Daniel Crag traveled from San Diego to Glacier National Park in Montana in May 2026 for an adventure exploring the natural landscape. Things took a dramatic and unexpected turn on May 28 when Daniel noticed a Grizzly cub beside him. He quickly realized that the cub wasn’t alone. “At that point, I did what they kind of teach or train you to do: just alert the bear so you don’t startle. You make them aware,” he told CBS 8. “So, I did that. ‘Hey bear! Hey bear! And it kind of had its nose in the snow, maybe smelling something, and looked up at me. And as soon as we looked at each other, it charged at me.” Daniel Crag Miraculously Survived Daniel Crag shared terrifying details from the attack with the news outlet. “I just kind of thought ‘this is it.’ It bit down on my arm, dragged me maybe 20 feet,” he recalled. “I kind of flipped, landed on my backside, opened my eyes, and the bear had continued running down the mountain.” He explained that the grizzly bear crushed the bones in his arms that required surgery and left him with some pretty high bills. But Daniel said he’s not going to stop his outdoor adventures just because of a little bear attack. “It’s part of who I am,” he told CBS 8. “It’s not gonna stop me.” Daniel Crag created a fundraiser to help offset his medical bills, and he’s raised more than $52,000. He let donors know how grateful he is for their support. “Your kindness and expertise saved my life, and I am thankful beyond words. If you are able to support my fundraiser, your generosity will help me move forward and heal. Thank you for being part of my journey,” he wrote. “All proceeds exceeding medical related expenses will be donated to the National Park Service.” This story’s featured image can be found here

Walking down the street in a busy city isn’t where people expect to encounter wild animals, but people in Japan have learned to expect the unexpected. The Associated Press recently shared terrifying surveillance footage of an encounter between a man just walking down the street and a bear ready to attack. The bear appeared out of nowhere and chased the man in a residential area before running away. According to the AP, this wasn’t the first bear attack. “A bear injured four people in a Japanese residential area on Tuesday in the latest case of an attack by the animals in an area of the country where bears have increasingly encroached on the human population in recent years,” according to a social media post. The Bear Attack Got People Talking Seeing the bear running up to the man in broad daylight caused mixed reactions online. Some thought the video was funny. Like this person who wrote. “Hahah. It’s kind of like he was playing. It was really scary, but once he pushed the guy, he just ran away. I think the guy wearing all black made the bear think he was a pal.” Others think the humans are the problem and the bear wouldn’t attack if we hadn’t moved into their home. “My favorite part is the statement saying ‘bears have increasingly encroached on human populations,’” a comment reads. “I assure you….that is backwards.” “Don’t they mean ‘where the humans have encroached on the bear population?’” Another person agreed. Then, of course, people couldn’t help but give a bit of advice to follow in the event of a bear attack. “Don’t ever run! Throw your arms up and out to appear bigger and yell. Running makes them chase and attack,” a follower suggested. This story’s featured image can be found here

Lillian Droniak is 96 years old, and she’s not gonna take any guff from the authorities. She resides in Connecticut in a nursing home and has become an Internet sensation with nearly four million followers on Instagram alone. (Incidentally, she only follows one person, and it’s her grandson, Kevin. But we’ll come back to that.) She’s listed as a “fashion model,” and her bio reads: “I’m a celebrity and a 96-year-old grandma. I can be your grandma too.” Just recently, she posted a clip where she shares a threatening letter from her nursing home. Wearing a t-shirt with the words “eyes are up here” in hot pink lettering, she pulls out her glasses and begins to read the letter. She is not messing around. View this post on Instagram The letter A chyron reads, “Getting kicked out of my nursing home.” Lillian holds up a piece of paper and explains. “It says you’re getting kicked out if you don’t stop the parties.” She then proceeds to read it. “Parties are not allowed! And you cannot serve alcohol to other residents. Letter serves as a formal warning.” She considers this for a moment and then rips up the letter. She then pulls out a hair pick and begins casually combing her bangs. “I can do whatever I want. I pay 12,000 dollars to live here and I can party if I want to. My girlfriends are coming over tonight! We’re gonna drink and gossip. It’s not a party, but we do get rowdy. I can’t help it. I love to party! You can’t stop me!” She puts a little lipstick on and pops her lips. “They’re here!” she exclaims, letting out a delightfully mischievous cackle while she uses her wheelchair to head toward the door. She leaves the clip with a “Love ya!” as the festivities begin. “Never stop partying MeeMaw” Her popularity on social media continues to rise. In just over a day, her post gained over half a million likes and 20,000 comments, many of them funny and supportive. One commenter doesn’t mince words: “NEVER STOP PARTYING MEEMAW!” A few Instagrammers mention her rental cost. “$12,000!??? Babe, you better party, and you better charge cover at the door!” Another points out that at such a high cost, she should be able to do whatever she’d please (within legal reason), writing, “I mean, price aside—just moral question. These people are at the very end of their lives. Why would anyone prevent them from having a little fun? Seriously?” View