Group of endangered California condors wreak total havoc on a woman’s porch
Most people would count themselves lucky to have a sighting of more than a dozen endangered animals out their front window when there aren’t very many of the creatures living in the wild. Such a one-in-a-million kind of opportunities don’t come around every day. But for a California woman whose deck a group of 15…
Most people would count themselves lucky to have a sighting of more than a dozen endangered animals out their front window when there aren’t very many of the creatures living in the wild. Such a one-in-a-million kind of opportunities don’t come around every day.
But for a California woman whose deck a group of 15 or so endangered California condors chose as a roosting spot, “lucky” isn’t exactly the right sentiment.
Twitter user Seana Lyn shared photos of the giant birds and the havoc they are wreaking on her mom’s house.
“Over the weekend ~15 California condors descended on my mom’s house and absolutely trashed her deck,” she wrote. “They still haven’t left. It sucks but also this is unheard of, there’s only 160 of these birds flying free in the state and a flock of them decided to start a war with my mom.”
The photos show the gigantic birds boasting colored tags with numbers on them, which is how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service track which breeding program they belong to.
You can also see how they’ve knocked over planters and pooped everywhere.
And also how they’ve torn off and torn apart covers for items on the deck—and pooped and pooped some more.
California condors have a wingspan that ranges from 8 feet to nearly 10 feet, and they weigh an average of 18 to 20 pounds. These are not small birds, and when you get 15 or so of them together, the damage they can do is formidable.
The condors did move to the trees nearby so they at least weren’t using the house as their personal bathroom, and then circled overhead. “Fingers crossed they’re enjoying the neighborhood but being good neighbors now,” wrote Seana Lyn.
“Still wild to me that in my lifetime there went from being about 25 condors left alive to no almost that many descending on my mom’s house at once,” she added. “Makes me wonder if we will start seeing more giant flocks as their numbers rise.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service weighed in on the matter on Twitter, writing, “Hi @SeanaLyn, her home is located in historical condor habitat where natural food sources occur…unfortunately they sometimes perceive houses and decks as suitable perch locations.
“If this happens again, hazing to preclude them from causing damage and habituation is encouraged. This includes methods that will not harm them such as water hoses, yelling, clapping, shouting or using other preventative measures such as scarecrow sprinklers.”
They also said they don’t encourage people to touch the birds. (Who on earth would approach a ginormous California condor and try to touch it??? Oh, right. Lots of people, probably.)
If this happens again, hazing to preclude them from causing damage and habituation is encouraged. This includes using methods that will not harm them such as water hoses, yelling, clapping, shouting or using other preventative measures such as scarecrow sprinklers.— U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (@USFWS) May 5, 2021
While an endangered animal encounter is indeed pretty amazing, this wasn’t the kind of encounter anyone wants to have, so Seana’s mom was undoubtedly glad to hear she could do a little condor “hazing” if need be. She did end up hosing two condors off of her roof, moving them into a nearby tree with their buddies.
The saving of the California condor is one of the great endangered species success stories. Their numbers dwindled to a couple of dozen in the 1980s, when wildlife conservationists gathered up those that were left to start an intense breeding program to bring them back from the brink of extinction. Now there are more than 300 California condors living in the wild and more than 500 total including those in captivity and breeding programs.
Trashing a human’s house is a heck of a way to say “thanks for saving our species,” birdies. (Then again, since their near-extinction was kind of our fault, I guess we have to look past it.) Maybe just leave the nice lady’s porch alone and go find some nasty politician’s home to poop on. That would be a win-win all around.
From Pakistan to Tanzania, the most effective education solutions are community-led. Here’s how local leaders, in partnership with Malala Fund and supported by Pura, are mobilizing entire communities.
When asked to describe what Tanzania smells like, Grace Isekore closes her eyes and breathes in deep. For a moment, she’s somewhere else entirely. Tanzania is a rich tapestry of sights and scents, from the smell of sea mist that permeates the coastline to the earthy cardamom and cloves she cooks with in her kitchen. But when Grace emerges from her reverie, her answer is unexpected.
“Tanzania smells like peace,” she says, her eyes still closed. “I see a beautiful country where we are free to move, free to speak. And there is peace within the community.”
