The pandemic and climate change are testing as never before the delicate balance of human co-habitation with the natural world.As an Australian prison is evacuated after it was overrun by the plague of mice ravaging the east of the country, we look at some of the most spectacular recent examples.Australia Mice PlagueBattling a massive plague of mice after the end of a three-year drought, eastern Australia is seeing crops destroyed, grain silos and barns infested and homes invaded by the roden

According to the Tapir Specialist Group, an organisation that works to conserve their habitat – tapirs are living fossils.

It is the world's most pressing scientific puzzle, but experts warn there may never be conclusive answers over the source of the coronavirus, after an investigative effort marked from the start by disarray, Chinese secrecy, and international rancour.11 January marks the anniversary of China confirming its first death from COVID-19, a 61-year-old man who was a regular at the now-notorious Wuhan wet market.Nearly two million deaths later, the pandemic is out of control across much of the w

The Malayan tiger is said to be the national animal of Malaysia. The tiger appears in various heraldry of Malaysian institutions such as the Royal Malaysia Police, Proton – which is Malaysia’s first national car company, its universal bank, Maybank and the Football Association of Malaysia, among others. Even Malaysia’s national football team, the pride of the country, has been given the nickname ‘Harimau Malaya’ (Malayan tigers).

The industrial meat system is out of control. Not only does it contribute to the destruction of the climate, biodiversity, soil, and forests, but it also poses a direct threat to human health. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) warnings about zoonotic diseases – caused by pathogens that are transmitted from animals to humans – were largely ignored.

Global animal, bird and fish populations have plummeted more than two-thirds in less than 50 years due to rampant over-consumption, experts said Thursday in a stark warning to save nature in order to save ourselves.Human activity has severely degraded three quarters of all land and 40 percent of Earth's oceans, and our quickening destruction of nature is likely to have untold consequences on our health and livelihoods. The Living Planet Index, which tracks more than 4,000 specie

Last year, the world witnessed a number of animals that went near or completely extinct. This includes the Chinese paddlefish, the Sumatran rhino and the Indochinese tiger – which is extinct in the wild but a rare few are still living in captivity. Malaysia’s last Sumatran rhino named Iman died in November 2019, making the extremely endangered species locally extinct.

The Indonesian government’s plan to relocate the country’s capital from Java to Borneo has hit a wall amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with a top official saying they would “evaluate it or something” after the crisis passes.President Joko Widodo announced last August a US$33 billion project to build a new capital city in East Kalimantan province, citing worsening traffic, land subsidence, flooding and a host of other problems in Jakarta.But the government’s current focus on handling the COVID-19 o

Thousands of animals, including endangered Sumatran tigers and Bornean orangutans, are facing starvation at Indonesia's zoos as the global pandemic pushes shuttered facilities toward collapse, officials say.Some 60 cash-strapped animal parks - home to roughly 70,000 creatures - across the Southeast Asian archipelago have been closed since mid-March and most say they have only enough food until the middle of May."Most zoos relied on ticket sales so when they closed everything collaps

Diseases such as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe could become more common as human activity destroys habitats and forces disease-carrying wild animals into ever-closer proximity with us, a major study showed on Wednesday.Illegal poaching, mechanised farming and increasingly urbanised lifestyles have all led to mass biodiversity loss in recent decades, devastating populations of wild animals and increasing the abundance of domesticated livestock.Around 70 percent of human pathogens ar