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Kenya's Tana River Delta under siege

Date published: January 21, 2010

The Tana River Delta in Kenya's north coast is under unprecedented threat as corporations and foreign agencies scramble to exploit its riches for export crops, biofuels and minerals. The Tana Delta is a vast patchwork of palm savanna, seasonally flooded grassland, forest fragments, lakes, woodland, mangroves, beaches, sand dunes, coral reefs, seagrass beds and the river itself. A number of worrying development projects are currently proposed in the delta. A Wildlifewatch report.

Primates' social intelligence overestimated

Date published: January 21, 2010

Primates are intelligent, but their intelligence is overestimated. The social behaviour of primates is explained on the basis of cognitive considerations by primates that are too sophisticated, a researcher has found. Primates are assumed to use their intelligence continually and to be very calculating. They're supposed to reconcile fights and to do so preferably with partners that could mean a lot to them. A Wildlifewatch report about the findings that have been published recently.

New evidence of culture In wild chimpanzees

Date published: January 21, 2010

A new study of chimpanzees living in the wild adds to evidence that our closest primate relatives have cultural differences, too. The study, reported online in Current Biology, shows that neighbouring chimpanzee populations in Uganda use different tools to solve a novel problem: extracting honey trapped within a fallen log. Behavioral differences among animal populations have been taken as evidence of culture, the researchers said, but it's a notion that has remained controversial. Some think that other explanations seem more likely. A Wildlifewatch report.

Tourists in Antarctica are a cause of major concern

Date published: January 21, 2010

Tourism is a 'boom industry' in Antarctica. While tourism has many advantages to offer the South Pole, the increasing influx causes horrendous pollution: the long trips made by many of the tourists produce shocking amounts of CO2 emission. Machiel Lamers visited the South Pole and discussed the fragile future of the continent with other interested parties. Dutch researcher Machiel Lamers has investigated the impacts of increased tourism on Antarctica and how this impact could be curbed. A Wildlifewatch report.

Ancient koalas may have been loud and lazy but they didn't chew gum

Date published: January 21, 2010

Skull fragments of prehistoric koalas from the Riversleigh rainforests of millions of year ago suggest they shared the modern koala's "lazy" lifestyle and ability to produce loud "bellowing" calls to attract mates and provide warnings about predators. However, the new findings suggest that the two species of koalas from the Miocene did not share the uniquely specialised eucalyptus leaf diet of the modern koala. A Wildlifewatch report.