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April 25 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts town is under siege from an apparently territorial pileated woodpecker being blamed for damaging more than 25 vehicles in the area. Rockport resident Janelle Favaloro managed to capture a photo of the culprit caught in the act of targeting a vehicle with its jackhammer-like beak

Thanks to some thoughtful collaboration between researchers and traditional Inupiat whalers (who are still allowed to hunt for survival), scientists have used amino acids in the eyes of whales and harpoon fragments lodged in their carcasses to determine the age of these enormous animals—and they found at least three bowhead whales who were living prior to 1850. Granted those are bowheads, not sperm whales like the fictional Moby Dick, (and none of them are albino, I think), but still. Pretty amazing, huh? Bowhead whales reach an average length of 35 to 45 feet, and they are believed to live over...

A rare “dinosaur fish,” once believed to have disappeared 70 million years ago, has been filmed in the wild by divers in the Indonesian archipelago. The Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) was captured on camera in its natural habitat, marking a breakthrough for marine exploration. The discovery was made in October 2024 during a deep-sea mission led by Alexis Chappuis of UNSEEN Expeditions. Using special breathing equipment, Chappuis and fellow diver Alexandre Leblond descended to 152 meters along a volcanic slope in the Maluku Islands, where they spotted the elusive creature at a depth of 144 meters. Long-lost species returned to...

HOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ron Burgum and Texas Governor Greg Abbott met near Houston to dedicate the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge. President Donald Trump ordered the park to be renamed in honor of the the life of the 12-year-old girl who was brutally kidnapped, raped, and murdered, reportedly by two alleged Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members. “It’s our vow that Jocelyn’s memory be tied to a place of protection, a place of life, and a place of healing,” Secretary Burgum said during the dedication. The Interior Secretary was joined by Governor Abbott, Jocelyn’s...

The two men had entered Kenya on a tourist visa and were staying in a guest house in the western town of Naivasha. Their lawyer said that her clients did not know what they were doing was illegal. Two Belgian teenagers who were found with thousands of ants valued at more than €8,000 and allegedly destined for European and Asian markets will be sentenced in two weeks, a Kenyan magistrate has said. Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya's main airport, said she would not rush the case but would take time to review environmental impact and psychological reports...

BETHLEHEM, Conn. (WFSB/Gray News) – A father in Connecticut was arrested after he said he shot a bear in self-defense to protect his family. The shooting happened at Todd Topicz’s home in August. He said that the bear entered the home through the garage, where his two kids were at the time. “He [the bear] walked right into the garage with people in there. He didn’t care. So, who knows what would’ve happened next time,” Topicz said.

See ya later, alligator. Many Floridians have had bizarre encounters with alligators — but this one might take the cake. A Sunshine State resident took to Reddit to share their frightening experience with two creepy reptiles that came up to their home’s front door, which was all captured on the family’s Ring camera. The footage shows two enormous alligators dilly-dallying around the home’s front porch. When one of the alligators saw that no one was coming to the door to welcome them into their home, they lingered a little bit longer before growing impatient. The video then showed one of...

First confirmed live observation of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, in its natural habitat First confirmed live observation of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, in its natural habitat Image credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute Behold: a live colossal squid in all its glory. After a century of searching, the extremely elusive cephalopod has been caught on camera alive in its natural habitat for the first time (and, for once, not inside the belly of a whale or washed up dead on a beach). The juvenile squid was filmed on March 9 at a depth of 600 meters (1,968...

Today, Congressman Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., and Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s, R-Colo., legislation to delist the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List and ensure that action is not subject to judicial review passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee. The Pet and Livestock Protection Act will restore authority back to state lawmakers and state wildlife officials to control the gray wolf population. H.R. 845 will now head to the full House of Representatives for a vote. “The damage to pets, livestock and wildlife from an unmanaged wolf population can no longer be ignored. The gray wolf has exceeded federal and...

Timothy Treadwell was a controversial figure who insisted on approaching and viewing brown bears at close range for about 13 years. He did not carry a firearm or bear spray or any deterrents. From backpacker.com: Wes: Timothy thought he was the dominant bear in the ecosystem. I think he was past the point of accepting any input on that. I think he had convinced himself that they would never hurt him, and he was untouchable. Treadwell was repeatedly warned about the danger. From akfatal.net:Despite that, Treadwell refused to carry firearms or ring his campsites with an electric fence as do...

