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Hidden Cave, Hippo Bones Under Welsh Castle May Rewrite History

Previous small-scale excavations at Pembroke Castle have already uncovered evidence of early humans and animals. PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Previous small-scale excavations at Pembroke Castle have already uncovered evidence of early humans and animals. PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
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Hidden Cave, Hippo Bones Under Welsh Castle May Rewrite History

Previous small-scale excavations at Pembroke Castle have already uncovered evidence of early humans and animals. PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Previous small-scale excavations at Pembroke Castle have already uncovered evidence of early humans and animals. PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN

A prehistoric hidden cave and hippo bones found beneath a Welsh castle could transform understanding of ancient life in Britain, researchers said Thursday, calling the site a "once-in-a-lifetime discovery".

Previous small-scale excavations at Pembroke Castle have already uncovered evidence of early humans and animals, including a now extinct hippopotamus that roamed Wales 120,000 years ago.

A major five-year archaeological project led by the University of Aberdeen will investigate the "enormous" cave, accessed via a spiral staircase from the 11th Century castle, AFP reported.

"There is no other site like it in Britain -- it is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery," said Rob Dinnis, who will lead the project.

The cave, previously thought to have been emptied by the Victorians, is now described as "one of the most important prehistoric archives in Britain".

"Despite the limited work done so far, we can already say that Wogan Cavern is a truly remarkable site," Dinnis said in a statement.

"Not only is there extremely rare evidence for early Homo sapiens, there are also hints at even earlier human occupation, probably by Neanderthals."

"We have also found hippo bones, which probably date to the last interglacial period, around 120,000 years ago," he added.

Earlier finds have revealed bones of mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer and wild horse, alongside stone tools and evidence of human occupation across multiple periods.

With larger-scale excavation due to resume in May, the researchers hope to gain "insights into past climate change, extinct species, and the multiple periods when humans called the cave their home".

They said the site could chart a long sequence of human activity, from hunter-gatherers after the last Ice Age around 11,500 years ago to some of Britain's earliest Homo sapiens between 45,000 and 35,000 years ago, and possibly even earlier Neanderthal presence.

"Wogan Cavern provides a unique chance to use all the scientific techniques now available to archaeologists," said professor Kate Britton of the University of Aberdeen.

"Because the bones are well preserved, we can learn a lot about past environments and ecosystems," she added.

At Pembroke Castle, staff say the discovery adds a new dimension to the site's long history as a medieval fortress and birthplace of Henry VII in 1457.

"This is incredibly exciting news for everyone at the castle," said castle manager Jon Williams.

"We are thrilled that work on this wonderful cave will continue."

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Varieties

From Poplars to Pistachios, Afghans Rediscover the Value of Trees

A forest near Qargha lake in Paghman district, Kabul province. Wakil KOHSAR / AFP
A forest near Qargha lake in Paghman district, Kabul province. Wakil KOHSAR / AFP
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From Poplars to Pistachios, Afghans Rediscover the Value of Trees

A forest near Qargha lake in Paghman district, Kabul province. Wakil KOHSAR / AFP
A forest near Qargha lake in Paghman district, Kabul province. Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

Under the shade of recently planted poplars in northeastern Afghanistan, village leader Ghulam Ali Poya is proud to see residents rediscover the value of trees after years of wartime deforestation.

"There were forests of pistachio trees," he told AFP, gesturing to the bare mountains that surround Char Bagh's mud homes.

"During the conflicts and the civil war, they were destroyed; no one could stop the logging."

From the 1979 Soviet invasion until the fall of the first Taliban government in the early 2000s, "around 50 percent of Afghanistan's forest cover was lost", said Mohammad Nasir Shalizi, a researcher at North Carolina State University.

In eastern Afghanistan, timber smuggling to Pakistan drove massive logging, while in the more arid central and northern "pistachio belt", residents used wood for heating and cooking.

But in the last two decades, deforestation has slowed "substantially", Shalizi said.

Forest cover has increased 35 percent nationwide since 2011, according to the National Statistics and Information Authority, though just 2.5 percent of Afghanistan was forested in 2025 and cover is still shrinking in some areas.

