Outdoor Updates: Daily News
Happy Birthday to the U.S. National Parks
This Sunday, August 25, the U.S. National Parks will celebrate its 103 birthday. Back in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress created the agency under the National Park Service Organic Act. Today, there are over 400 national parks and monuments under the agency’s care.
To celebrate the big event, August 25 is a fee-free day, when all national parks will open to visitors free of charge. In addition to the birthday celebration, there are two other upcoming national park fee-free days in 2019: September 28, 2019 (National Public Lands Day) and November 11, 2019 (Veterans Day). Head to the parks this Sunday to celebrate (and enjoy!) America’s best idea for free.
Child attacked by mountain lion in Colorado
A mountain lion in central Colorado attacked a child on Wednesday, sending the youngster to the hospital. Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed that the attack happened in a subdivision in Bailey, Colorado, 35-miles southwest of Denver. The child’s condition was not immediately known.
Though mountain lion attacks are rare, this marks the second attack in Colorado in two weeks. Earlier this month, a hunter fought off a mountain lion with a pocketknife near Kremmling, Colorado. A necropsy performed on that cougar showed that the animal likely attacked due to hunger, as only grass was found in its stomach. In the last 100 years in North America there have been less than a dozen fatal mountain lion attacks on people.
For the first known time, a dolphin mom has adopted an orphan whale
Scientists are sharing the heartwarming story of a bottlenose dolphin that adopted an orphaned melon-headed whale. Back in 2014, researchers noticed a bottlenose dolphin doting on two calves off of the coast of French Polynesia, one of which looked a little funny. Eventually, scientists discovered that the different-looking calve was of an entirely different species. During a long-term study, scientists observed that the adoptive calf was rarely without its mother and learned to integrate himself into the family unit and the broader group of dolphins. The adoptive mother was even observed nursing the baby whale on two different occasions.
Scientists say that adoption among wild animals is rare and, when it does happen, is usually between animals of the same species. Scientists theorize that the birth of her biological calf may have triggered the bottlenose dolphin’s maternal instincts, allowing her to form a bond with the melon-headed whale.
