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Tag: Animals

  • New England’s Shrimp Fishery to Shut Down for the Long Haul After Years of Decline

    PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Regulators voted Thursday to extend a shutdown preventing New England fishermen from catching shrimp, a historic industry that has recently fallen victim to warming oceans.

    New England fishermen, especially those from Maine, used to catch millions of pounds of small pink shrimp in the winter, but the business has been under a fishing moratorium since 2014. Rising temperatures have created an inhospitable environment for the shrimp, and their population is too low to fish sustainably, scientists have said.

    An arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Thursday to shut down the fishery for at least another three years. Abundance of the shrimp remained “poor” this year despite slightly improved environmental conditions, the Atlantic States said in documents.

    The decision came after shrimp harvesters were allowed to catch a small number of shrimp as part of an industry-funded sampling and data collection program. The fishermen, who battled some rough weather, caught only 70 shrimp totaling less than 3 pounds.

    However, “even with the bad weather, exceptionally low catch levels observed throughout the program reinforce concerns about the viability of the northern shrimp stock in the Gulf of Maine,” the documents state.

    New England shrimp were a winter delicacy when the fishery was active, and fishermen sometimes caught more than 10 million pounds (4,536 kilograms) of them in a year. The small pink shrimp were a small part of the country’s large wild caught shrimp industry, which catches some of the most valuable seafood in the world.

    Maine’s catch of shrimp cratered in 2013, when fishermen caught less than 600,000 pounds (272,155 kilograms) of the crustaceans after hauling more than eight times that the previous year. Fishing groups have sometimes lobbied for the shrimping industry to be reopened on a smaller scale basis, but most former Maine shrimpers have moved on to other species.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

    Associated Press

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  • Eel populations are falling, and new protections were defeated. Japan and the US opposed them

    SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Eels are the stuff of nightmares — slimy, snakelike creatures that lay millions of eggs before dying so their offspring can return home to rivers and streams. They’ve existed since the time of the dinosaurs, and some species are more poorly understood than those ancient animals.

    Yet they’re also valuable seafood fish that are declining all over the world, leading to a new push for restrictions on trade to help stave off extinction.

    Freshwater eels are critically important for the worldwide sushi industry, and some species have declined by more than 90% since the 1980s. The eels have succumbed to a combination of river dams, hydroelectric turbines, pollution, habitat loss, climate change, illegal poaching and overfishing, according to scientists. Some environmental organizations have called for consumers to boycott eel at sushi restaurants.

    The loss of eels motivated the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, to consider new restrictions to protect the wriggling fish. The members of CITES, an international treaty, met in Uzbekistan this week to determine if the new rules on trade are needed. Member nations voted against the new protections on Thursday.

    Conservation groups said the protections were long overdue, but not everyone was on board. Some fishing groups, seafood industry members and regulatory agencies in the U.S., China and Japan — all countries where eel is economically important — have spoken out against restricting the trade.

    The push for more restrictions is the work of “an international body dominated by volunteer scientists and unelected bureaucrats,” said Mitchell Feigenbaum, one of North America’s largest eel dealers and an advocate for the industry. But several conservation groups countered that the protections were needed.

    “This measure is vital to strengthen trade monitoring, aid fisheries management, and ensure the species’ long-term survival,” said Susan Lieberman, vice president of international policy for Wildlife Conservation Society.

    The eels in question are the eels of the anguilla genus, which spend their lives in freshwater but migrate to the ocean to spawn. They are distinct from the familiar, grinning moray eels, which are popular in aquariums and are mostly marine fish, and the electric eels, which live in South America.

    Anguilla eels, especially baby eels called elvers, are valuable because they are used as seed stock by Asian aquaculture companies that raise them to maturity for use as food. Freshwater eel is known as unagi in Japan, and it’s a key ingredient in numerous sushi dishes. Eel is also culturally significant in Japan, where people have eaten the fish for thousands of years.

    The elvers have become more valuable in the U.S. over the last 15 years because of the steep decline of eels elsewhere in the world. While the population of American eels has fallen, the drop has not been as severe as Japanese and European eels. Attempts to list American eels under the Endangered Species Act in the U.S. have failed.

    Maine is the only U.S. state with a significant fishery for the elvers, and it is heavily regulated. Maine’s baby eels were worth more than $1,200 per pound at the docks in 2024, and they were worth more than $2,000 per pound the year before that.

    CITES, which is one of the world’s largest multinational wildlife agreements, extended protections to European eels in 2009. The organization considered adding more than a dozen more eel species, including the American and Japanese eels, to its list of protected species.

    Adding the eels to the list would mean exporters would need a permit to ship them. Before the permit could be granted, a scientific authority in the home country would have to determine that the export would not be detrimental to the species’ survival and that the eels weren’t taken illegally under national wildlife laws. That is significant because poaching of eels is a major threat, and rare species are often illegally passed off as more common ones, CITES documents state.

    Tightening trade rules “will encourage species-specific trade monitoring and controls and close loopholes that allow illegal trade to persist,” the documents state.

    Fishing groups are not the only organizations to resist expanding protections for eels, as regulatory groups in some countries have argued that national and regional laws are a better way to conserve eels.

    Japan and China have both told CITES that they don’t support listing the eels. And in the U.S., the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates the American eel fishery, submitted testimony to CITES opposing the listing.

    The U.S.’s own management of eels is sufficient to protect the species, said Toni Kerns, fisheries policy director with the commission.

    “We don’t feel that the proposal provides enough information on how the black market would be curbed,” Kerns said. “We are very concerned about how it would potentially restrict trade in the United States.”

    A coalition of industry groups in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan also submitted a request that the protection be rejected, saying CITES’ assertion that international trade is causing eel populations to decline is “not supported by sufficient evidence.”

    The strong demand for eels is a reason to protect the trade with new rules, said Nastya Timoshyna, office director for Europe with TRAFFIC, a U.K.-based nonprofit that fights wildlife trafficking.

    Illegal shipping is not the only reason the eels are in decline, but working with industry to cut down illegal trade will give the fish a better chance at survival, Timoshyna said.

    Eels might not be universally beloved, but they’re important in part because they’re an indicator species that helps scientists understand the health of the ecosystem around them, Timoshyna said.

    “It’s not about banning it or stopping fishing practices,” Timoshyna said. “It’s about industry being responsible, and there is massive power in industry.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this report.

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  • Eel Populations Are Falling, and New Protections Were Defeated. Japan and the US Opposed Them

    SCARBOROUGH, Maine (AP) — Eels are the stuff of nightmares — slimy, snakelike creatures that lay millions of eggs before dying so their offspring can return home to rivers and streams. They’ve existed since the time of the dinosaurs, and some species are more poorly understood than those ancient animals.

    Yet they’re also valuable seafood fish that are declining all over the world, leading to a new push for restrictions on trade to help stave off extinction.

    Freshwater eels are critically important for the worldwide sushi industry, and some species have declined by more than 90% since the 1980s. The eels have succumbed to a combination of river dams, hydroelectric turbines, pollution, habitat loss, climate change, illegal poaching and overfishing, according to scientists. Some environmental organizations have called for consumers to boycott eel at sushi restaurants.

    The loss of eels motivated the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, to consider new restrictions to protect the wriggling fish. The members of CITES, an international treaty, met in Uzbekistan this week to determine if the new rules on trade are needed. Member nations voted against the new protections on Thursday.

    Conservation groups said the protections were long overdue, but not everyone was on board. Some fishing groups, seafood industry members and regulatory agencies in the U.S., China and Japan — all countries where eel is economically important — have spoken out against restricting the trade.

    The push for more restrictions is the work of “an international body dominated by volunteer scientists and unelected bureaucrats,” said Mitchell Feigenbaum, one of North America’s largest eel dealers and an advocate for the industry. But several conservation groups countered that the protections were needed.

    “This measure is vital to strengthen trade monitoring, aid fisheries management, and ensure the species’ long-term survival,” said Susan Lieberman, vice president of international policy for Wildlife Conservation Society.


    Why are eels so valuable?

    The eels in question are the eels of the anguilla genus, which spend their lives in freshwater but migrate to the ocean to spawn. They are distinct from the familiar, grinning moray eels, which are popular in aquariums and are mostly marine fish, and the electric eels, which live in South America.

    Anguilla eels, especially baby eels called elvers, are valuable because they are used as seed stock by Asian aquaculture companies that raise them to maturity for use as food. Freshwater eel is known as unagi in Japan, and it’s a key ingredient in numerous sushi dishes. Eel is also culturally significant in Japan, where people have eaten the fish for thousands of years.

    The elvers have become more valuable in the U.S. over the last 15 years because of the steep decline of eels elsewhere in the world. While the population of American eels has fallen, the drop has not been as severe as Japanese and European eels. Attempts to list American eels under the Endangered Species Act in the U.S. have failed.

