All News - Page 12 of 1623 - Good News Network
Home Blog Page 12

Man Saves Boatloads Of ‘Stunned’ Animals After He Spotted Shadows in the Waves

- credit Sea Tow Corpus Christi, via Facebook
Captain Brandon Upton rescuing turtles – credit Sea Tow Corpus Christi, via Facebook

From Corpus Christi comes the story of a commercial mariner who developed a passion for saving lives—cold, imperiled, and scaley lives.

It started back in 2018  when Captain Brandon Upton was out in the gulf waters during a particularly chilly afternoon, and he saw a dark shadow floating nearby.

The owner and operator of Sea Tow, a boating assistance company, Upton thought he had seen everything the Gulf of Mexico could conjure, but soon he saw more dark shapes, and then even more.

He realized to his shock that they were sea turtles.

“I didn’t touch it, because I know they are endangered and protected,” Upton told the Dodo. “On my way in, I saw more and more sea turtles and was very confused. In all my years on the water, I had never seen anything like it.”

Rather than take any actions himself, Upton did the right thing and contacted the relevant animal authorities—in this case, the ecologists at San Padre Island National Seashore, who explained the turtles had been cold-stunned.

Cold-stunning is a normal phenomenon in which the cold-blooded turtles fall into a comatose state if the seawater temperatures fall below 56°F. Their heart rate and metabolism plummets, and they float, incapable of moving. This puts them at risk for boat strikes, drowning, and even land predators if the tide and surf should take them onto the beach.

Every winter since then, Upton has remained vigilant for potential cold-stunning events. If the water temperatures start to fall too low, Upton will bring an airboat to tow alongside him, into which he will toss any sea turtles he finds.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Lacking Ninja Training, Trapped Turtle is Rescued from City Sewer by Police and Firefighters

“While sea turtle rescue typically requires special training, we started in an emergency situation,” Upton said. “We picked up two or three boatloads of floating turtles that very first day.”

San Padre Island workers receive these cold-stunned animals and place them in a rehabilitation center where their bodies are gradually warmed up to the temperatures needed to restart their systems. Then they’re released.

OTHER STORIES FROM THE GULF: Watch 2,200 Cold-Stunned Turtles Being Released by Volunteers Back Into the Gulf

Upton described his 7 years of pro bono help as “only natural” since he carries around a lot of specialized equipment that makes rescuing turtles easy and is a proud part of the close-knit boating community.

He’s an animal lover to boot, and whether it’s “taking a spider outside” or helping cold-stunned turtles, he considers them all like a second family.

SEE how many turtles he might rescue in a day…

SHARE This Dedicated Mariner’s Love For Turtles With Your Friends… 

“I attribute my success to this: I never gave any excuse.” – Florence Nightingale

Fellipe Ditadi for Unsplash+

Quote of the Day: “I attribute my success to this: I never gave any excuse.” – Florence Nightingale

Photo by: Fellipe Ditadi for Unsplash+

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Fellipe Ditadi for Unsplash+

Good News in History, February 27

29 years ago today, the world of Pokémon went public, emerging from the mind of game designer Satoshi Tajiri onto Nintendo Gameboy systems. In the six years it took to create the game and its first three “pocket monsters” (Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander), Tajiri’s Game Freak studio nearly went out of business, but the little creatures—some disarmingly cute, like, Pikachu—would take the world by storm and handheld Gameboys would assume a second life. READ more about the franchise… (1996)

LiDAR Reveals Abandoned Fort Was Actually a Lost Zapotec City with Temples and Ball Courts

View of Guiengola’s North Plaza from above - credit - Pedro Guillermo Ramón Celis
View of Guiengola’s North Plaza from above – credit – Pedro Guillermo Ramón Celis

A recent LiDAR survey in southern Mexico has revealed that a known site of pre-Colombian fortifications was actually a thriving urban center of 5,000 people or more.

Despite being known to Spanish explorers, modern historians, and archaeologists, the site of Guiengola in the hills above the modern town of Santo Domingo Tehuantepec is now understood to contain ballcourts, roads, temples, and neighborhoods.

Guiengola was built as early as 1350 and abandoned as late as 1521. The architects and inhabitants were the Zapotecs, a pre-Colombian people who inhabited areas making up the modern Mexican state of Oaxaca as far back as the 6th century BCE.

An early Spanish chronicle testifies to the site’s use as a fortification by the Zapotecs in a conflict with the Mexica (Aztecs), but due to the site’s remote position at high elevation and shrouded by dense forest canopy, it was never properly studied writes Pedro Guillermo Ramón Celis, organizer of a LiDAR survey of the site.

According to Ramon Cellis’ paper on the survey, published in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica, the Spanish account “does not provide information about Guiengola beyond its significance as a fortification,” with there also being no “sufficient historical data on how non-elites were incorporated into the construction and everyday life of the site.”

