Tag - animals

 
 

ANIMALS

A student in hazmat suit moves around a taxidermied giraffe at the "crime scene" set up in the warehouse of the Wildlife Forensic Academy in the Buffelsfontein Game and Nature Reserve near Cape Town, South Africa, on April 16.
WORLD / Society
Apr 22, 2025
Inside South Africa's wildlife CSI school helping to catch poachers
South Africa faces an acute poaching crisis, with more than 10,000 rhinos killed since 2007 according to the International Rhino Foundation.
With more wild bears entering human areas across Japan in recent years, the revised law is aimed at making it possible to deal with them promptly and prevent casualties.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 18, 2025
Japan enacts bill allowing urban bears to be shot
The law designates animals with a high risk of harming people as "dangerous wildlife animals" that can be shot.
Ryuji Matsumoto pats one of the sheep at his farm in the town of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Apr 14, 2025
The man behind Fukushima town's 'Strawberry Sheep'
Ryuji Matsumoto, 54, incorporates dried strawberries into the feed for his sheep, which gives their meat a certain sweetness.
The Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. A team from the university has successfully transplanted kidneys between rat fetuses.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 11, 2025
Japanese research team succeeds in fetal rat kidney transplant
The success of the team at Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo marks a key step toward clinical studies involving cross-species organ transplantation.
The whereabouts of a bear that attacked three people in Nagano Prefecture on Wednesday were still unknown the following day.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2025
Authorities on alert after three injured in Nagano bear attack
Two men are believed to have sustained serious injuries, but all three victims remain conscious. The whereabouts of the bear remain unknown.
Zensho Holdings, operator of fast-food chain Sukiya, said it will close all of its stores in Japan, except for a small number in shopping centers, between Monday and Friday following recent contamination incidents.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2025
Japan's biggest beef bowl chain Sukiya to shut nearly 2,000 stores after rat and bug contamination
As of the end of 2024, Sukiya operated 1,965 stores in Japan.
Pigeons — and their droppings — can be extremely difficult to manage once they settle in.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Mar 25, 2025
A new year, a new home and new unexpected guests: pigeons
They might seem harmless at first, but their droppings pose serious health risks to humans and the birds can be extremely difficult to manage once they settle in.
Sukiya said a rodent made its way into miso soup while meals were being prepared at a branch in Tottori Prefecture on Jan. 21.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 24, 2025
Rodent found in miso soup prompts plunge in Sukiya owner’s stock
Sukiya said the animal made its way into the soup while meals were being prepared at a branch in Tottori Prefecture.
 Whales sense their surroundings largely through sound and create complex vocalizations, or songs, when they’re searching for mates and food.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 22, 2025
Why we should worry when whales stop singing
A new study has found that whale songs can act as a barometer for the effects of climate change on ocean ecosystems.
Researchers from Anicom Specialty Medical Institute, the National Institute of Genetics and Kazusa DNA Research Institute decoded the genome of American Shorthair cats and published the results in an article last October.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 18, 2025
Japanese researchers set Guinness record for cat genome
Researchers decoded the genome of American shorthair cats and published the results.
Instead of spending billions to resurrect woolly mammoths, we could focus on preserving endangered species, saving ecosystems, and securing biodiversity for the future.
COMMENTARY
Mar 17, 2025
Got $10 billion? Don’t blow it cloning a woolly mammoth.
Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based biotechnology and genetic engineering startup valued at $10 billion, has raised $435 million to "de-extinct” the woolly mammoth.
Bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, located 270 kilometers north of the city of Cairns, Australia, on April 5, 2024
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Mar 17, 2025
From oil spills to new species: How tech reveals the ocean
New technologies are helping to reveal hidden oil spills, speed up the discovery of new species and uncover the impact of light pollution.
A red panda at the central zoo in Lalitpur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 14, 2025
Nepal community efforts revive red panda population
Conservationists say educational outreach and sustainable livelihood programs helped improve the effectiveness of Nepal's conservation efforts.
A Red Knot (left) and a Ruddy Turnstone gather with other shorebirds to feed on Atlantic horseshoe eggs along a beach in Little Creek, Delaware.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 14, 2025
Many U.S. bird species seen as reaching population 'tipping point'
A report found that avian populations are decreasing in almost every habitat, including grasslands and arid regions.
Horses attempt to graze on a hill covered with snow in Argalant, in central Mongolia's Tov province. The vast country is one of the most affected by climate change, by some counts warming three times faster than the global average.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 13, 2025
On the Mongolian steppe, climate change pushes herders to the brink
The vast country is one of the most affected by climate change, by some counts warming three times faster than the global average.
Oto, Japan's oldest lion, died Monday at Toyohashi Zoo & Botanical Park in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 10, 2025
Oto, Japan’s oldest lion, dies at 25 — equivalent to 100 human years
Born in 1999 at Asahiyama Zoo in the city of Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Oto had been at Aichi Prefecture's Toyohashi Zoo & Botanical Park since 2001.
A monarch butterfly is seen at an enclosure at Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, in August 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 7, 2025
Butterfly populations plummet by 22% in U.S. since turn of century
Studies in some other countries have documented declines at roughly the same rate as in the U.S. data.
Trash cans have been installed at Nara Park for the first time in about 40 years following a rise in littering alongside an increasing number of foreign tourists in recent years.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 5, 2025
Rise in tourists prompts Nara Park to install trash cans to protect deer
Increased littering in the park has created a health hazard for the protected animal.
A herd of sheep move across a solar farm in Haskell, Texas, on Dec. 2, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 4, 2025
Sheep grazing under solar panels help U.S. farmers to survive crop-price slump
Instead of plowing fields, Raines spent the year ferrying his flock of sheep to solar farms, to munch on the grass that grows around the gleaming panels.
A worker paints a robotic elephant model at a workshop in Thrissur, in India's Kerala state on Feb. 25.
WORLD / Society
Mar 4, 2025
Animal rights activists in India offer robot elephants to replace real ones
Accidents involving spooked elephants trampling crowds are common in India, leading some temples to switch to the robot versions.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.