The Guardian
Could this humble sea sponge clean up the world’s ports? 1 September 2026 at 11:00

Could this humble sea sponge clean up the world’s ports?

1 September 2026 at 11:00

The chicken liver sponge has sailed through a test of its ability to filter pollutants in a harbour in Spain’s Costa Brava

In the polluted waters of Marina Palamós on Spain’s Costa Brava, Manuel Maldonado, a sponge biologist, noticed something unusual last month: red starfish had started settling in the area.

Nearly two years earlier, the Spanish National Research Council scientist and his colleagues had begun transplanting sea sponges into the port to study whether they could survive in its polluted waters.

The Guardian
Kākāpō rising: 90 chicks swell population of the world’s heaviest parrot 1 September 2026 at 05:57

Kākāpō rising: 90 chicks swell population of the world’s heaviest parrot

The Guardian

By: Eva Corlett in Wellington

1 September 2026 at 05:57

Critically endangered New Zealand bird enjoys record breeding season triggered by mass fruiting of native tree, pushing its numbers to 325

The population of the world’s heaviest parrot, the kākāpō, has surpassed 300 birds for the first time in 75 years, after a record breeding season triggered by the mass fruiting of a native New Zealand tree.

Ninety chicks were officially added to the population of the critically endangered birds on 1 September, pushing the total to 325 – a record high since recovery efforts began.

World news | The Guardian
Kākāpō rising: 90 chicks swell population of the world’s heaviest parrot 1 September 2026 at 05:57

Kākāpō rising: 90 chicks swell population of the world’s heaviest parrot

World news | The Guardian

By: Eva Corlett in Wellington

1 September 2026 at 05:57

Critically endangered New Zealand bird enjoys record breeding season triggered by mass fruiting of native tree, pushing its numbers to 325

The population of the world’s heaviest parrot, the kākāpō, has surpassed 300 birds for the first time in 75 years, after a record breeding season triggered by the mass fruiting of a native New Zealand tree.

Ninety chicks were officially added to the population of the critically endangered birds on 1 September, pushing the total to 325 – a record high since recovery efforts began.

The Guardian
‘It was like fighting a dinosaur’: Sydney shark attack survivor recalls left hook that helped save her life 31 August 2026 at 08:01

‘It was like fighting a dinosaur’: Sydney shark attack survivor recalls left hook that helped save her life

The Guardian

By: Achol Arok

31 August 2026 at 08:01

Leah Stewart, who was bitten while swimming at Coogee beach, says she asked herself ‘which limb am I willing to lose’ as she fought back

An Australian woman who lost an arm after a shark attack at a Sydney beach has described delivering a “left hook” punch to the four-metre great white as its open mouth came within centimetres of her face.

Leah Stewart, 34, a teacher and mother of a one-year-old, was attacked by the shark while on a morning swim at Coogee beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on 13 June.

The Guardian
Week in wildlife: a Cornish wallaby, a frazzled opossum and rare Montagu’s harrier chicks 28 August 2026 at 09:00

Week in wildlife: a Cornish wallaby, a frazzled opossum and rare Montagu’s harrier chicks

The Guardian

By: Pejman Faratin

28 August 2026 at 09:00

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

The Guardian
Experience: I brought a bear back to life 28 August 2026 at 07:00

Experience: I brought a bear back to life

The Guardian

By: Paul Cassar

28 August 2026 at 07:00

I was in India, performing dentistry on my first animal patient, and it was supposed to be a straightforward operation

I’ve been a dentist for 40 years. I spend most of my time treating patients at my surgery in Chichester, West Sussex. When I studied to become a dentist in the 1980s, I didn’t think I’d be getting my hands anywhere near the teeth of any exotic animals.

Twenty years later, in 2000, that changed. A patient of mine, Alan Knight, the CEO of International Animal Rescue (IAR), showed me photographs of the inside of a bear’s mouth. The bear was called Jojo and his teeth had been broken off by poachers. Some of the teeth were too rotten to be saved – if left untreated, Jojo would become more prone to infection and abscesses.

The Guardian
Country diary: A stonking great harmful hornet? Ah it’s only a fly | Paul Evans 27 August 2026 at 07:30

Country diary: A stonking great harmful hornet? Ah it’s only a fly | Paul Evans

The Guardian

By: Paul Evans

27 August 2026 at 07:30

The Marches, Shropshire: For this hoverfly, pretending to be far more dangerous than it actually is has been a useful evolutionary technique

Back in the analogue world – where “analogue” means signals transmitted by continuous waves of sound or light, but also means something that looks like something else – intelligence is more poetic and weirder than its shambling digital doppelganger.

In a bend of the heatwave, a remarkable fly lands on a rose leaf in full sun. The hornet mimic hoverfly, Volucella zonaria, is a stonking great (for a hoverfly) 2cm-long creature with a peachy-yellow and black striped abdomen. It has no sting, a chestnut thorax and a big-eyed head with a pad for nectar, not jaws for chomping insects, two rather than four cellophane wings folded at rest, and an aura to unnerve the uninitiated.

World news | The Guardian
South African police arrest two Thai men for allegedly smuggling parrot eggs 26 August 2026 at 18:09

South African police arrest two Thai men for allegedly smuggling parrot eggs

World news | The Guardian

By: Rachel Savage in Johannesburg

26 August 2026 at 18:09

Bird eggs intercepted in homemade incubators at Johannesburg airport as officials try to halt wildlife trafficking

South African police have arrested two Thai nationals in separate incidents for allegedly attempting to smuggle endangered parrot eggs out of the country as authorities try to stem the tide of wildlife trafficking.

A 50-year-old Thai national was arrested at OR Tambo international airport in Johannesburg on 20 August, carrying 50 bird eggs in a homemade incubator in a hand-luggage bag, South Africa’s environment ministry said in a statement.