SMILE NEWS / 136
Stories that lift your spirits a little, collected with their sources.
Akita City Omoriyama Zoo will hold an event on October 24 tied to International Snow Leopard Day, which falls on October 23. Plans include a talk by WWF Japan staff and zookeepers, a feeding session with commentary on its two snow leopards, and a live stream of the enclosure.
source: Akita City Omoriyama ZooIn Chile's Patagonia National Park, a women-led ranger team returned 13 Darwin's rheas to the wild in April 2026. Working with the Rewilding Chile Foundation, they care for the birds around the clock; surveys once estimated only about 11 to 15 remained.
source: MongabayMiyajima Aquarium opened a 15th-anniversary special exhibition on October 10 that presents a 'living picture book' of insects. The first-floor exhibition room shows 160 living creatures of 14 species, letting visitors observe live insects up close until November 30.
source: Miyajima AquariumA new dinosaur species, Musango matusadonaensis, has been described from rocks about 210 million years old in Matusadona National Park on the shore of Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. The bipedal, not-yet-adult animal was about 4.5 metres long, and the find suggests Zimbabwe's dinosaur fauna differed from South Africa's.
source: Phys.org (The Conversation)Gifu World Rose Garden in Kani City will hold its Autumn Rose Festival from October 17 to November 15. Visitors can enjoy autumn roses with deeper colors and scents, along with events such as talks with rose breeders and fragrance guides.
source: GifuMore than 20 students from Australia, Botswana, the US and the UK joined a one-week field course in the World Heritage-listed Okavango Delta. Running since 2017, the course has them take part in yearly animal and bird surveys and collect data on the wetland's health.
source: ABC News (Australia)Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium announced it is the first in the world to succeed in long-term rearing of larval and juvenile double-lined fusiliers, known locally as gurukun and designated Okinawa's prefectural fish. Eggs about 0.8 mm across, collected in June, grew to roughly 5 cm in about three months, and three of the fish are now on display in the Coral Reef Journey area.
source: Okinawa Churaumi AquariumYamanashi Prefecture and partners will hold the 2026 'Zatto-ten' art walk from October 17 to 26 at six galleries and shops in central Kofu. More than 500 works by 10 artists from inside and outside the prefecture will be shown, with free entry and no booking needed.
source: YamanashiA Jurassic fossil from Inner Mongolia, China, has been described in the journal Nature as Megacauda sungei, a platypus-like creature. With webbed feet and a flattened tail, it likely ate fish and salamanders and is the earliest known semiaquatic mammaliaform.
source: ABC News (Australia)A team including Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew described a new giant water lily, Victoria colombiana, from the Inírida region of Guainía, Colombia. The search began with an Instagram photo; the plant's pads reach up to 2 meters across, and an estimated 30 to 50 grow in the wild.
source: Phys.org (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)Kumamoto City Zoological and Botanical Gardens will hold a Halloween and cosmos festival on October 24 and 25. About 150,000 cosmos in its large flowerbed will be at their best, along with a market, a Halloween parade and special talks by keepers.
source: Kumamoto City Zoological and Botanical GardensOn the Turtle Islands in Sabah, Malaysia, protected since 1977, green turtle nesting has tripled since the 1970s to more than 20,000 nests a year. On nearby Omadal island, a 20-member women's cooperative has moved eggs to a hatchery since 2012.
source: Phys.org (AFP)A team at TU Wien in Austria has built a nuclear clock that keeps time by using lasers to track changes in the nuclei of thorium-229 crystals, publishing the work in Nature. It would drift by just one second over 30 million years, and the team expects to improve it further.
source: ABC News (Australia)Nagasaki Kunchi, the autumn grand festival of Suwa Shrine, runs from October 7 to 9. This year six dancing districts, including Imakago-machi and Chikugo-machi, present performances such as the dragon dance, the river boat and Kokkodesho.
source: Nagasaki Kunchi official site (Nagasaki Traditional Performing Arts Promotion Association)Researchers from Aquamarine Fukushima, Kansai University and the National Institute of Genetics have published a paper in a U.S. academic journal detailing how Pacific saury develop from fertilized egg to juvenile. They found a trait unique to saury: body segments begin forming while gastrulation is still under way.
