Japan’s Weather Agency Declares Flowering of Tokyo’s Cherry Blossoms as the Festive Season Begins https://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5125187-japan%E2%80%99s-weather-agency-declares-flowering-tokyo%E2%80%99s-cherry-blossoms-festive-season
Japan’s Weather Agency Declares Flowering of Tokyo’s Cherry Blossoms as the Festive Season Begins
Flowering cherry blossoms and buds from a sample cherry tree, Somei Yoshino species, for phenological observation conducted by the Tokyo Regional Headquarters of the Japan Meteorological Agency, are seen at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on March 24, 2025. (AFP)
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Japan’s Weather Agency Declares Flowering of Tokyo’s Cherry Blossoms as the Festive Season Begins
Flowering cherry blossoms and buds from a sample cherry tree, Somei Yoshino species, for phenological observation conducted by the Tokyo Regional Headquarters of the Japan Meteorological Agency, are seen at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on March 24, 2025. (AFP)
Japan 's official cherry blossom spotters on Monday confirmed the first blooming of the country's favorite flower, declaring the official start of the festive season in the Japanese capital.
An official from the Japan Meteorological Agency carefully examined the specimen tree of Somei Yoshino variety at Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine and announced that more than five blossoms — the minimum required for the announcement — were flowering on it.
The opening matched the average year and was five days earlier than last year, according to the JMA.
Cherry blossoms, or “sakura,” are Japan’s favorite flower and usually reach their peak in late March to early April, just as the country celebrates the start of a new school and business year. Many Japanese enjoy walking or picnicking under the trees.
Sakura have deeply influenced Japanese culture for centuries and have regularly been used in poetry and literature, with their fragility seen as a symbol of life, death and rebirth.
The announcement in Tokyo, which is enjoying warmer-than-usual temperatures of around 19 Celsius (66 Fahrenheit), comes just one day after the blooming of the nation's first cherry blossom was confirmed Sunday in the southwestern city of Kochi on the island of Shikoku.
The JMA tracks more than 50 “benchmark” cherry trees across the country. The trees normally bloom for about two weeks each year from first bud to all the blossoms falling off. They are expected to reach their peak in about 10 days.
Cherry trees are sensitive to temperature changes and the timing of their blooming can provide valuable data for climate change studies.
In recent years, Japan's cherry blossom season has tended to come earlier than the average, prompting concerns of a possible impact of climate change.
Real Possum Appears Among Plush Toy Animals in Australia Airport Shophttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5252970-real-possum-appears-among-plush-toy-animals-australia-airport-shop
This handout frame grab from UGC video footage by Melissa Oddie taken on March 18, 2026 and received via AFPTV shows a wild possum on a shelf among toys at Hobart Airport in Tasmania. (Photo by Handout / various sources / AFP)
Real Possum Appears Among Plush Toy Animals in Australia Airport Shop
This handout frame grab from UGC video footage by Melissa Oddie taken on March 18, 2026 and received via AFPTV shows a wild possum on a shelf among toys at Hobart Airport in Tasmania. (Photo by Handout / various sources / AFP)
On shelves crammed with cuddly toy native animals in an Australian airport gift shop, one fluffy possum stood out: Its big brown eyes were moving.
A browsing passenger first spotted a living Australian brushtail possum peering out from among the kangaroos on the display shelf at the departure terminal shop at Hobart Airport in Tasmania state on Wednesday, an airport retail manager Liam Bloomfield said on Thursday.
Above the possum were bilbies, marsupials with rabbit-like long ears, and dingoes, Australia’s native dog. Beside the possum in the kangaroo section were Tasmanian devils, a growling carnivore that inspired the feisty Warner Bros. cartoon character Taz.
“A passenger reported it to .... one of the staff members on shift who couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing,” Bloomfield said. “She then called the (airport) management and said we’ve got a possum in the store.”
A staff member took a video of the possum with her phone before the animal grew wary of the growing attention and left the shop.
Airport staff were able to remove the possum from the airport unharmed.
Bloomfield didn’t know what attracted the possum to the toy shelf, The Associated Press reported.
“I’m imaging it saw some of the plush animals that were for sale on the shelf and it decided to make its home with those. It wanted to blend in,” Bloomfield joked.
How the possum got into the store and how long it spent there are also unknown.
It was unlikely to have been placed there as a prank. Someone would have had to put the possum through X-ray screening to get it into the secure departure terminal area.
The Platypus is Even Weirder than Thought, Scientists Discoverhttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5252967-platypus-even-weirder-thought-scientists-discover
The Platypus is Even Weirder than Thought, Scientists Discover
Weird guys: The platypus has found yet another way to stand out in the animal kingdom. RICK STEVENS / TARONGA ZOO/AFP/File
They already have the bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver, lay eggs like reptiles and have venom like snakes.
Yet the humble platypus, a small creature which quietly swims in the rivers of eastern Australia, has found yet another way to amaze scientists, AFP said.
It is the only mammal that has hollow structures of the pigment melanin, a trait normally found in birds, biologists said in a new study on Wednesday.
When the first taxidermied specimen of a platypus was brought back from Australia in 1799, European naturalists began looking for the seams -- they assumed it was a hoax.
The animal has been surprising scientists ever since.
The platypus is one of only five mammal species that lay eggs, which are called monotremes. The other four are all types of echidna -- spiny creatures that waddle through the Australian bush.
It is also one of the few poisonous mammals -- males have a spur on their hind legs that releases venom at their enemies.
Now another oddity has been added to the unusual platypus characteristics, according to the study published in the Biology Letters journal of the UK's Royal Society.
