Two barn owlets were found on the ground in a Michigan yard in August, the first known in the state in more than 40 years. One had died. The other was nursed back to health at Wildside in Eaton Rapids, trained by a falconer, banded and set free.
A spring freeze and a dry summer left Colorado’s black bears short on food. Now 70-year-old Nanci Limbach and her tiny team in Silt are fattening up more than 30 orphaned and underweight cubs, with donated peaches, apples and even carved Halloween pumpkins.
A mother orangutan named Gadis and her baby, Garis, were rescued in the middle of the night in Kandan Village, Central Kalimantan, after a rope suspected to be a pig snare was found wrapped around both her wrists. Both are now in care.
A nearly 10-foot female dusky shark nicknamed Bukangi spent more than a month circling a narrow canal in Busan, South Korea, drawing more than 1.7 million visitors. After two failed attempts, workers guided her out on October 21. She came back hours later, so they let her leave on her own.
An off-duty officer fishing near Corry, Pennsylvania thought he saw a bear cub in the brush. It was a young bald eagle who had fallen from her nest. After more than four months at Tamarack Wildlife Center, Ursa was released at Hartstown Marsh and circled the crowd five times.
When two orphaned raccoon kits died because no rehabilitator had room for them, veterinarian Paul Bookbinder and his wife Sarah promised it would never happen again. They built a raccoon rehabilitation center on 53 acres in Earlville, New York, and estimate they have helped more than 800 raccoons.
Guide Vrettos Sklavos and his group rappelled down to remote Kalami Beach on the Greek island of Kythira and found a week-old Mediterranean monk seal pup alone and starving. With rough seas blocking any boat, they carried her up the gorge in a climbing bag.
Jennifer Britton looked out at her yard in Lake of the Woods, Nova Scotia, and saw a young buck caught by his antlers in the family hammock. She backed away and called for help, and three wildlife officers sedated him, cut him free and cooled him with ice and lake water.
In Puerto Rico’s Maricao forest, panicked squawks led U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service technician Raúl Correa to a young critically endangered Puerto Rican parrot caught by an invasive red-tailed boa. One quick cut of a bamboo stalk saved it.
Six manatee calves found orphaned along the Florida coast flew from SeaWorld Orlando to the Columbus and Cincinnati zoos on Oct. 14, 2026, riding on foam beds under blankets, to grow strong enough to return to Florida waters.