Category Archives: Animals

Dog shoots woman with shotgun at Nebraska convenience store

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Police responded to reports of gunfire at store in town of Scottsbluff, and found the culprit to be a dog

Police responding to reports of a shotgun blast at a convenience store sounds like the opening of countless American crime movies, but when cops in Nebraska responded to a recent such call they found an unusual culprit: a dog.

Local TV station KNOP News 2 reported that police in the town of Scottsbluff were called out to a local store recently after reports of a blast involving a shotgun.

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Migratory bird numbers fall in Britain despite last year’s warm spring

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British Trust for Ornithology says 2025 breeding season was especially disastrous for warbler species


After a mild, wet and stormy winter in the UK, spring 2025 was one of the warmest and driest ever, while the summer was the hottest since records began, most particularly in England and Wales.

Good news, you might think, for migratory birds – especially for eight species of warblers that travel here from their winter quarters in Africa. Yet according to data from bird ringers, collated by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), last year’s breeding season was pretty disastrous.

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New report reveals sharp rise in online sale of primates on social media in US

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Researchers found over 1,600 primates listed for sale on Facebook, TikTok and more over a six-week period in 2025

A new report from leading wildlife and conservation organizations has revealed a sharp rise in the online sale of primates across major social media platforms in the US, raising concerns about wildlife trafficking, public safety and animal welfare.

The report, titled Primates for Purchase: The Surge in Sales on Social Media in the US, was released Tuesday by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

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Signs of ‘feeding’ ritual at dingo burial site shed new light on bond between First Nations people and canines

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Never documented archaeologically before, evidence points to First Nations people caring for and nursing the animal

The discovery of a millennium-old dingo burial site in western New South Wales, including evidence of a “feeding” ritual never before documented archaeologically, has shed new light on the longstanding relationship between the canines and First Nations people.

The dingo was buried along the Baaka, or Darling River, in Kinchega national park near the Menindee Lakes.

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Experts sound alarm as North America’s bees start swarm season unusually early

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After record losses last year, beekeepers report a warm winter has led to bees ‘waking up earlier’ this year

After a series of record-breaking US heatwaves, the 2026 bee swarm season in North America has started 17 days earlier than last year, pushing beekeepers to adapt to a rapidly shifting season while raising new questions about how honeybees are responding to the climate crisis.

According to a new report published by Swarmed, a tracking network of more than 10,000 beekeepers, focused on safe and ethical honeybee relocation, this year’s unusually early swarm season follows several years of record colony declines worldwide.

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Magnus the wandering walrus leaves Scotland for Norway

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After drawing delighted crowds since first sighted in Orkney the young male has swum 400 miles across the North Sea

A peripatetic walrus who became a local celebrity as he toured the north-east coast of Scotland has now been spotted in Norway, bringing to an end his Celtic sojourn.

The young male was christened Magnus after he after first hauled his estimated 2.5-metre frame out of the sea on to Stronsay pier in Orkney on 16 April.

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Sicily police investigate illegal race with horse-drawn carts and Kalashnikovs

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Horses seized and several people questioned after animal rights activist shares video of race along country roads

A video showing an illegal horse race in Sicily, with spectators firing pistols into the air and brandishing Kalashnikov rifles, has prompted a police investigation that has led to the seizure of the animals.

The clip, reportedly filmed last Friday, shows two jockeys driving horse-drawn carts at breakneck speed along country roads in the town of Palagonia, near Catania, in eastern Sicily. Behind them, dozens of people follow on scooters, firing shots into the air. The footage was posted on social media by an animal rights activist named Enrico Rizzi.

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Sharp drop in ‘forever chemicals’ in seabird eggs hailed as win for regulation

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Levels of Pfas in northern gannet eggs in Canada fell up to 74% over 55-year period of study

Levels of some of the most dangerous Pfas compounds have dramatically fallen in Canadian seabird eggs, which the authors of a new peer-reviewed study say illustrates how regulations are effective.

Researchers looked at Pfas levels in the eggs of northern gannets in the St Lawrence Seaway basin over a 55-year period. Pfas levels shot up from the 1960s through the peak of the chemicals’ use in the late 1990s and early aughts, then fell.

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Argentina in spotlight over hantavirus as authorities retrace footsteps of ship’s passengers

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Thirty years after first person-to-person transmission was documented in Patagonia, scientists say global heating could increase world’s exposure

An outbreak in rural communities 30 years ago in the Patagonia area of Argentina led scientists, for the first time, to document person-to-person transmission of hantavirus, which until then had been known only to spread through contact with rodents.

Nearly a decade ago another outbreak, also in Patagonia, provided detailed evidence of inter-human transmission when an infected 68-year-old rural worker attended a birthday party in a small village. The infection spread and resulted in 11 deaths.

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Water flows to parched NSW wetlands could be turned back on within weeks as drought fears loom

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Water minister Rose Jackson calls drying in Gwydir region ‘devastating’ as bill passes upper house

Water flows to parched New South Wales wetlands where an urgent rescue mission to save dying wildlife unfolded are a step closer to resuming after legislation passed the state parliament’s upper house.

The water minister, Rose Jackson, told the parliament on Thursday night the impact of a halt to environmental flows in the internationally significant Gwydir region had been “devastating” as she introduced legislative amendments she said would allow flows to resume.

