While there have been plenty of fake stories circulating on social media – the swans in Venice were actually in Burano, those dolphins were filmed in Sardinia rather than Venice, and elephants didn't get drunk on Chinese corn wine – there is plenty of heartwarming news about animals enjoying new room to roam. Normally reclusive creatures have been expanding their usual territory either due to lack of human activity or, in some cases, in search of food. These cheeky monkeys were photographed feasting on a whole selection of fresh fruit in New Delhi, India.
One of the happiest lockdown stories is about the giant pandas of Ocean Park in Hong Kong. The pandas, Ying Ying and Le Le, finally mated following 10 years of attempts, after the zoo they live in was closed due to coronavirus. Currently listed as vulnerable, the giant panda population is under severe threat and conservationists at the zoo are hopeful that the couple will have finally produced offspring. It's too early to know whether Ying Ying is pregnant yet, but the team may be able to tell from as early as late June. It seems the pair just needed a little privacy.
There are only a few places in the world where olive ridley sea turtles lay their eggs every year and India's Rushikulya Beach in southeastern Odisha state is one of them. The baby turtles hatch from their eggs after about 45 days and return to the sea immediately. And this year, as beaches have been much quieter due to Covid-19, it's thought that the turtles will have a much better chance of surviving and reaching the sea than normal. Indian authorities estimate that the turtles have laid around 60 million eggs on beaches across the country this year.
Martin Fowlie from the RSPB told The Telegraph that a fall in visitors to the countryside is good news for many of Britain's rare bird species. The birds are benefiting from quieter surrounds (making it easier for them to communicate) and the habitats of ground-nesting birds like skylarks and grey partridges aren't being trampled by dogs. There's significantly less roadkill too – great for toads, hedgehogs and many other creatures. Mike Swan, Head of Education at the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, agreed that this will be a particularly good year for Britain's wildlife.
While flamingos traditionally migrate here for feeding from September to the end of May, Mumbai in western India hasn't seen these birds in such large numbers for a long time. Bombay Natural History Society had already recorded 125,000 birds before lockdown and estimate that all previous records will have been smashed by now. As there's very little human activity in the area, the birds have spread to wetlands and other places where they're almost never seen because of people.
Argentina has one of the strictest lockdowns in all of South America, and while humans are tied to their homes, the local capybaras of Laguna de los Padres near Mar del Plata are enjoying more freedom than ever. Although capybaras are extremely relaxed animals, they tend not to like human interaction so usually stay away from busy areas. However, as the lockdown has kept people away from local parks, the capybaras are free to explore new areas and have been spotted here more often than ever.
San Francisco locals are no strangers to urban coyotes, but the otherwise reclusive animals are now happily exploring the city's desolate streets and beaches. Social media has been hot with videos of North Beach coyotes howling at night and snaps of them wandering through the city's streets and parks. Nature photographer Scott Oller struck gold when his stroll was interrupted by a coyote investigating some whale bones on the beach at Kirby Cove.
Elsewhere in California, Yosemite National Park's wild bears are enjoying a spring devoid of people. Normally this time of year is difficult for most animals of the park as people arrive in their thousands. However, this year, as the park was closed due to coronavirus, the bears appear to be having what the park officials are calling a "party". The animals have been roaming areas usually packed with visitors and making the most of every corner of the park.
Usually, the 122 Kashmiri goats only venture out of the rocky Great Orme Country Park when looking for shelter in bad weather. But the empty streets of this Welsh seaside town were full of these curious animals at the end of March. The goats and some of their younglings were spotted eating hedges and flowers from gardens as well as having a casual stroll through the town centre.
Later in the same week, the fallow deer of Dagnam Park in East London decided to follow suit. The deer were seen casually resting in people's front gardens on a housing estate in Harold Hill. They even enjoyed a snack or two from the locals, took a peek inside people's homes through the windows and made friends with local cats.
Across the Channel, Paris' streets are usually filled with locals, tourists and an endless stream of cars. As France entered the 17th day of lockdown on 2 April, the scene in the City of Light was completely different. Here, ducks take a casual stroll in front of the Comédie Française in Place Colette. Other Parisians report a vixen raising a family in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery and two fallow deer wandering around Boissy-Saint-Léger in the suburbs of the city.
It’s not just land animals who have been enjoying a bit of peace and quiet and a chance to explore new areas. Residents of Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, were treated to a rare sighting of dolphins frolicking and exploring the Bosphorus on 26 April. Marine pollution and noise usually keep these stunning animals away from the busy Bosphorus, but as soon as the surrounding roads and bridges were abandoned and shipping traffic significantly reduced, the dolphins were keen to return to fresh corners of the strait.
A few penguins in Cape Town have also been emboldened to venture further out of their colony at Boulders Beach and explore pastures new – in this case, the empty streets of Simon's Town outside of Cape Town. This lonesome African penguin was captured in the empty parking lot of a restaurant on 14 April, while the rangers of the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds have filmed another group waddling through town and crossing an intersection to explore the streets.
Not all animals are enjoying lockdown, however. Nara's famous sika deer are used to tourists buying them snacks and hand-feeding them in the city's main park, but as Japan's residents stayed indoors and tourists no longer arrived, the deer were forced to venture out of the park and wander through the city in search for food. The animals have even resorted to eating shrubs in shopping areas and have wandered inside Nara's train station. Here, two are standing in front of a restaurant with hopes of getting fed.
The urban jackals of Tel Aviv in Israel have also been deprived of their usual food source. These dog-like animals usually come out of their burrows at night in search of scraps left behind by Hayarkon Park's visitors. Often called the lung of Tel Aviv, the park is normally busy with joggers, cyclists and picnickers, who have all been forced to stay at home during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the jackals have been spotted roaming the park freely during the day, scavenging for food – extremely unusual behaviour for these animals.
