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Rare White Anteater Spotted in Costa Rica in Bajo La Paz

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Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Costa Rica is home to hundreds of animal species that surprise locals and foreigners alike. Recently, an especially unusual sighting occurred in Bajo La Paz, San Ramón, where a tamandua anteater was observed with a striking lack of pigmentation. This rare anteater was observed by Ignacio Arias, who operates an ecotourism business in the area. According to experts, anteaters with unusual coloration are incredibly rare in the wild. Carolina Sáenz, a specialist from the International Institute for Wildlife Conservation and Management at the National University (UNA), noted that due to the distance from which the animal was observed, it remains unclear whether it has albinism or leucism. Pigmentation anomalies in wildlife can arise from two main conditions. Albinism, which is characterized by a complete absence of melanin, typically results in white skin and fur along with red or pink eyes. Leucism, on the other hand, causes a partial loss of pigmentation that can leave an animal with a lighter or patchy coat but usually normal eye color. In anteaters, both conditions are extremely uncommon and can have significant impacts on their behavior and survival. Reduced pigmentation might make these animals more conspicuous to predators, and it could also affect their ability to camouflage or interact with other members of their species. Bajo La Paz is part of a region in Costa Rica celebrated for its rich biodiversity and strong emphasis on ecotourism. The area is a hub for local conservation efforts, and sightings like this one often generate considerable interest among both tourists and wildlife researchers. Documenting such rare occurrences can provide valuable data for monitoring genetic diversity and population health within the species. While Costa Rica is well known for its robust system of protected areas and conservation programs, unusual genetic traits can sometimes signal environmental stressors or natural variations that require further study. Local authorities and conservationists are always on the lookout for atypical specimens, as they can offer insight into broader ecological trends. The sighting of a white anteater adds an extra layer of intrigue to Costa Rica’s already impressive array of wildlife, which includes sightings of jaguar cubs and other endangered species. This rare encounter not only reinforces the notion that Costa Rica remains one of the world’s biodiversity leaders, but it also highlights the importance of continued monitoring and research. Ecotourism operators in the region, like Ignacio Arias, play a crucial role in bringing these conservation stories to the public eye, potentially influencing both local policies and global awareness about wildlife protection. While anecdotal evidence and sporadic reports of unusual anteater coloration exist, this recent sighting is one of the few documented cases in Costa Rica’s wild landscapes. It encourages further investigation and may prompt local wildlife authorities to integrate such anomalies into their ongoing monitoring programs. As researchers continue to explore the causes and implications of pigmentation differences, every observation contributes to a broader understanding of how species adapt to their environments. The post Rare White Anteater Spotted in Costa Rica in Bajo La Paz appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Pigmentation anomalies in wildlife can arise from two main conditions. Albinism, which is characterized by a complete absence of melanin, typically results in white skin and fur along with red or pink eyes. Leucism, on the other hand, causes a partial loss of pigmentation that can leave an animal with a lighter or patchy coat but usually normal eye color. In anteaters, both conditions are extremely uncommon and can have significant impacts on their behavior and survival. Reduced pigmentation might make these animals more conspicuous to predators, and it could also affect their ability to camouflage or interact with other members of their species.

Bajo La Paz is part of a region in Costa Rica celebrated for its rich biodiversity and strong emphasis on ecotourism. The area is a hub for local conservation efforts, and sightings like this one often generate considerable interest among both tourists and wildlife researchers. Documenting such rare occurrences can provide valuable data for monitoring genetic diversity and population health within the species. While Costa Rica is well known for its robust system of protected areas and conservation programs, unusual genetic traits can sometimes signal environmental stressors or natural variations that require further study.

Local authorities and conservationists are always on the lookout for atypical specimens, as they can offer insight into broader ecological trends. The sighting of a white anteater adds an extra layer of intrigue to Costa Rica’s already impressive array of wildlife, which includes sightings of jaguar cubs and other endangered species. This rare encounter not only reinforces the notion that Costa Rica remains one of the world’s biodiversity leaders, but it also highlights the importance of continued monitoring and research. Ecotourism operators in the region, like Ignacio Arias, play a crucial role in bringing these conservation stories to the public eye, potentially influencing both local policies and global awareness about wildlife protection.

While anecdotal evidence and sporadic reports of unusual anteater coloration exist, this recent sighting is one of the few documented cases in Costa Rica’s wild landscapes. It encourages further investigation and may prompt local wildlife authorities to integrate such anomalies into their ongoing monitoring programs. As researchers continue to explore the causes and implications of pigmentation differences, every observation contributes to a broader understanding of how species adapt to their environments.

