The Animals Department
Animal stories grounded in reporting rather than sentiment. Rescue cases, scientific finds, behavioural observation. Where we describe an animal, we name the people who know them.
10 pieces in this section
At a long-running cognition lab outside the Austrian capital, an eight-year-old common raven named Mischa has begun reproducing a sound her keepers had not realized she was studying.
Marcus Bell · Jun 2, 2026 · 3 min read
A black bear cub orphaned by a Washington wildfire in 2024 was released into a remote section of North Cascades National Park last week, after eighteen months in rehabilitation.
Lila Renshaw · May 22, 2026 · 3 min read
Pearl spent her life in a research facility in central Indiana. A nonprofit released her, with thirty-six others, to a foster home outside Bloomington in May.
Priya Mehta · May 17, 2026 · 3 min read
A commercial captain describes four hours in a building gale, and the company of perhaps thirty bottlenose dolphins that did not leave his stern. Researchers are cautious about why.
Owen Tate · May 11, 2026 · 3 min read
Beacon's Pride won twelve races in seven years. He has spent the last six months walking carefully down a corridor in Cincinnati, lowering his head to small patients who reach for him from wheelchairs.
Wren Calloway · May 5, 2026 · 3 min read
For six weeks, a Canada goose incubated her eggs on a gravel rooftop above a busy emergency room in Cleveland. A respiratory therapist and a maintenance supervisor quietly kept her alive.
Marcus Bell · Apr 28, 2026 · 3 min read
Staff at a research aquarium describe a year of escalating problem-solving by a four-year-old female named Marla. Her latest trick has forced a redesign of the enclosure latches.
Lila Renshaw · Apr 22, 2026 · 3 min read
On a small farm outside Craftsbury, a yearling whitetail and an orange tomcat named Rutherford spend their mornings together. Wildlife biologists urge caution, but the friendship is, by all appearances, real.
Priya Mehta · Apr 15, 2026 · 3 min read
Oregon's native truffles are valuable, elusive, and almost impossible to find without a trained nose. A four-year-old border collie named Pip is changing how one small farm makes its living.
Owen Tate · Apr 9, 2026 · 3 min read
Off Monterey Bay, a humpback nudged a paddler away from a shark she had not yet seen. Marine biologists call the behavior rare, deliberate, and not entirely understood.
Wren Calloway · Apr 3, 2026 · 3 min read