For Grace, that sense of peace isn’t just something she smells; it’s something she works toward every day. As a project coordinator with Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC), a women-led organization that empowers pastoralist communities in northern Tanzania, she has seen firsthand how girls flourish when they have the opportunity to attend school. Like scent, education not only connects girls to their own culture, but also helps broaden their horizons, realizing new possibilities for themselves and others. That transformation reshapes entire communities and ripples outward, with the potential to change countries and transform the world for the better.
Different scents, different approaches, and communities driving change
Spices in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
For Grace and others around the world, education is freedom, as well as a pathway to a stronger community. Rooted in that shared belief, Pura, a home fragrance company, was inspired to build on their four-year partnership with Malala Fund to create something truly unique: a fragrance collection that connects people through scent to communities in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil, where barriers to girls’ education are among the highest.
Using ingredients from each region, the new Pura x Malala Fund Collection uses scent to transport people to these regions directly. “Future in Bloom,” for example, invokes Pakistan’s lush valleys through notes of jasmine, cedarwood, and mango; while Tanzania’s fragrance, “Heart on Fire,” evokes the spirit and joyfulness of the girls who live there through cardamom, lemon, and green tea.
The new Collection honors the work Malala Fund does every day, partnering with locally-led organizations in these four countries to ensure every girl can access and complete 12 years of education. Each scent celebrates the joy, tenacity, and courage of the women and girls driving change on the ground, while also augmenting Pura’s annual grant to Malala Fund by donating eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection to Malala Fund directly.
Just as each country’s scent is unique, so too are their needs related to education. But with support from Malala Fund and Pura, local leaders are coming up with creative ways to mobilize entire communities (parents, teachers, elders, and the students themselves, in their pursuit of solutions, understanding that educating girls helps everyone thrive. Here’s how their efforts are creating real, durable impact in Tanzania and Pakistan, and creating a ripple effect that changes the world for the better.
Parent-teacher associations help Maasai girls and their communities in Tanzania problem-solve
A girl’s school in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
Northern Tanzania, Grace’s home, is home to pastoralist communities like the Maasai, a nomadic people who have moved with the seasons to nurture the land and care for their livestock for centuries. The nomadic nature of this lifestyle creates significant and unique barriers to girls’ education. Longstanding gender roles have enabled Maasai to survive in the harsh environment and have placed great value on both women and men. Over time, as nomadic life has been threatened by the privatization of land and stationary education models have been implemented, the reality of pastoralist livelihood has shifted and introduced new complexities. Now, the sheer distance to schools is both a practical challenge and one that often comes with danger from the landscape, predators, and potential exposure to assault along the journey. Girls shoulder the responsibility of household chores and there is often cultural pressure around early marriage – both leading to boys’ education being prioritized over girls’.
“There are very, very good [pastoralist] cultural practices, which are passed from generation to generation,” says Janet Kimori, an English teacher at Lekule Girls Secondary School in Longido, Tanzania. But when cultural practices act as educational barriers, “you have to sit down and look for where you are going to assist. As a school, as an individual, the school administration—all of us will chip in and know how we are going to deal with this problem.”
PWC works to ensure girls are able to exercise their right to an education while also preserving pastoralist culture. One successful approach, the organization found, has been the formation of Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), created with help from Malala Fund. In PTA meetings, students, parents, teachers, elders, and government officials meet, discuss educational barriers, and come up with community-led solutions that preserve and honor their culture while advancing educational outcomes.
PTA meeting in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
One recent PTA meeting highlights how these community-led solutions are often the most effective. At Lekule Girls Secondary School, the lack of fresh water forces girls to walk long distances to collect water for the school’s kitchen during the school day, and these long journeys not only disrupt class time but can leave girls vulnerable to sexual assault in isolated areas. Through facilitated discussion, PTA members landed on a solution: installing a borehole to pipe in fresh water to the school. Reliable access to water creates a better learning environment for the girls, but it also benefits the community at large, as local governments are then more likely to invest in health clinics and other community resources nearby.
With a solution in place, the PTA was then able to discuss ideas and map out a course of action. The women would raise money for the cost of the borehole, while the men would recruit workers to dig the hole and lay the pipe. Together, they would ask government officials to match their investment.
The benefits of PTA meetings within the pastoralist communities are undeniable. “The girls are talking and addressing issues in a confident way, and parents feel they are part of the resource team to solve challenges happening at school,” Grace says. One unexpected benefit: The larger cultural impact these PTA meetings have created. Thanks to the success of PTAs within pastoralist communities, the models are now being endorsed on a national level, and schools across Tanzania are starting to use them to solve problems in their own communities. When a community creates opportunities for girls to learn, everyone benefits.
