This week in birds - # 663

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:


As Earth warms, how will penguins, evolved to live in a world of snow and ice, survive? Can they adjust fast enough to meet the new conditions? These Chinstraps are among the species most affected by the changing conditions. 

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Here's the sad list of species that we lost in 2025.

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According to a new United Nations report, the world has entered an era of global water bankruptcy which has irreversible consequences.

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A plant called the black-bulb yam tricks birds into spreading its seeds by producing fake berries that are actually small clones of itself. 

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A Mayan heritage site is under threat from a logging concession that has been granted to a furniture company. 

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A 67,800-year-old stencil of a hand found on the wall of an Indonesian cave may be the world's oldest rock art.

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In 2025, researchers at the National Museum of Natural History described a previously unknown species of pterosaur that had been unearthed in the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

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Based on some baffling bone artifacts discovered by an amateur archeologist, scientists believe that humans may have been hunting whales as long as 5,000 years ago.

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A  407-million-year-old log-shaped fossil found in 1843 may represent a previously unknown branch of life.

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Monarch butterfly colonies in California and Mexico ebb and flow as they continue to disperse.

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Twin mountain gorillas have been born in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Twin births are extremely rare for gorillas.

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Five hundred years ago, a cat left its paw prints on a medieval manuscript as the ink was drying. As one who has loved and lived with cats all my life, I salute this ancient member of the tribe for leaving its mark!

 

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