Animalands

The puss in books

2009-05-13T08:28:00.001+05:30

Fidel enjoys books - Image from the BBC

Fidel is not your average cat. The eight year old black cat lives in Kent in Britain and his home is the local library. Well, his second home, and he visits it when his owners are away at work. Fidel has his favorite blue chair where he basks in the sun the whole day before he returns home to his owners.

Staff at the library say that they initially threw out Fidel when he came everyday but he always returned. Now he is an attraction for people who come to the library. Fidel was adopted from a local sanctuary and now he is the most regular customer at the library, which he has been frequenting for two years.

The Bear: A beautiful movie

2009-05-07T20:04:00.004+05:30

Poster of The Bear - Image from Wikipedia

Wow. That is all I can say about this piece of video taken from the movie The Bear also known as L'Ours in French.

I received this link in a forward and I was surprised to read that this movie was not a big commercial success. The last few seconds are very touching and got my eyes wet. The Bear is the story of a baby bear, which loses its mother and is left out in the wild until it is rescued from dangerous elements by a big grizzly. Well, I am definitely going to hunt out this movie and watch it.

Watch the trailer of The Bear

Chanel is a dog, not a perfume

2009-05-07T10:18:00.004+05:30

Chanel with Denice - Image from the Telegraph

Chanel wears goggles and jumpers and has a Guinness World Record certificate to her name. Meet the world’s oldest dog as she turns 21, which translates into an amazing 147 years in people years. Denice Shaughnessy, Chanel’s owner, is a retired Army veteran who now works as a school secretary and lives with her husband Karl, a policeman. She adopted Chanel in 1988 from a Virginia shelter when she was just a six week old pup. Chanel and her owner both stay in Port Jefferson Station, New York where she sleeps all day until Denice comes home from work. Chanel used to run three miles with Denice every day when she was younger but today she has to be carried around a lot. But Chanel still enjoys a walk and sometimes Denice finds her walking around in the night.

But despite being pretty healthy for her age, Chanel has her senior problems. The goggles she wears is not to hide her age, but because she has cataracts and is very sensitive to light. She has her jumpers on because she gets cold very fast and in summer she has to wear a tee shirt. Denice keeps her home at a constantly warm temperature and Chanel eats food like boiled chicken and soft pasta that she can eat with her old teeth. “She takes things easy nowadays,” says Denice and well I guess we can forgive her for it.

Watch Chanel

Spot of Understanding: Lizards sunbathe for a reason

2009-04-30T11:43:00.003+05:30

Sunbathing is good - Image from Pinkfluff on Flickr

People in the West, especially those who have harsh winters, crave the sun down here in the South of the globe for its heat and fuzziness. But why do lizards like the sun? Apparently, they sunbathe to get enough of vitamin D. A particular species known as panther chameleons set aside sunbathing time depending on how much vitamin D they need. Behavioral ecologist Kristopher Karsten of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas led the study, which will be published in the May/June edition of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

Scientists used to think that lizards dozing in the sun or turtles sitting still on logs were regulating their body temperatures. But now they found that vitamin D is plays a crucial role in reproduction in reptiles and this could be another reason that they sit in the sun. So the next time we see a lizard basking we should follow suit to get plenty of vitamin D.

Read more on the study

Swept away!

2009-04-29T08:39:00.003+05:30

The Utleys with Tinker Bell safe and sound - Image from Yahoo News

The Waterford Township in Michigan was hit by strong gusts of wind blowing at 70 mph – so strong that it picked up a chihuahua along. Dorothy and Lavern Utley of Rochester, Michigan had set up outdoor display at a flea market on Saturday and Tinker Bell their chihuahua was standing on the step of their trailer when he was swept away.

The Utleys were so miserable when they didn’t find him anywhere nearby that they sought the help of a pet psychic Lorrie. She took them a mile away from where Tinker Bell last was to a wooded area and found him dirty and hungry but safe. The 72 year old Utleys were more than happy to have their companion back in one piece. They had resigned to the fact that he had gone with the wind.

