Animals

This England: Getting it in the neck

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain –…

Charles Burrell and Isabella Tree on the rewilding wars

The married aristocrats have created a haven on their 3,500-acre Knepp estate – but find themselves at the centre of…

This England: Pet hates

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain –…

Why “franken-chicken” shouldn’t be on the menu for the coronation

A court case has demanded an end to the breeding of fast-growing chickens – and the damage it causes the…

Consider the noble octopus

The Canary Islands will soon host the world’s first industrial octopus farm. But there is no humane way to slaughter…

The eradication of species

Biodiversity is not just an asset from which humans gain. We have complex social relations with all non-human life.

George McGavin Q&A: “All species live on the knife-edge of survival”

The entomologist on lush prehistoric forests and inescapable doom.

The Year of the Cat: feline fellowship and the meaning of life

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s memoir of adopting a kitten doubles as a study of anxiety, parenthood and purpose.

Fantastic beasts and how to save them

Katherine Rundell’s new book is a treasury of extraordinary animals endangered by human negligence and greed.

15 November 1913: Edith Nesbit looks out her window at late flowers in autumn.

Why would anyone lobby on behalf of dangerous dogs?

On the one hand you have the right of five-year-olds not to be disfigured; on the other, the right of…

The natural world is vanishing before it has even reached our eyes

From resentful crows to narwhal tusks, we understand only a fraction of the Earth’s beauty. And now we risk losing…

Save the planet by saving the pandas

If the green movement wants to capture British hearts and minds, it should focus on animals, not abstract temperature rises.

Can animals count? BBC radio finds out

Bees can recognise number patterns, not just of objects found in nature but even of random symbols.

How are animals adapting to climate change?

Books by Thor Hanson and Emma Marris offer fascinating insights into how species are surviving and what we must do…

How animal senses reveal hidden worlds

Ed Yong’s fascinating new book on the complex behaviours of creatures uncovers a universe of unfathomable beauty.

22 August 1959: The zoo is a penitentiary, a theatre, an alms house, a laboratory, a conference room, a microcosm.

Is Boris Johnson ditching nature to save his skin?

The Prime Minister appears to be giving in to small-government Tories who want him to ditch policies aimed at protecting…

What animal activists can learn from historical upheavals

“Informational cascades” can be key in turning the tide against animal cruelty.

Andrea Arnold’s Cow explores sex, death, and motherhood through the eyes of an animal

The British director’s first documentary is the story of a trapped female told through social realism. But this time, the…