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Its scientific name (Felis margarita margarita) sounds like a Cinco de Mayo happy-hour special. Its mating cry sounds like a barking dog. Other than that, we don’t know much about the African sand cat, even though it was first described more than 150 years ago.
Cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar has been dead for thirty years but at least part of his legacy lives on in the form of voracious hippopotamuses, which the Colombian government now has to deal with.
Researchers from the University of Utah have been studying the rare Colorado checkered whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis neotesselatus), in particular how living on a US army base affects the little reptiles. Turns out the lizards stress-eat when they hear loud noises.
A young female osprey made a shocking transatlantic journey from Scotland to Barbados recently, becoming the first UK osprey ever observed in the Americas. The intrepid bird had been tagged last summer in Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park in Renfrewshire.
The York Police Department in York, Maine had to retire their comfort dog, Yukon the husky, after only five months on the job. Yukon called it quits after suffering from seizures brought on by stress.
The Apuan Alps in Tuscany, Italy, is world-renowned for its marble mines, with about 160 active quarries in the Massa Carrara and Lucca regions. The quarries, many of them decommissioned, are also home to the endangered Italian alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris apuana), whose recent discovery here has mobilized the locals.
The National Park Service in Kula, Hawaii, announced this week that they will soon be releasing millions of mosquitoes in Haleakalā Park in an effort to combat the avian malaria that is endangering forest birds.
It’s been a banner week for zoo escapes. First up, a young male zebra named Sero busted out of his enclosure at the Children's Grand Park Zoo in Korea. Sero was born at the zoo in 2021 but apparently wondered about the outside world that supplied all the gawking hordes and went on the lam.
This week Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo announced the arrival of its newest resident, a five-foot-seven, 108-pound female giraffe. Her mother is 8-year-old Zola, the father is Jawara, 14.
A dog in Caseville, Michigan happened upon a Fitbit in her owner’s bedroom. Being a dog, she sized up the wireless fitness tracker and decided the device was edible.
This week Wired questions the ethics of the next big thing in food production, insect farming. The nascent industry already slaughters trillions of insects each year, and the practice is expected to expand exponentially. But we don’t even know if the bugs feel pain.
The US Defense Department is funding experiments on ferrets to determine if exposure to radio frequency waves could be the cause of “Havana Syndrome,” a mysterious suite of symptoms that affected hundreds of government personnel in recent years.
This week the American Kennel Club crowned the French Bulldog as the most popular dog breed in America, a surprising elevation downgrading the Labrador Retriever to second place. The AKC’s ranking is based on its registration statistics.
Researchers in the UK have spent hours watching great apes – gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and chimps – spinning on ropes and vines, apparently internationally inducing dizziness. Of course this inspired a study, “Great Apes Reach Momentary Altered Mental States By Spinning,” published in the journal Primates.
The European woodcock spends a lot of time on the forest floor, and so much of its plumage is mottled brown, beige, and black – perfect camouflage for foraging in the leaf litter. But underneath this unassuming bird is a flashy secret: tailfeathers that are whiter than any ever measured.
An African serval cat tested positive for cocaine after escaping a traffic stop in Hamilton County, Ohio, and is now recuperating at the Cincinnati Zoo. The big cat bolted after its owner was pulled over by police in January; it leapt into a tree, where he was rescued by Cincinnati Animal CARE.
The Endangered Species Act turns fifty this year and it has had a pretty good run. Thank Richard Nixon who launched the ESA (along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act).
There’s a class of chemicals used to manufacture all kinds of consumer products that, in humans, are linked to cancers, reduced immune function, and other ailments. A new study reveals that the nasty pollutants are causing problems in nonhumans as well, and they’re everywhere.
Researchers in Tanzania's Ukaguru Mountains have stumbled upon a new frog species notable for its silence. The Ukaguru spiny-throated reed frog (Hyperolius ukaguruensis) does not croak, sing, or ribbit.
The Daurian redstart, a migratory songbird living throughout much of Asia, has learned to avoid its cheeky nemesis, the cuckoo, by moving closer to human developments. The cuckoo, a notorious “brood parasite,” lays its eggs in other birds’ nests so that it doesn’t have to expend resources on raising its young.