Safe spaces in rural Pakistan help students and their parents connect, then drive change
Safe space for girls meeting in Pakistan. Captured by Insiya Syed.
A continent away in Pakistan, the country’s northernmost region of Gilgit-Baltistan seems like a land untouched by time. The region’s looming mountains, snow-capped peaks, lush valleys and crystalline lakes draw nature lovers and landscape photographers from around the world, but living among this kind of breathtaking scenery has its drawbacks. Schools in the region are few and far between, and the area’s harsh climate often makes roads inaccessible for travel. Poverty and gender-based discrimination are additional obstacles, making school even further out of reach, and girls are affected disproportionately. Going up against these barriers requires a persistent, quiet strength that’s found in the women who live there and reflected in Pakistan’s signature scent.
Saheli Circles are how local leaders in Gilgit-Baltistan are bridging the gap between girls and education. An Urdu term for “female friend,” Saheli Circles are after-school safe spaces where girls explore subjects like art and climate change, while also developing skills that help them manage emotions, set goals, and build positive relationships. Girls study in groups, visit the library, play sports, and tackle filmmaking and photography projects, all designed to develop self confidence and teach the girls how to advocate for issues that matter to them. But the work doesn’t stop there.
“What we’re trying to achieve here will only be impactful if it trickles down to the home environment and the school environment,” says Marvi Sumro, founder and program director of Innovate, Educate, and Inspire Pakistan (IEI), the local organization that developed the Saheli Circles model and partnered with Malala Fund in 2021 to make it a reality. Ever since, Saheli Circles have grown to involve teachers, elders, and parents to encourage relationship building that’s essential for young girls and adolescents. “Our spaces can give mothers and daughters an opportunity to interact a little differently—do an art activity, or have a cup of tea together, or some good conversation,” Marvi says.
The relationship building is what makes the biggest positive impact throughout the community. Recently, one Saheli Circle was able to bring together parents, teachers, and administrators to advocate for better education at their local school, and together they convinced the department of education to hire a science teacher. Another Saheli Circle organized a fund where members of the community can contribute monthly to pay for uniforms, books, and other school expenses for the girls in their village, eliminating those small, hidden costs that are often a barrier to education for many. A third Saheli Circle was able to produce a short film about how gender-based household chores can take away valuable study time from girls, leaving them at a disadvantage. “The girls put the film together and showed it to the mothers, and the response from the mothers was just beautiful,” Marvi says.
Girls smiling in Pakistan. Captured by Insiya Syed.
The education and relationship building that the girls receive in Saheli Circles connects them to larger opportunities and economic freedom that are not possible in their hometown. “For girls in Gilgit-Baltistan, education is extremely important because of the fact that we’re so far away from where the economy is, where the opportunity is. Education becomes this bridge for us, for our girls, to access all the opportunity and economy that exists in [larger cities].”
From rural Tanzania to remote Pakistan, local organizations prove every day that prioritizing girls’ education benefits everyone. Communities that lift up girls are able to secure resources like clean water and well-staffed schools, as well as build stronger relationships.
These outcomes are only possible because of the women and girls who work tirelessly in these regions to overcome barriers and drive progress. The Pura x Malala Fund Collection is a way to honor them, celebrate their achievements, and unite people the world over around a shared belief that education is freedom. Like scent, that belief can build, travel, and has the possibility to transform the world.
Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.
Training a family pet can be hard, especially when you have an active breed that needs a certain level of stimulation. Some dogs are good to go after a few training sessions with a local trainer at a pet supply store, while others may require more personalized training in home. There are even some pet parents who opt to send their dogs to a sleep away training program that requires the dogs to live at a training facility for several months before coming home.
Many times these programs are expensive and used as a last resort option, when the other training programs aren’t providing the dogs with the skills they need to live safely with their family. This decision to send your fur baby off to a facility for months at a time is not an easy one to make, but with your pets’ best interest in mind, you put your faith in someone who specializes in the care your pup needs, and keep your fingers crossed that it pans out.
In 2024, one family thought they were doing what was best for their Huskies by sending them to a training facility. It’s unclear what prompted the family’s concern after dropping their four dogs off with their trainer, but after months of looking for their dogs with no luck, they contacted Anakin’s Trails Stray and Pet Recovery Team.
