"Every year for over a thousand years, hundreds of pilot whales have been rounded up, cornered and slaughtered by hand on the beaches of the Faroe Islands."

"The GOP electoral sweep has Alaska Republicans feeling upbeat on the prospects for a priority that has eluded them for decades — opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration and drilling."

"Wind power can help the world fight climate change, but it’s not so great for bats."

EPA says a new non-native species of zooplankton has been found in the Great Lakes. Scientists suspect it may have come from ship ballast, and are not sure what effects, if any, it will have on ecosystems.

"In 1996, Botswana erected an 83-mile fence along its border with Namibia. The goal was to protect domestic cattle from the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease. Within a year, though, the barrier had snared five giraffes, one elephant, several antelopes and numerous other wild animals."

"A small, dark-feathered bird known as the common swift flies for 10 months on end without ever landing, the longest time spent aloft of any known bird, scientists said Thursday."

"South Carolina’s newest social media star is young, friendly, and could weigh up to 700 pounds. It’s a bull elk that likely wandered from North Carolina across state lines, the first time an elk has been spotted in the woodlands of South Carolina in more than 200 years."

"The Great Thicket National Wildlife Refuge will span New York and five New England states. It will be the 18th refuge created under President Obama."