The post Rare White Anteater Spotted in Costa Rica in Bajo La Paz appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

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Two teens and 5,000 ants: how a smuggling bust shed new light on a booming trade

Two Belgian 19-year-olds have pleaded guilty to wildlife piracy – part of a growing trend of trafficking ‘less conspicuous’ creatures for sale as exotic petsPoaching busts are familiar territory for the officers of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), an armed force tasked with protecting the country’s iconic creatures. But what awaited guards when they descended in early April on a guesthouse in the west of the country was both larger and smaller in scale than the smuggling operations they typically encounter. There were more than 5,000 smuggled animals, caged in their own enclosures. Each one, however, was about the size of a little fingernail: 18-25mm.The cargo, which two Belgian teenagers had apparently intended to ship to exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, was ants. Their enclosures were a mixture of test tubes and syringes containing cotton wool – environments that authorities say would keep the insects alive for weeks. Continue reading...

Poaching busts are familiar territory for the officers of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), an armed force tasked with protecting the country’s iconic creatures. But what awaited guards when they descended in early April on a guesthouse in the west of the country was both larger and smaller in scale than the smuggling operations they typically encounter. There were more than 5,000 smuggled animals, caged in their own enclosures. Each one, however, was about the size of a little fingernail: 18-25mm.The samples of garden ants presented to the court. Photograph: Monicah Mwangi/ReutersThe cargo, which two Belgian teenagers had apparently intended to ship to exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, was ants. Their enclosures were a mixture of test tubes and syringes containing cotton wool – environments that authorities say would keep the insects alive for weeks.“We did not come here to break any laws. By accident and stupidity we did,” says Lornoy David, one of the Belgian smugglers.David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, pleaded guilty after being charged last week with wildlife piracy, alongside two other men in a separate case who were caught smuggling 400 ants. The cases have shed new light on booming global ant trade – and what authorities say is a growing trend of trafficking “less conspicuous” creatures.These crimes represent “a shift in trafficking trends – from iconic large mammals to lesser-known yet ecologically critical species”, says a KWS statement.The unusual case has also trained a spotlight on the niche world of ant-keeping and collecting – a hobby that has boomed over the past decade. The seized species include Messor cephalotes, a large red harvester ant native to east Africa. Queens of the species grow to about 20-24mm long, and the ant sales website Ants R Us describes them as “many people’s dream species”, selling them for £99 per colony. The ants are prized by collectors for their unique behaviours and complex colony-building skills, “traits that make them popular in exotic pet circles, where they are kept in specialised habitats known as formicariums”, KWS says.Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx during the hearing. Photograph: Monicah Mwangi/ReutersOne online ant vendor, who asked not to be named, says the market is thriving, and there has been a growth in ant-keeping shows, where enthusiasts meet to compare housing and species details. “Sales volumes have grown almost every year. There are more ant vendors than before, and prices have become more competitive,” he says. “In today’s world, where most people live fast-paced, tech-driven lives, many are disconnected from themselves and their environment. Watching ants in a formicarium can be surprisingly therapeutic,” he says.David and Lodewijckx will remain in custody until the court considers a pre-sentencing report on 23 April. The ant seller says theirs is a “landmark case in the field”. “People travelling to other countries specifically to collect ants and then returning with them is virtually unheard of,” he says.A formicarium at a pet shop in Singapore. Photograph: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty ImagesScientists have raised concerns that the burgeoning trade in exotic ants could pose a significant biodiversity risk. “Ants are traded as pets across the globe, but if introduced outside of their native ranges they could become invasive with dire environmental and economic consequences,” researchers conclude in a 2023 paper tracking the ant trade across China. “The most sought-after ants have higher invasive potential,” they write.Removing ants from their ecosystems could also be damaging. Illegal exportation “not only undermines Kenya’s sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits”, says KWS. Dino Martins, an entomologist and evolutionary biologist in Kenya, says harvester ants are among the most important insects on the African savannah, and any trade in them is bound to have negative consequences for the ecology of the grasslands.A Kenyan official arranges the containers of ants at the court. Photograph: Kenya Wildlife Service/AP“Harvester ants are seed collectors, and they gather [the seeds] as food for themselves, storing these in their nests. A single large harvester ant colony can collect several kilos of seeds of various grasses a year. In the process of collecting grass seeds, the ants ‘drop’ a number … dispersing them through the grasslands,” says Martins.The insects also serve as food for various other species including aardvarks, pangolins and aardwolves.Martins says he is surprised to see that smugglers feeding the global “pet” trade are training their sights on Kenya, since “ants are among the most common and widespread of insects”.“Insect trade can actually be done more sustainably, through controlled rearing of the insects. This can support livelihoods in rural communities such as the Kipepeo Project which rears butterflies in Kenya,” he says. Locally, the main threats to ants come not from the illegal trade but poisoning from pesticides, habitat destruction and invasive species, says Martins.Philip Muruthi, a vice-president for conservation at the African Wildlife Foundation in Nairobi, says ants enrich soils, enabling germination and providing food for other species.“When you see a healthy forest … you don’t think about what is making it healthy. It is the relationships all the way from the bacteria to the ants to the bigger things,” he says.

