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How falling cats, slithering snakes, burrowing prairie dogs and more exploit the laws of physics

These films focus on our non-human animal friends.

Researchers are building an AI system that they hope will, one day, allow humans to understand the many languages that animals use to communicate with one another.Why it matters: Understanding what animals are saying could not only aid human knowledge of our world, but advocates say might provide a compelling case for giving them broader legal rights.Driving the news: NatureLM, detailed earlier this year, is an AI language model that can already identify the species of animal speaking, as well as other information including the approximate age of the animal and whether it is indicating distress or play.Created by Earth Species Project, NatureLM has even shown potential in identifying the dialogue of species the system has never encountered before.NatureLM is trained on a mix of human language, environmental sounds and other data.The non-profit recently secured $17 million in grants to continue its work.What they're saying: "We are facing a biodiversity crisis," Earth Species Project CEO Katie Zacarian said during a demo of NatureLM at the recent Axios AI+ Summit in San Francisco. "The situation we are in today is driven from a disconnection with the rest of nature," she said. "We believe that AI is leading us to this inevitability that we will decode animal communication and come back into connection."Between the lines: Translation, in the broadest sense, is something that generative AI has proven to be quite good at. Sometimes that's translating from one human language to another, but the technology is also adept at transforming text from one genre to another.Yes, but: An added wrinkle with translating animal languages is that instead of moving between two known languages, we have only limited understanding of how animals communicate and what they are capable of conveying through speech.Researchers know, for example, that birds make different sounds when they are singing songs as compared to sounding a warning call.They also have determined that many species have individual names for one another and some, like prairie dogs, have a system of nouns and adjectives to describe predators.The big picture: Earth Species Project is one of many endeavors looking to tap AI to address planetary concerns. Microsoft last week detailed SPARROW, an AI system designed to measure biodiversity in some of the earth's most remote reaches.Developed by Microsoft's AI for Good lab, the effort uses solar-powered systems to collect data from cameras, acoustic monitors and other sensors.With human progress on combatting climate change seen likely to fall short of needed targets, many are looking to AI to provide alternative approaches.While AI is showing promise in helping better understand nature, its massive energy demand is straining electrical systems and pushing tech companies to defer or alter plans to operate in a carbon neutral manner."It is something the entire field needs to wrestle with, among the many other ethical challenges around responsible use and safety," Zacarian said.Go deeper: Watch Zacarian's presentation at AI+ Summit

Lizards in France have grown lighter in color and so are many insects and birds across the globe. The effects of a changing climate are plainly visible throughout the animal kingdom

There is a certain intimacy felt when gazing into the eyes, the “windows of the soul” if you will, of a wild animal. To see a wild creature, in all its splendor, behaving naturally in its native habitat is an experience that can’t be replicated in any zoo or animal sanctuary. When it comes to […] The post The Difficulty of Enforcing Laws on Feeding Wild Animals appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Sabre teeth can be ideal for puncturing the flesh of prey, which may explain why they evolved in different groups of mammals at least five times

Our byways are an unnatural incursion into the natural world, especially when they’re allowed to fall into disuse. Meet a roadkill scientist and a journalist tracking how roads mess with nature—and what we can do about it

This story was originally published by Yale Environment 360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Field biologists tend to be a patient lot, often resigned to long days and weeks in the field and committed to experiments that take years to yield results. But even among that dogged crowd, Martin Wikelski stands out. Back in […]

Animal-welfare science tries to get inside the minds of a huge range of species — in order to help improve their lives.

By Randy Dotinga HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, Feb. 14, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Zoo workers and volunteers often grieve when animals die, and zoo...

