Animals The Sixth Extinction is Underway The sixth extinction is underway, study finds. But here’s why all hope is not lost. Global population trends among 71,000 animal species show nearly half are “sliding toward extinction,” some at alarming rates, a new study warns. Researchers found 48% of the species in the analysis were declining, while only 3% were increasing and 49% […]
Animals America’s Birds Are Under Siege If you enjoy watching cardinals or bluebirds at a feeder or seeing a great blue heron at the water’s edge, it may not be immediately apparent but the nation’s birds are under siege. “Birds are declining,” said Ken Rosenberg, a conservation biologist with Road to Recovery, an organization that focuses on recovery of the nation’s […]
Blog Health Benefits of Pistachios What Are Pistachios? Pistachios are the seeds of the pistachio tree. They’re usually green and slightly sweet. They’re called nuts, but botanically pistachios are seeds. People have been eating them for thousands of years. The kernels can have different colors, ranging from yellow to shades of green. They’re usually about an inch long and half […]
Animals Female Cheetah Dies From Mating Injuries A female cheetah has died in India’s Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh state, taking the number of big cats killed to three since March. The female, who was found injured on Tuesday morning by the monitoring team, was treated by veterinarians but died at noon, the park said in a statement. Preliminary reports showed […]
Animals Chinese Panda on Long-Term Loan to Thailand Dies Suddenly A giant panda on long-term loan from China has died in a zoo in northern Thailand, six months before she was due to return home A giant panda on long-term loan from China died in a zoo in northern Thailand on Wednesday, six months before she was due to return home, officials from the […]
Animals Removing Colombian Druglord’s Hippos Colombia said Wednesday it was making progress on the transfer of 70 hippos to overseas sanctuaries, but mitigating the havoc caused by this unusual legacy of deceased druglord Pablo Escobar carries a hefty price tag: $3.5 million. The cocaine baron brought a small number of the African beasts to Colombia in the late 1980s. But […]
Animals A New Flu is Spilling Over From Livestock A new flu is spilling over from cows to people in the U.S. How worried should we be? In 2011, a farmer in Oklahoma had a bunch of sick pigs. The animals had what looked like the flu. “Just like a person with respiratory disease, the pigs had labored breathing, maybe a runny nose, cough […]
Animals There’s a New Mosquito in Florida There’s a new mosquito on the Florida scene, and scientists are worried Meet Culex lactator, the mosquito species native to Central and South America that’s making a new home in the Sunshine State. This Culex may look like every other mosquito that has annoyed you over the years, but scientists say it’s risk to human […]
Animals Fish Can Sense Fear It might have been deep-rooted in prehistoric animals that lived millions of years ago, before fish and mammals like us diverged on the tree of life, according to researchers who published their study Thursday in the journal Science. “Some of the mechanisms that underlie our ability to experience fear, or fall in and out of […]
Animals Number of Monarch Butterflies Wintering in Mexico Drops 22% Number of Monarch Butterflies Wintering in Mexico Drops 22% The number of monarch butterflies wintering in the mountains of central Mexico dropped 22% from the previous year, and the number of trees lost from their favored wintering grounds tripled. Frost and “extreme temperatures” in the United States may have played a role in the […]