Home/Articles in: Animals
Articles in: Animals
Animals, Weird & Wonderful, May 21st, 2012,
People love to gawk at exotic animals in zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks. Some self-important individuals even like to collect tigers, pythons and monkeys so they can show them off to friends or impress strangers. Remember the private animal collector in Ohio who released his collection of 56 exotic animals – including tigers, bears, lions and a baboon – and then killed himself? The police ended up killing nearly all the animals. That was an extreme example of what can go wrong, but honest mistakes also happen with results ranging from tragic to amusing. An escaped penguin swimming in Tokyo…
Tags: animals, escaped, exotic, penguin, Tokyo
Animals, Nature, Pollution, May 15th, 2012,
Fishermen in Germany are blaming swimmers for peeing in a lake near Hamburg, resulting in the deaths of some 500 fish. The fishermen contend that the large amount of phosphates contained in urine have caused large amounts of algae to grow, suffocating many fish. Though there may be a scientific basis to the fishermen’s anti-bathers claims, Hamburg’s Urban Development and Environment Authority (BSU) contends that it’s ice skaters who are at fault. From The Local: The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation. Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon. –BSU spokeswoman…
Tags: deaths, fish, Hamburg, lake, pee
Animals, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, May 14th, 2012,
A couple of months ago California’s only wild wolf went back to Oregon, leaving the Golden State effectively wolfless. But now he’s back in Cali and the paparazzi have caught him on film. Actually, OR7′s – or as he is sometimes referred to, Journey’s – photo was snapped by an employee of the California Department of Fish and Game From the Los Angeles Times: For the last couple of months he has wandered back and forth across the state border, most recently spending time in Modoc County. Tuesday, state fish and game staff were visiting ranchers, advising them that the…
Tags: California, coyote, journey, OR7, Oregon, wolf
Animals, Wildlife & Flora, May 7th, 2012,
The northern coast of Peru has seen the deaths of huge numbers of pelicans and dolphins in the last few weeks, prompting government warnings to stay away from certain beaches. The Peruvian government’s health alert follows discoveries of some 1,200 dead birds (mostly pelicans) and over 800 dead dolphins. What is causing the deaths of these animals is unknown. One possibility is that warming ocean temperatures have forced anchovies into other waters where the young birds can’t find them, meaning that the birds are dying due to starvation. Some 15 years ago El Niño was blamed for a mass pelican…
Tags: beaches, deaths, dolphins, pelicans, Peru
Animals, Conservation, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, ,
White-tailed Eagle is one of the largest birds of prey in the world. It weighs up to 6 kilograms, with a 2.5 metre wingspan. “During the period 1800-1970, White-tailed Eagles in most of Europe, underwent dramatic declines, and became extinct in many regions of Western, central, and Southern Europe. While Norway, Germany, Poland, and Iceland harboured the largest surviving populations, pockets of reproducing pairs remained in several other countries” – according to Wikipedia. The White-Tailed Eagle (Polish: Bielik, plural Bieliki) is considered Poland’s national symbol and it is believed that it’s this noble bird that appears on the Coat of…
Tags: babies, chick, eggs, live transmission, nest, nestling, Poland, while-tail eagle
Animals, Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, May 4th, 2012,
Most of us associate wildlife with the countryside rather than with cities, unless you count cockroaches, rats and pigeons as wildlife (and why not, they are alive and not domesticated). However, urban environments can be unlikely havens for certain species that thrive or at least hang on to tiny remnants of their original habitats. Larger animals can pose complications, such as the exploding deer population in Washington, DC. And by exploding, I was referring to their numbers, not the actual deer. That would really be a problem. Then there are the UK’s urban foxes – loved, hated or even feared…
Tags: foxes, urban wildlife
Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, May 1st, 2012,
A dolphin has spent several days apparently hiding out in Orange County, California’s Bolsa Chica wetlands reserve. When rescue workers on paddleboards attempted to persuade the dolphin to return to the open sea on Saturday, it was driven back into the wetlands by a group of dolphin bullies. On Friday, it was human spectators who scared the dolphin back into the reserve. Marine experts are now recommending that the dolphin be left alone rather than encouraged to leave and be exposed to the intimidating dolphin group. It can feed on fish in the wetlands and is able to find its…
