Free Republic

When my family moved back to the United States from East Africa in the mid-1980s, one might have thought it was a peak time of compassion for people suffering in faraway places. A glittering group of music superstars had recorded “We Are the World,” a smash hit charity single to raise money and awareness for the victims of a brutal famine that had gripped my mother’s home country, Ethiopia.But when I told my new grade school classmates of my origins, I was met with cruel taunts. I was awfully fat for an Ethiopian, one said with a snigger. Must be...

~Half of America gets its news from respectable "mainstream" "journalists" such as ABC's David Muir, a man who "fact-checks" Donald Trump by citing a press release from the city manager of Springfield, Ohio that there's nothing to see here. Being a most solicitous court eunuch, Mr Muir - like his fellow mainstreamers - sees no reason to listen to those who actually live in Springfield. In the last four years, so many Haitians have descended on this Ohio town that they now constitute one-in-four of the population. And, whether it be the right to decapitate and eat waterfowl from municipal...

"I’m sitting here, I’m riding on the trail, I’m going to my orientation for my job today, and I see a group of Haitian people, there was about four of ’em, they all had geese in their hands," a resident told a dispatcher. A recording of a call made to police in August has revealed a Springfield, Ohio resident expressing concern to authorities over Haitian migrants in the city capturing geese. The recording and police report were obtained by The Federalist. “I’m sitting here, I’m riding on the trail, I’m going to my orientation for my job today, and I...

There is a well know saying amongst Yellowstone National Park staff about bison safety that goes like this “don’t pet fluffy cows.” It’s comical and cute but is an actual warning for tourists not a treat the park’s wildlife like a petting zoo. Bison may seem like docile creatures that would have little recourse to a human dead set on making contact but that is a very dangerous misconception. In a park with predators roaming around like grizzly bears and mountain lions, bison stand above all other species when it comes to injuring the most tourists.

An endangered predator has returned to California after vanishing more than 100 years ago. At least 44 gray wolves have been spotted in the West Coast state, including a record-breaking 30 new pups this year alone, according to Axel Hunnicutt, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's gray wolf coordinator. This is the biggest increase in a century, with the animals from seven different packs now in nine of the state's 58 counties, Marin Independent Journal reported. But not everyone is happy about the return of the the gray wolf and are concerned about the risk to farmers' livestock. Janna...

A sentencing date has been set for man accused of slaughtering more than 3,600 birds, including more than 118 protected eagles, during a years-long wildlife trafficking ring out West, new court documents show. Travis John Branson, 48, pleaded guilty in March to charges including conspiracy, wildlife trafficking and trafficking bald and golden eagles, in federal court in Montana. According to a sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday, Branson and his “crew” killed eagles and then sold them across the country for profit on the black market. “It was not uncommon for Branson to take upwards of nine eagles at a time,” prosecutors...

What has four legs, hails from Spain, is notoriously difficult to kill, multiplies by 10 each year, and causes an annual $2.5 billion damage to the economy? If you guessed feral hogs, you are correct. An estimated nine million nomadic pigs currently roam America, destroying crops and properties which lay in their path, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Hogs even cause the occasional fatality - either through a rare bloodthirsty attack on a human or by charging across a highway and triggering a road traffic accident. In the most pig-dense states like Texas, law enforcement officials offer bounties...

A social media video depicting people “adopting” bears and raising them as pets is terrible idea, experts told Cowboy State Daily. They are just setting themselves up to be mauled, they said. A popular social media video that opens with a bear showing up at a family’s front door, set to a sappy love song with cute emojis littered throughout is put out there as a heartwarming tale of nature communing with humans. What the video really shows is a level of ignorance and interaction with one of the planet’s apex predators that’s really just incredibly stupid, wildlife experts told...

Six common wildlife species in Virginia have high rates of the virus that causes COVID-19 — a disease they likely caught from humans. The virus has been found in deer mice, Virginia opossum, raccoons, groundhogs, Eastern cottontails and Eastern red bats, according to findings in Nature. “I think the big take home message is the virus is pretty ubiquitous,” said Amanda Goldberg of the Virginia Tech Department of Biological Sciences. That meant little danger to humans from wildlife, researchers found. There was no evidence of humans catching COVID-19 from wildlife. The same was not true in reverse. Animals living in...

Prehistoric humans hunt a woolly mammoth. More and more research shows that this species – and at least 46 other species of megaherbivores – were driven to extinction by humans. Credit: Engraving by Ernest Grise, photographed by William Henry Jackson. Courtesy Getty’s Open Content Program ================================================================== Researchers at Aarhus University have concluded that human hunting, rather than climate change, was the primary factor in the extinction of large mammals over the past 50,000 years. This finding is based on a review of over 300 scientific articles. Over the last 50,000 years, many large species, or megafauna, weighing at least 45...