source: Aquamarine FukushimaThe Oirase Stream Mobile Museum is being held on the second floor of ASPAM, the Aomori Prefecture tourism and products center, from October 10 to 14. Through a large moss wall, moss terrariums and microscope viewing, visitors can experience the nature of Oirase.
source: AomoriOn October 7, Ishikawa Prefecture released nine Japanese crested ibises that had been acclimatizing in a temporary cage near the Haruki district of Nakanoto Town. It was the second release in the Noto area, and all nine birds took flight, heading toward Mt. Bijo, Mt. Sekido and Nanao.
source: IshikawaA study by the University of Exeter and the Seychelles Islands Foundation estimates that almost 183,000 Aldabra giant tortoises live on Aldabra Atoll. The species is reported to have numbered fewer than 1,000 in the 19th century, and this first rigorous atoll-wide estimate exceeds the roughly 100,000 figure long cited.
source: Phys.org (University of Exeter)Kobe Suma Sea World will launch a 'Penguin Walk' on October 16, in which Magellanic penguins stroll around its rooftop area. It runs daily from 13:45 for about 15 minutes until March 31 next year, free with an admission ticket.
source: Kobe Suma Sea WorldThe Gunma Beekeeping Association will hold its 30th honey quality competition on October 14 at the prefectural office's ground-floor hall. Acacia, apple, cherry blossom and horse chestnut honeys will be judged, and entries go on sale from 12:30 while supplies last.
source: GunmaThe Kento Festival at Takatsuka Atago Jizoson in Amagase, Hita, takes place on October 10 and 11, lighting up about 350 lanterns and 300 Japanese umbrellas. For the first time, local high school students painted seasonal scenes and flowers on 80 of the lanterns.
source: Nishinippon Shimbun meIn Clayoquot Sound off Canada's west coast, the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and partners launched a kelp restoration project in early 2026. More than 4,200 square meters of new kelp habitat have been planted, with sea otters helping the forests recover.
source: MongabayResearchers from Chiang Mai University and Kasetsart University identified 16 new species of Aureobasidium fungi living in 31 kinds of flowering plants in northern Thailand. Two of the species were named in honor of prominent Thai mycologists.
source: MongabayOn October 5, the Japanese Geoparks Committee decided to nominate Chokaisan-Tobishima, which spans Akita and Yamagata prefectures, as a UNESCO Global Geopark. UNESCO could decide as early as spring 2028; if approved, it would be Japan's 12th.
source: Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun (Kyodo News)On October 5, Moka became the first place in Tochigi to begin shipping this season's Tochiaika, the prefecture's leading strawberry variety. On the first day, two local farmers delivered a total of 72 packs (about 18.7 kg) to the shipping center.
source: Shimotsuke ShimbunAbe Monjuin Temple in Sakurai has opened its Cosmos Maze, a tradition since 1996, from October 1. Twenty-seven varieties of cosmos bloom in the 25 m by 20 m maze, and about 70 local preschoolers visited. It runs until early November.
source: Nara ShimbunThe Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra has grafted cuttings of Eucalyptus recurva, which survives as just six plants in the wild, and successfully grown copies of four of them. The clones form a backup population for trees estimated to be 3,000 to 6,000 years old.
source: ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)The Taiji Whale Museum has named the female pantropical spotted dolphin calf born on May 23 "Lulu." The name means "peace" or "calm" in Hawaiian and was chosen from 194 entries.
source: Kii Minpo AGARAThe 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to research on optogenetics, which uses light to switch the activity of nerve cells on and off. The laureates are Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg.
source: ABC News (Australia)Russian and Kyrgyz teams are exploring an old settlement beneath Lake Issyk-Kul that may have covered up to five square kilometres. Finds include a decorated public building and a child's chamber pot called a tuvaq, a design still used in Central Asia today.
source: Phys.org (AFP)Aquaworld Oarai has opened a special "kochia tank" on its 5th floor, modeled on the reddened kochia bushes of Hitachi Seaside Park. Red sea creatures such as sea goldies and shrimp color the display, which runs until November 8.
source: Aqua World Ibaraki Prefectural Oarai AquariumToyama Municipal Family Park began showing a flock of four young rock ptarmigans on October 5; the birds hatched at the park on July 6–7. Weighing under 20 g at hatching, they have grown to about 400 g. Viewing runs 10:00–15:00 until late February next year.
