Humane Society International has expressed outrage that 122 pregnant female whales were killed this year in the Southern Ocean as part of Japan's whaling program NEWREP-A.

The information was contained in newly published meeting papers from the International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee meeting held in Slovenia in May.

The results show that of the 333 Antarctic minke whales killed this year, 181 were females. 122 or 67 percent of these females were pregnant and 53 or 29 percent were immature animals.

"The killing of 122 pregnant whales is a shocking statistic and sad indictment on the cruelty of Japan's whale hunt. It is further demonstration, if needed, of the truly gruesome and unnecessary nature of whaling operations, especially when non-lethal surveys have been shown to be sufficient for scientific needs,” said Alexia Wellbelove, Senior Program Manager at Humane Society International.

Despite condemnation by the international community and the International Court of Justice, which ruled in 2014 that Japan's JARPA II Antarctic whaling program was illegal and must stop, Japan re-badged its whaling program and sent its whaling fleet to the Southern Ocean for its annual whale hunt again in 2015. Japan withdrew its recognition of the International Court of Justice as an arbiter of disputes over whales.

Japan's whaling fleet has returned home from the Southern Ocean in March this year after a successful 143-day investigation “without being interfered with by the anti-whaling group” - a reference to Sea Shepherd.


Shepherd has opposed Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary every year from 2005 to 2017 except for the 2014/2015 season when the whalers did not return to Antarctic waters. Sea Shepherd sent two ships down to the Southern Ocean last year (2016/2017), and although they got close, they could not close in because of advanced military satellite technology that allowed the whalers to see Sea Shepherd's movements in real time.

The organization did not return for the 2017/2018 whaling operation “because it would be like taking a slingshot to a gunfight in pursuit of whalers who can see us but we can’t see them - in other words, a fruitless waste of time and resources,” said founder Paul Watson.


In November last year, Sea Shepherd released Australian Government footage exposing details of Japanese whaling methods, obtained under Freedom of Information request. The footage shows whales dying slowly and in pain, sometimes drowning in their own blood.

"The continued killing of any whales is abhorrent to modern society, but these new figures make it even more shocking. We look forward to Australia and other pro-conservation countries sending the strongest possible message to Japan that it should stop its lethal whaling programs,” saidWellbelove.

The next meeting of the International Whaling Commission is in September in Brazil.

Happy 80th Birthday to Billy Mills today. He was born on June 30, 1938 in Pine Ridge, SD. Today Billy Mills is not only the only Native American to win the 10,000 meter gold medal, but he is still the only American citizen to win an Olympic gold medal in the 10,000 meter run.

William Mervin "Billy" Mills, also known as Makata Taka Hela (born June 30, 1938), is a Native American who won a gold medal in the Olympic Games.

He accomplished this feat in the 10,000 meter run (6.2 mi) at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the only person from the Western hemisphere to win the Olympic gold in this event. His 1964 victory is considered one of the greatest Olympic upsets, because he was a virtual unknown going into the event. A United States Marine, Billy Mills is a member of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Tribe.

William Mervin Mills was born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and was raised on the impoverished Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for Oglala Sioux people. His given native name, Makata Taka Hela, loosely means "love your country." He was orphaned when he was twelve years old. Mills took up running while attending the Haskell Institute, which is now known as Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. Mills was both a boxer and a runner in his youth, but he gave up boxing to focus on running.

He attended the University of Kansas on an athletic scholarship. He was named a NCAA All-America cross-country runner three times and in 1960 he won the individual title in the Big Eight cross-country championship. The University of Kansas track team won the 1959 and 1960 outdoor national championships while Mills was on the team.

After graduating with a degree in physical education, Mills entered the United States Marine Corps. He was a First Lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve when he competed in the 1964 Olympics.


Today Billy Mills is the spokesperson and founder of Running Strong, an organization dedicated to helping American Indian people meet their immediate survival needs while creating opportunities for self-sufficiency and self-esteem in American Indian youth.

