These were the top animal stories on NPR in 2024, including a boy's pregnant octopus
This year, the animal kingdom was filled with triumph, loss and new discoveries.
These were the top animal stories of 2024.
A gam of whales followed a U.K. man for hours
In July, Tom Waddington set out to row more than 2,000 nautical miles from Newfoundland to the United Kingdom by himself. But he made some friends along the way — a gam of pilot whales.
Waddington, a ski instructor, said he was feeling a bit down at one point on his journey, and the mammals made their entrance at the perfect moment. The group grew from just a few, to hundreds. They bobbed in and out of the water while Waddington recorded. Though at least one bumped into his boat, causing some concern about the equipment.
They stayed with him for a couple hours, and eventually went on their way. The boat was not harmed in the process.
"It was absolutely incredible," Waddington said.
Turns out RFK Jr. was the one who left a bear in Central Park
Ten years ago a bear carcass was mysteriously dumped in New York City's Central Park. It wasn't until earlier this year, though, that the culprit came forth — former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
He confessed in an August video that he witnessed someone hit the bear with their car. He loaded the carcass in his own car and intended to skin it and use its meat. But he was headed to the airport after a long day of dining and falconry, and didn't want to leave the bear in his vehicle while he was out of town.
So he hid it in a bush in the park, along with a bicycle, to make it look as if the bear was run over — again.
Kennedy said he felt compelled to divulge his responsibility for the incident as The New Yorker was preparing to write an exposé about him.
Salmon were headed for freedom, then death — then got lost
In Oregon, a fish tanker truck carrying more than 100,000 salmon crashed and turned upside down in March.
The driver survived with only minor injuries. Remarkably, the truck landed near a creek and about 77,000 fish lived on after making their way to the water, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
But the fish were in the wrong place.
They had been specifically hatched to boost salmon populations in the Imnaha River, as their numbers had begun to dwindle due to hydropower projects. They were getting ready to be released into the river, which turns into Snake River, which leads to the ocean.
Conservationists planned for the salmon to make their way back to the Imnaha River to spawn, but now they will likely return to the site of the accident, Lookingglass Creek, which leads to the Grand Ronde River.
"Fishery managers expect to see about 500-900 fewer adult fish returning in 2026 and 2027 due to the loss," Oregon's wildlife agency said. "The 77,000 fish that made it into Lookingglass Creek will likely return there and produce approximately 350-700 additional adults."
A boy and his pet octopuses
A 9-year-old Oklahoma boy had his dreams come true — a pet octopus named Terrance.
Cal Clifford has had a penchant for the cephalopods since he was 2 years old, his father Cameron said.
So with lots of research and preparation, he made a home for Terrance. But Terrance had a surprise for the Cliffords — she was pregnant with dozens of tiny octopuses.
Angelina Komatovich, a California marine biologist, said while the Cliffords had a great setup for Terrance, it likely would not be enough to accommodate the little ones. And unfortunately, octopuses don't live very long after giving birth; Terrance was no exception.
As of July, the family said in a TikTok post it wouldn't be long before the offspring were "shipped to their forever homes."
A father-daughter duo discovers a 200-million-year-old fossil
On a beach in England, a father-daughter's discoveries of a series of bones turned out to be the fossil of the largest marine reptile ever.
Justin Reynolds and his daughter Ruby, 11, found pieces of a skeleton belonging to the giant ichthyosaur, which lived 202 million years ago, during the Triassic period.
The Reynolds' sighting continued the work of Dean Lomax, a paleontologist, who found pieces of the animal's jawbone eight years ago, but had not found more after that.
Like its distant cousin the crocodile, it has a long snout, but also shares some physical characteristics with other marine animals, such as fins and flippers. They were usually about 82 feet long, or twice the length of a school bus.
A man and his pet alligator
Tony Cavallaro, of Buffalo, N.Y., had his pet alligator that he looked after for three decades confiscated.
Albert the Alligator was born in captivity and adopted by Cavallaro at a reptile show when he was just two months old. Albert is now 34, 12 feet and 750 pounds. He was living in Cavallaro's home, which included a $120,000 add-on just for him, equipped with a pond, heated floors and lots of pillows.
Cavallaro had a license to keep Albert as long as he followed certain New York rules for housing dangerous animals. But the license expired after state laws changed, and even still, the state found that Cavallaro was not in compliance, as he had let other people pet Albert and get in the pool with him.
An online petition to bring Albert back to Cavallaro garnered more than 120,000 signatures. At the time of publication, Albert was living with "a licensed caretaker who will house and care for the animal until it can be properly transported for permanent care."
A 35,000-year-old saber-toothed kitten mummy was found in the Russian cold
A mummified saber-toothed kitten was found in the Siberian permafrost in 2020, and researchers published their findings about the animal in November.
Its fur, claws and whiskers were still intact, and scientists concluded that the cub was about three weeks old when it died about 35,000 years ago.
Other ancient animal remains, such as those of a woolly rhino and a wolf from the Ice Age, have been found in the Siberian region, as its cold, dry climate makes it a great place for preservation.
Alaska's Fat Bear Week turns deadly
Each year, the Katmai National Park & Preserve in Alaska puts on Fat Bear Week to highlight brown bears with exemplary survival skills. But the celebration turned gruesome this autumn when one of the male contestants killed a female contestant.
Live cameras captured the bears' fight to death at the mouth of a river. Sarah Bruce, a ranger at Katmai, said while it is uncommon, it is possible the male saw the female as a food source given that hibernation was approaching.
The male dragged the female's body ashore. It was eventually seen in the woods, where another bear overtook the carcass.
"The park's not gonna do anything to the bear, to 469," Bruce said. "You know, it's just kind of part of bear behavior and bear life. It's one of the sadder parts of it, one of the more difficult parts of it. But we're certainly just going to allow nature to play out as it does."
An orangutan healed its own cut with leaves
Research published in May found that an orangutan in an Indonesian rainforest used the juice and leaves of a plant to treat a cut on his face.
The cut could have come from a fight with another male. Regardless, in 2022, scientists observed Rakus the Orangutan chew liana vine for seven minutes before dabbing the juice on his face. Then, when flies began swarming the area, he used the mushed leaves as a bandage.
Within five days, the wound healed.
Analysis of the liana vine showed it has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, antifungal and antioxidant properties. The vine is rarely eaten by orangutans in that area.
A deep sea creature kept washing ashore in California
Oarfish are known to swim in waters 300 to 3,000 feet below the surface. Yet, in the span of three months, three of the deep sea creatures ended up on the shores of California.
The fish can wash ashore if they are hurt or lost, but the recent occurrences could have been a result of changing ocean conditions, or a shift in larger phenomena, such as El Niño or La Niña. Still, only 19 oarfish have been detected on California beaches since 1901.
The creatures, which can grow up to 30 feet long, are sometimes associated with Japanese folklore. Some interpret their appearance as a bad omen, while others view them favorably as guides.
