Chickens are the fastest growing pet market in the UK, with retailers reporting 50 per cent increases in sales of coops over the past year.

A steady rise in the number of owners has been recorded by the Hen Keepers’ Association over the past year – the total is now estimated to be more than half a million people.

Such is the interest in keeping chickens that a new monthly magazine, Your Chicken, is being launched by the media group Archant.

“Hens are hot,” says Anna Atkinson, the magazine’s publisher.

While there can be pleasure simply in having a bird roam the back garden, the eggs they lay are the primary factor in their soaring popularity.

“More and more families are buying birds,” explained Ms Atkinson. “It seems that hard economic times are partly driving the trend – people realise they can save money on eggs by having their own hens.

“Hens are also part of the good life, along with growing your own veg. They are also fun and easy to keep as pets, so ideal for the family with young children.”

Many thousands of chickens – or at least promises of chickens – were given as Christmas presents this year, and Annie Stone, of High Green, Worcestershire, and her family were among the lucky recipients of “chicken vouchers”, which will be redeemed later in the spring.

She expects her birds, when she receives them, to make good pets. But she conceded that she wouldn’t have contemplated getting them if not for the prospect of a constant supply of eggs to use in cakes and other dishes.

“There’s something about the feeling of going out to collect your own eggs,” she said. “It’s very satisfying to see those eggs and bring them in straight away and have scrambled eggs for breakfast.”

She and her husband Mathew, who gave her vouchers for six chickens, also believe their young daughters, Rosie and Daisy, will enjoy and benefit from caring for the animals as pets.

Among the retailers to benefit from the surge in interest in chickens has been Dobbies, a garden centre chain, which boasts a 93 per cent annual rise in sales of chickens, a 300 per cent increase in chicken food sales, and a 51 per cent rise in chicken coop sales.

When Richard Briars and Felicity Kendall starred in the television series The Good Life, the idea of self-sufficiency was regarded as an oddball lifestyle but today it is increasingly part of the mainstream.

Francine Raymond, of the Hen Keepers’ Association, said: “There’s a general interest in self-sufficiency. There’s the general distrust of food suppliers, even though everyone tends to use supermarkets. They want to rely on themselves. You reclaim a bit of power when you have a chicken and get its eggs.”

The newfound popularity of poultry echoes the boom in home-grown produce which has seen more vegetables and fruit grown in back gardens than for a generation, with the driving force behind the increase being a desire to reduce food bills. By Lewis Smith, The Independent

It was an unusual place for the bats to hibernate, different from a mine or cave. But something else was different, too: None of them had white-nose syndrome, a fungus that’s killing bats across the country.

The group of bats found last winter in the New Hampshire bunker was small, recalled von Oettingen, an endangered species biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But two of the three species discovered there – the Northern Long-eared Bat and the Little Brown Bat – have been dying off from the disease.

Starting as early as next month, von Oettingen will be part of a group of state and federal biologists monitoring that bunker and a few others in the state. They’ll study temperature and humidity levels and put up footholds for the bats, hoping to attract more and figure out if there’s a way to control white-nose syndrome, first discovered near Albany, N.Y., in 2006.

“We may be able to maintain a white-nose-free site for these bats to return to,” she said.

The disease, which appears to affect bats mostly during winter hibernation, has killed more than a million in the Northeast and has spread to at least 11 states, as far west as Oklahoma, and parts of Canada. Some caves on federal lands were closed to people this year to prevent them from spreading the disease.

Because the bunkers would be controlled, artificial settings, biologists also might be able to experiment with different treatments for bats with the disease, without worrying about how a spray or drug might affect other organisms.

“This is one of the most promising things I’ve heard,” said Nina Fascione, executive director of Bat Conservation International, an Austin, Texas-based group that focuses on research initiatives involving bats and their ecosystems. “It presents an excellent opportunity to test things.”

One of the challenges is encouraging enough bats to use the bunkers, von Oettingen said. “They move around on the landscape, so it may be that they will naturally colonize it, or we may bring some in,” she said.