Happy birthday Billy Mills! 🎂👏 pic.twitter.com/AtjaTQZJ7Z

— Olympics (@Olympics) June 30, 2017

A rule recently proposed by the Trump administration would roll back an Obama-era regulation that prohibits controversial and scientifically unjustified methods of hunting on Alaska’s national preserves, which are federal public lands.

These egregious hunting methods include the use of artificial light to attract hibernating bears and their cubs out of their dens to kill them, shooting wolf and coyote pups and mothers at their dens, using bait to attract brown and black bears, shooting vulnerable swimming caribou, including with the aid of motorboats, and using dogs to hunt black bears. Biologists have already condemned these methods, and now a supermajority of Alaska’s residents have spoken out resoundingly against allowing them in their state.

The telephone poll, conducted by Remington Research Group and released by the Humane Society of the United States, found a whopping 71 percent of Alaskan voters oppose allowing hunters to use artificial light to attract hibernating bears and their cubs out of their dens to kill them.

Sixty-nine percent oppose hunting black bears with packs of hounds, and 75 percent oppose hunting swimming caribou with the aid of motorboats. Sixty percent of Alaskan voters oppose the baiting of bears with pet food, grease, rotting game or fish or other high-calorie foods, and 57 percent oppose killing whole packs of wolves and coyotes when they are raising their pups in their dens.

The poll also found that a majority of voters disfavor allowing trophy hunters and trappers killing wolves, brown bears, black bears, wolverines, lynx and other wildlife on state lands along the northeast boundary of Denali National Park and Preserve.

In complete disregard for the wishes of the state’s residents, however, the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service is now accepting public comments on the controversial rule that’s designed to benefit a handful of trophy hunters looking for their next big kill.


This indiscriminate killing of native carnivores such as grizzly bears and wolves is often justified as “protecting” ungulates, animals like caribou and moose. But in Alaska and elsewhere, studies show, such predator control, including trophy hunting or culling of wild native carnivores in order to grow game herds, just doesn’t work. In fact, that is precisely the finding of a comprehensive new study that was reported in Scientific American.

On the other hand, live native carnivores like grizzly bears and wolves contribute immensely to the state’s economy. In Alaska, wildlife-watching tourism brings $2 billion every year to local, rural economies.


Several studies in Alaska show that predator control is doomed to fail, because the unforgiving Arctic lands cannot sustain large numbers of prey herds in the short growing seasons followed by extreme winters. Alaska officials have also failed to acknowledge that with the massive killing of wolves or bears, other smaller predators rise up to compete for those same prey, rendering these cruel and harmful predator control practices utterly futile.


Most Alaskans do not want hunters, backed by the deep pockets of trophy-hunting groups like Safari Club International and Alaska Outdoor Council, treating their state as a shopping mall for bearskin rugs and wolf heads to adorn their walls. American wildlife is for all of us to enjoy, and you can do your part to help save it by submitting a comment opposing this new proposed rule by July 23.
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These fishermen were not looking for anything other than crabs when they set sail on Friday, but then they saw a small dark shape on top of an iceberg.

Alan Russell and his crew from Labrador, Newfoundland were roughly 4 miles (7 kilometers) away from shore when they spotted the critter perched atop of the makeshift raft. When they sailed closer, they found that it was a little Arctic fox, soaking wet and shivering from the cold.

Initially, the fishermen tried to pluck the fox from the ice, but it was too skittish to let them get close enough. The team then resorted to breaking the ice pan with their boat and fishing the fox out of the water with a net.

The crew looked after the fox, but it refused to eat anything that they offered it.

Russell’s boat eventually stopped for supplies at a nearby harbor where they bought a package of sawdust to help the fox dry off. Not only that, they finally found a treat that appealed to their rescued friend: Vienna sausages.

The crew managed to nurse the fox back to health by keeping it warm and feeding it sausages. By the time it was strong enough to be released back into the wild, it had developed a friendly bond with its human companions.


