Listing all species on earth 'a possibility'

We've already found more than a million species, but unearthing the rest was thought to be an impossible task.

But now it seems an army of amateur scientists have taken up the cause. A new study concludes that, thanks to them, we're in a golden age of discovery, with 20,000 new finds charted each year.

There could also be far fewer plants and animals left for them to find. The researchers say rather than tens of millions of species living on Earth, there could be between two and eight million.

If the appetite for discovery continues to grow, they say a full ecological audit could be a possibility within the next 100 years.

The scientists also looked at...

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Scientists are trying to count the number of species on Earth. Thousands of new species are discovered every year. And, the number of species disappearing may be lower than expected.

Rare marsupials found fat and happy in new home

A rare marsupial that had disappeared from Australia's mainland is thriving near Canberra, with reports the population is fat and happy.

Last year a group of 17 eastern bettongs were brought to protected forest areas in Canberra from Tasmania, their first appearance on the mainland for 80 years.

Adrian Manning, from the Australian National University, says health checks show the small members of the kangaroo family are faring well, with about 35 bettongs leaving the pouch and about 20 more young on the way.

"They've hit the ground running, digging for truffles - which is what they do - and they've actually put weight on," he said.

"The fact that six months in, most of the animals seem to...

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In Canberra, Australia, a small population of a rare relative of the kangaroo called bettongs has been reintroduced. The species disappeared a few years ago but the new community seems to be doing well.

2012 opened new possibilities for stray animals to find homes

Pilot programmes were launched to gauge if they were suitable for HDB living.

Since the launch of a nationwide project in April to re-home medium-size stray dogs in HDB estates, animal activists are hopeful that such animals will find a loving home.

The project is spearheaded by the Action for Singapore Dogs (ASD) and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

"This project has been quite a big breakthrough for us because now it allows some of these dogs to be taken off the streets, to at least find other avenues for homes," said Ricky Yeo, president at ASD.

In Chong Pang, steps have also been taken in...

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People living in public housing in Singapore are now allowed to have pets. This new system aims at decreasing the number of stray dogs and cats that live in the streets. Local animal lovers seem happy with this plan.

Singing apes

Humans have vocal folds very similar to those of apes, but we can also precisely control the shape and size of our vocal tract. For powerful high notes, soprano singers match the natural frequencies of the two.

But how to find out if gibbons can do the same? Give them some helium. Helium raises the natural frequency just of the vocal tract but not the vocal folds. In helium-huffing gibbons, calls stayed just as piercing because the animals tuned their vocal tracts to match the higher frequencies. In short, gibbons sing soprano all the time.

It's not just a primate party trick - this separation between the

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Jurassic bugs

High in the Dolomites of northeastern Italy, Italian researchers chipping away at rocks formed more than 200 million years ago found two miniscule mites and a fly preserved in tiny drops of amber. Highly-magnified photographs of the creatures show the mites, in particular, to be perfectly preserved. At 230 million years old, they're about 100 million years older than the oldest previous find of their kind.

The bugs probably fed off the leaves of the tree in whose resin they were eventually preserved. Researchers say the discovery shows the mites' ability to adapt to changing evolutionary conditions. For film lovers, though, it has striking echoes of the Stephen Spielberg blockbuster, Jurassic Park, in which a team of scientists use the DNA of a mosquito preserved in amber to recreate dinosaurs with predictably terrifying results.

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Training as a mascot; One-day makeovers for streets

BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

JUNE SIMMS: And I'm June Simms. This week on our program we visit a camp where sports team mascots go for training. We also tell you about a group that helps cities bring new life -- for a day -- to troubled streets. And we learn about a group that helps women in Uganda earn money by selling beads at parties in the United States.

BOB DOUGHTY: Communities often depend on drawings and written documents to describe the changes they want to make to improve neighborhoods. But a nonprofit organization called Better Block shows the public a working example of how the proposed improvements would look. It makes the changes along one block for one day.


JUNE SIMMS: That was how an older, mostly empty business district near downtown Denver, Colorado, came to life on a...

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Hello, hello, nice to meet you

Wanna play catch?

Whoopee! Hurray! Yippee!

I can fly. I can fly. I can fly...

Come back! Don't leave me here!

Uh! A quarter!

Pets bring smiles (and wags) to retirement home

Click above to watch the video

Every morning the same problem

But, but... it is soooo cold.

It's getting away!

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't worry, little guy...

... we'll get some more.

It's funny. Yes, it is

Come on. I can see a smile over there...

A lion cub

When I grow up, I will be THIS big.