Von Oettingen said New Hampshire plans to reach out to neighboring states to examine their bunkers. Some, such as the one she visited, are on state parks land. Others are part of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

“There’s tons of bunkers of all different kinds out there on the landscape,” from World War II, the Cold War-era, and afterward, she said. “Now the question is, do some of these have bats? And so far, we haven’t found any more.”

Bats hang out in all sorts of manmade structures, but the idea of monitoring them for white-nose syndrome in an artificial setting is relatively new. In Tennessee, the Nature Conservancy has proposed building a large dome-shaped cave, “like a giant upside-down underground swimming pool,” said Cory Holliday, the program’s cave and karst director. “You can apply whatever control you wanted in there and you wouldn’t be affecting a natural ecosystem.”

Tennessee has about 15 species of bats, roughly half of which are potentially susceptible to white-nose syndrome. At least several hundred bats were found with symptoms last year. No deaths have been reported yet.

“We don’t know with real certainty if it will work,” Holliday said of the cave, “but with white-nose syndrome, it’s moving really fast. We don’t want to be left five years from now thinking, ‘Well, I wish we could have.’ “

In October, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came out with a plan to investigate the cause of disease, in which a white fungus develops around bat muzzles, ears and wing membranes, and find ways to manage it.

Biologists say fewer bats, which eat insects, could lead to increased numbers of insect pests, resulting in harm to agriculture and forests. It is anticipated that white-nose syndrome will continue to spread, partly because the fungus can be carried on humans’ clothing.

Under the plan, state agencies will monitor bat populations and design disease management programs. The federal government will assist in areas including research, education, funding and testing. Goals include setting up a central database, developing testing standards and continually reviewing knowledge of the disease to identify gaps and research needs.

In New Hampshire alone, surveys last year showed that the state lost over half of its hibernating bats.

“They’re dead. They’re gone. They’re not here,” said Emily Brunkhurst, a wildlife biologist for the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.

“The thing about white-nose is it is an unprecedented disease,” Brunkhurst said. “We have never seen a disease in wildlife that affects so many species and is so rapidly fatal and spread so incredibly rapidly.” By Kathy McCormack, PhysOrg

The fashion for collecting wild mushrooms began with celebrity chefs such as Antonio Carluccio, and has been encouraged by those with a revived interest in local food, such as Jamie Oliver.

This year’s wet summer and mild autumn has produced bumper crops of colourful wax caps, common ceps and luscious chanterelles.

But this new generation of foodies and foragers are beginning to trample the forests and fields that feed them – as well as many animals and insects, warn those who look after the UK’s woodlands and nature reserves.

Concern is particularly high at some of the country’s best-known beauty spots, including the New Forest, Epping Forest, and around the North Downs hills and the Chilterns.

So serious is the problem in some areas that a few big collectors, found with bagfuls of mushrooms from one trip, are being prosecuted. In just one weekend earlier this month, forest managers reportedly confiscated 45kg (100lbs) of fungi at a site near London.

Conservation managers and organisations appear to agree that small-scale collecting for personal use is not the problem. The Forestry Commission and the National Trust organise courses to help people identify safe mushrooms and teach how to collect them without damaging the surrounding landscape. Crucially, collectors are also urged to leave enough behind for the deer, rabbits, mice and insects such as flies and beetles, which also feast on fungi.

Matthew Oates of the National Trust, which is one of the UK’s biggest land owners, said: “If one or two people visit a place and pick a few, that’s probably not much of a problem. But if a couple of people go there repeatedly, visit the same place and collect as many as possible for commercial gain, that could be a problem.”

Not everybody is worried. Carluccio, who has written two books about his passion for mushrooms and presented a BBC2 series on the subject, still goes collecting for his family’s use, and believes environmental fears are exaggerated.

Carluccio said that this year’s bumper crop, and the parallel reduction in mushroom species that are not collected for eating suggest fungiphiles are not the problem. He also points out that once a mushroom cap is open it has released breeding spores, and that centuries of collection in other countries in Europe, such as Italy and France, have not appeared to lead to long-term damage.

“The mushrooms are there every year, so it’s not true that picking mushrooms would destroy the place,” Carluccio said.