“He wasn’t aggressive at all,” Russell told CBC’s Labrador Morning. “After a while, when he was coming around, he liked us more, because we were feeding him. And he didn’t mind us after.”

Russell guesses that the critter had been hunting for food on the ice pan when it broke off from the mainland and floated out to sea.


“He probably only had another day or so on the ice floe, or it would have foundered,” he said. “And the way that the wind was, the ice was probably never going to go back into land. He’s a pretty lucky guy.”
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A herd of deer in upstate New York accepted a lost cow as part of their family after the young bovine escaped from a slaughterhouse.

Bonnie the cow was born about a year ago at a farm in Holland, N.Y., that raises cattle for beef.

She made her escape at just 4 months old. According to non-profit Farm Sanctuary, Bonnie fled into the woods as the other cattle were being corralled into trailers after the herd was sold.

The community attempted for months to track Bonnie down, expecting that a calf like her would not survive very long in the woods.

Eventually, wildlife cameras captured footage of Bonnie — not by herself and struggling in the wilderness — but among a family of deer.

While remaining elusive, Bonnie was often spotted on wildlife cameras eating and sleeping with the deer.


According to sanctuary workers, both cattle and deer are herd animals, and while Bonnie didn’t look quite the same as the other deer, she fell into the family seamlessly.

Bonnie also developed the personality of deer, volunteers said, hiding behind trees and dashing from humans like her new herd.


The cow survived eight months in the woods, especially with the help of local volunteer Becky, who put out food and built her a shelter during the winter.


Knowing the woods can be dangerous for a cow, Bonnie was corralled and now lives at Farm Sanctuary, where she will continue to be cared for.
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Stunning pictures have emerged of the seventh full moon of the year - known as the Strawberry Moon - which has risen today and marked the beginning of the strawberry picking season.

According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, an American guide to nature, folklore and astronomy, the Strawberry Moon’s name derives from the Native American Algonquin tribes.

The Algonquin tribes would name the different phases of the moon to keep track of the seasons and the changes in the landscape around them.

The world has been impatiently waiting for tonight’s special lunar event as super-bright Saturn will also be visible in the sky tonight along with the Strawberry Moon.

Saturn appeared at around midnight, reached its highest at 1am (BST) and will be visible for at least a month.

Meanwhile, the moon will turn precisely full at 5.53am BST but breath-taking pictures of the lunar event have already transpired.


As it can be seen from the pictures, despite its name, the Strawberry Moon does not have a deep red or pink colour.

It can exude a slight pinkish colour but only when it is close to the horizon.

The reason for the name “strawberry” has nothing to do with the colour but it is only related to the kickoff of strawberry season.

Strawberry Capricorn Full Moon indeed. https://t.co/73T5osiUtO pic.twitter.com/UsSj1Ul1gU

— Rynda Laurel ☂ (@rynda) June 28, 2018

Native American Names for June Moon Leaves Moon (Cree). Ripe Berries (Dakota). Hoer moon (Abernaki). Windy Moon (Choctaw). Summer moon (Kiowa). Buffalo Moon (Omaha). Leaf Moon (Assiniboine). Corn Tassel Moon(Taos). Green grass Moon(Sioux). Ripening Moon (Mohawk). Turtle Moon (Potawatomi). Making fat Moon (Lakota).Leaf Dark Moon (San Juan). Major Planting Moon (Hopi). Planting Moon (Neo Pagan). Fish Spoils Moon (Wishram). Water melon Moon (Natchez). Hot Weather moon (Arapaho). Dyad Moon (Medieval English). Strawberry Moon (Anishnaabe). Dark green leaves Moon (Pueblo). Summer Moon (Passamaquoddy). Green Corn Moon, Flower Moon (Cherokee). Mead Moon (Full Janic), Strawberry moon (Dark Janic). Honey Moon, Hot Moon, Strawberry Moon, Rose Moon (Algonquin). Other Moon names : Hay Moon, Aerra Litha Moon, Strong Sun Moon, Lovers Moon Hot weather moon (Ponca).

