Welcome to my blog.
All in Animals
No one was happier to hear the news that scientists had “resurrected” a long-extinct wolf species than the US Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum.
Although the company Colossal Biosciences did not actually clone a dire wolf, which went extinct more than 10,000 years ago, Secretary Burgum was quick to leap on the idea that “de-extinction” can make the Endangered Species List obsolete.
A volcano near Anchorage is expected to erupt soon, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Elevated levels of volcanic gas emissions, increased earthquake activity, and ground deformations all point to the likelihood that Mount Spurr, about 80 miles west of the capital, will blow its stack in the coming weeks or months.
A biotech company in Dallas says it has brought back an extinct animal that last walked the Earth nearly 13,000 years ago. Colossal Biosciences, the startup that’s also trying to resurrect the extinct wooly mammoth and the dodo, announced this week that they’ve brought three dire wolves into the world.
A pair of Galapagos tortoises, the two oldest residents at the Philadelphia Zoo, have become first-time parents to at least four healthy hatchlings. The female, named Mommy, and her mate Abrazzo are both estimated to be about 100 years old.
In December 2023, marine biologists in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf came upon an unusual sight: an octopus riding on the back of a shark. The team was looking for “workups,” or feeding frenzies, according to University of Auckland professor Rochelle Constantine.
It took Guinness World Records several months of counting, but finally it’s official: last fall the German town of Regensburg hosted the largest gathering of dachshunds ever. An estimated 897 of the long-eared, stump-legged wieners paraded through the medieval town while their humans marched alongside, many dressed in festive top hats and lederhosen.
A US influencer in Australia was filmed snatching a wild baby wombat from its mother last week, and the resultant outrage nearly got the woman deported. Samantha Strable of Montana, a self-described “outdoor enthusiast and hunter” who goes by the name Sam Jones on Instagram, has since issued a (tepid) mea culpa of the incident.
It takes patience, luck, and a lot of skill to capture memorable images of wildlife, where subjects tend to be in constant motion. Photographer Maruša Puhek of Slovenia has all three attributes, but her prizewinning shot of a pair of deer galloping across a snow-covered orchard was the result of a happy accident: she didn’t have a zoom lens with her for the money shot.
In January, birder and photographer Bill Diller photographed an odd sight: a brilliant orange-red snowy owl, a creature that is normally snow-white with a few flecks of brown. The colorful bird, seen in Huron County, Michigan, has since been dubbed Creamsicle or Rusty by other owl enthusiasts – but no one knows what caused the unusual plumage.
A pet deer has been confiscated in Pennsylvania. Tammy Shiery of Fayette County says that she and several neighbors raised the 2-year-old deer from the time they found him as a fawn, but the Pennsylvania Game Commission says that’s illegal.
Last week the Centers for Disease Control released some startling information about the bird flu virus, namely that it can be spread between cats and humans. The data appeared briefly online, then vanished.
A giant schnauzer named Monty with a pronounced beard and a jaunty gait wins Best In Show this week at the Westminster Dog Show. The 5-year-old had reached the final round in the previous two years; he finally won it all, besting an impressive field of competitors.
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington announced the birth this week of a rare, endangered Malayan tapir calf. The new arrival is only the second tapir born at the zoo in its 120-year history.
A rare winter storm last week hit Florida’s panhandle, catching many humans unprepared. Also unaccustomed to the frigid temps were hundreds of endangered sea turtles, whose metabolism shut down when their habitat gets too frosty.
Last year zoology students at Berkeley were surprised to learn that every living mammal indigenous to California had been captured on film except for one, the Mount Lyell shrew. That omission became a mission for Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes, along with wildlife photographer Vishal Subramanyan, who ventured out into the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains to find the elusive shrew.
The miniature donkey called Perry – short for Pericles – died last week in Palo Alto at the age of 30. Perry’s claim to fame was as the model for the gabby character “Donkey” in the movie Shrek.
The National Zoo in Washington shut down this week when five inches of snow blanketed the capital, but a couple of its residents were delighted by the diversion. Qing Bao and Bao Li, the giant pandas who just arrived here, cavorted like schoolchildren in the white stuff.
The Wild Felid Advocacy Center in Shelton, Washington remains closed after20 of their big cats succumbed to the avian flu last December The sanctuary home to rescued cougars, bobcats, and other wild cats, announced the news on Facebook.
“Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland!” Thusly Shakespeare described the Icelandic sheepdog more than 400 years ago (Henry V, Act II). Now the UK’s Kennel Club will formally recognize the breed, and it’s high time. Long before Shakespeare, the dog was celebrated in the Icelandic Sagas a thousand years ago.
The winner of the UK’s ugliest dog contest is Muppet, a 12-year-old Chinese crested pooch from Peterborough. Bev Nicholson, the dog’s proud owner, says Muppet is a “wonky little rescue dog” that is “beautiful inside and out.”