It's not only animals that are reclaiming urban spaces. Many cities under lockdown have seen a spike in plants too. Botanist Boris Presseq of Toulouse Museum of Natural History has been keeping a close eye on plants sprouting up in the unlikeliest locations across the city and chalking up names to highlight them. In this image, captured on 8 May, poppies have started to grow near Toulouse's St Sernin Basilica, as public parks, gardens and playgrounds have been closed to the public for more than six weeks.
Similarly, green grass has sprouted all across the city's many piazzas in Rome, Italy as footfall has dropped dramatically. Lush green grass is sprouting between the cobblestones in squares like Piazza Navona, pictured here on 3 April, as lockdown measures have kept pedestrians away.
Another European city where grass has crept in between the cobblestones is Brussels. Usually, the city's central square is busy with tourists, however, lockdown has left the Grand Place largely abandoned. Photographed by The Brussels Times senior news editor Jules Johnston, one of the city's busiest places is slowly being reclaimed by nature.
The country's rural landscapes are set to be covered in a carpet of colourful wildflowers this year, as many councils have had to make dramatic cuts in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Charity Plantlife has for years urged councils not to mow parks and verges until wildflowers have had a chance to spread their seeds and now it's finally happened. This year, the UK's unmowed verges are also benefiting from a lack of cars and CO2 emissions, meaning more wildflower species will be able to grow, as seen in this image from Surrey in May.
A much-loved natural wonder on Gran Canaria, the largest of the Canary Islands, the Maspalomas sand dunes usually attract thousands of tourists. This has resulted in a sharp decay of the protected natural wonder, as the dunes are covered in footsteps, drawings in the sand and litter (as pictured).
As tourist numbers have dwindled during the pandemic, the sand dunes have undergone an incredible transformation. There are almost no footprints or debris found on the dunes across the huge thousand-acre expanse. The technical director of the Masdunas project, Miguel Ángel Peña said the dunes haven't been in such pristine conditions for half a century.
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Among the animals spotted in Venice's clear canals was this seabird enjoying a casual swim. Locals have also snapped pictures of an octopus and had a rare sighting of a jellyfish. However, zoologist Andrea Mangoni, who filmed the jellyfish told The Daily Mail that "the flora and fauna of the lagoon have not changed during lockdown. What has changed is our chance to see them". Usually hidden by the murky waters, the animals are now on full show as visibility has improved by as much as three feet (around 1m).
Here, photographed in November 2017, the India Gate in New Delhi is barely visible as the city's air quality index (AQI) levels are usually a severe 200 – anything over 25 is marked unsafe by the World Health Organization (WHO). Pollution in the Indian capital is sometimes so intense that AQI soars to 900, or even off the measurable scale entirely.
Since the country has been put under strict lockdown to battle the coronavirus pandemic, the skies have turned a rare, clear blue. Thanks to the many factories and construction sites closing, as well as the lack of traffic on the roads, the AQI levels have fallen to below 20. One afternoon, after rainfall, levels dropped to seven – an unprecedented event in the Indian capital and the state of Delhi.
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Another city that has benefited from the coronavirus lockdown is Los Angeles. Its traffic problem is notorious and Los Angeles is consistently ranked among the most congested cities in the US. However, the stay-at-home order has meant a significant drop in LA's traffic, which has resulted in an astonishing drop in pollution. In fact, IQAir found it to have some of the cleanest air in any major city in the world on 7 April 2020. Captured here on 14 April, the snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains can be clearly seen from downtown LA.
Lockdown measures have also contributed to a drop in noise pollution, especially significant for animals living in urban areas, like this raccoon enjoying the peace of New York City's Central Park. Deutsche Welle reported that a variety of urban animals, most notably birds, are benefiting from the lack of ambient noise caused by planes, cars, public transport and people. Similarly, Forbes has reported on a reduction of noise in the oceans from ships, which is directly linked to stress levels in sea creatures, and seismologists have recorded less seismic noise in the Earth's crust caused by human movement too.
If this lockdown period has taught us anything, it's that the human impact on the environment is undeniable. With fewer cars on the roads and planes in the sky, the reduction in air and water pollution has been dramatic, especially in some of the most polluted areas of the world. Many scientists and charities believe this is the turning point for a downward trend in emissions that will eventually mark the beginning of the end for oil. And while we shouldn't overestimate links between lockdowns and environmental shifts, this period should inform the way we think about the future.
Granted, there are some effects of climate change that are likely irreversible, such as the melting of glaciers, but there is much we can do to battle the rising ocean temperatures, abnormal weather events and deforestation. However, while a drop in emissions is great news for the natural world, the decrease in oil demand might trigger severe unemployment across the world. Already, many industries, like tourism and airlines, have had to put their work on hold, causing steep rises in unemployment both in the UK and the US.
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As the quality of air and water has improved across the world, so have the habitats of many animals and plants. But there is also growing concern that extreme inequality means richer countries are enjoying something of an environmental renaissance, while less affluent countries are having to battle more than ever in order to save charities and environmental projects caring for natural treasures and endangered animals. And, as highlighted, some wild animals in urban areas have become so human dependant that they simply cannot survive without people around.
Another issue highlighted by the pandemic is overtourism. On the one hand, many sought-after destinations have finally had a chance to enjoy a bit of respite. However, the travel and tourism industry brought £7.45 ($9.25) trillion to the global economy last year alone, and many destinations around the globe simply cannot survive without tourism. Perhaps this is a chance to reflect on our travel habits and consider how we can travel more meaningfully and with more respect for both the environment and the destinations we visit.