Flying kiwis, purring monkeys, a blind elephant and tiny horses

What a week... I am deep, deep, deep into several new features, but the weekly news stories continue.

First up, this week's two new Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American:

Rarest Kiwi Species Takes Flight

Critically Endangered Purring Monkey and 1,900 Other Species Added to IUCN Red List


And here's my latest batch of articles for Mother Nature Network, which definitely gave me odd stories to write about this week:

Neigh-sayer: Utah congressman seeks to be ban miniature horses from restaurants

Auburn tree poisoning trial update: Jury selection begins [I can't believe I've been covering this story for a year and a half!]

How clean is the air? Your smartphone has the answer [This was reprinted by Forbes.]

Swarming bees keep New York City on alert

Surgery prepares elephant for possible contact lenses

That's it! More next week!