Animals

This image provided by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in April 2024 shows bioluminescence in the sea whip coral Funiculina sp. observed under red light in a laboratory. Most animals that light up are found in the depths of the ocean and they might have been doing it longer than thought. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, scientists report that the first animals that glowed may have been coral that lived 540 million years ago. “Light signaling is one of the earliest forms of communication that we know of _ it’s very important in deep waters,” said Andrea Quattrini, a co-author of the study. (Manabu Bessho-Uehara/MBARI via AP)

The first glow-in-the-dark animals may have been ancient corals deep in the ocean

A new study suggests that the first animal that glowed in the dark was a coral that lived deep in the ocean about half a billion years ago.
 
In this photo released by the MacDill Air Force Base, an alligator rests at the landing gear of a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft on the runway of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, on Monday, April 22, 2024. Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded and the alligator was moved and released in a nearby river. (MacDill Air Force Base via AP)

Alligator on runway at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida captured, released into nearby river

 
A periodical cicada nymph is held in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. This periodical cicada nymph was found while digging holes for rosebushes. Trillions of cicadas are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Cicadas are so noisy in a South Carolina county that residents are calling the police

 
FILE - A 102-pound, female loggerhead sea turtle that was caught off the Galveston Fishing Pier earlier in the summer makes her way into the Gulf of Mexico after being rehabilitated at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's sea turtle facility in Galveston, Texas, Sept. 16, 2015. The Mexican government has largely abandoned protection and enforcement measures for the endangered loggerhead sea turtles, leading to a spike in the number of turtles being caught up and killed in fishing nets, according to a report released on April 22, 2024, by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, which functions as part of the U.S.-Mexico Canada Free trade agreement. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP, File)

A new report says Mexico has abandoned protection of loggerhead sea turtles

 
Will Georgitis stands with a collection of fossils he found over the years, was recently attacked by an alligator while out scuba diving in the Cooper River looking for megalodon teeth and other unique items, Friday, April 19, 2024, in West Ashley, S.C. Pinned by an alligator on April 15, to the bottom of the river, Georgitis decided his only chance to survive might be to lose his arm, but he told The Post and Courier he put his feet on the gator and pushed as hard as he could. Somehow he ripped his arm out of the alligator's jaws. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP)

Diver pinned under water by an alligator figured he had choice: Lose his arm or lose his life

 

Alligator wrangled on tarmac of Florida Air Force base

An alligator that made its way onto the runway at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa has been moved to a nearby river. The large reptile was spotted Monday morning next to the landing gear of a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft.
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Parade of camelids outside the Chateau de Vincennes in France

Dozens of riders take part in celebration of renowned ‘Peruvian Steady Gait’ horse breed

Cicadas are planned for the menu at New Orleans’ Insectarium

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FILE - Two lake sturgeons are set to be weighed near Black Lake in Cheboygan County, Mich., Feb. 4, 2017. Lake sturgeon don't need Endangered Species Act protections, federal wildlife officials announced Monday, April 22, 2024, saying that stocking programs have helped the prehistoric fish return to areas where they had vanished. (Julia Nagy/Lansing State Journal via AP, File)

Prehistoric lake sturgeon is not endangered, US says despite calls from conservationists

Federal wildlife officials have decided not to place lake sturgeon on the endangered species list, ensuring annual spearing seasons in Wisconsin and Michigan can continue.
 
This photo provided by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission shows a bear cub in Asheville, N.C. A video of people pulling two bear cubs from a tree in North Carolina as one person posed for a photo with one of the wild animals prompted an investigation, but a state wildlife official said Friday, April 19, 2024 that no charges will be filed. (North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission via AP)

Video of 2 bear cubs pulled from trees prompts North Carolina wildlife investigation but no charges

A video of people pulling bear cubs from a tree in North Carolina has prompted an investigation, but a state official says no charges will be filed.
 
This July 8, 2004, photo provided by the United States Geological Survey shows Fish Creek through the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska's North Slope. (David W. Houseknecht/United States Geological Survey via AP)

Biden administration restricts oil and gas leasing in 13 million acres of Alaska’s petroleum reserve

The U.S. oil industry’s top lobbying group says Biden administration rules restricting oil and gas leasing in 13 million acres of Alaska’s petroleum reserve are “misguided.”
 
London Breed, left, Mayor of San Francisco and Wu Minglu, Secretary General of China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) hold up an agreement to lease giant pandas for the San Francisco Zoological Society and Gardens during a signing ceremony in Beijing, Friday, April 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Liu Zheng)

San Francisco mayor announces the city will receive pandas from China

San Francisco is the latest U.S. city preparing to receive a pair of pandas from China, in a continuation of Beijing’s famed “panda diplomacy.”
 
