"Fueled by bountiful swamps that provide a steady supply of marsh rabbits, deer, wading birds and other meals, Burmese pythons in Florida have rapidly adapted to become hardier and more resistant to cold than their Asian cousins, a new study has found."
"Zambia has revived plans it suspended two years ago after protests by animal rights activists for the controlled slaughter of up to 2,000 hippos over the next five years, its tourism minister said on Monday."
"President Trump plans to nominate a former official at Monsanto to a top position in the Department of the Interior, the White House announced Monday. Trump will nominate Aurelia Skipwith to be the director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service."
"The Interior Department is facing a lawsuit after failing to release electronic copies of elephant and lion trophy hunting permits, documents that animal conservation groups say are part of the public record."
"The biggest number of winter ticks that Peter J. Pekins ever found on a moose was about 100,000. But that moose calf was already dead, most likely the victim of anemia, which develops when that many ticks drain a moose’s blood. So it was probably a lowball estimate, because some of the ticks had already detached."
The Society of Environmental Journalists has joined several dozen other journalism groups calling for the investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and separately, urged Parks Canada to stop imposing reporting barriers for journalists. That, plus black holes in the calendar for Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke, and new data resources for reporters. All in the latest WatchDog Tipsheet.
Environmental Journalism 2019 was hosted by Colorado State University. See the agenda. Most sessions were audio-recorded and are posted on our conference coverage page.
An unexpected story, a never-before-seen photo — those are ingredients for the kinds of environment and climate story ideas that won one environment reporter top honors in large market beat reporting in SEJ’s annual awards last year. A conversation with Craig Welch of National Geographic for our latest Inside Story Q&A.
Plastic straws might have quickly become this summer’s bogeyman, with bans by Starbucks, hotel chains, resorts and some big cities. But as this week’s TipSheet points out, straws are only a part of the massive marine litter problem facing the world’s oceans. Here’s how to put recent straw bans into broader perspective.
Weird and unwanted critters are the subject of a new collection of literary essays that mine the author’s experience to help tell a well-researched, entertaining story of invasive species and the pitfalls of ecological tampering. Read our BookShelf review of “Pandora's Garden: Kudzu, Cockroaches, and Other Misfits of Ecology.”
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