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For the First Time in Years, a Rare “Ghost Elephant” Was Spotted on Camera

It’s not every day a ghost is caught on camera, and this one has a trunk, tusk, and large ears. An elusive elephant dubbed a “ghost elephant” was spotted by a camera trap in Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park. The animal is a critically endangered African forest elephant, so this sighting is energizing conservationists about saving […]

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Denali National Park’s Sled Dog “Puppy Cam” Is Live: Meet This Year’s Litter

Stop the presses! There’s another animal live stream to get glued to, and this one features some adorable future heroes: the next generation of sled dogs at Alaska’s Denali National Park.  The Denali Sled Dog Kennels’ seasonal “Puppy Cam” is turned on when the newest recruits to the mushing squad are old enough to wander

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Ancient Pollen Reveals Stories About Earth’s History, From the Asteroid Strike That Killed the Dinosaurs to the Mayan Collapse

If pollen allergies are getting to you, you are not alone. Every year, plants release billions of pollen grains into the air, specks of male reproductive material that many of us notice only when we get watery eyes and runny noses. However, pollen grains are far more than allergens — they are nature’s time capsules, preserving clues about Earth’s past environments for millions of years. Pollen’s tough outer shell enables it to survive long after its parent plants have disappeared. When pollen grains become trapped in sediments at the bottom of lakes, oceans and riverbeds, fossil pollen can provide scientists with a unique history of the environments those pollen-producing plants were born into. They can tell us about the vegetation, climate and even human activity through time. The types of pollen and the quantities of pollen grains found at a site help researchers reconstruct ancient forests, track sea-level changes and identify the fingerprints of significant events, such as asteroid impacts or civilizations collapsing.

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The Winners of the 2025 National Geographic Photography Competition Capture Powerful Moments Around the Globe

The winners of the 2025 National Geographic Traveller Photography Competition have been revealed — and the subjects range from a vibrant rainbow staircase in France to a geothermal pool that looks like a dragon’s eye and more. Every year, National Geographic Traveller (UK) organizes the contest, which is open to amateur and professional photographers from the United Kingdom and Ireland, to highlight the best in travel photography. Now in its 13th year, the contest features six categories: People, City Life, Landscape, Wildlife, Food, and Portfolio. Out of thousands of submissions, 18 photographers were selected as finalists before the winning shots were chosen. “Our competition goes from strength to strength, with this year’s easily one of the strongest yet,” said Pat Riddell, editor of the travel magazine.

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“Shark Spy Technology”: Why Massachusetts Scientists Will Tag Sharks With Cameras This Summer

Forget shark week — it’s shark season in New England. The first great white sighting of the season was confirmed May 11 when a seal with a shark bite washed ashore on Nantucket in Massachusetts, and for the second year in a row, researchers in the state will be using an innovative method to help

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What Was the First Human Pest? Scientists Pinpoint the Likely Culprit (That Still Bugs Us Today)

Our planet is home to around 1 million known insect species, and about 1%-3% of them are considered pests, per the National Pesticide Information Center. But which one has been bugging humans the longest? A team of scientists led by two Virginia Tech researchers think they’ve figured it out: In a study published Wednesday, they suggest that bed bugs were the first human pest. The bugs began their pesky relationship with people when they hopped off a bat and attached themselves to a Neanderthal around 60,000 years ago, the authors say — and they’ve stuck around their human hosts ever since. But according to the researchers, the populations of bed bugs that stayed with bats have been declining since the Ice Age, also known as the Last Glacial Maximum, around 20,000 years ago.

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One of New York’s Most Popular Hiking Destinations Is Getting an Eco Transformation

The Breakneck Ridge Trail is one of the most popular day hikes in not just New York state but the entire country — the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference estimated in 2018 that the destination receives around 100,000 visitors each year. That’s partially thanks to its proximity to the Big Apple: It takes under 90

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Breakneck Ridge Trail transformation

NASA Announces Winners of Photographer of the Year Awards: See the Pics

This article was originally written by Dean Murray for SWNS — the U.K.’s largest independent news agency, providing globally relevant original, verified, and engaging content to the world’s leading media outlets. The winners of NASA’s seventh annual Photographer of the Year awards are in. The out-of-this-world images all offer scenes of the space agency’s activities

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New Genome Map of Northern White Rhino Is a “Crucial Step” Toward Saving the Near-Extinct Species

In 2018, the animal kingdom experienced a devastating loss: The world’s last male northern white rhino died. Today, with only two nonreproductive females remaining, both at a conservancy in Kenya, the ungulates are on the brink of extinction — but scientists just got significantly closer to saving them. An international team of scientists from Scripps

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