Animal emotions—including joy—may be key markers of conscious beings

If you can stand to think about it long enough, the problem becomes paralyzing. Tens of billions of land animals slaughtered every year; hundreds of millions every day; thousands in the time it takes to read this sentence. The number grows by billions more every year, into multiples that feel as abysmal as they are […]

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The most ambitious goal of the animal movement has always been to eradicate factory farming and inspire people to eat more plants and fewer animals. This only makes sense, as the scale of the violence endemic to industrial farming radically dwarfs all other forms of animal suffering. Beyond the problem of the inevitable suffering involved […]

The terrifying truth of the climate and mass extinction crises is that we don’t understand all that we stand to lose. And without extraordinary acts of imagination and foresight, as a society, we won’t understand what’s being lost till it’s too late—at which time we’ll have to look back at what we might have done with a heartbreak and remorse that have no remedy. So we need to protect the living world with the best tool we have: the law.Evolution is slow, while the climate is changing at a breakneck pace. For organisms like elephants and whales, who can live as long as we do, or trees, who live much longer, both the path to potential adaptation to this rapidly morphing planet and the path to our understanding may stretch beyond any time frame that could help us to save them before the clock strikes midnight. Small animals, whose lives and reproductive cycles tend to be shorter, can be more readily studied across generations. Some researchers have seen signs of resilience: Mother zebra finches in Australia, one scientist found, warn the embryos inside their eggs of warming conditions outside by uttering certain calls. The chicks those embryos hatch into have lower birth weights than those who weren’t exposed to the mothers’ calls, which helps the young birds stay cool in hot weather. Lizards in Miami appeared to lower their cold-tolerance thresholds in response to a cold snap in 2020, which might defend against future environmental fluctuations; certain male dragonflies grow paler in warmer weather, losing some of the bright ornamentation that attracts females but making them less vulnerable to overheating.But examples of seemingly speedy accommodation are tiny flags fluttering on a battlefield where the overwhelming outlook for biodiversity is catastrophic. Instead of shifting gradually over thousands or even millions of years, environments are being transformed so fast that adaptive mechanisms don’t have the opportunity to kick in. In many cases, due to human-caused habitat loss and other pressures, of which the unstable climate is a massive threat multiplier, strategies that may have saved other life forms historically are no longer available to them: Pikas, for instance—cute little squeaking mammals native to western North America and Asia—may be able to move up a mountain to reach colder climes as the lower elevations get too hot, but if they reach the peak and it gets hot too, well … there’s nothing left for that wingless pika but the bare blue sky. The desert where I live is getting too hot even for arid-adapted wildlife—a lizard that had thrived in Arizona’s Mule Mountains for three million years is now newly believed extinct, and plants from the small acuña cactus to the Seussian Joshua tree are struggling to hang on.Cases abound of creatures and plants whose biological profiles appear to be setting them up for climate-driven oblivion: Crocodilians and most turtles don’t have sex chromosomes, so whether they’re born male or female depends on the temperature of the sand surrounding their eggs. A study of green sea turtles in the Great Barrier Reef in 2018 found that 99 percent of hatchlings were female, as opposed to 87 percent of adults—a ratio that could mean there already aren’t enough males for reproduction. Reef-building corals with low resistance to bleaching and death, such as staghorn and elkhorn, are at