For the first time in over 200 years, certain parts of the country are experiencing a rare emergence of two periodical cicadas — those big, droning insects that mostly live underground until they finally, very audibly, do not.
Some birds kill their siblings soon after hatching. Other birds spend their whole lives with their siblings and will even risk their lives to help each other.
Every year, the town of San Antero celebrates the hardworking pack animals that haul crops and supplies for farmers who can't afford trucks or motorcycles. There's even a donkey beauty pageant.
Health officials say there's very little risk to humans from the bird flu outbreak among dairy cattle, but there's still much they don't know. Here are four questions scientists are trying to answer.
Five military horses got spooked during a training exercise, bolting and weaving a path of destruction across the city before being captured. Several people and horses are being treated for injuries.
One of the most devastating events in a person’s life is the loss of a pet and pet owners are spending a lot of money on after life care for their animals.
NPR's Tom Dreisbach is back in the host chair for a day. This time, he reports on a story very close to home: The years-long battle his parents have been locked in with the local wild beaver population. Each night, the beavers would dam the culverts along the Dreisbachs' property, threatening to make their home inaccessible. Each morning, Tom's parents deconstructed those dams — until the annual winter freeze hit and left them all in a temporary stalemate.
As beaver populations have increased, so have these kinds of conflicts with people...like Tom's parents. But the solution may not be to chase away the beavers. They're a keystone species that scientists believe could play an important role in cleaning water supplies, creating healthy ecosystems and alleviating some of the effects of climate change. So, today, Tom calls up Jakob Shockey, the executive director of the non-profit Project Beaver. Jakob offers a bit of perspective to Tom and his parents, and the Dreisbachs contemplate what a peaceful coexistence with these furry neighbors might look like.
Have questions or comments for us to consider for a future episode? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!
Novelist Amy Tan's The Backyard Bird Chronicles centers on an array of birds that visit her yard, as Trish O'Kane's Birding to Change the World recalls lessons from birds that galvanized her teaching.
Spring is a busy time for the people charged with rehabilitating animals that are injured or orphaned. Right now, it's baby squirrel season across much of the country.
A video shows apartment complex residents in North Carolina trying to pull two wild black bear cubs from a tree to pose with them. One person manages to grab a cub before it runs away.
When the dinosaurs walked the Earth, massive marine reptiles swam. Among them, a species of Ichthyosaur that measured over 80 feet long. Today, we look into how a chance discovery by a father-daughter duo of fossil hunters furthered paleontologist's understanding of the "giant fish lizard of the Severn." Currently, it is the largest marine reptile known to scientists.
Read more about this specimen in the study published in the journal PLOS One.
Have another ancient animal or scientific revelation you want us to cover? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we might talk about it on a future episode!
Is Georgia about to be invaded by giant Argentine lizards? Well, that wasn’t on the 2024 bingo card. Don’t worry, it’s not happening, but we should keep our eyes peeled.
The animal was having a routine bath when she was startled by a truck backfiring and ran away before being recaptured by handlers. Videos of the unexpected sight were shared widely on social media.
