Meet Kabu, an elephant in Thailand who was rescued in 2017 after years of abuse and poor conditions. For more than 20 years, Kabu worked in a mountain village, hauling logs along steep roads. Forced to continue working with an injured leg, she eventually developed a debilitating limp as the injury failed to heal properly. […] More
Almost unbelievable facts from the animal kingdom. How many of these do you know? A Serious Plague A swarm of desert locusts can stretch up to 460 square miles in size, and the hungry critters can eat through 423 million pounds of plants in a single day. Blood in the Water A great white shark […] More
You’d think the “Jurassic Park” movies were cautionary tales, because, you know, tons of people died. But paleontologist Jack Horner, who served as a consultant on the film series, thinks it’s only a matter of time before science brings dinosaurs back for real — and he can’t wait. “It’s a terrific concept, right? I don’t care […] More
5,000 to 7,500 pangolins must have been killed to produce the amount of scales seized this month in Shanghai. https://t.co/T98XCqnEnP — NPR (@NPR) December 28, 2016 Chinese customs just discovered a colossal illegal shipment of pangolin scales. Three people were caught in the bust, which consisted of 101 bags of scales weighing in at an […] More
A recent report just revealed that there are only 7,100 cheetahs left on the planet. The study, which was published in PNAS, states that world’s fastest mammal is headed towards in extinction mainly due to human conflict and the fact that their range extends well outside protected areas. In fact, 77% of the cheetah’s habitat falls […] More
It’s eluded humans so far, but the secret to immortality may lie in the hands — no, tentacles — of one species of jellyfish commonly found in the Mediterranean Sea. The Turritopsis dohrnii or “immortal jellyfish” is smaller than a fingernail and has a clearly visible bright-red stomach. But the fascinating part is its ability […] More
What looks like a colorful feather duster, moves like a giant spider and lives in the ocean? That would be a feather star, a beautiful otherworldly sea creature that dates back to more than 400 million years ago. They are part of the crinoid family which contains both sea lilies (which have a stalk that […] More
Skull fragment. Image: Oceana/Twitter ; Credit Timothy Myers A paleontologist just released a statement that he discovered the remains of a sea turtle that was previously unknown to science. About 65.5 million years ago, an asteroid struck Earth’s surface, leading to a mass extinction that wiped out around three-quarters of all species. However, an unlikely animal survived — […] More
Whale vomit (also known as ambergris) Three men hit the jackpot when they found 176 pounds of floating whale vomit worth an estimated $2.8 million. The fishermen were reported to have discovered one giant chunk off the coast of Qurayat in the northeastern part of Oman. One of the men said in the report, “We used a […] More
Arachnophobics, beware: Spiders can hear you from across the room. While it’s already well known that spiders can “hear” sounds through their leg hairs in response to vibrations, scientists had previously thought that they could only do so within several inches of those vibrations. It has now been determined, however, that spiders can detect vibrations […] More
The rusty patched bumble bee was just listed as endangered — and its the first bee to acquire such a listing in the continental United States. This will bring new hope to not only this species, but systems as a whole. A senior conservation biologist for the Xerxes society said in a press release, “Addressing the […] More
Image: Jamie Hiscocks/FB What a fossil hunter nearly passed over a decade ago turned out to be a fossilized dinosaur brain. The fossil was tiny and resembled just one of many small pebbles along the British coastline, according to English amatuer fossil hunter Jamie Hiscocks. According to experts, the tissue was essentially “pickled” when the […] More