But experts say communities are working to improve forest cover. Both the US-backed government, in place until 2021, and the current Taliban administration have supported tree-planting campaigns.

In Char Bagh, the Aga Khan Development Network funded a kilometer-square grove which includes poplars, paulownias, pomegranates and persimmons.

- 'A model' -

The land belongs to farmer Bas Begum Ahmadi, who hopes to sell fruit and homemade jam, but it is also open to the community of 350 families.

"Having these trees makes me feel good; my environment is green, and we breathe fresh air," said the 45-year-old, who tends the trees with her husband to support their four children.

This "micro-forest" follows Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki's principles: dense planting of mostly local species of varying heights.

It is noticeably cooler than the surrounding bare fields and offers twigs for stove fuel and leaves that feed livestock.

Micro-forests "restore ecosystems, improve soil fertility, help climate resilience, and support community livelihood," said Parisa Malikzada, Afghanistan agriculture coordinator for the organization, which has planted 500 micro-forests in seven provinces.

Poya said the forest, next to a river, prevents soil erosion during flooding and offers "a model for people".

"Everyone comes to have a look, and they'd like to have one too," he told AFP.

In Afghanistan, where many places are hard to reach and the state has limited funds, community-based forest management is the most effective approach to reforestation, experts told AFP.

- Penalties for tree cutting -

Afghan authorities have set a goal of planting 200 million trees between 2023 and 2030, relying partly on NGOs, the United Nations and the private sector.

"Last year, the target was eight million, but in the end, 17 million were planted," said Rohullah Amin, head of climate change at the General Environmental Protection Agency, where he has worked for more than a decade.

This year's goal is nine million.

Challenges include selecting native, climate-adapted species, water scarcity, and livestock damaging saplings.

Some forests have struggled with "lack of care or water", Amin acknowledged, including one site where drought killed 70 percent of the planted pines.

In some places, tribal councils protect forests and penalize residents who damage them. Elsewhere, "forest management associations" run by elected villagers and farmers have been set up.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has helped them plant five million trees since 2019, according to its climate change chief, Muhammad Safi.

- Birds coming back -

The government created nurseries to grow local species in places such as Paghman on state land on Kabul's outskirts.

Head gardener Mahmood Khwajazada carefully tends almond, pine nut and walnut trees, as well as deodar cedars, for distribution nationwide.

"Our Prophet said, 'Even if you have only one day left, plant a tree," he told AFP.

In Charikar, northeastern Afghanistan, where thousands of saplings were planted this year along streets, in parks and on hillsides, the municipality sees "a change" in people's attitude towards trees.

Ahmad Khalid Sabiri, a resident, said he volunteered to help plant "because it's beneficial for the environment".

Experts said more work is needed to protect the remaining old growth, as well as planting in forests rather than just in urban areas.

"There's good work happening, but far more needs to be done" to address the impact of global warming, according to Apoorva Oza, head of climate change at the Aga Khan Foundation.

In Char Bagh, Poya sees a beneficial effect of trees in biodiversity, with the return of long-absent birds.

"Don't build a cage for a bird; plant a tree near your house," he said.

Varieties

Nepali Climber Alive after Six Days Missing on Everest

This photograph taken on May 20, 2026, shows mountaineers on Everest. Furte Sherpa / AFP
This photograph taken on May 20, 2026, shows mountaineers on Everest. Furte Sherpa / AFP
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Nepali Climber Alive after Six Days Missing on Everest

This photograph taken on May 20, 2026, shows mountaineers on Everest. Furte Sherpa / AFP
This photograph taken on May 20, 2026, shows mountaineers on Everest. Furte Sherpa / AFP

A Nepali climbing guide who went missing on Mount Everest for six days and was feared dead has been found alive after crawling back to Base Camp, officials told AFP on Thursday.

The experienced Hillary Dawa Sherpa vanished on the upper reaches of the world's highest mountain early on May 30.

He was found on Thursday morning close to Base Camp by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), a Nepali team that helps set routes on Everest and clean up waste left behind.

"He was crawling down," Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which was overseeing search and rescue efforts, told AFP.

"A helicopter has been sent to bring him to a hospital in Kathmandu."

Climber Chris Thrall, a former British Royal Marine, said he successfully summited the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak with Sherpa around 5:00 pm on May 29.

