A night of fishing along the San Joaquin River ended with a discovery nobody expected: a badly malnourished horse abandoned in a park parking lot. The people who stepped in gave him a name, River, and a fighting chance. Heard in the Dark In late August 2020, Cesar Garcia and his son were fishing at night near Laird Park on West Grayson Road, outside Modesto in Stanislaus … [Read more...] about A Father and Son Heard a Horse Trailer in the Dark — Then Found a Starving Horse Dumped at a California Park
Wildlife & Nature
Archaeologists Unearth ‘Rare’ 5,000-Year-Old Arrowheads in ‘Rapidly’ Melting Ancient Norwegian Ice
After three weeks in Norway's Jotunheimen mountains, a team of glacier archaeologists has come back with some of its oldest finds yet, including Stone Age arrows with their wooden shafts and bindings still attached. The same ice that preserved them for thousands of years is now retreating fast enough that the team says it may be gone from many sites within two decades. Three … [Read more...] about Archaeologists Unearth ‘Rare’ 5,000-Year-Old Arrowheads in ‘Rapidly’ Melting Ancient Norwegian Ice
A Nearly 100-Year-Old Tortoise Became A First-Time Mom To 16 Hatchlings — And Four Were Named After The Golden Girls
A Galapagos tortoise named Mommy, who has lived at the Philadelphia Zoo since 1932 and is estimated to be nearly 100 years old, became the oldest known first-time mother of her species in 2025 — and her story is circulating online again this fall. Mommy and her mate, Abrazzo, who is also estimated to be close to a century old, produced 16 hatchlings across two clutches, … [Read more...] about A Nearly 100-Year-Old Tortoise Became A First-Time Mom To 16 Hatchlings — And Four Were Named After The Golden Girls
Greenland Offered $45 a Heart to Kill 1,000 Sharks That Can Live 400 Years — Then Dropped the Plan, but Not the Debate
The Greenland shark is the slowest shark in the sea, and perhaps the longest-lived vertebrate on Earth. A municipality on Greenland's west coast recently approved a bounty to kill 1,000 of them, setting fishers who say the animals are wrecking their livelihoods against scientists who warn the plan could backfire. A Bounty on a Centuries-Old Shark In February, the … [Read more...] about Greenland Offered $45 a Heart to Kill 1,000 Sharks That Can Live 400 Years — Then Dropped the Plan, but Not the Debate
Jonathan the Tortoise Is 194 and Still Thriving — and His DNA Shows Almost No Wear and Tear
He was hatched around 1832, before Queen Victoria took the throne and decades before Thomas Edison patented the lightbulb. Jonathan, an Aldabra giant tortoise, is the world's oldest known land animal. Scientists have now read his genes to find out how he made it so far. Meet Jonathan Jonathan has spent most of his life on St. Helena, a British island in the South … [Read more...] about Jonathan the Tortoise Is 194 and Still Thriving — and His DNA Shows Almost No Wear and Tear