Pet360

Cloned puppies push the boundaries
​of science and love

Laura Jacques couldn’t imagine life without her beloved dog, Dylan. Although she didn’t set out to clone her dog, the $100,000 price tag was worth what turned out to be
a harrowing ordeal.
The Washington Post

Meet Challenger, a bald eagle whose soaring skills are in high demand

The first big cheer at Lincoln Financial Field occurred when the Philadelphia Eagles ran onto the field. The second roar came during “The Star-Spangled Banner”—when an actual eagle swooped around the stadium.
The Washington Post

People built a whole island to protect
the rarest of rare creatures—an albino orangutan

​Alba is one of the rarest creatures on earth: She’s the only
​known albino member of a dwindling population of Borneo orangutans. She is such a target that humans are taking unprecedented measures to keep her safe.
The Washington Post

Pete the parrot is getting a prosthetic foot, then he has to learn to live with it

Pete cocked his head and fixed his sharp eyes on the people 
​gathered to watch him. The blue-crowned mealy Amazon parrot gave no indication on this late August day that he knew something remarkable was happening. 
Smithsonian.com

What's on your botanical bucket list?

From rare orchids to grizzled desert plants, experts weigh in on which flora they most want to see before they die. Which species do other botany fans want to stalk like celebrities or witness
like world landmarks?

Nature

JSTOR Daily

Botanists use machine learning

to accelerate research 

A team of scientists in Austria has created a new, user-friendly artificial intelligence program  to speed up their research by automating the analysis of huge numbers of plant images.

​Writer and Editor

The Washington Post

A new job for the power company:
​Feeding giraffes

Some humans consider mulberry trees little more than oversize weeds, but Stella the giraffe loves them. Utility companies routinely trim trees to keep branches from damaging power lines and a growing number are are donating the collected trimmings to zoos. 
Quartz

Hello, I'm Johnny Cash the tarantula:
​Why new species are named after celebrities

When scientists discovered a new species of black tarantula living near Folsom State Prison in Folsom, Calif., the name they chose made complete sense: Aphonopelma johnnycashi. It's far from the first or last species named after someone famous.
​​The New York Times

How to save phallic flowers
​from being bred to extinction

To save endangered plant species, horticulturalists are using a tactic they’ve borrowed from horse breeders and zookeepers, building breeding registries or “studbooks” to avoid inbreeding. Naturally, they’re starting with a plant with a Latin name that means “large misshapen penis.”
Philadelphia Magazine

Giant stinky corpse flowers are incredibly rare. Two are about to bloom near Philly.

Anyone who missed the chance to see—and smell—Longwood Gardens’ corpse flower last summer will get another shot in
​the next week to experience this rare event in the Philly area.