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The family of a Canadian backpacker who was found dead on a heritage-listed tourist destination in Queensland, Australia, has been given the preliminary findings from her autopsy. The body of Piper James, 19, was found on Seventy Five Mile Beach on K’gari (Fraser Island) just after 5 a.m. Monday. Friends of James have revealed she had told them she was going for a swim around that time. Two passersby discovered James’ body, surrounded by a pack of dingoes. The preliminary findings from James’ autopsy have since been delivered to her father, Todd, and his wife, Angela, with the ABC reporting...

A pet cow named Veronika uses a tool in a surprisingly sophisticated way—possibly because she has been allowed to live her best life. In news that is sure to delight fans of a certain Gary Larson cartoon turned meme about the limitations of bovine cognition, cow tools are real. Larson’s 1982 comic for his series The Far Side showed a cow standing behind a table bearing an array of oddly shaped objects. The text below the image read simply “cow tools.” Now a pet cow named Veronika has been documented not only using a tool but doing so in a...

According to Census data from 2022, Wisconsin has the 25th highest percentage of single-parent households among the states and the District of Columbia. The Badger Institute has published several reports and news articles about family structure in Wisconsin and how it has changed over time: A piece by Marie Rohde in 2018 discussed why both older and younger people are deciding to stay single.A piece by Michael Jahr accompanied both those, showing how the idea of marriage is now becoming a foreign concept to some.We published a policy brief in 2019 on the marriage penalty in Wisconsin’s earned income tax...

A back scratching bovine has forced scientists to reassess the intelligence of cattle. Veronika, a brown Swiss cow from the Austrian village of Carinthia, shocked researchers with the first documented case of a cow working out how to scratch itself with a stick. The clever creature also recognises family members' voices and hurries to meet them when called.

Nearly two dozen people were killed and 15 were injured by a large wild bull elephant that went on a 10-day rampage through several towns in eastern India, terrorizing locals who reportedly climbed trees and slept on rooftops to stay out of its reach. The single-tusked male struck first on New Year’s Day when it killed a 35-year-old man in the village of Bandijhari in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district. Four days later, the animal killed five members of the same family in the nearby town of Sowan. The next day, it killed five more people in Babaria, including a married...

A man and boy were critically injured, and another boy had his surfboard bitten during three separate shark attacks in Sydney, Australia in just over 24 hours, police confirmed Monday. Big picture view: A man, believed to be in his 20s, was in a critical condition Monday after being bitten by a shark at Sydney's Northern Beaches on Jan. 19. At 6.20 p.m. local time, emergency services were called to North Steyne Beach, following reports of a surfer being bitten by a shark

Meet the worst Times Square interloper since the Elmos invasion — the “limited edition” anchovy-cheese donut at weirdly punctuated I’m donut ? The Japanese bakery chain, which set up its first US store at 154 W. 45th St. last spring, will stop at nothing to get attention from TikTok influencers. This month, the “chef’s inspiration” is to lay a single anchovy across the top of a donut filled with three (count ’em, three) types of cheese — white cheddar, Gruyère, Parmigiano-Reggiano — and creamy Béchamel sauce. It makes for a dairy debacle. The mutant munchie tastes like a salt slick...

Researchers found that prohibited species may be sold under false labels.Key Points: -Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that critically endangered shark species may commonly be sold under false labels in U.S. grocery stores. -The scientists revealed that out of 29 samples, 93% were ambiguously labeled as just "shark" meat. -Through DNA testing they found that numerous samples sold in grocery stores came from endangered shark species such as the shortfin mako and great hammerhead. If you spot shark on a menu or grocery store shelves in the United States, the odds are high that...

A fearless muntjac deer weighing just 50 pounds went head-to-head with a nearly two-ton rhinoceros at a zoo in Poland in a caught-on-camera David and Goliath bout for the ages. A caretaker at Wroclaw Zoo in Poland captured the standoff between Maruska the rhino and Mundzak the Chinese muntjac deer in a video viewed millions of times on social media.

GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WATE) — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is investigating after a bear ransacked a candy store in Gatlinburg. This is not the first time the bear has caused damage to the store, but the store is hopeful the bear will be relocated. Glades Homemade Candies shared on social media Friday that this is the fourth time the bear has caused damage at the store. Photos of the damage show a glass door the bear busted through, an overturned sheet pan rack and pans that were once full of sweets dragged outside. The store is located along East Parkway,...

