animals

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/11/2021
  

  Invasion of the Hippos: Colombia is Running Out of Time to Tackle Pablo Escobar’s Wildest Legacy

  Colombian officials failed to castrate the large and potentially dangerous animals when their numbers were small. Now the country faces a potential invasive species calamity. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  11/23/2020
  

  A History of Felines, as Narrated and Illustrated by a Cat

  A new book presents a history of significant cats and the human-feline relationship, with a substantial assist from the author's cat. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/14/2020
  

  When the White House Was Full of Claws, Scales, Stripes and Tails

  Although dogs will return to the White House in January and revive a long tradition, past presidents have kept some unusual pets (also, Calvin Coolidge was gifted a raccoon to eat for Thanksgiving dinner). 

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• SOURCE: New Yorker
  4/13/2020
  

  The Pandemic Is Not a Natural Disaster

  by Kate Brown

  Zoonotic diseases can seem like earthquakes; they appear to be random acts of nature. In fact, they are more like hurricanes—they can occur more frequently, and become more powerful, if human beings alter the environment in the wrong ways.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  November 30, 2019
  

  The Narwhal Tusk Has a Mystical History. A New Chapter was added on London Bridge.

  by Miriam Berger

  For centuries Europeans sought out the “unicorn horn” of the arctic-dwelling narwhal whale. 

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  5/3/19
  

  A Beluga Whale Is Allegedly a Russian Spy. There's a Long History of Marine Mammals in the Military

  In the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet authorities reportedly trained beluga wales, dolphins, sea lions and fur seals to search for underwater mines and other objects.