Animals

Conservation

Forests

Belgian Teenagers Found With 5,000 Ants to Be Sentenced in 2 Weeks

Two Belgian teenagers who were found with thousands of ants valued at $9,200 and allegedly destined for European and Asian markets will be sentenced in two weeks

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Two Belgian teenagers who were found with thousands of ants valued at $9,200 and allegedly destined for European and Asian markets will be sentenced in two weeks, a Kenyan magistrate said Wednesday.Magistrate Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya’s main airport, said she would not rush the case but would take time to review environmental impact and psychological reports filed in court before passing sentence on May 7.Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house. They were charged on April 15 with violating wildlife conservation laws.The teens have told the magistrate that they didn’t know that keeping the ants was illegal and were just having fun.The Kenya Wildlife Service had said the case represented “a shift in trafficking trends — from iconic large mammals to lesser-known yet ecologically critical species.”Kenya has in the past fought against the trafficking of body parts of larger wild animals such as elephants, rhinos and pangolins among others.The Belgian teens had entered the country on a tourist visa and were staying in a guest house in the western town of Naivasha, popular among tourists for its animal parks and lakes.Their lawyer, Halima Nyakinyua Magairo, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that her clients did not know what they were doing was illegal. She said she hoped the Belgian embassy in Kenya could “support them more in this judicial process.”In a separate but related case, Kenyan Dennis Ng’ang’a and Vietnamese Duh Hung Nguyen were charged after they were found in possession of 400 ants in their apartment in the capital, Nairobi.KWS had said all four suspects were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa.The ants are bought by people who keep them as pets and observe them in their colonies. Several websites in Europe have listed different species of ants for sale at varied prices.The 5,400 ants found with the four men are valued at 1.2 million Kenyan shillings ($9,200), according to KWS.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

Animals

Conservation

Slither, by Stephen S. Hall, Explores Our Fear and Fascination around Snakes

In a new book called Slither, Stephen S. Hall takes a deep dive into the biology and history of one of the most reviled animals.

Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. People are funny about snakes. I remember being taught the rhyme, “Red touches black, you’re okay, Jack; red touches yellow, you’re a dead fellow,” in elementary school—never mind the fact that we did not have coral snakes in New Jersey. My guest today has spent a lot of time exploring our cultural aversion to—and fascination with—snakes. Stephen S. Hall is a science writer and the author of seven books. He’s also a teacher of science communication at New York University, Rockefeller University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. His latest book, Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World, is on sale now.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Thank you so much for coming in to chat. I’m really looking forward to it.Stephen S. Hall: My pleasure to be here. Thank you.Feltman: First question: Why snakes?Hall: There’s several answers to that question. One of them is that as a kid, like many kids, I caught snakes, brought them home, put them in terrariums in the garage until my mother screamed when they would get loose, and that sort of ended that experiment. I was always fascinated by them because they were so different from other animals—and also so beautiful. There was a real fascination and attraction there. But I wasn’t a herper; I didn’t go out and continue to collect snakes.What I did do is become a science writer, and probably in the 2000s and 2010s, when I was reading science journals like Science and Nature, I occasionally would run across these really interesting major research articles based on snakes, and I always sort of set them aside, thinking, “This is kind of interesting. I should gather a little pile on this.”The third piece of this explanation is that my agent suggested at one point, “Why don’t you do a book about an animal?” which I had never done before. And my first reaction was, “I’d only do a book about an animal that most people don’t like,” because I thought it’d be a really interesting challenge to try to change people’s minds. And as most people know snakes are not very popular. People do not like them—they’re afraid of them; they loathe them; there’re all these surveys that children detest snakes and adults detest snakes—and I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try to change people’s minds about a really interesting creature. Feltman: Very cool. Given your research for the book, how have our feelings about snakes evolved over time?Hall: One of the things that surprised me is: this deeply embedded loathing of snakes was not always the case. In fact, that was the later evolution from earlier cultures, and part of the fun of doing Slither was going back and seeing how ancient cultures perceive snakes, and they perceived them very differently.They were respected. They were venerated in some cultures. In, in early ancient Greek culture the snake was associated with healing. In Mesoamerican cultures the snake was associated with a kind of messenger that would go back and forth between humans and nature but also humans and the afterworld—the world of the nonliving, as it were. There was a great respect for these creatures. This was also true in ancient Egypt. And then [laughs] with the Garden of Eden story the snake got demonized and was blamed for human fallibility, human sin, and I think that changed a lot of perceptions.One of the goals that I was trying to accomplish here was to get people to rethink what snakes represent: Why did ancient people venerate them, and is there a way to reclaim that sense of respect for these otherwise disliked creatures?Feltman: Well, and what do you think it is about snakes that made them venerated, and what do you think it is about them that makes people feel so negatively towards them?Hall: In terms of the negative part they are so different from so many other creatures: They don’t have legs. They’re secretive. You can’t see them. They’re [laughs] extremely good at hiding. In fact, you know, there—it’s sort of a Darwinian badge of honor that they make themselves hard to see, with their camouflage skin, and coloration, and so on. So they represent a kind of extreme version of the other. And people also associate threat and danger with them, certainly with venomous snakes.One of the interesting things that came up in the research—it’s a really interesting theory called the snake-detection theory. This is advanced by a researcher at the University of California, Davis, named Lynne Isbell. Isbell argues that the necessity of spotting snakes in the wild as a self-preservation mechanism led to the creation of a much larger primate brain, which we humans have inherited as well. So she attributes human acuity in vision to spotting snakes in [an] evolutionary sense that was developed a long time ago.Feltman: Yeah, I’ve also seen that as an explanation for why cats are freaked out by cucumbers; I’ll have to fact-check that. But that’s not [laughs] anything I’ve—I’ve heard that theory brought up before in the context of cats running away from cucumbers [laughs], so.Hall: There’s some ingrained perception.Charles Darwin read a report by a German scientist—this is in the middle of the 19th century—that he had taken snakes to the monkey house in a zoo in Germany, and the monkeys went crazy just seeing that there was a snake in it when he revealed it. So Darwin puts a stuffed snake in a bag and goes to the London Zoo, and then he takes off the top, and all the monkeys go crazy, and he’d never seen a reaction like that. Then he went back with a live snake, and the same thing happened, and it was this sort of instantaneous reaction to the appearance of a snake, so there’s definitely an alarm system ...Feltman: Mm.Hall: We don’t need to say that it was fear, necessarily, although some people call it a “fear module,” but there’s an alarm system in spotting a snake that I think is connected to the alarm that many humans feel when they see a snake.Feltman: Sure, and speaking of Darwin’s kind of crude research, how has our scientific understanding of snakes changed over time?Hall: Scientists are belatedly using snakes as a nontraditional model organism.Feltman: Mm.Hall: You would think that there was not much you could learn from a snake, but they’ve actually discovered some remarkable qualities in snakes because they finally started paying attention to them with the advent of molecular biology. What used to be observed naturalistically—okay, a snake eats a large prey and digests it—and they would take x-rays of it, like, in the 1970s; that was how metabolism was explained. After genomics emerged and they did the genome of the snake after the Human Genome Project, they discovered that snakes, pythons, as a model organism activate a huge suite of genes from the moment that they have a meal. And they were particularly