly losing out to others and disappearing. These losses might not be spectacular - in fact, they're routine.

The result is that the average species only lasts a few million years. Mammals do worst, surviving between one and two million years. Clams do better at five to seven million.

A few hardy survivors - the leatherback turtle is a prime example of a sturdy design - cling on for tens of millions of years.

But the blunt truth is that the living world is a restless, churning enterprise in which nothing endures forever. Astonishingly, almost every life form that has ever existed on the planet has died out.

It is worth pausing to absorb what that means. Something like 90% - or even 99%, according to some estimates - of every kind of sea creature or land animal or insect or plant that enjoyed a spell on Earth then vanished into oblivion.

Some remains morphed into fossils and ended up on the shelves of museums. Others have left no trace.

No mourning
Charles Darwin wrote of extinction in his landmark On the Origin of Species.

For him, the process of evolution involved new species gaining ground and others losing out. He certainly did not mourn the passing of the losers.

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