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Canada

Expect a hair-raising good time at the annual International Hair Freezing Contest.

Expect Stiff Competition at This Year’s International Hair Freezing Contest

The annual event at Canada’s Takhini Hot Pools draws people from around the world competing for the title of the world’s coolest ’do

Sunflower sea stars in British Columbia, just weeks before wasting disease turned them to mush.

New Research

Why Almost All of the West Coast’s Sunflower Sea Stars Have Wilted Away

A new study suggests most of the keystone predators have died off due to an unknown pathogen and increasing ocean temperatures

Trending Today

Canada Archives Acquire Book That Would Have Guided North American Holocaust

The report details the population and organizations of Jewish citizens across the U.S. and Canada

Cool Finds

3,000-Year-Old Quinoa Found in Ontario

The batch of charred grain is the farthest north a now-extinct version of the crop has been found

The Last Wild Caribou of the Lower 48 Has Been Placed in Captivity

It will soon be released into another herd, but scientists do not know if caribou will even again inhabit the contiguous United States

Cool Finds

Newly Discovered Cave Could Be Among Canada’s Largest

The “Sarlacc Pit,” as its been informally dubbed, was discovered last spring during a caribou survey in British Columbia’s Wells Gray Provincial Park

A view of the Spitzmaus exhibit.

Seven Must-See New Museum Exhibits to Marvel at This Winter

From fancy lights to Wes Anderson aesthetics, these new exhibits explore artists, history and fun

The wolf cub is the better-preserved of the two specimens, with everything from its fur to its tail and curled upper lip still intact

Cool Finds

Gold Miners Unearth 50,000-Year-Old Caribou Calf, Wolf Pup From Canadian Permafrost

Both animals’ fur, skin and muscle are almost perfectly preserved

Group of Belugas May Have Adopted Young Narwhal

The narwhal was seen frolicking with its beluga buddies some 600 miles south of its normal range

A volunteer helps redirect a stranded seabird.

Newfoundland’s Volunteer Puffin Patrol Helps Save Hundreds of Baby Seabirds Confused by Light Pollution

Baby birds leaving the nest for the first time sometimes confuse urban lights for the moon and stars as they try and head out to sea from Witless Bay

Northern Black Widow

New Research

Citizen Scientists Show Black Widows Creeping North In Canada

Study shows online observations can help researchers refine the range maps of many species overlooked by field biologists

This Spectacular Canadian Wildlife Reserve Is So Remote, You Can Only Get There Five Weeks a Year

Among serious adventure seekers, word is spreading about Torngat Mountains National Park—an Inuit-run reserve in Labrador, Northeastern Canada

Nadya Kwandibens' “10 Indigenous Lawyers” is one of the featured works in "Resilience," a nation-wide billboard campaign that will be seen by thousands of people every day.

Unprecedented Billboard Campaign Puts Spotlight on Indigenous Artists in Canada

“Resilience” features artwork by 50 indigenous women supersized on billboards throughout Canada—from British Columbia’s coast to Newfoundland’s eastern tip

Killdeer like to nest in wide open spaces in areas with good visibility. This is not the particular killdeer that almost derailed the music festival, but one look into those eyes and you know that it could have if it wanted to.

A Nesting Bird Nearly Derailed a Canadian Music Festival

The brooding killdeer laid its eggs on a patch of cobblestone where the main stage of Ottawa’s Bluesfest was supposed to be set up

Havasu Falls

North America’s Most Spectacular Waterfalls

Six must-see waterfalls you can visit in the United States, Canada and Mexico

Among the artifacts in the exhibition is "Female Emigrants Guide," a guidebook for new immigrants to Canada about things like what produce to grow.

New Exhibition Serves Up 150 Years of Canadian Culinary History

‘Mixed Messages: Making and Shaping Culinary Culture in Canada’ features cookbooks, photos and artifacts from the 1820s to the 1960s

Cool Finds

Meet Freddy, the Runaway Bison Who Inspired a Choral Arrangement

The piece references Manitoban history, a small town’s celebrity animal and includes distorted bison noises

The Tsimshian people first settled American land over 6,000 years ago. This image was captured in 1890, after the fateful arrival of European settlers.

New Research

Unraveling the Genetic History of a First Nations People

By looking at the DNA of Tsimshian people before and after European contact, researchers paint a more nuanced history

Under Canada's Devon Ice Cap, shown here, scientists have found the first isolated hypersaline subglacial lakes in the world.

Super Salty Lakes Found Deep Below Canadian Ice Cap

The discovery could provide insights about life in extreme environments, and help in the search for extraterrestrial life

In the new book North on the Wing from Smithsonian Books, author Bruce Beehler (above left) follows the spring migration of songbirds.

Thirty-Seven Warblers in a Hundred Days

A Smithsonian ornithologist follows the songbird migration north from the Gulf of Mexico. A new book tells his story

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