    Maine is the only U.S. state with a significant fishery for the elvers, and it is heavily regulated. Maine’s baby eels were worth more than $1,200 per pound at the docks in 2024, and they were worth more than $2,000 per pound the year before that.


    New protections were on the table

    CITES, which is one of the world’s largest multinational wildlife agreements, extended protections to European eels in 2009. The organization considered adding more than a dozen more eel species, including the American and Japanese eels, to its list of protected species.

    Adding the eels to the list would mean exporters would need a permit to ship them. Before the permit could be granted, a scientific authority in the home country would have to determine that the export would not be detrimental to the species’ survival and that the eels weren’t taken illegally under national wildlife laws. That is significant because poaching of eels is a major threat, and rare species are often illegally passed off as more common ones, CITES documents state.

    Tightening trade rules “will encourage species-specific trade monitoring and controls and close loopholes that allow illegal trade to persist,” the documents state.


    US, Japan pushed back at protections

    Fishing groups are not the only organizations to resist expanding protections for eels, as regulatory groups in some countries have argued that national and regional laws are a better way to conserve eels.

    Japan and China have both told CITES that they don’t support listing the eels. And in the U.S., the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates the American eel fishery, submitted testimony to CITES opposing the listing.

    The U.S.’s own management of eels is sufficient to protect the species, said Toni Kerns, fisheries policy director with the commission.

    “We don’t feel that the proposal provides enough information on how the black market would be curbed,” Kerns said. “We are very concerned about how it would potentially restrict trade in the United States.”

    A coalition of industry groups in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan also submitted a request that the protection be rejected, saying CITES’ assertion that international trade is causing eel populations to decline is “not supported by sufficient evidence.”


    Conservationists say the time to act is now

    The strong demand for eels is a reason to protect the trade with new rules, said Nastya Timoshyna, office director for Europe with TRAFFIC, a U.K.-based nonprofit that fights wildlife trafficking.

    Illegal shipping is not the only reason the eels are in decline, but working with industry to cut down illegal trade will give the fish a better chance at survival, Timoshyna said.

    Eels might not be universally beloved, but they’re important in part because they’re an indicator species that helps scientists understand the health of the ecosystem around them, Timoshyna said.

    “It’s not about banning it or stopping fishing practices,” Timoshyna said. “It’s about industry being responsible, and there is massive power in industry.”

    Associated Press writer Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

    Associated Press

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  • How trading wild turkeys for other animals became a conservation success story

    CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — No one wants a weasel on their Thanksgiving table, but swapping turkeys for other animals was once surprisingly common.

    Trading turkeys – for wildlife management, not dinner – was a key part of one of North America’s biggest conservation success stories. After dwindling to a few thousand birds in the late 1880s, the wild turkey population has grown to about 7 million birds in 49 states, plus more in Canada and Mexico, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation.

    In many cases, restoration relied on trades. The exchange rates varied, but Oklahoma once swapped walleye and prairie chickens for turkeys from Arkansas and Missouri. Colorado traded mountain goats for turkeys from Idaho. The Canadian province of Ontario ended up with 274 turkeys from New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Michigan, Missouri and Iowa in exchange for moose, river otters, and partridge.

    “Wildlife biologists don’t suffer from a lack of creativity,” said Patt Dorsey, director of conservation for the National Wild Turkey Federation’s western region.

    West Virginia in particular appears to have had an abundance of turkeys to share. In 1969, it sent 26 turkeys to New Hampshire in exchange for 25 fishers, a member of the weasel family once prized for its pelt. Later trades involved otters and bobwhite quail.

    “They were like our currency for all our wildlife that we restored,” said Holly Morris, furbearer and small game project leader at the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. “It’s just a way to help out other agencies. We’re all in the same mission.”

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    Wild turkeys were abundant across the U.S. until the mid-1800s, when the clearing of forestland and unregulated hunting led the population to plummet. Early restoration efforts in the 1940s and 50s involved raising turkeys on farms, but that didn’t work well, Dorsey said.

    “Turkeys that had been raised in a pen didn’t do very well in the wild,” she said. “That’s when we started capturing them out of the wild and moving them around to other places to restore their population, and they really took off.”

    In New Hampshire, wild turkeys hadn’t been seen for more than 100 years when the state got the West Virginia flock. Though those birds quickly succumbed to a harsh winter, another flock sent from New York in 1975 fared better. With careful management that included moving birds around the state dozens of times over the ensuing decades, the population has grown to roughly 40,000 birds, said Dan Ellingwood, a biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. That’s likely well beyond the expectations at the time of reintroduction, he said.

    “Turkeys are incredibly adaptive,” he said. “Winter severity has changed, the landscape has changed, and yet the population really took off.”

    Turkeys play an important role in a healthy ecosystem as both predator and prey, he said, and are a popular draw for hunters. But the restoration effort also is important just for the sake of ensuring native species continue to persist, he said.

    Dorsey, at the National Wild Turkey Federation agreed, noting that turkey restoration projects also helped states revive their populations of other species.

    “A lot of good work gets done on the back of the wild turkey,” she said.

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  • How trading wild turkeys for other animals became a conservation success story

    CONCORD, N.H. — No one wants a weasel on their Thanksgiving table, but swapping turkeys for other animals was once surprisingly common.

    Trading turkeys – for wildlife management, not dinner – was a key part of one of North America’s biggest conservation success stories. After dwindling to a few thousand birds in the late 1880s, the wild turkey population has grown to about 7 million birds in 49 states, plus more in Canada and Mexico, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation.

    In many cases, restoration relied on trades. The exchange rates varied, but Oklahoma once swapped walleye and prairie chickens for turkeys from Arkansas and Missouri. Colorado traded mountain goats for turkeys from Idaho. The Canadian province of Ontario ended up with 274 turkeys from New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Michigan, Missouri and Iowa in exchange for moose, river otters, and partridge.

    “Wildlife biologists don’t suffer from a lack of creativity,” said Patt Dorsey, director of conservation for the National Wild Turkey Federation’s western region.

    West Virginia in particular appears to have had an abundance of turkeys to share. In 1969, it sent 26 turkeys to New Hampshire in exchange for 25 fishers, a member of the weasel family once prized for its pelt. Later trades involved otters and bobwhite quail.

    “They were like our currency for all our wildlife that we restored,” said Holly Morris, furbearer and small game project leader at the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. “It’s just a way to help out other agencies. We’re all in the same mission.”

    Wild turkeys were abundant across the U.S. until the mid-1800s, when the clearing of forestland and unregulated hunting led the population to plummet. Early restoration efforts in the 1940s and 50s involved raising turkeys on farms, but that didn’t work well, Dorsey said.

    “Turkeys that had been raised in a pen didn’t do very well in the wild,” she said. “That’s when we started capturing them out of the wild and moving them around to other places to restore their population, and they really took off.”

    In New Hampshire, wild turkeys hadn’t been seen for more than 100 years when the state got the West Virginia flock. Though those birds quickly succumbed to a harsh winter, another flock sent from New York in 1975 fared better. With careful management that included moving birds around the state dozens of times over the ensuing decades, the population has grown to roughly 40,000 birds, said Dan Ellingwood, a biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. That’s likely well beyond the expectations at the time of reintroduction, he said.

    “Turkeys are incredibly adaptive,” he said. “Winter severity has changed, the landscape has changed, and yet the population really took off.”

    Turkeys play an important role in a healthy ecosystem as both predator and prey, he said, and are a popular draw for hunters. But the restoration effort also is important just for the sake of ensuring native species continue to persist, he said.

    Dorsey, at the National Wild Turkey Federation agreed, noting that turkey restoration projects also helped states revive their populations of other species.

    “A lot of good work gets done on the back of the wild turkey,” she said.

    Source link

  • How Trading Wild Turkeys for Other Animals Became a Conservation Success Story

    CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — No one wants a weasel on their Thanksgiving table, but swapping turkeys for other animals was once surprisingly common.

    Trading turkeys – for wildlife management, not dinner – was a key part of one of North America’s biggest conservation success stories. After dwindling to a few thousand birds in the late 1880s, the wild turkey population has grown to about 7 million birds in 49 states, plus more in Canada and Mexico, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation.

    In many cases, restoration relied on trades. The exchange rates varied, but Oklahoma once swapped walleye and prairie chickens for turkeys from Arkansas and Missouri. Colorado traded mountain goats for turkeys from Idaho. The Canadian province of Ontario ended up with 274 turkeys from New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Michigan, Missouri and Iowa in exchange for moose, river otters, and partridge.

    “Wildlife biologists don’t suffer from a lack of creativity,” said Patt Dorsey, director of conservation for the National Wild Turkey Federation’s western region.

