On August 13, 2025, NY State Parks blogged about candid trail cam footage from environmental educators, capturing animals like deer and birds. #wildlife #nature 👉 Some of the findings that I truly liked: 🔸Foxes at Clay Pit Ponds Park Preserve, Staten Island. Two red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are playing on ice in a remote wetland, away from the main trail system at Clay Pit Ponds Park Preserve. Red foxes live in family groups, so these two are most likely siblings. 🔸Barred Owls and Mallard Ducks at John Boyd Thacher State Park, Voorheesville Wintertime hunting can be a tricky task; this barred owl (Strix varia) tried to hunt a mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) with no success! This lucky duck got away with its life. Barred owls only hunt bigger prey when there is not much around to eat. 🔸Deer and Heron at Grafton Lakes State Park, Grafton Whited-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and great blue heron (Ardea herodias) are the stars of this video. The pair are foraging for their meals together but eating different things. White-tailed deer are herbivores, so the deer is eating plants while the great blue heron hunts for fish, insects, amphibians, and reptiles.

On August 14, Popular Science and others shared 10 award-winning images from 2025 contests capturing wildlife resilience, including sea turtles, forest elephants, and more. #wildlife #nature 🔸Sparring Saigas on the Steppe, by Andrey Giljov. The saiga antelope roams the Eurasian steppe of Central Asia. Its distinct, downward-facing tubular nose helps filter dust and warm cool air. Like most wildlife, the bulbous-headed antelopes avoid human contact, so capturing compelling images of the creatures can prove difficult. The photograph (seen below) took home the top honors for the 2025 BMC Ecology and Evolution and BMC Zoology image competition. . 🔸“Jump!”, a breaching humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) captured from a boat in Varanger, Norway. By Alwin Hardenbol 🔸“Spot me if you can”, a jeweled gecko (Naultinus gemmeus) balancing on the branch of a tree. By Jonathan Goldenberg. 🔸“Attentive Parenting in Burying Beetles”, a mother burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespilloides) feeds her larvae on the carcass of a mouse. By Nick Royle. 🔸“Nymphs and Nature: A Close-Up Journey”, a cluster of newly-hatched nymphs of Acanthocoris scaber on a leaf. By Sritam Kumar Sethy. 🔸“The Lookout”, a moment of pause as a barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) takes stock of its surroundings. By Alwin Hardenbol. 🔸“Radio-Tagging to study one of the UK’s rarest beetles”, a male blue ground beetle (Carabus intricatus) waiting to be fitted with a backpack-like radio tag. By Nick Royle. 🔸“Galliform Guard Duty”, a camera trap image of a family of capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) nesting in Scotland’s Cairngorms. By Jack Bamber. 🔸“Mastering the art of camouflage”, the near-indistinguishable camouflage of an Asian grass frog (Fejervarya limnocharis) against the rugged bark of a tree is barely visible. By Sritam Kumar Sethy. 🔸“Deimatic Beetle’s Eye for an Eye”, a ‘head on’ shot of a beetle’s threatening display. By Abhijeet Bayani.

On August 16, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust revealed a video on treating a wild elephant of injuries inflicted in human-wildlife conflict: Two large chunks had been hacked out of his trunk, and he was riddled with arrow wounds. The injuries had taken a toll on his condition, but with treatment of the medical team, there was hope about his recovery. In the four months since, they have been continuously monitoring the elephant's condition. Their pilot spotted him during a recent patrol and observed that he would benefit from follow-up treatment. The dry season was setting in, and the elephant's injured trunk — while healing well — was still inhibiting his ability to eat effectively. This elephant was among 3800+ elephant cases to date. #wildlife #WildlifeConservation