Zach Lemann, curator of animal collections for the Audubon Insectarium, prepares cicadas for eating at the insectarium in New Orleans, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. The insectarium plans to demonstrate ways to cook cicadas at the little in-house snack bar where it already serves other insect dishes. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Periodic cicadas remain buried for years. Now they’re emerging on a menu

They may look like little monsters. And their seemingly endless racket may be a nuisance. But as parts of the nation prepare for the emergence of trillions of noisy cicadas, bug experts say the little creatures can also be a tasty snack.
 

High mercury levels in some Lake Maurepas fish bring meal restrictions, state officials say

Louisiana residents are being urged to limit their consumption of fish from Lake Maurepas in Livingston and St.
 
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland smiles after signing Public Land Order 7940, which protects more than 4,200 acres of Bureau of Land Management-managed public lands that is sacred to Tribes in the Placitas area, during a community event at El Zócalo Plaza in Bernalillo, N.M., Thursday, April 18, 2024. For the next 50 years, the lands will be closed to new mining claims, mineral sales, and oil and gas leases. (Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

Biden administration moves to make conservation an equal to industry on US lands

The Biden administration is moving to let conservationists lease government land for restoration. It’s part of an effort to make conservation an “equal” to other uses of public lands such as drilling and livestock grazing.
 
This image provided by researchers in April 2024 shows views of some of the vertebrae of Vasuki indicus, a newly discovered extinct snake from about 47 million years ago, estimated to reach nearly 50 feet (15 meters) long. The scale bar at the center of each row showing rotated views of an individual vertebra indicates 5 centimeters (almost 2 inches). (Sunil Bajpai, Debajit Datta, Poonam Verma via AP)

This ancient snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton

Researchers in India have found fossils of an ancient giant snake that could have been longer than a school bus.
 
This photo provided by Revive & Restore shows a cloned black-footed ferret named Noreen, Feb. 19, 2024, at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Carr, Colo. Two more black-footed ferrets, Noreen and Antonia, have been cloned from the genes used for the first endangered species clone in the U.S., bringing to three the number of slinky predators genetically identical to a single animal that was frozen back in the 1980s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday, April 17. (Kika Tuff/Revive & Restore via AP)

Two more black-footed ferrets are cloned, boosting hopes of saving an endangered species

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says two more black-footed ferrets have been cloned from the genes used for the first clone of an endangered species in the U.S.
 
This image provided by Matayah Utrayle-Shaylene Smith shows an escaped elephant crossing the road in Butte, Mont., on Tuesday, April 17, 2024. The sound of a vehicle backfiring spooked a circus elephant while she was getting a pre-show bath leading the pachyderm to break through a fence and take a brief walk, stopping noontime traffic on the city's busiest street before before being loaded back into a trailer. (Matayah Utrayle-Shaylene Smith via AP)

A vehicle backfiring startled a circus elephant into a Montana street. She still performed Tuesday

The sound of a vehicle backfiring spooked a circus elephant while she was getting a pre-show bath in Butte, Montana.
 
FILE - Bleached coral is visible at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Galveston, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico, Sept. 16, 2023. The world is not doing enough to protect coral reefs — vital marine ecosystems that protect biodiversity, produce some of the oxygen we breathe, slow erosion and sustain underwater life — the United Nations’ special envoy for the ocean said Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

UN envoy says of the threat to coral reefs: ‘Are we faced with a colossal ecosystem tragedy? Yes’

The world is not doing enough to protect coral reefs. That’s according to the United Nations’ special envoy for the ocean.
 
This undated photo taken by Cameron Clifford, shows Terrance, the pet octopus his son Cal adopted at their home in Edmond, Okla. The family soon learned that Terrance was female as she laid 50 eggs that later hatched, with nearly half of them surviving. Although female octopuses usually die soon after laying their eggs, Terrance is still alive four months later. (Cameron Clifford via AP)

A 9-year-old boy’s dream of a pet octopus is a sensation as thousands follow Terrance’s story online

Nine-year-old Cal Clifford had always wanted a pet octopus. His dream recently came true when his father Cameron Clifford helped him adopt Terrance the octopus and set it up in a saltwater aquarium at their home in rural Oklahoma.
 
