Wildlife

What Can You Do About the Coming Cicada Invasion? Eat them! (With Recipes)

The common cicada, as it looks just before you eat it Unless you've been hiding underground for the last few months, you probably already know that New York City is due for a cicada invasion. Indeed, the cicadas themselves have been concealed deep in the dirt as they've undergone their 17-year lif ... More >>

New York Takes One Step Closer to Banning Shark Fin Soup

Imagine your morning commute. You're riding the train when, suddenly, a guy jumps you and takes off your arms and legs. "See ya," he says, walking away with your limbs under his arm. "Have a nice day." That's sort of what it's like to be a shark that's been "finned"--harvested for its chewy appenda ... More >>

CICADA BROOD EMERGING TO DELIVER HELL UPON NEW YORK CITY

We apologize if the above headline is alarming, but we can assure you this spring's invasion of 17-year cicadas will be the most terrifying ordeal you will ever live through (if you make it out alive, of course). Don't believe us? USA Today ran an absolutely terrifying report about the imminent emer ... More >>

Baby Gibbon Born at The Bronx Zoo and Holy Crap is it Cute

A rare white-cheeked baby gibbon was born at The Bronx Zoo yesterday, according to The Wildlife Conservation Society. Rare white-cheeked baby gibbons are freaking adorable, according to everyone that has seen a photo of one. The quizzical and enchanting poses of their tiny gibbon faces will mesmer ... More >>

Stopping the Next Plague

Hunting for viruses with Columbia's Simon Anthony

Carpet Beetles: Are They The Next Bed Bugs?

Invasion? The Voice recently wrote about bugs' inevitable(?) triumph over humankind. And though it doesn't look like bed bugs are necessarily going to be the creepy, crawly culprits who enslave us, we have recently learned about another species that comes out while you are asleep and defenseless: ... More >>

Save the Humans! Actors and Whales Trapped in Big Miracle

An Opossum Took the D Train the Other Day

Add this to your list of animals, exotic and banal, from turtle to rat to chicken to pigeon to naked human, sighted on the subway: the New York Times reports that an opossum was noted aboard a D train en route to Manhattan at 4:30 a.m. last Friday, a/k/a, Friday the 13th. The Times puts it as only t ... More >>

R.I.P., New Jersey Bears

Baby bears = considerably less threatening.​Yesterday marked the first day of New Jersey's infamous bear hunt, which annually disturbs both people and bears. Jersey wildlife officials have announced that 257 black bears have been killed already. The first was a 166-pound female shot by a man f ... More >>

How Much Should You Worry About Death By Vampire Bat Bite?

Baby vampire bats: Slightly less worrisome?​The U.S. has experienced its very first death by vampire bat bite. But far from being a moment to celebrate, this is a moment to worry about. (R.I.P., man in Louisiana who died of a vampire bat bite that gave him rabies -- that sounds terrible.) So, ... More >>

Mountain Lion Traveled 1,500 Miles Cross-Country to Get to Connecticut

​Like many an aspiring New Yorker, the mountain lion that was recently sighted wandering about Greenwich, Connecticut -- the lion that was later, sadly, killed by an SUV on the Wilbur Cross Parkway -- had headed east from far, far away. On Tuesday state officials reported that the animal had c ... More >>

Baboon Loose in Jackson, New Jersey, Outruns Police

​A baboon described as the size of a small dog, and the "primate with the red bottom," is eluding police in Jackson, New Jersey. At around 12:20pm today, it was seen "in a full run towards the east," presumably to get the hell out of town. Police spokesman Captain David Newman told the Asbury ... More >>

Baby Falcon Gets a Checkup

The MTA has released a pretty darn cute video starring the peregrine falcon chicks on the Throgs Neck Bridge. Be prepared to hear incessant chirping. More after the jump!

Prince William and Duchess Kate Adopt Baby Penguin

​Prince William And Duchess Kate (née Middleton) are the perfect picture of romance right now. Their wedding went off without a hitch, the frenzy around them has died down, and they've gone back to normal royal lives. But they're already adding a third member to their family; no, Kate's not p ... More >>

Richard Branson Is Planning to Create Island Full of Lemurs

​Richard Branson, the eccentric billionaire and chairman of the Virgin group, is planning one of the most extravagant displays of socially conscious wealth we've ever seen. The New York Post says that he wants to fill one of his privately owned islands with endangered lemurs in order to build ... More >>

Naked Penguins Have No Explanation, Shame

"Don't look at us, we have feathers." Photo via HighlandBlade​Penguins on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have been struck with a peculiar ailment that is leaving scientists confused and the birds chilly. It has been dubbed "feather-loss disorder," and its root cause is unknown. The Wildlife ... More >>

This May Be the Cutest, Most Dangerous Thing Ever

Because this is possibly the best thing in the world, or at least the best thing of the day, and you absolutely must watch it, here is a slow loris with an umbrella. Fact: Slow lorises will bite you given half the chance, but who cares if they have venomous poison in their teeth, or that they might ... More >>

Obese Monkeys Extraordinarily Depressing

Leah Nash/NYT​There are more rhesus monkeys than you'd think out there getting fat. Getting really fat. And it's not their fault; it's because they're being used as research subjects in studies about obesity and diabetes. At the Oregon National Primate Research Center, scientists are keeping a col ... More >>

Bugging Out: A Dozen Delectable Insect Dishes From Around the World

greenprophet.com​ In a food culture that constantly seeks out the rare and arcane, insects constitute the final frontier. Though you can readily find pig ears, fiddleheads, sea urchins, foie gras, and truffles on menus all over town, season permitting, where would you go to find bugs?

