Egg-laying monotremes have no nipples, so young rub their beaks against ‘milk patch’ to get milk from mother’s skin
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When echidna mothers nurse their young, known as puggles, the microbiome of their pouch changes to protect their babies in their first weeks of life, new research has found.
These first few weeks are critical for puggles. At this early developmental stage, they are tiny – roughly the size of a 5-cent coin – and vulnerable.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/15/2025 - 10:00
05/15/2025 - 10:00
Organisation receives $2.3m from the Victorian government but has projected operation costs of $10.8m this year
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The RSPCA has warned it may not be able to investigate animal cruelty complaints against horses unless it receives more funding, as it reports a surge in the number of horses subject to cruelty complaints in the past 12 months.
As drought conditions continue in Victoria, RSPCA Victoria said it had received almost 800 animal cruelty reports concerning horses this financial year, a 37% increase on the number of reports received at this point last year.
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05/15/2025 - 10:00
Former independent MP accuses division of throwing ‘good money after bad only to see our native wildlife suffer’
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The native forest logging division of the New South Wales government’s forestry agency has posted a half-yearly loss of almost $15m, prompting renewed questions about the industry’s economic viability.
The half-year report for 2024-25, tabled in the state’s parliament last week, shows the hardwood forests division lost $14.9m, which is $9m more than the agency had projected – taking the division’s total losses since 2020 to $87m.
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05/15/2025 - 08:21
Pfas are a group of thousands of chemicals that are used for their non-stick and water-resistant properties. They are often refered to as 'forever chemicals' because they can take thousands of years to break down. Pfas are being found in so many everyday items that it's starting to feel like they are everywhere - non-stick frying pans, waterproof mascaras, stain-resistant clothing, packaging for takeaway food items. Pfas are even in our food, our drinking water and in the rain. Josh Toussaint-Strauss talks to Leana Hosea and Rachel Salvidge of Watershed investigations, a nonprofit that works to expose the causes behind Pfas contamination. Together they discuss what the spread of Pfas means for our health and the environment, and what can be done to get rid of them or at least limit our exposure.
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05/15/2025 - 08:00
Hanford made the plutonium for US atomic bombs, and its radioactive waste must be dealt with. Enter Elon Musk
In the bustling rural city of Richland, in south-eastern Washington, the signs of a nuclear past are all around.
A small museum explains its role in the Manhattan Project and its “singular mission – [to] develop the world’s first atomic bomb before the enemy might do the same”. The city’s high school sports team is still known as the Bombers, with a logo that consists of the letter R set with a mushroom cloud.
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05/15/2025 - 06:34
Winning images from the 2025 Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Environmental Photography award, selected from 10,000 images submitted globally. The contest aims to reward photographers who put their creativity to good use in raising awareness of the importance of environmental protection
Shortlisted exhibited in Monaco from 3 June to 31 July 2025 then touring in various locations around the world
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05/15/2025 - 03:00
The craze for Korean culture has brought fame to the ‘women of the sea’, but not always to their benefit. Now they want to reclaim their stories to inspire a new generation
There is an episode in the Netflix drama When Life Gives You Tangerines where a woman dives into the sea and brings back a catch of abalone (sea snails), which she says will feed her family. The woman is a haenyeo. Haenyeo, or “women of the sea”, have been recorded as far back as the 17th century and are unique to the island of Jeju in South Korea, where they fish sustainably, diving time and again on a single breath to bring back shellfish and seaweed.
Yet the scene, set in the 1960s, simply wouldn’t happen today, says Myeonghyo Go, a haenyeo who lives in the village of Iho-dong on Jeju. “The seaweeds here are disappearing, and seaweed is the food for abalone. Because we don’t have the seaweeds, we don’t have abalone,” she says.
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05/15/2025 - 00:00
Even it now admits that brick by brick, these proposals will wreck habitats. This could be Starmer’s most damaging mistake yet
The precedent is uncanny, and the failure to learn from it downright mystifying. Keir Starmer is rushing gladly towards the catastrophe Boris Johnson inflicted on himself in 2020. Had he set out to stymie Labour’s chances of re-election, he couldn’t be doing it better.
In 2020, Johnson promised “a whole new planning system” for England, which, he claimed, would promote “economic growth”. He said he wanted to see 300,000 new homes built every year. He sought to “build, build, build”, but falsely claimed that his plans were thwarted by newts, which he used as shorthand for environmental protections. He would sweep these protections away.
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05/15/2025 - 00:00
Bill would force major polluters to pay into fund for flood defences and home insulation – but has little chance of becoming law
Fossil fuel companies and their shareholders and owners of superyachts and private jets should have to pay into a fund for flood defences and home insulation, according to a private member’s bill to be launched on Thursday.
The bill is part of a broader movement by campaigners to “make polluters pay”, demanding that oil and gas companies, and those who benefit from fossil fuels, should take on more of the direct responsibility for tackling the climate crisis, rather than funding such measures from general taxation.
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05/14/2025 - 23:47
A video shows the large flightless takahē bird in hot pursuit of the tuatara – but the tables soon turn
Two of New Zealand’s most rare and beloved animals – a large flightless takahē bird and an ancient tuatara reptile – have been captured chasing and nipping at one another during a bush-floor melee.
Nick Fisentzidis, a department of conservation ranger on the pest-free Tiritiri Matangi Island near Auckland, saw the takahē attack the tuatara and quickly grabbed his phone to capture the rare footage.
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