Pic of the Day from the Pine Ridge: Over a Barrel. #landscapes #fullmoon #BarrelButte #NWNebraska #NEBRASKAland #NEGameandParks #NEPanhandle #getoutdoors #timewellspent pic.twitter.com/LJi38zaZob

— Justin Haag (@NEBland_Haag) June 28, 2018

Photo of the Day: The full moon rises beyond One Kansas City Place in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. pic.twitter.com/cL02slIyCk

— Josephine Rossi (@josephine_rossi) June 28, 2018

These wonderful images show one of nature’s gentle giant’s in all its glory – relaxing underwater in a hilarious pose.

Captured by scuba diver and photographer Tanakit Suwanyangyaun in Coron, off the coast of the Philippines, the images show a close encounter between a group of divers and a manatee, otherwise known as a ‘sea cow’.

Much like cows on land, sea cows graze peacefully on plants and this one seemed eager to chill on its side after a heavy meal.

The light-hearted photo set, taken in May, shows the sea cow gracefully passing above, as well as beside the divers.

Tanakit said: “Underwater this amazing animal is normally really shy. But this is the special friendly one.

“It is really special to be with this amazing creature. You cannot find any other animal like this in the world.”


Apart from mothers with their young, or males following a receptive female, manatees are generally solitary animals. Manatees spend approximately 50% of the day sleeping submerged, surfacing for air regularly at intervals of less than 20 minutes. The remainder of the time is mostly spent grazing in shallow waters at depths of 1–2 metres (3.3–6.6 ft). The Florida subspecies has been known to live up to 60 years.

He may not have been the biggest dancer at the powwow, but an Edmonton toddler stole the show when he busted a move to the beat of the drums in front of an adoring crowd.

Martina Desjarlais filmed her two-year-old son Albert Apsassin dancing alongside the adults at a powwow in Camrose, Alta., approximately an hour’s drive south east of Edmonton, during a National Indigenous Day celebration last week.

In the video, little Albert can be seen stomping his bare feet on the grass in time with the music as adults dance nearby. At one point, the adorable toddler stumbles and falls over; but like any pro, he’s quick to recover and is back on his feet dancing within seconds.

“Everyone was like, ‘Aw, he’s so cute,’ and he kind of stole the show because he was dancing with all of us adults,” Desjarlais gushed to CTV Edmonton on Monday.

Desjarlais said her son learned to dance by watching YouTube videos of powwow dancers and attending Indigenous events with his family.

“He listens to the songs very well,” she said. “He’s aware of what you are supposed to do in certain parts of the song. He’s basically self-taught.”


Albert likely has his mother to thank for his natural talent. Desjarlais grew up dancing, but didn’t become serious about it until six years ago when her sister, who loved to dance, died. “I continued and once Albert was born I said I wanted to continue teaching my son our cultural ways,” she explained.

And it appears her son is a quick study.


Albert’s dance skills have already earned him an impressive online following. The video of his dance at the Camrose powwow has attracted more than a million views since it was posted on Facebook on Thursday.

“[I’m] proud, very proud,” Desjarlais said. “He did it all on his own. I didn’t have to make him. He just loves it and seeing him happy, makes me happy.”
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According to Pratt, who is Cheyenne and Arapaho, the circle serves as “a symbol of unity among all Native veterans.”

When Harvey Pratt got the call telling him he’d been selected to design a new memorial to Native American veterans in Washington, D.C., he was in shock.

“My wife and I just sat there looking at one another, like, what do we do now? What’s going to happen?” Pratt said.

On Tuesday morning, the National Museum of the American Indian made the public announcement about Pratt’s selection, freeing him to finally share the good news with his community in Oklahoma. He’s a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, and a Southern Cheyenne chief.

