A New Kitty The fog comeson little cat feet. It sits lookingover harbor and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on. –Carl Sandburg, Fog We’ve probed our planet so thoroughly that you might think the days of discovering big, unseen critters could be over. Bacteria, insects, even tiny birds, sure. Perhaps something large from the depths
Falling Iguana Alert “I’m going to take care of someone who just got an iguana dropped on his face.” –Anamargaret Sanchez, yoga instructor America is so large that its extremities feature exceptionally different wildlife. From Alaska’s frigid climes and polar bears to the hellscape of Florida and its crocodiles, the nation contains nearly
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Fat Squirrel Week Each year, as fall morphs into winter, a large swath of Earth’s animals prepares to survive the cold, lean months by plumping up as much as they can. In recent times, Katmai National Park has captured the imaginations of nature lovers worldwide by giving us a peek into the process of getting
Thorny Devils When it comes to Australia, the first devil that comes to mind is probably the Tasmanian. But there’s a far more populous down-under denizen, one who roams large swaths of the Outback. And, though the Tasmanian devil garnered its name largely thanks to its ethereal vocalizations, many humans find the critter closer to adorable
Why Don’t Spiders Get Stuck in Their Webs? Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. –Sir Walter Scott, Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field Despite filling a large number of us with arachnophobia, spiders are marvels of engineering and pest extermination. The form of eight creepy-crawly legs surrounding a bulbous center with
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Pet Ratios guest-written by Deborah Stout Sometimes I wonder if our pets are insane. I don’t mean their silly antics, like getting “the zoomies.” Or when cats get that specific look on their faces. I’m referring to the fact that they not only live with us, but actually like and trust us. This notion might
Orangey Minerva Animal characters on television and film can be as memorable as the most iconic human personalities. Toto. Mr. Ed. Lassie. In 1939’s The Wizard of Oz, Toto was played by a female Cairn Terrier named Terry. For many of the television roles, multiple critters played the part. Six collies played Lassie, starting with Pal
Library Bats In 2013, UNESCO designated the University of Coimbra a World Heritage Site, citing its architecture, culture, tradition, and historical value. This institution lies within the city of the same name, the sixth largest in Portugal. Founded in 1290 in Lisbon and moved to Coimbra in 1537, the university is one of the oldest
Danish Protest Pigs It’s no revelation that the history of Europe is complex. The countries we see today are just the latest configuration of a jigsaw puzzle that has altered shapes and piece totals over thousands of years. If anything, today’s map is relatively uncomplicated compared to centuries past, before nation-states existed and tiny kingdoms,
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Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards Nature photography is an incredibly rich medium. From the original masters, such as Ansel Adams, whose black and white images of the National Parks helped define the milieu of landscapes, to modern experimentalists, such as Reuben Wu, whose unnatural lighting put a new spin on framing the outdoors, Mother Nature has provided us with
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