MIAMI — Each March, sea turtle nesting season begins with the females’ slow yet determined scooch onto Florida’s shores, shoveling away sand with her speckled fins, digging a hole to lay eggs.

The season peaks around late spring to summer before tapering off in October, meaning Florida’s thousand-mile stretch of coastlines becomes home ...Read more

I received a text from my mom before 8 a.m. today.

“Jim, is this a scam?”

She attached a screenshot of an email she’d received earlier. The email looked like it was from Apple. The subject was: Apple Pay Suspension: Invalid Address Detected.

It read, “Verify Your Apple ID Information,” followed by “We’ve Temporary Restrict your ...Read more

It takes some research when shopping for a Bluetooth speaker. Whatever you think is the best available now can change by the day as this is one of the most crowded electronic gadget categories. They come in small, medium and large. With a big sound in each, some features are the same, and some are different.

Sound and size are critical ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The final week of the year will bring low tides to San Diego’s coastline, giving tide poolers one more chance this month to participate in a statewide quest to find sea stars — otherwise known as starfish.

The Solstice Sea Star Search along the California coast is an initiative from the California Academy of Sciences to track ...Read more

A snowy owl was rescued Monday evening by a woman who was surprised to find it trapped in the grille of a car in a Duluth, Minnesota, parking lot.

Annabell Whelan, a good Samaritan who had also rescued another owl earlier in the day, said she was near the Bentleyville “Tour of Lights” display at Bayfront Festival Park when she found the ...Read more

Last December, a farmer was burning dry grapevines in his vineyard in Deir Mar Moussa, a hill town a dozen miles east of Beirut known for its 18th century monastery and stands of pine forest. Usually this would be dangerous, given that Lebanon’s hot and dry climate can quickly turn a spark into a conflagration.

But on this day the worst was ...Read more

Remember the story about the elephant seen from different perspectives? Here’s a twist.

A biologist with a telescope peered at the animal and said, I see a hairy grayness horizon to horizon.

A toenail fungus specialist examined its feet, and prescribed antibiotics.

A climate change specialist didn’t see the elephant because he was fixated...Read more

Forest researchers in north-central Minnesota are bringing the little-analyzed world of an elusive night creature into the light.

There is a dearth of state research about flying squirrels, a diminutive, rarely seen critter with outsized skills. Minnesota has two species of the little aerialists, a southern and a northern, and where they meet ...Read more

Southern right whales can live to be more than 130 years old — which is decades longer than previously thought, according to new research.

The marine animals, a type of baleen whale found in the southern hemisphere, have the gift of “extreme longevity,” according to a study published on Dec. 20 in the journal Science Advances and an ...Read more

Three years ago, on Dec. 30, 2021, a wind-driven wildfire raced through two communities just outside Boulder, Colorado. In the span of about eight hours, more than 1,000 homes and businesses burned.

The fire left entire blocks in ash, but among them, pockets of houses survived, seemingly untouched. The owners of these homes may have ...Read more

Landfills in Colorado release millions of metric tons of greenhouse gasses each year as organic waste including food, paper and yard trimmings decomposes into the soil, contributing to global warming and harming human health.

Colorado, as part of its multipronged approach to eliminate 90% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, is ...Read more

BALTIMORE — All around the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant, Mike Hallmen points to evidence that change is afoot.

Water-filled chambers that were once clogged with mucky brown sediment or choked by vegetation now run clear. Construction crews repair the concrete wall of a massive circular tank. Below the golden egg-shaped domes of the ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that the commercial Dungeness crab fishery south of the Mendocino-Sonoma county line will officially open early next month.

Fishing Zones 3, 4, 5 and 6, which stretch to the U.S.-Mexico border, will open Jan. 5 at 12:01 a.m., with pre-soak beginning Jan. 2 at 8:01 a...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It is now illegal to possess or transport golden mussels in California.

California Fish and Game Commission has designated the golden mussel a restricted species, the latest salvo in the battle to keep the invasive species out of the state’s waterways. The mussels are considered an immediate threat to the ecological ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Driving over the cattle guards that mark the boundaries of the Las Vegas Valley, Southern Nevadans are likely to come across an equine friend or two. Or a herd of them.

Wild horses and burros, considered to be an emblem of the unconquerable American West, have been a permanent fixture of the Great Basin and the Mojave Desert for ...Read more

We named him Squirt – not because he was the smallest of the 16 cuttlefish in the pool, but because anyone with the audacity to scoop him into a separate tank to study him was likely to get soaked. Squirt had notoriously accurate aim.

As a comparative psychologist, I’m used to assaults from my experimental subjects. I’ve been ...Read more

More than one-third of all animals on Earth, from beetles to cows to elephants, depend on plant-based diets. Plants are a low-calorie food source, so it can be challenging for animals to consume enough energy to meet their needs. Now climate change is reducing the nutritional value of some foods that plant eaters rely on.

Human ...Read more