Early Covid surges were 150% more common in counties with large minority populations

Coronavirus has left no corner of the U.S. untouched, but counties with large minority populations are up to 150% more likely to have been hard-hit by infections compared to mostly white regions of the country, new data shows.  The virus spread like wildfire in communities of color, taking off fastest first in areas with large … Read more

Almost half of people in some areas with high ethnic minority populations are refusing jab

Nearly half of all people in some areas with a large population of ethnic minorities are refusing the Covid vaccine when offered it due to fears about what it contains. In Birmingham, 50 per cent of those living in areas with high populations of Asian and African-Caribbean people turned down the vaccine when offered it. In … Read more

Lynx could be reintroduced to Scotland for the first time in 500 YEARS to manage deer populations

Lynx could be reintroduced to Scotland for the first time in 500 YEARS to help manage deer populations Eurasian lynx are native to Britain, but were driven to extinction 500 years ago They now live in mainland Europe, and are thought to pose no threat to humans A new study aims to understand if people … Read more

Bees: First global map created to help conservationists track populations of the vital pollinators 

Conservationists have drafted the first ever global map of bee diversity to help track the distribution of populations of the vital pollinators. There are some 20,000 individual species of bee presently living on Earth — but accurate, compiled data on their distribution had been lacking.  Researchers from China, Singapore and the US analysed and validated … Read more

Britain’s top ‘big cat’ tracker claims UK has healthy populations of leopards and pumas

Britain’s top tracker of big cats says that Britain has a population of leopards and pumas that is breeding and booming. Rhoda Watkins has spent more than 20 years investigating big cats using her specialist knowledge to monitor their behaviour. She has now gathered enough evidence to be certain of the presence of these animals … Read more

Nature in ‘freefall’: Global wildlife populations have declined by more than two thirds since 1970

Wildlife populations around the world have declined by more than two thirds since 1970, according to a new WWF report that claims nature is in ‘freefall’ due to human activity including intensive farming and deforestation. The WWF Living Planet Index (LPI) found mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish numbers fell by an average 68 per cent … Read more