How to Keep Bees Out of the Red

david.niknvscanon/FlickrBees, the right color.​Remember the story about the mysteriously red bees? Well -- big surprise -- it turns out that bees are just as drawn to artificial sweeteners as humans are. Bees from several local hives were caught dipping into the red maraschino cherry juice at ... More >>

Animal v. Human: Who Will Win in the Battle of New York City Domination?

​New York City. If it's not the raccoons, it's the coyotes,  geese, sewer gators, rats, bedbugs, or the dangerous fornicating opossums. The New York Post reveals that city officials decided to try to fuck with biology by introducing the rat-tailed marsupials into Brooklyn a few years ago to r ... More >>

The Giraffes

New York State Geese Are All Fucked

​You thought it was bad that 400 Canada geese in Prospect Park were killed? Now the state is planning to euthanize 170,000 of them. Run for your lives, geese! According to City Room, who got hold of a report by some government agencies, "The nearly 400 geese gassed to death this month after ... More >>

Special Things for People Without Summer Fridays: Baby Sea Lion (Video!)

​New babies! We love new babies. Especially when they are super-cute baby sea lions born at the New York Aquarium: An as-yet-unnamed female sea lion has been born to mama sea lion Clarice, and is the first sea lion to be born at the Aquarium.

Coyote in Holland Tunnel: Didn't Pay Toll

​We're told that the NYPD's elite Emergency Services Unit has been called to the Manhattan side of the Holland Tunnel to chase down a coyote initially spotted in the tunnel. According to the most recent report from the cops, the commuting coyote left the tunnel and was last seen on Varick St ... More >>

2009 Darwin Awards: Crime Down? Criminal Stupidity is Up.

Crime is reportedly down, so does that mean there are fewer criminals? Maybe criminals are just getting more stupid. Two co-winners of the just-announced 2009 Darwin Awards — "Honoring those who improve the species . . . by accidentally removing themselves from it!" — are evidence. U ... More >>

"The Cove" Trailer: Dolphins in Your Bento Box

The Cove exposes a Japanese town's secret dolphin trade, where the intelligent sea mammals are captured for amusement and slaughtered for food. The film, which stars Richard O'Barry, once the world's leading authority on dolphin training and a consultant on the show Flipper, opens today at the Ang ... More >>

The Cove Exposes the Horrific Treatment of Dolphins

But what about the uglies?

LaGuardia Geese Will Be Gassed, Shot, and Falconed in New Safety Program

Congratulations to the New York Post, which has received action on one of its crusades, an early call to get the LaGuardia Canadian geese that brought down Flight 1549. The cause was taken up by state senators including Hiram Monserrate, and the Post kept up the pressure till it bore fruit: now the ... More >>

Feds Crack Down on Sperm Whale Teeth Traffickers

A Massachusetts antique dealer has been indicted by the Justice Department for illegally importing sperm whale teeth. (We didn't know this was a hot black market commodity, but then again, there's a collector's market for just about everything. Apparently the hot sperm whale teeth spots in the U.S a ... More >>

Earth, a Big Screen, Family-Friendlier Planet Earth

Today's Urban Wildlife Issues

The Times tells us today about feral parrots. Wait -- feral? You mean like the old ladies who owned them said Polly want a cracker? and the parrots said NO Polly don't want a goddamn cracker, bit their faces and flew out the window? No, on closer inspection they mean the Quaker parrots we mentione ... More >>

ND/NF: Louis Psihoyos Must Save the Dolphins

DEC Stings Poachers, Smugglers of Turtles, Snakes, and Salamanders

Today the state department of environmental conservation got to play Elliot Ness, announcing charges against 18 people nabbed in "Operation Shellshock," a sting on illegal poaching, transportation and sales of protected reptiles, specifically turtles, rattlesnakes and salamanders. The Times repo ... More >>

Dolphins Prepare Meals

What's for dinner?Apparently, humans are not the only ones who are particular about their food. According to British researchers at the University of Exeter, a dolphin has twice been filmed preparing its food according to a certain "recipe"--a behavior that's extremely rare, even in mammals. The fe ... More >>

RODENT RULES

They’re just trying to get a nut

The Fish That Wasn't

A whale of a cultural clash in an early New York legal battle

Fight For Your Right to Feed Pigeons

R.I.P, You Noble Whale

Noise from the Front

On The Red Carpet #2

Off the Leash

In the exotic pet universe, it's all about whose is weirder than whose.

When Lamps and Chairs Attack

A Game Trippy Enough for Timothy Leary

An Above and Beyond Shooter Game

Act Like a Drunk Johnny Depp

Feel Like a Misunderstood Shark?

'Curious George'

'March of the Penguins'

'Deep Blue'