extremely high risk, and though corals occupy less than 1 percent of the ocean floor, they’re home to one-quarter of global marine diversity. Shrimplike krill, whose Antarctic habitat is projected to shrink up to 80 percent by 2100, feed most of the larger denizens of the Southern Ocean, from fish to seabirds like penguins to seals and cetaceans, and account for 96 percent of some species’ diets. The total biomass of krill is greater than that of any other multicellular animal, and these animals are a key storage bank for carbon dioxide. The humble freshwater mussels who make up the most endangered group of U.S. organisms help keep our rivers clean, but warming waters magnify the myriad threats they already face; three-quarters of flowering plants depend on pollinators, currently in decline around the globe, who happen to be critical to one out of three bites of our food. And though some plant species can migrate to escape inhospitable conditions, that migration occurs—since individuals don’t move—over generations via seed dispersal. The list of our dependencies on the other beings with whom we’ve coevolved is nearly infinite. So visionary policy is called for to protect those other beings and systems—not only for their intrinsic and cultural value but because they’re our life support, worth far more to our continued welfare intact than liquidated for short-term profit. If the goal is a livable future, for which we need to achieve a paradigm shift from exploitation to conservation, the services these networks of life supply need to be fully and properly valued. Their right to exist has to be enshrined in law.Both domestically and internationally, species and ecosystems need to be endowed with legal standing to give local and native stewards the tools to save them from the depredations of industry in the short term and sustain them over the long. Luckily, bestowing legal standing on extra-human parties isn’t a fanciful idea: The U.S. Supreme Court did exactly that in the 2010 case known as Citizens United, when it declared that corporations were legal persons—a decision that hobbled American democracy but also set a neat precedent for extending legal personhood to nonhuman entities. And corporations are clearly more abstract and disembodied than animals: Just a couple of weeks ago scientists and philosophers from many nations published the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, which argues for the likelihood of consciousness in all vertebrates and many invertebrates, including cephalopods and insects.  In New Zealand, a river and a rainforest have been awarded personhood; the people of Ecuador, in 2008, voted to modify their Constitution to recognize the right of nature to exist and flourish; in the United States, the Yurok tribe gave personhood to the Klamath River under tribal law in 2019; and in 2010 Pittsburgh became the first major city to recognize the rights of nature. Those rights have also been enacted into law or invoked by courts in Bolivia, Panama, and India. A summit held in mid-April at Brown University was aimed at elevating the agency and visibility of the more-than-human world in climate negotiations. And if species and ecosystems are recognized as entities with rights, their destruction can become a prosecutable offense. Accountability for the violence of what some call “ecocide” should be embedded in international law and civil and criminal codes. Here too, early inroads are being made, for example by the European Union, countries like Finland and Sweden, and the International Criminal Court. Establishing the responsibility of both private and public actors for the lives and natural systems they destroy—for deforestation, deadly heat domes, red tides, mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia, or cobalt mining in Congo, to name only a few culprits—is reasonable and fair. And the prerequisite to that is affirming in our legal codes that all of the life forms surrounding us have value. They’re connected to each other and to our own survival in ways we’ve just begun to fathom. And unless we act swiftly, we may never have the chance to learn more.

