Irish shark experts have called on newly elected MEPs to outlaw the growing shark fin fishery in European waters, following a fine imposed on a Spanish fishing vessel detained off the Irish coast.

Discovering new species and protecting them is all in a day’s work for Professor Louise Allcock, as she explores one of the planet’s last great frontiers, writes Lorna Siggins.

With “bird numbers plummeting”, “the insect Armageddon”, and “climate catastrophe only 12 years away”, there’s doom and gloom on the wildlife front.

Fota wildlife have welcomed the birth of a baby Brazilian tapir and are seeking the help from the public to name it.

The news is a result of ongoing efforts to help re-grow the species population.

Amy Lewis Drainage, farm intensification, upland burning, land abandonment, afforestation have decimated curlews

Writing in the journal BioScience, Jeffrey Lovich of the US Geological Survey claims that 61% of the world’s turtle species are threatened with extinction.

Hunited for its meat on the steppes of Central Asia, the horse seems to have been domesticated by the Botai people of Kazakhstan five and a half millennia ago. The noble beast was revered even then; horse skulls were buried with their snouts facing the rising sun.

Crabs, the armoured personnel carriers of the creepy-crawly world, fascinate children, writes Richard Collins.

Fota Wildlife Park features as the video location for Kodaline’s latest track ‘Ready to Change’ from their new EP ‘I wouldn’t Be’.

The discovery of a bearded seal at Timoleague recently, prompts renewed interest in early records, writes Richard Collins

Warning: Cuteness overload.

IN the 1950s, new hotels sprang up along the Costa Brava, the “wild coast”. Sleepy little fishing towns became household names overnight, as hordes of package holiday-makers descended on them. The beaches still draw the crowds but visitors nowadays want more than sea and sand.

Of course there is a catch, the name has to begin with the letter, D.

Usually the cuckoo arrives early in the part of the country where I live, and leaves early too. 

Almost 160 animals died at Fota Wildlife Park in Cork in 2015, including a significant number of endangered species.

The formidable, but harmless, basking shark is one of 58 species on a new list of endangered fish in Irish waters.

A baby eastern bongo calf has been born at Dublin Zoo.

A surge in killing African elephants for ivory has led to the “majestic” animal’s numbers falling by more than 100,000 in a decade, conservationists warned.

A surge in killing African elephants for ivory has led to the "majestic" animal's numbers falling by more than 100,000 in a decade, conservationists have warned.

ON FEBRUARY 15 last year, a woman walking along a beach in the Scilly Isles spotted a large whale close to shore. 

Lions look set to be the ‘mane’ attraction in Fota Wildlife Park with the arrival of two Asian female lions in recent days.

The number of tigers in the wild have increased for the first time after decades of decline, conservationists have said.

A story of three bears, without Goldilocks, is in the news in Canada. It began last month when a female black bear began breaking into a mobile home in Port Hardy, Vancouver Island, to steal meat and fish from a freezer.

The number of animals and plants at risk of extinction rose in 2015 despite government pledges to improve protection, with species under threat ranging from lions in West Africa to orchids in Asia, a study showed.

MEMOIRS by naturalists who became enthused by some aspect of wildlife when they were children and whose enthusiasm survives a lifetime are relatively common these days. 

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.

Climate change could drive up to a sixth of animals and plants on Earth to extinction unless governments cut rising greenhouse gas emissions.

THE Twentieth Century fox moved to the city and is prospering. Now the 21st Century rabbit is following suit. 

THERE are too many cormorants on the Columbia River between Washington State and Oregon, say US federal officials. Richard Collins says there's no need for a cull.

THE YEAR of the Goat began on Thursday.

Environmentalists have warned of an ecological “catastrophe” in Bangladesh after an oil tanker sank, threatening wildlife in a Unesco World Heritage site,

Rhinos are in the news and for all the wrong reasons. Suni, a northern white rhino, was found dead at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya on October 17. 

GOATS, the first hoofed animals to be domesticated, are remarkable creatures. 

I WENT ‘cage-diving’ with great white sharks off South Africa’s Dyer Island last month. The giant fish are lured to the boat by a smelly concoction of offal and the head of a large tuna, suspended from a line in the water.

This West African black-crowned crane is keeping a beady eye on her young offspring as it takes its first few steps at Chester Zoo.

Kya deLongchamps says resilient vintage or antique rosewood retains strong appeal.