European WILDLIFE

Illegal wood logging poses an increasingly big problem in the countries of South-Eastern Europe. In Bulgaria, Albania or in the countries of former Yugoslavia there often disappear the whole forests because of that. Owing to a growing price of electricity, which is often used for heating in this region, and stagnating salaries is wood actually more often used for burning. Server EurActiv has brought that fact into focus.

Wood is logged illegally by individuals and …

Dangerous diseases from the tropics can threaten Europeans because of global warming. It is because higher temperatures lead to the spreading of Tiger mosquito, which, for example, spreads dengue fever or chikungunya disease to the more northern European areas. The scientists in magazine Interface of the Royal Society have warned against it.

Tiger mosquito originates from Asia but in the last decades it has widely spread to other warm, but not tropical areas in the …

The glaciers in the Austrian Alps  reduced by 17 metres in average last year. None of 95 glaciers being measured by the Austrian Alpine Club did not get bigger. The volunteers of this organisation found a loss at 97 per cent of them. The above-average temperatures of last summer contributed to it.

Fifteen glaciers, double amount compared to the year 2010, have got smaller by more than 30 metres, some of them even by 50 …

About two tens of new species have been discovered in Central Europe. Josef Rusek, a scientist, from the Czech Academy of Sciences has discovered fifteen to twenty new species of insects in the Sumava mountains. Their exact number will be determined by a subsequent detailed scientific description.

“We are used to hear similar news from Amazonia or from the tropical rainforests of South-East Asia. The latest discovery shows that also in Europe there is still …

Several animal species which have become extinct in the past such as wisents, wild cats and wild bees are going to return to nature of Central Europe. Their comeback is a part of a forthcoming project of European Centre of Biodiversity which is being prepared by European Wildife conservation organization.

“Some of those species were exterminated decades ago, some of them centuries ago. They all have one thing in common – they are all extremely …