“Although you could reach the site using a footpath, it was covered by a canopy of trees,” Ramón Celis said in a statement released by McGill University where he works as a post-doctoral researcher.

“Until very recently, there would have been no way for anyone to discover the full extent of the site without spending years on the ground walking and searching. We were able to do it within two hours by using remote-sensing equipment and scanning from a plane.”

“I would say that at least 5,000 people were living permanently on the site,” Ramon Cellis tells Live Science.

The LiDAR image of Guiengola’s central districts – credit Ancient Mesoamerica, CC 4.0. BY-SA

To explore how power was distributed in the city, Ramon Cellis has calculated how much building space was given over to elite areas such as the temples and ballcourts, for example, compared to what was built in the areas used by commoners.

MORE SOUTH AMERICAN CIVILIZATION: Ancient Mayan City Hidden for Over 1,000 Years Discovered by LiDAR

“Because the city is only between 500 and 600 years old, it is amazingly well preserved, so you can walk there in the jungle, and you find that houses are still standing… you can see the doors… the hallways… the fences that split it from other houses” he told his university press.

“So, it is easy to identify a residential lot. It’s like a city frozen in time, before any of the deep cultural transformations brought by the Spanish arrival had taken place.”

MORE LIDAR DISCOVERIES: Two Lost Cities Discovered Along the Silk Road–the Iconic Ancient Trade Route

Ramon Cellis plans to return to conduct more research at Guiengola later this year, saying that as a point of reference and pride for the Zapotec people, it could provide key insights into their ancestors’ ways of living, as well as an example of a civilization that resisted the Aztec’s conquering push southward, which has always been assumed to have gone on without encountering any major military setbacks.

SHARE This Incredible Ruin Left Bizarrely Unexplored For 500 Years…

Emotional Officials Watch 17 Endangered Mountain Bongos Arrive in Kenya for Reintroduction

Female Mountain Bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci) photographed at Mount Kenya National Park - credit: released into the public domain by Chuck upd
Female mountain bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci) photographed at Mount Kenya National Park – credit: released into the public domain by Chuck upd

The struggle to keep one of the world’s largest and rarest antelope species alive has taken a massive step forward in Kenya.

17 mountain bongos have been flown to Kenya from the Rare Species Conservation Center in Florida for eventual reintroduction into their natural habitat.

A subspecies of bongo, the largest of the forest-dwelling antelope, the eastern, or mountain bongo, numbers less than 100 individuals, and is listed by the IUCN as Critically-Endangered. More survive today in zoos than in the wild.

The history of the animal is an interesting one, as it’s believed to have become a forest species when climate change turned savannah areas into forests thousands of years ago. In the case of the mountain bongo, their home range is located in southern Kenya, on the slopes of Mount Kenya National Park and in the surrounding woodland.

They are the world’s third-largest antelope species behind the giant eland and common eland.

Tourism Minister Rebecca Miano described the arrival of the bongos at the country’s main airport on Sunday night as “emotional and so cool.”

The animals will first be kept in an acclimation center run by the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) that will protect them while they re-hone their instincts for wild living.

ANTELOPES ENDANGERED NO MORE: Wild and Wonderful Saiga is No Longer Endangered with a Million Roaming Now in Central Asia

Within three months, the BBC reports, the KWS will be welcoming another shipment of these bongo from captive breeding programs across Europe.

The last time a large shipment of animals like this made it to Kenya was in 2004, when 18 animals arrived safely. They successfully integrated with the wild population, and though some died of tick-borne diseases, it demonstrated that captive animals can successfully make it in the wild if given time and training.

SHARE This Positive Development For This Charismatic Species…

Colorado Woman Donates Kidney to Save Pennsylvania Man 35 Years After They Went to Prom Together

Shawn Moyer and Elena Hershey prom photo
Shawn Moyer and Elena Hershey prom photo

Despite holding the presidency of the student council and being voted most likely to succeed, 16-year-old Shawn Moyer had his prom night invitation declined.

Moyer needed a backup, and though he didn’t know it at the time, the young lady with ringlet curls and an ear-to-ear smile he found would end up saving his life 35 years later with a kidney donation.

Key to this remarkable story is the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center’s (UPMC) innovative “paired exchange program.” Let’s say you want to donate a kidney to a friend, but the two of you don’t genetically match. The program will match your kidney with someone in need, and in return bump your friend up to the top of the waiting list.

Well, 35 years ago, Moyer invited Elena Hershey to the Dallastown Area High School senior prom, a decision that would change his life.

“He needed a backup,” recalled Hershey, a younger girl whom Moyer remembered as “smart,” “pretty,” and a “remarkably nice person.” “And, you know, of course, I would love an invite to a prom. What girl wouldn’t? So I was happy to go.”

As a junior, she was only able to attend prom if directly invited by a senior, which Moyer’s arm facilitated. Not even a full year had passed after the lovely night that the two, as is so often the case, drifted out of touch.

But they first met because of interlinked friends and siblings, which, 35 years later, intertwined their lives yet again.