A UK law allowing gene-edited food has been paused and some British scientists fear being overtaken.

Jeremy Beckham remembers the announcement coming over his middle school’s PA system in the winter of 1999: Everyone was to stay in their classrooms because there was an intrusion on campus. A day after the brief lockdown was lifted at Eisenhower Junior High School just outside Salt Lake City, the rumors were swirling. Supposedly, someone […]

Overall, coastal habitat restoration greatly increases animal numbers and diversity. But not all projects deliver the goods and we need to find out why.

Researchers are leveraging troves of data collected by animal-borne sensors to complement satellite observations, expand weather measurements, and better understand wildlife ecology in a changing...

Past Presentation | We are the Wolf Nation, dwellers of the Northern Hemisphere, harbingers of the Spirit of the WILD. We are returning to take our place with you awake and aware and conscious humans at the dance of life.

Data: BLM; Chart: Axios VisualsA federal adoption program meant to help rein in out of control population growth among wild horses in the western U.S. has made headway, according to a new report from a free market environmental think tank.Why it matters: Wild horses, icons of the American West and sacred among Indigenous groups, can strain the fragile desert and semi-arid ecosystems of the southwest if left unchecked, per the report from the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC).Horse and burro herds can double in size every four years if unmanaged and can quickly degrade or exhaust lands, which could have cascading effects on other plant and animal species and promote soil erosion.PERC CEO Brian Yablonski told Axios that the adoption program's impact on ecosystems could become more pronounced as climate change makes drought more common across the West.By the numbers: Since the program's creation in 2019, there have been more than 15,000 adoptions, per the report. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which runs the program, has saved $66 million in costs and is expected to save approximately $400 million over the lifetimes of the adopted wild horses and burros, PERC found.The program is on track to spur more than 30,000 adoptions in its first decade, which could eventually save over $800 million in lifetime costs.Each horse and burro adopted saves the agency an estimated $22,500 to $29,000 in holding costs over its lifetime.What they're saying: "It is a complex issue," Yablonski said. "There's so much history, culture, custom and pride in these horses.""And people want to see solutions that are respectful of these animals, and I think adoption is probably the most respectful solution you can have," he added.How it works: The program offers $1,000 to help pay for training and care for wild horses or burros. It is only paid after around a year of BLM welfare checks to ensure the animals are being cared for properly. Adopters must also agree not to sell the horses or burros for slaughter and are limited in how many animals they can adopt.Catch up quick: After wild horses and burros were put under BLM protection and control in 1971, their numbers grew from around 25,300 to BLM's current approximation of 73,000 — or over twice the estimated amount public lands can sustainably support.Another 62,000 wild horses are kept in off-range BLM pastures and facilities, which are facing capacity constraints and high operational costs.In 2023, for example, caring for the animals in these pastures and facilities cost $108.5 million.The intrigue: The Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which is what put wild horses and burros under BLM control, gave the animals a wholly unique status under the law. They aren't considered livestock or game, since they aren't property and can't be slaughtered. They are some of the only animals defined by the land on which they stand and not by what they are biologically.Zoom out: PERC in its report recommended that BLM raise the adoption incentive to increase adoptions, suggesting a $3,000 payout over three years. PERC further proposed that BLM build more holding facilities in the Eastern U.S. to increase adoptions in eastern states, which currently account for more than a third of the agency's annual adoptions.The agency estimates that annual eastern adoptions could quadruple over the next five years if transportation and logistical challenges were resolved.BLM should shift the money saved through adoptions to other efforts, like treating wild mares with fertility control vaccines, PERC also recommended.Yes, but: Some organizations, like the American Wild Horse Conservation, oppose the adoption program over concerns that some adopted horses and burros have been abused and slaughtered after incentive payouts were made.Yablonski, too, cautioned that BLM has to be careful with how it structures the incentive and thoroughly conduct welfare checks to prevent abuse of the program and animals.The big picture: The American Wild Horse Conservation instead favors increased fertility controls and expanding the habitat available for wild horses and burros.It also advocates for limiting mountain lion hunting, as the cats do at times prey on wild horses and burros.However, scientists are still establishing what the predator-prey relationship between wild horses and burros and mountain lions exactly looks like.It's unclear if additional mountain lions or other predators could prey on enough horses and burros to cause a significant drop in equid populations.Go deeper: United Nations: 44% of migratory species in decline

A team of scientists say it is "beyond reasonable doubt" the Covid pandemic started with infected animals.

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Sept. 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The Hunan Seafood Wholesale wet market in Wuhan, China, has long...

A group of prominent scientists believes fruit flies, fish, and mollusks might experience pain and pleasure.

An orphaned squirrel that became a social media star called Peanut is dead after being seized by New York state from his caretakers' home

Samples taken in the pandemic's early weeks reinforce hypothesis that coronavirus emerged from live animal market, not a laboratory, new study says.

NASA’s Eclipse Soundscapes project will collect observations and soundscapes recorded by the public during the April 8 total solar eclipse.

Past Presentation | In October 2002, the first political party worldwide was founded which does not base its policy on human-centric thinking. The Party for the Animals represents a new political movement that values animal welfare and the environment. "The foundation of The Party for the Animals was received with much skepticism within traditional politics. However, the Party for the Animals quickly appeared to function as a pacer in the marathon", recalls Marianne Thieme - co-founder and party leader. The Pacer in the Marathon is a documentary on the first ten years of the Party for the Animals. Next to in-depth interviews with the party founders, the film provides an insight into the public reception of this pioneering political movement, within science, politics and media.

The truth behind some of the most expensive “certified humane” milk in the country

Like big, tall trees in old-growth forests, older animals are irreplaceable. Pulling them out leaves the ecosystem less resilient to future shocks. It’s time for ‘longevity conservation’ measures.

Past Presentation | Dominion uses drones, hidden and handheld cameras to expose the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture, questioning the morality and validity of humankind’s dominion over the animal kingdom. While mainly focusing on animals used for food, it also explores other ways animals are exploited and abused by humans, including clothing, entertainment and research. Narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Sia, Sadie Sink and Kat Von D, and co-produced by Earthlings creator Shaun Monson. Filmed in Australia, with a global message.