Tags: bullied, California, dolphin, Reserve, wetlands
Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Weird & Wonderful, Apr 25th, 2012,
Well, we can’t always post serious news. Here are a couple of cute videos demonstrating how pets help their owners in unusual ways. We’ve all heard of the dog that fetches the morning paper and the cat that catches mice or keeps your feet warm (if you can’t bear the thought of a dead mouse). And now for something completely different. How about a Newfoundland Labrador in Norfolk, UK who helps his owner thatch roofs? He’s a thatcher and his name is Axel, not Margaret. OK, so he doesn’t actually do any work, but he sits on the roof and…
Tags: cat, dog, pets, video
Animal Rights, Videos & Documentaries, Mar 30th, 2012,
Back in 2010 I posted about how bad economic times in Ireland were resulting in a large amount of neglected and abandoned horses in the country. Now Spain, in the throws of economic crisis, is experiencing a similar problem. In Spain, as in Ireland, when cash was plentiful many horse-mad citizens splashed out on having their very own equine companion (or trophy as the case may be). But now that times are tough it’s old Sugar Foot who gets the boot. Curiously, sometimes it’s not old mares that are being, quite literally, put out to pasture, but expensive pure-red Andalucians….
Tags: abandoned, crisis, economic, horses, Ireland, Spain
Animal Rights, Pollution, Mar 13th, 2012,
In preparation for the eventuality of oil spills resulting from drilling in the icy Arctic region, Shell Oil might be enlisting the help of sniffer dogs as an inexpensive contingency plan. Shell plans to start drilling off the northwest coast of Alaska as early as June. Since there are as of yet no methods for detecting oil spills that are covered by ice and snow, the use of dachshunds and border collies could be the best the minds of Shell and other companies have been able to come up with. Personally, I have no idea if this is an effective…
Tags: arctic, dachshund, drilling, Greenpeace, oil, Shell, sniffer dogs, spill
Animals, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Mar 9th, 2012,
Since it’s Friday, I thought I’d post a few videos that are sure to shock, amuse and make you go hmmm… First, a tigon has been born at a zoo China. A tigon, or tiglon, is a hybrid big cat born of a lion mother and a tiger father. Generally smaller than ligers, the better-known lion-tiger hybrid – born of a lion father and tiger mother – tigons are not necessarily sterile and have been known to produce offspring of their own. Still, tigons have weak immune systems and ‘confused genetics’ according to the following ITN News report. But who…
Tags: flood, Hawaii, hybrid, Kilauea, lion, tiger, tigon, volcano
Animals, Wildlife & Flora, Mar 7th, 2012,
Journey (aka OR-7), for a while the only Gray Wolf living wild in the state of California, has now packed up and returned north to Oregon. It was fun while it lasted, but like many who become disillusioned with the shallow glitz of celebrity, Journey is in need of real friends. Those don’t exist in California, not for wolves anyway. OR-7 won’t find a pack or a lone mate, since he is the only wild wolf known to set foot in California since the 1920s. Of course, since Journey is tracked by satellite thanks to a GPS collar, it’s easy…
Tags: California, gray, journey, or-7, Oregon, wolf
Animal Rights, Animals, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 27th, 2012,
Consuming shark fin soup is a bad idea, not only because of the decreasing number of sharks, but it can also lead to a brain damage. “A new study has found high concentrations of BMAA in shark fins — a neurotoxin linked to neurodegenerative diseases in humans including Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig disease (ALS)”, informs sunnewsnetwork.ca. Patients with these diseases, tested before they died, had very high levels of BMAA – up to 256 nanograms per milligram – in their brains. Shark fins contain between 144 and 1836 ng/mg of this neurotoxin. The threat comes, not only from eating the…
Tags: Alzheimer's, brain, fin soup, killing, neurotoxins, shark
Animal Rights, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 23rd, 2012,