interesting organisms to study because—I facetiously kinda say they invented intermittent fasting [laughs]—but, but they could go for a year at a time without eating a single meal. And then they eat these enormous meals. So the equivalence was, like, a 150-pound human, for example, roughly, eating a 220-pound hamburger ...Feltman: Mm [laughs].Hall: “In one gulp.” That’s kind of what the meal of a python was like. How does an animal handle the digestion and processing of that? It turns out they activate all these genes that regenerate tissues in the body—a bigger heart, a bigger intestine—just to handle the [laughs] massive processing of this meal. And then they carve away all the regenerated tissue that they’ve created and go back to normal. So they have this ability to regenerate tissue, which, of course, is something we can’t do, except in a couple of isolated cases, and it became a really interesting thing to study.Another thing that’s really interesting is convergent evolution: this idea that animals can evolve the same traits, although they’re completely unrelated. So there was a study that came out a couple years ago on spitting cobras. The researchers established that three different lineages of cobras that were completely independent of each other each evolved the anatomical mechanism to spit venom—a physiological change. They evolved the behavior to aim the spit at the eyes of whatever it was that was threatening them.Feltman: Wow.Hall: And they independently evolved a change in their venom that produced excruciating pain in eyes. So independently all three of those different qualities were evolved in three different species of snakes that were completely unrelated to each other, in a sense. You couldn’t have found that out until you had genomics and very sophisticated molecular analysis of venom and all that stuff.Feltman: Yeah. What were some of the most surprising things that you learned in this project as someone who already really had a fondness for snakes?Hall: The thing that really impressed me is how adaptive snakes are, how rapidly they adjust to their environment; it’s one of their signal traits. They’re very diverse—it’s amazing that they can live on every continent except Antarctica, which means temperate, cold weather, tropical weather, jungle, seawater. If there’s a threat in the environment, they have these remarkably ingenious evolutionary adaptations to it. There’s a story of these sea snakes in, in the Pacific off New Caledonia that, in response to the pollution in the waters there, have developed melanistic characteristics—a darker coloration in their skin—because that sequesters all these toxic chemicals that are in the water and prevents it from harming the animal, and then they slough off their skin and they get rid of the chemicals. And it’s only in those snakes that are inhabiting that particular niche.This idea of being able to adapt to environmental challenge really struck me, not just because of the cleverness of the evolution or the selective process, but also, it’s a warning to us in terms of climate change and changes in the global meteorological systems. Snakes have a way of adapting to this that we don’t have, and maybe we can learn something from them. It’s really interesting that in the Mesoamerican cultures in particular, snakes were traditionally associated with meteorological events ...Feltman: Mm.Hall: So rain, lightning, thunderstorms, droughts, floods, and all of that being attached to agricultural fertility. And these are all issues that are front and center now because of climate change, and I think the ancients realized that snakes were symbols of coming to terms with both the unpredictability of nature and perhaps suggesting ways to adapt to it.I spoke to a very well-known Australian herpetologist named Rick Shine. He did fieldwork in [the mountains of] Tasmania, which has horrible weather, and there are snakes there, and, you know, he said there’s only 20 or 30 really nice sunny days there. And humans go there, and they think, “This is the most god-awful environment. How could anything live here?” And the snakes live under the rocks for all but those 20 or 30 days, and then they come out, and they think they’re living in the villa by the sea [laughs], and it’s just, it’s a sunny day for them; they don’t have the sense that it’s a bad environment because they adjust to it. And he had this wonderful observation—he just wondered what it felt like for a snake to emerge into the sunlight, warm up, have all its organ systems click on, its consciousness click on. He said, “That must be an amazing feeling.” And I thought that was a wonderful way of kind of capturing the uniqueness of these creatures.Feltman: Yeah, well, and speaking of that adaptation, what dangers are snakes facing these days?Hall: I would say the biggest danger’s habitat destruction. And there are a couple of anecdotes in the book—so I talk about when I caught snakes as a kid, and this was in a sort of exurban area of Michigan, outside Detroit. I went back to that area 50 years later to see how the habitat had changed, and all the places where you would catch turtles or you catch snakes or you would see them, it’s all changed: It’s been developed residentially. Population spread has confined the habitat.Thomas Cole, who’s a pretty famous Hudson River School painter, had made the point that a habitat destruction was something that needed to be addressed or, as he put it, we would lose Eden and wouldn’t be able to recover it again.Feltman: Why do you think people should care about snakes?Hall: I think it’s really important, when we talk about conservation, preservation of species, prevention of extinction, that we don’t only think about cute animals that everybody likes. It’s really important to globally embrace all creatures—including, in this case, that animal that is so different and so repulsive and historically so loathed by so many people—because if we pick and choose, we’re really not saving anything in terms of habitat or anything else.And it’s an acknowledgement that ecologies are complicated, that there are these very fragile webs, and it’s not just birds or mammals or snakes, but it’s the combination and interaction of these creatures that creates a vibrant and sustainable ecology. It’s really important to include everyone in our conservation arc, if you will.Feltman: Absolutely. Steve, thank you so much for coming on to talk to us, and I’m sure our listeners are really gonna love your book.Hall: Thank you very much for having me.Feltman: That’s all for today’s episode. Don’t forget to check out Slither wherever you buy books. We’ll be back on Friday to learn how you can explore your urban or suburban neighborhood with all of the enthusiasm of a seasoned naturalist out in the wild.Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. See you next time!