Pratt’s design, entitled “Warriors Circle of Honor,” was selected out of an initial pool of 120 submissions. A jury whittled them down to five finalists, and then chose Pratt’s unanimously. The memorial will be located on museum grounds, just off the National Mall.

“Most Americans, and people around the world, are not aware of this very strong tradition of service in the military by Native Americans,” said Rebecca Trautmann, the memorial project curator for the American Indian Museum.


Native people serve in the U.S. Military at a higher per capita rate than any other ethnic group. More than 154,000 Native American veterans are alive today, according to the 2010 census.

Pratt is a veteran himself. He enlisted in the Marines in 1962 after his first year of college (“it wasn’t going well”) and shipped out to Vietnam in the spring of 1963.

He said he made the decision to join the military so that he could follow in the footsteps of his uncle, who served in World War II and the Korean War. “He’d been wounded so many times and has so much shrapnel in his body,” Pratt said. “He just carried on. He’s a real warrior.”

Pratt said he hopes his memorial design will make native veterans who served in any of the military’s five branches feel welcome. “Native people, we’re the same, but we’re different,” he explained.


The memorial is scheduled to break ground next September and open in late 2020. It will center around a stone fountain shaped like a drum, with a large stainless steel circle rising from the center. Visitors will be able to tie prayer clothes onto the four lances that will rise from a circular path around the drum.

The design incorporates symbols and elements common to many native traditions: fire, water, wind, drums, the cardinal points, and the circle shape.

“My whole idea was that it wasn’t a sculptured piece,” Pratt said. “It was something that people could actually walk into and be a part of.”


Talking about the project still makes the retired forensics artist choke up a bit. Pratt worked for decades for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, where he completed thousands of composite and postmortem drawings to help solve crimes. He also paints and creates sculpture inspired by his Native American upbringing.

Congress initially gave the green light for the memorial came in 1994. The total budget for the project is $15 million, which must all be fundraised from private donors. About half of the funds will be used to construct the memorial, and the other half will be designated for outreach, design consultations, maintenance and programming.

“This history is something that’s been overlooked for a long time,” said Trautmann. “This memorial gives us an opportunity to raise awareness of that long and very strong tradition, and to honor these veterans for the sacrifices that they’ve made for their country.”
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The volunteers believe that the programme also helps to inform people about the reality of Chernobyl. "There are a lot of perceptions about Chernobyl that are not realities," Hixson underlines.

The restricted zone around Chernobyl is eerily quiet but one building near the scene of the world's worst nuclear disaster is full of barking and whining.

The long, one-storey structure once served as a makeshift medical centre for workers from the plant to receive assistance after the 1986 disaster.

Today it is a hospital for the stray dogs that remain in the 30-kilometre (19-mile) exclusion zone long after its human residents were evacuated following the meltdown. Lucas Hixson first came to the Ukrainian disaster site from the United States in 2013 to work as a radiation specialist but set up the "Dogs of Chernobyl" adoption and vaccination scheme after being surprised by the number of canines still in the area.

Dog-lover Hixson himself adopted a pet from the exclusion zone in 2017, which he named "Dva" -- the Ukrainian word for "two" as it was the second dog to have been adopted from Chernobyl. Both animals now live in the US.

"One of the first things that you notice when you go to the plant is the dogs," he told AFP. "The dogs can't read radiation signs -- they run, they go where they want," he added.


About 1,000 stray dogs live in the zone where people are not allowed to reside, according to numbers from the Clean Futures Fund (CFF), the US organisation that oversees the dog adoption project. Some 150 live in the area of the power plant, another 300 in the city of Chernobyl, and the rest at checkpoints, fire stations and villages where a few hundred people are thought to have unofficially moved in.

- Future American citizen -

There are currently 15 puppies in the hospital and after medical examination they will join other young dogs at Slavutych, a city some 50 km from Chernobyl that was built mainly for workers of the plant after the explosion. The puppies will stay in Slavutych for up to six weeks and then travel to new homes in the US.

