Forth rail bridge and Gibraltar cave in running for world heritage site status
Peter Walker; Guardian; may 28 2012
The Forth rail bridge and the Gorham's Cave complex in Gibraltar could join the list of Unesco world heritage sites after the government selected them to be submitted to the UN culture and heritage organisation.
In March the culture department sent Unesco a list of 11 possible candidates for world heritage status, also including Chatham dockyard in Kent, Cheshire's Jodrell Bank observatory, the Lake District and the entire South Atlantic island of St Helena.
Four of these – the Forth bridge, Gorham's Cave, the Lake District and Chatham – went ahead with the next stage in submitting technical evaluations to the government. A panel of UK heritage experts then selected the first two for formal submission to Unesco.
House mice put endangered petrels at risk of extinction
Planet Earth Online; Tamera Jones; May 16 2012
Common house mice are demolishing what could be the only breeding population of endangered Atlantic petrels in the world, scientists have found.
Of the 1.6 million chicks that hatch every year on UK-owned Gough Island in the south Atlantic, scientists estimate that a massive 1.25 million are eaten by mice.
What's more, the researchers say Atlantic petrels probably aren't the only seabirds on Gough Island targeted by the mice.