The chef, who does not use wild mushrooms in his cafes and delis, believes there should be licences for commercial collectors to ensure they behave responsibly, as there are in many other European countries. “There should be more discipline in collecting: not trampling everything, not destroying everything and to be limited to what you can consume. But don’t deprive people of the wonders of going to the woods for the mushrooms,” he added.

Despite Carluccio’s comments, there are plenty who are worried. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said commercial collecting was a growing problem on its reserves near London and other cities. The National Trust is also worried about commercial collectors, especially on the sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) that it manages and warned that it is illegal to collect in protected areas. Several SSSIs are in the New Forest in south-west England, which is managed by the Forestry Commission, which reported that “fungi picking is becoming an increasing problem … with more and more large-scale, potentially commercial picking being observed year-on-year”.

Perhaps one of the most visited SSSIs, is Epping Forest, on the north-east edge of London, where keepers report that illegal fungi picking has reached record highs this year. Individuals have been found with five bags full of mushrooms at a time, including poisonous species. This has led managers to suspect they are being collected commercially for sorting elsewhere. The City of London Corporation, which owns the forest, has already issued 20 formal warnings this year. It has successfully prosecuted one person and is currently prosecuting a further six.

“Fungi play a vital role in the ecology of all natural habitats,” said Keith French, the forest services manager. “They are nature’s recyclers, as they break down organic matter from plants and animals. Many creatures feed on fungi, and they are host to some rare invertebrates that are unique to these ancient woodlands.

He added: “We welcome people visiting the forest and admiring the many fascinating shapes, forms and colours the fungi world has to offer, but please leave them there for the next visitor and future generations to enjoy.” By Juliette Jowit, The Observer

We would like to reiterate that the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry is very committed to protecting wildlife in this country, with the involvement of the public, NGOs, various government agencies and the private sector.

To curb wildlife smuggling, the ministry through the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) works very closely with other enforcement agencies such as the Custom and Excise Department, the Police and Armed Forces, Anti-Smuggling Unit and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.

With such cooperation, we have foiled 43 smuggling attempts since 2005.

Besides that, the DWNP has established 13 wildlife surveillance posts at strategic entry and exit points along the international boundary to further enhance efforts to curb wildlife smuggling.

Regionally, the Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network (Asean-wen) has taken concerted efforts to combat wildlife crime since its establishment in October 2004. Regular meetings have been conducted among the 10 member countries involving the police, customs and environment agencies as well as NGOs.

Through this network, we have succeeded in foiling 306 attempted smuggling and confiscated wildlife destined for overseas countries illegally, including the arrest of several suspected smugglers between 2004 and 2009.

The department has also brought four cases to court since the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2010 (Act 686) came into force. Jail sentences ranging from six months to a year and fines from RM15,000 to RM190,000 have been delivered by the courts.

Some 600 heads of wildlife of species such as Madagascar Tortoises, Radiated Tortoises, Red-tailed boas, Birds of Paradise and Tomato frogs have been rescued.

The department is continuing to enhance the capabilities of the officers in the areas of enforcement, integrity and professionalism. Steps have been taken to ensure that enforcement personnel are well trained and equipped with relevant knowledge to detect and curb wildlife-related crimes.

The ministry is optimistic that all issues on wildlife would be eventually addressed accordingly through the new law which carries stiffer penalties to offenders. Hence, we would like to take this opportunity to invite NGOs, public institutions and members of the public to cooperate in reporting any crime related to wildlife to us. The Star

These men allegedly lay a net for the birds, and wait for a number of them to collect in the area. They then capture these birds with the net, put them in cages after freeing them and drive away in a white van.

Madhu Malini, 30, a resident in the area, said she had seen this happening twice, and was concerned about what was happening to the birds.

“I love animals and I was upset at the birds being taken away in this manner. These men hurt the pigeons, especially as many of their bodies get ensnared in the net and their wings break. They should be stopped, especially if they are not licensed by the government,” Malini said.

A number of shop owners in the area confirmed having seen the men in action, but were unable to inform Gulf News of their identities.

One man said that it looked like the men, who appeared to be of Asian origin, waited for a large number of birds to start feeding before they captured them in a net.

Most people expressed concern at what was being done to the birds.