Hershey’s friend Julie is married to one of Moyer’s friends, and word reached her that her prom date was stuck on dialysis waiting for a new kidney, something which he had already received twice in his life, once when he was 16, and again at 36.

As it happened, Hershey, a serious health and wellness disciple, was already considering a blind kidney donation and felt Moyer was as good a person as any to offer it to.

“A few weeks of having to rest and a few days of discomfort to extend someone’s life or save someone’s life?” Hershey told ABC News 27. “It really is kind of a no-brainer.”

OTHER SERENDIPITOUS STORIES: 30-Year-old Letterman Jacket Is Found By Brother in Serendipitous Twist of Fate

But while they made a clever match on prom night, they were not eligible to share organs, so Hershey and Moyer started the paired exchange process, wherein Hershey’s kidney would go to someone in need, and Moyer would receive another as soon as it was made available.

When a donor had been found, Moyer’s first response was to call Hershey.

MORE TRANSPLANT SUCCESSES: Woman Donates Kidney to Her Sorority Sister Despite Not Seeing Her for 10 Years

“He texted me [the news], and I saw it, and I caught my breath a little bit, and I started to cry a little bit,” said Hershey.

Having the opportunity to speak to the media about her decision, Hershey felt she had to emphasize how little the loss has affected her lifestyle. She was driving again in three days, and back on her stationary bike doing the intense cardio she diligently pursues within a month.

WATCH the story below from ABC… 

SHARE This Story Of Two Individuals That Fate Continues To Inmesh Together… 

‘Like a Ninja,’ Karate Teacher Swoops Down on Purse Snatcher and Foils Robbery with a Kick

Venter (top right) running out of Action Karata in Philadelphia - credit Action Karate released
Venter (top right) running out of Action Karata in Philadelphia – credit Action Karate released

Martial arts teachers are quick to teach their students that what they learn in class is not to be used on other people except in emergencies.

Recently, a Philadelphia Karate practitioner nicely demonstrated this by swooping in “like a ninja,” thwacking a robber on his leg, and rescuing a woman’s stolen purse.

If you watch black belt instructor Stephen Venter perform a low kick on one of the bags in his dojo of Action Karate in the neighborhood of Northern Liberties, you’d hope to never be on the receiving end.

Venter was getting ready to teach a class when one of his students shouted that someone outside was crying for help.

“I’m just screaming bloody murder like a complete lunatic, like stop him, stop him, stop him, help, help, help to anybody around,” said Jennifer Romanelli, a local who was in the net door drycleaners on 3rd and Poplar getting her suit altered. A man had grabbed her purse and made a run for it.

Venter ascertained the situation and gave chase, Fox 29 News reports. Unfortunately for the thief, the sensei caught up to him, and offered a taste of the antique Japanese art form.

“I shouted at him, ‘Drop the bag!’ He wouldn’t drop it, I caught up with him, I gave him a kick on the leg,” said Venter in a characteristic South African accent. “As I got him a kick on the leg, he dropped the bag, stumbled, and then he kept running away.”

ALSO CHECK OUT: Watch Married Police Officers Cut Short Their Date Night to Stop An Armed Robbery at Restaurant

Romanelli said she was stunned by what had happened.

“Literally out of nowhere, like an angel, this guy appears, like a ninja, and he’s like ‘here you go,'” she said.

MORE HEROICS ON THE STREET: New Jersey Teacher Uses Body as Human Shield to Protect Teen from Group Attack

It’s no coincidence she described her savior like a ninja, as Venter was just about to teach his “ninja class.”

Fox reports that the incident inspired Venter to host a self-defense and kickboxing class for women. Romanelli contacted Venter’s boss to tell him what had happened and praise him for his heroism. The South African has only lived in Philadelphia for 6 months.

WATCH the story below from Fox 29… 

SHARE This Heroic Intervention With Your Friends On Social Media…

“Love the giver more than the gift.” – Brigham Young

Quote of the Day: “Love the giver more than the gift.” – Brigham Young

Photo by: Shafi Muhammed

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Good News in History, February 26

Nabonassar in Akkadian - G. Bertin - Bertin, G. (1891). Babylonian Chronology and History. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.

2,772 years ago today, the Neo Babylonian king Nabonassar assumed the throne of the great city, which isn’t necessarily good news in itself, but 747 BCE is a date of tremendous importance, since it allowed the scientist and historian Claudius Ptolemy (100-175 CE) to provide for modern scholars a fixed date in history on which our conceptions of ancient years can be made accurate. The reason for this is that astronomers were able to prove claims of celestial phenomena like eclipses in an extant work from the time period called the Babylonian Chronicles. Combined with Ptolemy’s work Almagest, dates line up, and give us today an accurate way of counting backwards in time. READ more… (747 BCE)

Bison Return to Manitoba First Nation Lands for First Time in 100 Years – (WATCH)

The bison return, including a sacred white calf - credit Southern Chiefs Organization, via Facebook
The bison return, including a sacred white calf – credit Southern Chiefs Organization, via Facebook

In December of last year, when snow covered the ground and a man’s breath turned to frost in the air before his eyes, a small plain in Manitoba hummed with the thudding of hooves.

