70 Critically Endangered Tortoises Are Thriving in the Wild 6 Months After Their Release The group of young tortoises spent their early life in a headstart program operated by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens   Seventy critically endangered Mojave desert tortoises are bringing hope to their threatened species. Six months ago, San Diego...

Donner Party rescued from the Sierra Nevada Mountains On February 19, 1847, the first rescuers reach surviving members of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the summer of 1846, in the midst of a Western-bound fever sweeping the United States, 89 people—including 31 members of the Donner and Reed...