Humankind’s growing need for food is running up against thousands of other species’ need for space.

Lions vs hyenas. The fractious and competitive relationship between lions and spotted hyenas is well-documented and has been observed across Africa wherever the two species are present in the same place.

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Perhaps one of the world’s best known fossils is Archaeopteryx. With its beautifully preserved feathers, it has long been regarded as the first bird in the fossil record, and is often called “the icon of evolution”. Only a handful of specimens have ever been found, its elusivity adding to its fascination.

Exploitative leadership is famously common in human societies, particularly in conflict situations where most members of society pay the price of warfare or conflict while self-serving leaders profit in some way.

A new report, Plundered – South Africa’s cold-blooded international reptile trade, explores loopholes in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) regulations and finds that an ineffective local permitting system is allowing the illegal international trade of South Africa’s reptiles. 

In the very fringes of the Kalahari Desert lies Hwange – Zimbabwe’s oldest and largest national park – crisscrossed by fossil riverbeds that bear testament to a time when water was abundant, and mudflats, swamps and forests thrived.