source: Toyama Municipal Family ParkThe Setouchi Industrial Art Festival 2026, which presents the region's shipbuilding, stone, steel and salt-field industries through art, opened on October 3. It runs until the 31st at seven venues, including participating companies' factories, and all works require advance booking.
source: Okayama Kanko Net (Okayama Prefecture Tourism Federation)Researchers have installed 100 terracotta burrows at two sites for the Canberra grassland earless dragon, of which fewer than 100 remain in the wild. Summer ground temperatures can reach 70C, and the dragons took up the burrows quite quickly.
source: ABC News (Australia)An exhibition of scrolls and paintings kept at home by collector Shigeharu Chikamori opened at the Kochi Liberty and People's Rights Museum. It runs until 21 February 2027, with free entry for high-school students and younger and those 65 and over.
source: Yosakoi Kochi Culture Festival 2026 (Kochi Prefecture)Tsugumi, a male red panda from Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, arrives at Hirakawa Zoo on October 16. His public debut is planned for October 31, with breeding with the female Melody as the goal.
source: Hirakawa Zoological Park, Kagoshima CityThe Yamaguchi Destination Campaign, a large tourism promotion, began on October 1, with an opening event at Shin-Yamaguchi Station on October 3. That day, the steam locomotive C57 No. 1, nicknamed "the Lady," returns after 6 years, departing Shin-Yamaguchi for Tsuwano.
source: Oidemase Yamaguchi Tourism Campaign Council / JR WestSaitama Children's Zoo and Nature Park in Higashimatsuyama will hold Australia Fair 2026 on October 24 and 25. The event highlights Australian animals and culture, with a mini didgeridoo concert and a make-your-own didgeridoo workshop.
source: Saitama Children's ZooThe Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum's special exhibition on sauropods, the largest animals ever to walk the land, has welcomed more than 300,000 visitors. Its centerpiece is Xinjiangotitan, a Chinese sauropod whose skeleton, laid out as found, stretches 19 meters; the show runs until November 3.
source: Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur MuseumThe Natural History Museum of San Marcos University announced a new lizard species, Liolaemus archipensis, found above 4,800 metres in Peru's southern Arequipa region. The small lizard measures 6 to 8 centimetres.
source: Gulf News (AFP)Two people from Mie Prefecture have been chosen for this year's national awards for contributions to traditional crafts. Harunobu Ito of Suzuka ink receives the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry award, and Masaaki Okoshi of Ise stencil paper receives the Chubu Bureau Director award.
source: MieShiga Prefecture will mark the fifth anniversary of Biwaichi, the cycling route around Lake Biwa, with events from October 24 to November 29, centered on November 3-9. Plans include a forum on November 3, rider help stations in the Nagahama and Takashima areas, and a family cycling event in Moriyama.
source: ShigaOver 15 years, more than 11,000 wētāpunga, New Zealand's heaviest insect, have been bred and released through 45 translocations to 10 new wild sites. At least four generations have been born on Motuora and Tiritiri Matangi islands, confirming the species has become established there.
source: Phys.orgThe UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport decided to keep free entry for overseas visitors at 14 national institutions, including the British Museum. Free admission has been in place since 2001.
source: Good News NetworkA study by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology found that giving corals beneficial bacteria prevented bleaching during a heat wave in the Red Sea. The work was published in Cell Reports.
source: MongabayUganda will co-manage the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park, known for its tree-climbing lions, with the Wildlife Conservation Society for 10 years. The area covers about 500 square kilometres.
source: MongabayA female okapi calf was born on September 3 at Yokohama Zoorasia. It is the third birth for her mother Lala, the calf is growing well, and the public debut date will be announced once decided.
source: Yokohama Zoo Zoorasia (Yokohama Greenery Foundation)Ikoro, a 17-year-old male polar bear, will move from Ueno Zoo to Tennoji Zoo, likely between late October and mid-November. The aim is breeding with Hou, the zoo's 5-year-old female.
source: Tennoji ZooFrom October 1, Shikoku Aquarium is showing a Japanese eel with yellow mottled markings all over its body. The wild eel was caught in Lake Kojima, Okayama, and is in the freshwater zone on the main building's 2nd floor.
