In this year's Australian bird of the year poll, Guardian Australia's very own Matilda Boseley has made no secret about her favourite. Dressed as an Australian pelican, Matilda navigates the pigeons of Melbourne to find people to tell her what their favourite native birds are – and give us their best birdcall attempts
2025 Australian bird of the year voting is open! Here's how to vote
Australian bird of the year 2025: vote now for your favourite
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10/11/2025 - 14:00
10/11/2025 - 03:45
Number of endangered butterfly species also surging amid habitat destruction and global heating, finds study
The number of wild bee species in Europe at risk of extinction has more than doubled over the past decade, while the number of endangered butterfly species has almost doubled.
The jeopardy facing crucial pollinators was revealed by scientific studies for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species, which found that at least 172 bee species out of 1,928 were at risk of extinction in Europe.
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10/11/2025 - 00:59
The tally of Australian mammals extinct since 1788 is now 39 species – far more than for any other country
It’s official: the only Australian shrew is no more.
The latest edition of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List, the world’s most comprehensive global inventory on extinction risk, has declared the Christmas Island shrew is extinct.
This little animal is extremely common all over the island, and at night its shrill shriek, like the cry of a bat, can be heard on all sides.
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10/10/2025 - 10:33
Esmeralda 7 in Nevada would have produced enough energy to power 2m homes
The Trump administration has killed a huge proposed solar power project in Nevada that would have been one of the largest in the world, indicating that the White House plans to attack not only wind power but all renewable energy.
On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) changed the status of the Esmeralda 7 project to say its environmental review has been “cancelled”, the climate publication Heatmap first reported.
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10/10/2025 - 09:01
Video shows some of the juveniles exploring outside their den at Mallee Cliffs national park in south-western NSW
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Baby numbats have been spotted at two wildlife sanctuaries in south-western New South Wales, sparking hope for one of Australia’s rarest marsupials.
Video captured by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) shows some of the juveniles exploring outside their den at Mallee Cliffs national park.
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10/10/2025 - 09:00
Exclusive: ‘Old Faithful’ was captured after Queensland authorities deemed him ‘a problem crocodile’, but Rinyirru Aboriginal Corporation says the government is mistaken
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Traditional owners have called on the Queensland environment minister to return an iconic saltwater crocodile to the wild, arguing his capture was a “wrongful arrest” – but that his case could prove “a landmark” in redefining consultation with First Nations people and the management of crocodiles.
Rinyirru (Lakefield) Aboriginal Corporation chair, Alwyn Lyall, wrote to the environment minister, Andrew Powell, on Friday saying the removal of a crocodile longer than 4 metres, known as “Old Faithful”, from Rinyirru – or Lakefield national park – last month was based on a “flawed and outdated” test of his behaviour and highlighted “a bigger problem in how crocodiles are managed”.
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10/10/2025 - 08:40
Trial of Nick Gratwick, 68, who schemed to rape children as young as six, exposes previous role among green protesters
A man who schemed to rape children as young as six was revealed at his trial to have been a police informer who spied on environmental activists.
Nick Gratwick, 68, was found guilty on Friday of 38 “abhorrent” paedophile offences, including plans over the last two years to pay to rape or sexually assault children in the UK and abroad.
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10/10/2025 - 08:00
Exclusive: Trial that has produced 13 hatchlings could help other threatened species avoid extinction
The slow-motion pitter-patter of tiny giant tortoise feet has been worryingly rare in recent years, but that looks set to change thanks to the first successful hatching of the species with artificial incubation.
One week after the intervention, the 13 babies are building up their strength on a diet of banana slices and leafy greens in Seychelles, which is home to one of the last remaining populations of the tortoise.
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10/10/2025 - 07:00
Tariffs have caused a Chinese exit from the soybean market – and midwestern farmers are waiting on a solution
At the Purfeerst farm in southern Minnesota, the soybean harvest just wrapped up for the season. The silver grain bins are full of about 100,000 bushels of soybeans, which grab about $10 a piece.
This year, though, the fate of the soybeans, and the people whose livelihoods depend on selling them, is up in the air: America’s soybean farmers are stuck in the middle of a trade war between the US and China, the biggest purchaser of soybean exports, used to feed China’s pigs.
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10/10/2025 - 05:19
Firms led by deputy Reform UK leader since 2011 have shown commitment to saving energy and cutting CO2 emissions
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He never seems to tire of deriding “net stupid zero”, but Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, has a 15-year business record of support for sustainability and green energy initiatives.
The Reform party has made opposition to green energy and net zero part of its policy platform. Its founder, Nigel Farage, has called net zero policies a “lunacy”; the party has called to lift the ban on fracking for fossil gas; and one of the first Reform-led councils, Kent, rescinded last month its declaration of a climate emergency.
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