When Gulf News contacted a pest control company in the city that claims to rid residents of problem with pigeons, a spokesman said they only trapped pigeons using anti-bird nets and spikes. He explained that using such nets and spikes prevented pigeons from alighting on surfaces, which eventually drove them away from the place.

He declined to say how many clients they dealt with in a month but stressed: “We do not kill the pigeons or trap them. We just drive them away.”

An owner of a textile shop in the area, said: “We were sure the men must have come from the municipality because we didn’t think ordinary people would be allowed to trap so many pigeons at one go and take them away. So we didn’t ask any questions.”

When contacted, officials at Abu Dhabi Municipality informed Gulf News that the matter did not fall under their jurisdiction.

Further inquiries revealed that the Centre of Waste Management (CWM) sometimes deals with the disposal of animals which have been reported as pests.

A spokesperson at the centre said that it was standard practice to use anti-bird nets or spikes to drive away birds which were being troublesome.

Humane approach

“We believe different pest control companies pursue different options to drive away pigeons which are being a problem to residents. But of course, it is not right to cage them or poison them with chemicals. It is best to use techniques that do not harm the birds,” he said.

He explained that if people complained about birds being a menace, the CWM would first try to remove nests from trees and ledges in the area in order to drive the birds away in the most humane manner possible. He also added that he was not aware of pigeons being too much of a problem in the city. “However, I advise that people not encourage them by providing food and water in areas where they are a menace.”

When told about the people who were trapping the pigeons in cages, the spokesman added that he was not aware of the practice but he conjectured that the men may have been privately capturing the birds for the purposes of hunting.  By Samihah Zaman, Gulfnews

But according to a new report, common animals are vanishing at an even more alarming rate.

Over the last 30 years, the total number of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and amphibians living in the world has plummeted by one third.

Thousands of species – from British honey bees and house sparrows, to Kenya zebra and giraffes – have seen their numbers fall  more quickly than at any time in recorded history.

Over the same period  the human population has doubled, conservationists say.

Experts last night warned that the world was going through the ‘sixth mass extinction’ in history  – and claimed that the scale of the natural losses may soon begin to hit the world’s economies.

The shocking finding comes in the third United Nations Global Biodiversity Outlook report – a snapshot of how the world’s wildlife is changing.

The report warned that natural systems that support economies, lives, food supplies and jobs are at risk of ‘rapid degradation and collapse’ unless political leaders take swift action.

Some ecosystems such as coral reefs and forests could soon reach ‘tipping points’ where they quickly become less useful to mankind.

Ahmed Djoghlaf, Convention on Biological Diversity executive secretary, said: ‘The news is not good.

‘We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in history – extinction rates may be up to 1,000 times higher than the historical background rate.

‘Business as usual is no longer an option if we are to avoid irreversible damage to the life-support systems of our planet.’

The report found that up to 55 per cent of animal and plant species are threatened with extinction.

They include iconic species such as rhinos, whales and gorillas, along with blue fin tuna, the pacific walrus and monarch butterfly. Some 23 per cent of plant species are also threatened, along with 12 per cent of all bird species.

But the report – based on 500 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 110 national reports submitted by governments – warned that the amount of wildlife was also falling.

The global abundance of vertebrates – the group that includes mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians and fish – fell by about one-third between 1970 and 2006, the UN said.

In the tropics, the number of vertebrates fell by 60 per cent.

In Africa, populations of giraffe, zebra, warthog and impala – animals once commonly seen by tourists on safari – have fallen by around 70 per cent since the 1970s.

In Britain, the number of farmland birds such as skylarks and lapwings  has halved since 1980, while sparrow and starling numbers have gone down two thirds.

Butterflies, honey bees, bumblebees and moths have all seen dramatic falls in numbers.

The UN warned that the main reasons behind the disappearance of species, including loss of habitats,  including climate change, pollution and over-exploitation of resources, were not going away – and in some cases were getting worse.

The report also confirmed that the world’s leaders had failed to meet their target for curbing the rate of wildlife loss, agreed eight years ago.

The UN estimates that the world is losing habitats and wildlife worth £43 billion a year in food, jobs and natural resources. By David Derbyshire, The Daily Mail

“Sometimes the weather is very bad — but we saw the wolves,” he smiled.