CFF has partners in the US who help find the new homes and provide all the necessary things to transfer the dogs to their new families. The US-based volunteers spend time with the puppies after they arrive from Ukraine, too, and later help them get used to their new owners. The "Dogs of Chernobyl" programme, which started last year, offers dogs under one year-old up for adoption in the US, while adult dogs are given vaccinations, sterilised and sent back to the area where they were caught.

People who want to adopt the dogs fill out an online application form before a number of interviews and even home inspections by the fund and its representatives in the US. And the response has been good, with 300 offers for the initial 200 puppies in a short period of time, Hixson said. Hixson says the aim is to find families for 200 puppies over the next two years and to treat as many dogs as possible.


"This one is almost an American citizen," said Nataliya Melnychuk, a dog trainer at the Slavutych shelter.

The black and white puppy she was referring to is waiting for special documentation and will soon be transferred to Chicago. In the shelter, these puppies have a strict schedule -- between walks and meals they have extra exercises, massages and even a so-called beauty salon.

"These are probably the most treated dogs in Ukraine," Hixson said.

- Screen for radioactivity -

The volunteers admit some of the older dogs are too wild to be adopted, and so they can only be offered medical treatment and then released back into the wild. None of the puppies caught in the zone were radioactive, but some adult dogs were.

"We screen every dog before it comes into our hospital," Hixson explains.

If the volunteers do find some contamination, they wash the dogs, decontaminate them with a special powder and, if necessary, shave their fur off.

"By the time the dog gets out, it's just as clean as any other dog," the American said.


Nadiya Apolonova, the representative of the Clean Futures Fund in Ukraine, said the life expectancy of a dog in the disaster zone is just five years, and not only because of the weather conditions and diseases in the wild. Over the last few years, wolves have been responsible for around 30 percent of dog deaths.

While people might imagine deformed creatures living in the exclusion zone, the puppies born there are just like any other.

"People who have never been here expect to see something without ever coming and looking for themselves," he says.

He stops for a moment and smiles: "These are the healthiest and smartest dogs I've ever seen."

PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger announced NATIVE AMERICA , a new four-part series from Providence Pictures that will premiere Fall 2018 on PBS stations nationwide.

Weaving history and science with living indigenous traditions, the series brings to life a land of massive cities connected by social networks spanning two continents, with unique and sophisticated systems of science, art and writing.

Made with the active participation of Native- American communities and filmed in some of the most spectacular locations in the hemisphere, NATIVE AMERICA reveals an ancient and still thriving culture whose splendor and ingenuity is only now beginning to be fully understood and appreciated.

Recent discoveries informed by Native-American oral histories have led to a bold new perspective on North and South America – that ancient people across these two continents may have been part of a single interconnected world. This and other research is leading to revelations that will forever change how we understand Native America.

The series highlights intimate Native-American traditions and follows field archaeologists using 21st-century tools such as multispectral imaging and DNA analysis to uncover incredible narratives of America’s past, venturing into Amazonian caves containing the Americas’ earliest art and interactive solar calendar, exploring a massive tunnel beneath a pyramid at the center of one of ancient America’s largest cities and mapping the heavens in celestially aligned cities.

“NATIVE AMERICA is an extraordinary portal to the past and window to the present,” said Beth Hoppe, PBS Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming. “The latest scholarship and research have shattered earlier conceptions of indigenous culture and civilization, revealing vast social networks and shared beliefs that have bridged the generations and that continue to flourish in Native-American communities today.”


Narrated by Robbie Robertson (Mohawk and member of the famed rock group The Band), each hour of NATIVE AMERICA explores Great Nations and reveals cities, sacred stories and history long hidden in plain sight. In what is now America’s Southwest, indigenous people built stone skyscrapers with untold spiritual power and transformed deserts into fertile fields.