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Rewilding giants: captive elephants rehomed in Europe’s first sanctuary

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Julie, once a circus elephant, and Kariba, from a Belgian zoo, are to be moved to a former ranch in Portugal

Europe’s first large-scale elephant sanctuary, which is opening to offer a more natural environment for some of the 600 animals still held in captivity across the continent, is to receive its first arrivals.

Julie, Portugal’s last circus elephant, will be moved next month to the animal charity Pangea’s multimillion pound sanctuary in the Alentejo, 200km (124 miles) east of Lisbon, close to the border with Spain.

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Coyote swam 2 miles to Alcatraz Island, going farther than scientists expected

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Biologists had guessed coyote paddled a shorter distance to former prison in the San Francisco Bay earlier this year

A lone coyote stunned biologists and others when earlier this year it paddled its way to the remote Alcatraz Island, a former federal prison in the San Francisco Bay surrounded by swift, choppy waters notorious for thwarting prisoners’ escapes.

At the time, biologists guessed the coyote swam from San Francisco, which is a little over 1 mile (1.6km) from the fortress. But it turns out the male coyote actually made an even longer swim from nearby Angel Island, 2 miles away.

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Hundreds of animals rescued from ‘appalling’ conditions at California sanctuary

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San Diego Humane Society finds more than 400 animals at Julian facility, with malnutrition and injuries amid bankruptcy dispute

Authorities in California have rescued more than 400 animals, including horses, cats, dogs and goats, from a now shuttered sanctuary in San Diego county.

The San Diego Humane Society conducted the massive operation last week at Villa Chardonnay, a sprawling facility in Julian that had operated since 2003.

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Rescue of Timmy the whale ‘an all-round catastrophe’ after tracker failure

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Marine experts criticise €1.5m privately funded operation as humpback’s fate remains unknown after release into Baltic

Marine biologists and whale experts have stepped up their criticism of a privately funded operation to release a humpback whale that was stranded for weeks off Germany’s Baltic coast after it emerged that a tracker fitted to the whale was not working.

The whereabouts and health of the young male whale – nicknamed Timmy after one of the sandbanks it was stranded on – remain unknown three days after it was transported in a water-holding barge pulled by a tugboat to waters off the coast of Denmark.

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‘They know they’re safe’: beagles saved from US research facility after protests

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Big Dog Ranch Rescue made deal to buy 1,500 dogs from Ridglan Farms, a Wisconsin breeding and research facility

The first beagles removed from a Wisconsin dog breeding and research facility that was the site of recent protests seemed to know right away that they were safe.

“They started within an hour or so coming up to us, wanting attention. Some crawled in people’s laps. Every single one of them are super sweet,” Lauree Simmons, the president and founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue, said on Sunday. “I think they are loving the attention. I just know they know they’re safe.”

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‘Don’t fall!’: foil boarders describe hair-raising shark chase caught on video off California coast

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Foil boarders were pursued by shark – likely a great white – off Santa Barbara before it lost interest and swam away

Ron Takeda and Tavis Boise were a few miles off the coast of Santa Barbara when they noticed the large mass trailing behind them.

“Tavis, is it a dolphin?” asked Takeda as he stood on his foil board, a specialized form of surfing, propelling himself through the waves. Boise, who was filming their run, recognized the question as an ominous sign – the veteran surfers are familiar enough with dolphins that Takeda should have recognized one immediately.

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Indian billionaire’s son offers to house Pablo Escobar’s hippos at his private zoo

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Anant Ambani revives offer to transport 80 animals, all descendants of Colombian drug kingpin’s pets, to India

It remains one of the strangest conundrums in modern zoological history – what to do with the descendants of Pablo Escobar’s hippos?

The animals – herbivores native to sub-Saharan Africa – were originally imported into Colombia by the drug kingpin for his own entertainment. But the beasts and their offspring were left to roam free after his death in 1993.

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Stranded whale Timmy swims on to barge in German rescue attempt

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Rescuers hope to move young male humpback from Baltic to North Sea after being stranded for a month near Lübeck

Rescuers trying to save a stranded humpback whale off Germany’s Baltic coast have coaxed the mammal on to a barge in the hope the vessel can take it to safety in deeper waters.

Amid intense media attention, the high-stakes rescue mission, funded by two multi-millionaires, is being watched by hundreds of onlookers, many of whom are camped nearby to monitor the spectacle.

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German tourist dies after being bitten at snake show on family holiday in Egypt

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Man, 57, was watching snake-charming show when reptile crawled into his trousers, say German police

A German tourist has died after a snake crawled into his trousers and bit him as he watched a show in Egypt on a family holiday, police in Germany have said.

The 57-year-old man was watching the snake-charming show at a hotel in Hurghada, a popular beach holiday destination on the Red Sea, in early April.

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Record bear sightings in Japan cause alarm as hibernation ends

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Woman’s body found in Iwate prefecture last week, soon after a police officer was injured in bear attack nearby

Rested but famished bears emerging from hibernation in Japan are already coming into contact with humans, with the pace of sightings outstripping that seen in 2025, a record year for bear attacks.

According to media reports, the animals have been spotted with surprising frequency in urban areas in the country’s north-east, with authorities urging caution among people planning to spend the coming Golden Week public holidays in the countryside.

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