Elephants at San Diego zoo huddle to protect calves during earthquake

SAN DIEGO (AP) — At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a herd of African elephants was caught on video running over to protect their young by encircling them during a 5.2 magnitude earthquake. The elephants run as the video from the Southern California park starts to shake and then they appear to encircle the young. They stay in the cluster for several minutes after the rocking stops. The park says elephants have the ability to feel sound through their feet, and the behavior is known as an “alert circle.” The quake that hit Monday morning and was centered in San Diego County caused no injuries or major damage.

A beloved pet tortoise is reunited with its family weeks after disappearing in a Mississippi tornado

KOKOMO, Miss. (AP) — A beloved pet tortoise named Myrtle has been reunited with its family in Mississippi weeks after disappearing during a deadly tornado outbreak. Tiffany Emanuel and her family fled their rural home as a tornado hit on March 15. They returned to find pine trees had fallen on top of Myrtle's backyard home. Myrtle was missing. A neighbor found the injured tortoise weeks later and took him to a rescue group for treatment. The neighbor also contacted Myrtle's family. A grateful Tiffany Emanuel is nursing him back to health. She says: “He’s been through a lot.”

Police detain 6 climbers who wanted to scale Cologne's famous cathedral

BERLIN (AP) — German police in Cologne have detained five Frenchmen and a Belgian woman who had tried to climb the city’s famous cathedral. Police said Sunday they were informed by the church’s private security guards who spotted the young climbers with headlamps on their surveillance cameras in the middle of the night. Police officers in riot gear surrounded the cathedral and a helicopter hovered over the northern dome, until the five climbers were detained inside the tower’s stairwell.

Giant rodents cuddle with visitors at the Capybara Cafe in Florida

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — Animal lovers now have a place to hang out with the “it” animals of the moment. The capybara is a semi-aquatic South American relative of the guinea pig. Curious patrons who want to spend time with them can do so at Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Florida. Stephanie Angel opened the cafe late last year. The furry rodents enjoy munching on corn on the cob and love head scratches from humans. Patrons can also meet other animals like a skunk, wallaby and armadillo. Capybaras are the latest in a long line of animals to get the star treatment in the U.S.

Fatou, the world's oldest gorilla in a zoo, is celebrating her 68th birthday in Berlin

BERLIN (AP) — Fatou, the oldest gorilla living in captivity worldwide, is getting ready for her 68th birthday in style. The Berlin zoo on Friday presented Fatou with a basket of fruit and vegetables ahead of her official birthday, which falls on Sunday. Fatou was born in 1957 and came to the zoo in what was then West Berlin in 1959. She lives in her own enclosure, apart from the zoo’s more boisterous other five gorillas, who range in age from 4 to 39. Fatou became the zoo's oldest resident last year, following the death of a flamingo that was believed to be at least 75.

Emaarion Boyd steals 6 bases without a hit, 1st minor league player to do it since at least 2005

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Emaarion Boyd became the first minor league player in at least 20 years to steal six bases in a game without getting a hit when he pulled off the feat for High-A Beloit against Cedar Rapids. Boyd reached on a fielder’s choice, walk and hit by pitch. He stole second and third base each time. Boyd was an 11th-round pick by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2022 Major League Baseball amateur draft. He was part of a December trade that sent him to the Miami Marlins. The 21-year-old has 98 steals in 203 minor league games.

A Masters' moment: Patton Kizzire crawls through shrubbery on hands and knees to find his golf ball

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Patton Kizzire provided the first viral moment of the 2025 Masters when his errant tee shot on the fifth hole sailed right of the fairway, prompting the American to crawl through some shrubbery on his hands and knees in an effort to find his ball and attempt to save par. It's not a sight patrons at the Masters see very often. But Kizzire was photographed on all fours in the bushes while assessing his second shot after finding the ball. He was able to find enough space to maintain a solid stance and slap the ball out into the fairway without any further damage, but wound up missing a par putt and made a bogey-5. Kizzire finished his opening round in last place.

Boris Johnson gets a surprise peck from an ostrich in Texas

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was pecked by an ostrich at a wildlife park in Texas. In an an Instagram video posted by Johnson's wife, the ostrich can be seen walking up to a car, poking its head through the window and pecking the former prime minister on the hand. In the caption of the video, Carrie Johnson says “Too funny not to share.” Johnson, who served as prime minister from 2019 to 2022, was also seen at a local restaurant in Texas over the weekend.

Man loses legal bid to cash in $59,500 in chips from now-defunct New Jersey casino

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — A man cannot redeem nearly $60,000 in chips from a now-defunct casino that he bought at an online auction because they were “pilfered” by an employee of a company who was supposed to destroy them. That is the ruling handed down earlier this month by a New Jersey appellate court. The man had tried to cash in the chips in 2023 with a state agency responsible for redeeming outstanding chips from the Playboy Hotel and Casino, which had operated from 1981 to 1984. The agency declined, noting the chips had not been issued to patrons in the normal course of casino operations.

Garbage piles up on Birmingham's streets as a sanitation strike in the UK city enters its 5th week

LONDON (AP) — Stinky garbage is piling up on the streets of the U.K.'s second-largest city and causing chaos a month into a strike by trash collectors. The bags of trash accumulating on Birmingham sidewalks are being chewed by critters, making the litter problem worse. Talks to try to reach an agreement to end the strike were scheduled to resume Tuesday. Members of the garbage workers union walked off the job March 11 over the elimination of a job position and painful pay cuts. The council says it’s made a reasonable offer and pay cuts would only affect a small number of workers.