Chasing butterflies

2009-04-24T10:35:00.004+05:30

The butterfly or the moth looked something like this - Image from dpugphoto

Animals seem to be quiet across the world, I couldn't find a story to post. But I have my own story for today. Yesterday I was returning home from work and I stopped at a signal. Suddenly I noticed a pastel green butterfly, or a moth am not sure, flitting across and following it close was a Common Myna. The butterfly did a small dance in the air and then I realized it was trying to escape from the clutches of the myna. But it was too slow and the myna caught it in its beak. I was watching all along with intense excitement cursing myself for being without a camera.

Then the myna dropped the butterfly. Oh! It fell right in the middle of the road and soon got run over by a passing car. Now I could see it's wings flipping in the rush of wind as each vehicle sped by, it's middle pasted to the road. The myna too hadn't lost sight of it. Another myna joined the first one and both began to circle over the dead butterfly. The first one, boldly stopped in the middle of the road, hopped over and tried to take it in its beak again. But just as it came near, a vehicle came whooshing and it quickly flew up.

This happened a couple of times. There was one time when it almost picked up the butterfly and I could see an approaching truck. I found myself muttering, "pick it up, pick it up, go, go!" But it didn't. And then it was time for me to move on. The entire drama had taken place in the space of about 60 to 90 seconds. The signal turned green on my side and the passage of vehicles stopped on the butterfly's side. But sadly, I couldn't see the ending of this enthralling pursuit. That remains a mystery.

Celebrities from the Past - A walking seal?

2009-04-23T12:34:00.005+05:30

A reproduction of how Pujilia might have looked - Image from LiveScience

The frozen wastes of the Canadian Arctic is well, not really a waste. Especially if you find some really sweet fossils that give you answers to missing links in evolution. American and Canadian researchers have unearthed the fossilized remains of what they call a ‘walking seal.’ It sheds light on pinnipeds, a group that includes seals, sea lions and walruses. They have named it puijila darwini, a combination of the Inuktitut word for young sea mammal and the name of Charles Darwin. In fact, Darwin had envisioned the existence of such a creature in his book, “The Origin of Species.”

Pujilia’s significance is that it not only provides a glimpse into the earliest stages of evolutionary transition but also that it is now the oldest evidence of a pinniped. The environment in, which the seal lived was also vastly different from the icy landscape that it is today. Devon Island was a warm, coastal forest 20 million years ago during the time of Pujilia with diverse wildlife inhabiting the island. How the pinnipeds shifted from such an atmosphere, from land to sea, will be revealed to some extent by examining Pujilia’s remains.

The expedition was led by paleontologist Natalia Rybczynski from the Canadian Museum of Nature who found the bones of the seal in the Haughton crater on Devon Island in 2007 and her findings have now been published in the journal Nature.

Read more about Pujilia

First frog with artificial leg

2009-04-22T09:44:00.004+05:30

Brullie showing off his stitches - Image from Dailymail

There is hope for frogs who have broken their legs. Brullie the bullfrog from South Africa has become the first frog in the world to have an artificial leg bone. Anne Mearns adopted 25 year old Brullie after he was attacked by a dog near her home in Johannesburg.

The giant bullfrog had a shattered lower leg bone and Mearns could not bear to see her pet being lame. So she took him to the vet who was more used to cats and dogs but nevertheless operated on Brullie. He even operated for free! The vet had to insert a tiny steel rod over the snapped right leg bone and now weeks later Brullie has begun hopping around.

Brullie is part of a species that is fast dwindling and found only in a part of South Africa and Mearns, having worked on amphibian preservation for years, knows it. Good for Brullie that she found him.