Animals

Chemicals

Conservation

Inside the Investigation, Seizure and Death of Peanut the Social Media Star Squirrel

New details are emerging about the seizure of Peanut the squirrel in upstate New York in October

New York environmental workers who came with a warrant looking for Peanut the squirrel found the scampering social media star on a bathtub. His housemate, Fred the raccoon, was in a suitcase in a bedroom closet.Soon after the Oct. 30 seizure, both animals were euthanized and Peanut became a martyr – held up as a symbol of government overreach by political candidates, including Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who invoked Peanut's name during a rally just days before the presidential election. State and Local officials were inundated with angry messages and even bomb threats.How did events in a sleepy corner of upstate New York snowball so dramatically? Records recently released under freedom of information requests show complaints about the P’nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary were initially treated with little urgency by the state Department of Environmental Conservation — but that changed in the weeks leading up to the fateful seizure amid new complaints and the reported arrival of raccoons to the sanctuary.Government officials laid the groundwork for euthanizing the animals so they could be tested for rabies in the days before the seizure. Yet a state employee also lined up a wildlife rehabilitator to take Peanut, if needed.A final phone call to discuss Peanut’s fate was made after the squirrel bit the gloved thumb of a wildlife biologist, according to records. Peanut, also known as P'nut, was the star of the sanctuary run by Mark Longo and Daniela Bittner in Southport near the Pennsylvania line. Online videos show the squirrel skittering on Longo’s shoulders, holding and eating waffles and wearing a tiny cowboy hat.Longo said he found Peanut years ago in New York City after the animal's mother was hit by a car. It’s against New York state law to possess a wild animal without a license, though Longo and Bittner took steps last year to become wildlife rehabilitators. Fred the raccoon was dropped off at the sanctuary last summer. The spirited interactions between the animals and their human companions racked up views — but documents show they also drew the attention of critics and state wildlife authorities.The DEC knew about the sanctuary since at least January 2024. “A report came in of a recent news story about this facility,” reads an incident report. “There are images of a non-releasable squirrel being referred to as a ‘pet’ and being dressed up and showcased for publicity reasons."One self-described wildlife rehabilitator and former neighbor emailed authorities multiple times with complaints about how the animals were being treated. In May, a conservation officer spoke to Longo and was told that Peanut and another baby squirrel were sent to Connecticut. Longo said in a recent interview that was true, but that Peanut later came back. When a fresh complaint came in that month, one officer wrote, “no judge will give us a search warrant for a squirrel.” “Unfortunately this isn’t a big crime, it is just a violation,” a conservation officer wrote in response to a complaint that summer. “Mark won’t let me into his house without a search warrant. There is just nothing more I can do at this point. I am sorry.” Views shifted by October amid more complaints and the arrival of Fred the raccoon — a species that can carry and transmit rabies. One correspondent alleged Longo was “keeping a raccoon in a small cage in his house. I follow him on TikTok."DEC workers viewed videos on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram and reached out to the Chemung County health department. State environmental officials asked a county health official if they recommend testing animals for rabies “as a precaution for human safety.” That would require the animals to be killed so brain tissue could be examined.The county, in turn, checked with a state health department expert, who advised the animals would need to be tested if there was any potential of rabies exposure. A week before the search, the county emailed the DEC: “We fully expect that all ‘wild’ animals in the home will need to be euthanized and sent for rabies testing due to the nature of the human contact.”A judge signed a search warrant authorizing the seizure of illegally possessed wildlife. Peanut bites the hand that seizes it A team of about a dozen searchers converged on Longo's property around 10:30 a.m. on the morning of Oct. 30. Longo said the squirrel was taken to Connecticut, according to the incident report — though he later conceded to The Associated Press that was a lie in a highly stressful moment.Bittner revealed to searchers the raccoon was in an upstairs closet. Fred was in an open suitcase on the floor, which was zipped closed and moved to give workers room to transfer the raccoon into a carrier.Peanut's seizure was more dramatic. The squirrel bit the state wildlife biologist through a thick leather glove with a nitrile exam glove underneath. The worker had a bleeding wound, according to a DEC email.A “visibly upset” Longo pleaded with searchers not to take Peanut and said the squirrel was a large source of income for the farm, according to incident reports."He stated he knew we would be euthanizing it,” the report reads. Anger over Peanut's fate revolves around the belief by critics that he was needlessly killed.Longo believes euthanization was always on the government's agenda, citing the pre-search email indicating that testing on the animals was expected. Longo and Bittner said they did not witness anyone getting medical attention during the seizure.A DEC report indicates the agency took steps before the raid to place the squirrel with a wildlife rehabilitator, if needed “for temporay holding/rehabbing.” The agency also coordinated with local animal control in case animals needed to be euthanized.The documents suggest Peanut's fate was ultimately sealed at the end of the search, when a call was made to a county health department official about the “high profile” case. A state DEC worker recalled in a report that the person on the phone said “both animals should be tested as a precaution as she didn't want to chance it.” That's because both animals were in direct contact with people in the home and the squirrel bit someone. County officials have said they had to follow rabies protocols from the state. “Sad but it has to be done,” a county health official wrote in an email that afternoon. “The poor animals didn’t do anything wrong.”The rabies tests were performed quickly, though officials didn’t publicly disclose the negative results until almost two weeks later.By then, Peanut’s death had made headlines around the world.Bomb threats were made to the DEC buildings. Government inboxes filled up with emails containing invective like “BURN IN HELL,” “SHAME ON YOU!!!” A caller to the state left a message beginning, “I want to know exactly why you freaks killed Peanut the squirrel. You people are insane.”The DEC conducted an internal investigation after the seizure, eventually promising to add a new deputy commissioner for public protection and to develop a body-camera policy for its officers.“We have carefully reviewed all the public feedback and we understand the distress caused to communities throughout the state,” acting Commissioner Amanda Lefton said in a prepared release last month. “We know that we can do better moving forward.” Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

Animals

Conservation

Government

Seven Books About How the Earth Is Changing Right Now

These visceral reported accounts will help readers better understand the new ecological status quo.