source: Shikoku AquariumA female Japanese serow was born on September 21 at Inokashira Park Zoo in Tokyo. Her mother is Suzuna. For health care, mother and calf are staying in a backup enclosure away from visitor paths, and will move to a display area once the calf settles.
source: Tokyo Zoo Net (Inokashira Park Zoo)Tokushima University's Birdman project is touring "Suiran," the aircraft it flew in the Birdman Contest 2026, around the prefecture. It is on display at the Tokushima Prefectural Office entrance until October 30, then moves to venues including Asutamuland Tokushima and Tokushima Awaodori Airport.
source: Tokushima UniversityMiyazaki City Phoenix Zoo holds an "Autumn Sports Day" from October 10 to 12. Events include a tug-of-war to move a truck as heavy as an Asian elephant and a challenge to match a serval's vertical jump.
source: Miyazaki City Phoenix ZooIn the World Heritage town of Weimar, the east wing of the city palace, closed for renovation since 2018, reopened to the public from October 2. Visitors can again see the Poets' Rooms named after Goethe and Schiller, as well as the palace chapel.
source: Klassik Stiftung WeimarMwambao, a network through which Tanzania's coastal fishers look after their own sea, began in 2008 with $25,000 and has grown into an organisation with an annual budget of about $3.5 million. Working with the government, it runs timed fishing closures and seaweed-farming training for women.
source: MongabayThe Kurumeki Ryugu Kozo no Kai, which works to conserve the Kurumeki rice terraces in Hamana Ward, Hamamatsu, has received the 22nd Ishii Susumu Memorial Tanada Gakkai Award. It is the first win by a Shizuoka group in 21 years, since the first edition, and the National Rice Terrace Summit will be held in Hamamatsu on November 14 and 15.
source: ShizuokaNew Zealand's Department of Conservation announced that the success of its recovery programme for the wētāpunga, the country's heaviest insect, has been documented in the New Zealand Journal of Zoology. Over 15 years, 11,000 captive-bred wētā were moved in 45 translocations to 10 new wild sites, and the species' status improved from Nationally Endangered to Nationally Increasing.
source: New Zealand Department of ConservationThe Tohoku History Museum in Tagajo will host the 'Pokémon x Kogei' exhibition from October 10 to December 27. As the final stop of the touring show, the Miyagi venue will display about 100 works by 20 artists, including a new piece, the largest lineup in Japan.
source: MiyagiThe S-1 Awards 2026, which honor souvenirs recommended by Saga businesses based on a public vote, selected 30 items. In its third year, a record 238 products were entered and 10,053 people voted.
source: Saga ShimbunOn Superagui Island in Brazil's Paraná state, three endangered black-faced lion tamarins received yellow fever vaccines, a first for the species. Fewer than 400 are thought to remain in the wild.
source: MongabayOn September 21 in New York, 15 ancient Greek objects were handed over to Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni. They include 7th-century BCE bronze helmets, and some will be reunited with finds from the same excavation at the Heraklion museum.
source: Good News NetworkAt Hadrian's Wall in England, the stump of the roughly 150-year-old Sycamore Gap tree, felled in 2023, now has a ring of new shoots about three feet tall. The National Trust has given 49 saplings grown from its seeds to communities across the UK.
source: Good News NetworkTottori Prefecture is holding a touring exhibition in Kurayoshi on "A Distant Neighborhood" by manga artist Jiro Taniguchi, who lived in Tottori until age 18. It runs at the Tottori Prefectural Museum of Art (Oct 4-14) and Utsubuki Kairo (Oct 20-Nov 11), with free admission.
source: TottoriThe University of Cambridge reports that excavations near the Vatican uncovered 20 Anglo-Saxon coins minted between 899 and 955. More Anglo-Saxon coins from this period have now been found in Rome than papal coins, shedding light on life in the city's English quarter.
source: University of CambridgeThe renovated Toyama City General Gymnasium opened on 1 October, with about 1,000 people attending the ceremony. Seating has grown to about 5,000, and suite rooms and a lounge have been added.
source: Kitanihon Shimbun (Yahoo! News)The Shimane Museum of Ancient Izumo, next to Izumo Taisha shrine, reopened on October 1 after renovation work. Its myth theater now offers new videos in English, Korean and Chinese, and a special exhibition on the Orochi and Susanoo legend starts October 9.