EndangeRed - Kiwis on the brink of extinction

2009-04-21T10:22:00.003+05:30

The flightless kiwi and the stoat (below) - Images from Nat Geo and ABC News respectively

The Scientific American recently published an article about how kiwis are an endangered species. More so, because of predatory stoats. The kiwis are adored in New Zealand and now New Zealanders are sitting up and taking notice of them even more because they are on the verge of becoming extinct. There are five species of kiwi and all of them are endangered and according to the New Zealand Department of Conservation, they are disappearing at the rate of 6% per year. The reason? European stoats, also known as weasels or ermines make delicious meals of kiwi chicks.

Apparently, in the wild, 95% of kiwi chicks do not survive because its not just stoats but also dogs, cats and ferrets too hunt them. Stoats, in fact, were introduced from Europe into New Zealand in the 19th century to combat a rapidly growing rabbit population that was causing environmental damage. But now they have gone beyond the same old diet and are looking for newer dishes in the menu.

Read more about the kiwi

Listen to the call of a kiwi bird

Special Feature: The zoo's role in helping endangered animals

2009-04-17T10:38:00.006+05:30

The Red Wolf is on endangered lists - Image from Wikipedia

The Scientific American published an article, which caught my attention. I didn't know that zoos went beyond keeping animals caged and helped much in conservation efforts, but apparently they do. I thought this would make a good special feature on Animalands.

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How Do Zoos Help Endangered Animals?

Dear EarthTalk: Do zoos have serious programs to save endangered species, besides putting a few captives on display for everyone to see? -- Kelly Traw, Seattle, WA

Most zoos are not only great places to get up close to wildlife, but many are also doing their part to bolster dwindling populations of animals still living free in the wild. To wit, dozens of zoos across North America participate in the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s (AZA’s) Species Survival Plan (SSP) Program, which aims to manage the breeding of specific endangered species in order to help maintain healthy and self-sustaining populations that are both genetically diverse and demographically stable.

The end goal of many SSPs is the reintroduction of captive-raised endangered species into their native wild habitats. According to the AZA, SSPs and related programs have helped bring black-footed ferrets, California condors, red wolves and several other endangered species back from the brink of extinction over the last three decades. Zoos also use SSPs as research tools to better understand wildlife biology and population dynamics, and to raise awareness and funds to support field projects and habitat protection for specific species. AZA now administers some 113 different SSPs covering 181 individual species.

To be selected as the focus of an SSP, a species must be endangered or threatened in the wild. Also, many SSP species are “flagship species,” meaning that they are well-known to people and engender strong feelings for their preservation and the protection of their habitat. The AZA approves new SSP programs if various internal advisory committees deem the species in question to be needy of the help and if sufficient numbers of researchers at various zoos or aquariums can dedicate time and resources to the cause.

AZA’s Maryland-based Conservation and Science Department administers the worldwide SSP program, generating master plans for specific species and coordinating research, transfer and reintroductions. Part of this process involves designing a “family tree” of particular managed populations in order to achieve maximum genetic diversity and demographic stability. AZA also makes breeding and other management recommendations with consideration given to the logistics and feasibility of transfers between institutions as well as maintenance of natural social groupings. In some cases, master plans may recommend not to breed specific animals, so as to avoid having captive populations outgrow available holding spaces.

While success stories abound, most wildlife biologists consider SSP programs to be works in progress. AZA zoos have been instrumental, for instance, in establishing a stable population of bongos, a threatened forest antelope native to Africa, through captive breeding programs under the SSP program. Many of these captive-bred bongos have subsequently been released into the wild and have helped bolster dwindling population numbers accordingly.

Of course, for every success story there are dozens of other examples where results have been less satisfying. SSP programs for lowland gorillas, Andean condors, giant pandas and snow leopards, among others, have not had such clear success, but remain part of the larger conservation picture for the species in question and the regions they inhabit.

