On March 20, Vietnamese customs officials seized a 20-foot shipping container filled with about seven tons of illegal elephant ivory. According to the press release from the Hai Phong Customs Department, the shipments were labeled with incorrect recipient information and routed through Singapore. Both techniques were intended to hide the shipment’s origin and destination, and [...]
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is looking for two seasonal seabird assistants to live in a lighthouse and hang out with puffins this summer. The gig? You’ll work with a small team to manage and monitor the seabird populations of Coquet Island, a picturesque nubbin of land off the coast of England. [...]
Those close to Mr. Pickles always thought he’d make a great father. Now, after nearly a century of trying, the 90-year-old tortoise will finally get the chance to find out. Earlier this week, the Houston Zoo announced that Mr. Pickles and Mrs. Pickles—both endangered radiated tortoises native to Madagascar—welcomed three new babies into the world. [...]
Harrison Ford has probably attended a lot of release parties in his day. Film releases, record releases, album releases—but this January, he attended a slightly different event: a shark-release party on the coast of Indonesia. The event marked the culmination of a years-long conservation campaign to release 500 baby zebra sharks into the Indian Ocean. [...]
Last week, a group of Maine lobster industry advocates filed a lawsuit against the Monterey Bay Aquarium for warning its visitors not to purchase American lobsters. The California aquarium had stated that lobster fishing equipment can harm the endangered right whale. Boycotting American lobster, it suggested, was among the best ways to help protect the [...]
An English zoo has captured a magical moment on camera: the instant a young baby tree kangaroo poked its head out of its mom’s pouch for the very first time. In an adorable video shared by the Chester Zoo, you can watch the unnamed baby tentatively peek into the outside world and receive a lot [...]
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden had a slogan: “No more drilling on federal lands, period.” This week, he reneged on that promise, green-lighting a ConocoPhillips project to clear-cut vegetation, build roads, and install more than 200 oil wells in the Western Arctic. So, how did we get here? For many voters, Biden felt [...]
For the past 30 years, a herd of hippos first introduced by drug lord Pablo Escobar has been terrorizing visitors to the Colombia backcountry. Now, after years of trying to catch and castrate the hippos, the Colombian government is trying a new solution. Escobar’s hippos first arrived in the 1980s, imported as part of a [...]
Earlier this month Tom Cruise received some unexpected news. PolarX, the production company he’s been working with to film his latest Mission Impossible movie, had sought permission to land helicopters in Svalbard, a Norwegian territory about 600 miles from the North Pole. Svalbard’s governor told them, quite frankly, that this was a bad idea. For [...]
Flamingos might all the look the same to us, but apparently the birds differ widely in personality—and have very strong preferences as to who they’ll hang out with. According to new research published in early March, flamingos form lasting friendships with both same-sex bird friends and romantic partners. And they’re very picky. In fact, scientists [...]
