Rescued baby walrus

Skip the lousy soundtrack and just watch.  Thanks, Care2!

Puppy imitates wolves

Baby Hippo water dance

Lobsters not allowed at meeting

Atlantic lobsters may be at the tipping point, but there will be no five year ban on lobstering after all-- The American Lobster Management Board will consider three options-- a 75% reduction, a 50% reduction, or no change-- and report back at their November meeting.  Boston Globe.

I've ordered lobster once in my life, and found that dismembering an animal that was alive only minutes before to be quite a disgusting experience.  To each his own, I guess.



Photo from Lee Nachtigal's photostream at Flickr.

RARE: Portraits of America's Endangered Species

RARE from Joel Sartore on Vimeo.

Joel Sartore - read more about his book and how to purchase.

The octopus as artist

Well, this got me in a good mood-- an octopus steals a diver's camera and takes off.  Octopuses are the smartest of all invertebrates and I've heard they like to decorate their living quarters with various baubles...

too cute not to share - aardvarks!

Thanks, Cute Overload!

Happy New Year! A few of my favorite lions, tigers and bears

Real-life Mowgli kept alive by cats -A one-year-old boy has been found living rough on the streets, apparently being kept alive by cats.

The boy, whose ordeal mirrors that of the character Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling The Jungle Book, was discovered by police in Misiones, in Argentina, surrounded by eight wild cats.
Doctors believe the animals snuggled up with him during freezing nights which would otherwise have killed him.
The boy was seen eating scraps foraged by the animals while they licked him, it has been claimed.
Policewoman Alicia Lorena Lindgvist discovered the child by a canal in the Christ King district of the city.
She said: "I was walking and noticed a gang of cats sitting very close together. It is unusual to see so many like that so I went for a closer look and that's where I saw him. The boy was lying at the bottom of a gutter. There were all these cats on top of him licking him because he was really dirty.
"When I walked over they became really protective and spat at me. They were keeping the boy warm while he slept."
The officer, who noticed scraps of food near the boy, added: "The cats knew he was fragile and needed protecting."
Police have found the boy's father who is homeless and said he had lost the boy several days ago while out collecting cardboard to sell. He told officers cats had always been protective of his son. Telegraph.uk.

From National Geographic's In the Womb series.

 Jasmine, the Mother Theresa Greyhound

In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog. It had been locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished, and had clearly been abused.

In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a Greyhound female, to the nearby Nuneaton Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, run by a man named Geoff Grewcock and known as a willing haven for Animals abandoned, orphaned or otherwise in need.


 Geoff and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust. It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved.
They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home.

But Jasmine had other ideas. No-one remembers now how it began, but she started welcoming all Animal arrivals at the sanctuary. It wouldn’t matter if it was a puppy, a fox cub, a rabbit or, any other lost or hurting Animal, Jasmine would peer into the box or cage and, where possible, deliver a welcoming lick.

Read the rest of the story at The Great Pet Net.

 

Finally...although you may have seen this before....Christian the lion was bought as a cub by two men in London.  Realizing after a while that the city was no place for a lion, they brought him to a wildlife sanctuary in Africa watched over by George Adamson.  A year later, the men returned to see how Christian was doing.

What are these?

I have no idea what these animals are, or where the photo was taken.  Anybody?  From Fires of Heaven.

Savoring the rain

Found at Cute Overload.

dog and tiger

Story at UK's Mailonline.

Hmm, what's this?

Robert Friel's Highly Commended image from this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The king penguin chick was caught examining footprints in the sand on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. WPY is run by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine. From the BBC.

New life for three-legged turtle

Her leg was bitten off by a dog, but her rescuer figured out a way for her to get around. Read more at Mail Online.

Don't silence their voices - ban devocalization in Massachusetts

Massachusetts resident? On Monday, pick up the phone and call your state legislator. (Don't know your legislator? You can look it up here.) Tell him or her that you support An Act to Prohibit Devocalization of Cats and Dogs. There will be a hearing on the bill on Monday, July 14, with a full vote to follow sometimes this legislative session.

Who would oppose this law? Unethical dog breeders and fighters and animal hoarders who fear animal noises would give them away.

The effort to produce this bill all started with a 15 year old Care2 member and Massachusetts resident Jordan Star. You can find out more about this legislation and why it's needed at Care2.

Photo from Tony the Bald Eagle's site on Flickr.

Blissfully unaware?

The mice say, "Please don't hurt me!"

The Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology announced today that it has added the gene for human speech to a strain of mice and has successfully bred them. Live Science.

No, the mice haven't started speaking back to the researchers yet, but apparently it has changed the way mice communicate with each other.

The purpose of the experiments is to understand the roots of human speech and language.

Even as avowedly pro-technology as I am, what I feel right now is almost entirely negative-- sad, horrified, angry. I won't try (couldn't be able) to sort out the range of ethical issues to which my feelings attach at this moment.

If animals could communicate with humans, would we treat them differently? Or would we learn to ignore them, and would the world then be filled with their hopeless cries?

Pound dogs facing the death chamber: "Please, I'll be a good boy, I promise, I promise!"
Deer after being shot: "Why? Why did you do it? And what will become of my daughter?"
Cattle on their way to the slaughterhouse: "No, I don't want to die!! Please, please!!

Photo from Sergey Yeliseev's photostream at Flickr.

Kangaroo falls out of its pouch

Assiniboine Park zookeepers couldn't figure out which mother the baby belonged to, so they've created an artificial pocket and are taking the care of the babies themselves. Thanks, Zooborns!

Wildfires make strange bedfellows

Two animals rescued from Santa Barbara's wildfire...put together because the rescuers ran out of room...and you see what happens. Read more at Animal Planet. Thanks for the tip, CuteOverload!

Contented frog

From Majorly Cool Things

Afghanistan quarantines its only pig

Pity the lonely pig of Kabul. Reuters.