Category: Environment

PARIS, September 7, 2011 (AFP) – Were it not for meteorites striking Earth some four billion years ago, humans would never have laid eyes on the gold that has raised and ruined civilisations, according to a study published Thursday. Two hundred million years earlier, during the violent throes of planetary formation, Earth was a mass […]

Sept 07, 2011 (LBO) – Researchers from Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom are devising ways to save a rare primate that is threatened with extinction from habitat loss, including a species that was ˜rediscovered’ two years ago. The University of Colombo, Open University of Sri Lanka and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is […]

PARIS, September 4, 2011 (AFP) – It is the kind of question that keeps biologists up at night: from an evolutionary standpoint, is the innermost digit of a bird’s three-pronged wing more like a thumb or an index finger? A study published online Sunday by Nature says it’s a bit of both. The stemcells in […]

KUALA LUMPUR, September 3, 2011 (AFP) – Malaysia has seized more than 1,000 African elephant tusks in two separate shipments in the past two months, reports said Saturday. The wildlife watchdog says that the illegal ivory trade has been rising globally since 2004 largely due to increasing demand in China, where ivory is often ground […]

Sep 02, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s authorities say nearly 6,000 elephants had been found in an island wide census, which was slammed by conservationists as a cover for rulers to identify tusked elephants for capture and domestication. “Out of the total wild elephant population 1107 are calves and juveniles,” minister of agrarian services and […]

PARIS, August 16, 2011 (AFP) – A new species of eel found in the gloom of an undersea cave is a “living fossil” astonishingly similar to the first eels that swam some 200 million years ago, biologists reported on Wednesday. The discovery was made in March last year by a team led by Masaki Miya […]

MINNERIYA, August 12, 2011 (AFP) – Thousands of workers, soldiers and volunteers fanned out across Sri Lanka on Friday to begin the country’s first national elephant survey despite a boycott by some wildlife groups. Hundreds of conservationists decided not to take part because of fears prompted by comments from a minister that the survey will […]

Aug 10, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan conservation groups are boycotting an elephant census, and called on the private sector not to support the effort, after a government minister revealed plans to capture up to 300 calves with tusks for domestication. Agrarian and wildlife minister S M Chandrasena was reported as saying that the survey […]

WASHINGTON, August 5, 2011 (AFP) – Scientists have found evidence of flowing salt water on steep Martian slopes, which if confirmed would be the first discovery of active liquid water on the red planet, NASA said Thursday. The data gathered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has given new focus to the hunt for life forms […]

June 29, 2011 (LBO) – A plan by authorities to flood an ancient reservoir in Sri Lanka during the dry season may disrupt a centuries old migration of wild elephants who congregate in what is possibly the largest such gathering in the world, a leisure group has warned. Around August each year elephants running into […]

June 27, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has begun deepening canals in marshes bordering the capital Colombo and digging lakes to prevent flooding during the rainy season and for tourism and recreation, officials said. A 24-acre land is being dug in the Rampalawatte area in Pelawatte along with another lake at Thalawatugoda. The project is […]

June 18, 2011 (AFP) – Three baby elephants were killed when they were hit by a passenger train in Sri Lanka on Saturday, an official said. The trio were crossing the tracks in a forested area near Ambanpola, 93 miles (150 kilometres) north of Colombo, when they were struck by a passenger train bound for […]