#Ocean Does anyone think our commercial fishing practices are sustainable? Fundamental change is inevitable, and like the cop says, we can do it the easy or hard way. It can start now, phased in sensibly, or a bit later, by catastrophic collapse. Our stark choice.

#Ocean What have we done? A whale-watching company in Ireland has closed down permanently because huge trawlers have left nothing but "an empty, lifeless sea." All the dolphins and humpback, minke & fin whales have disappeared, leaving nothing left to watch. Source in 🧵

#Tigers Twenty years of unimaginable hell. Mental & physical torture in her concrete prison on a tiger farm in Thailand. Abused as a breeding machine to provide cubs for tiger tourism & illegal trade in tiger body parts. This is where those tiger cubs tourists delight in petting come from.

#Asia This is a tragic image from Facebook advertising this binturong for sale as a 'pet' They are long-lived wild animals, completely unsuitable as pets, as our homes are not a forest, nor are we nocturnal, & imprisonment, deprivation of mate & family is cruel & decimating numbers in wild. 🧵1/4

#Pangolins Chinese pangolins facilitate ecological restoration in burned forest sites. They are ecosystem engineers: a year after forest fire, birds, animals & plants had all benefited significantly from pangolin activity. We're wiping out those who can help save us. Research paper in 🧵

#Antarctica Gentoo penguin chicks getting by with help from their friends. Whilst the parents go out to sea to catch food, they survive by huddling together for warmth and protection from predators.

#Vietnam Delacour's langur: gentle leaf and flower eaters, who regenerate forests by spreading seeds. Critically endangered, only~200 left in the wild. Hunted to brink of extinction for traditional medicine and their habitat destroyed by deforestation and limestone quarrying for cement.

What American tourists don't see on safari - the unimaginable squalor of bushmeat & risk of zoonotic disease. So much talk of national security, but global disease threatens us all - and this U.S. administration is putting everyone in danger. This excellent thread explains why:🧵

#Climate An albatross chick lies dying in wet mud on Bird Island. The tall nest was specially constructed to protect them, but we’ve warmed the world. Winds are now stronger, so the chicks are blown out of their nests. A bird who lives on the wind is now dying by the wind.

#Birds I'm seeing terrible advice all over sm about giving dryer lint to wild birds as nesting material. DON'T do this. It spreads microplastics into the environment, and is harmful to birds. Here's advice from Audubon: Please tell your friends. www.audubon.org/news/what-ne...

#StormÉowyn We can take refuge from extreme weather in our homes, but most wildlife suffers the full force. Seabirds are particularly vulnerable; puffins die in their thousands in powerful storms. A warming world is littered with their battered bodies.

#Wildlilfe A property developer near Dublin, Ireland buried alive a family of badgers in their sett. Many tons of clay and large tree trunks were piled on top of their home, leaving them no chance of escape. He appealed his conviction and walked free. 🧵1/

#Brazil A Giant armadillo showing her superb excavating tools. >150 burrows dug each year provide homes & refuge for an astonishing 80 recorded species. Hunted for meat & claws, with shrinking habitat, they are increasingly rare. Their loss to the ecosystem and biodiversity would be incalculable.

#Wildlife A maned wolf drowned in a new soybean irrigation canal in Brazil. Three generations of the family were later found also drowned. Extensive scratch marks were seen where they’d frantically tried to escape, but the slippery plastic canal liner made it impossible.

#Amazon An excellent article by Jonathan Watts @jonathan-watts.bsky.social on the threat to the Soy Moratorium which helps protect the Amazon from new deforestation for soy plantations. In my🧵there's a short documentary explaining more about the moratorium. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

#Biodiversity #Extinction On the left: the problem. On the right: the solution. When a species is wiped out, they won't care; we are the losers, and we need to start cherishing and protecting our fellow inhabitants of this planet as a priority, not an afterthought. Money won't bring them back.

#Wildlife A maned wolf drowned in a new soybean irrigation canal in Brazil. Three generations of the family were later found also drowned. Extensive scratch marks were seen where they’d frantically tried to escape, but the slippery plastic canal liner made it impossible.

#Brazil #Ocean Millions of seahorses are not the only casualties of shrimp trawlers; here is another tragic victim: The Groovebelly Stingray (Dasyatis hypostigma). A fascinating species, numbers have plummeted ~ 80% in the past 30 yrs. Industrial bottom trawling is ravaging marine ecosystems.

#Rio My team & I are back in Brazil, where the highly-threatened Franciscana dolphins struggle to survive. Every year thousands die in gillnets, and orphaned newborns need round-the-clock care. 🧵1/

#Rhino Poachers gunned down 20 dehorned rhinos for their residual stump last month. Two men were shot dead. Dehorning has reduced rhino deaths, but this evil trade, driven by wealthy buyers in Vietnam & China, will not end until the last rhino dies. dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024...

#Birds There used to be millions—now African penguins are on the brink of extinction—and it's all our fault. They could be gone in less than 4,000 days. In this link there's a petition to sign to protect their food sources effectively (takes 5 seconds): birdlife.org/news/2024/11...

#HabitatDestruction A young sloth bear torn by barbed wire, a snare gripping his left forelimb. We are making life impossible for wildlife. We act as if we only need livestock for our survival. Species are not passively being lost; we are actively exterminating them.

#ClimateCrisis As the Arctic warms, many polar bears have been found with bleeding ulcerative lesions on feet & loss of epidermal & dermal layers unlikely to heal without prolonged rest. Pain was so severe that gentle palpation elicited responses even under sedation. 🧵1/2

#nature A red squirrel's drey. The Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) often builds their nest in the fork of a tree like this. They don't hibernate, although they may sleep through the very worst weather and juveniles are lucky to survive their first winter.

#Penguins Each African penguin has a unique pattern of black dots within their ventral feathers which remains unchanged throughout their life. A study shows the dots help them identify their mates, and they help us to monitor individuals using AI. sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#ClimateCrisis As the Arctic warms, many polar bears have been found with bleeding ulcerative lesions on feet & loss of epidermal & dermal layers unlikely to heal without prolonged rest. Pain was so severe that gentle palpation elicited responses even under sedation. 🧵1/2