For many people, a backyard garden is a place to play, relax, and reflect. But for the plants and animals that live in our gardens, life is no picnic: amidst the carefully planted flowers and neatly clipped grass there lies a hidden world of hot romance, violence, and merciless competition.
From New York’s crown jewel, Central Park, to the nation’s first county park, take a tour of New York and the surrounding area’s noteworthy parks.
During the past century, the rhinos of Africa and Asia have been pushed out of their habitats and hunted nearly to extinction for their horns, which are believed — erroneously — to possess healing properties.
No flowering plant has captured the attention of humans, or stirred their passions, in quite the way that orchids have. In past ages, orchids — in all their 20,000 or so wild varieties — have been hunted and collected in almost every part of the world. Today, millions of people remain devoted to the plant and its exotically beautiful “faces.”
Add another risk factor to the litany of health problems associated with fossil fuel emissions: blood clots.
So far we’ve only brought you bad news about the state of New York’s urban hawks. But today we’re pleased to report (h/t Urban Hawks - with pics) that raptor watchers have spotted two new chicks in the Astoria/Triborough Bridge hawk nest.
After a year of research and months of delays, the Interior Department finally declared the polar bear a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
In Zimbabwe, the number of endangered rhinos killed by poachers has increased dramatically over the last few years. Since 2000, an estimated 72 black rhinos have been shot in the southeastern part of the country. Compare that figure to the years between 1993 and 2000, when not one black rhino was poached in the area. Why the sudden increase?
In a new study released in a Royal Society journal, and reported by the BBC, researchers used a small device that monitors …
Can earthquakes be predicted? Many seismologists would probably answer, “Not yet, but eventually.” But to date, nobody has been able to predict earthquakes reliably enough and over short enough time scales to allow the evacuation of threatened cities. Some scientists have entirely lost faith in earthquake prediction.