The dogs, which were from Ohio, where their owner Andrea lives, were entrusted to an unnamed animal training facility in Greenville County, South Carolina. It was suspected that the training facility dumped the dogs in the woods without contacting the family to retrieve their beloved pets. Thankfully, Anakin’s Trails Stray and Pet Recovery Team uses drones and other techniques to help locate lost dogs and give them an idea of where to place their traps, and they were eventually able to help recover the lost pups.
The first of the Huskies, Oakley, was found and reunited with Andrea after spending a whopping five months surviving in the wilderness. In a clip posted to TikTok, we see that poor Oakley was clearly unsure of the situation when she first spotted her human. It almost appeared that she was afraid of being in trouble. Anakin’s Trails referred to this as “lost dog syndrome.”
But after a few seconds of uncertainty, the pooch fully recognized her human mom and could not contain her excitement. Understandably—neither could Andrea.
To make things even better, just a few days after Oakley was reunited with her family, her sister Marley was also found.
Ashley Raymond, Founder and Director of Anakin’s Trails told Upworthy, “We got involved after the owners found out about them being dumped about a month and a half later [after entering the training facility]. For about a month, we hung flyers, set food stations with high quality bait with surveillance cameras, and strategically placed them where we got sightings. Before long, we began getting sightings.”
Owner reunited with second husky dog (Marley) when she was finally captured by the Anakin’s Trails Stray and Pet Recovery team after surviving in the wild for months with two of her sisters. Marley was captured days after her sister (Oakley) and reunited with her owner . As of now, there is still one sister on the run in the wild that the recovery team is adamantly trying to locate and capture . #anakinstrails#animalrescue#fyp#sc#trustthetrap#animaltrapping#lostdog#dogontherun
Things were looking up for the agency after the sightings, but then the region experienced a beast of a hurricane. Hurricane Helene was massive, hitting Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia making the rescue of these remaining two pets a bit more difficult. The animal recovery organization didn’t give up hope though.
“Then, the hurricane happened and pushed them 16 miles down the road to another town. We basically had to start from scratch in an entire town, and that’s just what we did. After about 2 weeks of that, we finally nailed down the yard where they kept coming,” Raymond shares. “This time, we set our custom made kennel trap up. After they came once to it, we set it live the very next night. Around 10:30 that evening, Marley and Oakley walked in! Oakley got trapped, Marley ran off. Two nights later, Marley came back and we trapped her. We called the owner and she came down for the reunion for both on 2 different evenings.”
As of October 2024, the third dog, Juno, Marley and Oakley’s sister, is still missing, and their dog mom, Nova Jo, had been found but has still not been reunited with her human, according to Anakin’s Trails.
“There is a fourth dog. She was dumped with the other three, but she ran up to someone days after being dumped and was picked up,” Raymond said. “SC has a 5 day stray hold unfortunately. So any dog that you find in the state of SC and no one comes forward in 5 days, it’s technically yours. So they are fighting that in court.”
The work Anakin’s Trails does isn’t easy and since it’s a nonprofit, they rely on donations, which is how they were able to help provide Andrea a hotel room when she came to be reunited with her dog. And how they are able to help many others reunite with the four-legged member of their family.
If you’d like to donate to Anakin’s Trails Stray and Pet Recovery Team so they can continue their work, you can do so here.
This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.
Have you ever watched a chicken lay an egg? Think hard before you answer. Many of us may instinctively say, “Of course I have!” but then realize we’ve only seen movie scenes or cartoonsdepictinghens laying eggs. Few of us have actually witnessed a real egg come out of a real hen in real life.
Even fewer of us have seen it the way the folks at @chickenwifehappylife captured it. One of their chickens hopped onto a workbench and laid her egg right on the table in front of them. No nesting-box privacy for this lady. She wanted to show the world what she goes through to lay a single egg, and frankly, she has every right.
“Girl… I promise not to complain about the price of eggs. Please take a day off, you deserve it.”
“I’d be pissed if I had to lay an egg every day.”
“We should have a moment of silence every time we crack an egg as respect. That was some work!”
The overwhelming sentiments people shared were: (1) “Wow, I have truly never watched a hen lay an egg before,” and (2) “Wow, I will never take eggs for granted again.” Some also said, “I don’t know if I want to eat eggs anymore,” rethinking their breakfast choices.
Does it hurt a chicken to lay an egg?
Watching this hen lay her egg on the workbench had people feeling for her. It’s a bit reminiscent of giving birth, especially with her bearing down and “singing the egg song” just before it popped out.
