The Columbian

Pets & Wildlife

The sunset is seen in April 2023 through a by-the-wind sailor in Huntington Beach, Calif. The creatures began arriving at Bay Area beaches recently and are expected in Southern California within months. (Allen J.

Jellyfish relatives arrive in Bay Area

April 5, 2024, 5:09am Pets & Wildlife

gelatinous sea creatures known as by-the-wind sailors, or Velella velellas — are arriving by the thousands on Bay Area beaches. Expect to see them sail onto Southern California beaches soon. Read story

Rats swarm around a bag of garbage near a dumpster in New York on July 7, 2000. A study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances suggests that brown rats crawled off ships arriving in the Americas earlier than previously thought and out-competed rodent rivals.

Brown rats left ships, conquered cities

April 4, 2024, 6:02am Life

Brown rats are the undisputed winners of the real rat race. Read story

Ospreys survey their surroundings from their nest in Ridgefield.

Birds of prey: Raptor cam livestreams ospreys’ return to Port of Ridgefield

April 3, 2024, 3:55pm Clark County News

After six months in South America, two Ospreys have returned to Ridgefield to nest, rest and lay eggs — and the Port of Ridgefield is capturing it all on a livestream. Read story

Visitors wipe tears after a vehicle carrying Fu Bao, the first giant panda born in South Korea, moves to the airport at the Everland amusement park in Yongin, South Korea, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. A crowd of people, some weeping, gathered at the rain-soaked amusement park in South Korea to bid farewell to their beloved giant panda before her departure to China on Wednesday.

South Koreans bid emotional farewell to beloved panda leaving for China

April 3, 2024, 7:59am Life

A crowd of people, some weeping, gathered at a rain-soaked amusement park in South Korea to bid farewell to a beloved giant panda before her departure to China on Wednesday. Read story

A diagram shows the placement of the electrodes during an experiment at the department of Ethology of the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. A new study in Hungary has found that beyond being able to learn how to perform commands, dogs can learn to associate words with specific objects Ç&fnof;Ó a relationship with language called referential understanding that had been unproven until now.

Study: Dogs can understand what’s said better than thought

April 2, 2024, 6:05am Life

Our dogs understand us better than they’ve been given credit for — and scientists say they have the brain wave evidence to prove it. Read story

From barred to bad: Owl with a grudge terrorized joggers, kids in Tacoma’s North End

March 31, 2024, 6:00am Northwest

Kevin Larson was out for a jog in Tacoma’s North End in December when he felt something strike him. Read story

FILE - A wild horse stands on a hillside on the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Indian Reservation, April 24, 2023, near McDermitt, Nev. Wild horse advocates in Nevada scored a rare legal victory when a federal judge in Reno, Nev., ruled Thursday, March 28, 2024, that U.S. land managers failed to adopt a legal herd management plan or conduct the necessary environmental review before 31 mustangs died during the roundup of more than 2,000 animals in Nevada the previous summer.

U.S. judge in Nevada hands wild horse advocates rare victory in ruling on mustang management plans

March 29, 2024, 5:07pm Life

In a rare legal victory for wild horse advocates, a judge has ruled U.S. land managers failed to adopt a legal herd management plan or conduct the necessary environmental review before 31 mustangs died during the roundup of more than 2,000 horses in Nevada last summer. Read story