source: Shimane Museum of Ancient IzumoAbout 240 community-run conservancies now cover roughly 15% of Kenya. In the Maasai Mara they have grown from 8 covering 870 square kilometres in 2012 to about 25 covering some 1,700 square kilometres in 2026.
source: MongabayFukuoka City Zoo, the first zoo in Japan to keep Tsushima leopard cats, marks 30 years of caring for the species with an event on October 8. The name of a kitten born in April, the first birth in four years, was chosen from 5,656 votes and will be announced that day.
source: Fukuoka City ZooMatsuyama City announced that the 37th Mitsu Morning Market festival will be held at the city's public fish market on October 24 from 8 a.m. to noon. Besides fresh Seto Inland Sea seafood for sale, there will be a mock auction, a touch pool and catch-by-hand fish activities.
source: Matsuyama CitySamples from an August 2025 expedition to the Mar del Plata submarine canyon off Argentina have yielded 57 new marine species and five new genera. Twenty early-career taxonomists examined them in Buenos Aires in July 2026, finding 20 copepods and 22 sea cucumbers and crinoids among others.
source: CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina)Chirotto, a new hub for Ainu cultural exchange, opens on October 1 in the town of Makubetsu, Hokkaido. On September 30 a completion ceremony was held at its core facility, the town's Ainu Culture Exchange Center, where an Ainu group performed Ashiri Chise Nomi, the traditional rite celebrating a new building.
source: Hokkaido ShimbunThe soba club of Nagano Yoshida High School's Togakushi branch won the team event at the national high school soba-making competition held on August 5 in Ota, Gunma, for its third straight title. The members will pay a courtesy visit to the governor at the Nagano Prefectural Office on October 9.
source: NaganoIn the old merchant quarter of Murakami, Niigata, the Machiya Byobu Festival is showing folding screens handed down in local merchant families. In its 26th year, 48 houses are taking part, and visitors can enjoy the screens and the townhouses until October 15.
source: Niigata NippoSachiko Araki, 91, of Aso City in Kumamoto has passed the certified disaster-prevention leader exam, the oldest person in the prefecture to do so. After learning her district had no such leader, she took the course with her second daughter, and both passed.
source: Kumamoto Nichinichi ShimbunKyoto Aquarium is holding its first exhibition centered on the Japanese seabass (suzuki), running from October 1 to December 28. Red sea bream and Japanese jack mackerel are also on display, and a pre-opening event for visitors with the surname Suzuki is planned for November 1.
source: Kyoto AquariumIn August 2026, more than 650 southern mountain yellow-legged frogs, an endangered species, were released at two sites in California's San Gabriel Mountains. The frogs were raised by the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Los Angeles Zoo, after a 2023 survey counted fewer than 200 in the southern population.
source: MongabayIn Panama's Darién forest, four Indigenous Wounaan and Emberá-Wounaan villages used sound recorders and camera traps to monitor 18,000 hectares and documented more than 200 species. Jaguars and Baird's tapirs were among them, and the data is being used to open new funding for forest conservation.
source: MongabayResearchers from the University of Oxford and Duke University used acoustics and AI to study two painted Etruscan tombs from the fifth century BCE in central Italy. The Tomb of the Blue Demons produced exceptionally long reverberation, suggesting the tombs were immersive ritual spaces.
source: Phys.orgThe Genka district of Nago, Okinawa, held its harvest festival on September 20 at the district community hall for the first time in seven years. Nineteen performances were staged, and many visitors from inside and outside the district enjoyed the traditional performing arts handed down in the area.
source: Ryukyu ShimpoKiwi are living in the hills around Wellington, New Zealand, for the first time in 150 years, and there are now more than 300 of them. The community-led Capital Kiwi Project has moved in more than 250 birds since late 2022 and keeps predators in check with over 5,300 traps.
source: MongabayA baby galago was born around September 1 in the Animal Science Hall at Chiba Zoological Park. Because it was born inside a nest box, its sex is not yet known, and it is now gradually getting used to the exhibit space.
