A wild merino sheep was found wandering around in a forest in Australia who REALLY needed a trim. Not having had a haircut in years, the sheep, nicknamed BAARACK, could hardly see with the growth covering its eyes. Brought to the Edgar's Mission Farm Sanctuary, Baarack was given a badly needed shearing. It is estimated that nearly 70 pounds of wool were removed!

Photograph from LiveScience. Pretend you are Baarack and tell about a day in your life.

An unusual King penguin was spotted and photographed in South Georgia, an island in the Antarctic. Unlike most penguins that are black and white, this one is white with yellow coloring! Of the estimated 120,000 penguins on the island, it was the only one spotted with the unique coloring. Scientists say the rare condition has to do with lacking certain pigments which give a black coloring.

Photograph from live Science

A drawing of a kangaroo may not seem newsworthy until you learn it is about 17,500 years old! Scientists discovered the drawing, about 6.5ft in size, in a cave in Western Australia. It may be the oldest rock painting ever found in Australia. Radiocarbon testing was done on mud wasp nest found near the cave drawings. To date, the OLDEST cave drawing found, was that of a pig, on the island of Indonesia and dates back about 45,000 years.

Photograph from DailyMail

After traveling almost 300 million miles, NASA's Perseverance (Percy for short) has touched down on the surface of Mars, in an area called Jezero, which scientists think was a former lake. Part of what is hoped during the two year exploration by the car-sized robot, which weighs 2,260 pounds, is to search for signs of life. It already sent some fantastic pictures from Mars, called the Red Planet. One of the FIRSTS for Percy will be to conduct a helicopter experiment,(helicopter is called Ingenuity and is the size of a pigeon) which will be the very first time flight has been done on another planet. Interestingly, NASA scientists watched the landing with peanuts, a good luck tradition that began with the 1964 Ranger 7 mission.

Photograph from NASA

Sweden plans to build about a dozen new bridges in the northern area of their country. Called "renoducts",the bridges are for reindeer. With increased road traffic, such crossings will enable reindeer herds and their Sami herders, to get to grazing areas more safely. The word "renoduct" comes from "ren", the Swedish word for reindeer and viaduct. Can you name 2 facts about the country of Sweden? Photograph of such a viaduct is from the Guardian.

Archaeologists have found blue glass beads in Alaska, specifically Punyik Point, northern Alaska. Near the glass beads, plant fiber was found, probably used to string the jewelry. Using radiocarbon dating, the plant fiber date back to about 1397-1488. What makes the beads even more interesting is they are Venetian glass beads from Italy! How did these beads get to Alaska? Archaeologists think that traders brought the beads along the Silk Road to China. From there, people brought the beads across the Bering Strait to Alaska, perhaps in kayaks. These blue glass beads may be the oldest ever found in North America. The trek to cross the Bering Strait with the glass beads also would pre-date Columbus' trip across Europe to North America.

Photograph from dailymail