Dozens of creepy dolls on Gulf Coast beaches

Jace Tunnell, director of the Mission-Aransas Reserve at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, said, on the Golf Coast beach, his team frequently finds dolls of various types that were given a creepy aesthetic by their time in the water.

The follower count on the Mission-Aransas Reserve Facebook page has skyrocketed since he started sharing photos of the disturbing dolls. About 30 dolls have been found since he started posting the photos.

A two-year study conducted by the UT Marine Science Institute found beaches along the Texas Coastal Bend receive 10 times the amount of washed-up trash as Gulf of Mexico beaches in Florida and Mississippi.

The culprit is a “loop current” stretching from the Yucatan Peninsula to Florida, which creates eddies that washes debris toward the Texas coast.

Litter of red wolf pups born for first time in four years

A litter of six red wolf pups were born for the first time since 2018 at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina.

The litter includes four females and two males, the Red Wolf Recovery Programme announced on Facebook alongside photos of the new-borns.

Red wolves are one of the most endangered animals on the planet with an estimated 15 to 17 red wolves living in the wild and another 241 existing in captivity.

Hundreds of birds in Californian house

Gary and Patti Reitemeyer returned to their Redding home, in California, after a trip to Sacramento and discovered hundreds of swallows had flown into the house through the chimney.

A neighbour, who stopped by their home to feed their cat about 14 hours before they returned, reported there appeared to be about 20 birds in the house.

“As we pulled up, we were thinking, 20 birds or so, that’s no big deal. We open the door and it’s like an Alfred Hitchcock movie,” Gary Reitemeyer told. “There were birds flying everywhere. I mean, it was crazy. We were ducking and dodging.”

This was the first incident of its kind in their 30 years of living at the home.

Boy, 13 graduates from University of Minnesota

A 13-year-old Minnesota boy graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota — and he’s planning to get his doctorate.

Elliott Tanner of St Louis Park graduated with a major in physics and a minor in math. Tanner said the next step in his education will be the school’s doctoral physics programme.

The boy’s mother, Michelle Tanner, said, “He had started reading when he was maybe two, just three. We said, ‘Oh, well, that’s interesting. You’re reading. We didn’t teach you to read’.”

Tanner started reading college-level textbooks at the age of nine, and two years later he graduated from Normandale Community College with an associate of science degree.

He said he is hoping to earn his doctorate and give back to the university.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 14th, 2022