Researchers dig ‘spas’ and install ‘saunas’ in ACT wetlands to give green and golden bell frogs the best chance of survival

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Scientists have reintroduced green and golden bell frogs to the Australian Capital Territory for the first time since the species became locally extinct four decades ago.

The first cohort of 25 frogs was released on Tuesday morning, a milestone for conservation of the animals, whose numbers have been devastated by the chytrid fungal disease that has wiped out 90 amphibian species in 50 years.

Queensland government says it has already killed six of the 10 dingoes seen near the body of 19-year-old Piper James

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Dingo experts have said a decision to kill a 10-strong pack of the animals linked with the death of Canadian tourist Piper James on K’gari could push the island’s population towards extinction while doing little to protect humans.

The Queensland government revealed on Sunday it had already killed six of the pack seen around the body of the 19-year-old in a move that has angered the island’s traditional owners who have said they were not consulted.

Some regions of the continent have enough ice to push up sea levels by 15 metres if they all melt, but researchers don’t yet fully understand the consequences

On one side of Dr Ben Galton-Fenzi’s view across the vast Totten ice shelf, the sun sat low on the Antarctic horizon. On the other, a full moon.

The ice shelf is “flat and white”, says Galton-Fenzi. “If there’s cloud around, you lose the horizon.”

Blazes in NSW and Tasmania have already led to a firefighter losing his life and close to 40 homes being destroyed as an ominous fire season begins

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Australians should “expect the unexpected” this bushfire season amid dangerous conditions, experts have warned, after a severe start that saw a firefighter killed and homes destroyed in several states.

Bushfires at Koolewong and Bulahdelah in New South Wales destroyed 20 homes and a natural disaster has been declared in several local government areas, while wind-driven fires at Dolphin Sands in eastern Tasmania razed 19 houses and damaged dozens more.

Destruction wrought by swine-borne disease is thinning the canopy of bunya pine forests and the problem is getting worse, experts say

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High up in an ancient conifer rainforest, at what was once the largest Indigenous gathering place in eastern Australia, there is sunlight where there shouldn’t be.

Among the eponymous pine trees of the Bunya Mountains, in south-east Queensland, a deadly disease has taken root. Walking through the forest, Adrian Bauwens, a Wakka Wakka man, says pockets of sunlight have replaced what is “usually quite a dense canopy where’s it’s quite heavily shaded”.

Exclusive: Tshering Tobgay says his country is doing ‘a lot more than our fair share’ on climate and west must cut emissions ‘for the happiness of your people’

The wealthy western countries most responsible for the climate crisis would improve the health and happiness of their citizens by prioritising environmental conservation and sustainable economic growth, according to the prime minister of Bhutan, the world’s first carbon-negative nation.

Bhutan, a Buddhist democratic monarchy and biodiversity hotspot situated high in the eastern Himalayas, is among the world’s most ambitious climate leaders thanks to its people’s connection with nature and a strong political focus on improving gross national happiness rather than just GDP, Tshering Tobgay told the Guardian.