The federal Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday withdrew its support for the continued use of so-called cyanide bombs to protect livestock from predators, reversing course amid strong opposition to the practice. The E.P.A. administrator, Andrew R. Wheeler, said he was withdrawing an interim reauthorization for the use of M-44 devices, which are used to kill […]
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Endangered species come on lists. But lists obscure relationships. What can it mean that a few mussels, some snails we’ve never heard of, obscure crayfish in marginal headwaters and some island-confined songbirds are vanishing? Some 1,650 species of animals and plants in the United States are listed under federal law as endangered or threatened. But […]
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An unusual question surfaced amid America’s debate about gun violence last week. “If you’re on here arguing the definition of ‘assault weapon’ today you are part of the problem,” country musician Jason Isbell wrote on Twitter after the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. “You know what an assault weapon is, and […]
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Despite strong opposition from environmentalists and others, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced this past week that it had reauthorized the use of spring-loaded poison devices known as “cyanide bombs” to kill coyotes, foxes and other animals that prey on livestock. The devices, officially called M-44s, have been used continuously for more than four decades […]
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Pep Bassett recently moved to Ocean City, New Jersey, and the local seagulls have already let him know what his life will be like from now until he re-packs his U-Haul and drives out of town. “I had a donut taken out of my hand while I was riding my bike,” he told NJ.com. “It […]
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Poriferans, better known as sponges, are squishy, stationary and filled with holes. Ctenophores, also called comb jellies, are soft blobs wreathed by feathery cilia. For the past decade, the two groups have been caught up in a raging battle, at least in the pages of scientific journals. At stake is a noble place in evolutionary […]
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Photo of cougar by Evgeny555 via iStock/Getty Image Plus; Photo of James Hetfield by Gavrii Grigorov/Getty Images Metallica’s music is good for a lot of things, most obviously for rocking out either wearing headphones or at an arena with thousands of other metalheads. Their songs have had all kinds of purposes, like teaching kids the […]
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Uproxx I went to the animal shelter “just to look.” Which — if this were a horror movie — would be a real “don’t go into the basement” moment. “Why are people in these movies so stupid? Don’t do it! There are too many good boys down there,” the audience would yell at the screen. […]
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Over 26 days in June, world law enforcement officers recovered dolphins and sharks, lion and tiger cubs, nearly two dozen primates and more than 10,000 reptiles, birds and marine animals, Interpol said on Wednesday, announcing the results of a major operation against wildlife traffickers. The campaign, called Operation Thunderball, was coordinated by Interpol and the […]
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People of all ages become deeply connected to their pets, but in the lives of teenagers, animals often play a special role. Indeed, pets provide comforts that seem to be tailor-made for the stresses of normal adolescent development. To start, animals don’t judge — and teenagers are generally subjected to a great deal of judgment. […]
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AI-driven activity recognition has been used to suss out emotions from walking style, estimate how many people are in a room, and create videos from start and end frames alone. But that’s not all it’s good for. In a new paper (“A Framework for Identifying Group Behavior of Wild Animals“) published on the preprint server […]
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A 2-year-old boy died from complications of E. coli and three other children were sickened in cases that officials said were linked to contact with animals at the San Diego County Fair in June. Four children, ages 2 to 13, visited the fair from June 8 to 15 and exhibited symptoms of Shiga toxin-producing E. […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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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, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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