ALAMEDA, Calif. - Former tenants left a massive lizard, called an ornate Niles monitor, behind in their home, Alameda police announced on Monday. Police dispatchers were called about it, and they, in turn, called animal control, police said. The lizard was large and aggressive, but police said they were able to devise a plan to get the reptile safely to the East Bay Vivarium. The lizards, which can often be confused with Komodo dragons, have powerful bites, strong claws, and forceful tails that can cause injuries. Police said that Ornate monitors, native to West and Middle Africa, are not suitable...

Dogs are great at learning action commands like “sit” and “stay.” They're less good at remembering the names of things, like what their squeaky or stuffed toys are called. Only an elite group of gifted word-learner dogs can retain the names of hundreds of toys. Scientists know of about 50 such pooches, but they aren’t yet sure what's behind their wordy skills. Now, new research is pushing the limits of what the dogs can do. Scientists already knew that these extraordinary pups could learn the names of their stuffed pizza and doughnut toys from playtime with their owners. In the...

An elusive bird which is now considered to be extremely rare in Northern Ireland made an unexpected visit to a Belfast street, where it was found behind a bin. Office staff who spotted it on the Lisburn Road thought it might be a bird of prey and called wildlife rescuer Debbie Nelson, who works under the name Debbie Doolittle. She was surprised to find it was in fact a nightjar - a bird she described as "almost extinct" in Northern Ireland, with only a handful of sightings since the 1950s. "They were about to put some rubbish in the bin...

https://x.com/HiRezTheRapper/status/2008604404178354463 There’s a fish that looks like president Donald trump at this aquarium 😁🙄😉................

Jellyfish and sea anemones, despite lacking brains, show sleep behavior similar to that seen in humans, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. Researchers found that these simple marine animals, like jellyfish, experience periods of rest that align closely with human-like sleep, offering new insight into how sleep functions in creatures with nervous systems but no centralized brain. The study revealed that the upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea andromeda) sleeps for about eight hours daily, primarily at night, with a short rest during the day. The starlet sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis), which was studied in a lab setting, also showed...

A wombat, spotted quoll and ringtail possum have also been caught up in the chaos.A family of cheeky Tasmanian devils have been caught on camera ransacking a suburban property yard in the state’s Central Highlands. CCTV video shows the mischievous marsupials dashing out a hole in the early hours of the morning, pinching dog toys and several other household items. Property owner Jayne Warner told 7NEWS several items have gone missing, “There’s at least seven or eight items under the house at the moment and previous to that we didn’t know what the hell was going on, so it could...

A young female manatee washed up alone on a beach in Tortuguero National Park early on January 5, sparking a coordinated effort by local authorities to save the animal. The calf, identified as a Caribbean manatee, appeared separated from its mother, with no immediate signs of her in the area. Park rangers received the first alert around 8 a.m. from visitors who spotted the stranded calf. Staff from the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) quickly arrived on site. They secured the animal to prevent further harm and began searching nearby waters and canals for the mother. Despite hours of...

China recruits top STEM talent globally through programs including the Thousand Talents Plan, focusing on AI researchers, quantum computing experts, semiconductor engineers, and biotechnology researchers. The U.S., by contyrast, issues extraordinary ability visas to TikTok creators, Instagram fitness models, OnlyFans creators, and YouTube personalities.

Surfers in Costa Rica know the excitement of riding the perfect Pacific swell, but at certain beaches, they share the water with an unexpected local: the American crocodile. These reptiles, drawn to river mouths and estuaries where fresh and saltwater mix, sometimes venture into surf zones. While attacks remain rare, recent sightings remind riders to stay alert. Authorities and experts track these encounters to keep beaches safe for everyone. Playa Tamarindo in Guanacaste stands out as one of the most talked-about spots. The beach’s estuary attracts crocodiles that swim out to sea. In 2015, a surfer suffered serious injuries from...

A runaway wallaby spotted in the parking lot of a New Jersey Walmart store was safely captured when he made a return trip to the store. The Lots of Love Farm said in a Facebook post that the wallaby, named Rex, was captured in the Williamstown Walmart parking lot Tuesday night. "If this just didn't become the best night ever! With the help of some really cool kids and a really cool dad. We caught Rex at the Walmart!! He is home safe and sound! Thank you everyone you're all amazing. He must really like Walmart," the post said. The...