On a shelf next to my desk, I keep the books that shaped how I think about our planet—and how I cover it as a journalist focused on nature and the climate. When I sit down to write about the natural world, titles such as The End of Nature, by Bill McKibben; A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold; and The Solace of Open Spaces, by Gretel Ehrlich, accompany me. In the decades since they were published, I’ve returned to these touchstones again and again. Each one felt pivotal to my comprehension of the way humans affect our environment.But lately, as I read news about deadly heat waves and disappearing glaciers, those titles are beginning to seem almost naive. They’re full of far-off warnings of what could come if we don’t curb emissions or cut back our rampaging use of resources. There is no if anymore. Our planet is record-breakingly hot because of a global failure to heed those admonitions. Fifty-five years after the first Earth Day was organized, long-term data about warming oceans and aridifying forests are paired, more and more, with impossible-to-ignore proof of civilization’s cascading effects: raging storms, endangered species, fire seasons that stretch all year long. We’re past prediction and into perception. Today, a new genre of writing—one that records the ongoing crisis—feels more useful than my old standbys. Below are seven visceral reported accounts of what’s happening in the places where the Earth is changing most rapidly; each will help readers better understand the new status quo.Silent Spring, by Rachel CarsonThis 63-year-old classic might seem to belong on the shelf with the other old-school books, but it’s worth returning to because Carson built the mold for reporting on an ongoing disaster. She made chemical pesticides, an otherwise dry subject, terrifying and compelling by outlining the ways that DDT, a highly toxic insecticide, was harming the natural world. By referencing the texture of paper-thin eggshells and the eerie silence of bird-free spring mornings, she pulled on all our senses in order to precisely pin down the damage. Then she untangled the chemistry of these dangerous compounds, connected their varied effects, and called out chemical companies and the U.S. military for their complicity in spreading them, giving readers context for what they saw happening in daily life. Carson’s report was revelatory in its time: It was used in congressional testimony that led to a ban on DDT, and it was cited during the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Today, it’s still remarkable for its clarity and punch, and reads like a blueprint for making sense of a rapidly changing ecosystem.Fire Weather, by John VaillantVaillant’s book covers a natural disaster that, he acknowledges, lacks subtlety: The 2016 Fort McMurray Fire, the most expensive natural disaster in Canadian history, scorched a community that was purpose-built to extract bitumen-rich oil sands. Fire Weather is a horror story in three dimensions. As Vaillant describes, instant by instant, the fire’s rampage—whole neighborhoods cut off by flames; houses vaporized in six minutes flat, everything burned but the cast-iron bathtubs—he also connects the resource extraction happening in places like Fort McMurray to the effects of climate change that are setting the stage for megafires, such as warming and aridification. As Vaillant explains, human choices continue to fuel burns on a macro level as well as on a micro level; part of the reason the Fort McMurray Fire was so destructive was that officials couldn’t believe it was going to be as bad as the forecasts suggested. They held off on evacuating for far too long. Vaillant identifies the problem: People struggle to imagine disasters out of scale with what they have seen in the past. To prepare for what’s coming, he warns, we’re all going to have to change our mindset.[Read: Climate models can’t explain what’s happening to Earth]Five Days at Memorial, by Sheri FinkWhen Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, in 2005, the city was first slammed by brutal winds, then inundated by floodwaters as its levees failed. In the chaos, residents were forced to choose between terrible options. At Memorial Medical Center, in the city’s Uptown neighborhood, doctors and nurses had to decide how to care for and evacuate very sick patients in a facility that was swiftly deteriorating: Generators were swamped by the storm surge; oxygen ran low; the heat made everything worse; the emergency-management plans that the hospital administration had recently double-checked quickly failed. Fink’s meticulous research—she interviewed more than 500 people—shows, in painstaking detail, how the hospital’s disaster protocol crumbled as the water rose, and then how communication buckled under a creeping sense of panic. In that maelstrom, several patients were given doses of sedatives that ultimately killed them, and Fink’s account revolves around those decisions and the criminal allegations that arose after the crisis. Its real subject, however, is how people respond when they’re faced with life-and-death choices in desperate situations—something even more relevant two decades later.Crossings, by Ben GoldfarbHumans alter the environment in innumerable ways. One of the most significant modifications, Goldfarb argues, is also one of the most ubiquitous: roads. The second an ecosystem is carved up for cars, it’s changed drastically. In a grim, yet zippy, drive down some of the planet’s most ecologically harmful roadways, Goldfarb shows how highways and thoroughfares have splintered habitats, wiped out generations of migrating creatures, and fractured species’ expected spectrum of sound and light. He focuses on animals—both charismatic megafauna, such as the violent, inbred mountain lions who are trapped between Los Angeles freeways, and bugs, which make up a crucial part of the food web and have been slaughtered en masse by high-speed cars. But he also has an ear for human details, profiling, for instance, a mule-deer biologist who is deeply allergic to mule deer. This lively, wide-ranging book about roadkill also has a solemn message: If cities and countries continue to depend on car travel, constructing roads that sever terrain, they’ll end up building a lonelier, less humane society for all of us.Read: The era of climate change has created a new emotionPaying the Land, by Joe SaccoWhereas Fire Weather demonstrates the kind of fast, all-consuming destruction that fossil-fuel extraction can lead to, Paying the Land demonstrates the quiet social fracturing that can result over the long term. Sacco visits the communities of the Dene, one of the First Nations of Canada’s Northwest Territories. In a series of illustrated profiles, his subjects discuss the long history of fuel mining and environmental degradation in the area—starting with the moment the British monarchy handed the territories over to the fur-trapping industry in the 17th century and continuing to modern-day fracking. But the interviewees’ stories aren’t complete without telling a parallel story; they speak of forced removal, culture-eradicating residential schools, and shattered traditional hunting and fishing practices, which have wounded multiple generations. Sacco also investigates how being economically dependent on gas companies and the government has created complicated rifts: Families fell apart over whether to support fracking, while alcohol and drug abuse became rampant. It’s an ongoing story of cultural and landscape loss all too common in the communities closest to the petroleum industry.The Great Derangement, by Amitav GhoshBroadly, Ghosh argues, the problems of climate change are created in the developed world yet are felt most acutely outside it. Ghosh, who has seen the ravaging effects of tornadoes and monsoons on his native Kolkata, builds his series of interlinked essays about the history and politics of global warming around a double-edged storytelling problem that he says prevents the people in rich countries from grasping the enormity of climate change. First, because our common narrative framework depends on the past, many people still consider warming through a speculative lens, failing to recognize the severity, and urgency, of superstorms and sea-level rise. And second, that framework also neglects to assess the past, because it leaves out how centuries of extraction and domination by wealthy, powerful countries have made it hard for formerly colonized nations to be resilient in the face of rising temperatures. That’s the “derangement” of his title: the inability of our stories to change as quickly as our world is.Read: The climate action that the world needsCategory Five, by Porter FoxThe ocean, Earth’s biggest absorber of carbon and heat, is the largest single player in the climate crisis. As the seas warm and rise, they are now altering the paths that storms follow, the direction of once-reliable trade winds, and the intensity of weather; as a result, hurricane season is expanding, and new research shows that more homes are at risk of flooding than ever before. This book chronicles Fox’s quest to understand modern superstorms, which he pursues mostly on the water: As the son of a boat builder who grew up on the coast of Maine, Fox knows that no one understands the variability of the ocean more concretely than sailors. On a series of sailing trips, he learns that much of what is known about oceanography comes from small-scale, underfunded institutions and rogue observers. For instance, the federal research budget for oceans, the coasts, and the Great Lakes in 2024 was just $251.5 million, a fraction of what the government spends on things such as space exploration—and that number was determined before DOGE mandated major cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Humanity knows that bigger, more catastrophic storms are coming, but as Fox persuasively shows, the United States’ underinvestment undermines the entire world’s ability to predict them.

