Animals

Maui County says the number of confirmed deaths from the wildfires on the island has risen to 96. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green says he expects the number of victims to rise. In a video update released Sunday, Green says there were 2,700 structures destroyed in Lahaina with an estimated loss of $5.6 billion in the wildfires. Green says FEMA is overseeing the federal response in Hawaii with 416 personnel including FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. He says President Joe Biden has “authorized the full force of the federal government in support of us.”

More than a third of the heat-trapping gases cooking the planet come from growing and raising food, but millions of cattle, pigs and other animals get to stay cool in the U.S. and the rest of the developed world with high-tech apps.

A wandering walrus calf who somehow made his way miles inland is getting around-the-clock cuddling, “which he has been taking advantage of almost constantly,” Alaska rescuers say.

A rare attack by a river otter injured three women floating on inner tubes and inflicted wounds serious enough that one victim had to be airlifted to a hospital, Montana authorities say.

A zoo in eastern China has denied suggestions that some of its bears were people dressed in costume after videos of a Malayan sun bear standing on its hind legs – and looking uncannily human – went viral.

Beavers have long been treated as an annoyance for chewing down trees and shrubs and blocking up streams, leading to flooding in neighborhoods and farms. But the animal is increasingly being seen as nature’s helper in the midst of climate change.

The National Park Service says a bison severely injured a Minnesota woman on Saturday in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. A statement from the service was released Tuesday. Park officials reported the woman was in serious but stable condition after suffering “significant injuries to her abdomen and foot.” The woman was taken to a Fargo hospital. She was injured at a trailhead in Painted Canyon, a colorful Badlands vista popular with motorists. The attack is under investigation and exact details are unknown. Park Superintendent Angie Richman has not responded to an email requesting information. On Monday, a bison charged and gored a 47-year-old Phoenix woman in Yellowstone National Park.

A pod of 55 pilot whales have died after they were found washed ashore on a beach in Scotland in the worst mass whale stranding in the area, marine experts said.