My mom would have turned 87 today. I lost her in 2018. She was too young and I wasn't ready to let her go. Today I want to share her love of frogs. Her grandcat took after her and always had a pet frog with her when she went outside in her cat-safe backyard. ❤️ There are more than 8,000 species of frogs in the world, living on every continent except Antarctica. You'll find them in rainforests, deserts, grasslands, wetlands, and even high in the mountains. Depending on the species, frogs can live anywhere from a few years to more than 20 years. These little amphibians do some pretty important work for our planet. They help control insect populations, provide food for birds, snakes, fish, and other wildlife, and their tadpoles help keep aquatic ecosystems healthy. Because their sensitive skin absorbs substances from their surroundings, frogs can also help scientists detect environmental problems. One frog I think Mom would have loved is the poison arrow frog, a tiny rainforest resident with an extraordinary parenting routine. In some species, Dad takes on the responsibility of transporting the tadpoles. After the eggs hatch, he carries the little youngsters on his back, climbing high into the trees to find tiny pools of water collected in plants. Each tadpole gets a little nursery where they can continue growing and developing into frogs. He also monitors the tadpoles, and when they tell him they are hungry, he calls for a female. Mom then comes over, doing what all good poison arrow moms do, inspects the situation, and lays an unfertalized egg for dinner. What a beautiful family dynamic. Imagine being a tiny frog growing up in your own little swimming pool high in the rainforest canopy with room service! 🐸💚 Watch this incredible BBC Earth video showing a poison arrow frog caring for his youngsters. And in a wonderful coincidence, today I'm helping move endangered toad tadpoles as part of a reintroduction effort. I can't think of a more fitting way to celebrate Mom's birthday than helping the little creatures she loved so much.

Hi everyone: I am sharing a post that @Lynne Vella shared in her community. Please be wary of any unsolicited DM, emails, calls and text in general. There are some people out there that took their talent and used it in the wrong direction. I have said for a long time that wouldn't it be incredible if they would use their amazing talent for something good. SKOOL SCAM ALERT PLEASE READ 🚨 Quick but IMPORTANT heads-up because I want everyone in our communities to be aware of this! 💗 There have been reports of fake Skool account verification messages being sent through DMs. (Thank you @Kelly V elly V and @Marie Sales !!) These messages claim your Skool account has been restricted or needs verification, then direct you to click a link to fix it. 🚩 DO NOT CLICK THE LINK! If you receive a suspicious message: ❌ Do NOT click any links or provide your login information 🚫 Block the sender 🚩 Report the account or message to Skool ✅ If you’re concerned about your account, go DIRECTLY to the official Skool website or app to check This comes to me from another skool owner who has sent it out to her members. I know we have a lot of owners in this community. So please let everybody you know about the scam.

This incredible designer came in second place in our decorating competition. The male bowerbird has some pretty impressive ideas for his bachelor pad, complete with a cassette of love songs featuring bird calls, impressions of other birds, and sounds from his surroundings to serenade the ladies. Each species has their own decorating style and their own ideas about what a girl wants, what a girl needs. (That song popped on my head. It might be on the cassette too. 😂) These bachelors carefully build and decorate their bowers with colorful flowers, fruits, stones, leaves, and even human-made treasures like bottle caps and plastic pieces. Some prefer everything in blue, while others enjoy a variety of colors. And they’re serious about decorating. They’ll collect dozens of similar objects, arrange them by color or size, and sometimes even steal a few treasures from the bachelor next door. Some are so clever they use their decorations to create optical illusions. Now, these aren’t family homes. They’re elaborate courtship displays, complete with decorating, dancing, and serenading. Once a female chooses her mate, she builds her own nest to raise her babies. These little designers certainly know how to make a first impression. Watch David Attenborough’s five-minute video of these incredible decorators in action, and let me know if you gleaned any tips for decorating your own bachelor pad.

The votes are in, and the Harvest Mouse has been hired to decorate our pads! So sit back in your comfy chair because this little artist has a big story to tell. There are several kinds of mice known as harvest mice around the world, but we’re heading to Scotland to meet the Eurasian harvest mouse (Micromys minutus). These tiny architects weigh about as much as a quarter and can weave beautiful round nests using nothing but grass, their teeth and little paws. Their breeding nests are about the size of a tennis ball, while their sleeping nests are even smaller. The female splits blades of grass lengthwise with her teeth, then carefully weaves them together while they’re still attached to the growing plants. The result is a tightly woven nursery suspended among tall grasses, with a soft lining to keep her babies comfortable. They’re also the only British mammal with a prehensile tail, which acts like an extra hand, wrapping around grass stems to help them grip and balance while climbing. Although Eurasian harvest mice aren’t globally endangered, their conservation status in Great Britain is Near Threatened, with populations in Wales classified as Vulnerable and Scotland as Critical. Habitat loss, changing agricultural practices and disappearing grasslands are among their biggest challenges. Because they’re so difficult to observe, researchers often rely on abandoned nests to determine where they live. The Mammal Society’s 2026–2027 National Harvest Mouse Survey began October 1. Volunteers search for abandoned nests during autumn and winter, helping researchers learn where these tiny animals live without disturbing mothers raising their babies. In April 2026, a volunteer discovered a harvest mouse nest on Scotland’s Isle of Mull, the first recorded evidence of these little animals on any Scottish island. Whether they’ve been quietly living there for years or recently found their way to the island is still a mystery. Either way, to me, it’s another reminder of how resourceful and determined animals are to survive. As humans continue destroying their habitats, animals are often forced to adapt and find new places to call home. Maybe these little architects are rearranging the furniture and looking for new real estate to build their luxury homes.

On September 24, legendary musician Rick Wakeman sat down at a grand piano at Animals Asia's Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre in Tam Dao National Park with an audience of more than 150 rescued bears. These beautiful bears once lived very different lives. They were rescued from the bear bile industry and now live in a beautiful 27 acre sanctuary, where they can climb, forage, explore and simply be bears again. The event was part of Animals Asia's Free the Final Bears campaign, bringing attention to the bears who remain in captivity in Vietnam's remaining bile farms. This movement was started in 1998 by Jill Robinson and today, bear bile extraction is now illegal in Vietnam, and the country has made enormous progress. In 2005, more than 4,200 bears were recorded in captivity. Today, Animals Asia estimates that around 150 remain and they need to come home to the sanctuaries that are ready to receive them. Rick Wakeman has supported Animals Asia for years and even serves as guardian to a rescued moon bear named Moon. For this special concert, he brought his music into the bears' world to help bring the world's attention back to them. Sometimes awareness can begin with something as simple and wonderfully unusual as a man, a piano and a forest full of bears. Let's play it loud for the animals. 🎹🐻❤️