Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Nettles, hedge garlic, sticky weed: Britain in May is a lush salad bar that I can’t resist, and it’s doing wonders for my skin I had a daughter during one of the bone-cold early months of this year, which means that my full-time job is now to produce a yield. Between the hours of dawn and midnight, with a few lactic minutes in between, I am a feeding machine for a new person. And it is this, perhaps, that has led to my somewhat strange new eating habits. Pregnancy may traditionally be the time associated with cravings and aversions – the old cliches of sardines and jam, coal and creosote, bread and crackers. But here, in my postnatal feeding frenzy, I’m eating nettles by the handful. I am chomping on sticky weed. I have been biting the heads off dandelions (bitter – like really serious dark chocolate) and sucking the nectar from inside honeysuckle. This recent chlorophyll gala has, of course, coincided with England’s greatest month: May. Some of us love the look of May, some of us enjoy the smells. But for me, this year, the greatest heady, verdant, leaf-rich pleasure of my life is to eat May by the bushel. Nell Frizzell is a journalist and author Continue reading...

New rules for zoos and aquariums include guidance on elephant enclosures and ban on touching fish Zoos will be obliged to boost conservation efforts and improve animal welfare under the first revision of mandatory standards for the sector in more than a decade. Under the update to the Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for Great Britain, last set out in 2012, elephants will need to be kept in larger enclosures and birds of prey must be kept in large aviaries rather than being tethered. Continue reading...

Two-month-old black bear, who was starving in a California forest, is youngest cub the San Diego center has cared for Human bears, some would say, are taking care of a two-month-old cub that spent days without his mother, starving in a California forest. The small black bear cub was rescued by campers in Los Padres national forest after being found alone and starving. The infant bear is now recovering at San Diego Humane Society’s Ramona Wildlife Center, and is believed to be the youngest cub the organization has ever cared for. Continue reading...

MPs had previously backed Conservative amendment to ask developers to provide hollow bricks for endangered birds Providing every new home with at least one “swift brick” to help endangered cavity-nesting birds has been rejected by Labour at the committee stage of its increasingly controversial planning bill. The amendment to the bill to ask every developer to provide a £35 hollow brick for swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings, which was tabled by Labour MP Barry Gardiner, has been rejected by the Labour-dominated committee. Continue reading...