“The reason it is hard to answer this question with complete clarity is because, of course, chickens cannot tell us for sure whether they’re experiencing pain when laying eggs. There are some signs, but we have to be careful not to misread them. For example, for a long time humans (including that first century Roman writer, Columella) believed that the sound many chickens make before laying indicated pain. However, studies found that the sound was instead an “egg song,” which could have a number of explanations, including happiness and scaring off predators. Another study found that when a hen “sings” it is more likely to be associated with contentment, while cackling aligns with danger.”
Naturally, there are things that can go wrong during the egg-laying process that can make it painful. Signs that a hen is in distress while laying include wheezing, distressed squawking, not eating or drinking, isolating, hunching over, drooping, avoiding movement or activity, and slow or awkward movements. Most of the time, however, a hen will recover immediately after laying an egg and go on with life as if nothing happened.
How often do chickens lay eggs?
Hens basically lay eggs daily, but that’s a bit oversimplified.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison notes that hens ovulate, releasing an egg yolk, every 24 to 26 hours. It then takes about 26 hours for the egg white and shell to form around the yolk. As a result, hens typically lay one egg per day, but the timing shifts later each day. Once in a while, a hen will also “skip” a day or two.
Hens did not originally lay more than 300 eggs a year, however. Through centuries of selective breeding, humans have “engineered” chickens to become more prolific egg layers.
Many people have concerns about the well-being of hens used in the industrial production of eggs. Even when we try to make ethical choices about the food we consume, the details are not always clear. Labels on egg cartons, such as “organic,” “cage-free,” and “pasture-raised,” can be confusing, but Certified Humane offers an explainer that helps demystify these terms.
Whatever egg choices we make, seeing the laying process may at least give us a newfound respect and gratitude for the hens who lay them.
Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.
But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pit bull-Lab mix does around the house.
The mom says Rhubarb has chores because “we didn’t raise a freeloader.”
Having a great experience at a hotel is all about the small things: an easy check-in and check-out, crisp sheets, and—most importantly—a USB charger by the TV that actually works. Jamie Fraser, the owner of a private-use estate in Scotland, recently shared a way for travelers to make their stay a little nicer, for free.
Fraser revealed a travel secret to Metro: “Corner rooms are often slightly larger than standard rooms because of the building layout. They also usually only share one wall with another guest, meaning they can be noticeably quieter, which many travelers really appreciate after a long journey.”
Ask for a corner room upgrade
Better yet, corner rooms are often available free of charge. They’re typically not listed any differently from other rooms of a similar size and are assigned based on hotel capacity.
Traveling Phil, an Instagram travel influencer, agrees. In a video, his wife explains that corner rooms offer four distinct features: two walls of windows, more square footage, increased natural light, and often better views. It’s the “same price” for a “better experience.”
Another perk of a corner room, according to Your Mileage May Vary, is reduced foot traffic. Being farther from the elevator means fewer late-night footsteps, and you may also be closer to an emergency stairway in case of a safety issue.
“When hotel architects and designers start to cut up floors into bays, the rooms in the center of the floors—specifically near elevators, stairwells, and utility closets—will have less room because of space being cut to help service the building,” Karl von Ramm, general manager of The Loutrel in Charleston, South Carolina, told Southern Living.
He added that your best chance is “typically corner rooms or rooms along the front side of the building, where stairwells and utilities are typically not present.”
How to get a corner room for free
According to Traveling Phil:
Book a standard room (don’t overpay upfront)
Check in later in the day (after room shuffle)
Politely ask, “Do you happen to have any corner rooms available?”
Mention it’s a special occasion (even just a getaway)
Whether you’re hoping to upgrade to a corner room or a suite, you can increase your chances by telling the person at the front desk it’s a special occasion.
“In the luxury hotel industry, we are always looking for a reason to celebrate and elevate the guest experience,” Lizzie Davidson, Thompson Houston’s area director of revenue, tells Southern Living. “Mentioning your special occasion—such as a birthday, anniversary, or maybe even just a simple staycation escape with your loved one—always goes a long way at the reception area or concierge team.”
So next time you check into a hotel, make this simple request—it likely won’t be much trouble for the staff. That way, you can make your trip a little extra special knowing you’ve secured a better view and a quieter room for the same price.
When Annika first brought Frannie, an eight-year-old Golden Retriever, into her home, the dog couldn’t even stand up on her own. She weighed 125 pounds—twice what a healthy weight would be for a female of her breed. Any movement at all took Herculean effort. Frannie was depressed, which wasn’t surprising, as she was missing out on all the joys of doggie life.