this post on Instagram In case anyone is wondering if she did indeed party, a follow-up Instagram post shows Lillian filming herself in the mirror of her makeup station with what looks like a half-drunk martini sitting next to her. The chyron reads, “Hungover from last night’s party. My nursing home can’t stop me from partying through the last chapter of my life. Xoxo.” Lillian’s grandson Kevin Lillian’s grandson Kevin chatted with Upworthy to fill us in on how it all got started. He had always known she was funny, but her fame didn’t take off until the pandemic. “I realized this at a young age because she has always been a comedian to my friends and me,” Kevin shared. “However, in 2020 during Covid, that’s when I got her onto TikTok and helped her set it up. Now it’s a fun hobby for her to connect with fans / her ‘internet grandchildren.'” We asked what the funniest thing she’s ever said was, but it turned out her humor has a lot of raw truth to it. Kevin shares, “One time at a family member’s funeral she said, ‘Why are people crying? Don’t they know no one lives forever?'” And it’s not just the millions of “regular people fans.” Grandma Lillian has become a favorite among some celebrities too. “Snoop Dogg has reposted a reel of hers, as well as Justin Bieber.” View this post on Instagram The post 96-year old grandmother gets stern warning from nursing home for ‘partying too hard’ appeared first on Upworthy.

Recently, scientists set out to prove just how smart bumblebees are. And since they couldn’t simply give them a multiple-choice test, they instead set up a bumblebee-sized obstacle course designed to fool the insects. The results? They discovered that bees may have problem-solving abilities similar to those of big-brained vertebrates. A study recently published in Science found bumblebees are even more cognitively advanced than we realized.  A bumblebee on a leaf Photo credit: Pexels/ Chris F One of the highest signs of cognitive performance is the ability to spontaneously solve a problem—essentially being able to improvise and think on your feet. Until now, we didn’t know bumblebees could similarly think on the fly.  While scientists only recently learned bumblebees can count and have a sense of rhythm, spontaneous problem-solving is not something we’ve seen insects do.  Researchers put the bumblebees through a series of tests “Spontaneous problem-solving is something that has never been shown in any invertebrate before,” study author Olli Loukola told ScienceNews. This novel study was designed to test if bees actually did have this ability, and the results were incredible. Researchers set up a series of tasks to see if bees were able to creatively solve problems on the fly—and earn a sweet treat. “I planned the experiment so that it’s challenging for the bees,” Loukola told NPR. “They really need to understand the task in order to solve it.” To test the bees’ brains, researchers taught the insects that a ball is a moveable object and that a blue ring represents a flower, so the bees associated it as source of food. The bees were then placed in a small plexiglass enclosure containing the balls, with rings printed on the ceiling in a position unreachable to the bees. What researchers observed next was remarkable. Since the size of the container didn’t allow for flight, the bees quickly learned that rolling the foam ball was the only way they could get their sugary reward. The workaround was swift, showing immediate problem-solving skills. “Bumblebees, they love rolling balls,” Loukola told NPR. “Some of them needed more time and made more errors. But then they continued.” A previous study published in Animal Behaviour in 2022 confirms bumblebees do, in fact, love rolling balls. It may even be a form of play for them. Watch that experiment here: Bumblebees roll balls, shown at half speed. Video credit: “Do Bumblebees Play?” by Hiruni Samadi Galpayage Dona et al. in Animal Behavior They passed with flying colors Almost 75 percent of the insects in the study, each of which have a brain the size of a sesame seed—were able to solve these puzzles in a way that reflects the cognitive abilities of big-brained mammals like chimpanzees, birds, or elephants.  Watch how the bees reach the blue dot in this video: “What makes this behavior especially remarkable is that the bees had never been trained to roll the ball,” lead study author Akshaye Bhambore from the University of Oulu told Refractor. “This was a completely new challenge. Their behavior appeared goal-directed, with successful individuals showing more directed movement patterns.” Another novel part of the challenge: the bees had never completed an experiment with similar solutions. And, to prove this wasn’t a fluke, researchers created a multi-step puzzle for the bees to solve. During this task, bees had to first locate the hidden flower, then navigate a ball around a barrier and through a small opening to be able to access the treat. This time, 80 percent completed the task. While we often think of bees working together in a hive to create honey, it turns out they can problem-solve just fine on their own. This may equip them to more easily access food sources, even in areas where environmental conditions change. As the bee population becomes increasingly at-risk, this becomes especially important. Up to 95 percent of flowering species depend on them for survival. For now, researchers say this problem-solving ability doesn’t equate bees to the same brain function as humans. But what it does prove is that we have a long way to go in understanding just how smart all insects, which make up about 80 percent of the world’s species, are.  The post Scientists tried to fool bumblebees into avoiding a flower. They failed in the best way.  appeared first on Upworthy.

