English

The aim of this study was to assess the teratogenicity of the herbicide glyphosate-Roundup† (as commercialized in Brazil) to Wistar rats. Dams were treated orally with water or 500, 750 or 1000 mg/kg glyphosate from day 6 to 15 of pregnancy. Cesarean sections were performed on day 21 of pregnancy, and number of corpora lutea, implantation sites, living and dead fetuses, and resorptions were recorded. Weight and gender of the fetuses were determined, and fetuses were examined for external malformations and skeletal alterations. The organs of the dams were removed and weighed. Results showed a 50% mortality rate for dams treated with 1000 mg/kg glyphosate. Skeletal alterations were observed in 15.4, 33.1, 42.0 and 57.3% of fetuses from the control, 500, 750 and 1000 mg/kg glyphosate groups, respectively. We may conclude that glyphosate-Roundup† is toxic to the dams and induces developmental retardation of the fetal skeleton.

Since the December 2008 identification in Pennsylvania of white-nose syndrome, a bat fungal disease, bat populations have declined to a point that the state Game Commission is now asking for public comment on adding three types of bats to the state's endangered species list. The commission wants to consider measures that will offer some protection for Northern Long-Eared Bat, the Tri-Colored Bat (formerly known as the Eastern Pipestrelle) and the Little Brown Bat. In an advertisement seeking comment through Sept. 11, Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe said consideration is warranted because the three bat species "clearly are in imminent danger" based on reports showing population declines as high as 99 percent.

The blackbird Turdus merula is at risk of disappearing from London gardens after suffering a “worrying” decline in numbers. The survey shows that although blackbirds are still found in all London boroughs, the average number seen in gardens has fallen from 1.83 three years ago to 1.56 now — a 15 per cent drop. “Something is happening to London’s environment that means birds — such as house sparrows Passer domesticus, starlings Sturnus vulgaris, swifts Apus apus and now blackbirds — can no longer maintain their numbers here,” Tim Webb, a spokesman for RSPB London, said. “Research has shown London is suffering from a lack of insects, caterpillars and edible seed for wildlife. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but those bugs and grasses are fine dining for many of our common birds and help support frogs, bees and bats too.”

A French court has rejected an attempt by Syngenta to suspend a decision by the Ministry of Agriculture to ban a pesticide alleged to be harmful to bees, according to Agra Europe's sister publication Agrow. The Versailles Administrative Court ruled to uphold the ban on Cruiser OSR, a neonicotinoid fertiliser used on rapeseed.

Four UK wading bird species saw numbers fall to new lows last year, a survey has revealed. Lapwings, oystercatchers, snipe and curlew are all at their lowest numbers since the British Breeding Bird Survey of more than 100 bird species started in the early 1990s, the results for 2011 have shown. All four species suffered sharp drops in numbers compared with spring 2010, with populations tumbling by 40% for snipe (Gallinago gallinago) and by almost a fifth for oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) (19%) and lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) (18%). Curlew (Numenius arquata) numbers declined by 13% between 2010 and 2011.

The swifts are going now from our village. Perhaps we should pause to enjoy them one last time before the final few depart. The miracle of swifts, perhaps the miracle of all life, is made more apparent if you think of them not as birds, but as insects. For swifts are made from nothing but tiny invertebrates floating in the ether. A flock of 30 and everything about them — that noise, those scintillating movements, their feathers, those air-filled bones as light as grass — is a distillation of billions of insects. And when I say billions, I mean it. A single mouthful of food passed from an adult swift to its chick can contain 300 insects. Alas, the miracle of swifts is fading. In the past decade they've declined in Britain by 40%. Just as we might see the swifts' sky-trawl as composed of nothing but insects, we should recall that our own dance consumes almost every other living thing around us.

Although butterflies may seem like an attractive addition to your flower garden they are a more important insect than most people realise. Butterflies react extremely quickly to even minor changes in the environment, making them both a good indicator of biodiversity and providing an early warning system for other reductions in wildlife. As a result, they are now the best-monitored group of insects in the world. Acting as a vital wildlife indicator, butterflies can tell us almost everything we need to know about the health of an ecosystem. But from the Meadow Brown to the Swallowtail, British native butterfly species are slowly disappearing.
According to a report by the Dorset-based charity Butterfly Conservation, 72 per cent of butterfly and moth species have declined in the last ten years, and 54 per cent have decreased in the UK. Even the abundance of common garden butterflies, such as the Red Admiral, has dropped by 24 per cent.

Latest figures from the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) reveal that numbers of Meadow Pipits declined by nearly a third in Northern Ireland between 2010 and 2011. Numbers had remained stable from the start of the BBS in 1994 until 2005, but after that a decline was observed, and between 2010 and 2011 numbers fell by 27%. Meadow Pipits Anthus pratensis are widespread across Northern Ireland, favouring areas of open country and grassland.

Ornithologists in Wales have expressed shock at the findings of a range of independent surveys carried out across Wales in the last two years that reveal massive declines in the numbers of many of our upland birds. Species in serious decline include many of the iconic species that define our uplands, including Curlew Numenius arquata, Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria, Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, Peregrine Falco peregrinus and Ring Ouzel Turdus torquatus. If the current trends continue, these species may be extinct in the Welsh hills before too long. Surveys undertaken by independent consultancy Ecology Matters reveal that on Plynlimon in mid-Wales numbers of Golden Plover have declined by 92% since 1984 with only one pair remaining; Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus have declined by 48%; and four species — Teal Anas crecca, Peregrine, Ring Ouzel and Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus — are now extinct in this area.