    West Virginia in particular appears to have had an abundance of turkeys to share. In 1969, it sent 26 turkeys to New Hampshire in exchange for 25 fishers, a member of the weasel family once prized for its pelt. Later trades involved otters and bobwhite quail.

    “They were like our currency for all our wildlife that we restored,” said Holly Morris, furbearer and small game project leader at the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. “It’s just a way to help out other agencies. We’re all in the same mission.”

    Wild turkeys were abundant across the U.S. until the mid-1800s, when the clearing of forestland and unregulated hunting led the population to plummet. Early restoration efforts in the 1940s and 50s involved raising turkeys on farms, but that didn’t work well, Dorsey said.

    “Turkeys that had been raised in a pen didn’t do very well in the wild,” she said. “That’s when we started capturing them out of the wild and moving them around to other places to restore their population, and they really took off.”

    In New Hampshire, wild turkeys hadn’t been seen for more than 100 years when the state got the West Virginia flock. Though those birds quickly succumbed to a harsh winter, another flock sent from New York in 1975 fared better. With careful management that included moving birds around the state dozens of times over the ensuing decades, the population has grown to roughly 40,000 birds, said Dan Ellingwood, a biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. That’s likely well beyond the expectations at the time of reintroduction, he said.

    “Turkeys are incredibly adaptive,” he said. “Winter severity has changed, the landscape has changed, and yet the population really took off.”

    Turkeys play an important role in a healthy ecosystem as both predator and prey, he said, and are a popular draw for hunters. But the restoration effort also is important just for the sake of ensuring native species continue to persist, he said.

    Dorsey, at the National Wild Turkey Federation agreed, noting that turkey restoration projects also helped states revive their populations of other species.

    “A lot of good work gets done on the back of the wild turkey,” she said.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

    Associated Press

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  • Tears at what senior dog still tries to do after losing vision to diabetes

    A TikTok video showing a senior dog waking up confused and unable to see has moved people to tears, as it has drawn attention to the common complication of canine diabetes.

    Pet parent Joe LaMancuso began managing his senior dog’s diabetes over the summer, he shared in the comment section of his September 30 TikTok video. This includes giving his 12-year-old dog, Oreo, two daily insulin shots, using a glucose reader and having him eat a special diet.

    Diabetes is a chronic disease caused by high blood sugar due to insulin problems, affecting humans and animals alike. In dogs, the most common form is diabetes mellitus, or sugar diabetes, according to an article from the American Kennel Club. Most dogs are diagnosed after age five, though it can occur at any age. Early diagnosis and treatment are crucial, as uncontrolled diabetes can lead to cataracts, liver enlargement, urinary tract infections, seizures, kidney failure and ketoacidosis.

    Oreo’s blindness seemed “sudden” to LaMancuso, as if it happened overnight. In the heartbreaking video, Oreo sits by his food bowl, unsure where to go or what to do. His head hung down in defeat. Trying to stay positive, LaMancuso wrote in the caption: “Hang in there, my lil prince, there’s still so much to smell and hear!!!”

    Eye problems are common in dogs with diabetes. According to an article from South Texas Veterinary Ophthalmology, 75 percent of dogs will develop cataracts within 12 months of a diabetes mellitus diagnosis, and blindness can progress quickly when severe or left untreated.

    Oreo is now learning how to navigate this new normal. A separate video shows LaMancuso taking his dog on a walk, and how Oreo is gradually adjusting and becoming more cautious. Pet parents are advised to maintain routines and avoid moving household items, including food bowls, to help blind dogs orient themselves.

    And while some canines can use their other senses to help them through, LaMancuso shared in a comment that Oreo’s hearing has started to go, too, making adaptation even more challenging.

    With over 101,400 views, 8,811 likes and 214 comments, TikTok users flooded the video with their heartbreak for how scary it must be for not only the owner, but Oreo.

    “That’s so sad. Please give him a cuddle and belly rub from me,” wrote one person.

    Another added: “So sorry. It’s so hard watching them get older. Hugs, stay strong for your baby!!”

    LaMancuso said Oreo became cuddly for the first time after his vision went. He slept next to LaMancuso that night.

    Newsweek reached out to LaMancuso via email for additional information and comment.

    Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup. 

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  • Gramma the Galápagos tortoise, oldest resident of San Diego Zoo, dies at about 141

    LOS ANGELES — After more than a century of munching on her favorite foods of romaine lettuce and cactus fruit, beloved Galápagos tortoise Gramma, the oldest resident of the San Diego Zoo, has died.

    Gramma was born in her native habitat and was estimated to be about 141 years old, zoo officials said. She died Nov. 20.

    It’s not clear exactly when the tortoise arrived at the San Diego Zoo, but zoo officials said she came from the Bronx Zoo in either 1928 or 1931 as part of their first group of Galápagos tortoises.

    As the world changed around her, she delighted visitors with her sweet, shy personality. She lived through two World Wars and 20 U.S. presidents.

    Her care specialists affectionately called her “the Queen of the Zoo.” She was suffering from bone conditions related to her old age that progressed recently before she was euthanized, the zoo said.

    Many visitors commented on social media about getting to first visit Gramma when they were young, and being able to come back years later with their kids.

    Cristina Park, 69, said one of her earliest memories from her childhood was going to the San Diego Zoo when she was 3 or 4 years old and riding on the back of a tortoise. That’s no longer allowed, but the experience inspired her to keep a small desert tortoise as a pet and learn more about tortoise conservation.

    “Just how amazing it is that they managed to live through so much,” Park said. “And yet they’re still there.”

    Galapagos tortoises can live for over 100 years in the wild, and close to double that in captivity.

    The oldest known Galapagos tortoise was named Harriet, who lived at the Australia Zoo until the age of 175. She was collected from the Galapagos Islands in 1835, when she was just the size of a dinner plate, according to the zoo. This means that she hatched somewhere around 1830, and she died in 2006.

    Galápagos tortoises include 15 subspecies of tortoises from the islands, three of which were deemed extinct. The rest are all vulnerable or critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

    Concerted efforts have been made to breed these tortoises in captivity over the past several decades, with more than 10,000 juveniles released to the wild since 1965, according to the Galápagos Conservancy. Some subspecies have been brought back from the brink of extinction.

    In April, four baby Galápagos tortoises were born at the Philadelphia Zoo to first-time parents that were roughly 100 years old, a first in the zoo’s history. In June, Zoo Miami resident and Galápagos tortoise Goliath became a first-time father at the age of 135.

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  • Veterinarian jailed for refusing to return homeless man’s sick dog

    A Michigan veterinarian was sentenced to 10 days in jail Monday for refusing to return a dog to a homeless man after finding the ailing pit bull mix tied to a truck in 2024.

    Amanda Hergenreder, from Millington, Michigan, was convicted of misdemeanor larceny and ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution to the dog’s owner, Chris Hamilton. The sentencing took place in Grand Rapids, where Judge Angela Ross rejected the defense’s request for community service instead of jail time.

    Why It Matters

    According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, the number of individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the United States reached a record 256,610 in 2023. Research suggests that up to 25 percent of unhoused individuals have companion animals.

    For those experiencing homelessness, pets offer valuable companionship and support. However, pet ownership can create additional barriers to accessing services.

    In a 2016 survey conducted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, 22 percent of homeless individuals reported they were unable to enter shelters because they were not allowed to bring their pets. Many people choose to remain unhoused rather than relinquish custody or leave their pets behind when entering a shelter.

    What To Know

    The incident occurred in early November 2024, when Hergenreder was attending a professional conference in Grand Rapids. She encountered a 16-year-old dog tied to a U-Haul truck near a coffee shop and took him to her clinic, which was two hours away. There, she treated the animal for a severe urinary tract infection and removed a rotten tooth.

    Hergenreder cited her ethical duties as a veterinarian and noted that the dog wasn’t licensed as a reason for refusing to return the animal to Hamilton, who lacked permanent housing at the time. She renamed the dog Biggby, after a nearby coffee shop, saying the animal was thriving in her care. He was previously named Vinnie by Hamilton.

    Prosecutors filed charges after she refused multiple requests to return the dog. During the two-day trial in September of this year, Hergenreder told jurors she would do it all again “in a heartbeat.” A jury convicted her of larceny, which carries up to 93 days of jail and a fine.

    Her defense attorney, Miles Greengard, said the veterinarian kept the dog because there was no assurance that animal welfare authorities would investigate the dog’s living conditions. He had requested 120 hours of community service for the sentencing, but Judge Ross determined jail time was more appropriate.

    Hamilton had told Grand Rapids news station WOOD-TV earlier this year that he tied the dog to the truck while he walked to a gas station.

    What People Are Saying

    Amanda Hergenreder told the judge during sentencing: “I failed to see the whole picture. I failed to honor the bond between Vinnie and Mr. Hamilton. I failed to recognize the heartbreak that would follow. I failed to stop, think, and ask questions.”