The San Diego Zoo has a special conservation research center while the Oakland Zoo in California has a page filled with educational resources

Dante the vegetarian cat

2009-04-17T10:31:00.004+05:30

Dante the vegetarian cat - Image from Daily Mirror

Heard of a cat grimacing at the sight of fish? Well, two year old Dante is one such and he is now the only vegetarian cat in the UK. Dante was found when he was a starving kitten by Becky Page near Norwich, Britain. Like any normal person she tried to feed him everything that cats like but Dante did not touch the fish or the meat. But one day before she could throw out a plate of vegetables Dante ate the whole serving, licking the plate clean.

Becky tries to put in bits of meat in the vegetables so that Dante stays healthy, but sometimes when he spots them he refuses to eat. Dante’s current favorite foods include melon, bananas, broccoli, rhubarb, asparagus, aubergine and Brussels sprouts. Unlike humans and dogs there are certain nutrients that cats can obtain only from sufficient quantities of meat, which is why experts are extremely baffled at Dante’s preferences. But he seems to be healthy and enjoying his meals filled with fresh fruit and vegetables. He is one cat I would definitely invite for dinner!

Read more about Dante

Spot of Understanding: Chicken heads

2009-04-16T09:13:00.002+05:30

A chick figures out the number of objects behind the screen - Image from Science News

Apparently baby chicks are not just cute but also very smart – they can count! Young chickens, which are just a few days old display basic arithmetic skills according to researchers. Rosa Rugani of the University of Trento in Italy demonstrated the chicks’ ability to add and subtract by moving identical objects behind two screens in front of the chicks. Their task was to determine, which screen obscured the most number of objects and the chicks performed with flying colors.

Previously only adult animals have been found to have a basic understanding of mathematics but not in any young animals except humans. At least all those non – vegetarians who relish chickens will hopefully benefit from their brains.

Read the study in detail

Watch a video demo

And now salamander migration

2009-04-15T09:05:00.004+05:30

A volunteer holds up a spotted salamander in New Jersey - Image from New York Times

Just last week I had written about how authorities in Taiwan are helping butterfly migration and are taking special precautions to assist the process. Now it’s the turn of salamanders. All over the US from Vermont to Philadelphia, volunteers known as bucket brigades are helping salamanders get across the road over to reach their mating areas. In New Haven, Vermont, 45 people volunteered one night to carry salamanders and other amphibians like frogs and newts across the road assisting their annual migration to mate.

In places like these, rainy nights in early spring are filled with the activity of these beings, hopping and crawling all over the woodlands and roads. But a lot of them end up being squashed on the road by vehicles, which don’t notice them in the night. The volunteers are very organized, even keeping count on a piece of paper like University of Vermont student Kaitlin Friedman. She walked with the other volunteers with flashlights and clipboards, carrying blue-spotted, red-backed and four-toed salamanders and wood frogs across the road even as she noted down the number and species, including the ones flattened on the asphalt. After two hours, the group had counted and helped 589 amphibians and had noted 97 dead ones.

In Massachusetts, tunnels have been put up to help salamanders migrate

Watch a nice video of salamander migration

Get to know spotted salamanders

Book of the Week: Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan

2009-04-14T10:10:00.004+05:30

Image from Fantastic Fiction

This is quite a serious book to read but the reason I am making it a post is because the central characters are all animals. “Life and Death are Wearing Me Out” by Mo Yan is actually a picture of China’s transitions from the Cultural Revolution in the 60s and 70s to the new fangled capitalist ideas of the 90s.

The chief narrator is Ximen Nao, a rich landowner who is impoverished by the Land Reform Movement begun by Mao. Life becomes really bad and Nao dies and goes to Hell. But he is reborn in a lot of forms, beginning as a donkey and then as an ox, a pig, a dog and a monkey. These characters speak out from their unique vantage points about life in China. Apart from them there are three narrators, Mo Yan himself being one of them, all of which makes it into a pretty hefty volume. But it is unusual to find such a host of colorful characters in a book with a powerful and serious theme as this and I would definitely like to give it a dekko when I go to my neighborhood bookstore next.