Raymond fits into a category of Yellowstone visitor that did not exist 15 years ago: the wolf watcher.

After being wiped out in the park early in the 20th century, 31 gray wolves were re-introduced in 1995 and 1996. They flourished. Today, more than 350 of their descendants roam the park and surrounding area, preying on the abundant elk, deer and bison.

Summer visitors to Yellowstone expect to see wildlife, but most don’t realize that the winter season — which officially begins Dec. 18 — can be prime time for wildlife viewing. Deep snow in the high country drives elk, deer and bison down into the open valleys, where the weather is milder and they can more easily paw or push snow aside to get to the dried grass beneath.

And where the grazing animals gather, predators follow.

My wife and I live only three hours away from Yellowstone and we visit more often in the winter than the summer. We like to tell others about being serenaded by wolf and coyote howls echoing off the mountains, of watching a coyote stalk and pounce on a mouse by listening to it scurrying under the snow, of inadvertently skiing so close to a bison that we could see his bloodshot eyes.

But there’s more than wildlife in Yellowstone in winter. The frigid air enhances the steam spouting from its famous geysers, making them even more spectacular. Its plateaus and broad valleys are made for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing; some scenic drives in summer are designated cross-country ski trails in winter.

Most of Yellowstone is closed to auto traffic in winter, but the part that is open to cars offers some of the richest wildlife viewing opportunities in the park. It runs from Roosevelt Arch, the century-old ceremonial north entrance to Yellowstone at Gardiner, Mont., to the snowbound community of Cooke City, Mont., at the northeast entrance (the road beyond Cooke City is usually closed in winter).

En route, it passes through the Lamar Valley, which some have called America’s Serengeti. This is where most of the park’s wolf watchers hang out.

But even areas closed to auto traffic remain open to visitors, via snowmobile or snowcoach. Visitors can travel by snowcoach to Old Faithful and ski the circuit around the Upper Geyser Basin, the largest geyser concentration in the world. After skiing, visit the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, a modern hotel that invites visitors to curl up in comfy lounging chairs in front of lobby fireplaces.

Those staying in gateway communities can also take snowcoaches into the park on day trips. Cross-country skiers can access scheduled ski drops and pickups for specific trails from in-park hotels.

And for those staying near the north entrance, winter is the best time to try that special Yellowstone experience called hot-potting.

As you drive the five miles from Gardiner to Mammoth Hot Springs, you will cross the Gardner River. You may notice a big parking lot to your left — seemingly serving nothing. It’s not marked, but this is the best opportunity in Yellowstone to take a dip in a wild hot springs without having to hike for 20 miles. By William Kronholm,The Miami Herald

Analyzing DNA skin samples from 1,527 whales in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, an international group of scientists mapped how different whale populations interact, their mating habits and distribution across oceans.

“Many of the interactions among Southern Hemisphere populations are still poorly understood,” said Howard Rosenbaum, director of the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society’s Ocean Giants Program and lead author of the study.

“This research illustrates the vast potential of genetic analyses to uncover the mysteries of how humpbacks travel and form populations in the Southern Ocean basins,” Rosenbaum said in a statement announcing the study, published on PLoS ONE, an online scientific journal (http://www.plosone.org)

So little was known about Southern Ocean humpback whales that the researchers used whaling records dating back to 1761 for initial insights.

The whaling logbooks tried to determine whale population boundaries and breeding stock, but studying humpbacks in the wild, even in modern times, is difficult due to the wild oceans they inhabit and the vast distances they travel.

“We’re still trying to answer the same question with molecular technology in concert with whaling logbook records,” said Rosenbaum.

The slow-swimming humpback was hunted commercially until the International Whaling Commission protected the species in 1966. Humpback numbers are recovering, but their total population may still be only a small per cent of the original population.

The study found that the highest rate of gene flow between Southern Hemisphere humpbacks occurred with whales breeding on either side of Africa, with one or two whales swimming between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans each year to mate.

This was the first time a humpback had been recorded travelling between the two oceans, said the study.

