CHEYENNE, Wyoming: A “mega den” of hundreds of rattlesnakes in Colorado is getting even bigger now that late summer is here and babies are being born.
Thanks to livestream video, scientists studying the den on a craggy hillside in Colorado are learning more about these enigmatic — and often misunderstood — reptiles. They’re observing as the youngsters, called pups, slither over and between adult females on lichen-encrusted rocks.
The public can watch too on the Project RattleCam website and help with important work including how to tell the snakes apart. Since researchers put their remote camera online in May, several snakes have become known in a chatroom and to scientists by names including “Woodstock,” “Thea” and “Agent 008.”
The project is a collaboration between California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, snake removal company Central Coast Snake Services and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
By involving the public, the scientists hope to dispel the idea that rattlesnakes are usually fierce and dangerous. In fact, experts say they rarely bite unless threatened or provoked and often are just the opposite.
Rattlesnakes are not only among the few reptiles that care for their young. They even care for the young of others. The adults protect and lend body heat to pups from birth until they enter hibernation in mid-autumn, said Max Roberts, a CalPoly graduate student researcher.
“We regularly see what we like to call ‘babysitting,’ pregnant females that we can visibly see have not given birth, yet are kind of guarding the newborn snakes,” Roberts said Wednesday.
As many as 2,000 rattlesnakes spend the winter at the location on private land, which the researchers are keeping secret to discourage trespassers. Once the weather warms, only pregnant females remain while the others disperse to nearby territory.
This year, the scientists keeping watch over the Colorado site have observed the rattlesnakes coil up and catch water to drink from the cups formed by their bodies. They’ve also seen how the snakes react to birds swooping in to try to grab a scaly meal.
The highlight of summer is in late August and early September when the rattlesnakes give birth over a roughly two-week period.
“As soon as they’re born, they know how to move into the sun or into the shade to regulate their body temperature,” Roberts said.
There are 36 species of rattlesnakes, most of which inhabit the US They range across nearly all states and are especially common in the Southwest. These being studied are prairie rattlesnakes, which can be found in much of the central and western US and into Canada and Mexico.
Like other pit viper species but unlike most snakes, rattlesnakes don’t lay eggs. Instead, they give birth to live young. Eight is an average-size brood, with the number depending on the snake’s size, according to Roberts.
Roberts is studying how temperature changes and ultraviolet sunlight affect snake behavior. Another graduate student, Owen Bachhuber, is studying the family and social relationships between rattlesnakes.
The researchers watch the live feed all day. Beyond that, they’re getting help from as many as 500 people at a time who tune in online.
“We are interested in studying the natural behavior of rattlesnakes, free from human disturbance. What do rattlesnakes actually do when we’re not there?” Roberts said.
Now that the Rocky Mountain summer is cooling, some males have been returning. By November, the camera running on solar and battery power will be turned off until next spring, when the snakes will re-emerge from their “mega den.”
Newborn rattlesnakes at a Colorado ‘mega den’ are making their live debut
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Newborn rattlesnakes at a Colorado ‘mega den’ are making their live debut
- Thanks to livestream video, scientists studying the den on a craggy hillside in Colorado are learning more about these enigmatic reptiles
- By involving the public, the scientists hope to dispel the idea that rattlesnakes are usually fierce and dangerous
AI personal shoppers hunt down bargain buys
NEW YORK: Internet giants are diving deeper into e-commerce with digital aides that know shoppers’ likes, let them virtually try clothes on, hunt for deals and even place orders.
The rise of virtual personal shoppers springs from generative artificial intelligence being put to work in “agents” specializing in specific tasks and given autonomy to complete them independently.
“This is basically the next evolution of shopping experiences,” said CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino.
Google last week unveiled shopping features built into a new “AI Mode.”
It can take a person’s own photo and meld it with that of a skirt, shirt or other piece of clothing spotted online, showing how it will look on them.
The AI adjusts the clothing size to fit, accounting for how fabrics drape, according to Google head of advertising and commerce Vidhya Srinivasan.
Shoppers can then set the price they would pay and leave the AI to relentlessly browse the Internet for a deal — alerting the shopper when it finds one, and asking if it should buy using Google’s payment platform.
“They’re taking on Amazon a little bit,” Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart said of Google.
The tool is also a way to make money from AI by increasing online traffic and opportunities to show ads, Greengart added.
The Silicon Valley tech titan did not respond to a query regarding whether it is sharing in revenue from shopping transactions.
OpenAI added a shopping feature to ChatGPT earlier this year, enabling the chatbot to respond to requests with product suggestions, consumer reviews and links to merchant websites.
Perplexity AI late last year began letting subscribers pay for online purchases without leaving its app.
