Sometimes the headlines write themselves. A power outage in downtown Toronto earlier this month was the result of a raccoon coming in contact with “equipment”. Alex Arsenych at CTV has more. A raccoon was behind the massive power outage that knocked out electricity to some 7,000 customers in downtown Toronto for hours Thursday night. Hydro One said a raccoon “made contact with equipment” at a downtown station, which cut the lights for parts of the city. The raccoon’s condition is currently unknown. “We’re currently responding to an outage affecting customers in and around the following boundaries: St. Clair Avenue W to…
Tag: animals
Squirrels may be just another part of nature walks or excitement out a window, but here’s something quite fascinating: a group is dedicated to helping the European Ground Squirrel population thrive. And one of its most thriving and last spots is at Bratislava Airport in Slovakia. An airport may sound like an odd place to have a thriving colony of squirrels. But the video from Mossy Earth goes into many details as to why this is. Mainly the land around an airport is clear but untouched by people due to the nature of how an airfield needs to operate. Because…
If you’re going to have an internet outage, and you live in Canada, there is no better way than this: a beaver causing a small British Columbia town to lose connectivity. Kaitlyn Bailey at CTV News has more. The beaver gnawed its way through an aspen tree which then fell on both BC Hydro lines and a Telus fibre-optic cable line strung along BC Hydro poles between Topley and Houston. The resulting power outage affected just 21 customers but the fibre optics damage affected Telus customers in Burns Lake, Granisle, Haida Gwaii, the Hazeltons, Kitimat, Prince George, Prince Rupert, Smithers,…
If Wide World of Sports was still on the air today, this news out of California certainly would’ve made the cut. Surfers in Santa Cruz have to be on the lookout for aggressive… otters. That’s right. These cute, but not-quite-tame creatures are not only attacking surfers but also taking people’s surfboards. Dustin Jones at NPR has more. Steamer Lane is a legendary point break nestled along the rocky shores of Santa Cruz, home to swaths of experienced surfers, as well as a 5-year-old female sea otter with a growing reputation for repeatedly confronting surfers and kayakers. Videos across social media…
When Steve Jobs debuted FaceTime back on the iPhone 4, it felt like the future had arrived. For decades we dreamed of portable video calls that The Jetsons had promised. Now it connects people millions of times daily. But would that connection work for other species? A fascinating report from Emily Anthes at the NY Times shows how parrots are benefitting from this too. First, participants taught their parrots how to request a video call. When the birds rang a bell. Their owners would offer a tablet or phone with photos of other participating parrots, like a digital avian Rolodex.…
When a pet runs away it can be a traumatic experience. A small neighborhood instantly transforms into a vast landscape of places they could go. Sometimes there are happy endings. For the Manuela family and their lost tortoise, theirs did too. However, it took 30 years. Stephen Messenger at The Dodo has more. Flash forward 30 years to 2013. Almeida’s grandfather had recently passed away, and her family gathered at her mom’s childhood home to sort through his possessions. Almeida’s grandfather had left behind a very cluttered attic, and as the the room was cleared and his things moved out…
Animals and internet videos are a great mix. Nothing new there. We’ve had countless animal videos go viral over the years. This time around we have an unusual species gain the TikTok spotlight: Emmanuel the emu. Taylor Blake runs a hobby farm called Knuckle Bump Farm. She has a variety of animals there and that includes Emmanuel the emu. Blake has posted over 200 videos to her TikTok account. Lately Emmanuel has decided to crash the party and hog the spotlight. @knucklebumpfarms Emmanuel and I wanted to pop in and say THANK YOU for all of the love and support!…