Animals

Chemicals

Climate

Suggested Viewing

Primal State

Set at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, Port Aransas, Texas, the film is supportive of the international efforts to utilize wastewater treatment facilities as bird sanctuaries. The film features an original jazz score and commentary by naturalist Jeff Anderson and provides a glimpse of some of the diversity of bird life found along the Texas Coast while conjuring a Zen-like union with nature.

Animals

Music

Conservation

Karibu Nyumbani

“Karibu Nyumbani” translates as “Welcome to my Home” in Swahili. Guides in the Maasai Mara have a deep-rooted pride, knowledge, and love for wildlife. This film encapsulates that passion from the perspective of George Osono, a guide in Mara North Conservancy, who completely embodies this spirit of caring for nature. Throughout the film, you meet Half Tail, Lola's cubs and the other iconic members of the Marsh Pride, Kweli the Cheetah and her three cubs as they prepare for adulthood, and an impressive elephant named Edwin. This film is visual portrait of the Maasai Mara's majestic wildlife, and the stories of the extraordinary animals that call it home. The film encourages people to see the beauty of these animals, recognise how fragile their existence is and in turn care more about protecting them.

Conservation

Animals

Nature

When Worlds Collide: A Formosan Black Bear's Deadly Dance with Civilization

This is the true story of one Formosan black bear’s encounter with civilization. A fateful encounter with a wild boar trap in mid-autumn 2019 first brought this bear to national attention. However, after months of recuperation and subsequent release back into the wild, it lingered worryingly near settled areas, damaging orchards and even ransacking a mountain cabin in search of food. Re-released in a remote forested area, the bear set out an incredible journey across arduous terrain in the direction of home. This is the moving story of “711” … also known as “568” – a wild Formosan black bear from Taichung’s Mt. Daxue area. The bear died on the 25th day of its long journey home in May 2022 in the Mt. Wujie region of Nantou County. News of the death was a devastating blow to the hundreds involved in 711/568’s rescue, recovery, and tracking efforts. It also offered a difficult lesson for us all about the work yet ahead for wildlife conservation. This film examines Formosan black bear conservation from multiple perspectives, including those involved in this bear’s rescue and care, living in areas affected by 711/568, and working in the many public and private organizations dedicated to the cause of wildlife conservation. We hope the story told here helps further raise public understanding and concern for wildlife conservation in Taiwan.

Conservation

Inspirational

Animals

TO SEE THE SNOW LEOPARD

“To see a snow leopard is to see God.” It’s a film about the search of the snow leopard - a beautiful and rare animal. There are only a few thousand of them left on the planet. Most of the animals have been given names but almost no one has seen them. This is a story about the mystery of human’s contact with another life, with wild nature, and the search for the lost source of inner strength. Scientists, hunters, shamans, tourists - the leopard sees them, but they do not see him.

Animals

Waterfall Birds

In a place in Egypt that is close to Cairo, however, most people do not know it. The filmmaker went on a Nile cruise to discover the waterfalls world and their islands. At this place, she started a very interesting hobby called birdwatching. This hobby makes her identify different types of birds that are not known among the public.

Animals

Education

Student

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Join us to forgea sustainable future

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

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