Hunter Tyce Erickson has the story of a lifetime after recently taking down a Kodiak bear. Erickson went viral over the weekend after several social media accounts shared a photo of the massive bear he took down in Alaska. Naturally, I had to dive into the details. Erickson revealed in a podcast that they were tracking the wounded bear that he had shot with a rifle when it charged him and his guide. Upon being charged, the guide fired two shots from his rifle - at least one hit - but the bear wasn't down. That's when Tyde fired with...

Six people who shared a meal involving black bear meat kebabs have been diagnosed with trichinellosis, a parasitic zoonotic disease. In a new report released this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that in July 2022, a 29-year old hospitalized patient with suspected trichinellosis was reported to the Minnesota health department. His symptoms included fever, severe muscle aches, periorbital edema or eye swelling, and eosinophilia or the condition of elevated levels of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell. According to the report, a week prior to the symptoms appearing, the patient and eight other people...

The state's election office on Monday began proceedings against an advocate for wolves in Colorado over allegations of illegally lobbying during the 2024 session at the state Capitol. ... The complaints, filed in March by John Williams, who operates Colorado Wolf Tracker, claimed Stephen Capra and his organization, Bold Visions Conservation, lobbied multiple legislators on behalf of a paying client, all without registering and without disclosing the client’s identity as required by law. The Elections Division of the Secretary of State launched the proceedings against Capra ... The bill Capra was lobbying on was House Bill 1375, which was sponsored...

As if there weren’t enough infectious diseases to worry about, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is issuing a warning about a new strain of leprosy — and pinning the blame on, of all creatures, armadillos. It’s long been known that armadillos harbor one particular strain of leprosy that has occasionally been transmitted to humans. But now, researchers say they’ve discovered armadillos in the southeastern US with a new genotype of leprosy bacteria. It’s also turning up in human patients, where it can cause skin and nerve damage

A recent drone search for a missing husky in Kamchatka, Russia, took a surprising turn when the pet was found not alone, but playfully interacting with a group of wild brown bears. The undated footage, now going viral on social media, shows the husky trailing the bears and even circling them excitedly. While one bear attempts to nudge the dog away when it gets too close, the overall interaction appears non-threatening.

Our ancestors may have kept foxes as pets long before domestic dogs came on the scene. Archaeological evidence suggests ancient human societies in South America revered foxes to such an extent that they were buried next to them. Scientists were surprised to find a fox buried in a human grave dating back 1,500 years in Patagonia, Argentina. They think the most likely explanation is that the fox was a highly valued companion or pet. DNA analysis shows the animal dined with prehistoric hunter gatherers and was part of the inner circle of the camp. A fox of the same species...

Japanese officials found the body of a missing student alongside the corpse of a brown bear that likely killed him. The bear is also suspected of attacking several other people in the area.The body of a missing student in Japan has been found alongside the corpse of a bear that likely killed him. The bear is linked to a string of other attacks in the area and follows a trend of increased bear attacks in the country this year. On Nov. 2, police found human remains on Mount Daisengen near Fukushima in Hokkaido island. DNA analysis revealed that the remains...

Borneo Pygmy Elephant © Source: pinterest Welcome to the wild side of our planet, where nature's most extraordinary and elusive creatures come to life! We embark on a journey to explore the hidden treasures of our natural world—30 rare and exotic animals that have been fortunate enough to grace the lens of a camera. From the depths of dense rainforests to the icy peaks of remote mountains, each of these remarkable species offers a glimpse into the awe-inspiring diversity of life on Earth. Join us as we delve into the realms of the mysterious, the enigmatic, and the endangered. These...

The Jefferson County coroner has confirmed that a 34-year-old Colorado man died this month, days after being bitten by one of his two pet Gila monsters. "I think this case highlights that any venomous animals should be respected," said Dr. Nick Brandehoff, a medical toxicologist and expert in reptile bites with the Asclepius Snakebite Foundation, who was consulted on the Lakewood Gila monster case. Gila monsters are venomous reptiles found in the southwestern United States. While their bites can be painful, they are normally not fatal to humans. Experts say that the last report of a human dying from a...

The video has accumulated more than 2.4 million views. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To survive extremely cold temperatures, some reptiles undergo brumation, which is a state of inactivity equivalent to hibernation in mammals. Now, a video showing how alligators conserve energy in freezing temperatures has caught the attention of social media users. The footage shows the reptile poking its nose through the ice of a frozen pond to avoid suffocation. The gator was spotted "frozen" inside the giant pond-shaped ice cubes at Swamp Park, a tourist attraction and alligator sanctuary near Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina, US, the BBC reported. In the...