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Summer break – the time to spot the browns

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

They are the butterflies of high summer and of long hot dusty days – the ones that small children run after on their holidays; the ones we set flying whenever we walk through a grassy field.

To be spotted again: India wants to bring back the cheetah

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

They appear in portraits and carvings and the Mughal Emperor Akbar was said to have kept more than 1,000 for hunting. But the cheetah – prized for its speed and its ability to be trained – has not been seen in India for at least 60 years.

Michael McCarthy: Look closely into the depths of a river ...

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Just watching life go by is not an activity with an awful lot of social sanction attached; admit to it and the commonest reaction will probably be that you're a lazy sod. But last week, for the first time in what seemed like years, I engaged in just sitting and watching, and I found it could open your eyes to a lot of life you might otherwise be missing.

England's wildlife sites 'better protected now'

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Huge improvements have been made in protecting England's best wildlife sites in the past decade, a powerful all-party group of MPs said yesterday – but still more needs to be done.

The butterfly only visible at 1,500ft

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Trying to see all Britain's 58 species of butterfly in a single summer is not easy – quite a few are found only in isolated localities – but only one really involves the sweat of your brow and the ache of your leg muscles.

The wombat: back from the brink

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

One of the world's most endangered mammals, the northern hairy-nosed wombat, has stepped back from the brink of extinction, with its numbers undergoing the biggest jump for more than two decades.

Bugs! The critters eating America's forests

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

America's 4 July bonfires served a dual purpose yesterday. They burned the wood of trees destroyed by a trio of bugs that are devastating parts of the nation's forests.

How global warming shrank St Kilda's sheep

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It was the curious case of the shrinking sheep. For nearly a quarter of a century the wild Soay sheep on the windswept Scottish island of Hirta have been getting smaller when evolution should have made them bigger.

Flood warnings issued as heatwave continues

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:05:34 GMT

Britain's hottest week in years is threatening to become a wash-out, as parts of the South West were put on flood alert.

Sat nav fitted to puffins in bid to halt decline

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Puffins living in one of the most remote places in the UK are to be fitted with "sat nav" devices to help scientists discover why their numbers are falling.

After the heatwave, stand by for the storms

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:00:26 GMT

June was Britain's hottest, driest and sunniest month for three years as temperatures rose to nearly 32 degrees C, figures showed today.

June was hottest for three years

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:31:11 GMT

Soaring summer temperatures and a scorching end to the month have given Britain its hottest June for three years, according to figures out today.

'Voracious' ladybird threatens native species

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:47:44 GMT

The recent arrival of the invasive harlequin ladybird in the UK is likely to threaten more than 1,000 native species, scientists warned today.

Desperate bid to save finches that changed the world

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

British conservationists are to launch an ambitious project to safeguard the future of a colony of Galapagos finches which inspired Charles Darwin to formulate his radical theory of evolution.

Brussels steps in to save the Great Hamster of Alsace

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Like a seven-year-old child, the French government faces punishment for failing to look after its hamsters.

Forest Guard: The Movie

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:36:51 GMT

Six US kids are driving global wildfire detection thinking, overcoming technical as well as legislative barriers which have flummoxed adults, in order to push a detection system prototype through to trial this summer. Watch how this simple idea came about and snowballed to pro bono support from global tech giant Sony electronics.

'Stoned' wallabies make crop circles

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Wallabies snacking in legally grown opium poppy fields are getting "high as a kite" and hopping around in circles, trampling the crops, officials in Tasmania say.

Crop circles, poppies - and tripping wallabies

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:01:22 GMT

Wallabies snacking in opium poppy fields are getting "high as a kite" and hopping around creating crop circles.

You should have seen the shark that got away...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Big? It's enormous. It's immense. It's the whopper of all whoppers, the largest fish ever caught on rod and line in the waters of the British Isles. And it was caught by a pensioner.

A null180m weeding job: The lake that has shrunk to half its original size

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Every day, amid the early morning mists that sit low over the water of Dal Lake, a remarkable piece of theatre is played out. Emerging from the islands and the alleyways of reeds, men paddle traditional wooden boats to an area of the lake that is heavy with weeds. There, using nets fixed atop willow branches, they haul the weeds into their boats. With their vessels partially submerged by the weight, they then paddle slowly away, to use their bounty as fertiliser for crops.

A £180m weeding job: The lake that has shrunk to half its original size

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Butterflies that bring glamour to the Norfolk Broads

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Elation, wonder and curiosity – they were three emotions involved in seeing three of Britain's rarest butterflies. Elation was for the swallowtail, our most glamorous insect, finally tracked down in its Norfolk Broads home on Friday after an initial safari proved fruitless. Wonder was for the heath fritillary, a handsome lattice of orange and black now restricted to a handful of sites, but found flying in thousands on Saturday, in a dappled clearing deep in a Kentish wood. And curiosity was for the black hairstreak, a pint-sized creature located on a nature reserve open day in Northamptonshire yesterday – surrounded by photographers.

Michael McCarthy: Our wondrous flora has been left in the shade

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

You interested in wild flowers? Who is, these days? The body that campaigns for our exquisite native flora, Plantlife, has fewer than 10,000 members. Compare that to the people who get really excited about cultivated plants in their gardens, the paid-up members of the Royal Horticultural Society. They number 360,000. Go even further and compare it to the people who get excited about wild birds, the members of the RSPB – there are more than a million of them.

Oil boom threatens the last orang-utans

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Perched halfway up a tree near a bend in the Seumayan River, a young orang-utan lounges on a branch, eating fruit. In the distance, smoke rises from an illegal fire, one of dozens lit to wipe out the virgin rainforest and replace it with oil palm plantations.

Bringing glamour to the Norfolk Broads

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT