AFP UK

Boreal forests are menaced by more frequent wildfires and invasive species outbreaks linked to climate change

Even relatively moderate heating and rainfall loss could dramatically alter the make-up of Earth’s northern forests, risking their biodiversity rich ecosystems and undermining their ability to store planet-warming carbon pollution, researchers said Wednesday.

Boreal forests cover much of Russia, Alaska and Canada and are a major carbon sink, but they are menaced by more frequent wildfires and invasive species outbreaks linked to climate change.

To assess how higher temperatures and less rainfall may impact the tree species most commonly found in the forests, a team of researchers based in the United States and Australia conducted a unique five-year experiment.

Between 2012-2016 they grew some 4,600 saplings of nine tree species — including spruce, fir and pine — in forest sites in northeastern Minnesota.

Using undersoil cables and infrared lamps, the saplings were warmed around the clock at two different temperatures — one lot at 1.6 degrees Celsius hotter than ambient, the second at 3.1C warmer. 

In additional, moveable tarps were positioned over half the plots before storms to capture rainwater and mimic the type of precipitation shifts that climate change is anticipated to bring. 

The study, published in Nature, found that even the trees grown under 1.6C of warming experienced major problems, including reduced growth and increased mortality. 

“I thought we’d see modest declines — of a few percent — in survival and growth for even the boreal species like spruce and fir, but we saw very large increases in mortality and decreases in growth in a number of species,” lead author Peter Reich told AFP. 

The team found that warming on its own, or combined with reduced rainfall, increased juvenile mortality in all nine tree species studied.

– ‘Exponential negative effects’ –

The 2015 Paris goals committed nations to work towards limiting temperature rises to “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to work towards a safer 1.5C cap. 

Wednesday’s research suggests that even this relatively modest heating would have profound impacts on boreal ecosystems.

Current government plans put Earth on course to warm as much as 2.7C this century. 

Previous research has shown that boreal forests are likely to experience both positive and negative effects from climate change, such as a longer growing season in the far north. 

The experiment showed that modest warming — in the 1.6C sample — enhanced the growth of some hardwood species such as maple and oak. These are currently scarce in boreal forests but abundant in more temperate, southerly forests. 

The team however suggested that the southern hardwoods are likely too rare to fill the void left by other species such as conifers, which fared very poorly in the experiment. 

Reich, director of the University of Michigan’s Institute for Global Change Biology, said that increased CO2 levels were likely to have “modest positive effects” on some species.  

“But as CO2 and temperatures continue to rise, plants will be saturated with CO2, so further increases will have less and less effect,” he said. 

“Whereas the negative effects of climate change will get worse exponentially.”

Reich said that warming was likely to impact boreal forests’ ability to store carbon due to poorer plant regeneration.

“Additionally, more fires, which will accompany warming, will cause greater losses of carbon back to the atmosphere too,” he said.

The rescue team spent six hours getting the ailing beluga whale out of the water and into a refrigerated lorry for transport

An ailing beluga whale that strayed into France’s Seine river was put down by vets Wednesday after a last-ditch rescue attempt failed because of its rapidly deteriorating health, local officials said.

The fate of the whale captured the hearts of people across the world since it was first spotted in the highly unusual habitat of the river that flows through Paris, far from its usual Arctic waters.

Rescuers had worked overnight to lift the male out of the Seine by crane for transfer to a saltwater pen, in a precarious effort to save the life of the mammal, which was no longer eating.

It was then driven at a painstakingly slow speed north to the Normandy port of Ouistreham, where vets hoped to release the animal into a harbourside pen and then possibly into the wild.

But the six vets unanimously decided after examining the beluga on arrival in Ouistreham that there was no other option than to put it down, the local authority of the Calvados region said.

“Despite the technical and logistical efforts, the condition of the cetacean unfortunately deteriorated during the trip,” it said. 

“Examinations showed that the beluga was in a state of great weakness and its respiratory activity failing. The decision was therefore taken collectively, with the veterinarians, to euthanize it,” it added.

– ‘Tragic outcome’ –

After nearly six hours of work by dozens of divers and rescuers, the 800-kilogramme (1,800-pound) cetacean had been lifted from the river by a net and crane at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) and placed on a barge under the immediate care of a dozen veterinarians.

The 24 divers involved in the operation and the rescuers handling the ropes had to try several times to lure the animal into the nets to be lifted out of the water.

The beluga was then given a health check and driven to Ouistreham.

“During the journey the vets noted a worsening of his health and in particular the breathing,” said Florence Ollivet-Courtois, a vet for the local emergency services, in a video posted on social media.

“The animal was not getting enough air and suffering visibly. We therefore decided that it made no sense to set it free and proceeded to euthanasia.”

It remains unclear why the beluga had strayed this far south and Ollivet-Courtois said an autopsy may give further clues about is condition.  

The Sea Shepherd NGO, which has been assisting in the rescue, said on Twitter that the rescue operation was “risky” but “essential” to give the animal a chance.

“Following the deterioration of his condition, the vets took the decision to euthanize him. We are devastated by this tragic outcome that we knew was very likely,” it said.

The four-metre (13-foot) whale was discovered more than a week ago heading towards Paris and was stranded about 130 kilometres (80 miles) inland from the English Channel at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne in Normandy.

Since Friday, the animal’s movement inland had been blocked by a lock some 70 kilometres northwest of Paris, and its health deteriorated after it refused to eat.

– Killer whale also died –

This is the second drama involving a big marine mammal in an unexpected area to grip France in the last months.

A sick killer whale — a member of the dolphin family also known as an orca — was spotted in the Seine in May but died after attempts failed to guide the animal back to the sea.

Interest in the beluga’s fate has spread far beyond France, generating a large influx of financial donations and other aid from conservation groups as well as individuals, officials said.

While belugas migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms in their native Arctic waters, they rarely venture so far.

According to France’s Pelagis Observatory, which specialises in sea mammals, the nearest beluga population is off the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway, 3,000 kilometres from the Seine.

The trapped whale is only the second beluga ever sighted in France. The first was pulled out of the Loire estuary in a fisherman’s net in 1948.

Thousands of hectares of pine forest have been destoyed in the Landiras blaze since Tuesday

A wildfire that officials thought was under control in southwest France has reignited amid a record drought and extreme heat, possibly the result of arson, officials said Wednesday.

More than 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) of tinder-dry forest have burned in just 24 hours in the so-called Landiras blaze, the largest of several that scorched the region last month.

It had been brought under control — but not fully extinguished — after burning nearly 14,000 hectares, before flaring up on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of some 6,000 people.

No one has been injured but 16 homes were destroyed or damaged near the village of Belin-Beliet, and officials said six fire-fighting trucks had burned.

“The risks are very high” that parched conditions will allow the fire to spread further, said Martin Guespereau, prefect of the Gironde department.

“The weather is very unfavourable because of the heat, the dry air, the record drought and the fact that there is a lot of peat in the ground… the fire didn’t go out in July, it went underground,” he told journalists.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said more than 1,000 firefighters were now battling the blaze, adding that investigators suspected arson may be involved.

“There were eight fires that erupted between 8:00 and 9:00 am (0600 and 0700 GMT) that erupted at intervals of a few hundred metres, which is extremely unusual,” he said in Mostuejouls, north of the Mediterranean city of Montpellier, where another fire was raging in the Grands Causses natural park.

He also told reporters that Sweden and Italy would send fire-fighting aircraft to France within 24 hours to help.

– ‘The sky was roaring’ –

“It’s a major fire… much more intense and fast-moving” than at the height of the Landiras blaze last month, Marc Vermeulen of the regional fire-fighting authority told journalists.

“I opened the door last night and there was (a) red wall in front of us, the sky was roaring like the ocean,” said Eliane, a 43-year-old at a temporary shelter for evacuees in Belin-Beliet.

For Christian Fostitchenko, 61, and his partner Monique, waiting at a martial arts dojo in nearby Salles, it was their second evacuation of the summer from their home in Saint-Magne.

“This time we were really scared — the flames were less than 100 metres (328 feet) from the house,” he said.

The fire was spreading toward the A63 motorway, a major artery linking Bordeaux to Spain, with thick smoke forcing the road’s closure between Bordeaux and Bayonne.

France has been buffeted this summer by a record drought that has forced water-use restrictions nationwide, as well as a series of heatwaves that many experts warn are being driven by climate change.

Wildfires have also ignited in the dry hills of the southeast and even in the normally lush areas of Brittany along the Channel.

On Wednesday, officials in western France said a wildfire near Angers and Le Mans has burned 1,200 hectares since Monday as nearly 400 firefighters struggle to contain it.

The riverbed, normally full and flowing, at Ashton Keynes, has dried up

At the end of a dusty track in southwest England where the River Thames usually first emerges from the ground, there is currently scant sign of any moisture at all.

The driest start to a year in decades has shifted the source of this emblematic English river several miles downstream, leaving scorched earth and the occasional puddle where water once flowed.

It is a striking illustration of the parched conditions afflicting swathes of England, which have prompted a growing number of regional water restrictions and fears that an official drought will soon be declared. 

“We haven’t found the Thames yet,” confided Michael Sanders, 62, on holiday with his wife in the area known as the official source of the river.

The couple were planning to walk some of the Thames Path that stretches along its entire winding course — once they can find the waterway’s new starting point.

“It’s completely dried up,” the IT worker from northern England told AFP in the village of Ashton Keynes, a few miles from the source, noting it had been replaced by “the odd puddle, the odd muddy bit”. 

“So hopefully downstream we’ll find the Thames, but at the moment it’s gone.”

The river begins from a underground spring in this picturesque region at the foot of the Cotswolds hills, not far from Wales, before meandering for 215 miles (350 kilometres) to the North Sea.

Along the way it helps supply freshwater to millions of homes, including those in the British capital London.

– ‘So arid’ –

Following months of minimal rainfall, including the driest July in England since the 1930s, the country’s famously lush countryside has gone from shades of green to yellow.

“It was like walking across the savannah in Africa, because it’s so arid and so dry,” exclaimed David Gibbons.

The 60-year-old retiree has been walking the length of the Thames Path in the opposite direction from Sanders — from estuary to source — with his wife and friends.

As the group reached their final destination, in a rural area of narrow country roads dotted with stone-built houses, Gibbons recounted the range of wildlife they had encountered on their journey.

The Thames, which becomes a navigable strategic and industrial artery as it passes through London and its immediate surroundings, is typically far more idyllic upstream and a haven for birdwatching and boating.

However, as they neared the source, things changed.

“In this last two or three days, (there’s been) no wildlife, because there’s no water,” Gibbons said.

“I think water stopped probably 10 miles away from here; there’s one or two puddles,” he added from picturesque Ashton Keynes. 

Andrew Jack, a 47-year-old local government worker who lives about nine miles (15 kilometres) from the village, said locals had “never seen it as dry and as empty as this”.

The river usually run alongside its main street, which boasts pretty houses with flower-filled gardens and several small stone footbridges over the water. 

But the riverbed there is currently parched and cracked, the only visible wildlife some wasps hovering over it, recalling images of some southern African rivers during the sub-continent’s dry season.

– ‘Something’s changed’ –

There will be no imminent respite for England’s thirsty landscape.

The country’s meteorological office on Tuesday issued an amber heat warning for much of southern England and eastern Wales between Thursday and Sunday, with temperatures set to reach the mid-30s degrees Celsius.

It comes weeks after a previous heatwave broke Britain’s all-time temperature record and breached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time.

Climate scientists overwhelmingly agree that carbon emissions from humans burning fossil fuels are heating the planet, raising the risk and severity of droughts, heatwaves, and other such extreme weather events.

Local authorities are reiterating calls to save water, and Thames Water, which supplies 15 million people in London and elsewhere, is the latest provider to announce forthcoming restrictions.

But Gibbons was remaining sanguine.

“Having lived in England all my life, we’ve had droughts before,” he insisted.

“I think that it will go green again by the autumn.”

Jack was more pessimistic as he walked with his family along the dried-up riverbed, where a wooden measuring stick gauges non-existent water levels. 

“I think there are lots of English people who think ‘great, let’s have some European weather'”, he said.

“But we actually shouldn’t, and it means that something’s changed and something has gone wrong.

“I’m concerned that it’s only going to get worse and that the UK is going to have to adapt to hotter weather as we have more and more summers like this.”

The rescue team spent six hours getting the ailing beluga whale out of the water and into a refrigerated lorry for transport

An ailing beluga whale that strayed into France’s Seine river was put down by vets Wednesday during a last-ditch rescue attempt to keep the animal alive, local officials said.

The fate of the whale captured the hearts of people across the world since it was first spotted in the highly unusual habitat of the river that flows through Paris, far from its usual Arctic waters.

Rescuers had worked overnight to lift the male out of the Seine by crane for transfer to a saltwater pen, in a delicate, final effort to save the life of the ailing mammal, which was no longer eating.

It was then driven at a painstakingly slow speed north to the Normandy port of Ouistreham, where vets hoped to release the animal into a habourside pen and then possibly into the wild.

But the experts unanimously decided after examining the beluga on arrival in Ouistreham that there was no other option than to put the male down, the local authority of the Calvados region said.

“Despite the technical and logistical efforts, the condition of the cetacean unfortunately deteriorated during the trip,” it said. 

“Examinations showed that the beluga was in a state of great weakness and its respiratory activity failing. The decision was therefore taken collectively, with the veterinarians, to euthanize it,” it added.

– ‘Tragic outcome’ –

After nearly six hours of work by dozens of divers and rescuers, the 800-kilogramme (1,800-pound) cetacean had been lifted from the river by a net and crane at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) and placed on a barge under the immediate care of a dozen veterinarians.

The 24 divers involved in the operation and the rescuers handling the ropes had to try several times to lure the animal into the nets to be lifted out of the water.

The beluga was then given a health check and driven to Ouistreham.

“During the journey the vets noted a worsening of his health and in particular the breathing,” said Florence Ollivet-Courtois, a vet for the local emergency services, in a video posted on social media.

“The animal was not getting enough air and suffering visibly. We therefore decided that it made no sense to set it free and proceeded to euthanasia.”

“The transfer was risky, but essential to give an otherwise doomed animal a chance,” the Sea Shepherd NGO, which has been assisting in the rescue, said on Twitter.

“Following the deterioration of his condition, the vets took the decision to euthanize him. We are devastated by this tragic outcome that we knew was very likely,” it said.

The four-metre (13-foot) whale was discovered more than a week ago heading towards Paris and was stranded about 130 kilometres (80 miles) inland from the English Channel at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne in Normandy.

Since Friday, the animal’s movement inland had been blocked by a lock some 70 kilometres northwest of Paris, and its health deteriorated after it refused to eat.

– Killer whale also died –

This is the second drama involving a big marine mammal in an unexpected area to grip France in the last months.

A sick killer whale — a member of the dolphin family also known as an orca — was spotted in the Seine in May but died after attempts failed to guide the animal back to the sea.

Interest in the beluga’s fate has spread far beyond France, generating a large influx of financial donations and other aid from conservation groups as well as individuals, officials said.

While belugas migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms in their native Arctic waters, they rarely venture so far.

According to France’s Pelagis Observatory, which specialises in sea mammals, the nearest beluga population is off the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway, 3,000 kilometres from the Seine.

The trapped whale is only the second beluga ever sighted in France. The first was pulled out of the Loire estuary in a fisherman’s net in 1948.

Thousands of hectares of pine forest have been destoyed in the Landiras blaze since Tuesday

A fire that destroyed thousands of hectares of tinder-dry forest in southwest France has flared again amid a fierce drought and the summer’s latest wave of extreme heat, officials said Wednesday.

An additional 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) of pine forest have burned in the so-called Landiras blaze since Tuesday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of around 6,000 people, Gironde regional officials said in a statement.

“The fire is extremely violent and has spread to the Landes department” further south, home of the Landes de Gascogne regional park, the prefecture said, and further evacuations are likely.

“It’s a major fire… much more intense and fast-moving” than at the height of the Landiras blaze that ignited in July, Marc Vermeulen of the regional fire-fighting authority told journalists.

No one has been injured in the coastal area that draws huge summer tourism crowds but 16 houses were destroyed or damaged near the village of Belin-Beliet.

The fire was spreading toward the A63 motorway, a major artery linking Bordeaux to Spain, with thick smoke forcing the road’s closure between Bordeaux and Bayonne.

The Landiras fire was the largest of several that have raged this year in southwest France, which has been buffeted by record drought and a series of heat waves.

Arsonists set some of the fires and officials initially suspected a criminal origin for the Landiras blaze. Police later released a suspect for lack of evidence.

Around 500 firefighters are on the scene, supported by water-dropping planes.

The Gironde prefect, Martin Guespereau, said Wednesday “the risks are very high” that adverse weather conditions will allow the fire to spread further.

“The weather is very unfavourable because of the heat, the dry air, the record drought and the fact that there is a lot of peat in the ground… the fire didn’t go out in July, it went underground,” he told journalists.

The Landiras fire and a second large blaze near Arcachon burned a combined 21,000 hectares and forced more than 36,000 people to evacuate before they were brought under control — but not fully extinguished.

Wildfires have also ignited in the dry hills of the southeast and even in the normally lush areas of Brittany along the English Channel.

On Wednesday, officials in western France said a forest fire near Angers and Le Mans has burned 1,200 hectares since Monday as nearly 400 firefighters struggle to contain it.

The wave of infections is linked above all to sexual intercourse between men

With monkeypox surging across the world, experts are gathering more evidence on how people catch it and its typical symptoms.

Several months into the epidemic, it is clear the wave of infections is linked above all to sexual intercourse between men.

Nearly 28,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide in the last three months and the first deaths are starting to be recorded.

Here is a summary of what we know:

– Who is catching it? –

Monkeypox has been around in a dozen African countries for decades, but in contrast to previous outbreaks on the continent, the virus is now predominantly spread through sexual activity.

Some 99 percent of US cases have so far been among men who have sex with men (MSM).

In Africa, the virus notably affects children.

In the last three weeks studies printed in leading medical publications — British Medical Journal (BMJ), The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) — painted a clinical picture of the current spike in infections, even if it is still early days and the results are based on only a few hundred cases.

In each study, the MSM community accounts for nearly all cases.

– How is it transmitted? –

The male sex link was no surprise as it appeared from the first recorded observations and has been targeted by health authorities.

This leads to the sensitive question of whether the virus is transmitted through sexual activity.

The latest clinical reports leave little doubt.

“Our study strengthens the evidence for skin-to-skin contact during sex as the dominant mechanism of transmission of monkeypox, with important implications for disease control,” said The Lancet with data from several Spanish hospitals.

The viral charge had been found to be much higher in patients’ skin lesions than in their breathing equipment.

This observation seems to undermine the idea pushed by some researchers that airborne transmission was also playing a major role in the spread of cases.

At the same time monkeypox is not thought to be caught via sperm, and although that has not been totally ruled out, current research is far from proving it.

– Symptoms? –

All three studies agreed on the main symptoms.

“The characteristics of the cohort we describe differ from those of populations affected in previous outbreaks in endemic regions,” the BMJ noted in the study of UK cases.

The two key elements are fever, often with muscular aches, and skin lesions which scab over.

But the details vary, probably because of the type of transmission, with recent cases heavily linked to sexual activity.

For all three studies, the lesions often break out in the anus, penis and mouth. One complication that has previously been rarely observed has been inflammation of the rectum or a swelling on the penis.

The Lancet found complications occurred in 40 percent of cases and the NEJM in some 20 percent.

But there was also some good news about the gravity of the illness.

“Clinical outcomes in this case series were reassuring. Most cases were mild and self-limited, and there were no deaths,” the NEJM said.

“Although 13 percent of the persons were admitted to a hospital, no serious complications were reported in the majority of those admitted.”

– Questions remain –

The Lancet report raised the issue of the efficacy of vaccines, given that 18 percent of cases were in people who had already received a jab meant to protect against monkeypox.

But some patients had had the vaccination for many years, even decades before catching the virus.

It is also unclear how other illnesses increase the risk of catching monkeypox. About 40 percent of patients in the Lancet study carried HIV, but it was impossible to work out if there was a direct link between the two.

The rescue team had spent six hours getting it out of the water and into a refrigerated lorry for transport

An ailing Beluga whale that strayed into France’s River Seine has died during a last-ditch rescue attempt, experts having decided to put the animal down to prevent further suffering, local officials said Wednesday.

The fate of the animal has captured the hearts of people across the world since it was first spotted in the highly unusual habitat of the river that flows through Paris, far from its usual Arctic waters.

Rescuers had overnight winched the male out of the River Seine for transfer to a saltwater pen, in a delicate final effort to save the life of the ailing mammal, which was no longer eating.

“Despite an unprecedented rescue operation, we must announce with sadness that the cetacean has died,” the authorities in the Normandy region of Calvados tweeted, adding that the whale had to be put down during transport.

After nearly six hours of work by dozens of divers and rescuers, the 800-kilogramme (1,800-pound) cetacean was lifted from the river by a net and crane at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) and placed on a barge under the immediate care of a dozen veterinarians.

The beluga was then given a health check and driven in a refrigerated truck at a deliberately slow speed to the coastal town of Ouistreham to the north where experts decided to end its suffering.

“During the journey the vets noted a worsening of his health and in particular the breathing,” said Florence Ollivet-Courtois, a vet for the local emergency services, in a video posted on social media.

“The animal was not getting enough air and suffering visibly. We therefore decided that it made no sense to set it free and proceeded to euthanasia.”

– ‘Tragic outcome’ –

“The transfer was risky, but essential to give an otherwise doomed animal a chance,” added the Sea Shepherd NGO, which has been assisting in the rescue, on Twitter.

“Following the deterioration of his condition, the vets took the decision to euthanise him. We are devastated by this tragic outcome that we knew was very likely,” it said.

Upon arrival, the beluga was to have been be installed in a seawater pen enclosed by a lock at Ouistreham pending release back into the wild.

“The beluga is a male who does not show any sign of infectious disease but who no longer has any digestive activity, which explains why he is no longer eating,” said the Sea Shepherd NGO

The four-metre (13-foot) whale was spotted more than a week ago heading towards Paris and was stranded about 130 kilometres (80 miles) inland from the Channel at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne in Normandy.

Since Friday, the animal’s movement inland had been blocked by a lock at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, 70 kilometres (44 miles) northwest of Paris, and its health deteriorated after it refused to eat.

– Killer whale also died –

The 24 divers involved in the operation and the rescuers handling the ropes had to try several times between 10:00 pm and 4:00 am to lure the animal into the nets to be lifted out of the water.

This is the second drama involving a big marine mammal in an unexpected area to grip France in the last months.

A sick killer whale — a member of the dolphin family also known as an orca — was spotted in the Seine in May but died after attempts failed to guide the animal back to the sea due to its condition.

Interest in the beluga’s fate has spread far beyond France, generating a large influx of financial donations and other aid from conservation groups as well as individuals, officials said.

While belugas migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms in their native Arctic waters, they rarely venture so far.

According to France’s Pelagis Observatory, which specialises in sea mammals, the nearest beluga population is off the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway, 3,000 kilometres from the Seine.

The trapped whale is only the second beluga ever sighted in France. The first was pulled out of the Loire estuary in a fisherman’s net in 1948.

Thousands of hectares of pine forest have been destoyed in the Landiras blaze since Tuesday

A fire that destroyed thousands of hectares of tinder-dry forest in southwest France has flared again amid a fierce drought and the summer’s latest heat wave, officials said Wednesday.

An additional 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) of pine forest have burned in the so-called Landiras blaze since Tuesday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of some 3,800 people,” Gironde regional officials said in a statement.

“The fire is extremely violent and has spread to the Landes department” further south, home of the Landes de Gascogne regional park, the prefecture said.

No one has been injured in the coastal area that draws huge summer tourism crowds but 16 houses were destroyed near the village of Belin-Beliet.

The prefecture warned the fire was spreading toward the A63 motorway, a major artery linking Bordeaux to Spain.

Speed limits on the highway have been lowered to 90 kmph (55 mph) in case smoke starts to limit visibility, and a full closure could be ordered if the fire worsens.

The Landiras fire that ignited in July was the largest of several that have raged this year in  southwest France, which has been buffeted by record drought and a series of heat waves.

Arsonists set some of the fires and officials initially suspected a criminal origin for the Landiras blaze. Police later released a suspect for lack of evidence.

Around 500 firefighters are on the scene, supported by water-dropping planes.

The Landiras fire and a second large blaze near Arcachon burned a combined 21,000 hectares and forced more than 36,000 people to evacuate before they were brought under control — but not fully extinguished.

And in western France, a forest fire near Angers and Le Mans has burned 1,200 hectares since Monday as nearly 400 firefighters struggle to contain it.

The regional firefighting coordination centre said it suspects arsonists are behind some of the “unlikely flare-ups” of the blaze.

Lahore Safari Zoo cancelled an auction of lions from its growing pride and said it would expand current facilities instead

A Pakistan zoo has called off plans to auction 12 lions from its ever-growing pride to private buyers, saying it would instead create new enclosures for the big cats.

The auction planned for Thursday had drawn condemnation from the WWF, which urged authorities at Lahore Safari Zoo to instead rehome them with other government wildlife facilities.

“The main reason behind the auction was the lack of space,” deputy director Tanvir Ahmed Janjua told AFP, adding officials had decided to speed up work building two new enclosures.

“Now that this issue is to be resolved soon, there is no need for the auction to take place.”

Set over 200 acres, Lahore Safari Zoo is considered one of the best in the country — where zoos are known for disregarding animal welfare. 

The Lahore facility is currently home to 29 lions, six resident tigers and two jaguars.

Zoo officials had set a reserve of 150,000 Pakistan rupees ($700) per cat — about the same price as a cow — but hoped each would fetch around two million rupees at auction.

Keeping lions, tigers and other exotic wildlife as pets is not uncommon in Pakistan, and is seen as a status symbol.

Wealthy owners post images and video clips of their big cats on social media, and rent them out as props for movies and photoshoots.

Janjua denied opposition from animal rights activists had led to the decision to cancel the auction.

“Should the lions breed more, and we see we are running out of space once again, then we can easily hold another auction,” he said.