source: Chiba Zoological ParkCambodia's environment ministry has designated a 315-hectare wetland at the northern end of the Cardamom Mountains as a genetic conservation area. At least 40 critically endangered Siamese crocodiles are thought to live there, and Indigenous Chorng communities have helped the effort.
source: The GuardianThe Yamanashi Prefectural Museum in Fuefuki will hold its autumn exhibition 'Kaiki Stories' from October 10 to November 30. It presents Kaiki, the local silk fabric known for blending Japanese and Western designs, through more than 100 items across two rotations, including haori jackets and fabric swatches.
source: YamanashiThe Sake Festival will be held on October 10 and 11 in Saijo, Higashihiroshima. A venue map and schedule were published on September 29, and tickets for the signature bishu-nabe hot pot on the 11th are back on sale until October 4.
source: Sake Matsuri official siteStudent volunteers at Iwate University teamed up with the Kawatoku department store and Fukuda Pan to develop a "Spicy Butter Chicken Curry & Egg Salad" bun using Iwaizumi yogurt and Iwate-raised chicken. It goes on sale from October 9 to 12 during Kawatoku's 160th-anniversary founding festival.
source: Iwate UniversityDNA from 30 Nubian giraffes in Boma and Badingilo national parks showed relatively high genetic diversity and low inbreeding. Researchers say South Sudan is a genetic stronghold for the subspecies.
source: MongabaySouth Korean carrier Air Busan will operate four round-trip charter flights between Ibaraki Airport and Busan from October 3 to 12. On the first day, Ibaraki Airport will hold a commemorative event with souvenir giveaways and a bouquet presentation.
source: IbarakiAt Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Nagoya, a Sunda slow loris born on August 14 and a southern three-banded armadillo born on August 15 have been on public view since September 29. Depending on how the mothers and babies are doing, visitors may not always be able to see them.
source: Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical GardensLarge swarms of bogong moths, listed as endangered in 2021, are being seen across New South Wales. About 800 sightings were logged on a citizen-science platform within a few days, and researchers say it is a sign that something is going right.
source: ABC News (Australia)To mark five years since the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan became a World Heritage site, a forum will be held at L-Osaka on November 8. It is co-hosted with three other Japanese World Heritage sites including the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group; admission is free, with advance registration for the first 800 people.
source: AomoriShizuoka City's Nihondaira Zoo holds its Autumn Zoo Festival from October 3 to November 1. The program includes feeding talks for capybaras, red pandas and polar bears, and public bird flight training sessions.
source: Nihondaira Zoo, Shizuoka CityOn October 19, a one-year-old female Asian small-clawed otter named Sakura, born at Hitachi City Kamine Zoo, will arrive at Fukuoka City Zoo. The zoo will then have four of these otters; when she goes on display will depend on her health.
source: Fukuoka City ZooIn Hanle, a village 4,500 metres up in Ladakh, four local women work as astro-ambassadors, guiding visitors through the night sky with telescopes. In 2022 Hanle became India's first Dark Sky Reserve.
source: BBC NewsIoji Temple in Iizaka, Fukushima City, marks 1,200 years since its founding by showing its hidden Yakushi Nyorai statue in the main hall on the afternoon of October 4. It is the first showing in more than 100 years, since the mid-Taisho era, and a special commemorative goshuin stamp will be offered.
source: Fukushima Minyu ShimbunAt Sabae City's Nishiyama Zoo, red panda twins born on June 26 go on public view from October 7, and a pair of female twins born on July 8 from October 17. Nicknames for the July-born pair will be accepted from October 17 to November 8.
source: Nishiyama Zoo, Sabae CityAkita City's Omoriyama Zoo will hold an Autumn Animal Interaction Festival on October 4. Otters, ponies, reindeer, penguins and others will parade through the zoo, and visitors can help prepare food for elephants and capybaras (first 15 groups).
source: Omoriyama Zoo, Akita CityThe National Trust announced that Sandilands nature reserve on the Lincolnshire coast, a former golf course turned into wetland and grassland over six years, officially opens on September 26. The 30-hectare site saw avocets and oystercatchers nest and breed successfully this year.
source: National TrustIshikawa Prefecture has released videos on its official YouTube channel and website about the crested ibis release held in the Noto area on May 31, the first on Japan's main island of Honshu. The prefecture says the ibis has returned to Noto's skies after half a century.