    Hergenreder’s defense attorney, Miles Greengard, told the Associated Press: “She believed, as I believe, she did the right thing. What is right and what is legal are not always the same thing. We’re disappointed in Dr. Hergenreder being sentenced to jail, but we take solace in the fact that Biggby/Vinnie spent his last few months in a warm, safe, loving, caring environment.”

    Chris Hamilton told WOOD-TV in February: “I had my dog 15 years. Never neglected him and, you know, we loved each other. I mean, I felt like I lost part of my body after that. Never felt the same after losing him.”

    What Happens Next

    Hergenreder will serve her 10-day jail sentence and pay the court-ordered restitution.

    This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.

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  • Sit Back and Enjoy the Winning Images From This Year’s Nature inFocus Photography Awards

    While hiking through the dense jungles of Uganda, wildlife photographer Federica Cordero stumbled upon a young male chimp lounging on a twisted vine. His bemused frown suggests some irritation at having his nap disturbed, but it gave Cordero’s photo a charming air of adolescent grumpiness. Teenagers, am I right?

    The image, titled The Canopy Watcher, won the Animal Portraits category of this year’s Nature inFocus Photography Awards. This annual contest celebrates photographers who document extraordinary moments in natural history and spotlight critical conservation issues. This year’s winners were announced on November 15 at the Nature inFocus festival in Bengaluru, India. 

    We encourage you to take a page out of this chilled-out chimp’s book. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of the breathtaking winning photos below.

    Ancient Rivals, Animal Behavior category winner

    An Arctic wolf wears the evidence of a recent hunt on its face as it prowls the tundra of Ellesmere Island, Canada, with a herd of muskoxen nearby © Image by Amit Eshel, courtesy of the Nature inFocus Photography Awards

    When an Arctic wolf is on the prowl, muskoxen know what to do. The herd in the background of this photo has formed a defensive circle to protect its calves, horns facing outward toward advancing predators.

    Unfortunately for the herd, this wolf and its pack did manage to seize a few young muskoxen, turning them into a quick snack before continuing on their way. Wildlife photographer Amit Eshel caught this predator red-handed—or, uh, red-faced—showcasing the drama of life in the unforgiving tundra of Ellesmere Island, Canada.

    Nautilus on the Move, Young Photographer category winner

    a female Paper Nautilus clings to a drifting leaf
    A female paper nautilus clings to a drifting leaf in the ocean waters of Anilao, Philippines © Image by Tinnapat Netcharussaeng, courtesy of the Nature inFocus Photography Awards

    Tinnapat Netcharussaeng, a 16-year-old underwater wildlife photographer and aspiring marine biologist, captured this otherworldly image during a nighttime blackwater dive off the coast of Anilao in the Philippines.

    This alien-like creature is a female paper nautilus, which, despite its name, is not a nautilus at all. It’s actually an octopus with a thin, nautilus-like shell, giving it a similar appearance to the marine mollusks. This female is clinging to a leaf, riding it like a raft as it drifts through the open sea.

    Edge of Two Worlds, Conservation Photography Award winner

    A young leopard feeds on a cow carcass beside garbage and fast-moving traffic in Rajasthan, India
    A young leopard feeds on a cow carcass beside garbage and fast-moving traffic in Rajasthan, India © Image by Rajat Chordia, courtesy of the Nature inFocus Photography Awards

    Urban life collides with wildlife in Udaipur, a city of Rajasthan, India. Wildlife photographer and cinematographer Rajat Chordia captured the blending of these two worlds with this striking image of a young leopard feeding on a cow carcass beside a busy roadway, surrounded by garbage.

    The photo is a stark reminder of the challenges Udaipur’s leopard population faces today, even as conservation efforts expand. Destruction of their forest habitat causes these predators to clash with human communities, sometimes with deadly consequences.

    Urban Oasis, Coexistence category winner

    Flamingos feed peacefully against the backdrop of Dubai’s towering skyline
    Flamingos feed peacefully against the backdrop of Dubai’s towering skyline © Image by Sarthak Agrawal, courtesy of the Nature inFocus Photography Awards

    At Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, wildlife photographer Sarthak Agrawal spotted a flock of flamingoes feeding against the backdrop of Dubai’s skyline. This protected urban wetland thrives amid rapid urban development, filtering water, storing carbon, and sustaining a diverse array of wildlife.

    Ras Al Khor provides refuge for up to 25,000 migratory birds each winter, including greater flamingoes. Even without their signature pink hue in this black-and-white photo, the birds are unmistakable with their long necks, curved bills, and stalky legs.

    Blue Aura, Creative Nature Photography category winner

    A cranefly settles on a thin twig
    A cranefly settles on a thin twig in Assam, India © Image by Bidyut Kalita, courtesy of the Nature inFocus Photography Awards

    This photo may look like an abstract art piece, but that’s a very real crane fly perched on a leaf in Goalpara, a city in Assam, India. These long-legged, winged insects resemble giant mosquitoes, but they don’t bite or sting.

    Macro wildlife photographer Bidyut Kalita used a steady mobile light to track the fly’s movements and a speed light to freeze its body, capturing the insect in sharp focus as well as a ghostly blue aura that reveals the motion of its legs.

    Thief in the Spotlight, Wildscape & Animals in Habitat category winner

    A fox on a nighttime prowl in front of some oddly shaped trees
    A fox on a nighttime prowl in Vashlovani National Park, Georgia © Image by Sergey Bystritsky, courtesy of the Nature inFocus Photography Awards

    Amid a cluster of unusually shaped trees in Georgia’s Vashlovani National Park, wildlife photographer Sergey Bystritsky staged a haunting nighttime scene. He used soft lights to illuminate the area and flashes and fabric to guide a fox into view, snapping a photo as this nocturnal predator prowled across the foreground.

    Vashlovani National Park boasts a mosaic of ecosystems, ranging from deserts and semi-deserts to steppes and unique, shallow forests. Its wildlife is equally diverse, home to hundreds of plant and animal species.

    This is just a small sampling; you can check out more winning images at the contest website.

    Ellyn Lapointe

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  • Florida farm brings unique Gypsy Vanner horses and their story to life

    OCALA, Fla. — Deep in the heart of Florida’s horse country, one farm is offering more than just beautiful pastures and photogenic horses — it’s giving guests a cultural and historical experience unlike any other.

    What You Need To Know

    • Gypsy Gold Horse Farm in Ocala is the first U.S. home of the rare Gypsy Vanner horse breed.
    • Visitors can take guided tours that provide education, history, and hands-on animal interaction.
    • The farm’s founder imported the first Gypsy Vanner after encountering the breed in Europe in 1995.


    Gypsy Gold Horse Farm is the first in the United States to introduce the rare and striking Gypsy Vanner horse breed to American soil.

    Known for their feathered hooves, flowing manes, and gentle temperament, these horses were originally bred by British and Irish travelers — often referred to as gypsies to pull their ornate caravans.

    “This amazing breed that Dennis has been preserving for over 30 years now. These are amazing, beautiful creatures, and a lot of people that come on these tours aren’t even familiar with the Gypsy Vanner breed,” said Eileen Mahoney, who works with the horses daily at the farm.

    Founded by Dennis Thompson and his wife, the farm is home to more than 30 Gypsy Vanner horses, each with a unique story and heritage.

    Thompson gives weekly tours where he not only introduces visitors to the horses but also shares the journey that brought them here.

    “My late wife and I, in 1995, saw one horse and learned it belonged to a gypsy,” Thompson told a tour group.

    “Spent that day in a gypsy camp and basically became obsessed.”

    The farm has earned TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence four times and remains one of the top-rated attractions in Central Florida. (Spectrum News)

    That encounter sparked a decades-long mission to preserve the breed and honor the culture behind it.

    For Thompson, it’s not just about the horses — it’s about correcting long-held misconceptions about the Romani people.

    “They don’t read and write — that is by choice because they don’t want to lose their culture,” he explained. “So, they have been treated with prejudice for a thousand years.”

    During the tour, visitors meet horses like “Little Big Man,” whom Thompson describes as “a grandson of Kushti Bok,” one of the original horses he imported.

    Guests can also interact with mules and exotic birds, like colorful macaws, all while walking the picturesque grounds.

    Visitors from all over the country have made the trip — some with a deep love for horses, others simply curious.

    “Yes, I’ve grown up with horses. I used to be a jumper — and then I got old,” joked Bonnie Mickley, a visitor from Georgia.

    “It’s so wonderful that people like Dennis are saving this animal,” added fellow visitor Chris Connolly.

    Thompson’s passion is simple.

    “When people come to Gypsy Gold, I hope they get a better understanding of the culture and a better understanding of the horses that they envisioned.” said Thompson

    The farm has earned TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence four times and remains one of the top-rated attractions in Central Florida.

