A Phoenix Herpetological Society rattlesnake class attendee moves to pick up a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake with snake tongs under the supervision of instructor Cale Morris at the Florence Ely Nelson Desert Park in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Caitlin O'Hara for NPR
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Cynthia Hornor poses with Nimble, the first mixed-breed dog ever to win the Westminster Kennel Club dog show's agility competition, in New York on Monday.
Jennifer Peltz/AP
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Lauren Hill, a graduate student at Cal State LA, holds a bird at the bird banding site at Bear Divide in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR
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Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling has named the mosquito as the world's scariest animal. He has a point.
David Gannon/AFP via Getty Images; Paul Sarosta/Getty Images
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David Gannon/AFP via Getty Images; Paul Sarosta/Getty Images
Traveling internationally with a dog — or adopting one from abroad — just got a bit more complicated. The CDC issued new rules intended to reduce the risk of importing rabies.
mauinow1/Getty Images/iStockphoto
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Sperm whales have lengthy exchanges, made up of clicks, which scientists have found is more complex than previously thought.
Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty Images
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Weliton Menário Costa (center) holds a laptop while surrounded by dancers for his music video, "Kangaroo Time." From left: Faux Née Phish (Caitlin Winter), Holly Hazlewood, and Marina de Andrade.
Nic Vevers/ANU
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Researchers in a rainforest in Indonesia spotted an injury on the face of a male orangutan they named Rakus. They were stunned to watch him treat his wound with a medicinal plant.
Armas/Suaq Project
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Joie Henney says his emotional support alligator, Wally, is missing in Georgia after being kidnapped, found and released into a swamp with some 20 other gators.
Heather Khalifa/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP
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When hobbyist photographer Michael Sanchez snapped this picture of a blue rock-thrush subspecies on the coast of northern Oregon last week, he didn't know how rare the bird was until he posted it to social media.
Michael Sanchez
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A donkey's owner makes last-minute adjustments ahead of the costume competition at the annual Donkey Festival in San Antero.
Andrés Ríos for NPR
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Bird flu is spreading through U.S. dairy cattle. Scientists say the risk to people is minimal, but open questions remain, including how widespread the outbreak is and how the virus is spreading.
DOUGLAS MAGNO/AFP via Getty Images
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A coyote at the Fort Worth Zoo is photographed in the hours leading up to the April 8 total solar eclipse.
The Hartstone-Rose Research Lab, NC State
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Damming waterways is what beavers do best, often to the chagrin of people who want the opposite. But those same damming skills are what make beavers important ecosystem engineers.
Chase Dekker Wild-Life Images
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NPR's Tom Dreisbach is back in the host chair for a day. This time, he reports on a story very close to home: The years-long battle his parents have been locked in with the local wild beaver population. Each night, the beavers would dam the culverts along the Dreisbachs' property, threatening to make their home inaccessible. Each morning, Tom's parents deconstructed those dams — until the annual winter freeze hit and left them all in a temporary stalemate.
Beavers can help with climate change. So how do we get along?