BARDIA NATIONAL PARK, Nepal: Chayan Kumar Chaudhary flicked through photographs captured on a hidden camera in the jungle, hoping his favorite big cat — dubbed “selfie tiger” for its love of the limelight — had made another appearance.
Thousands of camera traps have helped conservationists track Nepal’s wild tiger population, which has nearly doubled in recent years as the big cats claw their way back from the verge of extinction.
After a nine-year push to protect tigers, an exhaustive census across 2,700 kilometers (1,700 miles) of Nepal’s lowlands completed earlier this year revealed the population has grown from 121 in 2009 to an estimated 235 adult cats today.
On the frontline of the painstaking survey were trained locals like Chaudhary in western Nepal’s Bardia National Park where tiger numbers have grown nearly fivefold.
The 25-year-old helped track and record wild tiger movements through the park by scanning images taken by cameras hidden in the jungle’s undergrowth.
“It was very exciting when we checked the (memory) cards and found photos of tigers,” Chaudhary said.
“It felt like we are part of something big.”
Nepal’s southern lowlands, home to five national parks, were mapped into grids, each fitted with a pair of camera traps to record any tiger activity.
More than 3,200 of these special camera traps were installed, some by field workers on elephants to navigate the dense jungle.
“It was not an easy process and risky as well,” said Man Bahadur Khadka, head of Nepal’s department of wildlife and national parks.
These cameras were equipped with sensors that triggered a click whenever any movement or a change in temperature was detected.
Soon the photos started to trickle in: lone tigers walking past, mothers with their playful cubs and the occasional tiger feasting on a fresh kill. And Chaudhary’s favorite: a big cat that seemed to enjoy preening in front of the lens.
The census began in November 2017 and by the following March, more than 4,000 images of tigers had been collected.
“We then began analyzing the photos,” Khadka said. “Just like our fingerprints, tigers have unique stripes. No two tigers are alike.”
Conservationists say that behind Nepal’s success was a strategy to turn tiger-fearing villagers — who could earn thousands of dollars for poaching a big cat — into the animal’s protectors.
A century ago, Nepal’s lush jungles were a playground for the country’s rulers and visiting British dignitaries who came to hunt the Royal Bengal tiger.
In 1900, more than 100,000 tigers were estimated to roam the planet. But that fell to a record low of 3,200 globally in 2010.
Nepal’s tiger numbers hit rock bottom following the decade-long civil war, which ended in 2006, when poachers ran amok across the southern plains.
In 2009, the government changed tack, enlisting community groups to protect the animals. Hundreds of young volunteers were recruited to guard Nepal’s national parks, patrolling against poachers, raising awareness and protecting the natural habitat.
“Tigers are our wealth, we have to protect them,” said Sanju Pariyar, 22, who was just a teen when she joined an anti-poaching group.
“People understand that if our tiger and rhino numbers grow, tourists will come and bring opportunities. It is good for us.”
Armed with a stick, Pariyar regularly goes out on patrol to search for traps laid by poachers.
The locals have also become informants, alerting park officials if they see anything, or anyone, suspicious.
Nepal has tough punishments for poachers — up to 15 years in jail and a heavy fine — and it has recently started a genetic database of its tigers to aid investigations.
In March, police arrested a poacher who had been on the run for five years after being caught with five tiger pelts and 114 kilos of bones.
The contraband was believed to have been destined for China, a top market for wildlife smugglers, where rare animal parts are used in traditional medicine.
In 2010, Nepal and 12 other countries with tiger populations signed an agreement to double their big cat numbers by 2022. The Himalayan nation is set to be the first to achieve this target.
“If a country like Nepal — small, least developed, with lots of challenges — can do it, the others can do it,” said Nepal’s WWF representative, Ghana Gurung.
But conservationists are aware that rising tiger numbers are also good news for poachers and the lucrative black market they supply with endangered animal parts.
Tiger poaching is difficult to track because unlike with rhinos, nothing of the cat is left behind after it is killed.
“It is now more important than ever to stay vigilant,” said national park warden Ashok Bhandari.
Crouching tigers, hidden cameras: Nepal counts its big cats
Crouching tigers, hidden cameras: Nepal counts its big cats
- Thousands of camera traps have helped conservationists track Nepal’s wild tiger population
- Nepal’s tiger numbers hit rock bottom following the decade-long civil war, which ended in 2006
Swedish club not skirting around shorts issue as they back Irish camogie players
- The Irish sport hit the headlines this week for all the wrong reasons with players
- Camogie is the female version of hurling, a ball sport played with wooden sticks
STOCKHOLM: Camogie players in Sweden have turned the clock back by wearing a kit from a bygone age in a show of solidarity with colleagues in Ireland currently protesting for the right to wear shorts.
The Irish sport hit the headlines this week for all the wrong reasons with players, tired of a rule outlawing the wearing of shorts, ramping up protests, ultimately leading to the late postponement of Saturday’s Munster final.