In upstate New York, warriors renounced war and formed America’s first democracy 500 years before the Declaration of Independence, later inspiring Benjamin Franklin. On the banks of the Mississippi, rulers raised a metropolis of pyramids from swampland and drew thousands to their new city to worship the sky. And in the American West, nomadic tribes transformed a weapon of conquest — the horse — into a new way of life, turning the tables on European invaders and building a mobile empire.
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Animals that live near human activity are becoming nocturnal just to avoid us, and the implications for ecosystems around the world could be huge.

A team of researchers conducted a meta-analysis which included data about 62 species across six continents and found an overwhelming trend: To avoid encountering humans, animals are becoming nocturnal at the expense of their biologically predetermined schedules.

Of the species studied that typically split their activity equally between day and night, more than 80 percent of those living near humans increased their nighttime activity. The new results were published in the journal Science this week.

"Catastrophic losses in wildlife populations and habitats as a result of human activity are well documented, but the subtler ways in which we affect animal behavior are more difficult to detect and quantify," lead author of the study Kaitlyn Gaynor said in a statement.

Rather than spend their days doing tasks relevant to survival, like foraging or hunting, these animals are sleeping.

By forcing their entire day to fit into the night, these diurnal species are restricting their diets, exposing themselves to new predators, and diminishing their ability to hunt.


And while you might expect this change in places where humans are hunting these creatures, increased nighttime activity is found no matter what the humans nearby are up to.

The analysis found evidence that animals alter their daily routines even when humans are doing something seemingly non-threatening, like hiking, near them.

It’s not rare for animals to switch things up so they can avoid potential hazards, but because humans are so widespread, there may be implications for the long-term survival of these species because of their shifting cycles.

"Animal activity patterns reflect millions of years of adaptation—it’s hard to believe we can simply squeeze nature into the dark half of each day and expect it to function and thrive," co-author Justin Brashares in a statement.


But it’s not all bad news. Animals that are able to adapt to a human presence likely have coexistence figured out, at least to some degree.

In fact, it's even possible that these animals may be using us in some way.

“Some animals may choose to associate more closely with humans in order to avoid predators that are more sensitive to human presence,” Clinton Epps, a wildlife researcher from Oregon State University who had no role in the study, explained via email. “This pattern is known as human shielding.”

So while these new findings are groundbreaking, they aren't exhaustive.


“This study is not intended to address every complexity but rather to identify broad patterns in animal responses to human activities,” Epps added.

But the research does pose many questions that will be important for future experiments.

For example, when did the switch to nocturnality occur? Which species are negatively impacted the most? What species benefits from this move the most? The answer to seamless human and animal coexistence might lie within these future results.
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A photographer has captured the heart-warming relationship between baby crowned lemur twins as they kiss and snuggle with their mum.

Adorable snaps taken by a regular wildlife center visitor show the youngsters curled around their mum Tiako’s thigh snoozing, kissing and licking each other.

The photographs were taken earlier this month in the lemur walk at Bristol wildlife center.

The twins were born to mum Tiako and dad Loko at the beginning of May – and it was touch and go for one of them who took longer to be delivered and struggled to breathe at first.

The young lemur was cared for by keepers for the first few hours of its life before being returned to Tiako.

Since then the unnamed twins, whose sex is determined a few weeks after birth, have thrived and are regularly spotted clinging onto their mum in the lemur walk.


The twins, who will be fully grown after a year, share their place with their parents and older brother Nahazo as well as a family of ring-tailed lemurs

Crowned lemurs, who get their name from the distinct crown pattern on the top of their heads, are classified as endangered in their native Madagascar where they are found in just one area in the north of the island, making them susceptible to extinction.


The main threat facing them is habitat loss due to logging, agriculture and forest fires.

Bristol wildlife center’s curator of mammals, Lynsey Bugg, said: “Bristol Zoological Society does a great deal of work with lemurs in the wild and every birth helps towards raising awareness of conservation efforts helping to save them from extinction.”