Good evening from Malta's magnificent capital city Valletta! ❤️️
Many consider the prickly pear as part of the traditional Maltese landscape. Indeed, it even featured in the Maltese coat of arms, from 1975 to 1988.
However, the prickly pear is not truly a native species to the Maltese islands, much less an endemic one. It is actually a "naturalised alien", and originates from the Americas, very much like potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts, pumpkins, squashes and corn (maize).
In fact, this species arrived in Malta after the year 1492, during the time of the Knights, and was soon adopted by Maltese farmers to reinforce the boundaries around their fields, for the purpose of deterring intruders.
Four young Indigenous children found alive after 40 days alone in the Amazon jungle
Four siblings, aged 13, nine, four and one, have been found alive after surviving a plane crash and spending weeks fending for themselves in Colombia's Amazon jungle.
The four children were the only survivors of a plane crash that unfortunately also claimed their mother's life. The oldest was only 13 when the plane went down on 1 May in southern Colombia, whilst the youngest would mark his first birthday lost under the dense green canopy of trees and vegetation, alive with jaguars, poisonous snakes and other threats.
