Environment

• Friday, February 20th 2015 - 16:53 UTC

  Gobbling penguins can taste only sour and salty food, reveals study

  

  Penguins can taste only sour and salty food, scientists have discovered. A genetic study suggests the flightless birds lost three of the five basic tastes long ago in evolution. Taste is critical for survival in most animals, but may not matter in the penguin, which swallows fish whole, say researchers in China and the US.

• Friday, February 20th 2015 - 04:27 UTC

  Bitter frigid air causes record breaking temperatures in East US and Canada

  

  Bitterly cold air from Siberia has brought dangerously frigid and likely record-setting temperatures to the eastern half of the US. Temperatures are 20 to 40 degrees F below normal for February from the Mid-Atlantic to the South.

• Thursday, February 19th 2015 - 05:30 UTC

  Ascension and South Sandwich islands proposed for marine protected areas

  

  Ahead of the May 7 British general election, a coalition of conservationists and high-profile supporters has called upon the UK government to create three marine reserves that together would more than double the world’s protected waters, reports Inhabitat.

• Thursday, February 19th 2015 - 00:01 UTC

  China celebrates 30 years of first research station in Antarctica

  

  China is preparing to mark 30 years of polar expeditions, when on 20 February 1985 opened its first permanent research station in Antarctica, The Great Wall on King George Island. Since then China has continued to advance and is now planning the fifth permanent station.

• Monday, February 16th 2015 - 09:06 UTC

  Researchers propose high seas fishing ban and concentrate on coastal catches

  

  Closing the high seas to commercial fishing could distribute fisheries income more equitably among the world's maritime nations, according to research from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

• Monday, February 16th 2015 - 08:17 UTC

  Desperate struggle in New Zealand to save tens of stranded pilot whales

  

  About 140 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a remote stretch of New Zealand beach have died, but conservation workers and volunteers are hoping the remaining 60 or so will survive after they managed to get them refloated, an official said over the weekend.

• Friday, February 13th 2015 - 09:32 UTC

  Falklands image in National Geographic Traveller photo competition

  

  National Geographic Traveller (UK) has confirmed the finalists of its fourth Photography Competition 2015 which in the Animal category includes an image of penguins at Bleaker Island in the Falklands.

• Sunday, February 1st 2015 - 21:52 UTC

  First tranche of Chinese loan to build dams in Argentine Patagonia; CFK en route to Beijing

  

  The construction of the Nestor Kirchner and Jorge Cepernic dams in Santa Cruz, Patagonia is finally set to begin now that China has deposited the first 287.7 million dollars tranche of funding for the massive 4.71 billion project, Argentine President Cristina Fernández announced before leaving for a state visit to China.

• Thursday, January 29th 2015 - 19:38 UTC

  Funds for South Georgia habitat restoration program; third phase begins February

  

  The South Georgia Heritage Trust (SGHT) has been awarded a quarter of a million pounds towards the final phase of the Habitat Restoration, or rodent eradication Project, reports South Georgia's Newsletter. The third phase of the several years program is scheduled to begin in February.

• Thursday, January 29th 2015 - 08:33 UTC

  Looking for Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems in the south east Atlantic

  

  Researchers from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) and the University of Vigo, belonging to the science team EcoAfrik project, are participating in an offshore oceanographic campaign, off the coast of South Africa and Namibia, looking for Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems that require protection.