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Author Archives: Sami Cooper
Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) Bill Published
Have you ever had an encounter with a ‘dangerous’ dog? Do you believe it’s ‘deed, not breed’? The Government yesterday published an amendment to the controversial Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
The full text of the bill is available here – while a brief overview is available from the BVA website, and a comment from BVA President Peter Harlech-Jones.
Critics of the law have long said that the DDA was a flawed law that wasn’t the answer to dog attacks – many organisations have long pushed for a clean rewrite of the law. Do you agree? What’s your solution to irresponsible owners and undisciplined pets? Have your say on our Facebook page or our Twitter feed – or leave a comment below!
Extremophiles
When searching for life on other planets, scientists look to the extreme conditions that life can survive in, here on planet Earth.
Lost tortoise found after spending 30 years in a box
Back in the early 80’s a Brazilian family, living in Rio were renovating the family home. That was when Manuela the tortoise disappeared. Continue reading
What you need to know about the new CAW VLE
CAW VLE Notice Continue reading
The Macaulay Library features 150,000 recordings from 9,000 animals. That’s 7,500 hour-worth of listening. As you’d expect from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology the sounds are heavily concentrated around birds.
Dog adopts abandoned tiger cubs
A Siberian tiger called Bagira gave birth to three cubs at the Sochi zoo in Russia. After the cubs were abandoned by the tigress the zoo vets advertised on the internet for a feeding dog. That’s where a Berger Blanc Suisse dog called Tally stepped in as their foster parent.
Ashes to ashes
Dieback disease is an invasive fungi effecting Ash trees and for the past 10 years has been spreading across continental Europe and has effected 90% of Ash trees in Denmark. The Ash is upon the most numerous in the UK , with some 80 million trees here now at risk. This tiny fungus (we are talking pin-size here) eventually strips off all the leaves from the tree which, along with fungal spores, blow in the wind and effect other trees. The infected and weakened trees eventually die from secondary diseases.
It is thought that the fungus arrived in the UK via imported Ash saplings. An import ban is now in place but blow-in infection from mainland Europe still poses a significant risk.
Forest pathologist; Iben Margrete Tomsen:
“We have not seen anything on this scale since Dutch elm disease…” , “this escalation is something we have not seen. The UK and Ireland may well be, within the next 10 years, the only remaining places in Europe with ash. If they act…”, “It may be a case of shutting the stable door when the horse has bolted. Time will tell.”
It is thought that up to 1% of Ash trees could possibly be immune to this fungus. In time these resistant Ash trees could repopulate Europe.
Here you can see the devastating effects of this disease in the Polish forest where it all began:
The devastated landscape of the Zabodny forest - Photo Adam Grabowski
What you can do to help
Step 1: Identify Ash dieback disease (Video: Woodland Trust / Diagram: BBC)
Step 2: Report it! (Here are the contact numbers for the UK with a link to download the AshTag app)
UK Fungi – Not all bad news
With all the bad press that fungi have been getting from Ash dieback disease the BBC has released these beautiful fungal images. Enjoy.
What Are You Doing With Yours?! 2012 Photo Gallery
Here are entrants to our ‘What Are Your doing With Yours?‘ competition so far.
Remember entries close at 1pm on Friday 2 November. Full terms and conditions can be found here – good luck!