At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver, Canada, scientists and philosophers have argued for affording whales and dolphins the same ethical considerations as humans. Now, you may ask, how good are human rights anyway? Not that great in many places of the world. But, never mind that right now, this is a question of ideology, to be enshrined in law. We’ll worry about who actually follows that law later. The idea is that, under domestic and international law, the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans would guarantee rights for dolphins and whales…
Tags: cetaceans, dolphin, human, orca, rights, whale
Animal Rights, Animals, Science & Technology, Sustainable living, Feb 22nd, 2012,
Student of architecture, Andre Ford, has proposed a new system of mass chicken production, in which, according to wired.co.uk, the birds will no longer have the main core of their brains. This means they won’t be able to suffer the atrocity of being packed in vertical yokes in which they are to grow to eventually end up on our plates. The project, named The Centre for Unconscious Farming, is a response to the increase in chicken meat consumption and the cruelty associated with it that is so prevalent on factory farms. Unconscious birds, in a manner resembling growing plants, will be connected…
Tags: brain, chicken, cruelty, farm, project
Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 17th, 2012,
A French bulldog in Berlin, Germany has stepped up to the plate and adopted 6 wild boar piglets after their mother was killed by a hunter. The bulldog, named Baby, has previously been a surrogate mother for rabbits, kittens and a raccoon. The piglets were found alone in a forest. Berlin has ample woodland and is home to an estimated 10,000 wild boar, whose population has made a resurgence in recent years. From the Guardian: The piglets were brought into the Lehnitz animal sanctuary outside Berlin on Saturday, three days old and shivering from cold. Baby ran over and snuggled…
Tags: Berlin, bulldog, French, Germany, piglets, wild boar
Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 14th, 2012,
I grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC in the 70s and 80s, when deer sightings in the area were not common, though not exactly rare occurrences. By my mid 20s, however, they were everywhere – munching on my mother’s daffodils or dashing into the street to get hit by an SUV. The reason for this is two-fold. First of all, suburban sprawl means the deer’s forest habitats shrink and keep shrinking in the face of unstoppable, endless developments of McMansions. The other reason is a nationwide population explosion in deer, whose predators (bobcats, coyotes and wolves) have been…
Tags: capital, cull, DC, deer, population, rock creek park, US, Washington, white-tailed
Animals, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 13th, 2012,
The Tejon Ranch, a massive, high-priced private hunting park located to the north of Los Angeles, California, will suspend its hunting operations after authorities found that mountain lions have been illegally killed on its grounds. Tejon Ranch sounds a bit like something out of an old African hunting safari, where rich trophy hunters pay to be driven close to exotic animals so they can shoot them, mount the heads on the walls of their mansions and brag about how macho they are over cigars and glasses of sherry. A former Tejon hunting guide, Bron Sanders, claims he was fired for…
Tags: California, hunting, mountain lion, ranch, Tejon
Animals, Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 8th, 2012,
A rare Chioninia lizard from Cape Verde climbed into a tourist’s luggage before she boarded her flight from the African islands to the UK. The lizard survived a 3,000-mile (5,000 km) flight in a cold luggage hold, followed by a machine wash cycle at the tourist’s home in Somerset, UK. Sue Banwell-Moore found the lizard after removing her washing from the machine. She assumed it was dead until it surprisingly recovered. From the Guardian: I was hanging out the washing on the clothes dryer and I looked down and there was this lizard there. I thought he was dead…
Tags: Cape Verde, Chioninia, flight, lizard, UK, washing machine
Animal Rights, Animals, Feb 6th, 2012,
The practice of having sex with animals is becoming an epidemic in Germany. “There are even animal brothels. The abuse seems to be increasing rapidly and the internet offers an additional distribution platform”, said Madeleine Martin, the animal protection official for Hessian state government. The law needs to be changed to make it possible to prosecute and punish these animal abusers. “It is punishable to distribute animal pornography, but the act itself is not”, Madeleine Martin told the ‘Frankfurter Rundschau’. Sex with animals was illegal until 1969 and according to animal rights activists, this kind of animal abuse is no…
Tags: animal abuse, Germany, zoophilia
