Five of the rarest geese in the world, a small flock of Hawaii’s state birds, showed up in Huntington Beach, California, confusing everyone. The nēnē or Hawaiian goose is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, meaning it only lives there. So why are there a handful of these Hawaiian geese hanging around in southern California? According to local news station KCAL, an elderly woman who lives in the high desert of California once owned the rare geese as pets, but she could no longer take care of them. Though the news report doesn’t say it outright, it seems the previous owner released the birds. Local ..read more

Be careful where you ride, and be careful where you fall. Mountain biker Manuel Altamirano recently learned this the hard way, after crashing into a coiled rattlesnake on a trail near San Diego, California. Thankfully, neither snake nor human was hurt. According to NBC7 San Diego, Altamirano was riding at the Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve when he saw a rattlesnake coiled up in strike position on the trail. He told the local news station that he tried to stop as soon as he saw it, but his bike skid and hit the snake. Meanwhile, Altamirano bailed off the back of the bike. He says he’s had ratt ..read more

For about $15.2 million, you could own a brilliant slice of the outdoors by purchasing the Land of Enchantment Ranch in New Mexico. If you do, though, I’ll be jealous. The tract of land, which encompasses about 12,700 acres, is an hour’s drive from Santa Fe, near the small town of Tecolote. The real estate company selling the ranch, Hall and Hall, says “this ranch features migratory wildlife, abundant water enhancement work, and thoughtful forestry management, as well as boundless recreational opportunities.” Indeed, with its “plentiful pine forests, grassy meadows, and canyons,” the Land of E ..read more

A South Carolina man is lucky to be alive after an alligator attacked him in a river where he was diving. Will Georgitis told local news that he was diving last week for fossilized shark teeth in Cooper River, when he surfaced, only to find an aggressive alligator beelining it toward him. Georgitis says the gator was moving so quickly to close the 20-foot gap between them that it seemed like it was “almost hydroplaning on the top [of the water].” He had no time to get to safety before the alligator bit Georgitis’s arm, which he was holding up to block his face. In the minutes that followed, Ge ..read more

A wild three-legged black bear called Tripod recently broke into a central Florida home. It was around 4:30 AM when the homeowner woke up and started filming the burglar, which tried to raid the fridge. However, when Tripod found nothing of interest, the bear shut the fridge door and left. “He was a friendly bear,” the homeowner told local news station WKMG News 6. “He came in, opened the fridge and even closed it when he (saw there) was no food.” Tripod has a bit of a reputation in this central Florida neighborhood as a serial burglar. The bear once broke into a different home, ate some fish ..read more

Ever wondered if there really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Well, we found it. It’s Mount Erebus, an Antarctic volcano at the very bottom of the world. Hint: it spews gold. According to NASA, Mount Erebus is the southernmost active volcano in the world, at least that we know about. It has a molten lava lake at its core. The stratovolcano rises 12,447 feet above sea level, and it “regularly emits plumes of gas and steam, and occasionally spits out rock (bombs) in strombolian eruptions.” Sounds like a charming place. In fact, the late 1970s, there was a tragic accident at Mount Ere ..read more

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued three men who were stranded on a tiny Pacific island for more than a week. The men leveraged a survival trick worthy of the movie screen—they spelled H-E-L-P out on the beach using palm leaves. The Coast Guard says the mariners’ message was a “crucial factor in their discovery.” According to a Coast Guard press release, a relative contacted officials on April 6 after the three men didn’t return home after a fishing trip. In fact, they had become stranded on Pikelot Atoll, an uninhabited outer island of the Federated States of Micronesia. The men left from Polowat A ..read more

The winners of the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards have been announced, but it’s the wildlife photography produced by the runners up that knocks our socks off. Let’s see if you agree. Here are just a few of the short-list finalists in the Natural World & Wildlife category. In this first image, Christopher Ratcliffe Iverson of Nature’s Echoes Photography says he “caught an unforgettable moment with a fox in a field that glowed like spun gold.” Image by Christopher Ratcliffe Iverson, 2024 Sony World Photography Awards Short List Photographer Thien Nguyen Ngoc captured the incredible momen ..read more

Yesterday afternoon, police in Ashland, Oregon received reports of an “aggressive” mountain lion that had attacked at least one pet and several wild animals in the area. Officials determined the mountain lion was dangerous, and they shot it in a residential backyard, about 250 feet away from an elementary school. According to a Facebook post by the Ashland Police Department, while it’s not unusual for cougars to roam parts of Ashland, the animals don’t typically venture “this deep into the community, during daylight hours, attacking domesticated animals, and not being appropriately wary of hum ..read more

Two friends were enjoying a backyard campfire in Powhatan, Virginia last week, when a falling tree nearly crushed them. After hearing the tree’s roots cracking, the two men dove to safety in the split second they had to get out of the way. The men, Chris Johannsen and Chad Day, told local news that the kids were in house while they prepped the campfire for some s’mores. As they were enjoying a quiet moment, the unthinkable happened. A seemingly healthy, 40-foot tree in the yard came barreling down, crushing the chairs Johannsen and Day were sitting on. In footage from a security camera, you ca ..read more