Wildlife biologists from the US Fish and Wildlife Service explain how they are making great strides toward saving this endangered species that was once thought to be extinct. From breeding ferret offspring to preparing them for release back into the wild, the recovery effort of these cute carnivores is rich in math and science.
Uni doin what he does best- being the cutest hedgehog everrr!!!
After receiving and reviewing nearly 5,000 name suggestions for the
male polar bear cub at Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Zoological Society (CZS) staff have selected a name: Hudson.
The cub, who now weighs just over 70 pounds, can be seen daily with his mom, Arki. Over the past several weeks, zookeepers have been slowly adding water to the bears’ pool. By early June, they hope to have it all the way filled so Arki can begin to teach Hudson how to swim.
It is estimated that between 22,000 and 25,000 polar bears live in the wild, although exact numbers are not known in their natural habitat of the circumpolar Arctic: U.S. (Alaska), Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Norway. In February 2005, several conservation organizations petitioned the U.S. Department of the Interior to list polar bears on the “threatened” species list of the Endangered Species Act. In late 2006, the Secretary of the Interior announced that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service would be gathering additional information and scientific data during the next 12 months before making its final decision whether to list the species on the threatened list.
A giant sea turtle saved from the dinner table by a Chinese priest swam 3,000 kilometres into a sanctuary in Japan, providing researchers a valuable insight into the species travel habits.
The priest had carved a message onto the green sea turtle's shell which a Japanese conservation group used to trace its odyssey back to the province of Guangdong in southern China.
"We found out for the first time that green sea turtles from Japan also travel and live in the waters off mainland China, which is important to know," said Hiroyuki Suganuma, chairman of the non-governmental group.
'Fifi' eats carrots as she joins Sydney's Taronga Zoo's chimpanzee family to celebrate her 60th birthday, Australia, Monday, May 21, 2007. Fifi, the oldest member of Taronga's chimpanzee family, and her extended family received a special vegetable cake, fresh leaves, watermelons and extra coconuts to mark this important milestone.
(AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A flight from Egypt to Saudi Arabia nearly turned into a real-life version of "Snakes on a Plane."
Airport authorities in Cairo detained an Egyptian man Thursday because he was allegedly trying to smuggle 700 live snakes onto a plane.
Authorities were told about the live snakes by the man after he was asked to open his carry-on bag. The man opened the bag and asked the officer not to come too close, probably because two poisonous cobras were among the snakes hidden in the small cloth sacks.
The man said he had hoped to sell the snakes in Saudi Arabia.
Lucky the cat is living up to his name after surviving being shot in the head with an arrow.
On Saturday afternoon, Kristin Slovensky, 16, was on her porch of her Parma, Ohio, home when Lucky staggered in with the arrow sticking out of his neck.
"It was just sickening, I couldn't believe he was still alive," she said.
Kristin and her boyfriend rushed Lucky, 8, to an animal emergency clinic.
"In my 20 years of taking care of animals, I've never seen anything like this," said Jeni Hren, who operated on Lucky. "This cat was shot at close range."
Lucky is now back home, but not out of danger yet. The risk of infection is very high, and he could suffer kidney damage.
Donna Slovensky said she is shocked that someone would do this to a harmless cat.
Running through the fields with her newly-born foals, mare Royal Beatrice has good reason to celebrate - after managing the astonishingly rare feat of producing twins.
The 22-year-old New Forest Pony has shocked equine experts with the surprise birth of healthy twin foals because the chances of both surviving are so slim.
In nearly all cases, one or both foals die in a twin pregnancy because the mother's uterus cannot support two babies.
The chances of a mare giving birth to healthy twin foals are about 1 in 10,000, experts said today.
But little filly Bess, and colt Royal, have defied the odds by becoming the first twins to be born in the New Forest, Hampshire for many years.
The latest incident at the Shaoshan Zoo in the southern city of Kaohsiung began when an orangutan pushed his way out of his cage and wandered into a nearby restaurant courtyard.
As zoo officials scurried to bring the animal under control, he gleefully overturned picnic tables and motorbikes, forcing terrified diners to cower inside the eatery.
The orang-utan was finally subdued when an official shot him in the upper body with a a stun gun.
He was then carted off for treatment in the scoop of a small bulldozer.
Incident occurred just six weeks after a 200-kilogram (440-pound) crocodile chewed the forearm off veterinarian Chang Po-yu at the same zoo.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Clay County man's pet alligator has him in trouble with wildlife officials. According to a sheriff's office report, Michael Dyer has been charged with misdemeanor possession of an alligator.
A tip led animal services officials to his apartment where they also found a dog, a rat, a python and a tarantula in cages.
The 22-year-old tried hiding the foot-long gator inside the toilet when officials arrived at his home.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission took the month-old alligator to be released in the wild.
Dyer faces a maximum of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Dumbo, the African elephant calf, has been reunited with his mother, who earlier this week tried to drown him to the horror of zoo staff and visitors.
When Pori suddenly turned on her calf at Friedrichsfelde Animal Park in Berlin, stamping on him and attempting to drown him, zookeepers had to act quickly to save Dumbo's life.
Onlookers had screamed as Pori turned on her baby and it was only when she was lured away and Dumbo was dragged out of the enclosure by his trunk that his life was saved.
Unsure whether Pori (or Dumbo) would bear a grudge, keepers tentatively put mother and son back together - but motherly love seems to have blossomed.
Many
more photos.