Rover’s Retreat, a dog rescue in Los Angeles, rescued Frannie from a miserable life of sleeping on concrete. She had sores on her tail and massive calluses on her legs. She also suffered from hypothyroidism and was scheduled to be put down.
Annika got the call and responded immediately. “We didn’t even think or have a plan,” she wrote. “We just got in the car to go get her because the one thing we knew was that she did not deserve to die.” It took four people to get Frannie into the car.
Frannie has been working so hard every single day and is now getting up much more often on her own! She still definitely appreciates the help getting up but when she really wants something (and she’s on non-slip ground) she can actually get up on her own! She has been particularly getting up when I leave her sight and she wants to see where I went! I often come back to her and she’s already standing walking towards me! I can tell she is going to be a major “Velcro dog”. She has improved SO much in this last month and we cannot see what this next month has in store for her! 💗💗 @Rovers_Retreat #fightlikefrannie#fyp#foryoupage#dogsoftiktok#dogs#goldenretriever#goldenretrieverlife#dogrescue#rescuedog#rescueanimals#animalrescue#obesity#weightloss#animalsoftiktok
They faced a steep uphill climb. Frannie had no energy and exhibited no personality to speak of. But her new family was determined to help her find herself, so they picked her up to take her outside daily, even just for a few assisted steps.
“One day, we were throwing the tennis ball around, and she perked her ears up,” Annika told The Dodo. “And we were like, ‘That’s weird! She’s been so sad and miserable this whole time.’ So we threw it towards her and she just went nuts.”
At first, she caught the ball with a cushioned stool under her belly and backside to support her. But after slowly increasing her exercise every day, she began standing on all fours and catching the ball without any assistance. Then she began to take a few steps to chase after it.
Slowly but surely, Frannie was getting healthier—and learning to be a dog.
We are so excited about Frannie’s progress!! She LOVES her tennis balls and we have been using them to our advantage! This week she shocked us and was literally trying to run after them – we were speechless!!! We are just so happy that she is feeling so much better and is that much closer to actually running after the tennis ball one day! Thank you to everyone who has sent her tennis balls as you are playing a pivotal role in her recovery!! I don’t know where she would be in her journey without her love for tennis balls. We cannot wait to see what is in store for the next few weeks! 💪😁💖@Rovers_Retreat #fightlikefrannie#fyp#foryoupage#dogsoftiktok#dogs#goldenretriever#goldenretrieverlife#dogrescue#rescuedog#rescueanimals#animalrescue#obesity#weightloss#animalsoftiktok
For a while, she could only walk to the end of the driveway. But by February 2024, Frannie was frolicking in the snow on her own. By March, she was able to walk a full mile.
She still had a ways to go with her weight, but the contrast from where she started was night and day. With help from her diligent family and therapeutic rehab treatments like walking on a water treadmill, Frannie kept getting healthier. By August, eight months after not even being able to stand, she had lost 50 pounds and was a whole new dog.
Annika told The Dodo she had previously cared for another obese Golden Retriever, Georgia, whom she had rehabilitated and later lost. “Something inside of me was like, ‘Georgia sent this dog to me,’” she said. “I got to fight for her.”
In December 2024, a year after she came to live with Annika, the family posted an update on Instagram:
“We are so happy to celebrate one whole year of Frannie!! In the last 12 months, she didn’t just lose 58 pounds—she gained so much! She learned how to get up on her own, how to walk, how to run, how to chase tennis balls, and even tackled the water treadmill like a champ! She discovered what it means to be loved and cared for, and most importantly, she gained her forever family and a whole new lease on life.”
Frannie continues to improve and thoroughly enjoy being a dog. “I still see her getting happier every day,” Annika told The Dodo.
What a beautiful gift for both of them.
You can follow Frannie’s ongoing journey on Instagram.
Science lovers got a treat recently when new research on sperm whales was quietly released. Researchers not only witnessed the birth of a baby sperm whale, but also saw elder females, including the grandmother, acting as midwives. Very few species assist with birth outside of humans, but it seems sperm whales can now join that short list.
Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) released two studies on sperm whales in journals Nature and Science respectively. Nature covers the different vocalizations of the whales during this teamwork process, while Science discusses the collaborative birthing approach by the whales.