source: IshikawaGifu's Chukyo High School soft-ball baseball team, which won the National High School Soft-ball Baseball Championship for a fifth year in a row, reported the victory to Governor Ezaki at the prefectural office on September 17. The captain said local support made the win possible.
source: GifuThe planting of about 2,000 kauri seedlings in Auckland's Waitākere Ranges has been completed. The seedlings were grown from seeds of some 650 healthy mother trees, in the hope they will resist kauri dieback.
source: RNZThe RSPB is celebrating 20 years at Winterbourne Downs in Wiltshire, where it has restored more than 200 hectares of chalk grassland. Stone-curlew pairs rose from two to a peak of 11, and more than 100 young have fledged there since 2006.
source: RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds)IR Ishikawa Railway will hold "IR Ishikawa Railway Festa 2026" at the Kanazawa Station concourse and nearby areas from 10:00 to 16:00 on October 17. Plans include a talk show, railway diorama and Plarail displays, a crossing-signal experience and railway goods sales.
source: IR Ishikawa RailwayAt Adventure World in Wakayama Prefecture, two king penguin chicks hatched on July 17 and August 4 have been on public view on the second floor of the Marine Mammal House since September 25. Visitors can see them covered in fluffy brown down.
source: Adventure WorldSeveral thousand juvenile Atlantic sturgeon were released into the Ina River at Goleniów, Poland, on September 18, with hundreds of local people including schoolchildren taking part. The species vanished from the Baltic Sea and its tributaries in the 20th century, and more than 20,000 young fish are planned for release in 2027.
source: Rewilding EuropeIn June, researchers photographed and filmed a single Ghana cuckooshrike in Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire, the first record of the species since 2013. The bird had been on the list of 'lost birds' not documented for more than a decade.
source: MongabayA cuneiform tablet fragment from a copy of the Treaty of Kadesh has been found at the Hattusa site in Türkiye's Çorum province, the culture and tourism minister announced on September 21. About a year of study confirmed it as part of the 13th-century BC accord regarded as the world's earliest known written peace treaty.
source: Hürriyet Daily NewsTwelve giraffes moved from neighbouring Namibia were released into Bicuar National Park in southwest Angola on July 30. They are the first giraffes there in about 25 years, in a joint effort by Angola's protected-areas agency and the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, and are reported to be settling in well.
source: MongabayInnlandet County Council's glacial archaeology team recovered 48 prehistoric arrows from ice patches in Jotunheimen during a three-week expedition this summer. The oldest, a slate-tipped arrow with a wooden shaft, dates back 5,000 to 6,000 years to the Stone Age.
source: Secrets of the Ice (Innlandet County Glacier Archaeology Program)Chakobo Kirameki, which makes and sells Moshi tea, a specialty of Sanda in Hyogo Prefecture, won the top Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award at the 66th prefectural tea competition, where the year's new teas are judged. It is the company's first such award in 10 years.
source: Kobe ShimbunOlive ridley sea turtles laid eggs near Seal Beach on September 16 and at Huntington Beach on September 19 in California. According to NOAA, it is the first natural sea turtle nesting ever recorded on the West Coast, and both sites have been fenced off for protection.
source: OPB (Associated Press)A museum devoted to the film 'The Sound of Music' opened on September 20 at Hellbrunn Palace in Salzburg. Located next to the film's famous gazebo, it occupies a restored group of historic buildings at the park entrance and is run by the Salzburg Museum.
source: Tourismus SalzburgNames for two jaguars born on 16 June at Ehime Prefectural Tobe Zoo were chosen by a visitor vote. Out of 4,848 votes, the female became Toki and the male Toku.
source: Ehime Prefectural Tobe ZooA reopening ceremony was held on 19 September for the renovated Matsue City General Gymnasium, now called Bandai Namco Arena Matsue. B.League side Shimane Susanoo Magic will play its first home games there on 3 and 4 October.
source: ShimaneFrom 9 to 12 October, Ueno Zoo keeps its gates open until 8 pm. Visitors can watch nocturnal animal behaviour, join keeper quizzes, hear live music and make badges.
source: TokyoFrom 17 to 19 October, Odaiba Marine Park hosts an Infiorata, the Italian art of pictures made from flower petals. One hundred volunteers are being recruited to help create it.