The Birdtail Sioux Dakota Band of southern Manitoba, Canada, welcomed 11 bison onto their tribal lands for the first time in over 100 years.

The bison song – credit Southern Chiefs Organization, via Facebook

Received as a gift from the much larger Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, also located in Manitoba, the mini herd included a sacred white calf, a symbol of fortune for the tribes when times are bad.

Released into the pasture to the sound of the bison song, members of the Birdtail Sioux cried out in celebration as the herd stampeded out over the frosty plains in a video shared on Facebook.

Birdtail Knowledge Keeper and land-based coordinator Doug Hanska asked those in attendance, “can you feel that energy?”

The significance of a white calf—gifted from another nation no less—is great. The story goes that long ago, the prairie nations were starving as the buffalo had vanished. A beautiful woman in white came to the Lakota tribe one day and taught them how all things on the Earth are connected.

ANOTHER STORY LIKE THIS: Absolutely Epic: Watch the Release of a Wild Bison Herd onto Blackfeet Tribal Land

When the lessons concluded, she transformed into a white buffalo calf and brought a massive herd of bison to the people, promising to return in that same form in times of need.

Photos of the Sioux Valley Unity Riders arriving on horseback to escort the bison to their new home were posted on the Southern Chiefs’ Organization’s Facebook page.

WATCH and LISTEN to the return of the buffalo…

SHARE In The Nation’s Delight At The Return Of Their Sacred Animal…

New DNA Evidence Frees Innocent Man After 30 Years in Prison for Murder

Gordon Cordeiro visiting the grave of his mother on Makawao, Hawaii, hours after his release - credit Denise Cordeiro, family photo
Gordon Cordeiro visiting the grave of his mother on Makawao, Hawaii, hours after his release – credit Denise Cordeiro, family photo

Imprisoned in a “miscarriage of justice,” a Hawaii man has been released from prison after DNA evidence exonerated him.

Behind bars for 30 years, Gordon Cordeiro’s first desire was to visit the grave of his mother, who died of ALS just before he was arrested.

Cordeiro was freed based on advocacy from the Hawaiian Innocence Project, which seeks to free those wrongfully convicted by more closely examining the evidence of settled cases.

Cordeiro stood two trials in 1994 for the murder of Tim Baisdell during a drug deal-turned-robbery on the island of Maui. The first ended in a hung jury, with only one juror voting to convict, while the second saw him convicted and sentenced to life without possibility of parole.

There were tears in the courtroom when Judge Kristin Hammam ordered the suspect released.

“He cried, we all cried,” Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, told CBS News. “He believed that he was going to be exonerated … but having gone through two trials, you lose faith in the justice system. To finally hear a judge say, ‘I’m vacating your convictions,’ that’s when it hit him.”

“The police botched this case from the beginning and turned the No. 1 suspect into the state’s star witness, resulting in a 30-plus-year nightmare and miscarriage of justice for Gordon and his family,” Lawson added.

According to court documents filed by Cordeiro’s attorneys seen by CBS, the state sought to prosecute Cordeiro despite the 22-year-old having four alibis, by relying on four jailhouse informants motivated by promises of reduced sentences, something which the Innocence Project described as “prosecutorial misconduct.”

THE INNOCENCE PROJECT: New Evidence Unearthed by Podcasters Frees 2 Men Wrongfully Imprisoned for 25 Years

Blaisdell had gone to an area of Maui called “Skid Row” to buy a pound of cannabis with a man named Michael Freitas. Blaisdell was found dead in a ravine the following day, and Freitas, the “No.1 suspect” according to Lawson, altered his story several times before shifting blame onto Cordeiro and becoming the “star witness.”

A DNA profile of an unidentified person was found on the inside pockets of Blaisdell’s jeans, which when combined with other DNA findings, put the possibility of Cordeiro’s involvement squarely within reasonable doubt.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Freed After 28 Years of Wrongful Conviction, Man Meets Pen Pal Who Never Stopped Affirming His Innocence

To put Cordeiro’s nightmare into perspective, he walked into the courthouse with a pager. “Now everybody’s on their phones,” he told Fox News Digital.

He visited the grave of his mother on Friday, February 21st, in Makawao, Hawaii, hours after a judge ordered his release, with the AP reporting he thanked her for watching over him. His mother died of ALS at age 49.

SHARE This Incredible Second Chance Thanks To Determined Advocacy…

Netherlands to Return its Share of Nigeria’s Looted Treasures: 120 Statues Set for Repatriation

Examples of Benin Bronzes from two German museums - public domain
Examples of Benin Bronzes from two German museums – public domain

A museum in the Netherlands has announced it will return 119 bronze artifacts looted from the old Kingdom of Benin in West Africa.