The sperm whale’s birth was first captured via drone in July 2023. Now that the video has made its way to social media, viewers cannot get over witnessing the whales act as midwives. Typically, scientists don’t get to witness sperm whales’ behavior during birth, likely because they give birth far from shore and avoid boats during this vulnerable process.
With the increasing use of drones, however, scientists can now capture moments like this without disrupting wildlife. In the video, other whales—one identified as the grandmother—surround the birthing whale, named Rounder. Not all of the supporting whales were from the same pod as the mother, but they joined to help ensure the calf’s safe arrival.
Because whales are mammals, they can’t breathe underwater. For this reason, baby whales, also known as calves, are born tail-first. Like other mammals, newborn whales instinctively try to breathe, so exiting the birth canal headfirst could result in drowning, according to National Geographic.
Scientists have been following this pod for a while, so they’re familiar with the whales in the family. As they watched the drone footage from the boat, they were able to identify who was present. Still, the sight of this unique birthing circle shocked the scientists.
While birthing her calf, Rounder was flanked by her sister, Accra, and Atwood, an elder female. Behind the mom-to-be was her mother, Lady Oracle, her aunt Aurora, a juvenile whale named Ariel, and four other unknown female whales. The whales had dual roles: when the calf was born, the assisting whales formed a tight cluster and raised the baby out of the water so it could breathe.
They took turns holding the calf out of the water for three hours. During that time, the females that were not actively lifting the calf to the surface were fending off nosy animals. Once the baby was safe and swimming alongside its mother, the other whales began to depart.
One of the scientists, Shane Gero, told National Geographic, “All the biologists on the boat were losing their minds.” The same could be said for people coming across the video online.
One person wrote, “Women supporting women! Bring it on!”
Another person called out humans, saying, “I think they lied , who said survival of the fittest or only the strong survive. Everything in nature is about collective care. Even other animal species be helping each other. Also even when its predators they only take what they need.”
This commenter admired the teamwork, writing, “I love how whales put so much energy into each other, but it’s even more exciting that members outside of the family pod were being so helpful. I’m invested!”
“This is so frigging cool,” another person gushed. “I love how nature really wants nature to succeed. Absolutely 100% lit. Thanks for this!”
Ida’s answer? A hard no, and trust me, she didn’t lose a wink of sleep over it.
A legacy that can’t be bought
Ida is a part of the Huddleston family, who have farmed this land for 200 years. That’s two centuries of early mornings, muddy boots, and honest work. Over generations, they’ve raised cattle, grown soybeans, and planted corn on their 1,200-acre property outside Maysville.
But it’s not just land stewardship. During the Great Depression—when jobs disappeared and families lined up just to get a meal—the Huddlestons grew wheat. They helped keep bread lines operating across America when people had almost nothing left. This land didn’t just feed the family; it fed the nation.
Photo credit: Canva – The Huddleston family has been farming in Kentucky for 200 years.
Notice the wording. She didn’t say “nothing.” She said $26 million doesn’t mean anything.
The tech giant at the door
The company that offered $26 million for the Huddlestons’ property has never revealed its identity; local officials were required to sign non-disclosure agreements just to learn who was making the offer.
“They call us old, stupid farmers, you know, but we’re not,” she told WKRC-TV. “We know whenever our food is disappearing, our lands are disappearing, and we don’t have any water, and that poison. Well, we know we’ve had it.”
She called it a scam. And to be honest, the repeated pressure campaigns—multiple offers, persistent calls, and what she described as “mind harassment”—don’t exactly reflect good faith.
A community that agrees
Ida isn’t a lone voice in the wilderness here. Since 2017, Mason County has lost one-fifth of its farms. Neighbors throughout the region share her concerns about what an industrial mega-campus would do to their rural way of life: their water, their soil, their sense of home.
For Ida, the decision was never really about money.
Her late husband built their house with his own hands. She feels his presence every time she walks the fields. The land holds her family’s past and, she hopes, their future.
‘I’M STAYING PUT’: Ida Huddleston and her daughter, Delsia Bare, have rejected multimillion-dollar offers from developers planning a massive data center project on Big Pond Pike. Huddleston turned down $60,000 per acre for her 71 acres, while Bare declined $48,000 per acre for her 463-acre farm. 💰🚫 Despite promises of hundreds of jobs, the family remains skeptical—and determined to stay. “I’m staying put,” Huddleston said. County leaders are still reviewing the proposal as debate over the project continues. #KentuckyNews#CommunityVoices#datacenter
“I said, ‘No, mine is priceless.’ What I’ve got here, I want to pass it down. What God told me to do was to keep it until I was through with it and then pass it on to the next generation,” she told WXIX-TV.