Whale populations on either side of the South Atlantic did not seem to mate, but similarities in their “songs” revealed a degree of interaction between the two groups, most likely in the feeding grounds in Antarctic waters.

The small humpback population of less than 200 in the Indian Ocean, off the Arabian Peninsula, was distinct genetically and unlike other populations did not migrate and therefore was a “conservation priority,” said the study.

“Molecular technology gives us a window into the lives of whales that can help us understand the ecological forces shaping their movements and distribution,” said Rosenbaum.

“We can also use our findings to inform management decisions for a species that is only now beginning to recover from centuries of commercial whaling,” he said. Canada Dot Com

Barely 3,500 tigers are estimated to be roaming in the wild in 12 Asian countries and Russia compared with about 100,000 a century ago, experts and conservationists said.

“Despite our efforts in the last three decades, tigers still face threats of survival. The primary threat is from poaching and habitat loss,” Nepal’s prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal told a conference of tiger experts from 20 countries.

Tigers are being illegally killed for their body parts and Asia is a hotspot for the illegal wildlife trade, which the international police organization Interpol estimates may be worth more than $20 billion a year.

Skins sell as rugs and cloaks on the black market, where a skin can fetch up to $20,000.

Habitat destruction and depletion of prey base are other perils facing the “Asian heritage”, conservationists said.

“A business as usual approach in tiger conservation will doom the tiger population in the next 15 to 20 years,” Mahendra Shrestha, program director of the Washington-based Save the Tiger Fund said on the sidelines of a conference on tiger conservation.

He said law enforcement, patrols to stop poaching and the preservation of remaining habitat would improve the situation.

“There is hope. We can do it. It is not rocket science. It does not require a lot of new activities,” Shrestha said. “But there has to be strong political will to conserve tigers and also strong global international support for the activities of the tiger range countries.”

Tigers still roam terrain in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

John Seidensticker, chief scientist at the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Conservation Ecology Center, said tiger habitat had declined by 40 percent in the last decade due to destruction of forests.

“Our challenge is to make landscapes with tigers alive worth more than landscapes where tigers have been killed,” Seidensticker said. “I think we have a decade from where we will slip from being caretakers to undertakers.” China Daily

This mysterious nutrient is found in the roots of a rare cactus plant that was revered by the ancient Egyptians for its health and healing powers.

Thanks to recent medicinal advancements, scientists are now able to isolate and concentrate this nutrient in a convenient capsule form, which is now available exclusively here, and in high-end Beverly Hills salons, under the patent-pending Phosphacore Formula.

A new breed of giant spider – which has huge 12,7cm females and tiny males – has been discovered by scientists. The female of the new species of golden orb weaver spider has a body one and a 3,8cm long with a leg span of five inches and weaves a web more than three feet wide.

The tiny male, however, has a leg span of just one inch. The variation of the Nephila species, named as Nephila Komaci, was discovered by US and Slovenian researchers in Africa and Madagascar. A new giant orb spider has been discovered in South Africa. It has a leg span of five inches and weaves webs three feet wide.

In the paper published in the journal PLoS ONE, the team from the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, described how until recently, said they believed the giant Nephila was extinct.

But Jonathan Coddington from the Smithsonian said a South African colleague found a male and two females in Africa’s Tembe Elephant Park allowing researchers to confirm it did exist. Tests were then carried out that confirmed it was the largest orb weaver ever known and was a newly identified species.

Coddington said: “We fear the species may be endangered, as its only definite habitat is a sand forest in Tembe Elephant Park in Kwa-Zulu-Natal. “Our data suggests that the species is not abundant, its range is restricted and all known localities lie within two endangered biodiversity hotspots: Maputaland and Madagascar.”

Nephila spiders are renowned for being the largest web-spinning spiders. Although males are five times smaller than their mates, they are actually normal-sized – it is the females who are giants. N Komaci was named after Kuntner’s best friend, Andrej Komac, who died in an accident at the time of the discovery.

Kuntner said: “My friend, himself a scientist, encouraged me to tackle this PhD, but did not live to see the discoveries made. “He was a big inspiration, and a great friend, thus it was logical to name this new species to his memory.” Independent Online