One of the most notorious and ongoing disputes over looted art during colonial activities, most of the hundreds of Benin Bronzes stolen from the kingdom by the British in the 19th century reside at the British Museum.

Dozens have also made it across the Atlantic to institutions in the US, while dozens more were distributed around Europe.

The Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, or folk art museum, has made an agreement with Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments to facilitate the repatriation.

The Kingdom of Benin has no connection to the modern nation-state of Benin, and is located in the Nigerian state of Edo

“We thank the Netherlands for their cooperation and hope this will set a good example for other nations of the world in terms of repatriation of lost or looted antiquities,” Olugible Holloway, the commission’s director, said in a statement.

Other Dutch museums have also been busy repatriating artifacts looted during colonial times—from the Dutch East India Company’s holdings in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

ALSO CHECK OUT: 11th c. Monastery Gets Back Statues from Two US Museums–And Discovers Hundreds of Treasures in the Process

In total, the repatriations include the ‘Lombok treasure’, consisting of 335 objects from Lombok in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, four statues from the Javan Hindu kingdom of Singasari, 132 objects of modern art from Bali, and from Sri Lanka—a cache of ceremonial weapons from the city-states of Kandy and others including a royal canon made of gold, silver, and rubies.

“Cultural heritage is essential for telling and living the history of a country and a community,” Eppo Bruins, the Dutch culture and education minister, said in a statement. “The Benin Bronzes are indispensable to Nigeria. It is good that they are going back.”

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Stolen Trove of Angkor Royal Jewelry Returned to Cambodia After Resurfacing in London

In 2022, Nigeria made formal requests to museums around the world for the return of looted artifacts. Institutions in the UK, US, and Germany, have all sent back Benin Bronzes, but never has the nation received so many and at one time.

SHARE This Just And Responsibile Decision From Dutch Authorities… 

Pierced by Cupid’s Sedan, Woman Forgives and Marries Motorist Who Accidentally Ran Her Over

Chinese social media composite
Chinese social media composite

Can you remember the day, perhaps the moment, you met the person who would become your spouse?

Well for an unnamed Chinese woman, it’s a day extremely difficult to forget—because she probably thought it would be her last.

Whilst crossing the street on an electric bicycle, the 23-year-old looked over and saw a car flying towards her at inevitable speeds. The driver, reported with only the surname Li, was driving fast through the streets of a city in Hunan Province because of an emergency.

At that moment, Cupid swapped his bow and arrow for Li’s car. The woman was hit, and the impact broke her collarbone. Li rushed over to her to apologize and call an ambulance but received a surprising reply from his victim: “No worries” she said.

Li said she seemed to be a very kind person. The woman’s parents absolved him of his guilt and opted not to press charges, South China Morning Post’s Fran Lu reports. Feeling the obligation, Li visited her at the hospital every day to make sure she had everything she needed, during which time they grew close.

Three weeks after the collision, the woman confessed her love to the man who nearly killed her in a story that has lit up Chinese social media. At first, the 36-year-old Li rejected her, saying he was too old, however, they remained in touch and eventually went out to see a movie together.

MORE LOVE STORIES: She Was Going to Take Her Own Life, Then Married the Train Driver Who Spotted Her on Tracks

She discovered she was pregnant in September, and, bedecked in the reds and golds of traditional Chinese raiment, were married in February.

Li said marriage was not in his life plan before he met her. He thanked his wife in a social media post for her “bravery.”

DELIGHTFUL SOCIAL MEDIA SAGAS: ‘Road-Tripping Auntie’ Broke with Husband and Tradition to Travel Around China, Becoming Viral Celebrity

Moving in with his wife’s parents as they lived closer to his work, Li reports that they refused the still-used “bride price” of Chinese custom, knowing their son-in-law to be in debt. Instead, they told him to invest it in his business.

It was the sixth such road incident the man was involved in, but since striking his wife on that fateful day it has been the last.

SHARE This Ludicrous Love Story From China With Your Friends… 

“The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

By Sam Schooler

Quote of the Day: “The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Photo by: Sam Schooler

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

By Sam Schooler

Good News in History, February 25

Glacier Bay National Park - credit Brian W. Schaller, FA License

100 years ago today, President Calvin Coolidge invoked the Antiquities Act to protect Glacier Bay, a long narrow fjord bisecting the Fairweather Range and Takhinsha Mountains lined with the mouths of glaciers. Originally established as Glacier Bay National Monument, the inestimable value of the unspoiled Alaskan coastal ecosystem saw the property expanded into a National Park and Preserve, and eventually a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site—one of the largest on Earth at 3.3 million square miles. READ a little about the history of its protection… (1925)

Mice Discovered Giving ‘First Aid’ to Unconscious Mates in Surprising Display of Empathy

A mouse tends to an unconscious peer by pulling its tongue - credit: Wenjian Sun et al. 2025, released
A mouse tends to an unconscious peer by pulling its tongue – credit: Wenjian Sun et al. 2025, released

When presented with an unresponsive acquaintance, a mouse may attempt to revive them by pawing and gently biting at their face, scientists recently reported.

