By Nick Engelfried Seabirds are among the natural world’s most impressive world travelers. With migration routes that may span entire oceans, they cover distances almost no other animal will venture in its lifetime. Their streamlined bodies and paraglider-like wings are designed to keep them aloft above the open seas, where […]
By Nick Engelfried Every year, an estimated one to two million large animals are hit by cars or trucks in the United States. The damage from these collisions for both wildlife and people is immense, and includes approximately 200 human deaths, 26,000 human injuries, and $8 billion in property damage. […]
By Nick Engelfried In August 1994, a tanker ship that began its journey in California arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii with a massive prisoner in its hull. Tyke was an African elephant who was born in Mozambique, but was captured from the wild when she was a baby and spent most […]
By Nick Engelfried Birds are among nature’s most beautiful animals, and it’s no wonder countless people are drawn to the idea of having one in their home. The U.S. is believed to be home to more than 40 million pet parrots, alone, and birds are considered the country’s most popular […]
By Nick Engelfried From the Pacific Northwest, to New York, to New England, vast areas of the United States have already suffered this summer from smoky conditions caused by raging wildfires, largely located in Canada. In early June, the smoke blanketing New York City resulted in the metropolitan area temporarily […]
By Nick Engelfried Fur farms, where hundreds of animals spend their entire lives in cramped wire cages before being brutally killed for their skins, are among the fashion industry’s cruelest secrets. Approximately 100 million animals including mink, foxes, chinchillas, rabbits, and raccoon dogs are raised and slaughtered on fur farms […]
By Nick Engelfried Towering above vast herds of wildlife on the African plains, giraffes are among the most distinctly recognizable animals on Earth. Their famously long necks can hardly help but make them stand out, and their immense size earns them a place on a select list of herbivore species […]
By Nick Engelfried Imagine spending almost your entire life crammed in a space so small and crowded that you can barely turn around. It sounds like a nightmare–but this grim fate represents reality for millions of hens on industrial egg farms who are kept in the cruel devices known as […]
By Nick Engelfried The world is facing a biodiversity extinction crisis unlike anything that has happened for millions of years. From climate change caused by burning fossil fuels, to the destruction of habitat to make way for agriculture and development, human activities threaten almost every major ecosystem on Earth and […]
By Nick Engelfried Majestic, beautiful, and famously elusive, wild cats are among the most regal predators to roam the world’s forests, grasslands, and deserts. Lists of wild cat species native to North America commonly include three members: the cougar, bobcat, and lynx, all of which are found over large geographic […]
By Nick Engelfried Hundreds of terrified sheep are herded onto a ship chartered for a distant port. During the next few weeks, the animals will live in cramped, filthy conditions surrounded by their own feces while enduring massive temperature swings as the weather varies from suffocatingly hot to freezing cold. […]
By Nick Engelfried With the exception of the domestic dog, no member of the canine family is more closely associated with humans in North America than the coyote. Larger and more powerful than a fox, but smaller than a wolf, at about 25-35 pounds a typical coyote could be easily […]
By Nick Engelfried Imagine a species that lives in towns of hundreds or thousands of individuals; that changes the surrounding landscape in profound ways; and in which individuals communicate with one another using a complex spoken language. This description may sound like it refers to human beings–but it also applies […]
Animal research labs–where scientists perform experiments on living creatures to develop products or procedures for use on humans–have long been a major focus for animal welfare advocates. Images of monkeys and apes in tiny cages, dogs forced to undergo painful operations, or cats being injected with chemicals are almost certain […]
By Nick Engelfried Submerged beneath the waves, just a short ways from the shore along many parts of North America’s Pacific Coast, forests 150 feet or more in height sway gently back and forth with the tides. As impressive in their way as the Douglas-fir and redwood trees growing on […]
By Nick Engelfried Every year, in more than 40 states, countless numbers of wild coyotes, foxes, bobcats, rabbits, prairie dogs, and other wildlife are hunted down and murdered like trophies as part of legalized “killing contests.” These cruel events, which are largely unregulated and unfold far from the public view, […]
By Nick Engelfried More than probably any other animal species, pigs are considered by countless people around the world to be practically synonymous with meat. In the U.S. alone, approximately 120 million pigs are slaughtered every year to make ham, sausage, and other meat products consumers love. Yet, what is […]
By Nick Engelfried Cougars, the largest wild cat historically found throughout North America, are also one of the most elusive and misunderstood of the continent’s mammals. Sometimes known by the alternative names mountain lion, puma, or panther, these feline predators seldom want to have anything to do with people–but human […]
By Nick Engelfried Few animals possess the ability to call up as many, often conflicting emotions in human beings as the orca. Sometimes known as “killer whales,” these remarkable creatures have sometimes been portrayed as killing machines that are to be feared for their adeptness as predators. More recently, growing […]
By Nick Engelfried Zoos can be a fraught topic for people in the animal welfare and conservation world. Some maintain that properly run zoos serve important functions breeding endangered species and providing homes for animals who are no longer able to survive in the wild. Other animal advocates would rather […]