A rare Mandarin duck shows up in New York City’s Central Park. 

In the midterm elections, environmentally friendly Democrats gain seven governorships and take control of the House of Representatives after winning at least 31 seats but lose two seats in the Senate. (Several races are still too close to call.) Nevada passes a strong renewable energy initiative, but climate and energy ballot measures elsewhere falter. 

Floridians pass Amendment 9, which simultaneously bans offshore drilling and indoor vaping.

Air pollution in New Delhi reaches lethal levels, partly as a result of widespread fireworks set off to celebrate the holiday of Diwali.

The world’s oldest figurative painting—a 40,000-year-old cow—is found in a cave in Borneo. 

A new study shows that the common version of human papillomavirus known as HPV16 evolved in early humans as a result of having sex with Neanderthals.

Category 4 Hurricane Harvey, with wind speeds of up to 134 miles an hour and 10-foot storm surges, could not stop spotted sea trout in the Gulf of Mexico from spawning. 

The plucky baby bear that’s trying to climb a steep snowy cliff to reach its mother in a widely shared inspirational video may have just been trying to escape the drone that was filming it.

Researchers re-create the scent of the Hawaiian mountain hibiscus flower, Hibiscadelphus wilderianus, which has been extinct for a century.

Two Seattle ferries are delayed for several hours during rush hour by a pod of orcas. 

The main climate change section of the EPA’s website has vanished. 

The western Pacific island nation of Palau bans sunscreen in order to save its reefs. 

A Texas hunting guide and his client accidentally shoot each other and then blame the incident on undocumented migrants.  

Humans move 24 times more material around the surface of the earth than all the planet’s rivers move sediment.