The group, formerly known as Portland Audubon, laid off the ambassador animal program coordinator and the rehab center manager. Director says layoffs were tied to the organization’s financial health.

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. From brown trout becoming “addicted” to methamphetamine to European perch losing their fear of predators due to depression medication, scientists warn that modern pharmaceutical and illegal drug pollution is becoming a growing threat to wildlife. Drug exposure is causing significant, unexpected changes to some animals’ behavior […]

Past Presentation | Philip Wollen makes an impactful case against animals on your menus in front of an audience at the St. James Ethics Centre and the Wheeler Centre. Wollen then passes the debate onto a six-person panel, with three members supporting his case and three making an argument to continue to keep animals on the menu.

Curator of Design Museum show says ‘human-centric’ approach to design needs overhaul amid climate crisisDesigners need to “fundamentally rethink our relationship with the natural world”, according to the curator of a new exhibition which argues the needs of nature and animals should be considered when creating homes, buildings and products.Justin McGuirk, the curator of the upcoming More Than Human exhibition at the Design Museum in London, said our current “human-centric” approach to design needs to be radically overhauled as the world adapts to the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Attempt to refloat false killer whales was unsuccessful, forcing wildlife authorities to make difficult decision for safety and ‘welfare reasons’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastTasmanian authorities plan to euthanise 90 surviving false killer whales in a group of 157 animals that have stranded on a beach near Arthur River, on the state’s remote north-west coast.Marine conservation experts including wildlife veterinarians arrived at the site on Wednesday morning, confirming 90 animals were still alive.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Mixotrophs, which have characteristics of both animals and plants, could help blunt the effects of marine heat waves on ocean ecosystems

Past Presentation | Filmed in a fly-on-the-wall style, this raw and inspiring documentary follows 26-year-old Manoj Gautam, a modern day, third world hero on a passionate quest to protect animals and wildlife from cruelty and extinction. Inspired by the work of his mentor, Dr. Jane Goodall, and with minimal resources and no formal training, Gautam is creating a network of allies across the country, busting animal smugglers, protecting fragile ecosystems, rescuing abused animals, and galvanizing an environmental movement.

What if we told you that there is a simple way for humanity to slash climate-warming emissions, help prevent the next pandemic, and simultaneously eradicate one of the most significant moral atrocities of our time — one that nearly all of us bear some responsibility for?  We’re talking, of course, about factory farming. In 2024, it’s […]

Past Presentation | More action adventure than traditional documentary, this film follows the world’s most ambitious and daring animal rescue, with a narrative compiled from film, interviews, conversations, and reactions as events unfolded. How attitudes toward animals were changed in Bolivia, illegal circuses pursued and closed, and 25 lions airlifted to freedom.

Past Presentation | Director note: “Through 3 years of researching what the Cheetah Conservation Fund and other NGOs were doing in the way of conservation . . I realised that there was a big focus on the illegal trade of dead animal parts, but no one was telling the story of the illegal trade in live animals, especially those destined for the pet trade.” This film looks at the illegal wildlife trade of cheetah cubs, and the role social media plays in the parading and trading of exotic animals online. Hundreds of cheetah cubs are being stolen from the wild, which is decimating the wild population in Africa. For every 5 cubs that are taken, only 1 survives. They are being smuggled illegally into the Middle East to be sold as pets.

A contagious, fatal illness in deer, elk and moose has taken hold in the US and is now reaching other countries. While it has not infected humans yet, the risk is growingIn a scattershot pattern that now extends from coast to coast, continental US states have been announcing new hotspots of chronic wasting disease (CWD).The contagious and always-fatal neurodegenerative disorder infects the cervid family that includes deer, elk, moose and, in higher latitudes, reindeer. There is no vaccine or treatment. Continue reading...

Climate change and a lack of predators has moved capybaras into suburbs and gardens. Are they pests or heroes?

Studying the gazes of other animals has surprising insight into the development of human consciousness

Past Presentation | Earthlings is an award-winning documentary film about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment and medical research. Considered the most persuasive documentary ever made, Earthlings is nicknamed “the Vegan maker” for its sensitive footage shot at animal shelters, pet stores, puppy mills, factory farms, slaughterhouses, the leather and fur trades, sporting events, circuses and research labs.

