Earlier this week, a Florida alligator picked an unusual spot to rest—the tarmac at the MacDill Air Force Base. The gator even went so far as to park itself next to (and between) a plane’s tires. Totally normal. The Air Force Base posted photos on its Facebook page asking the public to add their own captions. Commentators rose to the occasion with things like: “I said: ‘Chock the wheels, not Crock the wheels!‘” “No one likes the new quality assurance officer. He tends to snap at people, but at least he has a thick skin.“ “If I fits, I sits.“ And “New addition to the K9 corp! He doesn’t bark, b ..read more

We don’t know who Jess is, but we’ve got mad respect for her. The Hoedspruit Reptile Centre posted a video on its TikTok page of an employee (or volunteer) named Jess removing a black mamba snake from a home in South Africa. Black mambas are Africa’s deadliest snake, but Jess doesn’t flinch. In fact, you’d think Jess was handling a harmless garter snake by the way she calmly handles the situation. In the minute-long video appropriately set to a Black Sabbath song, a woman approaches a snake crawling along the inside of a window sill in someone’s home. She grabs it with a grabber thingy you mig ..read more

Got some outdoor plans this spring and summer? Of course you do, since you’re here at Outdoors.com. There’s one piece of gear that you may not be stressing about that deserves more attention than it usually gets. Sure, you need your day pack, your trekking poles, and your shoes. You need a hat, a harness, a kayak, a cooler, a tent, and a million other things . . . but we’re talking about sunscreen. Here’s why sunscreen is the most underrated piece of outdoor gear in your kit. This post contains affiliate links. Outdoors.com may earn a commission when you make a purchase through these ..read more

If you’re bitten by a venomous snake, the last thing you should do is capture the animal and bring it to the emergency room with you. This is the plea from Wide Bay, an Australian hospital. Apparently, hospital staff don’t want to deal with dangerous animals while they’re trying to save people’s lives—including yours. An incident earlier this month prompted the warning. A snakebite victim reportedly handed emergency staff at an Aussie hospital “a plastic food container with a small eastern brown snake inside peering back at them.” Eastern brown snakes are highly venomous animals, and their par ..read more

Last month, a critically endangered species made a welcome appearance on a trail cam in Indonesia. Even better, it was a mother and her calf. Considering there are only around 70 Javan rhinos left in the wild, this is a great sign for the species. A news release from the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry said the Javan rhinos passed by a trail cam in Ujung Kulon National Park on the western tip of the island of Java. Wildlife officials believe this is a new calf, adding one more rhino to the too-short list. In the trail cam footage video posted to Facebook, the mom Javan rhino am ..read more

According to Mountain Tracks, a mountain guiding company, slopes between 30° and 40° are “steep,” and slopes above 40° are “very steep.” Well, keep all that in mind when we say that Kilian Jornet and David Lindgren went extreme steep skiing on a slope that angles up to 60° in some places. It’s bananas to watch. The two alpinists went steep skiing down Breitind’s east face after climbing it. At 3,284 feet, Breidtinden is the highest mountain on the island of Senja in Norway. The feat seems impossible, and watching it will make your palms sweaty. “Steep skiing is a very, very niche discipline am ..read more

It was raining mountain lions in Pocatello, Idaho last week. After concerned residents spotted a young male mountain lion in a neighborhood tree, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game stepped in to humanely remove the mountain lion from the area. Fish and Game tranquilized the mountain lion using a dart, and then they caught him as he fell from the tree. Image courtesy of Idaho Fish and Game In a Facebook Reel posted by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, you can see several first responders standing beneath the tree with a tarp. The mountain lion falls backward from the tree limb after the ..read more

If you love being outdoors, then you’re probably going to head into bug territory at some point on your adventures. Of all the things people say they love about their trips outside, we’re pretty sure bugs and bug bites don’t usually make the list. If you’re planning some epic outdoor adventures and want to camp or hike places where insects may flourish, you’re probably going to want some bug repellent. But not all bug repellent chemicals are created equal. There are many alternatives to DEET now, and it’s worth learning what your options are before buying your next bug spray. Going outside is ..read more

Five of the rarest geese in the world, a small flock of Hawaii’s state birds, showed up in Huntington Beach, California, confusing everyone. The nēnē or Hawaiian goose is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, meaning it only lives there. So why are there a handful of these Hawaiian geese hanging around in southern California? According to local news station KCAL, an elderly woman who lives in the high desert of California once owned the rare geese as pets, but she could no longer take care of them. Though the news report doesn’t say it outright, it seems the previous owner released the birds. Local ..read more

Be careful where you ride, and be careful where you fall. Mountain biker Manuel Altamirano recently learned this the hard way, after crashing into a coiled rattlesnake on a trail near San Diego, California. Thankfully, neither snake nor human was hurt. According to NBC7 San Diego, Altamirano was riding at the Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve when he saw a rattlesnake coiled up in strike position on the trail. He told the local news station that he tried to stop as soon as he saw it, but his bike skid and hit the snake. Meanwhile, Altamirano bailed off the back of the bike. He says he’s had ratt ..read more