CHP officer stops traffic on I-8 to rescue mama duck and her duckling Traffic came to a stop Thursday morning as the birds waddled against oncoming traffic in the breakdown lane.

Nature is cruel, majestic, and fascinating. Sometimes, it’s also a bit silly. The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards has released 17 previously unseen submissions to its 2024 competition that celebrate the lighter side of the animal kingdom. From an orangutan mother unfazed by her child’s antics to a brown bear cub face palming, these photos will make you say “relatable.”

Canadian wolves were released into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and central Idaho in 1996 — but within a few years their territory and numbers had greatly expanded, along with their negative impact on livestock and elk herds.

The Lake County (Oregon) Board of Commissioners has declared a public safety and livestock emergency in the wake of livestock depredations by wolf OR158. It is, according to Commissioner Barry Shullanberger, one of the first times such a declaration has been made. According to the declaration, OR158 is responsible for five confirmed calf kills and three probable kills in Lake County in less than 10 days. Efforts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service to haze the wolf with a drone, which was ineffective. The declaration requests immediate assistance from Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek for intervention...

A group of orcas off the west coast of North America has brought back a bizarre fashion trend not seen since the late 1980s: wearing a single dead salmon on their heads as if it were a hat. Experts are at a loss to explain why orcas would want to wear fish in the first place, let alone why they would want to bring back the practice almost 40 years after it stopped. The salmon hat craze was first observed in 1987 when a female orca in the Puget Sound area of the northeast Pacific was seen carrying a solitary...

Andrea Arnold is used to having to slow down to let deer cross the road in her Northern B.C. community. But this weekend she saw something that made her pull over and snap a photo. A deer was wearing a high-visibility safety jacket. Not a vest, a "full-on jacket" that has been zipped up, says Arnold, who lives in McBride and is a reporter for the local paper the Rocky Mountain Goat.(opens in a new tab) "They're everywhere around town, but this one was wearing high-vis. I did a double, triple take like, 'Wait, what am I actually seeing here?'"...

LOS ANGELES – Four people who allegedly had a person dressed as a bear damaging their own luxury cars in a bid to defraud insurance companies were arrested in the US state of California on Nov 13. Suspicions were aroused when a claim was made for ripped seats and damaged doors on a luxury Rolls-Royce Ghost, an exclusive vehicle worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Claimants said a bear entered into the car when it was parked in Lake Arrowhead, a mountain spot outside Los Angeles, wreaking havoc on its interior. To back up their claim, they provided photos of...

Can you see the worms? Image credit: Chloé Fourreau Science is no stranger to discovering species, losing them, and then rediscovering them again, but what’s less common is to realize that the animal you thought you’d misplaced is actually being photographed all the time. Such is the tale of the marine worm, Haplosyllis anthogorgicola, that’s been photobombing seahorses at a rate of three in every four pictures viewed by scientists in a recent study. They’re pygmy seahorses, to be precise. Adorable, tiny, and oh-so photogenic, so it’s not surprising that citizen scientists have been snapping them across the central Indo-Pacific....

State investigators are probing the circumstances surrounding the death of the beloved Instagram famous P'Nut the squirrel. The DEC is conducting an internal investigation into the controversial raid on Mark Longo's home, where both P'Nut and Fred the raccoon were seized and euthanized. Despite Longo's claims that officers wore protective gloves, the animals were killed and decapitated for rabies testing after P'Nut allegedly bit an agent's hand. 'An internal investigation into the matter is ongoing, and we are reviewing internal policies and procedures to ensure we continue serving this core mission,' a DEC spokesperson told The New York Post on...

PINE CITY, N.Y. (WETM) — A New York Assemblyman from Long Island has proposed an amendment to a New York State Environmental Conservation Law aimed at reforming animal seizure protocols following the euthanization of ‘P’Nut the Squirrel’ after he was taken from his home in Pine City by DEC agents on Wednesday. Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz of the 15th Assembly District in Long Island announced on Saturday, Nov. 2, a proposal for an amendment called “Peanut’s Law: Humane Animal Protection Act.” This proposed law would amend Section 11-0512 of New York’s Environmental Conservation Law to prevent incidents like what happened to...