SYDNEY: Wildlife officers have busted an illegal cockroach-breeding operation in rural Australia, seizing a skin-crawling haul worth more than $100,000 on the black market for exotic bugs. More than 100,000 contraband cockroaches were found in a raid on a commercial breeder in the town of Bathurst, west of Sydney, Australia&#39;s environment department said on Friday. They found Madagascar &quot;hissing&quot; cockroaches, a bulky insect named for its noisy defense mechanism, and dubia cockroaches, an invasive critter bred as a snack for pet lizards. Madagascar cockroaches Photos showed one of the seized Madagascar cockroaches was almost big enough to completely cover the palm of an adult hand. &quot;We take our job protecting Australia&#39;s unique biodiversity and breaches of national environment law very seriously,&quot; an environment department spokesman said. &quot;We&#39;re seeing illegal breeding and trading of exotic cockroaches and we&#39;re putting pet businesses and pet owners on notice.&quot; The department said the illicit insects had an estimated value of US$140,000 (Aus$200,000). Officials now have the unenviable task of euthanizing the creepy-crawlies, an insect so hardy it spawned an urban legend they could survive a nuclear blast.

Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) shows some of the 100,000 contraband cockroaches found in a raid on a commercial breeder in the town of Bathurst, west of Sydney. (Photo: AFP)

Australasia

Officials now have the unenviable task of euthanizing the creepy-crawlies, an insect so hardy it spawned an urban legend they could survive a nuclear blast.

Australia seizes 100,000 cockroaches in bug-breeder bust

WASHINGTON: British primatologist Jane Goodall, who transformed the study of chimpanzees and became one of the world&#39;s most revered wildlife advocates, has died at the age of 91, her institute announced Wednesday. Goodall &quot;died peacefully in her sleep while in Los Angeles&quot; on a speaking tour of the United States, the Jane Goodall Institute said in a statement on Instagram. In a final video posted before her death, Goodall, clad in her trademark green, told an audience: &quot;Some of us could say &#39;Bonjour,&#39; some of us could say &#39;Guten Morgen,&#39; and so on, but I can say, &#39;Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! That&#39;s &#39;good morning&#39; in chimpanzee.&#39;&quot; Tributes poured in from conservationists, politicians, and entertainers. &quot;I&#39;m deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Jane Goodall, our dear Messenger of Peace,&quot; said UN chief Antonio Guterres. &quot;She is leaving an extraordinary legacy for humanity &amp; our planet.&quot; <div class="fr-embed responsive-video"><div class="video-wrapper aspect-video"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-5" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-5&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1973478469880390147&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2Fnew%2F&sessionId=12a429ca929eb615d422aa88b9d67c5c17cea9fa&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="width: 100%; height: 100%; min-height: 0px;">&nbsp;</iframe></div></div></div>&quot;Renowned zoologist, primatologist, researcher, and a friend of Tanzania, Dr Goodall&#39;s pioneering work at Gombe National Park transformed wildlife conservation, and placed our country at the heart of global efforts to protect chimpanzees and nature,&quot; said Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan.<div class="fr-embed responsive-video"><div class="video-wrapper aspect-video"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-6" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-6&features=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1973477624266559723&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2Fnew%2F&sessionId=12a429ca929eb615d422aa88b9d67c5c17cea9fa&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="width: 550px; height: 814px; min-height: 0px; position: static; visibility: visible;">&nbsp;</iframe></div></div></div> &quot;I think the best way we can honor her life is to treat the Earth and all its beings like our family, with love and respect,&quot; said actress Jane Fonda, herself an environmental activist. &quot;I loved her very much.&quot; <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Transformative discoveries&nbsp;</h2>Born in London on April 3, 1934, Goodall became fascinated with animals in her early childhood, when her father gave her a stuffed toy chimpanzee that she kept for the rest of her life. She devoured Tarzan books, about a boy raised by apes who falls in love with a woman named Jane. In 1957, she traveled to Kenya at a friend&#39;s invitation and began working for the renowned palaeoanthropologist Louis Leakey, who dispatched her to study chimpanzees in Tanzania. She became the first of three women he chose to study great apes in the wild, alongside American Dian Fossey and Canadian Birute Galdikas. Goodall&#39;s most famous finding was that chimpanzees use grass stalks and twigs as tools to fish termites from their mounds. Leakey urged her to pursue a doctorate at Cambridge University, where she became only the eighth person ever to earn a PhD without an undergraduate degree. Goodall also revealed chimpanzees&#39; capacity for violence &mdash; from infanticide to long-running territorial wars &mdash; challenging the belief that our closest cousins were inherently gentler than humans. In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute to further research and conservation of chimpanzees. In 1991, she launched Roots &amp; Shoots, a youth-led environmental program that now operates in over 60 countries. Her activism was sparked in the 1980s after attending a US conference on chimpanzees, where she learned of the threats they faced: exploitation in medical research, hunting for bushmeat, and widespread habitat destruction. From then on, she became a relentless advocate for wildlife, traveling the globe into her nineties. Goodall married twice: first to Dutch nobleman and wildlife photographer Baron Hugo van Lawick, with whom she had her only child, Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick, who survives her. That marriage ended in divorce and was followed by a second, to Tanzanian lawmaker Derek Bryceson, who later died of cancer. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Message of empowerment&nbsp;</h2>Goodall wrote dozens of books, appeared in documentaries, and earned numerous honors, including being made a Dame Commander by the British government and receiving the US Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-President Joe Biden. She was also immortalized as both a Lego figure and a Barbie doll, and was famously referenced in a Gary Larson cartoon depicting two chimps grooming. &quot;Conducting a little more &#39;research&#39; with that Jane Goodall tramp?&quot; one chimp asks the other, after finding blonde hair. Her institute had its lawyers draft a threatening letter, but Goodall herself waved them off, saying she found it amusing. &quot;The time for words and false promises is past if we want to save the planet,&quot; she told AFP in an interview last year. Her message was also one of empowerment. &quot;Each individual has a role to play, and every one of us makes some impact on the planet every single day, and we can choose what sort of impact we make.&quot;

Wildlife

Jane Goodall, the pioneering primatologist and beloved conservationist, has died at the age of 91 in Los Angeles. Her groundbreaking chimpanzee research, environmental advocacy, and global influence inspired generations to protect wildlife and treat Earth with compassion and respect. 

Articles tagged with "wildlife"

Australia seizes 100,000 cockroaches in bug-breeder bust

World-renowned chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall dies at 91

Australia seizes 100,000 cockroaches in bug-breeder bust