Welcome to my blog.
The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles has been trapping hapless wildlife in its sticky, deadly asphalt for tens of thousands of years. The latest victims are a flock of Canada geese that got sucked in; most of the birds perished, but two are clinging to life.
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.
Researchers at Berkeley have been looking into the drinking habits of hummingbirds. Turns out the little birds get a lot of alcohol in their diets, but they tend to moderate their intake.
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.
Scientists have revived roundworms – nematodes – that were buried in Siberian permafrost for 46,000 years. The tiny creatures survived their big sleep in a state of suspended animation called cryptobiosis, a survival tactic deployed by nematodes, tardigrades, and rotifers.
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.
Hangzhou Zoo in eastern China felt the need to deny allegations, made on social media, that their Malayan sun bears are in fact humans wearing bear costumes.
A Japanese man spent two million yen (about $15K) on a terrifyingly realistic dog suit. He goes only by his dog name, Toco, preferring to keep his human identity a secret.
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.
The mayor of Béziers, a small city on France’s southern coast, has had it with dog poop. Robert Ménard has decreed that dogs walking on the main streets must have their DNA on file with the local government, so that negligent owners can be tracked down and fined when they fail to clean up after Fifi.
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.
The usual method to prevent malaria is to attack mosquitoes that spread the disease to humans, but now scientists are enlisting the little pests as allies. The method, still in the proof-of-concept phase, involves genetic engineering to bolster the mosquito’s immune system with mouse genes.
Urban architecture often uses bird-unfriendly materials – spiky wires and nails, e.g., on ledges, statues, and elsewhere – to discourage birds from nesting and pooping on human structures. It mostly works, but now some clever crows and magpies have been removing the anti-bird bits and are using them to build their nests.
Orcas continue to attack yachts in the Mediterranean, sharks still menace bathers in Australia, and humpback whales are terrorizing fishermen off the Canadian coast. Now comes a new marauder, a sea otter who bullies surfers in Santa Cruz.
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.