Camogie is the female version of hurling, a ball sport played with wooden sticks, often likened to a mix between lacrosse and hockey, with a little rugby thrown in because of its physicality.
Wherever you go in the world, from Uganda to Vietnam, you are likely to find people playing Ireland’s national sports. Sweden is no different, and Irishwoman Michelle Cotter set up the hurling and camogie teams at Stockholm Gaels.
“The goal was to do something over here to show the players back home that their impact is reaching much further than the island of Ireland,” Cotter told Reuters.
The Camogie Association of Ireland’s rules state that playing gear must include skirt, skort or divided skirt, but a recent survey showed that 83 percent of players want the choice to include shorts.
The Stockholm club, which includes not only Irish players and local Swedes but women from Australia, Austria, the US, Britain, France and Spain, took things back to even before the days of skorts, when players wore skirts down to their ankles.
The first set of camogie rules, drawn up in 1903, stated skirts should be worn no more than six inches from the ground and, while things have improved, two motions to introduce shorts were defeated at last year’s Camogie Association congress.
“Given none of us even own skorts, we togged out for training in skirts and dresses,” Cotter, who also coaches and plays on the team, said. “It felt every bit as ridiculous as it looked.”
There is still hope for change following all the media attention and controversy of the past week, after the association agreed to hold a special congress on May 22 to vote again on a motion to allow the wearing of shorts.
Liam and Olivia dominate — again — with top baby names in the US for a sixth year in a row
- ‘A trend we’re tracking is that Americans are more likely to choose heritage choices’
WASHINGTON: Liam and Olivia dominate. Still.
The two names have, for a sixth year together, topped the list of names for babies born in the US in 2024.
The Social Security Administration annually tracks the names given to girls and boys in each state, with names dating back to 1880. In time for Mother’s Day, the agency on Friday released the most popular names from applications for Social Security cards.
Liam has reigned for eight years in a row for boys, while Olivia has topped the girls’ list for six. Also, for the sixth consecutive year, Emma took the second slot for girls, and Noah for boys.
The girls’ name Luna slipped out of the Top 10 and was replaced by Sofia, which enters at number 10 for the first time.
After Liam, the most common names for boys are, in order: Noah, Oliver, Theodore, James, Henry, Mateo, Elijah, Lucas and William.
After Olivia, the most common names for girls are Emma, Amelia, Charlotte, Mia, Sophia, Isabella, Evelyn, Ava and Sofia.
Sophie Kihm, editor-in-chief of nameberry, a baby naming website, said the latest data showcases how American parents are increasingly choosing names that have cross-cultural appeal. Kihm’s first name shows up in two variations on the annual list.
“A trend we’re tracking is that Americans are more likely to choose heritage choices,” Kihm said, including names that work “no matter where you are in the world.”
”More families in the US come from mixed cultural backgrounds and I hear parents commonly request that they want their child to travel and have a relatively easy to understand name.”
The Social Security Administration’s latest data show that 3.61 million babies were born in the US in 2024. That’s a slight increase from last year’s 3.59 million babies, representing an overall increase in the American birthrate.
Social media stars and popular television shows are having some impact on the rising popularity of certain names, Social Security says.
Among those rising in popularity for girls: Ailany, a Hawaiian name that means “chief,” topped the list. The boys’ name Truce, an Old English name meaning “peace,” rose 11,118 spots from last year’s position to rank 991.
The complete, searchable list of baby names is on the Social Security website.
Sweden’s new national security adviser quits over dating site images
- Thyberg said that he had failed to disclose the existence of the images
- “I should have informed about this, but I did not,” he said
OSLO: Sweden’s new national security adviser abruptly resigned on Friday, just one day after his appointment, amid criticism from the prime minister that he failed to disclose information regarding images published years ago on a dating website.
Tobias Thyberg, a foreign service veteran who in previous roles served as ambassador to both Ukraine and Afghanistan, had omitted the information during security background checks, the government said.
The resignation comes just months after Thyberg’s predecessor in the high-profile job stepped down and was charged with negligent handling of classified information.
Thyberg did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on Friday.
But in a statement to daily Dagens Nyheter, Thyberg said that he had failed to disclose the existence of the images.
“These are old pictures from an account I previously had on the dating site Grindr. I should have informed about this, but I did not,” he said, according to DN.
Reuters could not independently verify information about the content of the images.
Background checks for sensitive government jobs typically require the disclosure of any information that could potentially make someone vulnerable to blackmail.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the information should have come to light a long time ago.
“It is a systemic failure that this kind of information has not been brought forward,” Kristersson told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Norway.
Thyberg had been due to travel to Oslo on Friday with the prime minister for a meeting of northern European leaders, but the adviser’s participation was canceled.