Although Costa Rica is committed to protecting wildlife, unscrupulous individuals continue to violate the rules and insist on keeping wild animals as pets. The National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) rescued a white-faced monkey that was held in captivity in Jacó. The animal was tied with a chain around its neck, which caused serious injuries, […] The post Chained Monkey Among Latest Wildlife Rescues in Costa Rica appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

The captive predator industry threatens the welfare of thousands of big cats kept for entertainment, hunting, and commercial trade of live animals and their body parts. The post In South Africa, Tigers and Other Captive Predators Are Still Exploited for Profit. Legislation Offers Pitiful Protection appeared first on The Revelator.

Ever since the demise of infamous drug kingpin, his pet hippos have flourished, wreaking havoc on the ecosystem and terrorizing local communities

In the last few decades, a common stereotype about vegans emerged: that they’re white, care more about animals than people, and serve food that is bland and uninspiring. Such perceptions — some of which are reductive, while others hold a bit of truth — have created a toxic cycle where people of color often feel excluded […]

Now Playing | The Canary Islands are a whale Paradise. Their waters hold more than a third of the world’s species, making it the most important enclave in the European Union, and one of the most relevant globally.Today, this paradise is being threatened by different human pressures, such as boat collisions, plastic consumption and climate change. This struggle aggravates their mortality each year and makes us face ourselves as the ones responsible for their survival, forcing us to rethink how much we value these animals currently.How much is a whale worth? Can you put a price on the life of such a majestic animal? How can we estimate that value? How has the value that human beings give to whales changed throughout history? What are whales used and needed for?To answer all these questions, Natacha Aguilar, an eminent Canarian scientist and whale expert, backed up by a group of scientists and non-profit organizations, will guide us in a spectacular journey through time and space to discover the never-told stories of the lives of these animals.

Most past research on animal behavior during total solar eclipses is anecdotal. We hope to change that

A new study shows that now-extinct dwarf hippos and elephants on the island of Cyprus were likely driven to extinction by humans about 14,000 years ago. The post Did humans drive Cyprus dwarf hippos and elephants extinct? first appeared on EarthSky.

Roughly 3,000 animals now roam the state's mountain ranges

South Australia’s EPA did not open a formal investigation into the source of the lead poisoning, despite referral from the Department of Primary IndustriesFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSouth Australia’s Environment Protection Authority did not open a formal investigation into what may have killed dozens of birds in Port Pirie, despite tests showing some of the animals had been exposed to 3,000 times the acceptable level of lead.In July 2024, residents of the industrial town raised the alarm when they found dead and dying native birds and flying foxes in local parks and green spaces. Continue reading...

As diplomats search for a way to curb the world’s growing problem of plastic, bottles, buoys, nets and packaging are piling up on what should be one of the most pristine environmentsAs our small fishing boat slows to a halt in a shallow bay south-east of Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, in the Galápagos Islands, a green turtle surfaces next to us, followed by a second, then a third a few metres away. A spotted eagle ray glides underneath the vessel.The skipper, Don Nelson, steps on to the black volcanic reef, slippery with algae. We follow, past exposed mangrove roots and up on to higher ground. Pelicans swooping into the trees and small birds, perching on branches, ignore our approach. Continue reading...

Now Playing | “To see a snow leopard is to see God.” It’s a film about the search of the snow leopard - a beautiful and rare animal. There are only a few thousand of them left on the planet. Most of the animals have been given names but almost no one has seen them. This is a story about the mystery of human’s contact with another life, with wild nature, and the search for the lost source of inner strength. Scientists, hunters, shamans, tourists - the leopard sees them, but they do not see him.

Hurricane Helene, the Category 4 storm that slammed the American Southeast over the weekend, has killed more than 110 people — and likely millions of chickens. Almost half of the more than 9 billion chickens farmed for meat in the US, known as “broiler” chickens, are raised and slaughtered in the region. Georgia is the […]