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.
Welcome to my blog.
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.
If a movie has both Bill Murray and a gigantic dog in it, it’s got to be a comedy, right? Definitely not, if we’re talking about “The Friend,” a 2024 film about life, death, and grief. Murray plays Walter, a big-deal writer in New York who commits suicide, leaving behind three ex-wives, a couple of girlfriends, and a great dane called Apollo.
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.
Zoologist Vladimir Dinets was driving his daughter to school one morning in West Orange, New Jersey when he saw a curious thing. A young Cooper’s hawk darted out of a tree, glided low to the ground along the line of cars waiting at a traffic light, then launched an attack on unsuspecting prey in a nearby front yard.
Recently the San Diego Humane Society took in the youngest black bear cub the group had ever rescued, an approximately 2-month-old cub that had arrived in April – weak, underweight, and alone.
Biologists on Panama’s Jicarón island have observed some bizarre behavior from the capuchin monkey population. Over the past several months a small gang of males have been kidnapping infant howler monkeys, for no apparent reason.
Cheetahs, the fastest land animal on the planet, are up against multiple existential threats: dwindling habitat, poachers, lethal competition with farmers. This week the Cheetah Conservation Fund founder and executive director, Laurie Marker, sat down with PBS to talk about the big cat's fight for survival.
In mammalian social groups males tend to dominate, but among one of our closest relatives – the bonobo – it’s females who have the upper hand. Primatologists believe the ladies get and maintain power with a simple tactic: they work together.