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Molecular biologists have discovered that thousands of air-quality monitoring stations around the world have been recording more than just air pollution and dust, they are also collecting biodiversity data. Their findings are published in Current Biology.
The desert cat, so elusive in the wild, just increased its population by three, as triplet kittens have arrived at the North Carolina Zoo. Zookeepers don’t know the sex of the new arrivals yet, but they are “small enough to fit into the palm of your hand,” according to the zoo’s press release. “The kittens were born to first-time mother Sahara, 3, and father Cosmo, 9.”
Last month a popular stretch of a Waikiki beach was closed to visitors while a newborn monk seal was nursing. The pup has now weaned, so authorities relocated the six-week-old pup and mom to a more secluded spot.
A deep-ocean survey in the Pacific has revealed about 5,000 previously unknown species, but all of them are about to be disturbed – at least – by several mining projects under review for the area.
The friendly beluga whale known as Hvaldimir — a combo of the Norwegian word for whale (hval) and Vladimir (as in Putin) — has been charming crowds as he swims south down the coast of Norway, where he was first spotted by fishermen in 2019.
Wyoming’s Bear River State Park announced the arrival of a white bison this week, an event that occurs only once in ten million births.
In January we lauded Spike, the 23-year-old chihuahua recognized by Guinness Records as the world’s oldest dog. Now we learn that Spike is a mere puppy compared to Bobi, a Portuguese breed of livestock guardian dog known as the Rafeiro do Alentejo, who clocks in at a whopping 31 years old.
Mundi is a 41-year-old African savannah elephant who spent 35 years alone in a small enclosure at Puerto Rico’s Mayaguez Zoo. The troubled zoo was closed for good this year, and Mundi was relocated to the comparatively luxurious Elephant Refuge North America in Georgia.
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. has announced the arrival of three meerkat pups, born to parents Sadie and Frankie.
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the Fish and Wildlife Service's authorization to kill up to 72 grizzly bears on public land outside of Yellowstone National Park violated federal law. The license to kill had been granted in 2019 as a sop to private grazing operations and would have allowed an unlimited percentage of females to be killed in response to livestock conflict.
There’s one basic rule at Yellowstone National Park: Don’t mess with the wildlife. Do not feed, attempt to ride, pose for selfies, or even approach the animals. And definitely do not try to “help” a bison calf cross a river.
The Oregon Zoo’s condor-breeding program deploys a devious method to monitor conditions in the critically endangered birds’ nests. When an egg is laid, the scientists swap it with a hi-tech fake, a 3D-printed “egg” packed with sensors.
In 2020 the project to reintroduce Tasmanian devils to the Australia mainland – after a 3000-year absence – included a female named Adventurous Lisa. This week the little devil did her part for the cause when she gave birth to three joeys.
Orcas – killer whales – are attacking small boats off the Iberian coast in Europe. There's been at least three apparently coordinated (!) attacks in recent weeks, and scientists believe the aggressive behavior is being taught to, or at least copied by, other pods.
Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk who feathered his nest on Fifth Avenue, has died. He was about 33 years of age and leaves behind his significant other, Octavia.
While birders around the city enjoy the peak spring bird migration, stalking the wilds of Central Park and other green spaces in the five boroughs, tens of thousands of our feathered friends meet their untimely deaths by window collision.
Venture capital firms (including one funded by the CIA) are pouring millions into cloning technology in order to bring back a few long-lost creatures, such as the wooly mammoth, the dodo, and the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger. But if and when these animals are revived, they will be fey imitations, look-alikes that lack essential features of the real article.
Balto was a world famous Siberian husky, the lead sled dog in a 1925 mission that delivered life-saving medicine to Nome, Alaska in abominably frigid conditions. Now scientists have analyzed Balto’s DNA to find out what made him so tough.
Great apes in Africa are threatened by habitat destruction and poaching for bushmeat. Now there’s a new and growing threat: their babies are kidnapped and trafficked to supply a global for pets and zoos.
Over 2,500 dogs from more than 200 breeds vied for the coveted title – Best in Show – but only one would prevail. That would be a petit basset griffon Vendéen named Buddy Holly, the first of his kind to take top honors at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