    For more, visit the Gypsy Gold Horse Farm.

    Randy Rauch

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  • Bears in the Backyard, Wolves at the Door: Greek Villages Have a Growing Predator Problem

    LEVEA, Greece (AP) — It was a shocking sight for the farmer — three of his sheep lying dead on the ground, signs of their mauling unmistakable. The large paw prints in the earth left no doubt they had been killed by a bear, a once rare but now increasingly frequent visitor in this part of northwestern Greece.

    “It was a bear, a very big one, and they come often now. I wasn’t the only one, it struck elsewhere too,” said Anastasios Kasparidis, adding that another farmer had lost some chickens and pigs. He decided to move the rest of his small flock into a sheep pen near his house for protection.

    “Because in the end I wouldn’t have any sheep,” Kasparidis said. “The bears would eat them all.”

    Environmentalists have welcomed the rebound of bear and wolf populations in Greece thanks to the protected species designation that banned them being hunted. But some farmers and residents of rural areas say they now fear for their livelihoods and, in some cases, their safety. They are calling for greater protection in a phenomenon playing out elsewhere in Europe, with some arguing conservation has gone too far and pushing to roll back restrictions.

    Brown bears, Greece’s largest predator, have made a remarkable comeback. Their numbers have increased roughly fourfold since the 1990s, said Dimitris Bakaloudis, a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki who specializes in wildlife management and conservation.

    Up to an estimated 870 brown bears roam the forests of northern Greece, according to the most recent survey by Arcturos, an environmental organization set up in 1992 that provides a sanctuary for rescued bears and wolves.

    And it’s not just bears. Wolves also have seen their numbers rise. While wolves could only be found as far south as central Greece in 2010, they have now spread to the outskirts of Athens and into the Peloponnese in southern Greece, Bakaloudis said.

    Their recovery has been sustained in part by the also increasing population of wild boars, which is unrelated to conservation efforts. Rather, a combination of a number of factors, including a reduction of hunting, milder winters and cross-breeding with domestic pigs have led them to reproduce at a faster rate, Bakaloudis explained.

    Viewed by many as pests that destroy crops, the sight of a dozen or more boars trotting along sidewalks or snuffling through backyards are no longer uncommon in many parts of Greece.


    Increasing human encounters

    The larger number of wild animals has also resulted in more contact with humans — the vast majority of whom are unfamiliar with how to behave during an encounter. Lack of familiarity has led to fear in some communities, particularly following a small number of serious incidents this year: a child bitten by a wolf, an elderly man injured by a bear in his yard, a hiker bitten by a bear and another hiker who died after falling into a ravine during a bear encounter.

    In Levea, a village of about 660 people surrounded by fields in northwestern Greece, several bear encounters were reported in October, while boars frequently roam through the village, said community president Tzefi Papadopoulou. The bears especially had frightened residents.

    “As soon as they heard a dog bark, they were ready to go out with the gun,” she said.

    It’s similar in the nearby village of Valtonera, 170 kilometers west of Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki.

    “The village used to be without wild animals. In the past, a wolf would appear once in a while,” said Konstantinos Nikolaidis, community president. Now, wild boars, foxes, bears or wolves roam around or even inside the village, he noted.

    “This has caused concern among all residents. It’s now difficult for a person to walk around outside at night,” he said.

    The burgeoning wild boar population, meanwhile, has led to calls for the hunting season to be extended.

    Giorgos Panagiotidis, deputy mayor of the nearby small town of Amyntaio, said boars had been increasingly encroaching on houses. In May, he asked authorities for hunters to be allowed to shoot boars out of season to tackle the problem.

    It’s an issue that isn’t unique to Greece. In a victory of farmers over environmentalists, European Union lawmakers voted in May to reduce protections for wolves across the EU’s 27 member states. The movement even gained support from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose pony Dolly was killed by a wolf three years ago.

    Experts note it isn’t just the larger number of wild animals that has led to encroachment on urban areas. Many factors are at play, they say, from loss of habitat due to wildfires, to noise disturbances from wind turbines and recreational vehicles, and animals emboldened by dwindling human populations in villages.

    “There is of course fragmentation of the bears’ habitat, frequently there is drought, there’s a lack of food in the natural environment, there’s a desertification of villages which makes inhabited areas more attractive to bears, so they approach and find food,” said Panos Stefanou, communications officer at Arcturos.

    Measures to keep wolves and bears at bay have been developed and approved by scientists, said Bakaloudis, the Thessaloniki university professor, including using lights around property, proper disposal of trash and dead livestock and avoiding feeding strays.

    In exceptional circumstances more invasive methods are used, he said, such as in the case of the wolf attack on the child in northern Greece, where authorities decided to capture and remove the animal.

    With so many factors contributing to increasing encounters between wild animals and humans, Stefanou cautioned against overly simplistic solutions.

    “Killing the animals is not what will solve the problem,” he said.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

    Associated Press

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  • A drying-up Rio Grande basin threatens water security on both sides of the border

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — One of North America’s longest rivers, the Rio Grande — or Rio Bravo as it’s called in Mexico — has a history as deep as it is long. Indigenous people have tapped it for countless generations, and it was a key artery for Spanish conquistadors centuries ago.

    Today, the Rio Grande-Bravo water basin is in crisis.

    Research published Thursday says the situation arguably is worse than challenges facing the Colorado River, another vital lifeline for western U.S. states that have yet to chart a course for how best to manage that dwindling resource.

    Without rapid and large-scale action on both sides of the border, the researchers warn that unsustainable use threatens water security for millions of people who rely on the binational basin. They say more prevalent drying along the Rio Grande and persistent shortages could have catastrophic consequences for farmers, cities and ecosystems.

    The study done by World Wildlife Fund, Sustainable Waters and a team of university researchers provides a full accounting of the consumptive uses as well as evaporation and other losses within the Rio Grande-Bravo basin. It helps to paint the most complete — and most alarming — picture yet of why the river system is in trouble.

    The basin provides drinking water to 15 million people in the U.S. and Mexico and irrigates nearly 2 million acres of cropland in the two countries.

    The research shows only 48% of the water consumed directly or indirectly within the basin is replenished naturally. The other 52% is unsustainable, meaning reservoirs, aquifers and the river itself will be overdrawn.

    “That’s a pretty daunting, challenging reality when half of our water isn’t necessarily going to be reliable for the future,” said Brian Richter, president of Sustainable Waters and a senior fellow with the World Wildlife Fund. “So we have to really address that.”

    By breaking down the balance sheet, the researchers are hopeful policymakers and regulators can determine where water use can be reduced and how to balance supply with demand.

    Warnings of what was to come first cropped up in the late 19th century when irrigation in Colorado’s San Luis Valley began to dry the snowmelt-fed river, resulting in diminished flows as far south as El Paso, Texas. Now, some stretches of the river run dry for months at a time. The Big Bend area and even Albuquerque have seen dry cracked mud replace the river more often in recent years.

    Irrigating crops by far is the largest direct use of water in the basin at 87%, according to the study. Meanwhile, losses to evaporation and uptake by vegetation along the river account for more than half of overall consumption in the basin, a factor that can’t be dismissed as reservoir storage shrinks.

    The irrigation season has become shorter, with canals drying up as early as June in some cases, despite a growing season in the U.S. and Mexico that typically lasts through October.

    In central New Mexico, farmers got a boost with summer rains. However, farmers along the Texas portion of the Pecos River and in the Rio Conchos basin of Mexico — both tributaries within the basin — did not receive any surface water supplies.

    “A key part of this is really connecting the urban populations to what’s going on out on these farms. These farmers are really struggling. A lot of them are on the brink of bankruptcy,” Richter said, linking water shortages to shrinking farms, smaller profits and less ability to afford labor and equipment.

    The analysis found that between 2000-2019, water shortages contributed to the loss of 18% of farmland in the headwaters in Colorado, 36% along the Rio Grande in New Mexico and 49% in the Pecos River tributary in New Mexico and Texas.

    With fewer farms, less water went to irrigation in the U.S. However, researchers said irrigation in the Mexican portion of the basin has increased greatly.

    The World Wildlife Fund and Sustainable Waters are working with researchers at the University of New Mexico to survey farmers on solutions to the water crisis.

    Jason Casuga, the chief engineer and CEO of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, said he is not surprised by the findings and was particularly interested in the data on how much water is lost to riparian areas along the river. He talked about his crews clearing thick walls of thirsty invasive salt cedar trees, describing it as an unnatural ecosystem that stemmed from human efforts to manage the river with levees and reservoirs.

    While cities and farmers try to conserve, Casuga said there are few rules placed on consumption by riparian areas.

    “We’re willing to accept hundreds and hundreds of acres of invasive species choking out native species. And I’m hoping a study like this will cause people to think and ask those kinds of questions because I think our bosque is worth fighting for. As a culture in New Mexico, agriculture is worth fighting for,” he said.

