Shadow is exhausted

Chaimu's story with her loving Sheldrick family spans 17 years. After being rescued as an orphan, she was raised and eventually rewilded herself. In September 2024, she gave birth to her first calf, Chapa, outside the home where she was raised. Sadly, she returned after more than a month and Chapa was no longer with her. Sheldrick is not sure what happened to her little boy. Chaimu came back around the Ithumba stockades a few months ago, visibly with calf. On October 2nd, she came back with a little baby girl in tow, Comet. Another beautiful light of hope. Comet is the 95th known grandcalf born to an orphan rescued, raised, and rewilded through Sheldrick's Orphans' Project. It is always such a heartwarming event when they bring their babies back to meet their Sheldrick family. It fills my soul with joy. Let's welcome Comet with love, hope, and a bright future for her and her incredible mother. Once orphaned, frightened, alone and almost blind. Now a fully healed, healthy miracle and contributor to our wonderful Earth. Here is the video of our newest star of the show. Enjoy the love today. ❤️

Shadow attempted to mount KayDee and she rejected him. A dramatic moment on the Big Bear cam captured Shadow attempting to mount Kaydee (KD1)—only for her to reject him with a sharp side kick. While viewers gasped at the rebuff, raptor reproductive biology explains this encounter as an expected phase of pair testing. In bald eagle biology, copulation requires absolute female receptivity. For mounting to succeed, the female must voluntarily lower her posture to allow cloacal contact. Because females are larger due to reverse sexual dimorphism, they retain total physical veto power. If Kaydee's hormonal profile—driven by estrogen and luteinizing hormone—has not reached peak readiness, any mount is met with immediate defense. Her side kick is an assertive behavioral marker: a controlled displacement designed to dislodge the male without escalating into real violence. Early copulation attempts, even rejected ones, are vital milestones that synchronize reproductive timing ahead of oviposition. We examine raptor mating mechanics, female choice, and what this rejection reveals about Big Bear.

For 34 years, Stana lived in captivity, but last week, thanks to Harmony Fund, this beautiful elderly bear finally got to experience something she had been denied for almost her entire life. Her freedom to be a bear. Stana's story began in the forests of Serbia, where she and her sister Mara lived with their mother as cubs. Their mom was teaching them how to be a bear. How to fish, where to find berries and where to shelter from the rain. Then a hunter killed their mother and had her taxidermied as a trophy. And in a heartbreaking twist, Stana and Mara ended up spending their lives dependent upon the same man who had killed their mother. Four years ago, authorities finally found the sisters, removed them from the property, and took them to Palic Zoo, but sadly, Mara passed away last year and Stana had now lost both her mom and her sister. But her story wasn't over yet. Last week, Harmony Fund helped move Stana to ARKA Sanctuary in Banostor, where at long last she could experience a different kind of life. A life of being a bear. Her first day was spent exploring, eating fresh fruits and vegetables and discovering her new pool. And she apparently decided clean water was highly overrated because within a couple of hours she had climbed in and out so many times that she'd turned it muddy. Fun! 😂 But what she did that evening absolutely got my heart. As the day came to an end, Stana began digging into the earth. She made a little depression just big enough for her body. Then she gathered dry grass and arranged everything the way she wanted it to make herself a natural bed. Stana hadn't lived in the forest since she was a cub, but after 34 years she remembered how her mama taught her to be a bear. It was the first time in all those years she got to sleep outside under the stars and be a beary happy bear again. We can't give Stana those lost years back. She cannot be released into the wild, both because it isn't permitted by law and because after so many years in captivity she lacks the survival skills she would need. But she can now have grass beneath her paws, fresh food, and a pool to make as muddy as her heart pleases.

A family escaped violence in Cambodia and reached the United States. But according to a newspaper account later recalled by a filmmaker, their young son remained terrified of a threat nobody else could see. His parents believed he was safe. He wasn’t convinced. The filmmaker turned that account into the starting point for a famous horror movie. Which movie? Make your guess below.