A third behavior was also seen, however, and that involved the attendant mouse removing the unconscious peer’s tongue in a manner nearly identical to ‘clearing the airways,’ the first step in human CPR.

Together the demonstration shows how mice and other animals may be far better caregivers than previously thought.

Li Zhang at the University of Southern California introduced caged mice to a comrade who had been anesthetized, and watched as the mouse spent nearly half of a 13-minute observation window attending to the sedated individual.

“They start with sniffing, and then grooming, and then with a very intensive or physical interaction,” says Zhang. “They really open the mouth of this animal and pull out its tongue.”

The grooming interactions often involved licking the mouse’s eyes. In the case of the tongue removal maneuver, this was observed in more than 50% of all the trials run by Zhang.

Once this behavior had been established, Zhang and his team inserted non-toxic plastic balls into the mouths of the mice after sedation, and watched how in 80% of the encounters, the attendant mouse removed the ball.

Behavioral changes were also observed. Caregiving or attending behavior stopped once the sedated mouse became responsive again, whilst the sedated mouse began moving faster, quicker than a mouse that awoke without an attendant.

Mice spent more time attending to mice they knew better.

SEE MORE: Elephants Are the First Non-Human Animals Now Known to Use Names, AI Research Shows

“I have never observed these types of behaviors when we run experiments in the lab… ” Cristina Márquez at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology in Coimbra, Portugal, told New Scientist, who also commented on how Zhang’s findings were replicated in two other studies recently.

“The fact that three independent laboratories have observed similar behaviors indicates that this is a robust finding. However, we should be really careful about anthropomorphising too much what we observe in non-human species or attributing intentions that go beyond what is observed.”

Zhang compared the behavior to using smelling salts (or a slap) to wake someone, and clearing the airways is one of the most basic steps after arriving at an unconscious person.

LET’S LOVE ANIMALS MORE: Study Shows Wild Kangaroos Can Intentionally Communicate With Humans

Neuronal activity during the behavior shows that it was driven by a release of oxytocin in the regions of the brain called the amygdala and thalamus. Oxytocin is an important signaling hormone related to caring, love, and empathy.

The research makes one hearken back to the Ploughman Poet’s immortal words:

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion
Has broken nature’s social union,
And justified that ill opinion
That makes you startle
At me—thy poor Earth-born companion, and fellow mortal.

Robert Burns—To a Mouse on Turning Up Her Nest with a Plough.

WATCH the behavior on video from New Scientist…

SHARE This Startling Display Of Caregiving With Your Friends…

Gray Slums of Brazil Turn Green with Rooftop Garden Project in Full Bloom

Green Roof Favela – Photos by Luis Cassiano Silva
Green Roof Favela – Photos by Luis Cassiano Silva

From the rooftop of a Rio de Janeiro slum, amid sheet after sheet of corrugated iron, one man reclines amid succulents and ficus.

His name is Luis Cassiano Silva, and he is the progenitor of the Teto Verde Favela, or Green Roofs Favela initiative, described by one academic as an exercise in “insurgent citizenship.”

Green Roof Favela – Photos by Luis Cassiano Silva

Rio’s famous favelas are informal settlements neglected by the government that suffer from the urban heat island effect even more so than the city’s metropolitan core.

Winding alleys and corridors of exposed brick, metal, and concrete, without a tree to be seen, the favelas absorb heat from the Sun and radiate it out into the neighborhoods rather than out into space like a forest.

Taking responsibility for improving the lives of the community, in 2014 Cassiano began teaching and planting, gardening and growing, all over Parque Arara, one of Rio’s large favelas. Green roofs are used widely in Europe to climate-proof buildings.

They not only lead to a reduction in the heat island effect, but also contribute to slowing rainwater runoff, keeping indoor areas cooler, and keeping outdoor air cleaner and more moist.

While the informality of favelas makes it all but impossible for centralized government to implement similar plans at scale, and while rows and rows of rooftop plants make it difficult to film the next Jason Bourne movie, spontaneous community-led planning and self-reliance can succeed in insulating low-income earners from climate change’s worst effects, and according to one academic, should not be interfered with.

OTHER NEWS FROM BRAZIL: When A Loving Brazilian Street Dog Kept Visiting A Car Dealership, They Finally Hired Him as a Salesman

“City officials are concerned with addressing UHI in order to keep privileged areas of the city welcoming to outsiders, since a big portion of Rio’s economy is reliant on tourism, and tourist attractions are commonly found in the more privileged areas of the city,” writes Matheus Cardoso at the University of Texas in a review article.

Green Roof Favela – Luis Cassiano Silva

“Green Roof Favela, then, challenges dominant approaches to planning by shedding light on the UHI effect in the marginalized peripheries of the city.”

