Animals

Staff members at the Kabul Small Animal Rescue are working to put together travel crates so the organization's dogs and cats can safely be evacuated out of Afghanistan.

World News

An Animal Rescue Group Is Racing To Get Hundreds Of Pets Out Of Afghanistan By Aug. 31

8:58am August 25, 2021

by Jaclyn Diaz

Kabul Small Animal Rescue's American director is raising money to airlift more than 200 dogs and cats, the group's staff and their families before foreign troops leave at the end of the month.

10-Foot-Long Python Found In Australian Store's Spice Aisle

6:10am August 20, 2021

The nonvenomous Diamond Python was hiding behind the cumin. One shopper just happened to be a trained snake catcher. She captured the python and let it slink away into nearby woods.

After listening to hours of bat pups in the wild, scientists have identified eight characteristics of babbling that are shared by human babies and the greater sac-winged bat.

Science

Bats Love To Babble — Just Like Humans

4:56pm August 19, 2021

by Geoff Brumfiel

New research finds that sac-winged bat pups — a species of bat found in Central and South America — like to "babble" in ways that are remarkably similar to human babies.

"One of the unique things about daddy longlegs is the ability to coil the tips of their legs," using small articulating pieces called tarsomeres, says Vanessa L. González, a computational genomics scientist at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

Science

Researchers Studying Daddy Longlegs' Genes Created A 'Daddy Shortlegs'

2:58pm August 18, 2021

by Bill Chappell

The arachnids, also known as harvestmen, can use their legs like a curling marsupial tail — or as a sensor, or for courtship. They can also simply detach one, in case of emergency.

For one English woman, her black pet cat was very lucky indeed.

World News

A Cat Led A Rescue Team To An 83-Year-Old Woman Who Had Fallen Down A Ravine

3:30pm August 17, 2021

by Josie Fischels

The black cat, Piran, stayed by where the woman had fallen and meowed until a neighbor discovered them at the edge of a cornfield in Cornwall, England, over the weekend.

Cat Saves British Woman Who Had Fallen Down A Ravine

6:49am August 17, 2021

In Cornwall, England, an 83-year-old woman went missing. The search for her came up empty until a passerby heard the woman's cat meowing. The cat was on top of a ravine where the woman had fallen.

As The Permafrost In Siberia Thaws, Interesting Things Are Being Discovered

6:54am August 16, 2021

A new report details the discovery of Sparta, a lion cub who was only weeks old when she died about 28,000 years ago. Sparta still has her coat and her internal organs.

Brachiosaurus dinosaur, a relative of the newly discovered species, seen in computer artwork.

Scientists Discover Not 1, But 2 New Dinosaur Species In China

4:46pm August 13, 2021

by Josie Fischels

Scientists analyzing fossils from the country's northwest regions say two specimens were from previously unknown species.

Singapore Woman Calls For Help Suspecting There Was A Cobra In Her Bedroom

6:18am August 12, 2021

The woman heard what sounded like a black spitting cobra and local animal experts agreed. A team searched her home for an hour before they found the source: a malfunctioning electric toothbrush.

How 'The Pet Revolution' Unleashed A New Top Dog In America

12:11pm August 10, 2021

by Greg Rosalsky

A new book argues we've seen a fundamental shift in the treatment of pets since 1998.