Invasive Argentine ants are defending other pests in California’s citrus groves and vineyards, troubling farmers and leaving natives hungry

An invasive species of ants travelled across continents to America and is now defending other insects. According to a report by econews, Argentine Ants have been protecting aphids, mealybugs, scales, whiteflies and psyllids against the predators and parasites that would normally keep their population under control. This unlikely alliance has turned the ants into a…

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In 2011, conservationists dropped 75 tonnes of poisoned bait on Henderson Island; only about 60–80 rats survived, but within two years their population was back to roughly two-thirds of its former level

Henderson Island (Image credit: Canva) In 2011, Henderson Island, a remote and uninhabited island in the South Pacific, became the site of one of the largest rodent-eradication attempts ever undertaken on an island of its size. Conservationists spread about 75 tonnes of poisoned bait across the island in an effort to eliminate invasive Pacific rats,…

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In 1993, a Bahamas artist began covering his home with shells, bottles, coins and tiles; decades later it became a giant dolphin-themed museum | World News

For decades, one house in Alice Town, Bimini, has been slowly transformed into something that looks less like a conventional home and more like a walk-in mosaic. Artist Ashley Saunders began building Dolphin House in 1993, using discarded and salvaged objects he found around the island, at sea and at demolition sites. Shells, tiles, bottles,…

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She lost a grandson and dozens of guinea pigs in a house fire; today, she runs a Massachusetts sanctuary caring for nearly 400 abandoned guinea pigs | World News

She lost a grandson and dozens of guinea pigs in a devastating house fire in 2019. Years later, Kimie Smothermon is running a Massachusetts sanctuary where hundreds of guinea pigs now depend on her every day. At the Guinea Pig Sanctuary in Salisbury, between 350 and 400 guinea pigs are housed at the facility, with…

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Massachusetts fishing crew lands 1,260 pound blue marlin, narrowly missing world record | World News

A routine offshore fishing trip off Massachusetts became an extraordinary battle when charter captain Damon Sacco and lifelong angler Walter Chapman encountered a colossal Atlantic blue marlin roughly 100 miles off Cape Cod. The enormous fish measured more than 11 feet long and weighed an astonishing 1,260 pounds (571.5 kilograms) when it was brought back…

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Florida sank a 324-foot former New York sludge tanker off Pompano Beach; the wreck became an underwater casino reef with card-dealing sharks, poker tables and marine life

The tanker was built in 1967 and was towed from New York to Florida in early 2016 after a 10-year search for a suitable vessel. A 324-foot tanker that once carried sludge is about to get a remarkable second life beneath the waves. An old ship off the coast of Pompano Beach, Florida later turned…

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Washington releases 20 lab-raised sunflower sea stars into the Salish Sea to restore the endangered species and damaged kelp forests | World News

Image: University of Washington A remarkable conservation effort is unfolding in Washington’s San Juan Islands, where the Samish Indian Nation and University of Washington researchers have released 20 lab-raised sunflower sea stars into the Salish Sea. The endangered predators were raised for three years at Friday Harbour Laboratories before being carefully transported to waters off…

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Microgravity: Four medaka fish flew aboard Columbia in 1994 to test whether vertebrates could reproduce without gravity; they laid 43 eggs and eight baby fish hatched in space

The tank was kept at a water temperature of 24°C. The fish also followed a cycle of 14 hours of light and 10 hours of darkness. (Photo: JAXA) In July 1994, four small medaka fish travelled into space as part of an experiment that tested whether fish could reproduce in microgravity. The experiment was carried…

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