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Google aims to bring Street View imaging to Galapagos Islands
Google wants to make it easier for you to virtually visit one of the world’s most famous remote animal-watching destinations, and the place that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
On Thursday, the Silicon Valley search engine giant announced it recently sent its Street View Trekker backpack camera system to the Galápagos Islands to capture panoramic images of the region’s sulfur mines, lava tunnels, lush forests and wondrous waters as well as the inimitable wildlife that calls this UNESCO World Heritage Site home.
The photos, which were snapped between May 6 and 17, will be available on Google Maps later this year.
Google Earth Outreach has collaborated with the Charles Darwin Foundation, a non-profit organization located in Galápagos off the coast of Ecuador in South America, whose mission is to preserve the region’s enchanting landscapes and species. (Google)
Majestic shot of a volcano at night — Lava spurts out from the Tungurahua volcano in Pelileo, Ecuador, on May 8, 2013. (CARLOS CAMPANA/AFP/Getty Images)
How a team of conservationists poisoned a pond full of black-market fish to save a threatened salamander population
Chris Firth-Eagland, head of the Hamilton Conservation Authority, was alone on a midnight walk near an inauspicious pond in a protected oasis when he stumbled upon a group of men with spotlights, fishing nets and enormous plastic bags, caught in the act of harvesting carp from the water.
It was, he realized instantly, the solution to a distressing mystery: how the sensitive, protected, public pond and another one nearby – two of the few remaining homes for an endangered species of salamander – had become so infested with invasive carp that the rare amphibians had all but disappeared, especially since the pond had no connection to any stream.
To Mr. Firth-Eagland, it was now clear: someone was stocking the pond as a black market breeding pool in a commercial fishing operation, with the koi carp likely being sold either as ornamental fish stock or as food to restaurants.
Outraged, he confronted the men, chasing them off into the night with his walking stick.
Discovering the source of the conservation disaster was the easy part. Trying to bring the Jefferson salamanders back to two of its few remaining homes required more ingenuity. It led the conservation authority to break its own rules; it poisoned both ponds. (Wikimedia Commons)
‘Spectacular’ 1,000 kilometre-long crack rips across ice in Canada’s Beaufort Sea
The ice in Canada’s western Arctic ripped open in a massive “fracturing event” this spring that spread like a wave across 1,000 kilometres of the Beaufort Sea.
Huge leads of water – some more than 500 kilometres long and as much as 70 kilometres across – opened up from Alaska to Canada’s Arctic islands as the massive ice sheet cracked as it was pushed around by strong winds and currents.
“It took just seven days for the fractures to progress across the entire area from west to east,” said Trudy Wohlleben, senior ice forecaster at the Canadian Ice Service.
She said it was “spectacular” to watch from Ottawa, where she and her colleagues track the ice with satellites. (NASA)
Photos: Swan song in Belarus’s frozen utopia
Two swans swim on the Usiazha River near the Belarus village of Usiazha, some 55 km north of Minsk on February 26, 2013. (VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images)
Giant squid filmed in its deep-sea hunting grounds for first time ever
For the first time ever, a research team has filmed a live, full-grown giant squid in its natural habitat more than half a kilometre under the Pacific Ocean.
The squid was spotted at a depth of 630 metres about 1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo during a joint expedition last summer by Japanese public broadcaster NHK, Discovery Channel and Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science. (NHK/NEP/Discovery Channel/The Associated Press)
Gleeful cameraman films terrifying encounter with thousand-kilogram polar bear
As a thousand-kilogram female polar bear padded toward him, BBC cameraman Gordon Buchanan focused a lens on his own face and began speaking.
“She’s enormous,” Buchanan said from inside a bear-proof Perspex box he used to get close to polar bears for a network documentary.
“Really, it’s why I’ve come here – to see these animals, to get to understand them, to see them up close,” Buchanan said.
Tourists flock to Algonquin Park to take in the spectacular fall colours
Algonquin Park, the cathedral of autumn colour, attracts thousands of tourists this time of year. (Photos: Darren Calabrese/Nationa Post)
Magnificent Aurora Borealis adorns starry sky in Quebec
On October 8 great geo-magnetic storm swept the earth. In this 52-minute long exposure taken from Lake-St-Charles, near Quebec City, photographer Francis Audet captured the long star trail, showing the Earth rotation as well as the Aurora Borealis.
Radiation from Japan nuclear disaster results in mutant butterflies
Radiation that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant following last year’s tsunami caused mutations in some butterflies – including dented eyes and stunted wings – though humans seem relatively unaffected, researchers say.
The mutations are the first evidence that the radiation has caused genetic changes in living organisms. They are likely to add to concerns about potential health risks among humans though there is no evidence of it yet. Scientists say more study is needed to link human health with the Fukushima disaster.
(Photo: AP Photo/Chiyo Nohara of University of the Ryukyus)
Biggest ever Burmese python caught in Florida Everglades (and it was pregnant with record 87 eggs)
The biggest Burmese python ever caught in Florida — 17 feet, 7 inches (5.18 metres) long and 164 1/2 pounds (74.4 kilograms) — was found in Everglades National Park, the University of Florida announced Monday.
The snake was pregnant with 87 eggs, also said to be a record. Scientists said the python’s stats show just how pervasive the invasive snakes, which are native to Southeast Asia, have become in South Florida.
REUTERS/Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History at University of Florida
Frankenfish: terrorizing the people of B.C.
In Burnaby’s city’s Central Park, beneath the surface of a murky pond, the creature lurks. A northern snakehead, a voracious, predatory fish not native to these parts, nor welcome. Acting like it owns the place. Municipal and provincial authorities want it gone, lest it cause some real harm, but it’s a crafty, elusive beast. Ugly, too. It is fairly dubbed “the Frankenfish.” (Photo: Reuters)
Photos of skylines around the world lit up by the ‘super moon’
A “super moon” lit up Saturday’s night sky in a once-a-year cosmic show, overshadowing a meteor shower from remnants of Halley’s Comet.
The moon seemed especially big and bright since it reached its closest spot to Earth at the same time it is in its full phase, NASA said.
The moon “is a ‘super moon,’ as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full Moons of 2012,” it said in a statement.
The best-kept secret tree house in Whistler
Joel Allen’s decision to learn a trade was the best move of his life, he says. It led him to Whistler, where he’s built a spectacular fort whose precise location is top secret unless you’re among the lucky few to find it.
The global jellyfish population is soaring, and it’s bad news for just about everyone
Warning, beach bums and fishermen: Jellyfish populations the world over are exploding, according to five University of British Columbia scientists in a report published this month in the journal Hydrobiologia. More jellyfish are coming and that’s cause for alarm.
Nice to watch at a distance, perhaps, but the undulating, translucent creatures are notorious for their stings, which can be lethal. Countless ocean-side holidays have been ruined thanks to unwelcome encounters with nettlesome jellyfish clusters, or blooms