Amazon in April added a “Buy for Me” mode to its Rufus digital assistant, allowing users to command it to make purchases at retailer websites off Amazon’s platform.
Walmart head of technology Hari Vasudev recently spoke about adding an AI agent to the retail behemoth’s online shopping portal, while also working with partners to make sure their digital agents keep Walmart products in mind.
Global payment networks Visa and Mastercard in April each said their technical systems were modernized to allow payment transactions by digital agents.
“As AI agents start to take over the bulk of product discovery and the decision-making process, retailers must consider how to optimize for this new layer of AI shoppers,” said Elize Watson of Clarkston Consulting.
Retailers are likely to be left groping in the dark when it comes to what makes a product attractive to AI agents, according to Watson.
Analyst Zino does not expect AI shoppers to cause an e-commerce industry upheaval, but he does see the technology benefitting Google and Meta.
Not only do the Internet rivals have massive amounts of data about their users, but they are also among frontrunners in the AI race.
“They probably have more information on the consumer than anyone else out there,” Zino said of Google and Meta.
Tech company access to data about users hits the hot-button issue of online privacy and who should control personal information.
Google plans to refine consumer profiles based on what people search for and promises that shoppers will need to authorize access to additional information such as email or app use.
Trusting a chatbot with one’s buying decisions may spook some people, and while the technology might be in place the legal and ethical framework for it is not.
“The agent economy is here,” said PSE Consulting managing director Chris Jones.
“The next phase of e-commerce will depend on whether we can trust machines to buy on our behalf.”
‘Solo Leveling’ dominates Crunchyroll Anime Awards
DUBAI: “Solo Leveling” emerged as the top winner at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, clinching anime of the year, best action, best new series, and several accolades for music and performance. The global fan-favorite led the night at the ceremony held at the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa in Tokyo.
The annual celebration of anime recognized excellence across 28 categories, powered by a record-breaking 51 million fan votes worldwide.
Among the night’s other standout winners was “Look Back,” the poignant adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s one-shot manga, which took home the film of the year award. “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” extended its celebrated legacy by winning best continuing series and best animation.
The supernatural comedy “Dan Da Dan” also made waves, picking up awards for best opening sequence, best anime song, and best character design.
In a highlight of the evening, “Attack on Titan” received Crunchyroll’s first-ever Global Impact Award, a new honor recognizing a franchise’s lasting cultural influence. The award follows the 2024 conclusion of the acclaimed saga with “Attack on Titan: The Last Attack.” Director Yuichiro Hayashi accepted the prize on behalf of studio MAPPA and the show’s creators.
“Fans form deep emotional connections to anime. These are not just series, films or songs, but rather works of art that help define the identity of anime fans,” said Rahul Purini, president of Crunchyroll. “With an incredible 51 million votes this year, the 2025 Anime Awards are celebrating the creators in Japan who have captured the hearts of fans and are powering anime’s prominence in global pop culture.”
Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders
- Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO in 2023
- Finland has 4,305 reindeer owners and around 184,000 reindeer, living in 57 reindeer husbandry districts
ROVANIEMI, Finland: A fighter jet roaring through the grey sky breaks the tranquility of a boreal forest in northern Finland, one more sign of a growing military presence that is challenging the ability of reindeer herders to exercise their livelihood.
“Military activity has increased massively here since Finland joined NATO,” reindeer herder Kyosti Uutela said on a tour in Rovajarvi, the largest artillery practice range in western Europe, on a day when no ground exercises were underway.
Located 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Russian border, Rovajarvi covers an area of 1,070 square kilometers on land that also makes up part of the reindeer husbandry district that Uutela heads.
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO in 2023 in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And in 2024, a defense cooperation agreement between the United States and Finland came into force.
“Training activities and exercises have increased since the beginning of the war in Ukraine” because of the worsened security situation, the Finnish Defense Forces told AFP in a statement.
“This is naturally also reflected in Rovajarvi,” it said, saying the firing range provided unique training possibilities for international troops thanks to its size, terrain and seasonal changes.
Last year, Finland participated in 103 military exercises at home and abroad, up from 89 in 2023.
Ascending a small hill where the forest has been clear-cut and trenches dug for training purposes, Uutela said the spot “had been lost” as a grazing ground.
“The use of heavy army tanks and the presence of thousands of soldiers in the forest destroy the lichen pastures,” Uutela said, referring to the reindeer’s main source of food.
“Reindeer will not be able to live here anymore,” he said.
Finland has 4,305 reindeer owners and around 184,000 reindeer, living in 57 reindeer husbandry districts that cover 36 percent of the country’s total area.
A part of them belong to the indigenous Sami population that lives in Sapmi, which straddles northern regions of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
The non-Sami people such as Uutela who also practice reindeer husbandry include herders living near the Rovajarvi range, outside the Sapmi homeland.
