MAD MALLARD mums frequently make the news. Ducks and their young turn up in the most unlikely places, causing all manner of mayhem, including traffic chaos.

HARDERWIJK is on the edge of the Veluwemeer, the long neck of the Zuiderzee, at the dead centre of the Netherlands.

Richard Collins on the quintessential Renaissance man

THE area of North County Dublin where I live used to be farmed.

IS NATURE nasty? The behaviour of baby eagles in the nest might lead you to think so. A golden eagle chick has hatched at Glenveagh National Park in County Donegal, the first Irish-born eagle in almost a hundred years.

MANY people think that zoos exist just to show off exotic animals and, indeed, educating the public is an important part of a modern zoo’s work.

A REALITY show with a difference is running on the internet.

TO THE European explorers Australia seemed an ideal location for prisons.

When a baby is born, there is a tag on its ankle with ‘best before .. etc’ stamped on it.

THE ROBINS of Sheffield have had enough. The noise of England’s fourth largest city is just too much for them and they have given up trying to compete with the din.