In 2018, Arizona hiker Phil Powers was lost in the woods, suffering from dehydration and kidney failure, when he lit a signal fire to call for help. His actions resulted in a timely rescue—and a 230-acre wildfire and a criminal sentence.   The sentence, handed down on February 14, includes nearly $300,000 in fines and a [...]

Several tons of rock cut loose from a mountainside and crashed near Northside Drive in Yosemite National Park this Monday. No one was hurt, but the rockslide forced the National Park Service to close a number of roads and trailheads. The timing couldn’t be worse: The rockfall originated near the Horsetail Falls area of El [...]

The bad news: According to this footage, sea monsters are definitely real. The good news: They’re not nearly as speedy as you may have been led to believe. In July 2022, a woman spotted something while enjoying an afternoon at Coyote Beach in Baja California Sur, Mexico. She took a few steps closer and turned [...]

Usually, the most dangerous thing you’ll encounter in New York’s Prospect Park is an overly aggressive pigeon. So, imagine the surprise of park staff when they spotted a large alligator emerging from one of the ponds. The beast, which measured a full four feet long, sent onlookers running. He was quickly nicknamed Godzilla. After the [...]

Albuquerque police stumbled into an unlikely surprise while chasing down the source of gunfire in Albuquerque, New Mexico last month. They followed the sound of shooting to a mobile home, where they found the culprit—as well as a four-month-old baby tiger. The tiger, which had likely been obtained illegally as part of the black-market pet [...]

When a huge fire broke out at The Dog Resort, a doggy daycare facility in Seattle, this month, staff members didn’t think they’d be able to get all the dogs out in time.  A dryer had caught flame, and thick gray smoke poured through the building. It was hard to see inside, let alone breathe. [...]

Last February, Leland Nisky, a professional climbing guide, was nearing the top of The Ribbon, a 600-foot ice climb in Ouray, Colorado. As he swung an ax into the ice near the top of the climb, a massive slough avalanche came surging out of nowhere, swamping him in a deluge of snow. One minute he [...]

In Taiwan, a local population of wild pangolins—one of the world’s most endangered animals—is recovering a little too well. In most places in Southeast Asia, pangolin numbers are critically low after decades of hunting and poaching. (Prized for their unique scaly skin, the anteater-like creatures are the most-trafficked mammal on earth.) But near the Taipei [...]

After weeks of waiting, visitors to Yosemite National Park were treated to a fiery spectacle this weekend. When the conditions in California’s Yosemite Valley are just right, the sun rises behind Horsetail Falls, one of the park’s marquee cascades. When that happens, the falls light up as if on fire.  This “firefall” is a stunning [...]

You might think the name “giant phantom jellyfish” is a little dramatic, but you’ve never come face to face with a Stygiomedusa gigantea. Just recently, a group of international scientists with the Viking Expedition Team became the first to nab photographic evidence of the elusive creature — and prove that it definitely lives up to [...]