The world's black rhino numbers have increased but there's bad news for others
It said that black rhino numbers went up from 6,195 to 6,788 in the latest estimates. White rhinos had declined, however, from 15,942 to 15,752 since the last count in 2021. Black and white rhinos are only found in the wild in Africa.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
5 hours ago
- CNN
Where to see the meteor showers this week
Sky-gazers may get a good chance to see fireballs streak across the night sky this week. Two meteor showers — the Alpha Capricornids and Southern Delta Aquariids — will reach their peak and another is ramping up. The Alpha Capricornids meteor shower, which is best known for producing very bright meteors called fireballs that may look like shooting stars, will be most visible at 1 a.m. ET Wednesday, according to Robert Lunsford, fireball report coordinator for the American Meteor Society. Its radiant — the point at which the meteor streaks seem to originate — is in the Capricorn constellation. The Alpha Capricornids are visible all over the world but are usually best seen from the Southern Hemisphere, in places such as Australia and Africa, according to Bill Cooke, the lead for NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office. These meteors are expected to appear at a rate of three to five per hour. If you are viewing from the Northern Hemisphere, keep your eyes low along the southern sky to catch a glimpse. If you stay up later, you'll be able to see the Southern Delta Aquariids reach peak activity at 3 a.m. ET on Wednesday, said Lunsford. The Southern Delta Aquariids, which also are most visible in the Southern Hemisphere, make for a stronger shower than the Capricornids; people located in parts of the Northern Hemisphere such as the US can expect to view up to 10 to 15 meteors per hour, while those in the Southern Hemisphere may see 20 to 25 per hour. The Aquariids appear to stream from the southern part of the Aquarius constellation, which is around 40 degrees east of the Capricorn constellation, according to Lunsford: 'They're going to kind of do a battle, shooting back and forth at each other.' Both showers will be visible through August 13, though there is some disagreement about the date on which their peaks will occur. While experts at the American Meteor Society say peak activity will occur Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, those at NASA say it will happen Wednesday night going into Thursday. 'The time of a meteor shower peak is not constant from year-to-year. It can vary by plus or minus a day or two,' Cooke said. But missing the peak, according to Lunsford, is nothing to fret about. 'It's not a real sharp peak …You can go out (on) the 31st or the 29th and see pretty much the same activity.' For the best viewing, avoid areas with bright lights and objects that could obscure your view of the sky, such as tall trees or buildings. Picking a spot with a higher altitude, like a mountain or hill, may make it easier to spot these showers. According to Cook, having multiple meteor showers occur at the same time is a common phenomenon. 'For example, during the Perseids, you have the remnants of the Southern Delta Aquariids going on,' he said. Right now, the Alpha Capricornids, the Southern Delta Aquariids and Perseids are all active and while the Perseids is not at its peak , you might still see some of its meteors this week. There's also the possibility of seeing 10 to 12 meteors that aren't associated with any of these showers, according to Lunsford. Both the Alpha Capricornids and Southern Delta Aquariids become visible annually when Earth passes through debris fields left by two Jupiter-family comets: 169P/NEAT (Alpha Capricornids) and P2008/Y12 (Southern Delta Aquariids). Cook also noted that, each year, 'we're passing closer to the core of the material that produces (the Alpha Capricornids) shower and in 200 years, it'll be the strongest shower that's visible from Earth. It'll actually produce more than 1,000 (meteor streaks) an hour, which is quite a bit stronger than it is now.' For those interested in contributing to astronomers' understanding of meteors, this week presents the perfect opportunity to count how many meteors you see in the night sky and report them to places like the American Meteor Society. Here are the other meteor showers to anticipate in 2025 and their peak dates, according to the American Meteor Society and EarthSky. Perseids: August 12-13 Draconids: October 8-9 Orionids: October 22-23 Southern Taurids: November 3-4 Northern Taurids: November 8-9 Leonids: November 16-17 Geminids: December 12-13 Ursids: December 21-22 Look out for five more full moons this year, with supermoons occurring in October, November and December. Here's the list of full moons remaining in 2025, according to the Farmers' Almanac: August 9: Sturgeon moon September 7: Corn moon October 6: Harvest moon November 5: Beaver moon December 4: Cold moon Two eclipse events will occur as summer ends. A total lunar eclipse will be visible in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, parts of eastern South America, Alaska and Antarctica on September 7 and 8, according to Time and Date. A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth passes exactly between the sun and the moon, throwing the latter into shadow and making it appear darker or dimmed. When the moon sits in the darkest part of Earth's shadow, the sun's rays bend around Earth and refract light on the moon's surface, which gives it a reddish hue, according to London's Natural History Museum. Some people call the result a 'blood moon.' Two weeks after the total lunar eclipse, a partial solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Australia, the Atlantic, the Pacific and Antarctica on September 21. Solar eclipses occur when the moon moves between the sun and Earth, blocking part of the sun's surface from view, according to NASA. This creates a crescent shape — as if something took a 'bite' out of the sun. Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Zoo Welcomes 4 Rare Lion Cubs From a Subspecies Extinct in the Wild, Sparking Reintroduction Hopes
The Barbary lion cubs were born at the Dvůr Králové Safari Park in the Czech Republic in JanuaryNEED TO KNOW Four adorable, rare Barbary lion cubs made their public debut earlier this year at a zoo in the Czech Republic, and there are fresh photos of the quartet The births are part of Dvůr Králové Safari Park's plans to eventually reintroduce the subspecies of lion, which is extinct in the wild, to its native habitat Barbary lions went extinct in the wild in the middle of the 1960s, per the Associated PressA zoo in the Czech Republic is hoping to reintroduce a rare subspecies of lion to its native habitat decades after it went extinct in the wild. On Wednesday, Aug. 6, the zoo shared new photos of its four adorable Barbary lion cubs who were born at the Dvůr Králové Safari Park in January and made their public debut in April, according to a Facebook post from the zoo. In the new images of the cubs, three females and one male, the baby big cats have fun while their parents, Khalila and Bart, watch on. Experts at the zoo hope the cubs won't spend their entire lives in the park, per the Associated Press. The cubs will be sent to other zoos and animal parks once they're older as part of an "international endangered species program that coordinates efforts for their survival in captivity," the news agency stated. One of the goals of this program is to reintroduce Barbary lions to their natural habitat eventually. Despite the mission to reintroduce the subspecies to the wild being underway, Dvůr Králové Deputy Director Jaroslav Hyjánek insisted the goal likely won't happen until the "far distant future," per the AP. There have been talks about whether it would be possible to reintroduce the lions —a subspecies thought to have gone extinct in the wild in the mid-1960s — in an area such as Morocco's Atlas Mountains. Hyjánek told the AP that Moroccan authorities hadn't rejected the idea, but the park acknowledged that it was an "ambitious project" in a Facebook post on Wednesday. A conference of experts is expected to discuss the plans later this year or in early 2026, the AP noted, adding that a reintroduction "would face numerous bureaucratic and other obstacles" because the lion has not been in the wild for so long. Barbary lions' natural habitat used to be in northern Africa, including the Atlas Mountains, but the last known photo of wild lions in the area was taken in 1925, the AP stated. The last documented wild Barbary lion kill was in 1942. It's thought that small populations of the lions survived in the wild until approximately 20 years later. Less than 200 are now estimated to live in captivity, per the news agency. Human activities played a huge part in the lion subspecies' decline, the AP reported, adding that many of the lions were killed by gladiators in Roman times. Overhunting and a loss of habitat also contributed to their extinction. Hyjánek said he is hopeful for the Barbary lion's future, "It's important to have such a vision for any animal," per the news agency, adding, "Without it, the existence of zoos wouldn't make sense." This isn't the first time Barbary cubs have been introduced to the pack at Dvůr Králové Safari Park, with two being born in May 2019, three in July 2020, and two in July 2021; all to mom Khalila. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The zoo previously confirmed Khalila was one of two Barbary lionesses to have arrived at the park back in 2018. The facility wrote at the time, "Barbary lions are an extinct subspecies in the wild. They used to inhabit areas of North Africa. Nowadays, people can only find them in zoos. In the future, Safari Park Dvůr Králové would like to breed these rare beasts." Read the original article on People
Washington Post
a day ago
- Washington Post
The world's black rhino numbers have increased but there's bad news for others
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The number of critically endangered black rhinos has increased slightly, but there is bad news for other rhino species, according to a global count released Thursday by the International Rhino Foundation. It said that black rhino numbers went up from 6,195 to 6,788 in the latest estimates. White rhinos had declined, however, from 15,942 to 15,752 since the last count in 2021. Black and white rhinos are only found in the wild in Africa.
