In the Arctic there has been a change in the distribution of both red and arctic foxes. Red foxes have expanded their territory to the North as the climate has warmed, at the expense of arctic foxes.

Due to a lack of observations of interactions between the two fox species, biologists have been unsure whether the loss of arctic fox territory was due to direct competition, or if they were indirectly competing for the same food. Rodnikova et al have now reported observing a red fox intruding upon a arctic fox den in 2007.

Remember Ubuntu Furry Remix? There's a new version out (10.04) with an art software focus.

The distribution ships with GIMP Paint Studio (package) – a set of brushes and presets intended to improve the free image editor's usefulness for designers and artists. Support for the Wacom Bamboo and many other graphic tablets is included, as are five more furry wallpapers.

Ubuntu 10.04 is a long term release, with full support through 2013.

The Moskovskij Komsomolets has a two-page article [translation, photo] about furry fandom.

The article spends a lot of time on fursuiting, but also covers the history of the fandom, its base in art and animation, and the controversy of its sexual and spiritual aspects.

So far, reader comments [translation] are mixed; some call it "one of the few articles on [Russian furry fandom] that deserve attention" and feel the story was "positive and truthful," while others see it as "reminiscent of an attempt to present a summary of War and Peace."

The Russian WikiFur (ВикиФур; translation) today passed the 1000-article mark.

12,600 edits have been made by editors since it was founded in September 2008 by Wikipedia administrator OckhamTheFox. Other lead contributors include EvilCat, Leo Rex, Shnatsel, Dokatamaru, Zhuravlik and NightFox.

While most popular in English, WikiFur has editions in sixteen different languages plus two partner projects, totaling almost 15,000 articles. A fifth of visitors use non-English browsers.

Russian furs now have another event to budget for besides the long-running Rusfurrence.

The Summer Furry Conference [translation] will be held 8-11 July at the Korobitsyno Cascade, on the Karelian Isthmus linking Russia and Finland. The hotel opened in 2008 and boasts "comfortable rooms of a European level."

Event organizers expect to attract 70-100 in the first year, including a few from Finland and Ukraine, though there's room for up to 130. At press time 62 had registered interest, most from St. Petersburg or Moscow.

A team led by Russian WikiFur administrator Shnatsel have released the first beta of a furry-themed version of Linux distribution Ubuntu.

The collaboration includes a boot skin, several wallpapers by Kosh (Alexander Faolchu), icons, a Metacity themes, a GIMP splash screen, and eight sets of smilies. A full GTK+ theme and logon screen are scheduled for future builds.

A prior effort to create such a distribution — Furbuntu — appears to have stalled in 2008.

The Financial Times has an intriguing report on Moscow’s 35,000 stray dogs.

Here's an article about a Russian family who adopted a fox cub. Although the article makes the fox and his behaviour sound quite cute, and the tiny pic is certainly pretty, foxes are, of course, not a domesticated animal and generally do not make good pets.

Some climbers in Siberia, found a mummified paw, which they claim belonged to a Yeti. Russian scientists are working to verify the claim.

Link to the story on the BBC
Story on another news site

Roman Kunikov, a Russian airplane designer, has engineered a pair of boots which can propel a human at speeds of up to twenty-five miles per hour - faster than an Olympic sprinter.

Powered by a pair of gasoline-fired piston engines, the simple device drives the wearer foward with each step, is adjustable for different user weights, and has a run time of about 25 minutes.

Siberian and Amur tigers have never had it easy, but with the fall of communism and a lack of government interest in their protection, the numbers are dropping off fast. With few jobs available in the far east of Russia, hunting and poaching are a new way of life. Locals are baffled at Western conservationists interest in an animal so threatening to them, and the few nature reserves are stops for them to take caviar, deer and even tigers. Though education is continuing, especially for the young, to encourage them to have pride in the big cats of Russia's taiga, the future range of the Amur and Siberian tigers might end up behind zoo bars.

According to NewScientist:
"Fires in eastern Russia are threatening the last stronghold of the Siberian tiger, according to WWF."

Apparently, Six hundred square kilometers are ablaze near an area densely populated by this endangered species. The WWF have six fire brigades attempting to control the fires.

For more information, check out NewScientist's article