A rare two-headed snake took two years to recover from its self-induced injury, but he’s (they’re?) finally back in his exhibit at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas.
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A rare two-headed snake took two years to recover from its self-induced injury, but he’s (they’re?) finally back in his exhibit at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas.
Devastating fires on Maui are still burning and, at latest count, 80 people have been killed in the disaster and hundreds of houses and other buildings are destroyed. The death toll will no doubt rise as the destruction is evaluated and communication can be restored on the island.
The humans in Pinecrest, Florida have devised a novel plan to control the peacock population in town: vasectomies. The big birds – the males can grow over 8 feet long and splay their fantails nearly as much – have stalked into town from Coconut Grove, where large new houses are replacing the trees they once called home.
Wildlife biologists in South Lake Tahoe, California finally captured the big bear known as Hank the Tank, the zaftig black bear that’s been breaking and entering homes for over a year. The bear had supposedly been involved in "152 reports of conflict behavior," among them 28 home invasions.
The infamous Tomohon Market in Indonesia has finally banned its gruesome dog and cat meat trade. Humane Society International and Animal Friends Manado Indonesia rescued 25 dogs and 3 cats from Tomohon’s network of slaughterhouses, but the ban will prevent the deaths of thousands more.
The Summer of Annoying Orcas continues as rambunctious killer whales continue to “play” with sailboats off the Spanish coast by ramming them, sometimes causing real damage. Scientists studying the odd behavior say that young orcas in the pod might be learning how to harass boats by copying their elders.
In the Florida Keys temperature of the seawater topped 100°F, a mark never before recorded, anywhere. The extreme heat is killing off coral reefs at a terrifying rate. The Coral Reef Foundation reports that even their coral-restoration sites – nurseries intended to replenish the depleted reeds – are being cooked to death.
Only a handful of species undergo menopause – six, as far as we know, including humans and some toothed whales, among them orcas. Researchers are investigating why female orcas live for decades beyond their reproductive years, and it could be to keep the peace among younger members of the pod, especially the males.
The staff at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium were surprised to find a newborn baby in their gorilla troop, partly because they hadn’t realized the mother was pregnant, but mostly because they’d thought the mother was a male.
Nassir the gorilla, a 14-year-old male living at the Toronto Zoo, is distracted – by visitors who show him their smartphone pics and videos. The zoo is concerned that too much screen time is not good for the primate.
Most birds are monogamous(ish) and a few species even mate for life, but divorce is also common, and may even be on the rise. A German-Chinese research team analyzed data on 232 bird species to document the avian discontent.
The panda population in South Korea just went up by two, as beloved mom Ai Bao gives birth to twin girls. Officials at the Everland theme park near Seoul said mother and babes are in good health.
“It tastes like chicken,” declared the NPR reporter on her visit to UPSIDE Foods facility in Emeryville, California. As well it should: UPSIDE’s “textured chicken product” is made almost entirely from chicken cells, but no chickens were harmed in the making.
The rambunctious orcas off the coast of Spain continue to harass boats, going so far to disturb a couple of entrants in The Ocean Race last week. More concerning, now come reports of killer whales ramming boats off the coast of Scotland, some 2,000 miles from the original attacks.
Wilson, the 2-year-old Belgian shepherd that helped find four children lost in the Amazon for 40 days, is himself now lost in the rainforest. The Columbian army is desperately searching for the national hero, last seen one month ago.
This week Iceland's government declared there would be no whaling this summer, at least until the end of August. The decision, based on animal welfare concerns, could mean the brutal practice has finally come to an end.
A new species of gliding gecko has been uncovered in northern India. The Mizoram parachute gecko (Gekko mizoramensis), named after the Indian state where it was found, is one of 14 gecko species known to glide between the treetops.
In Los Angeles, a robust population of an invasive species – the red-crowned parrot – is thriving. For once, the aliens are not a threat to native species; in fact, the LA parrots might end up saving their cousins in the wild, where these birds are threatened.
A poppy farm in Slovakia has been taken over by a bevy of swans. Dozens of the big birds “do not intend to leave this area at all,” Baltics News reports, “because the birds have turned into ‘drug addicts.’”
he covid lockdown restricted the movement of humans – by a lot – but let loose animals expand their travel habits, also by a lot. A new study in the journal Science has the numbers.