Life and Death by Mo Yan has got some good reviews from various sources including The New York Times

Bunny saves the day

2009-04-13T09:09:00.004+05:30

Warren and Kacey with Bunny the hero - Image from Newbury Today

Rabbits are not good for just eating carrots and looking cute but also for saving lives as Bunny demonstrated. Warren Taylor and Kacey Leathers, who live in Berkshire, Britain, were sound asleep when they were woken up by repetitive scratching noises on their bedroom door. They discovered Bunny who had come all the way from the kitchen, where she is shut up for the night, standing at the door.

An overwhelming smell of gas filled the air as soon as they opened the door and they realized that one of them had left the gas knob on by mistake. Incredibly, Bunny had somehow managed to open the locked door and alert them to danger. Two year old Bunny is usually obedient, scampering off down immediately as soon as Kacey tells her to. But this time Bunny stuck around until Warren and Kacey discovered their mistake and her disobedience proved to be life saving for them. Cheers to Bunny!

New Species: The smallest frog in the Andes

2009-04-10T09:26:00.005+05:30

Image from Scientific American

A frog the size of a dime? Yes, it’s not optical illusion but a real one, which has been discovered in the forests of Peru. At 3,000 metres in the Andes in the Manu National Park, German and Peruvian herpetologists (a zoologist who studies reptiles and amphibians) heard the croaking of the Noble’s Pygmy Frog. It’s small size left it unseen for such a long time and its brown color camouflaged it perfectly among the leaves.

The midget frog inhabits the cloud forests, that is, the high elevation grasslands in south eastern Peru. More than ten different species of frog have been discovered in these cloud forests in the past two years. But the pygmy frog has some special talents like laying huge eggs that skip the tadpole phase altogether and just hatch into mini replicas of their thumbnail sized parents.

Read more about the pygmy frog

The smallest Indian frog

EndangeRed: Fading songs of the cuckoo

2009-04-09T09:34:00.005+05:30

The song of the cuckoo that heralds spring may soon be lost - Image from The Telegraph

There are lots of species that are threatened and are on the endangered list but one would never expect the common cuckoo to be one of them. Well, cuckoos in Britain may soon come on the endangered list as their numbers have dropped by almost 59% since the 1960s. They are now so rare that they could come on the Red List of endangered birds within a month. Their numbers have dropped in a large part due to global warming.

Flocks of cuckoos fly an amazing 6000 miles every year from the UK to Africa to breed and roost. But climate change is making their tedious journey even harder and more so because food and water sources in Africa are drying up. The cuckoo is the only parasitic breeding bird in Europe, laying their eggs in other birds’ nests, but now only around 10,000 to 20,000 breeding pairs arrive in the UK each year according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Read more about the cuckoo

Watch a video of cuckoos

Spot of Understanding: Crabs do feel pain. And remember it.

2009-04-08T10:04:00.003+05:30

Hermit crab - Image from myanimalblog

Ok, we all know by now that animals do feel pain but do we know that they also remember it? Apparently, crabs do. New research from Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland, indicates that crabs not only suffer pain but also retain a memory of it.

The study, carried out by Professor Bob Elwood and Mirjam Appel, observed hermit crabs’ reactions to small electric shocks. They noticed that the crabs reacted rather badly to the shocks and also tried to avoid getting electrocuted again. This throws light on the treatment these poor things receive in the fishing and food industries everyday. They are not given any protection as the common presumption is that they cannot experience pain. I hope at least now people are a bit more sensitive to these crustaceans after reading this research.

Read more on this interesting research

Want to keep hermit crabs as pets? Read all about it here

Protect hermit crabs, join The Hermit Crab Association

Castaway

2009-04-07T09:02:00.002+05:30

Sophie with her owner Jan - Image from Times Online

I must say dogs do have some sense of loyalty and more than anything grit. Sophie Tucker, an Australian cattle dog, was happily enjoying a holiday on the sea when calamity struck. She and her owners Jan and Dave Griffith got caught in a storm off Queensland, Australia and Sophie was tipped overboard. She was presumed to have drowned and her owners were flooded with grief.

