Farm Antics
Beekeeping is illegal in many cities around the world. A ban was lifted in New York City only two years ago.
No bees is good news for the sting-fearing and potentially allergic public.
Now, Maastricht in the Netherlands may have come up with the solution — beehives on an adjustable stand that beekeepers crank up to the top of a pole nearly 20ft tall.
A local co-op between beekeepers and designers have pioneered the Sky Hive, in the centrally located Sphinxpark.
With more bees, city-dwellers would have an easier time getting flowers, fruits, and vegetables to thrive on their balconies and window-sills.
Even in cities, bees can make an impressive amount of honey. A Toronto beekeeper’s 14th floor apiary generated more than 272kg of honey last year.
Madagascar’s lemurs have been identified as probably the most endangered group of vertebrates on Earth.
Some 91% of the island’s 103 known lemur species are threatened, conservationists said. Compared to the previous assessment in 2005, species considered “critically endangered” have gone from 10% to 23%; “endangered” from 21% to 52%; and “vulnerable” from 17% to 19%.
Lemurs live in the wild only on Madagascar; their ancestors likely rafted to the island on clumps of vegetation and trees over 60m years ago.
Scientists attribute their worsening endangered status to destruction of their tropical forest home on Madagascar, where political turmoil has increased poverty and accelerated illegal logging. Hunting has also emerged as an increasing threat.
These divers reach the ocean floor 45m below the surface in 40 seconds.
No. it’s not the Olympics; it’s daily life for an imperial cormorant in Punta León, a protected coastal area in Argentine Patagonia.
A small camera attached to the back of South American seabird allowed scientists to directly watch its deep-diving feeding techniques for the first time.
The video footage shows the bird underwater with its head bobbing as it pumps its wings to swim deeper, and begin searching for food, catching a small snake-like fish and returning to the surface within 80 seconds.
