Michael Sanchez was testing out his new camera when he happened upon a feathered subject. The blue rock-thrush he photographed on the coast of northern Oregon last week has excited the birding world.
Weliton Menário Costa's award-winning music video showcases his research on kangaroo personality and behavior — and offers a celebration of human diversity, too.
It's a popular rest stop for sea lions, but the docks at the tourist hot spot these days are unusually packed out with the slippery residents. Conservationists are buoyed by the surge in visitors.
Wildlife ecologists have seen white-tailed deer expanding their range in North America over many decades. And since the early-2000s these deer have moved north into the boreal forests of western Canada. These forests are full of spruce and pine trees, sandy soil and freezing winters with lots of snow. They can be a harsh winter wonderland. And ecologists haven't known whether a warmer climate in these forests or human land development might be driving the deer north. A recent study tries to disentangle these factors – and finds that a warming climate seems to play the most significant role in the movement of deer.
It is "the first known case of active wound treatment in a wild animal with a medical plant," biologist Isabelle Laumer told NPR. She says the orangutan, called Rakus, is now thriving.
Wally has many fans in Pennsylvania and across social media. His owner is enlisting their help, saying Wally was kidnapped, located by a trapper and released into a swamp while vacationing in Georgia.
For the first time in over 200 years, certain parts of the country are experiencing a rare emergence of two periodical cicadas — those big, droning insects that mostly live underground until they finally, very audibly, do not.
Some birds kill their siblings soon after hatching. Other birds spend their whole lives with their siblings and will even risk their lives to help each other.
Every year, the town of San Antero celebrates the hardworking pack animals that haul crops and supplies for farmers who can't afford trucks or motorcycles. There's even a donkey beauty pageant.
Health officials say there's very little risk to humans from the bird flu outbreak among dairy cattle, but there's still much they don't know. Here are four questions scientists are trying to answer.
Five military horses got spooked during a training exercise, bolting and weaving a path of destruction across the city before being captured. Several people and horses are being treated for injuries.
One of the most devastating events in a person’s life is the loss of a pet and pet owners are spending a lot of money on after life care for their animals.
NPR's Tom Dreisbach is back in the host chair for a day. This time, he reports on a story very close to home: The years-long battle his parents have been locked in with the local wild beaver population. Each night, the beavers would dam the culverts along the Dreisbachs' property, threatening to make their home inaccessible. Each morning, Tom's parents deconstructed those dams — until the annual winter freeze hit and left them all in a temporary stalemate.
As beaver populations have increased, so have these kinds of conflicts with people...like Tom's parents. But the solution may not be to chase away the beavers. They're a keystone species that scientists believe could play an important role in cleaning water supplies, creating healthy ecosystems and alleviating some of the effects of climate change. So, today, Tom calls up Jakob Shockey, the executive director of the non-profit Project Beaver. Jakob offers a bit of perspective to Tom and his parents, and the Dreisbachs contemplate what a peaceful coexistence with these furry neighbors might look like.
Have questions or comments for us to consider for a future episode? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!
Novelist Amy Tan's The Backyard Bird Chronicles centers on an array of birds that visit her yard, as Trish O'Kane's Birding to Change the World recalls lessons from birds that galvanized her teaching.