Two men found guilty of chopping down iconic UK tree
- The tree at Sycamore Gap had stood for nearly 200 years next to Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern England
- The tree was so striking it featured in the 1991 Hollywood film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves“
LONDON: An English court found two men guilty on Friday of the “deliberate and mindless” felling of one of the UK’s most iconic trees, an incident that sparked national outrage.
A jury at Newcastle Crown Court found former friends Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, guilty of criminal damage for the 2023 felling of the tree at Sycamore Gap.
It had stood for nearly 200 years next to Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern England. The tree was so striking it featured in the 1991 Hollywood film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”
They were convicted after around five hours of deliberation on two counts of criminal damage: to the sycamore and to the Roman wall, which was damaged when the tree fell on it.
Reacting to the verdict, the National Trust conservation body said the “needless felling” of the tree had “shocked people around the country and overseas, demonstrating the powerful connection between people and our natural heritage.
“It was felt particularly deeply here in the north east of England where the tree was an emblem of the region and the backdrop to many personal memories,” said a spokesperson.
Prosecutors had told the court that the two men used a chainsaw to cut down the tree. It was, they said, “an act of deliberate and mindless criminal damage,” which they filmed on Graham’s phone and shared with others.
Speaking after the conviction, Northumbria Police’s Kevin Waring said: “We often hear references made to mindless acts of vandalism, but that term has never been more relevant than today.
“At no point have the two men given an explanation for why they targeted the tree — and there never could be a justifiable one,” he added.
Graham has “been in custody for his own protection after an episode in December,” his lawyer Chris Knox told court on Friday.
The pair drove to the site near Hexham in Graham’s Range Rover and felled the tree on the night of September 27, 2023, slicing through the trunk in “a matter of minutes,” said prosecutor Richard Wright.
“Having completed their moronic mission, the pair got back into the Range Rover and traveled back toward Carlisle” where they lived, he added.
A video of the act recovered from Graham’s phone was shared by the two men with “the unmistakable sound of a chainsaw, and a tree falling,” said Wright.
The next day, in a voice message from Graham to Carruthers, Graham said “it’s gone viral. It is worldwide. It will be on ITV news tonight,” he added.
“They are loving it, they’re revelling in it. This is the reaction of the people that did it. They still think it’s funny, or clever, or big,” said the prosecutor.
Gale Gilchrist, from the Crown Prosecution Service North, said that “in just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers ended its (the tree’s) historic legacy in a deliberate and mindless act of destruction.
“We hope our community can take some measure of comfort in seeing those responsible convicted today,” she added.
The pair were jointly charged with causing £622,191 ($832, 821) of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, an ancient Roman fortification stretching from northwest to northeast England.
The two men have been remanded in custody — Carruthers for his own protection. They will be sentenced on July 15.
The sycamore was a symbol of northeast England and a key attraction photographed by millions of visitors over the years, winning the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year in 2016.
Efforts are under way to see if it can be regrown from its stump or seeds.
The National Trust, which owns the wall and the tree, said it has grown 49 saplings from the sycamore’s seeds, which will be planted this winter at sites across the UK.
Rare New Zealand snail is filmed for the first time laying an egg from its neck
- The habits of the threatened Powelliphanta augusta snail were once shrouded in mystery
- The video was taken at a facility on the South Island’s West Coast
WELLINGTON: The strange reproductive habits of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail were once shrouded in mystery. Now footage of the snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured for the first time, the country’s conservation agency said Wednesday.
What looks like a tiny hen’s egg is seen emerging from an opening below the head of the Powelliphanta augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand.
The video was taken at a facility on the South Island’s West Coast, where conservation rangers attempting to save the species from extinction have cared for a population of the snails in chilled containers for nearly two decades.
The conditions in the containers mimic the alpine weather in their only former habitat — a remote mountain they were named for, on the West Coast of the South Island, that has been engulfed by mining.
Observing their habits
Lisa Flanagan from the Department of Conservation, who has worked with the creatures for 12 years, said the species still holds surprises.
“It’s remarkable that in all the time we’ve spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we’ve seen one lay an egg,” she said in a statement.
Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites, which explains how the creatures can reproduce when encased in a hard shell. The invertebrate uses a genital pore on the right side of its body, just below the head, to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg.
A long but slow reproductive life
Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which it lays about five eggs a year. The egg can take more than a year to hatch.
“Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old,” said Flanagan. “They’re polar opposites to the pest garden snail we introduced to New Zealand, which is like a weed, with thousands of offspring each year and a short life.”
The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings where they are threatened by habitat loss.
They are carnivores that slurp up earthworms like noodles, and are some of the world’s largest snails , with oversized, distinctive shells in a range of rich earth colors and swirling patterns.
A political storm
The Powelliphanta augusta was the center of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when an energy company’s plans to mine for coal threatened to destroy the snails’ habitat.
Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn’t adapt well to new habitats.
In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control.
But the species’ slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said.