A silvery blue butterfly, the closest relative to the extinct Xerces blue butterfly, is seen under netting after its release in the Presidio's restored dune habitat in San Francisco, Thursday, April 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Decades after a US butterfly species vanished, a close relative is released to fill gap

Wildlife experts are bringing butterflies back to the Presidio National Park in San Francisco as part of an effort to restore native ecosystems.
 
FILE - Bleached coral is visible at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Galveston, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico, Sept. 16, 2023. Reef scientists say coral reefs around the world are experiencing global bleaching for the fourth time due to prolonged warming of the oceans. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

Scientists say coral reefs around the world are experiencing mass bleaching in warming oceans

Reef scientists say coral reefs around the world are experiencing global bleaching for the fourth time due to prolonged warming of the oceans.
 
FILE - Rats swarm around a bag of garbage near a dumpster in New York, July 7, 2000. New York lawmakers are proposing rules to humanely drive down the population of rats and other rodents, eyeing contraception and a ban on glue traps as alternatives to poison or a slow, brutal death. (AP Photo/Robert Mecea, File)

How to get rid of NYC rats without brutality? Birth control is one idea

New York lawmakers are proposing rules to humanely drive down the population of rats and other rodents.
 
This photo provided by NOAA shows an endangered whale that has been found entangled in fishing gear off the coast of New England. The right whales number less than 360 and they are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships. The entangled whale was seen about 50 miles south of Block Island, Rhode Island, on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. (NOAA Fisheries via AP)

Right whale is found entangled off New England in a devastating year for the vanishing species

Federal authorities say a North Atlantic right whale has been spotted entangled in rope off New England in already devastating year for the vanishing animals.
 
FILE - A line of Holstein dairy cows feed through a fence at a dairy farm in Idaho on March 11, 2009. As of April 11, 2024, a strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, that has killed millions of wild birds in recent years has been found in at least 24 dairy cow herds in eight U.S. states: Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Idaho, Michigan and North Carolina and South Dakota. (AP Photo/Charlie Litchfield, File)

Bird flu is spreading to more farm animals. Are milk and eggs safe?

A bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows has spread to more than two dozen herds in eight states. That comes weeks after the nation’s largest egg producer found the virus in its chickens.
 
Ranch hands hold the rope and assist as Cliven Bundy, center left, castrates a bull on the Bundy ranch, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Bunkerville, NV. Ten years have passed since hundreds of protesters including armed riflemen answered a family call for help which forced U.S. agents and contract cowboys to abandon an effort to round up family cattle in a dispute over grazing permits and fees. Despite federal prosecutions, no family members were convicted of a crime. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

10 years after armed standoff with federal agents, Bundy cattle are still grazing disputed rangeland

Ten years later, Cliven Bundy and his family are still grazing cattle on disputed southern Nevada rangeland where armed protesters and federal agents stared each other down through rifle sights.
 
The Ehattesaht First Nation deployed a canoe and other resources to try and rescue an orphaned orca, but were unsuccessful, at a lagoon near Zeballos, British Columbia, Friday, April 12, 2024. (Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press via AP)

First attempt to catch orphaned orca calf in Canadian lagoon is unsuccessful

An orphaned killer whale stranded in a remote Vancouver Island lagoon is proving difficult for rescuers to catch.
 
A dead humpback whale rolls in the surf in Long Beach Township on New Jersey's Long Beach Island on Thursday, April 11, 2024. On Friday, a marine animal rescue group that examined the animal said it sustained numerous blunt force injuries including a fractured skull. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

Dead whale in New Jersey had a fractured skull among numerous injuries, experts find

A post-mortem examination of a whale that washed ashore on New Jersey’s Long Beach Island shows the animal sustained numerous blunt force injuries including a fractured skull and vertebrae.
 
Fatou the gorilla celebrates her 67th birthday at Berlin's Zoo, Friday April 12, 2024. Berlin's zoo is celebrating the 67th birthday of Fatou the gorilla, its oldest resident, who it believes is also the oldest gorilla in the world. Fatou was born in 1957 and came to the zoo in what was then West Berlin in 1959. She lives in an enclosure of her own and prefers to keep her distance from the zoo's other gorillas in her old age. (Paul Zinken/dpa via AP)

Berlin zoo celebrates the 67th birthday of Fatou, believed to be the world’s oldest gorilla

Berlin’s zoo is celebrating the 67th birthday of Fatou the gorilla, its oldest resident, who it believes is also the oldest gorilla in the world.
 
Workers consider how to remove a dead humpback whale that washed ashore on Long Beach Township in New Jersey's Long Beach Island on April 11, 2024. There was no immediate indication of what killed the whale. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

Dead whale on New Jersey’s Long Beach Island is first of the year, stranding group says

A marine mammal rescue group says a dead humpback whale that has washed ashore on New Jersey’s Long Beach Island was the first such death in the state this year.
 
