Rare Breed of Killer Whale May Be New Species

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The rarely-seen "type D" orcas—which live in the Southern Ocean—are one of four varieties of killer whale. Researchers recently sequenced type D's genome using material collected from a museum skeleton from 1955. (Watch: "Killer Whales 'Gang Up' to Capture Seal.")

Scientists first spotted type D killer whales in 1955, when a pod of them washed ashore on a New Zealand beach. The stranding stood out as unusual because of the whales' strange appearance. While typical killer whales—types A, B, and C—have streamlined bodies and large, white eye-patches, type D whales have tiny eye markings and large, bulbous heads. (Watch: "Killer Whales vs. Minke Whale.")

The type D pod's stranding resulted in a handful of photos and the collection of one skeleton by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington (map).

According to Robert Pitman, a marine biologist at the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, and a co-author of the new study, for many years researchers thought the whales were the result of genetic mutations because there were no other known sightings.

But some 50 years after the New Zealand stranding, a group of researchers, including Pitman, took a closer look at the documentation of the event. They unearthed other accounts of the weird whales, and found that the New Zealand pod was not the only sighting in history.

"We started seeing photos of this type of animal from various places, all around the Antarctic waters," Pitman said. "The weather is bad down there all the time," he said. "That's why the whale escaped notice from scientists for so many years."

Hope for Endangered Butterfly Species

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The brown-and-yellow insect, which graced a stamp in 1996 to reflect its endangered status, has been hard to locate lately.

Sightings of the Schaus have fluctuated dramatically over the past 20 years, from the hundreds to the dozens. In recent years, habitat loss, drought, and pesticides have contributed to a precipitous drop in sightings, from 41 in 2011 to four in 2012.

Currently, the butterfly is believed to live only in a small patch of forest called tropical hardwood hammock, dense with evergreens and ferns, on Elliot Key in the Florida Keys. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Schaus as endangered in 1984.

Now the butterfly's odds of survival are improving, thanks to researchers from the University of Florida, the National Park Service, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the North American Butterfly Association.

This spring, the researchers collected seven larvae and more than a hundred eggs to store for breeding the Schaus next year. Collecting eggs is critical—the Schaus, unlike other butterflies, lays eggs only once a year, which makes it harder for the species to rebound.

The eggs and larvae are being stored in the lab of Jaret Daniels, an assistant professor in the University of Florida's Department of Entomology and Nematology, and an associate curator of lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) for the university's Florida Museum of Natural History. Daniels hopes to raise the larvae and eggs to maturity in his lab, then breed more Schaus butterflies to bolster the population.

Winners of 2013 Amateur Contest

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Captured by Kyle McBurnie, the photo is the overall winner of the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science's Underwater Photography Contest, which recognizes amateur photography. (See the best underwater pictures of 2012.)

Started in 2005, the contest has grown in popularity, with over 700 entries submitted this year, according to university scientist and contest judge Jiangang Luo.

"All the pictures we got were large, and high quality," said Luo. "It was a really tough job to narrow it down to a few."

The contest is open to any photography enthusiast, as long as they earn less than 20 percent of their income taking pictures. This year, entries came from all over the globe, with submissions from 23 countries. Categories include macro, wide angle, fish or marine animal portrait, and student work. (Get National Geographic's underwater-photography tips.)

Luo said that he and his fellow judges—photographer and university lecturer Myron Wang and underwater photographer Nicole Wang—unanimously agreed on the seal photo because it stood out from the others.

"The organizers would flash the photos in front of us," he explained, "and when that one showed up it caught all of our attentions."

Lost and Found: Rusty, the Red Panda Returns to National Zoo

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The male red panda had been missing from the National Zoo in Washington D.C. since 6:00 p.m. Sunday evening. Authorities have yet to announce how the furry fugitive managed to escape.

"The keepers last saw him when they fed him on Sunday night," said Devin Murphy, a spokesperson for the zoo. "They noticed he wasn't in his cage at 7:30 a.m. when they went to check on him."
She said that zoo officials combed the grounds for the panda, who is less than a year old.
"He could be sick & hiding, or someone could have taken him," the Zoo posted on Twitter on Monday morning before finding their wayward charge. "Please help us keep an eye out for Rusty."
Red pandas are typically the size of a house cat and have big, bushy tails. (Read: Red panda facts.)

They spend most of their time in trees, even sleeping in the branches. They are most active at night, as well as in the early morning and early evening hours.

"They're raccoon-like and share certain raccoon characteristics but they're not as adept or opportunistic as raccoons," said Marc Brody, a conservationist and National Geographic grantee who founded Panda Mountain, a panda conservation center.

"And they would be hard pressed to make it on their own," he said. "If it was late in the season, there would be a lot more fruiting plants around the National Zoo. I'm sure he can live for a couple of days but to forage indefinitely, it's early in the season to feed on fruits and berries."
Brody warned that Rusty could have been in trouble if temperatures climbed. Red pandas typically live in a cooler climate and might not adapt well to the humidity of Washington.

"Red pandas generally tend to sleep in trees during the heat of the day," said Murphy. "They're not aggressive, but we are advising people to respect that he is a wild animal."
Rusty arrived in Washington D.C. in April, from a zoo in Lincoln, Nebraska. He has been on exhibit for about three weeks and is up to date on all of his shots.

He is not the only red panda to go on the lam. Yin, who lived at the Virginia Zoo from 2007 until her death in 2011, escaped twice in a month shortly after arriving in Norfolk, Va.

"She was quite the escape artist," said Winfield Danielson, the marketing and PR manager for the Virginia Zoo. "We design the habitats in accordance with the standards of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to keep the animals secure in their habitats but sometimes things happen. One time a branch fell from a tree and allowed Yin to climb over."