COMMUNAL living has its advantages; pooling resources benefits everybody.

Everybody hates the humble rat but, according to researchers in Japan, this much maligned creature has a Good Samaritan side. 

Wind farms out a sea are probably less harmful to wildlife than land-based ones.

The traffic congestion of Celtic Tiger days is back. During that misguided era, we commandeered huge swathes of countryside and obliterated ancient sites to make way for cars.

THERE’S a ‘bring back the lynx’ lobby in Britain. Deer numbers in parts of England and Scotland have risen so much that their habitat is being seriously degraded. Excessive grazing is threatening native flora and there’s a new kid on the block; over 40,000 alien muntjac deer are destroying farmers’ crops.

CUCKOOS are arriving from Africa. Pity the poor meadow pipits they will dupe; their clutches destroyed, they will work themselves to the bone raising the enemy’s chicks.

FISH and birds of Irish coastal waters seem to be moving house, writes Richard Collins.

Spring is late this year but at last the magnolias are staging their pink and white displays; the flowers of some species reach a third of metre in diameter.

Around 2% of Irish mute swans die in fights. As spring approaches, mature males, known as ‘cobs’, stake out ‘territories’ on ponds, lakes and rivers. Each one keeps rivals at bay so that his ‘pen’, and their cygnets, will have the resources to see them through to autumn.

BATLIFE Europe has chosen Nathusius’ pipistrelle as ‘Bat of the Year’ for 2015, writes Richard Collins.