He posted a video message on Instagram on Wednesday morning what he thought was the death of Sherpa.

He called Sherpa an "absolute gentle giant of a man and a true 'tiger of the mountains'", in a post that assumed the worst.

Thrall described how on May 30 he had begun to descend from Camp Four -- at around 7,950m -- and just below the low-oxygen "death zone".

He said that as he descended, Sherpa stopped.

"He sat down for a rest with his backpack, these guys carry huge loads," he said.

"And I turned and I said, 'Hillary, are you okay, brother?' He said, 'Yes, yes, fine Chris, please go, go!' This is nothing new, you know, I'd go ahead, he'd go ahead."

As Thrall went down he found a Polish climber who was struggling after running out of supplementary oxygen and had suffered frostbite.

"It had been a long summit push. What should have been five days to the summit and back took us 11 days, that's how challenging the conditions were," said Thrall.

"So, do I go back for Sherpa, who's probably going to rock up and be fine, as he has done hundreds of times before?" he added.

"Or do I help my fellow climber, who's got no oxygen, frostbite in his fingers, and obviously you're never far off hypothermia up there?"

Thrall described tough conditions, sharing his oxygen cylinder with the Pole as they descended, taking 11 hours to get to Camp Three. It would usually take two hours.

He said: "I realized we had a really serious situation."

Search teams set out to find Sherpa but he was not seen again until Thursday morning, having made his way down on his own.

The climb was one of the last of the season, meaning that there were few other mountaineers on the peak.

At least five people have died this season -- two Indians and three Nepali climbers involved in Everest preparations.

More than one thousand climbers reached the summit of Everest this season, according to initial tallies by Nepali officials, making it the busiest season on record.

Varieties

Canadian Government Endorses Plan to Move Whales from Shuttered Park to US, Spain

FILE - Beluga whales swim in a tank at Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, June 9, 2023. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
FILE - Beluga whales swim in a tank at Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, June 9, 2023. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
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Canadian Government Endorses Plan to Move Whales from Shuttered Park to US, Spain

FILE - Beluga whales swim in a tank at Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, June 9, 2023. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
FILE - Beluga whales swim in a tank at Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, June 9, 2023. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Canada's government endorsed a plan Wednesday to move the last remaining captive whales from a shuttered theme park in Ontario to aquariums in the United States and Spain — a plan that could save them from mass euthanasia if the deal goes through.

There are 30 belugas and four dolphins left in the Marineland park and zoo in Niagara Falls, Ontario, which announced in early 2023 that it was for sale and closed to the public in late summer 2024. No sale has yet been announced, The Associated Press reported.

The former tourist attraction has since worked to move the park’s remaining animals and sell the sprawling property near Horseshoe Falls.

In 2024, Marineland was found guilty under Ontario’s animal cruelty laws in a case related to its care of three black bears.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has issued the first batch of permits to move the whales and is set to issue different permits closer to the move, expected to take place in the next few months. It recently issued permits for the whales and dolphins under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, otherwise known as CITES permits.

“I think this is a positive step forward,” Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson said. “There’s still more work to be done, but it’s a step forward.”

Twenty whales — 19 belugas and one killer whale — have died at Marineland since 2019, according to provincial government data obtained through freedom-of-information laws and official statements.

Thompson's office said the ministry is coordinating with the Canada Border Services Agency, Health Canada and other ministries to “ensure all requirements are met for a safe and timely transfer.”

Marineland said it is “fully committed to the safe and timely relocation of our beluga whales, and we want to be clear: this is our top priority.”

“Relocating these animals is an extraordinarily complex undertaking,” the park said in a statement.

The Canadian government has not decided whether it will provide taxpayer dollars to help move the whales.

The belugas and dolphins are set to head to five marine parks: Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, SeaWorld locations in San Antonio and San Diego, and Oceanografic Valencia.

Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, where Marineland sent five belugas to in 2021, will also help with the move, the American consortium said.

Marineland's founder, John Holer, died in 2018. His wife, Marie Holer, took over operations of the park and put it up for sale in 2023, before she died in 2024.

The estate has been working since to dismantle the park, which features roller-coasters and other rides.