Common wild birds

ADELAIDE, Australia: At Paradise Primary School, boxes and boxes of koalas are lined up on the floor of a gymnasium. Volunteers and veterinarians tend to the animals, all victims of damaging bushfires that swept through South Australia in late December. This makeshift emergency triage centre for wounded koalas has been a site of both tears and triumph over the past few weeks. Death has never been far away as the team at Adelaide Koala Rescue (AKR) has responded to hundreds of calls to help animals burnt, displaced and starving as a result of the fires. But for dozens of the koalas left here now, home is calling. There have been staggering losses to Australia’s wildlife this summer, as bushfires ripped through more than 10 million hectares of land. Experts predict that some 1.25 billion animals, including mammals, birds and reptiles, have been killed nationwide. The number reaches into the trillions when insects and other invertebrates, all essential to delicate … [Read more...] about Koala bushfire victims start to return home amid wider fears for Australia’s wildlife

SINGAPORE: This week marked the end of a long wait for Singapore to stop the sale of ivory and ivory products and a victory for those working to put this in place. Over the last six months, Singapore authorities seized an unprecedented amount of 38 tonnes of pangolin scales and almost 10 tonnes of elephant ivory worth more than S$170 million - with some close to the largest seizures the world has seen . Led by the National Parks Board (NParks), these acts of enforcement were a true testament of the country’s zero-tolerance to illegal wildlife trade. Just two days after the most recent seizure of 15 baskets containing 815 birds over the National Day weekend, Singapore announced the latest highlight of our fight against illegal wildlife trade: An ivory ban. THE WORK IS FAR FROM COMPLETE It is generally estimated that customs intercepts 10 per cent of all contraband including drugs, weapons, and presumably ivory. Although the massive seizures highlighted what … [Read more...] about Commentary: Singapore’s ivory trade ban tackles elephant in room but work ahead a mammoth task

A “Frasier” reboot is on the way , courtesy of an American movie studio launching a rebranded TV streaming platform and suddenly realizing it had nothing to stream. The cupboard was bare, the riverbed dry, the brain filled with cobwebs and dead birds, and who among us has not had that sensation this past year? So Paramount Plus reached back into the deep past and pulled out a TV sitcom that had already indulged in the standard American habit of going on far too long for the sake of massive profits. Wring that pile of cash until it drips coins and corn niblets — remember when Niles Crane married Daphne? — and Frasier is out of Seattle and possibly in San Francisco now, maybe turning into his crotchety dad in an ugly chair while his son Frederick — he’s so literate! — works for a comedy tech monster Zuckerberg. Surely Frederick can’t be gay. His younger brother will be gay. Maybe. All the old jokes. The source of all comedy is people not knowing themselves. The show was endlessly … [Read more...] about With a ‘Frasier’ reboot, everything old will be old again