Animal

Wisdom, A Laysan Albatrosses Of At Least 70 Years Old, Birthed A Chick In Feb. Of 2021 In Midway Atoll Wildlife Refuge—Home To The World’s Largest Albatross Colony. This Birthing Makes Her The World’s Oldest Known Wild Bird To Birth A Chick. The US Fish And Wildlife Service Estimates That Wisdom May Have Mothered At Least 30–36 Chicks.

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Nature Conservationists In Australia Are Planning To Build The World’s First Duck-Billed Platypus Refuge, As The Animal Hinges On The Verge Of Extinction Due To Bushfires and Drought. The Refuge Is Expected To Accommodate About 65 Platypus, Especially In Times Of Crisis. The Refuge Would Also Help To Better Understand The Animal, To Ensure Its Future.

A Rare Bee Species, Native To Queensland, Australia, Which Has Not Been Seen In 100 Years Was Re-discovered After An Attempt To Verify Its Extinction. The Bee Species, Pharohylaeus Lactiferus, For Which Nothing Is Known Of Its Biology, Is Said To Be Struggling To Survive Due To, For Example, Habitat Loss, Wildfires, And Climate Change.

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Researchers Accidentally Discovered, As A Fossil, The Biggest Coelacanths Ever. The Discovered Fossil, Found In Morocco, Estimated To Be About 5 Metres In Length, Is Said To Be As Big As A Great White Shark. Coelacanths Still Swim In The Oceans Today And Are Said To Have Survived The Extinction That Killed Off The Dinosaurs.

Ancient…

The First Black-Footed Ferret, Called Elizabeth Ann, An Endangered Animal Native To North America, Was Cloned From Cells That Were Banked In 1988. The Cells Were Developed Into Embryos, Then Implanted Into A Domestic Ferret Surrogate, From Which Ann Was Delivered Via C-Section. This Feat Could Lead To Genetic Diversity For Endangered Species.

Researchers Have Discovered Another Similarity Between Mice And Humans. They Found That Baby Mice Tend To Remember Their Mum Even As Adults, Just Like Human Infants Do. And The Memories Formed Are Linked To Increase In Brain Neurons Associated With Social Memory, Which Is An Animal’s Ability To Recognize And Remember Members Of Its Species.

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Scientists May Have Discovered, In The Sorata Massif Rainforests, In Northern Madagascar, The World’s Smallest Reptile, A 13.5 mm Long Male Chameleon Species Called Brookesia Nana (BN). But The Female BN, At 19.2 mm Long, Is Larger Than The World’s Smallest 16 mm Long Female Gecko, A Reptile Of The Sphaerodactylus Ariasae Species.

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Researchers, Based On A Trace Fossil And Using Reflectance Transformation Imaging, May Have Discovered A New Species Of Praying Mantis, Called Labradormantis Guilbaulti. The New Praying Mantis Species, Which Lived In Labrador About 100 Myrs Ago, During The Time Of The Dinosaurs, May Throw More Light On Praying Mantis Evolution.

Scien…

A Snowy Owl Was Spotted In New York City’s Central Park For The First Time In 130 Years. The Snowy Owl, Which Resides In the Arctic Tundra, Has Not Been Seen In New York City Since It Was Last Spotted In The Winter Of 1890. The Owl Has Since Moved On. But Exhibit Of It Can Be Seeing At The American Museum of Natural History.

Snowy O…

Jonathan, A Seychelles Giant Tortoise, Hatched In 1832, At 189 Years Old, Is The World’s Oldest Known Land Animal. Jonathan, Now Blind Due To Old Age, Lives, Since The Late 1880s, On The Remote Island Of St. Helena, In The South Atlantic, And Has His Portrait Printed On The Back Of The Island’s 5 Pence Coin. Cool!

This 189…

Scientists May Have Found The Oldest Known Grizzly Bear In Yellowstone. The Male Bear, Age 34, Was Captured In The Summer Of 2020 And Euthanized After Being Caught Preying On Calves, Probably Due To Its Very Few Teeth–A Sign Of Old Age. Scientists, After Euthanization, Found A “168” Mark On The Lip, Given To The Bear In 1989.

Scienti…

An Extremely Rare Kangaroo, And Probably The Only One Of A Kind In North America, Was Born At The Animal Park In Harpursville, New York. The Kangaroo, Called Cosmo, Is Said To Be Uniquely White Due To A Genetic Condition Called Leucism, Which Causes Loss Of Pigmentation In An Animal Skin Or Fur.

An extremely rare white kangaroo was…

Researchers, Using Satellite Imagery And Algorithm, May Have, For The First Time, Developed A Successful Method For Monitoring Animals In Complex Environments. Heterogenous Environments Make It Harder To Count Animals. This Method Could Enable Animal Conservationists To Better Protect Biodiversity From A Possible Sixth Mass Extinction.

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The Gaboon Viper (Bitis Gabonica) Is The Heaviest Venomous But Placid-Natured African Snake, And The Largest Member Of The Bitis Genus Of Vipers. The Snake Is Said To Hold The World’s Record For Having The Longest Fangs (~5cm), Which Can Inject ~2 Grams Of Venom Per Bite, The Largest Yield Of All Venomous Snakes.

This Chunky Snake…

Researchers, In A Surprising Discovery, While Trying To Protect The The Micronesian Starlings Bird Nest In Guam, Have Discovered A New Type Of Snake Locomotion, In Which The Brown Tree Snake Can Form A Lasso, With Its Body, Around A Smooth Cylindrical Pole, To Get To A Bird’s Nest. This Discovery Could Help To Better Protect Birds In Guam.

Scientists, By “Reverse Aging” A 30 Ft Long 46-Year-Old Megalodon Fossil (MF), Have Deduced That Baby Megalodons Were More Than 6.5 Ft Long, And That The Babies, Like Modern Sharks, May Have Cannibalized Each Other In the Womb To Reach Such A Size. The MF, Which Existed 15 Millon Yrs Ago, Was Tugged From Rocks In Belgium In The 1860s.

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Scientists May Have Discovered The Oldest Python In The World. The Python, Called “Messelopython Freyi,” A New Python Species That Is 47 Myrs Old And About One Meter Long, Was Discovered At UNESCO World Heritage Site “Messel Pit,” In Germany. This Discovery Could Be A Major Leap Forward In Understanding Python’s Evolutionary History.

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The First Complete Platypus Genome Map, Indicating Platypus Is A Blend Of Vertebrate Animals Like Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals, May Explain Platypus Weirdness, As They Are Venomous And Lay Eggs Like Reptiles. But Feed Their Young With Milk And Have Furry Coats Like Mammals. The Map May Improve Our Understanding Of Other Mammals Evolution.

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Researchers Have Discovered A Strange Dinosaur Species, Called Ubijara Jubatus, About The Size Of A Chicken. The Dinosaur, Believed To Have Lived ~110 Myrs Ago In NE Brazil, Has Thick Long Hair That Runs Down Its Back, And Stiff Ribbon-Like Keratin Structures, Projecting 15cm From Its Shoulders, Used For Intimidation Or Attracting Mates.

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Beak Whales, The Least-Known Marine Mammals That Account For A Quarter Of The Known Existing Whale Species, Are Very Rare To Spot And Are Usually Found Dead. But, For The First Time In the World, More New Beak Whales Species Were Spotted Alive In South China Sea And Pacific Ocean. Beak Whales Live And Forage In Deep-Sea Waters.

Whal…