    The responses to overuse and depletion are as varied as the jurisdictions through which the river flows, said Enrique Prunes, a co-author of the study and the manager of the World Wildlife Fund’s Rio Grande Program.

    He pointed to Colorado, where water managers have threatened to shut off groundwater wells if the aquifer that supports irrigated farms cannot be stabilized. There, farmers who pump groundwater pay fees that are used to incentivize other farmers to fallow their fields.

    New Mexico’s fallowing program is voluntary, but changes could be in store if the U.S. Supreme Court signs off on proposed settlements stemming from a long-running dispute with Texas and the federal government over management of the Rio Grande and groundwater use. New Mexico has acknowledged it will have to curb groundwater pumping.

    New Mexico is behind in its water deliveries to Texas under an interstate compact, while Mexico owes water to the U.S. under a 1944 binational treaty. Researchers said meeting those obligations won’t get easier.

    Prunes said policymakers must also consider the environment when crafting solutions.

    “Rebalancing the system also means maintaining those basic functions that the river and the aquifers and the groundwater-dependent ecosystems have,” he said. “And that’s the indicator of resilience to a future of less water.”

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  • Holiday tree featuring thousands of origami works opens at NYC’s American Museum of Natural History

    NEW YORK (AP) — A beloved Christmas tree tradition is returning to Manhattan for the holiday season next week. No, it’s not the towering spruce at Rockefeller Center, which is lit in early December.

    The comparatively smaller Origami Holiday Tree that’s delighted crowds for decades at the American Museum of Natural History opens to the public on Monday. The colorful, richly decorated 13-foot (4-meter) tree is adorned with thousands of hand-folded paper ornaments created by origami artists from around the world.

    This year’s tree is inspired by the museum’s new exhibition, “Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs,” which chronicles how an asteroid crash some 66 million years ago reshaped life on Earth.

    Talo Kawasaki, the tree’s co-designer, said the tree’s theme is “New Beginnings,” in reference to the new world that followed the mass extinction.

    Located off the museum’s Central Park West entrance, the artificial tree is topped with a golden, flaming asteroid.

    Its branches and limbs are packed with origami works representing a variety of animals and insects, including foxes, cranes, turtles, bats, sharks, elephants, giraffes and monkeys. Dinosaur favorites such as the triceratops and tyrannosaurus rex are also depicted in the folded paper works of art.

    “We wanted to focus more not so much the demise of the dinosaurs, but the new life this created, which were the expansion and the evolution of mammals ultimately leading to humanity,” Kawasaki explained on a recent visit.

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    The origami tree has been a highlight of the museum’s holiday season for more than 40 years.

    Volunteers from all over the world are enlisted to make hundreds of new models. The intricate paper artworks are generally made from a single sheet of paper but can sometimes take days or even weeks to perfect.

    The new origami pieces are bolstered by archived works stored from prior seasons, including a 40-year-old model of a pterosaur, an extinct flying reptile, that was folded for one of the museum’s first origami trees in the early 1970s.

    Rosalind Joyce, the tree’s co-designer, estimates that anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 origami works are embedded in the tree.

    “This year there’s a lot of stuff stuffed in there,” she said. “So I don’t count.”

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  • Mahali, the Denver Zoo’s beloved hippo, will stay in the Mile High City for the holidays

    Mahali, the Denver Zoo’s beloved Nile hippopotamus, will stay in the Mile High City a little longer than expected.

    Zoo officials in July announced that the hippo would be transferred to a natural wildlife preserve in Texas following an inspection by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums that noted significant upgrade needs for the animal’s habitat.

    But this week, the zoo said Mahali, “made it known to his care team that he was not quite ready for this move,” officials said on its website. The team is now planning to continue the hippo’s crate training until his departure in the spring.

    “Hippos, specifically, require ample time to prepare for change, and a move as significant as Mahali’s has had to progress at his pace,” zoo officials said. “From an animal well-being perspective, care teams have known that they would advance only as Mahali was ready.”

    Old Pachyderms, the building that has housed Mahali and dozens of other hippos, rhinos and elephants since 1959, needs “significant updates” and is “no longer considered suitable for the species,” the zoo association’s inspection found.

    Sam Tabachnik

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  • Shelter dog finally gets adopted—and has the birthday he deserves

    Hearts have melted at how a family celebrated their rescue dog’s first birthday with them.

    Koba the Rottweiler was adopted by a new family less than a year ago, and it’s clear he’s been a huge hit, as they’ve since set up a TikTok account dedicated to his life with them.

    The account, @kingkoba25, shows the family—who live in the United Kingdom—cuddling with the giant dog in bed, taking him for walks to the park, and exploring the countryside.

    In one video, his new owners describe their pup as having “changed our lives”—and now a new video has seen Koba proving a hit with millions of online strangers.

    Posted on November 11, it shows Koba marking his first birthday since coming into the care of his new owners. And they’ve gone all out for him, as multiple gift-wrapped presents litter the floor, Koba curiously sniffing at each one.

    And though they encourage him to “rip” the wrapping paper off, the dog does it his own way: gently, and needing plenty of encouragement along the way.

    Loading tiktok content…

    Finally, after ripping the paper off bit by bit, revealing layers of cardboard and more layers underneath, he opens his first present: a new ball. And he knows it’s for him, as he picks it up in his mouth and runs happily away, his tail wagging, before lying down beside his owners with the ball between his paws.

    His adoring owners captioned the video: “His first birthday with us. Adopting him was the best decision we’ve ever made.”

    TikTok users loved it, watching the video more than 2 million times and awarding it more than 420,000 likes, as one wrote: “I’m sorry how the hell did he know how to unwrap it? He was so gentle?”

    Another admitted: “I could watch dogs opening presents all day, I think this is my new favorite pastime.”

    And one moved commenter wrote: “The smile I needed, thank you. Extra thank you for adopting such a handsome boy and giving him a loving home.”

    “He is so handsome,” another said. “A proper rottie head!”

    Rottweilers are known to make good guard dogs due to their great strength, courage and loyalty. However, they are also described as being hugely affectionate towards their owners, with a playful and often silly nature, making them popular as pets, according to the American Kennel Club (AKC).

    In 2024, Rottweilers were eighth in the AKC’s annual list of the most popular dog breeds in America, behind the French bulldog, Labrador retriever, golden retriever, German shepherd dog, poodle, dachshund and beagle.

    Newsweek has contacted @kingkoba25 for comment on this story.

    Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.

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  • How to Deer-proof Your Garden: Tips to Deter Deter from Eating Your Plants

    This is part of a series with Perfect Earth Project, a nonprofit dedicated to toxic-free, ecological gardening, on how you can be more sustainable in your landscapes at home.   

    For more than two decades, Nancy Lawson has been living in harmony with deer. Sure, they’re in her Maryland yard every single day. Yes, they come to eat, rest, and, occasionally, rut. But, no, they don’t destroy her garden. In fact, it’s thriving. “We made a commitment to creating habitat for all animals,” says the nature writer, naturalist, and founder of Humane Gardener. “We manage for resilience.” Her garden is thriving. 

    White-tailed deer populations have soared in this century. Since we wiped out nearly all their predators (grey wolves and mountain lions) and have taken over their natural habitat (developing 95 percent of the land in the US), they look for food and shelter anywhere they can find it, and that’s often in our gardens. As a result, their public image has gone from beloved Bambi to super villain—through no fault of their own.  

    But it doesn’t have to be that way. Lawson shares with us how we can all happily coexist with deer.  

    Photography by Nancy Lawson, unless otherwise noted. (Featured photograph above by @anoldent via Flickr.)

    Plant densely and employ “protector plants.”

    Lawson has combined tasty and less tasty plants along a pathway that deer traverse, including common sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), late boneset (Eupatorium serotinum), and American burnweed (Erechtites hieraciifolius).
    Above: Lawson has combined tasty and less tasty plants along a pathway that deer traverse, including common sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), late boneset (Eupatorium serotinum), and American burnweed (Erechtites hieraciifolius).

    Walk through a nature preserve or forest and you won’t find plants spread out like polkadots poking out of a sea of mulch. “We never put a plant out in the open by itself,” says Lawson. “It’s not how it grows in nature.” In the wild, plants grow in communities. They mingle. They intertwine. Having an array of varieties growing densely prevents any one plant from being decimated. “If there’s a big mixture that includes some less palatable plants, deer are much less likely to devour a given area,” says Lawson. “But if I have all the same species lined up for 10 feet, and it’s tasty, then that’s really easy for them to eat it all.” Think about planting as you would companion-planting in a vegetable garden, says Lawson, and mix it up. 

