After the tiger attack and ensuing chaos at the San Francisco Zoo, here's some good zoo news, for a change. The New England Aquarium is welcoming many new arrivals. An anaconda celebrated the new year by giving birth to 14 little ones. WBZ explains how anaconda-birthing works: The pregnant 16-foot anaconda finished giving birth to all 14 babies around 5 a.m. Tuesday. While most snakes lay external eggs, anaconda eggs remains inside the mother's body......

First Night Monday, December 31 Everywhere (see below) All outdoor events are free. All indoor events are accessible with a First Night button ($15) Official First Night site Artists use the cold weather to their advantage with ice sculptures. The sculptures will be on the Common starting at 1:00 pm until midnight. You can look at a frozen version of Florida courtesy of Donald Chapelle, an American eagle that would make Stephen Colbert proud, and......

As Bostonians we pride ourselves on our history as a city steeped in sea-faring tradition. Whether it be our statuesque U.S.S. Constitution, the ubiquitous story of the Boston Tea Party, or the ever-present duck boats, Boston and the ocean will be forever intertwined. As such, Bostonist presents some last-minute gift ideas that pay homage to our salty roots. Looking for the perfect gift for the animal lover in your life? Consider giving a "Proud Parent......

The sweet strains of Sir Mix-a-Lot immediately popped in our heads upon hearing the word that Kathleen the anaconda might be knocked up. The New England Aquarium performed an ultrasound, but the results were inconclusive, so a vet will keep watching her. You can watch the Aquarium's footage of Kathleen getting her ultrasound over at the Aquarium site. Kathleen and another female anaconda share space with a male anaconda who must be quite the babydaddy......

--Smoke filled a Boston University lab yesterday morning, prompting an evacuation. This wouldn't have been such big news if it weren't for the biomedical lab's experiments on infectious "rabbit fever." The Globe proved it was a master of understatement with the following sentence: "[The incident renews] concern about the danger of studying potentially deadly pathogens in a densely populated area." No kidding. --The BPD held a press conference to help find missing sailor Dustin Willis.......

The Coast Guard is looking for another Massachusetts boat lost at sea. The Lady Luck, which was off Maine, sent a distress signal and hasn't been heard from since. An absolute monster killed a seal with a shotgun blast. A spokesman from the New England Aquarium told the Globe, "This was not any great hunting. This was somebody who took aim, probably from a relatively short distance, at an animal who had no fear of......

Unfortunately, this story about dolphins isn't as pleasant as the plot of a Douglas Adams book. Our clever water buddies just threw themselves on a sandy grave at Wollaston Beach. Surely, scientists must have a more reasonable explanation than that the dolphins are in a kamikaze mood. The Patriot Ledger has a possible reason from a spokesman at the New England Aquarium: "The dolphins were likely to have been sick because they died quickly......

The trickle started in October. We got an email from a friend reporting that we’d never believe it. Bostonist thought it sounded a little “fishy.” My friend's older brother and his wife took their son, who is five, to the Boston Aquarium last Saturday. They have a grand ole time, walking around and checking out the sea life and then picking up some lunch afterwards. They go home and their son disappears into his bedroom......