In animals with spines, called vertebrates, the pigment called melanin protects against UV radiation, helps regulate body temperature and is responsible for the color of skin, fur or feathers.
Melanin is contained in tiny, specialized structures inside cells called melanosomes, the shape of which is linked to their color.
For example, eumelanin -- which produces black, grey and dark brown hues -- is usually found in elongated melanosomes.
Pheomelanin, which produces reds, reddish-browns and some shades of orange and yellow, is found in spherical melanosomes.
And in mammals, these melanosomes are always solid.
However in birds, sometimes the structures are hollow or flat, with only a thin layer of melanin. This helps birds have the dazzling and varied colors seen across the world.
Birds also have melanosomes that are organized into smaller "nanostructures" which create iridescent colors that interact with light, such as the feathers of a peacock.
'Surprising and exciting'
Jessica Leigh Dobson, a biologist at Ghent University in Belgium and the study's lead author, told AFP the team was compiling a database of mammal melanosomes when they made an "extremely surprising and exciting" discovery.
Platypus melanosomes were mostly spherical -- which should give it reddish-orange fur. But the animal is merely dark brown.
Then the scientists discovered that some of its melanosomes are hollow -- like those of birds.
They checked their database for other mammals, including marsupials, rodents and primates.
"To the best of our knowledge, this is the only example of hollow melanosomes in mammals," Dobson said.
The melanosomes were "scattered randomly throughout the hair cortex" and do not create iridescence, she said.
"Further work is definitely needed to find out why they have them," Dobson added.
Why these animals evolved these unusual features in the first place is also unclear.
The ancestors of the platypus and echidna are thought to have been aquatic burrowing animals, so their hollow melanosomes could have helped them adapt to life in the water, giving them warmer insulation.
But this theory raises more questions.
If this was the case, why is this trait "not more widespread among aquatic mammals?" the study asked.
Emergency Room for Injured Wild Birds Opens at Warsaw Zoo in Polandhttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5252603-emergency-room-injured-wild-birds-opens-warsaw-zoo-poland
A male bullfinch is treated at the birds' hospital at the Warsaw Zoo after crashing against the window of an apartment building, in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Ciobanu)
Emergency Room for Injured Wild Birds Opens at Warsaw Zoo in Poland
A male bullfinch is treated at the birds' hospital at the Warsaw Zoo after crashing against the window of an apartment building, in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Ciobanu)
When a male bullfinch smashed into Marcin Jarzębski’s apartment window, he took it in but realized it needed expert treatment. So the next morning he brought it to Warsaw’s new emergency room for wild birds.
He placed the tiny, plump bird with a black head, gray back and reddish chest feathers into a shoebox and took it as one of the first patients to the new drop-off center for sick and injured birds at the entrance of the Warsaw Zoo.
“The bird stayed with us overnight, but unfortunately it probably has a broken wing so we brought it to the bird hospital,” The Associated Press quoted Jarzebski as saying.
The 24/7 emergency room in the Polish capital is actually a system of automated metal containers – something like a parcel room – where the containers can keep the birds warm in winter. The boxes send an immediate signal to the bird hospital just a few meters away, where veterinarians bring the birds for diagnosing and treatment.
Jarzebski filled out a questionnaire and carefully placed the shoebox and the paper form into one of the containers, assured that the bullfinch would now have its best chance of surviving.
The box system, designed based on ideas of the workers at the bird hospital, locks the birds in to keep them safe until a doctor can collect them. The drop-off center, opened in February, is boosting the efficiency of a bird hospital that has operated at the Warsaw Zoo since 1998 and now treats about 9,000 patients annually.
It’s the brainchild of the zoo director, ornithologist Andrzej Kruszewicz, who said that people have a responsibility to care for creatures whose habitat they have altered, such as that of the bullfinch.
“This bird is a child of the forest who, during migration, didn’t understand the window,” Kruszewicz said.
“Humans often cause problems: car accidents, crashes into windows, electrocutions, tangled strings on storks’ legs,” he said. “All this is humans’ fault and they should feel responsible to give these birds a second chance.”
Treated storks are seen in an external cage outside the birds' hospital at the Warsaw Zoo in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Ciobanu)
Typical patients at the Warsaw Zoo include common songbirds like tits, sparrows, thrushes and starlings, as well as pigeons. However, in a green city like Warsaw, which has the river Vistula running through it, rarer species also can appear.
Hospital manager Andżelika Gackowska says that warm winters caused by climate change have meant birds that were previously migrating south, including cranes or herons, are choosing to stay in Poland.
“Birds who stopped migrating because of warm winters were caught off guard by such a harsh winter as this year,” Gackowska said. Some birds developed anemia during the cold months because of tough conditions and insufficient nutrition, making them more vulnerable to disease.
The emergency room was financed in part with money from Warsaw’s citizen budget, a program that chooses projects based on their popularity in online surveys of city residents.
Warsaw Zoo workers say residents have become more conscious about providing help if they see a sick bird, although they also warn against overzealousness, saying that people shouldn't pick up young and healthy birds that they might believe are orphans.
“In spring, we always make an information campaign warning people not to ‘kidnap’ birds,” Gackowska said. “Birds take care of their small ones differently than humans. If we see a baby bird on the grass alone, it is likely just training how to fly independently.”
In the bird hospital, veterinarian assistants are constantly on their feet, feeding and giving medicine to the various birds, located across multiple rooms depending on species and degree of illness.
Once birds are stronger, they are placed in large cages outside, to readjust to their natural environment before being released.
Releasing the cured birds back into their habitat is the ultimate goal, veterinarian Ewelina Chudziak said.
“We are fighting for freedom,” she said.
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