The Audubon Society wants bird lovers to contribute research to a project scientists hope will help save Atlantic puffins from starvation in Maine.

There are about 1,000 pairs of the seabirds, known for their multi-colored beaks and clownish appearance, in Maine. Audubon says the number of puffin fledging chicks has declined in the last two years, possibly because their key food source, herring and hake, are leaving for cooler waters. Puffins are on the state's threatened species list.

Levels of the metal mercury in much of the world's oceans are double to triple what they were before the industrial revolution, a new study says.

Researchers found there's more mercury from human sources — mostly burning fossil fuels and mining for gold — than scientists had thought.

Besides saunas and Nokia cellphones, it may very well be Finland's most successful export item ever: the Moomin universe, peopled by a group of bulky, white creatures resembling hippos.

A century after the birth of their creator, the late Tove Jansson, the odd charm of the quirky Moomin books and cartoons has won over millions in all age groups and dozens of languages from Czech to Chinese, Estonian to Esperanto.

Animal rights group PETA posted a $15,000 reward Wednesday for information leading to the arrest of a shirtless man seen kicking a squirrel off the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Video of the unidentified male luring the squirrel to its widely-assumed death went viral earlier this week on YouTube, which has since taken it down.

An insurance company settled a lawsuit with a Los Angeles man by dropping off buckets full of thousands of quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies, his attorney said Wednesday.

Andres Carrasco, 76, filed a lawsuit in 2012 against Adriana's Insurance Services, a Rancho Cucamonga-based company.

New York City's Naked Cowboy may have met his match.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors candidate George Davis stripped buck naked in Times Square on Wednesday to campaign for the right to be nude in public.

A Colorado art museum is standing by an upcoming exhibit featuring three tortoises with iPads mounted on their backs, despite calls from animal-rights activists to call off the exhibit as animal abuse.

The Aspen Art Museum released a statement Wednesday supporting the exhibit by Chinese-born Cai Guo-Qiang called "Moving Ghost Town." The exhibit opens Saturday as part of the public grand opening of the town's new $45 million museum.

Bayern Munich says it has reached an agreement to sign Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina ahead of the new Bundesliga season.

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told the club's website that "the player will come to Munich in the next few days for a medical exam and to sign his contract."

It was a day of unexpected absences at the Rogers Cup on Tuesday: Andrea Petkovic failed to make her match, Svetlana Kuznetsova pulled out injured, the power went out, and so too did an inconsistent Eugenie Bouchard.

Amid the surprising run of events, there were some predictable outcomes. Third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska won through to the second round with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Barbara Zahlavova Strycova, while Ana Ivanovic and Carolina Wozniacki both breezed through.

Roger Federer cruised to a 6-2, 6-0 victory over wild card Peter Polansky in the second round of the Rogers Cup, while Stan Wawrinka, Ernests Gulbis and Richard Gasquet also advanced in the U.S. Open warm up Tuesday.

Federer needed just 52 minutes to eliminate Canada's Polansky, who beat 2013 Wimbledon finalist Jerzy Janowicz on Monday. The second-seeded Federer had a bye into the second round.