Today, at Den Helder ferry harbour, two jackdaws sitting on top of a sign, a bit distant from each other. The sign warned people to distance spatially.
In the forest west of Den Burg village on Texel island, a great spotted woodpecker calls.
A wolf cub that was found mummified in northern Canada lived at least 56,000 years ago, scientists say.
Hidden in permafrost for tens of thousands of years, the female cub was discovered by a gold miner near Dawson city in Yukon territory in 2016.
She has since been named Zhur, meaning wolf, by the local Tr’ondek Hwech’in people.
Scientists now say the cub, of which the hide, hair and teeth are intact, is “the most complete wolf mummy known”.
“She’s basically 100% intact – all that’s missing are her eyes,” lead author Professor Julie Meachen, a paleontologist and professor of anatomy at Des Moines University in Iowa, told the EurekAlert! science news website.
Using a variety of techniques, the team was able to determine many aspects of the cub’s life, from her age and diet to a probable cause of death.
Figuring out what this creature’s face actually looked like would take paleontologists years. But understanding this weird animal can help us shine a light on at least one way for ecosystems to bounce back from even the worst mass extinction.