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Yellow police tape surrounds Victor Crowell Park in Middlesex Borough, New Jersey, as an escaped 4-foot alligator continues to evade capture. In the past week, the escapee has been spotted at least a half dozen times in Ambrose Brook, a conduit between Lake Creighton and the Raritan River.
Wolverines will likely soon find a home in Colorado – again – as policymakers in the state sort out exactly how they will reintroduce these rare mammals. Much depends on whether the US Fish and Wildlife Service determines that the species will be protected under the Endangered Species Act, a decision it is expected to make in the coming months.
A surgeon performing a biopsy in Australia was shocked to pluck a wriggling worm from her patient’s brain. Neurosurgeon Hari Priya Bandi was investigating the patient’s mysterious symptoms when she happened upon the 3-inch parasite, which she extracted with forceps.
An intensive search over the weekend for the legendary (mythical? elusive? imaginary?) Loch Ness Monster has turned up no specific evidence of Nessie’s existence, so far. Hundreds of researchers, tourists, and assorted Nessie enthusiasts took part in what is being touted as the biggest search for the beast in fifty years.
A king penguin in Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo reached a new career milestone this week as he was promoted to Major General in the King’s Guard of Norway. His new title is a mouthful: Major General Sir Nils Olav III, Baron of the Bouvet Islands.
Aerial surveys of the North Sea show that some seals practice social distancing, probably for the same reason that humans do – to keep disease from spreading. The research appears in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Every year the London Zoo takes on the Herculean task of weighing every one of its 14,000 residents. The zookeepers look like they’re having a blast.
Brights Zoo in East Tennessee has announced the birth of a spotless giraffe, the only one of its kind in the world. Now a month and a half old, the baby girl is six feet tall, healthy, and a very fetching tawny brown.
Police in Pinellas County, Florida are asking residents to please, do not call them if you happen to see manatees flopping around in the water en masse, they’re just having an orgy.
Scientists in Peru discovered a new species of snake in the Andes Mountains, which they promptly named after a movie star whose most famous character happens to hate snakes: Tachymenoides harrisonfordi.
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.