A mom named Chantal Wijbrandi recently shared her 11 rules for postpartum care that might seem unconventional (or, as she put it, “crazy”) to folks in the U.S., but are actually deeply rooted in ancient Ayurvedic and Chinese traditions. It highlighted just how differently various cultures around the world approach this chapter of a mother’s life.  The common theme among these practices is rest and rejuvenation. Cultures that continue to rely on more ancient practices sometimes refer to this type of postpartum care as “mothering the mother.” View this post on Instagram Conversely, Western practices often take a more clinical approach and prioritize the newborn, as well as getting back to independence and the normal flow of things as quickly as possible.  Wijbrandi’s list included: Staying in bed for the first two weeks, and not leaving the house for 40 days except for short walks Woman sleeping. Canva Many, many cultures around the world recommend at least 40 days postpartum recovery. It goes by many different names—“Zuo Yue Zi” in Traditional Chinese medicine, “Sutika Paricharya” in Ayurveda, and even certain Christian traditions called it “churching.” In addition, new moms are often expected to be absent from chores and cooking for six weeks to two months.  This looks starkly different than some of the stories we see in the U.S. of moms “bouncing back” to normalcy in a matter of days. But western-based scientific study actually does have some backing to this. A 2025 study in the National Library of Medicine, for instance, agreed that recovery should last at least six to eight weeks.  Avoiding any cold foods or drinks, and instead consuming soft, warm cooked meals plus a daily cup of bone broth, herbal teas, and about “1000 extra calories.” Woman enjoying soup. Canva Postpartum is a time when the digestive system can get sluggish, and the body needs ample nutrition absorbed. Warm foods are often considered easier to digest, which could be why they’ve been recommended for centuries. Plus, some research does suggest that cold foods may temporarily slow down digestive enzyme activity, blood flow, and the rate of gastric emptying.  However, that doesn’t mean that cold foods do substantial enough delays to digestion to consider it a “make or break” decision, especially if you are prioritizing nutrient-rich foods.  Sleeping with her newborn on her chest or next to her While both Eastern and Western philosophies seem to encourage mother and child sleeping closely to one another to promote bonding, ease stress, and even help prevent postpartum blues, they do differ in attitudes to proximity. Organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advise against bed-sharing to reduce the risk of SIDS.  That said, there are more resources out there for safer co-sleeping practices.   Belly binding, Herbal Epsom salt sitz baths, and different types of massages, some daily In Ayurveda, childbirth is seen as a time of excess Vata (air and space elements), which can lead to feelings of emptiness, anxiety, and displaced energy. Binding physically and energetically contains this energy, providing a “hug” that offers warmth, stability, and emotional grounding.  But on a more tangible level, binding can provide core and pelvic support as it recovers strength, reduce pain and swelling, and aid in maintaining good posture.  Today, pelvic floor therapy is becoming a much more talked about aspect of postpartum care, even in the U.S.  As for Epsom salt baths, some healthcare professionals advise waiting four to six weeks before moms take them to reduce infection risk, particularly if you have a C-section incision or significant stitches. Others say they can be gamechangers for relaxing the perineum and easing pain and itching from hemorrhoids (another common pregnancy and postpartum symptom). Relying on community support and a “super prepped” partner  We all know that the whole “it takes a village” thing is easier said than done in the West. For many moms, their partner gets a very short paternity leave, not to mention we simply don’t have the same type of community care baked into our way of life. As many American moms have lamented before, a “village” tends to cost money: doulas, daycare, etc.  Still, while the concept of communal care after birth is deeply rooted across many Eastern cultures, its reality and accessibility varied heavily based on social class, geography, and family structure. So, in many ways, having a village is a luxury no matter where you are.  Which is right for you? If you’re wondering which practice is “better,” you might be disappointed…or empowered! Since each method excels in different areas, many new parents take on a hybrid approach, combining the life-saving interventions of Western medicine with the extended, nurturing rest and dietary wisdom of Eastern traditions. Modern “postpartum doulas” often do the same, blending evidence-based newborn care while also preparing traditional nutrient-dense meals for the mother, for example.  Perhaps the real takeaway isn’t that one approach is “right” and the other is “wrong,” but that new mothers deserve far more support than many currently receive. Whether it’s through modern medicine, time-honored traditions, or a blend of both, postpartum recovery may be one of those rare areas where slowing down isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. The post Mom sparks thoughtful debate with 11 ‘crazy’ postpartum rules she swears by appeared first on Upworthy.