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  • Venice’s newest marvel is a wild, acrobatic dolphin. His refusal to leave puts him in danger

    MILAN — Venice has been charmed by a recent visitor: An acrobatic, wild dolphin. The feeling appears to be mutual — he so far refuses to leave — but proximity to humans has put him in danger.

    The dolphin nicknamed Mimmo has been delighting tourists and Venetians for months with his acrobatic flips. Experts are now eager to move him into open water, especially after verifying wounds indicating that the dolphin had been likely hit by a boat propeller.

    Multiple agencies used low-intensity acoustic devices to nudge Mimmo away from the heavily trafficked St. Mark’s Basin on Saturday — and it worked briefly. But the dolphin came back within an hour, as experts feared he would.

    “It’s very worrying because it’s a hot spot with lots of boat traffic,’’ said Guido Pietroluongo, a veterinarian at the University of Padua’s emergency response team for stranded dolphins, whales and porpoises, known by the acronym CERT.

    St. Mark’s Basin, the shallow expanse of water in front of St. Mark’s Square connecting to both the Giudecca and Grand Canals, is heavily trafficked by ferries, vaporetti buses, water taxis, and private boats.

    During the failed operation, experts confirmed Mimmo had suffered superficial lesions, likely from a boat propeller, Pietroluongo said. It was the first time they had noted injuries to the dolphin, and his wounds are expected to fully heal. But experts are worried about his continued safety in such proximity to human activity.

    They don’t plan any immediate action, and are hoping that colder seasonal temperatures will lure him, and his fish prey, out of the lagoon toward warmer waters, Pietroluongo said.

    Mimmo’s arrival in the Venetian lagoon was registered on July 23, and experts say the coastal creature likely followed a school of fish into the brackish waters separated from the open sea by barrier islands. He was nicknamed for the sailing instructor who first spotted him off the Venetian lagoon fishing town of Chioggia.

    Mimmo follows the pattern of a so-called social loner, typically a young male dolphin that breaks away from the pod for food or for social reasons and then comes into contact with the human world, said Sandro Mazzariol, a CERT veterinarian.

    “Around 100 cases have been documented around the world in which these animals are absolutely at ease and remain healthy despite not interacting with their peers,’’ Mazzariol said in a Facebook video post.

    Dolphins sightings in Venice are rare but not unheard of, Mazzariol said.

    The most recent incident involved a pair of striped dolphins spotted in February 2021 that were quickly guided back to the open sea with acoustic devices. They never returned.

    Mimmo has been closely monitored during his lagoon sojourn, and has been reported in good health and nutrition as he feasts on a diet befitting any Venetian tourist: mullet, sea bass and sea bream. His behavior also has been deemed normal, including his playful aerial flips.

    The University of Padua team has been going out weekly to check on the animal, and they get regular updates from citizens who share sightings, including photos and videos.

    Authorities are warning citizens and boaters not to feed or interact with the dolphin, which is a criminal offense. Dolphins are protected under Italian, EU and international law. But the fact that Mimmo’s fame is spreading is part of the problem.

    “The dolphin has become an attraction. Boats stopping to watch him can stress the animal,’’ Pietroluongo said.

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  • Scientists uncover an ant assassination scheme that helps a parasitic queen rise to power

    Scientists say they have for the first time unlocked how a parasitic ant uses chemical warfare to take over the nest of a different species, by tricking workers into an unlikely assassination.The deadly scheme unfolds like a Shakespearean drama. In an ant colony, the queen is dying, under attack by her own daughters. Meanwhile, the true enemy — an invader queen from another ant species — waits on the sidelines. Her plan is simple: Infiltrate the nest and use chemical weapons brewed inside her body to deceive the worker ants into mistaking their rightful ruler for an imposter.In a few hours, the nest’s queen will fall. Once the former matriarch is dead, the invader will assume the role of the colony’s new leader.Matricide in an ant colony is not unheard of — it typically happens when a colony produces multiple queens or when a solo queen reaches the end of her fertility. But this particular scenario, in which an outsider queen turns workers into her proxy assassins, has never been described in detail before, researchers reported Monday in the journal Current Biology.In fact, this strategy is yet to be documented in any other animal species, said the study’s senior author, Keizo Takasuka, an assistant professor in the department of biology at the University of Kyushu in Japan.”Inducement of daughters to kill their biological mother had not been known in biology before this work,” Takasuka told CNN in an email.The researchers observed this behavior among ants in the Lasius genus, documenting invasions and worker manipulation by queens in the species L. orientalis and L. umbratus.”Prior studies had reported that, after a new L. umbratus queen invaded a host colony of L. niger, host workers killed their own queen,” Takasuka said. “But the mechanism remained entirely unknown until our study.”Scent of a worker antAnts communicate through smell, which is how they distinguish between nestmates and foes. When researchers previously observed parasitic ant queens near a colony’s foraging trails, they saw that the parasite would snatch up a worker ant and rub it on her body, disguising her scent and allowing her to slip into the nest undetected.For the new study, coauthors Taku Shimada and Yuji Tanaka — both citizen scientists in Tokyo — each raised an ant colony and introduced parasitic queens. Shimada observed an L. orientalis queen in an L. flavus colony, and Tanaka recorded an L. umbratus queen invading a colony of L. japonicus.In both experiments, the scientists first co-housed an invading queen with host workers and cocoons “so that she acquired the nestmate odour,” Takasuka said. “This allowed her to gain nestmate recognition and avoid retaliation upon entry.” The scientists then released the queen into the colony.Both parasite queens followed a similar plan of attack. After disguising their smell, the queens entered the colonies’ feeding areas. Most workers ignored the interloper. Some even fed her mouth-to-mouth.But the invading queens weren’t there for dinner — they had an assassination to set in motion. After locating the resident queen, the invader sprayed her with abdominal fluid that smelled of formic acid. The scent agitated workers, with some of them turning on their queen immediately and attacking her. Multiple sprays followed, and the attacks became more brutal.”The host workers eventually mutilated their true mother after four days,” the scientists reported.All in the familyThe death of the true queen was the invader’s cue to start producing hundreds of eggs, attended by her newly adopted “daughters.” Over time, her biological daughters would number in the thousands, usurping the colony until none of the original species remained.”It’s refreshing to see a very careful observational study that discovers something interesting that we — ‘we’ meaning ant researchers — suspected but had never confirmed,” said Jessica Purcell, a professor in the department of entomology at the University of California, Riverside.”I was really struck by this discovery, especially the use of a chemical compound to elicit that behavior by the workers,” said Purcell, who was not involved in the research.Social insects like ants gather and store resources for the colony to share. That makes them an attractive target for social parasites — species seeking well-stocked nests that they can exploit. Some ant species kidnap the colony’s offspring and enslave them. Others, such as L. orientalis and L. umbratus, set up shop in the colony, where they eliminate the existing queen and take her place.”There’s all of this amazing diversity,” Purcell told CNN. “What we didn’t know a lot about before this study is the various ways that socially parasitic queens might go about assassinating the host queen. People had done some observations of direct killing, where the infiltrating queen would go and cut off the head of the existing queen. But this is astonishing that they can actually use chemical manipulation to cause the workers to do it.”Violence within families is often described in fairy tales and myths, with wicked adults — typically desperate parents or jealous stepparents — conspiring to harm or kill children. Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Snow White is hunted and then poisoned by an apple; Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in the forest and captured by a witch, who imprisons them and fattens Hansel for her supper.But while such stories include plenty of violence, the killing of a mother in folklore — let alone children being tricked into matricide — is almost nonexistent, said Maria Tatar, a professor emerita of folklore and mythology at Harvard University who was not involved in the new study.In that respect, Takasuka noted, the grim tale of the invading, manipulative ant queens stands out even more.”Sometimes, phenomena in nature outstrip what we imagine in fiction,” he said.

    Scientists say they have for the first time unlocked how a parasitic ant uses chemical warfare to take over the nest of a different species, by tricking workers into an unlikely assassination.

    The deadly scheme unfolds like a Shakespearean drama. In an ant colony, the queen is dying, under attack by her own daughters. Meanwhile, the true enemy — an invader queen from another ant species — waits on the sidelines. Her plan is simple: Infiltrate the nest and use chemical weapons brewed inside her body to deceive the worker ants into mistaking their rightful ruler for an imposter.

    In a few hours, the nest’s queen will fall. Once the former matriarch is dead, the invader will assume the role of the colony’s new leader.

    Matricide in an ant colony is not unheard of — it typically happens when a colony produces multiple queens or when a solo queen reaches the end of her fertility. But this particular scenario, in which an outsider queen turns workers into her proxy assassins, has never been described in detail before, researchers reported Monday in the journal Current Biology.

    In fact, this strategy is yet to be documented in any other animal species, said the study’s senior author, Keizo Takasuka, an assistant professor in the department of biology at the University of Kyushu in Japan.

    “Inducement of daughters to kill their biological mother had not been known in biology before this work,” Takasuka told CNN in an email.