Cassiano’s work has attracted the attention of multiple international news outlets, including NPR, Sky, and others.

Cassiano himself wrote that as much as the project aims to combat the urban heat island effect, his initiative mostly involves teaching people how to garden.

OTHER EFFORTS IN OTHER SLUMS: The Largest Landfill in Latin America has Been Turned into a Mangrove Forest

“Most children in the favela have no interaction with the forest and do not respect it… It’s a culture of destruction. We must educate them, slowly,” Cassiano describes. “In the favela, there are two colors [red and gray]. There are studies on color that say that red [signifies] passion, force, tension, explosion. But there is also gray—more melancholic, sad, depressing.”

“The favela is this: samba and love, but also sadness because it is poor. The color green will reduce violence. When we’re close to green space, we feel good. Favelas need this.”

SHARE This Great Green Initiative In Rio With Your Friends On Social Media… 

New Tuna Packaging Seen to Reduce Mercury Levels by 35%, Though it May Not Be Necessary

A jar of tuna next to the researchers solution of cysteine - credit: Chalmers University of Technology/Hanna Magnusson
A jar of tuna next to the researchers’ solution of cysteine – credit: Chalmers University of Technology/Hanna Magnusson

Reprinted from permission from World at Large

A breakthrough in packaged tuna preparation has been found to reduce mercury content in the fish by 35%.

Consumption of tuna has long been limited, especially by pregnant women and nursing mothers, for the known fact that the fish accumulates mercury throughout its life.

If canned with a water solution containing high amounts of the amino acid cysteine, the tuna meat was found to have 35% less mercury than normal canned tuna.

It’s one of a variety of breakthrough packaging inventions collectively referred to as “active packaging” which reacts with the food being preserved to help increase its shelf-life and nutrient density.

GNN has reported on some packaging that also contains elements that interact with the food to create a vivid color that will warn consumers if the food inside has spoiled.

In this case, the cysteine in the tuna can draw out the mercury and prevent it from binding to human tissues.

Our study shows that there are alternative approaches to addressing mercury contamination in tuna, rather than just limiting consumption. Our goal is to improve food safety and contribute to enhanced human health, as well as to better utilize food that is currently under certain restrictions,” says Mehdi Abdollahi, Associate Professor at the Department of Life Sciences at Chalmers and coordinator of a project called Detoxpak.

In science, sometimes disagreements can emerge when comparing empirical truth with observed effects. For example, mercury exists in tuna—of that there can be no doubt—but a growing mountain of evidence suggests that it’s either too low to affect the health of even a fetus, or that there’s something in tuna that’s already protecting us from the maleffects of mercury.

Tuna’s seachange

Take for example a long-term monitoring study from 2001 to 2018 which looked at mercury concentrations in the flesh of three tuna species in the Pacific. The study found consistent mercury levels independent of the increasing amounts of mercury in the ocean due to the increase in coal burning among the nations bordering the research area.

In other words, this study casts significant doubt on the idea that mercury enters the fish through environmental contamination.

Tuna meat is rich in selenium, an irreplaceable and essential nutrient for early childhood cognitive development. Selenium also happens to be part of why cysteine works to reduce mercury content in the new tuna packaging: selenium and cysteine form the amino acid selenocysteine, which methylmercury, the compound found in tuna flesh, binds to in the can (and in the human brain) but since the fetal brain doesn’t contain reserves of selenium, it has no natural defense against methylmercury inhibiting selenocysteine’s vital activities in the brain.

A 2024 study however looked at mercury and selenium concentrations in the umbilical cords of fetuses in Hawaiian mothers who ate lots of seafood containing both molecules.

The cord blood samples exceeded the EPA’s mercury toxic reference level of 5.8 ppb, but selenium concentrations were orders of magnitude higher, thus conferring, in theory, all the necessary protective elements to prevent that mercury from affecting the fetus.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: New Rice Cultivar Eliminates 70% of Methane Emissions While Boosting Yields

The study stated the finding “clarifies the reasons for the contrasting findings of certain early studies,” namely those listed in a systemic review issued by the National Academy of Science called ‘The Role of Seafood Consumption in Child Growth and Development.’

The review lists numerous studies and meta-analyses that show consumption of seafood known to contain mercury is associated with mostly positive neurodevelopmental outcomes in children, with one study showing an associated increase in IQ of 2 to 5 points. Others report a mix of positive and negligible associations between seafood consumption in young children and infants and neurodevelopmental outcomes.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Biodegradable Food Wrap Created From Algae and Cinnamon Compound is the Packaging Solution We Needed

Another meta-analysis identified by the review identified 29 studies representing 24 unique cohorts. Of the 29 studies, 24 reported beneficial outcomes associated with maternal seafood consumption and neurocognition on some or all the tests administered to children. Based on their analysis, the authors reported moderate and consistent evidence for an association of consumption of a broad range of amounts and types of commercially available seafood during pregnancy with improved neurocognitive development in the offspring as compared to not consuming seafood.