In an era when everything seems to have a price—and the biggest tech companies in the world have the resources to buy nearly anything—there’s something quietly remarkable about a woman who simply says: no, not this.
Ida says she intends to die on that land, on her own terms, surrounded by 200 years of family history.
Which is why what happened on February 20, on a remote volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean feels so extraordinary.
A species that, by all accounts, should have been extinct returned home. That morning, rangers on Floreana Island in Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands set down their packs and gently placed 158 juvenile giant tortoises onto the wet ground—the first of their lineage to set foot on the island in roughly 175 years.
These animals weren’t supposed to exist. Their subspecies was declared extinct in the 1850s. The forces that wiped them out—overhunting, invasive predators, habitat destruction—are exactly the kinds that usually can’t be reversed. But this time, somehow, they have been.
First, here’s what was lost
Long ago—before whalers, settlers, feral cats, and invasive rats—Floreana Island was home to as many as 20,000 giant tortoises. These weren’t just large, slow animals living out their days in the sun. They were ecosystem engineers that carved trails through the vegetation, swallowed whole fruits and deposited seeds miles away, planting forests with every lumbering step. The island’s entire web of life depended on these tortoises.
By the time anyone thought to do something, it was too late. Or so everyone thought.
A wild tale
In 2008, scientists exploring Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island noticed something strange. Some of the tortoises had an unusual shell shape: the unique saddleback shell associated with Floreana.
They conducted DNA tests, and the results were nearly unbelievable. These tortoises carried the genetic fingerprint of the “extinct” Floreana lineage.
It turns out that centuries earlier, those same whalers who had stripped Floreana of its tortoises had occasionally offloaded live tortoises onto Isabela Island, as provisions to be retrieved later or to lighten their ships. Some of those tortoises survived, bred, and passed their genes on for nearly 200 years.
The Floreana tortoise had been hiding in plain sight the whole time.
Scientists sprang into action. They selected 23 hybrid tortoises from Wolf Volcano that showed the strongest Floreana genetic signal and brought them to a breeding center on Santa Cruz Island. Starting in 2017, they carefully bred them over generations, patiently guiding their lineage back toward its original form.
Dr. Jen Jones, chief executive of the Galápagos Conservation Trust, described the moment as “truly spine-tingling,” adding that it validated two decades of collaboration among scientists, charities, and the local community.
But wait—they didn’t just show up and release tortoises
Before a single tortoise set foot on Floreana, the island needed years of preparation.
Remember, Floreana had been overrun with invasive rats and feral cats, the same forces that drove the tortoises to extinction in the first place. They needed to go. In October 2023, the Floreana tortoise team launched a massive eradication campaign with helicopters, aerial baiting, and ground traps.
Before the baiting began, community members set up protective enclosures for their pets to prevent harm. Farmers adapted their agricultural practices to best serve the project. Locals also helped with the trapping.
The results were almost immediate. Native Galápagos rails—small birds that disappeared from the island entirely because of rat predation—have already started coming back on their own. Nature, it turns out, is extremely ready to bounce back the moment you give it a chance.
And they’re watching every step
Each of the 158 released tortoises carries a GPS tracker that pings its location every hour via satellite.
On top of that, NASA Earth observation data is overlaid to map vegetation, rainfall, and soil conditions across the island. Scientists use all of this information to build habitat models that can project ecosystem conditions decades into the future, which matters a lot when you’re dealing with an animal that can live over a century.
The plan is to release 25 to 100 more tortoises each year, with each group’s release location guided by data on where current tortoises are thriving. Slow and steady. Rather fitting, really.
This is just the beginning
The 158 tortoises are Phase One of a plan to reintroduce 12 locally extinct species to Floreana over the coming decade. Next up? The Floreana mockingbird, a fascinating species that arguably inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution when he visited the island in 1835. Sadly, it now only exists on two tiny offshore islets.
After that: Darwin’s finches, Galápagos racer snakes, the lava gull (the world’s rarest gull), and, eventually, the Galápagos hawk, the apex predator whose return would signal a fully restored food chain.
Each species added to the island increases the likelihood that the next will succeed. That’s how ecosystems work. And honestly, it’s a pretty good lesson for the rest of life.