Full-time herders sell reindeer meat, pelts and handicrafts as their main source of income, and husbandry has been an integral part of the indigenous Sami culture for generations.
Riikka Poropudas, another herder in Rovajarvi, said the military presence in the area had increased “radically” since Finland’s NATO accession, forcing herders to feed their reindeer in fenced areas more often than before.
Finland’s Defense Forces said the needs of reindeer husbandry were “taken into account in the planning of exercises, for example in terms of the times and locations,” adding that they were in daily contact with Rovajarvi herders.
But Poropudas worries that a large live-fire and combat exercise involving around 6,500 soldiers from Finland, Sweden and Britain this month would disturb her reindeer.
The calving season is at its busiest in mid-May.
“The activities stress both female reindeer and newborn calves, and drive them away from their natural pastures,” she said.
Tuomas Aslak Juuso, acting president of the Sami parliament in Finland, said climate change and land use changes – including the militarization of the Arctic – posed special challenges for the roughly 1,200 Sami reindeer herders in Finland.
“Our way of reindeer husbandry depends fully on the herding model and the reindeer being able to graze freely on natural pasture lands,” he said.
But the effects of climate change on winter conditions already mean that herders increasingly have to provide their reindeer with supplementary feed “in order to avoid mass deaths.”
A large international military exercise conducted in Finnish Sapmi in 2023 had been “quite a negative experience for the Sami people,” Juuso said.
“The local reindeer herders had not been informed beforehand, grazing conditions for that spring were damaged and tractors damaged the lichen cover, which may never grow back,” he said.
“When these things are planned, there should be early consultation with the Sami and responsibility for damage and harm.”
Moscow bids farewell to late ballet supremo Grigorovich
MOSCOW: Fans paid tribute on Friday in Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre to late ballet supremo Yuri Grigorovich, who died this week at the age of 98.
Born in the Soviet city of Leningrad to a ballet family, Grigorovich’s career — as a dancer and choreographer — spanned 80 years.
For much of it, he was the artistic powerhouse behind the Bolshoi, which he was said to have run with an iron fist.
Grigorovich made his name staging classics such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Stone Flower.
The latter was his most famous piece, based on folk tales from the Urals accompanied by composer Sergei Prokofiev’s music.
He then led the Bolshoi between 1964 and 1995.
“This man was a gift from God,” Agnessa Balieva, 78, a former star dancer at the Bolshoi, told AFP when she came to pay tribute to Grigorovich.
The choreographer’s coffin was covered in garlands in front of the stage of the Bolshoi, alongside a large black and white portrait of him, while music from his ballets was played.
“He was a great man, a genius, a legend,” said Ilia Krivov, a 42-year-old former Bolshoi dancer.
He said Grigorovich had elevated male ballet to “an unprecedented level.”
“Grigorovich was the soul of the Bolshoi,” said Svetlana Staris, a journalist and poet, hailing a figure who “revolutionized ballet.”
‘Leap together,’ Kermit the Frog says in commencement address at University of Maryland graduation
- Kermit, who was created in 1955 and became the centerpiece of the Muppets franchise, is no stranger to the school
- Muppets creator Jim Henson graduated from Maryland in 1960 with home economics as his major
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland: Kermit the Frog knows it’s not easy being green — or graduating from college and entering the real world, especially during a time of economic uncertainty and political turmoil.
Members of the University of Maryland’s class of 2025 received their diplomas Thursday evening with sage advice from the amphibious Muppet ringing in their ears.
“As you prepare to take this big leap into real life, here’s a little advice — if you’re willing to listen to a frog,” the beloved Muppet said. “Rather than jumping over someone to get what you want, consider reaching out your hand and taking the leap side by side, because life is better when we leap together.”
The university announced in March that Kermit, who was created in 1955 and became the centerpiece of the Muppets franchise, would be this year’s commencement speaker. He is also no stranger to the school.
Muppets creator Jim Henson graduated from Maryland in 1960. A home economics major, he fashioned the original frog puppet from one of his mother’s coats and a Ping-Pong ball cut in half, according to a statement from the university. Henson died in 1990.
A bronze statue of Henson and Kermit sitting on a bench is a well-known feature of the College Park campus.
In a video announcing the speaker pick, Kermit is described as an environmental advocate, a bestselling author, an international superstar and a champion of creativity, kindness and believing in the impossible.
His speaker bio calls him “a star of stage, screen and swamp” whose simple mission is to “sing and dance and make people happy.”
“I am thrilled that our graduates and their families will experience the optimism and insight of the world-renowned Kermit the Frog at such a meaningful time in their lives,” university President Darryll J. Pines said in a statement.
