Animals

An illustration comparing the giant penguin to an average person. Kumimanu biceae weighed about 220 pounds and was a bit shorter than 6 feet in height. It swam around off the coast of New Zealand between 55 and 60 million years ago.

Science

Giant Prehistoric Penguins Once Swam Off The Coast Of New Zealand

9:10pm December 12, 2017

by Rhitu Chatterjee

Scientists have uncovered the fossil of an ancestral penguin off the east coast of New Zealand. It was one of the earliest known species of penguin and also one of the largest.

Queue Listen Now

Forage fish like these at a Chilean processing plant are often used for fish meal used in aquaculture. But critics consider this inefficient and wasteful and worry it could deplete fish populations. Now several companies are developing protein substitutes

Waste Not, Want Not: Drink Beer To Feed Fish And Help Save The Planet

4:59pm December 12, 2017

by Alastair Bland

Industry trailblazers are trying to reduce the energy and resource costs of aquaculture. Possible solutions include using brewery waste, algae, insects or even carbon dioxide to feed the fish we eat.

A tick grasping a dinosaur feather is preserved in 99 million-year-old amber from Myanmar.

Science

Amber-Trapped Tick Suggests Ancient Bloodsuckers Feasted On Feathered Dinosaurs

3:24pm December 12, 2017

by Rebecca Hersher

The tick was with a feather from a dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous Period. Modern ticks love to bite mammals, and scientists have long wondered what the tiny vampires ate millions of years ago.

Sale Tambaya, a cattle herder in central Nigeria, grazes his cows. After his home state criminalized open grazing on Nov. 1, he and his family fled with their livestock to a neighboring state where grazing is allowed. Two of his sons died on the journey.

Health & Safety

Why It's Now A Crime To Let Cattle Graze Freely In 2 Nigerian States

2:48pm December 12, 2017

by Tim McDonnell

Herders have let their livestock roam. Farmers are furious over damage to their crops. Tensions have led to thousands of deaths. Will a government ban on grazing end the violence?

An illustration of a Thylacine (Photo by: Brown Bear/Windmill Books/UIG via Getty Images)

Lack Of Genetic Diversity May Have Doomed Tasmanian Tiger, Scientists Say

8:23am December 12, 2017

by Scott Neuman

Although humans are blamed for the extinction of the dog-like Australian marsupial some 80 years ago, researchers say its problems may have started more than 70,000 years ago.

The first snow of the season didn't keep New Yorkers out of Madison Square Park. Parts of the Deep South also saw an unusual early snowfall.

National

The Internet Celebrates The First Snow Of The Season

5:53pm December 10, 2017

by Maggie Penman

The Northeast, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic were blanketed in the season's first snowfall this weekend — prompting some panic, and lots of Instagrammed awe.

Black-footed ferrets are the most endangered mammal in North America. Scientists in Montana are trying to save the ferrets by saving their main food source, prairie dogs.

Biologists With Drones And Peanut Butter Pellets Are On A Mission To Help Ferrets

5:42am December 10, 2017

by Nate Hegyi

To increase populations of the endangered black-footed ferret, scientists aim to save prairie dogs, a main food source. The biologists use drones and medicated peanut butter-flavored pellets to do it.

Grass-fed, antibiotic-free cattle gather at a farm in Yamhill, Ore. For the first time, government statistics show America's pigs, cattle and poultry are getting fewer antibiotic drugs.

Is The Tide Of Antibiotic Use On Farms Now Turning?

6:13pm December 07, 2017

by Dan Charles

For the first time, government statistics show America's pigs, cattle, and poultry are getting fewer antibiotic drugs. Public health advocates call the new figures encouraging.

Researchers found that when narwhals like these were released from a net, the animals' heart rates dropped even as they were swimming rapidly.

Stressed-Out Narwhals Don't Know Whether to Freeze or Flee, Scientists Find

3:22pm December 07, 2017

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

After being caught in a net, narwhals appear to get confused about what to do. Researchers say the whales' befuddlement could provide clues about how they will adapt to a changing Arctic.

A Dog Saves 2 Cats Because Dogs Are Clearly Superior Animals

5:06am December 06, 2017

A Canadian police dog was on a walk with an officer and followed his nose to discover two half-frozen kittens. Both of whom were then rescued by the Mounties.