There’s certainly every reason to remove mercury from the human diet, but it looks like the science behind the threat of seafood-born mercury is undergoing a seachange.

SHARE This Double Good News For Food Safety And Human Health… 

This Apex Predator Was ‘King of the Ancient Egyptian Forest’ Then Mysteriously Went Extinct

Bastetodon syrtos skull - credit: Shoruq Al-Ashqar, released.
Bastetodon syrtos skull – credit: Shoruq Al-Ashqar, released.

From the sands of Egypt’s Western Desert, a nearly complete skull of a prehistoric apex predator offers scientists the chance to understand ever so much about how climate change affects animal extinction.

Belonging to a fully extinct order of carnivores called Hyaenodonts (hyena-teeth), the dozens of individuals that make up this lineage have been illustrated as weasel-like, cat-like, dog-like, and hyena-like, reflecting the order’s diversity.

Shoruq Al-Ashqar, who officially described the fossil Bastetodon syrtos – credit: Shoruq Al-Ashqar, released.

There were Hyaeodonts as big as rhinos that weighed more than 500 pounds, and others the size of terriers, but Bastetodon syrtos, the order’s most recent addition, definitely skewed more to the slim and agile side of the spectrum.

Discovered by Shoruq Al-Ashqar from the American Institute of Cairo, she named it Bastetodon in homage to the Ancient Egyptian cat goddess Bastet.

“It was an amazing moment,” Al-Ashqar said. “This skull is important to us, not only because it’s complete and three dimensional, and actually it’s a beautiful one, but also it provides us with new traits to know more about this extinct group of carnivorous animals.”

“We can frankly say that Bastetodon was the king of the ancient Egyptian forest,” she told CNN.

Dating back 30 million years ago to the late Oligocene epoch, the species originated within the sub-family Hyainailourinae, one of several offshoots of the order Hyaenodonta containing dozens and dozens of species across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.

Hyainailourinae means Hyena-cats, and these more feline-like creatures first appeared in Africa about 47 million years ago when the deserts of Egypt were covered with lush tropical rainforest.

A typical Hyaenodont skeleton – credit: Ryan Somma CC 2.0.

In general, Hyaenodonts like Hyainailourinae were strangely shaped animals to our sensibilities today; possessing enormous skulls, yet long and slender jaws, long tails, and very short necks. They covered a wide spectrum of sizes, and some members adapted to running on their toes, while others ran with planted feet.

One Hyaenodont was estimated to weigh in at over 600 pounds, while another was found to be the size of a large pine marten. Bastetodon probably weighed as much as a leopard or hyena. In general, it can’t be ignored how much illustrations of the creature appear like the rodents of unusual size from The Princess Bride. 

In general, CNN writes, it’s easier to find herbivore fossils, and much harder to find carnivore fossils, because in a naturally balanced ecosystem, there are far more of the former than the latter.

The discovery of such a large and complete skull will help confirm concretely how large the animal’s brain was, how much muscle was attached to its jaw—and therefore bite force—and even what its sense of smell might have been.

“The fact that they lost out to cats and dogs in their evolution is still a mystery but might be caused by their highly specialized dentition,” Dr. Cathrin Pfaff, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Palaeontology at the University of Vienna in Austria who wasn’t involved in the discovery, told CNN in an email

“Because of this, such a complete find as described here brings us a step closer to solving the mystery, even (if) it is just a medium-sized specimen.”

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: 5,000-year-old Rock Art of Boats and Cattle Unearthed in the Sahara Shows Grassland Came Before Desert

Another mystery it might reveal is the nature of an ecosystem beset by a changing climate. The Oligocene began when the Earth experienced rapid cooling—an event that marked the end of the previous, Eocene Era.

It resulted in the smallest mass extinction event in the fossil record, triggering major ‘faunal turnover,’ when ecosystems are emptied of inadaptable species whose roles and niches are filled by the survivors.

PREHISTORIC LIFE: These 385 Million-year-old Tree Roots Look Just Like Ours, and Tell a Tale Just Like Ours

In this case, modern hyenas, cats, and dogs all moved in to occupy the space that was dominated by Hyaenodonta, perhaps the reason why these animals remain apex predators today.

It is curious how an animal that evolved to hunt so many different-sized prey species would disappear entirely from the Earth. Could it be that Hyaenodonta became too diversified? Maybe Bastetodon can help us understand.

SHARE This Amazing Animal Lineage And The Skull Revealing Its Secrets… 

“In every true marriage, each serves as guide and companion to the other toward a shared enlightenment that no one else could possibly share.” – Joseph Campbell 

By Mauricio Livio

Quote of the Day: “In every true marriage, each serves as guide and companion to the other toward a shared enlightenment that no one else could possibly share.” – Joseph Campbell 

Photo by: Mauricio Livio

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

By Mauricio Livio