Welcome to my blog.
April is a busy month for a certain dog on South Padre Island, Texas. Magpie, a mixed breed rescue pup just over a year old, is on her new job of sniffing out endangered sea turtle nests buried in the sand.
Researchers in Sweden dosed dozens of salmon with cocaine and a cocaine derivative, then set them loose on Lake Vättern to see how they behave when hopped up. Their study appears in Current Biology.
Steven Lawyer spends a lot of time with his pet parrot, Bebe. They’ve been on 500-mile bike rides together, gone skydiving (Bebe strapped to a backpack), and lately, scuba diving in the Bahamas.
Something profound happened to Americans in the early part of the 20th century, right around the time they had erased the passenger pigeon from existence. The destruction we had brought to these and other avians led to a wake up call, giving rise to avian conservation – and to environmentalism itself.
A young lion that went missing after being sold – illegally – as a cub has been reunited with his parents after a year and a half separation. His ordeal began in Quebec, where the feline family had been separated after a roadside zoo was shut down.
A critically endangered African penguin is making his debut at the New York Aquarium, joining his parents and 35 other penguins at the Coney island aquarium’s Sea Cliffs habitat.
This week a committee of Trump administration officials voted unanimously to exempt the oil and gas industry from requirements of the Endangered Species Act in the Gulf of Mexico. The exemption – which will lift protections for endangered whales, turtles, and other species – is being invoked now for “national security.”
This week, a sea turtle hospital in Florida released a rare Kemp’s ridley sea turtle back into the sea after its months-long rehab. The turtle, which the Loggerhead Marinelife Center named Amelie, had had her right forelimb amputated after a traumatic injury. The vets will monitor Amelie’s travels from space.
A small pack of dogs were spotted walking together this month along the highway in Changchun, the capital of China’s north-east Jilin province. According to multiple media reports, it appears the seven dogs had escaped from kidnappers who were taking them to a dog-meat shop.
The crowd at Portland International Airport is not necessarily in the security line waiting for TSA clearance. It could be the throng that assembles around the airport's therapy animals: llamas and alpacas wearing wacky costumes.
Researchers have known for years that some birds use discarded cigarette butts to build nests. A new study has compiled evidence to show what’s behind this behavior: the butts keep parasites at bay.
A group of 20 animal rights activists were arrested this week for trespassing following their rescue operation at Ridglan Farms, a beagle-breeding facility in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. Among them was 62-year-old actress Alexandra Paul, best known for her role in the 1990s TV series “Baywatch.”
Move over, Burmese python. There’s another invasive species chomping through Florida: the Nile monitor, a big omnivorous lizard naturally found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Like the invasive python, the Nile monitor has been on the loose in Florida for decades, likely escapees from the exotic pet trade.
A young male fox snuck aboard a cargo ship in Southampton, England and, two weeks later, finds himself in New York City. On his arrival the US Customs and Border Protection and government wildlife officials delivered the sly stowaway to the Bronx Zoo, where his fate is being decided.
An amateur soccer match in Istanbul was interrupted last week when a low-flying seagull collided with the ball and crumbled to the field in an unconscious heap. Yurdum Spor's team captain, Gani Catan, astonished everyone by performing CPR chest compressions on the stunned bird until it was revived.
A crystallographer in Spain wondered what would happen if chimpanzees were shown crystals of various shapes and sizes. The results were surprising, and Juan Manuel García-Ruiz of the Donostia International Physics Center believes the findings reveal something about our own ancestry.
A macaque monkey named Punch has an international legion of fans after videos of the 7-month-old being bullied by other monkeys and rejected by his mother went viral in recent weeks.
Italy might ban horsemeat soon as its legislature redefines equine animals – horses, donkeys, and mules – as pets, prohibiting their slaughter and use for food. If approved, the new law would impose jail terms of up to three years and fines of up to €100,000 ($120,000 USD) for the slaughter of equines.
A wolfdog named Nazgul crashed the Olympics last week when he escaped his enclosure and chased down a pair of skiers just as they crossed the finish line. Nazgul had slipped out of his indoor kennel, then squeezed past the eight-foot-tall fence separating him from Olympic glory, then dashed into the race.
