Animals

A man walks past sacks containing debris washed ashore from the X-Press Pearl on a beach in Colombo on Thursday. The plastic pellets will break down and be more difficult to clean up over time, marine biologist Asha de Vos says.

The Ship Sinking Off Sri Lanka Looks Like A Lasting Environmental Disaster

4:47pm June 05, 2021

Waves of plastic pellets are washing up on beaches in Sri Lanka. Marine biologist Asha de Vos says the microplastics are spreading in the water and scientists don't yet understand the full effects.

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Left: Nicole Jackson is co-organizer of Black Birders Week, and founder of Black in National Parks Week. Right: Tykee James is founder of Freedom Birders and the government affairs coordinator at the National Audubon Society.

National

Monuments And Teams Have Changed Names As America Reckons With Racism. Birds Are Next

9:34am June 05, 2021

by Jeff St. Clair

As America tries to come to terms with its complicated racial past, efforts are underway to remove all eponymous bird names and to "decolonize the birding experience" to include more Black people.

Science

So You're Thinking About Eating A Cicada: Tips From A Cicada Enthusiast

8:33pm June 04, 2021

So you're thinking about eating a cicada. Cicada enthusiast Dr. Cortni Borgerson shares some things to know before heading out and what to do once you've actually harvested them.

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Authorities are tracking 15 wild Asian elephants in southwest China's Yunnan Province as the herd migrates north.

World News

Elephants Wandered Hundreds Of Miles Into A Chinese City. Nobody Knows Why

4:57pm June 04, 2021

by John Ruwitch

The 15 Asian elephants — some mature and others still young — left a nature reserve near China's border with Myanmar and Laos more than a year ago and have been northward bound ever since.

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Magawa is shown here working to detect land mines, a job the animal has done for five years.

World News

After Years Of Detecting Land Mines, A Heroic Rat Is Hanging Up His Sniffer

1:31pm June 04, 2021

Magawa is credited with saving lives. The African giant pouched rat has found 71 land mines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance. Now, he has reached retirement age after five years of service.

Musician David Rothenberg Makes Music With Cicadas

7:25am June 04, 2021

Rothenberg identifies as a "cicada groupie." He jams along to their calls with a clarinet.

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A Herd Of Elephants Far From Home Is Baffling Scientists

5:21am June 04, 2021

by John Ruwitch

A herd of 15 elephants has wandered some 300 miles from their traditional reserve in Southwest China. Their trek has been tracked by authorities who aren't clear why the herd is so far from home.

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Scientists will study whether microgravity has an impact on the relationship between newly hatched bobtail squid and their symbiotic bacterium.

Science

Why NASA Is Blasting Water Bears And Bobtail Squid Into Space

5:07pm June 03, 2021

by Joe Hernandez

The animals are being launched into the cosmos as NASA researchers attempt to learn more about how the conditions of spaceflight can affect biological organisms and, by extension, future astronauts.

Right Whales Are Shrinking In Numbers— New Study Shows They're Also Shrinking In Size

4:25pm June 03, 2021

by Eve Zuckoff

North Atlantic right whales now grow about three feet shorter than they did 40 years ago. Research suggests a leading cause is the damage human activity inflicts on the critically endangered mammals.

Scientists from NOAA Fisheries Service approach a young North Atlantic right whale in order to disentangle it. New research shows whales with severe entanglements in rope and fishing gear are experiencing stunted growth, and body lengths have been decreas

Endangered Right Whales Are Shrinking. Scientists Blame Commercial Fishing Gear

12:17pm June 03, 2021

by Eve Zuckoff

A new study concludes that endangered right whales born today will end up smaller than adult whales in the past. Researchers say stress from getting caught in fishing gear stunts the mammals' growth