Shearing Olympics Lacks Shaggy Sheep
Ireland's Golden Shears World Championships has 5,000 sheep so far but a thousand more are needed. So organizers are making farmers an offer.
Animals
Put Haggis In The Feeder, And Other Scottish Bird Feeding Tips
Malcie Smith of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds tells NPR's Scott Simon how to best attract birds to your garden or balcony this spring.
Earwax From Whales Keeps Record Of Ocean Contaminants
Layers of wax in the marine mammals' ears can be read like tree rings, scientists say, recording a whale's age and also information about pollutants in the water the whale swam through.
Wait. How Much Is That Doggy?
A Chinese property developer has reportedly paid close to $2 million for a golden-haired Tibetan mastiff puppy. The lion-looking dogs have become a status symbol for China's very rich.
Team USA Hockey Player Adopts 2 Stray Dogs From Sochi
The stray animal population in the Russian resort town received a lot of international attention during the games. David Backes hopes his "Olympic souvenirs" will raise awareness.
Koala Escapes From Zoo, Naps And Then Gets Hungry
Mundu went missing from his exhibit at the San Diego Zoo on Tuesday. He escaped his enclosure and fell asleep — spending the day in a tree nearby. Zookeepers lured him back with eucalyptus.
Eagles Make DTE Energy Plant Their Winter Home
The Michigan power plant dumps a lot of warm water into Lake Erie. The warm water attracts fish. The fish in turn attract bald eagles. Almost 200 of them have been nesting at the plant.
Penguins Are Depressed By Lack Of Sun
It's been a dreary winter but penguins should be used to it, right? Not the Humboldt penguins at the Sea Life Center in Britain. They are natives of coastal South America — far from the U.K.'s unrelenting wind and rain. They're feeling so blue that zoo staff had to prescribe antidepressants.
Ancient And Vulnerable: 25 Percent Of Sharks And Rays Risk Extinction
"People know about the global trade in shark fins, but few know that some of the most valuable fins ... used in shark fin soup come from the sharklike rays — species like sawfishes and wedgefishes and guitarfishes," says Sonja Fordham, who contributed to a new analysis of the fisheries.
Profiting From Rhinos, Far From Their Habitat
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Rhinoceros horns now sell for more on the black market than cocaine or heroin. Demand from Southeast Asian consumers is primarily to blame. In order to cash in, thieves have begun targeting a different kind of rhino habitat: museums. NPR's Arun Rath speaks with journalist Adam Higginbotham about the so-called "Rathkeale Rovers," a gang suspected of several thefts.