    The researchers observed this behavior among ants in the Lasius genus, documenting invasions and worker manipulation by queens in the species L. orientalis and L. umbratus.

    “Prior studies had reported that, after a new L. umbratus queen invaded a host colony of L. niger, host workers killed their own queen,” Takasuka said. “But the mechanism remained entirely unknown until our study.”

    Scent of a worker ant

    Ants communicate through smell, which is how they distinguish between nestmates and foes. When researchers previously observed parasitic ant queens near a colony’s foraging trails, they saw that the parasite would snatch up a worker ant and rub it on her body, disguising her scent and allowing her to slip into the nest undetected.

    For the new study, coauthors Taku Shimada and Yuji Tanaka — both citizen scientists in Tokyo — each raised an ant colony and introduced parasitic queens. Shimada observed an L. orientalis queen in an L. flavus colony, and Tanaka recorded an L. umbratus queen invading a colony of L. japonicus.

    In both experiments, the scientists first co-housed an invading queen with host workers and cocoons “so that she acquired the nestmate odour,” Takasuka said. “This allowed her to gain nestmate recognition and avoid retaliation upon entry.” The scientists then released the queen into the colony.

    Both parasite queens followed a similar plan of attack. After disguising their smell, the queens entered the colonies’ feeding areas. Most workers ignored the interloper. Some even fed her mouth-to-mouth.

    But the invading queens weren’t there for dinner — they had an assassination to set in motion. After locating the resident queen, the invader sprayed her with abdominal fluid that smelled of formic acid. The scent agitated workers, with some of them turning on their queen immediately and attacking her. Multiple sprays followed, and the attacks became more brutal.

    “The host workers eventually mutilated their true mother after four days,” the scientists reported.

    All in the family

    The death of the true queen was the invader’s cue to start producing hundreds of eggs, attended by her newly adopted “daughters.” Over time, her biological daughters would number in the thousands, usurping the colony until none of the original species remained.

    “It’s refreshing to see a very careful observational study that discovers something interesting that we — ‘we’ meaning ant researchers — suspected but had never confirmed,” said Jessica Purcell, a professor in the department of entomology at the University of California, Riverside.

    “I was really struck by this discovery, especially the use of a chemical compound to elicit that behavior by the workers,” said Purcell, who was not involved in the research.

    Social insects like ants gather and store resources for the colony to share. That makes them an attractive target for social parasites — species seeking well-stocked nests that they can exploit. Some ant species kidnap the colony’s offspring and enslave them. Others, such as L. orientalis and L. umbratus, set up shop in the colony, where they eliminate the existing queen and take her place.

    “There’s all of this amazing diversity,” Purcell told CNN. “What we didn’t know a lot about before this study is the various ways that socially parasitic queens might go about assassinating the host queen. People had done some observations of direct killing, where the infiltrating queen would go and cut off the head of the existing queen. But this is astonishing that they can actually use chemical manipulation to cause the workers to do it.”

    Violence within families is often described in fairy tales and myths, with wicked adults — typically desperate parents or jealous stepparents — conspiring to harm or kill children. Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Snow White is hunted and then poisoned by an apple; Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in the forest and captured by a witch, who imprisons them and fattens Hansel for her supper.

    But while such stories include plenty of violence, the killing of a mother in folklore — let alone children being tricked into matricide — is almost nonexistent, said Maria Tatar, a professor emerita of folklore and mythology at Harvard University who was not involved in the new study.

    In that respect, Takasuka noted, the grim tale of the invading, manipulative ant queens stands out even more.

    “Sometimes, phenomena in nature outstrip what we imagine in fiction,” he said.

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  • In this Brazilian state, a new push to track cattle is key to slowing deforestation

    BELEM, Brazil — Maria Gorete, who just began ranching three years ago, is doing something new with her 76 head of cattle in the Brazilian countryside near the town of Novo Repartimento.

    She’s piercing their ears.

    Their new jewelry — ear tags, actually — will track their movements throughout their lives as part of an initiative aimed at slowing deforestation in the Brazilian state of Para. Depending on how well it works, it’s the kind of solution the world needs more of to slow climate change, the subject of annual United Nations talks just a few hours away in Belem.

    With about 20 million cattle in Para, it’s a mammoth task. Some of them are on big farms closer to cities, but others are in remote areas where farmers have been cutting down Amazon rainforest to make room for their pastures. That’s a problem for climate change because it means trees that absorb pollution are being replaced by cattle that emit methane, a powerful planet-warming gas.

    Brazil has lost about 339,685 square kilometers (131,153 square miles) of mature rainforest since 2001 — an area roughly the size of Germany — and more than a third of that loss was in Para, according to Global Forest Watch. Para alone accounts for about 14% of all rainforest loss recorded worldwide over the last 24 years.

    Gorete, with her small herd, said the tagging hasn’t been much of a hassle. And she sees the program as a good thing. It will let her sell her beef to companies and countries whose consumers want to know where it came from.

    “With this identification, it opens doors to the world,” said Gorete, who before cattle ranching cultivated acai and cacao. “It adds value to the animals.”

    Cows can move to several farms in their lifetime — born on one pasture, sold to a different farmer, or two or three or more, until they’ve grown to their full weight and are sold to a processor, said Marina Piatto, executive director of the Brazilian agriculture and conservation NGO Imaflora.

    Tracking those movements effectively can be a way to discourage deforestation. That’s where the tagging comes in.

    Starting next year, all cattle being transported in Para have to be tagged. Each animal actually gets a tag in each ear. One is a written number that is registered with the government in an official database. The other is an electronic chip that links to the same information as the number registered to the cow — like when and where it was born, where it was raised, the owner, the breed and more. By 2027, all cattle in Para, including cattle born on ranches in the state, have to have tags.

    Once a tag is removed, it’s broken and can’t be put back, a measure to help avoid fraud.

    When the cattle moves, owners are required to report those movements and buyers are required to log the transaction. To be able to sell their animals, ranchers must have tags and a clean history. Locations registered with the government where the animals have been can be checked against satellite images to detect illegal deforestation, or against maps that show Indigenous territories that are supposed to be off-limits for cattle.

    “The only solution is individual cattle traceability because then you can know for each movement where that cattle has been and if it has been in a place that has been deforested in the past,” said José Otavio Passos, the Brazilian Amazon director with The Nature Conservancy.

    Mauro Lucio, 60, has 2,600 cattle on his farm in Paragominas about 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Belem. He said the new tagging program was an easy transition for him because he’s been tagging his cattle since 2000. He did it to track his own herd, but he sees the benefit of the government now being involved.

    “For me, this is the same tool,” he said.

    Gorete, the cattle rancher near Novo Repartimento, said she doesn’t believe ranchers will be able to skirt the system once it’s fully in place.

    “The guy who doesn’t have identification of his animals is not going to be selling,” she said.

    The government will pay for the tags for farms with 100 head of cattle or fewer and ranchers with anything beyond that pay by themselves, said Passos, of The Nature Conservancy. Lucio said the last price he paid for tags was just under 9 Brazilian reals (US$1.70).

    JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, is donating 2 million tags to the effort. The company, which is among several that have been fined or faced lawsuits for buying cattle raised illegally on deforested land, said traceability of cattle can help address concerns about deforestation. JBS says it has a “zero-tolerance policy” for illegal deforestation and takes several steps to ensure its supply chain doesn’t contribute to deforestation.

    Passos said it’s important to have industry players on board. “We have never had such a unique window of opportunity where you have all the sectors, the cattle ranchers, the meatpackers, the industry, the government, the NGOs, all hurtling around the same objective,” he said.

    Even if meat producers are backing a legal system for cattle tracing, though, there will always be ways to get around laws, said Piatto, of Imaflora, because “illegal is cheaper, it’s easier.”

    Christian Poirier, program director at Amazon Watch, an organization focused on rainforest protection, said land clearing is carried out “in a sophisticated way by well-funded crime syndicates, not by small landholders in the majority by any means.”

    He said it’s been easy for those groups to get around current efforts to stop the clearing. He called the new tagging a step in the right direction, but said the most determined people may still be capable of getting around the new rules.

    The committee that has been coordinating between government, industry and producers has been working on ways to prevent fraud and use law enforcement most effectively, said Fernando Sampaio, sustainability director of the Brazilian Association of Meat Exporting Industries. For that, they have to know where to look; for instance, if a farm is selling more animals than its size would suggest, that might be a red flag.

    Sampaio characterized a small minority of farms as being run by criminal operations.

    “These are the guys that need to be excluded from the supply chain,” he said.

    ———

    Associated Press editor Peter Prengaman contributed reporting from New York. Data reporter M.K. Wildeman contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.

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    Follow Melina Walling on X at @MelinaWalling and on Bluesky at @melinawalling.bsky.social.

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    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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