Follow the development of a Panda, from birth to 3 months, in photos.
A pair of gay flamingos have adopted an abandoned chick, becoming parents after being together for six years, a British conservation organisation said Monday.
Carlos and Fernando had been desperate to start a family, even chasing other flamingos from their nests to take over their eggs at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge near Bristol.
But their egg-sitting prowess made them the top choice for taking an unhatched egg under their wings when one of the Greater Flamingo nests was abandoned.
The couple, together for six years, can feed chicks by producing milk in their throats.
A Denver dog named Scout is about to get a new leg after being hit by a car earlier this year.
After the crash, his leg was immediately amputated. Veterinarian Robert Taylor said the prosthetic implant Scout will receive is revolutionary.
"There is a remarkable process known as biointegration. Skin, muscle and other soft tissues and bones will grow into certain metallic implants," Taylor said.
These cicadas spend 17 years underground, living off sap from tree roots. Now is the time when they appear in mass, shed their brown skeletons and mate. Before they die, females will lay the eggs of the batch scheduled to arrive in 2024.
This periodical cicadas swarm technically is called The Great Northern Illinois Brood XIII, they have red eyes instead of green like the annual ones. They can emerge in vast numbers — as many as 1.5 million per acre — in a path about 200 miles long that stretches from northwestern Indiana to Wisconsin.
They don’t bite or sting and their single purpose is to mate, lay about 30,000 eggs and die. The male cicadas’ buzz is so loud they can be heard a quarter-mile away. The racket is a love song. Only the males sing. The females are lured to the sound and fly nearer. A female responds to a male with a flick of her wings. The two gradually draw close to one another until they meet for mating. Male cicadas die soon after mating. Females lay 400 to 600 eggs in as many as 40 to 50 different nests before they die. The billions of cicada nymphs hatch in their nests high in the trees, drop to the ground, and burrow into the earth. There they find a succulent tree root, which they tap into with a special strawlike mouth part. They feed on the tree sap and pass through their various growth stages until, 17 years later, it is time to emerge and renew their life cycle.
National Geographic News explains that periodical cicadas are found only in the United States east of the Great Plains. Seventeen-year cicadas are found mainly in the northern, eastern, and western part of their range.
An Indonesian fisherman hooked a rare coelacanth, a species once thought as extinct as dinosaurs, and briefly kept the "living fossil" alive in a quarantined pool.
Justinus Lahama caught the four-foot, 110-pound fish off Sulawesi island near Bunaken National Marine Park, which has some of the highest marine biodiversity in the world.
The fish died 17 hours later, an extraordinary survival time, marine biologist Lucky Lumingas said Sunday.
"The fish should have died within two hours because this species only lives in deep, cold-sea environment," he said.
Despite a rift between organizers, thousands of frog wranglers turned out Sunday for Calaveras County's famous frog-jumping contest that was inspired by Mark Twain's tall tale.
About 4,000 contestants entered the Calaveras County Fair's annual Jumping Frog Jubilee this year, twice as many as last year, according to the event's organizers.
The annual event is inspired by "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Mark Twain's tale of a frog-jumping contest that is weighted in one gambler's favor when he secretly fills his opponent's frog with buckshot.
Winning owners get a $750 prize or $5,000 if their frog breaks the 1986 record of 21 feet, 5¾ inches set by Rosie the Ribeter.
A newborn killer whale found bleeding on a Mexican beach has become the centre of an international controversy over whether she should stay in Mexico or be sent to a U.S. marine theme park.
Her caretakers say there is no tank in Mexico big enough to keep her when she grows and she will die if put back in the sea or kept in an aquarium that is too small for her.
Some environmentalists oppose transferring Pascuala to Sea World, however, because it could set a precedent that might enable animal traffickers to export more killer whales, also known as orcas.
"It hurts us that this animal might die, but we cannot set a negative precedent," said Alejandro Olivera, head of ocean campaigns for Greenpeace in Mexico.
The Mexican government's environmental protection agency has so far blocked a transfer to San Diego, saying Mexico's wildlife should not leave the country.
Doctor FrogDoctor Frog monitors the conductivity of your soil. So once your soil absorbs the water and falls below a pre-set level Doctor Frog will alert you with a discreet intermittent croak.
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A 400-pound gorilla escaped from his enclosure and ran amok in a Rotterdam zoo Friday, biting one woman, dragging her around, and causing panic among dozens of visitors before he was finally subdued, officials and a witness said.
The Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo was evacuated and the 11-year-old gorilla, named Bokito, was eventually contained in a restaurant within the park, police spokeswoman Yvette de Rave said.
Four people were injured, including the woman who was bitten, zoo director Ton Dorrestijn said.
A young black bear ambled through a medical clinic's automatic door early Friday and into a gastroenterology lab, the perfect place for a tranquilizer.
"I think the person in the waiting room was pretty surprised," said Todd Sandman, director of public relations for Presbyterian Health Care Services, which runs the lab in Rio Rancho, on the outskirts of Albuquerque.
It was shortly before 7:30 a.m., and there weren't many people in the lab when the bear showed up, Sandman said. All the humans evacuated while animal control officers were called in to figure out what to do with the bear.
A Chinese mutt named Huani nurses her own puppy and three newborn tigers that were rejected by their mother in this photo, which was provided by Xinhua via AP.
It is common for Chinese zoos to use surrogate dog mothers to nurse rejected tiger cubs and that Huani has nursed tigers before.
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