Animals

Cars are a major predator for wildlife. How is nature adapting to our roads?

1:44pm September 26, 2023

by Terry Gross

Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb says cars are killing animals, while highways cut off them off from their food sources and migration paths. His new book is Crossings.

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Specialists say birds, blown off course, should be able to make their way home

7:25am September 26, 2023

Wayward flamingoes have been spotted even farther north — in a Milwaukee suburb. A hurricane had blown the birds away from their homes around the Gulf of Mexico.

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Sheep with a serious case of the munchies snuck into a greenhouse in Greece

6:01am September 26, 2023

The sheep were looking for shelter after a storm brought heavy rain to the region. Inside they found 600 pounds of medical marijuana. The farm owner said the sheep were "jumping higher than goats."

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Here's why 6,000 octopuses like to be under the sea at an 'octopus garden'

5:10am September 26, 2023

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Scientists are learning the secrets of the largest known collective of octopuses. Over 6,000 of them are huddle around an extinct sea volcano in the Pacific. (Story aired on ATC on 8/23/23.)

Male giant panda Xiao Qi Ji rolls around in his enclosure during a "Panda Palooza" event at the Smithsonian National Zoo on Saturday, in Washington, D.C. We're guessing he hasn't heard about the looming government shutdown.

National

A government shutdown could cut short the National Zoo's panda goodbye celebrations

5:01am September 25, 2023

by Emma Bowman

Through the rest of the month, the zoo is inviting the public to commemorate the departure of the three giant pandas who will return to China in December. A shutdown could kill the party's finale.

An alligator is seen at the Everglades National Park, Fla. On Friday, a gator was reportedly spotted with human remains in its mouth in a canal in Largo, Florida.

National

Florida authorities killed an alligator that was seen with human remains in its mouth

8:46pm September 23, 2023

by Emma Bowman

A 13-foot-8.5-inch male alligator was "humanely killed" and removed from the water, authorities said, after a local resident saw the reptile latching onto human remains in a Tampa Bay area canal.

Horseshoe crabs are bled alive at a facility in Charleston, S.C., in June 2014.

Environment

Vaccines are still tested with horseshoe crab blood. The industry is finally changing

11:00am September 23, 2023

by Chiara Eisner

The horseshoe crab bleeding industry is in transition. One biomedical company agreed to more oversight, and a regulatory group is paving the way for drug companies to use animal-free alternatives.

Two bear cousins became siblings this summer — and the new family fishes and lives together, led by 910.

From hangry to chonky: Fat Bear Week is coming

4:18pm September 21, 2023

by Bill Chappell

There can be only one — and they shall be rotund. The brown bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska have been plumping themselves up, to prepare for a new hibernation season.

The practice known as tail docking artificially shortens a horse's tail. Budweiser says it has stopped the practice on its signature Clydesdales, seen here in 2012.

National

Anheuser-Busch says it will no longer amputate the tails of Budweiser's Clydesdales

1:46pm September 21, 2023

by Laurel Wamsley

The beermaker says it will end the practice known as tail docking after it came under pressure by animal rights group PETA.

Malibu triathlon could be canceled because of a school of tiny endangered fish

7:59am September 21, 2023

The fish are occupying a flooded underpass on the course. Normally participants could use a bridge over the water, nut not this year — the Fish and Wildlife Service won't allow it.

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