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The world’s oldest bird, a Laysan albatross named Wisdom, is still strutting her stuff after more than 70 years on Midway Atoll. She has outlived the average life expectancy of seabirds of her kind by a couple decades.
Scientists from Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) and MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory believe they have decoded, or at least discovered, the “sperm whale phonetic alphabet,” revealing a rich lexicon not previously observed in whale communication. The research is published in Nature Communications.
A Labrador retriever in Taiwan named Roger couldn’t cut it as a drug-sniffing police dog – apparently too playful to be a cop – but he has since emerged as a rescue dog and something of a media star.
There is something about ginger cats. They tend to be more confident, more outgoing, and generally more cheeky – especially the toms. BBC News asked biologist and cat behavior expert Roger Tabor if there was a reason for ginger adventurousness.
The cicadas have arrived. Slightly earlier than predicted, but the first bugs have been reported in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In the coming weeks, two distinct bug broods, which usually emerge in separate years but in 2024 their disparate cycles are in sync, will infest the US southeast and midwest.
The Australian animated series Bluey has pre-school fans all over the world. Plenty of adults love the show too, and so do their dogs for some reason. People magazine consulted with Amanda Farah, the National Training & Behavior Coordinator for Best Friends Animal Society, to break down why the show has become known as “dog entertainment.”
A research team in the Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia have been observing a Sumatran orangutan they call Rakus. In June 2022, Rakus was seen with a wound on his face, probably something he picked up fighting with other males.
Almost all of the giant pandas on loan from China have been returned to their homeland as the loan agreements expire, with the last US facility, Zoo Atlanta, scheduled to return their gentle giants by year’s end. But this week the San Diego Zoo has announced it will soon welcome a new pair of pandas, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao.
The Tennoji Zoo in Osaka, Japan has housed a resident hippopotamus named Gen-chan since 2017. Gen-chan, acquired from Mexico, was believed to be a male specimen all this time. However …
A group of animal cognition experts gathered by New York University are grappling with a profound question: Which animals are sentient, with at least the capacity for conscious experience?
A juvenile, 500-pound elephant seal named Emerson has claimed a beach for his own on Vancouver Island. Authorities have repeatedly relocated the seal to areas free of rubbernecking humans, but Emerson repeatedly returns.
There was a time when Earth Day was a day of protest, specifically of the impacts of 150 years of industrial development. On the first Earth Day in 1970, 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population at the time — mobilized to call for greater protections for the planet.
Republicans and Democrats have come together in a bid to end taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs and cats. The Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste Act (yes, the “PAAW” Act) will, if enacted, prevent the National Institutes of Health from conducting or supporting research that causes significant pain and distress to our beloved furry friends.
A family-friendly zoo in England has an R-rated problem: five African grey parrots that curse a blue streak. The foul-mouthed birds are spicing up the proceedings at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in Friskney.
A 34-year-old elephant named Ali at Florida’s Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has just undergone an intense, drawn out dental procedure to remove his tusk. Ali was once part of the menagerie at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California; he was donated to the Florida zoo in 1997.
Here’s an idea for getting humans involved in helping other species: sell them attractive bracelets that come with the ability to track a real animal in the wild using an app. That idea has been realized by Fahlo, the brainchild of co-founders Carter Forbes and D.J. Gunter.
A doglike, headless robot named “Aurora” has been hired to work at Fairbanks International Airport in Alaska. Her job: to spook the migratory birds and other wildlife that can disrupt operations on and near the tarmac.
Prognosticating rodent Punxsutawney Phil may not have seen this one coming: last week he and wife, Phyllis, became new parents, to at least two baby groundhogs. The births surprised a member of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, who discovered the arrivals only when he came to feed the parents fruit and vegetables.
Angus, a corn snake who went missing from his Spennymoor, UK home last year, recently turned up on a surprised neighbor’s roof. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reckons Angus had been dropped from the sky by a helpful (or terrified) crow.
The zookeepers at London Zoo are gushing like new parents, because in a way they are. “To say we’re happy about this new arrival would be a huge understatement,” says primate section manager Kathryn Sanders. “We’ve all been walking around grinning from ear to ear.”
