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The US Fish and Wildlife Service had big plans to cull hundreds of thousands of barred owls in an effort to keep them away from the habitats of an endangered species, the northern spotted owl. Now those plans face bipartisan pushback in Congress.
A 120-pound Turkish Kangal shepherd named Ziva survived the July 4 Texas floods, but only after a harrowing 16 hours trapped in a gully. The big dog owes his life to his GPS collar, which his owner accessed – from hundreds of miles away – to lead to his rescue.
This summer, a bald eagle in northwestern Wisconsin took flight after a long rehab for a leg injury. The key to the bird’s recovery was a first-of-its-kind skin graft treatment normally used for humans. The skin came from a North Atlantic cod.
Conservationists in southeastern Australia have figured out a non-intrusive way to monitor platypus in the wild. To navigate the waterways where the aquatic mammals live, they’ve trained paddleboard-riding dogs to sniff out the critters without disturbing them.
Firemen in Lacey, Washington were tasked this week with saving the life of a puppy, not from a burning building but from the dog’s proximity to fentanyl.
The US military is working on ways to prevent airplane-bird collisions, an expensive and dangerous consequence of basing operations in areas with wildlife. Now the Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center has hit on a promising solution: wheeled drone vehicles that look like coyotes.
The USDA revoked a federal tree-planting grant in Indianapolis earlier this year because it ran afoul of the government’s anti-DEI initiatives. The problem was that the project pushed for diversity, which is to say biodiversity … of trees.
Flooding in central Texas this week has killed at least 80 people with many still missing, and the rain has not yet let up. The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Watch alert through at least Monday evening.
A 70-year-old Egyptian man traveling on a tourist visa attempted to smuggle more than 100 pounds of undeclared food in his luggage as he entered the country at Dulles International Airport. That was bad, but the man, Hamed Ramadan Bayoumy Aly Marie, made matters much worse when he kicked the dog that had sniffed out his contraband, a 5-year-old beagle named Freddie.
After months of rehabilitation, 17 sea turtles were released this week into the waters off Cape Cod. The loggerhead, green, and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles – all victims of hypothermia and its attendant ailments – had been convalescing at the New England Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital in Quincy, MA.
Each spring, billions of brown moths fly more than 600 miles in southeastern Australia to escape summer heat, to a small clutch of cool caves located in the Australian Alps. They find their way by using the stars, then return to their breeding grounds in the autumn to reproduce, then they die.
A New York judge this week ruled that dogs can be treated as members of a person’s “immediate family” and as such, a dog’s family can sue for emotional damages if the dog is harmed.
Marine biologists in the north Pacific have observed orcas taking the killer whale version of a spa day: using kelp to massage each other. The behavior, which involves fashioning a tubular piece of seaweed and using it for a planned purpose, marks the first time a marine animal has been seen using tools.
The pangolin is easy to catch and nice to eat. This week the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed federal protections for several pangolin species in Asia and Africa. Listing under the Endangered Species Act would give law enforcement resources to protect the world's most trafficked mammal.
When we last checked in on the axolotl, the bizarre little amphibian was beset on all sides by threats to its existence. Climate change, pollution, a shrinking habitat, and especially the exotic pet trade have all conspired to bring the creature to the brink of extinction.
Caldwell Cigar Company has just released a new line of smokes they’re calling “Lost & Found Give A F*CK.” It sounds aggressive but they’re not trying to scare aware customers, they’re actually helping out homeless pet owners.
38-year-old dolphin named Allie has given birth at Brookfield Zoo Chicago, her labor lasting a bit over an hour. The new calf weighs an estimated 35 pounds and is nearly four feet long.
The first, and perhaps only, corgi to become a canine cop is based in Weifang, Shandong province in eastern China. The 1 ½ year old short-legged dog named Fuzai will do anything for food treats, for good or ill.
A pair of brown bears – brothers previously stuck in a cage outside an Azerbaijan restaurant for years – have been rescued and shipped to an animal sanctuary on the Isle of Wight.
An ostrich farm in British Columbia is under court order to cull the flock – or wobble, in ostrich-speak – as the birds have come in contact with a strain of the deadly avian flu virus, H5N1.