source: TokyoThis fiscal year 2,001 Chiba residents reach 100, 119 more than last year. Those aged 100 or over now number 3,936, the oldest a 113-year-old woman in Kimitsu. Each receives a letter and a silver cup.
source: ChibaFrom 19 September, SKIP City Visual Museum opens SPACE HOPPER, a 13.8-billion-year journey from the solar system to the galaxies using gesture sensing and haptics, no headset required.
source: SaitamaYao Honten, maker of Chichibu Nishiki sake, brewed a craft beer with a yeast the prefecture isolated from Chichibu dogwood flowers. It goes on sale 20 September at five places in the city.
source: SaitamaAhead of the 2029 national sports games in Gunma, live sign-language commentary is being trialled from 19 September in athletics, basketball and football so deaf spectators can feel the excitement too.
source: GunmaThe disused airport site is becoming Ellinikon Park, about 400 acres of green with 30,000 trees and 3 million plants that keep it roughly 4°C cooler than the surrounding streets. It is due to open next year.
source: Good News NetworkWith Timor-Leste certified trachoma-free by the WHO, every country in the region has now eliminated the disease, sparing more than two billion people from a poverty-linked cause of blindness.
source: Good News NetworkWoolston Eyes, once a dump for canal dredgings, was restored by a local conservation group from 2021. By 2025, 35 pairs of the rare grebe were nesting there.
source: Good News NetworkResearchers from Hunter College tested Asian elephants at Thailand's National Elephant Institute with fruit in clear boxes. The elephants resisted grabbing straight at it and used a side opening they had learned instead.
source: Good News NetworkLaura O'Brien, a 24-year-old park ranger watering flowers, had a famously shy kingfisher land on her glove and stay for ten minutes. She said she felt like Snow White.
source: Good News NetworkEngland has launched a £442 million programme built on Housing First, which gives people a permanent home before asking them to tackle other problems. Pilots helped over 1,000 people, with 92% still housed after 12 months and loneliness falling from 35% to 16%.
source: Positive NewsA tenth-anniversary exhibition of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards opened in London on 12 September, showing 91 winning images across seven habitats with spatial sound, using humour to draw people to nature and conservation.
source: Positive NewsTokyo, which promotes parental leave as valuable work, picked 10 finalists from 264 heartwarming thank-you stories. Residents vote until 5 October for the four that will be drawn as manga.
source: TokyoAt the 53rd Kanto tea competition, Yosuke Nishizawa of Iruma took the top ministerial prize in both raw and finished tea, with Sayama growers filling the upper ranks.
source: SaitamaTwelve teams from seven schools competed in written and practical science and maths. Hakuoh University Ashikaga Junior High's A team won and will represent Tochigi at the national final in Himeji in December.
source: TochigiOn 26 September, Aeon Mall Narita fills with dishes, sake and craft beer made from Chiba's fermented foods, plus miso-making workshops.
source: ChibaA five-year study of more than 3,400 London schoolchildren found lung growth about 10ml a year greater after the 2019 ultra-low emission zone, closing the gap with a comparison city. Researchers said they were stunned by how fast it happened.
source: Positive NewsMiitan, mascot of the Tochigi Prefectural Museum, topped the Museum Character Award 2026 with a record 32,223 votes. She is modelled on an owl-shaped clay figurine unearthed in Tochigi city.
source: TochigiRingo, designed by three Hongik University students, is a yacht-shaped IV stand for children with a seat, four wheels and a groove that keeps tubes untangled, so a walk down the ward feels like steering your own boat.
source: IDEAS FOR GOODOn 13 September Yachimata holds a peanut festival marking 150 years since peanut farming began in Chiba, with boiled Omasari peanuts to taste and stage events.
source: ChibaIn 2025, 217.36 million people visited Kanagawa, 9.3 million more than the year before and an all-time high, driven by more overseas and overnight visitors.
source: KanagawaThe prefectural animal shelter has kept euthanasia at zero for 13 straight years for dogs and 12 for cats, through veterinary care, trainer programmes and adoption events.
source: KanagawaOn 25 April an inclusive playground with 18 kinds of equipment in four areas opened in Sagamihara Park, designed with input from people with disabilities and their supporters.
source: Kanagawa