NARCISSE, Manitoba — Tokyo has its cherry blossoms, the Netherlands has its tulip fields, and Paris offers itself. But the Canadian province of Manitoba has a remarkably distinct springtime attraction too: tens of thousands of amorous snakes writhing around in pits. While Manitoba’s tourist agency doesn’t promote the Narcisse Snake Dens with the same zeal […]
Read More
LONDON — One man poured beer on a tiger. Another tore off his shirt and attempted to enter the penguin pool. Music blared and drinks flowed. Those were some of the scenes described during the 2014 season of London Zoo’s late-night adult-only event, which is billed as a way to bring people closer to the […]
Read More
Merlin Entertainments is a British company that operates more than 120 mostly theme attractions that are scattered throughout 25 countries. It runs all of the Legoland parks, the Madame Tussaud’s-branded wax museums, and the three hellish-looking Peppa Pig World of Play locations. The company is also responsible for nine different Dungeons in nine different cities, […]
Read More
SUPERNAVIGATORS Exploring the Wonders of How Animals Find Their WayBy David Barrie As I stood peering up in the sky to see the “river of raptors” moving through the Mexican state of Veracruz, I needed to adjust my expectations. The birds were much higher up in the sky than I had thought. Looking through binoculars, […]
Read More
Say you are prescribed medication for depression, anxiety or even just to sleep. Would you want to take it if you knew that the drug had only been tested on men and male animals? Rebecca Shansky, a neuroscientist at Northeastern University in Boston, thinks you might not. When she tells nonscientific audiences that researchers “for […]
Read More
My eyes were on the sheep, and how could they not have been? With her black nose and creamy coat, this unflappable woolen creature was mellowness personified while a pack of dysfunctional humans railed around her. Her real name is Annie, and she’s not quite four months old. Lounging in her spacious downstage pen, where […]
Read More
WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. — Shawn Smith, a volunteer firefighter, risked his life for the people of his flooded town on the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma. And not just for the people. Mr. Smith waded into waist-high floodwaters in one evacuated house over the weekend and came out holding Sammich, a scared gray-and-white cat, one […]
Read More
NASHVILLE — Sing, O muse, of the lumbering opossum, of the nearsighted, stumbling opossum, whose only defenses are a hiss, a hideous scowl and a rank scent emitted in terror. Let us rejoice in the pink-nosed, pink-fingered opossum, her silvery pouch full of babies, each no bigger than a honeybee. May your young thrive to […]
Read More
If you’re even a little bit on the internet—or have a child who is—you’re bound to have heard the song. Baby shark, do-do-do-do-do-do-… And now it’s stuck in your head again. You’re welcome. But Marcus Drymon doesn’t know it, because he’s too busy studying the real thing as a fisheries ecologist at Mississippi State University. […]
Read More