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All in Animals
There is a frog in Central Africa that is the stuff of nightmares. The Wolverine frog, also known as the hairy frog or most appropriately, the horror frog, is armed with retractable “claws,” sports a hairy hide, and to top it off is a bit poisonous.
A stretch of beaches in southeastern Spain were forced to shut down recently after venomous sea creatures known as “blue dragons” made an appearance. The bizarre-looking sea slugs invaded the shore near Guardamar del Segura, prompting local police to temporarily ban swimming.
Wild rabbits with horn-like growths protruding from their heads have been spotted in Colorado. Shocked locals are calling them “zombie bunnies” and “Frankenstein rabbits,” but the weird condition poses no threat to humans or other animals.
A zoo in Denmark has once again disturbed the rest of the world with the way it feeds its meat-eating animals. Aalborg Zoo in North Jutland is asking patrons to donate their pets to the cause.
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.
The 40 or so guests came from Phoenix, Chicago, and New York to attend a lavish quinceañera in Houston, Texas toasting a 15-year-old cat named Holly Marie Gonzalez.
A group of chimpanzees in Guinea-Bissau’s Cantanhez National Park was seen recently sharing a huge piece of fruit containing alcohol. Their little party was being monitored by a research team from the University of Exeter.
No one was happier to hear the news that scientists had “resurrected” a long-extinct wolf species than the US Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum.
Although the company Colossal Biosciences did not actually clone a dire wolf, which went extinct more than 10,000 years ago, Secretary Burgum was quick to leap on the idea that “de-extinction” can make the Endangered Species List obsolete.
A volcano near Anchorage is expected to erupt soon, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Elevated levels of volcanic gas emissions, increased earthquake activity, and ground deformations all point to the likelihood that Mount Spurr, about 80 miles west of the capital, will blow its stack in the coming weeks or months.
A biotech company in Dallas says it has brought back an extinct animal that last walked the Earth nearly 13,000 years ago. Colossal Biosciences, the startup that’s also trying to resurrect the extinct wooly mammoth and the dodo, announced this week that they’ve brought three dire wolves into the world.
A pair of Galapagos tortoises, the two oldest residents at the Philadelphia Zoo, have become first-time parents to at least four healthy hatchlings. The female, named Mommy, and her mate Abrazzo are both estimated to be about 100 years old.
In December 2023, marine biologists in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf came upon an unusual sight: an octopus riding on the back of a shark. The team was looking for “workups,” or feeding frenzies, according to University of Auckland professor Rochelle Constantine.
It took Guinness World Records several months of counting, but finally it’s official: last fall the German town of Regensburg hosted the largest gathering of dachshunds ever. An estimated 897 of the long-eared, stump-legged wieners paraded through the medieval town while their humans marched alongside, many dressed in festive top hats and lederhosen.
A US influencer in Australia was filmed snatching a wild baby wombat from its mother last week, and the resultant outrage nearly got the woman deported. Samantha Strable of Montana, a self-described “outdoor enthusiast and hunter” who goes by the name Sam Jones on Instagram, has since issued a (tepid) mea culpa of the incident.
It takes patience, luck, and a lot of skill to capture memorable images of wildlife, where subjects tend to be in constant motion. Photographer Maruša Puhek of Slovenia has all three attributes, but her prizewinning shot of a pair of deer galloping across a snow-covered orchard was the result of a happy accident: she didn’t have a zoom lens with her for the money shot.
In January, birder and photographer Bill Diller photographed an odd sight: a brilliant orange-red snowy owl, a creature that is normally snow-white with a few flecks of brown. The colorful bird, seen in Huron County, Michigan, has since been dubbed Creamsicle or Rusty by other owl enthusiasts – but no one knows what caused the unusual plumage.
A pet deer has been confiscated in Pennsylvania. Tammy Shiery of Fayette County says that she and several neighbors raised the 2-year-old deer from the time they found him as a fawn, but the Pennsylvania Game Commission says that’s illegal.
Last week the Centers for Disease Control released some startling information about the bird flu virus, namely that it can be spread between cats and humans. The data appeared briefly online, then vanished.
A giant schnauzer named Monty with a pronounced beard and a jaunty gait wins Best In Show this week at the Westminster Dog Show. The 5-year-old had reached the final round in the previous two years; he finally won it all, besting an impressive field of competitors.
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington announced the birth this week of a rare, endangered Malayan tapir calf. The new arrival is only the second tapir born at the zoo in its 120-year history.