FILE - Sarah Bates hauls in a chinook salmon on the fishing boat Bounty near Bolinas, Calif., Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Federal fishery managers voted Wednesday, April 10, 2024, to cancel all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast of California for the second year in a row, and only the fourth time in state history, because of dwindling stocks. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg,File)

Salmon fishing is banned off the California coast for the second year in a row amid low stocks

Federal fishery managers have voted to cancel all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast of California for the second year in a row, and only the fourth time in state history, because of dwindling stocks.
 
In this aerial photo provided by Tony Corso Images, a 30-foot-long gray whale with its tail entangled in a massive gill net is seen off the coast of Pacifica, Calif., Tuesday, April 9, 2024. A team with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries is working on a rescue effort Wednesday with the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. (Tony Corso Images via AP)

Rescuers search off Northern California coast for young gray whale entangled in gill net

Rescuers on Wednesday were searching for a 30-foot-long gray whale with its tail entangled in a massive gill net last spotted off Northern California’s coast.
 
Zeljko Ilicic kisses a horse in the Old Hill, sanctuary for horses in the town of Lapovo, in central Serbia, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. The 43-year-old Serbian man has set up the only sanctuary for horses in the Balkan country, providing shelter and care for dozens of animals for nearly a decade. Around 80 horses have passed through Ilicic's Staro Brdo, or Old Hill, sanctuary since it opened in 2015. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Serbia’s only horse sanctuary has cared for dozens of tortured, old and neglected animals

Zeljko Ilicic saved his first horse from certain death 12 years ago and found his calling. The Serbian, now 43, set up the Balkan country’s only horse sanctuary in 2015 on a small piece of land in Lapovo in Central Serbia.
 
New England Aquarium staff and visitors looking at Myrtle as the massive sea turtle rests in a crate after being hoisted out of a giant ocean tank before a performed a medical examination in Boston, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Myrtle, who's around 90 years old and weighs almost a quarter of a ton, underwent a medical examination that included blood draws as well as eye, mouth and a physical examination to ensure the creature remains in good health. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi) (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

Ancient sea turtle housed at Boston aquarium for more than 50 years passes another physical

Myrtle, an ancient green sea turtle that has delighted visitors to the New England Aquarium in Boston for more than 50 years, is in good physical shape.
 
This photo provided by the KC Pet Project shows a goat believed to be named Chug after being rescued from a bridge on Tuesday, April 9 2024 in Kansas City, Mo. The escaped mountain goat that somehow got stuck under the bridge has survived a rocky rescue effort and now may be reunited with the owners who suspect he was stolen from their farm two months ago.(Tori Fugate/KC Pet Project via AP)

Mountain goat stuck under Kansas City bridge survives rocky rescue

An escaped mountain goat that somehow got stuck under a Kansas City bridge has survived a rocky rescue effort and now may be reunited with the owners who suspect he was stolen from their farm.
 
A traveler pets the dog Kuki while walking with handler through Istanbul Airport in Turkey, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Istanbul Airport has made five new hires to provide stress-free travel experience for anxious passengers: therapy dogs that are ready to offer support with snuggles, belly rubs and sloppy kisses. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Istanbul airport provides anxious travelers with paw-sitive experience by hiring 5 therapy dogs

Istanbul Airport has made five new hires to provide a stress-free travel experience for anxious passengers: therapy dogs that are ready to offer support with snuggles, belly rubs and sloppy kisses.
 
YouTuber Ium Daro, who started filming Angkor monkeys about three months ago, follows a mother and a baby along a dirt path with his iPhone held on a selfie stick near Bayon temple at Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap province, Cambodia, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cruelty for clicks: Cambodia is investigating YouTubers’ abuse of monkeys at the Angkor UNESCO site

Cambodian authorities are investigating the abuse of monkeys at the famous Angkor UNESCO World Heritage Site.
 
Coco nibbles on a blade of grass in a National Palace courtyard, in Mexico City, Thursday, March 4, 2024. Nineteen feral cats have free rein of Mexico's National Palace, long roaming the gardens and historic colonial halls of the most iconic buildings in the country. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A new declaration in Mexico gives 19 cats roaming the presidential palace food and care fur-ever

Feral cats have long wandered the gardens and elegant halls of Mexicos’ presidential palace. But this week the 19 palace felines made history when the government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared them to be “living fixed assets.”
 
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