Animals

Extreme heat in Kases last month killed so many cattle that carcases were dumped in landfills or buried in unlined graves, Reuters reports. Normally processed as pet food or fertilizer, the 2,117 cows that died from heat exhaustion the weekend of June 11 overwhelmed standard operating procedures. Burying cattle in unlined pits is a risky option and last resort because of the potential for waste to seep into groundwater.

There’s a new star on the scene in Oslo, Norway, who’s won a sudden influx of fans, haters and paparazzi. No, Freya isn’t a pop idol or a glamorous starlet. She’s a 1,500-pound walrus who’s caused quite a stir by visiting the coastline of the Scandinavian country, as HuffPost reported.

Humans share 98.7 percent of their DNA with two species of endangered great apes: bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Bonobos — which can only be found in forested regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), south of the Congo River — differ from chimpanzees in appearance and behavior. They are usually smaller, and their societal groups are led by females and are generally more peaceful.

As climate change erodes the icy habitats of polar bears, they are left stranded from their usual food sources for longer periods of time. So instead of filling up on seals, a new study has found that polar bears are supplementing their diets with garbage, which is expected to become a growing threat to the species.

The news came in an update announced last Thursday to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. While tigers (Panthera tigris) are still considered Endangered, there are 40 percent more of them than was indicated by the last population assessment in 2015. 

Migratory monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus plexippus) are now considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The species will now be listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species after habitat loss and climate change decimated the population.

A new mine proposed for Queensland, Australia would require 1,023.6 hectares of koala habitat to be cleared for construction. The project would also remove more than 70 hectares of habitat for greater gliders, two species of which were recently listed as endangered earlier this month.

A new survey of 3,331 scientists studying biodiversity across 187 countries has revealed that more species are threatened with extinction than previously thought. As many as 50% of species have been threatened with extinction or driven to extinction since 1500, according to survey results.