But unknown to them Sophie survived and swam five to six miles before she was washed ashore on a sparsely inhabited St Bees Island. She survived there on a diet of baby goats until rangers, who patrol the island, spotted her. They thought she was a wild dog and captured her but soon they were contacted by the Griffiths who got the news that a cattle dog had been captured. They soon had an emotional reunion with Sophie who had become quiet violent and had begun to refuse food. But now Sophie, named after a famous American vaudeville star, is happy to be back at home where she has adjusted well to her creature comforts.

Read more

Watch a video of Sophie

Celebrities from the Past: Giant lions roamed the earth once

2009-04-06T11:08:00.002+05:30

Skull comparison - Image from the BBC

Imagine going on a safari and being faced with a giant lion prowling around. Well, if we had lived 13,000 years ago it would not be an unimaginable situation. Dr Ross Barnett, compared skulls of lions from different periods at the Oxford University’s Department of Zoology, and discovered that such super-sized lions did roam the plains of Britain and North America.

These humongous beings, which are around 25% bigger, hunted the already huge woolly mammoth and giant deer. They had long legs, which enabled them to sprint faster than modern lions and they lived in an icy environment like the tundra sharing space with animals like the saber tooth tiger and woolly rhinos. They are called the Pleistocene lions, named after the age they lived in. These lions faced a sudden mass extinction 13,000 years ago but their route to extinction is still a great mystery.

Butterfly migration

2009-04-03T09:10:00.005+05:30

The Purple Crow butterfly. Below - the safety nets on the Taiwan highway - Images from Chinapost

Today's story is more about thoughtfulness, which I find much lacking in today's world. Taiwan is so sensitive about the population of a certain kind of butterfly in its country that it has closed an entire highway to traffic. From mid-March onwards for about a month thousands of Purple Crow butterflies migrate over this section of the highway towards the north to breed after spending winter down south in the island where its warmer.

The special precautionary actions came after 2007 when many of these butterflies were hit on the highway by speeding vehicles. Since then an entire conservation project was launched and the protective measures include a driving speed limit of 37mph and a two mile road block when the butterfly numbers exceed 500.

The migration in Taiwan, which is only one of two mass butterfly migrations worldwide, offers a beautiful spectacle. Taiwan has one of the highest densities of butterflies in the world and has been named 'Kingdom of Butterflies.' I hope they continue the conservation efforts and I hope to see this someday!

Read more on the migration

SOS from a turtle

2009-04-02T11:28:00.002+05:30

A doctor examines Kincaid - Image from NBC Miami

Here is one turtle who has saved her own life. A sick loggerhead sea turtle took the initiative to check herself into a hospital when she was feeling down. The turtle, now named Kincaid by the hospital staff, arrived at the Turtle Hospital in Florida Keys, the only licensed hospital in the world that treats sea turtles.

The Florida Keys hospital is next to the harbor and staff noticed the turtle swimminginto the harbor. Kincaid wasn't given much attention immediately, because people thought she was just lost. But she stuck around for hours not moving from her place before someone noticed that her shell was covered with barnacles and looked emaciated. Finally the staff rowed out into the harbor in dinghies and brought her back and treated her for bacterial infection. She will soon be released back after her medication is over and she is fine enough to swim back.

Loggerhead sea turtles are an endangered species and South Florida has the largest population of loggerheads

Watch Kincaid

Rats and bombshells

2009-04-01T10:34:00.002+05:30

Kofi goes out sniffing - Image from The Sun

Rats have had extreme reactions from us. They are either, “yuck” or they are very “cute.” But now we also know they are useful. Kofi, a Gambian rat at the Porfell Wildlife Park and Sanctuary near Liskeard, Cornwall, Britain is being trained by the staff to sniff out landmines. Kofi’s advantage is that he is too small to set off the mines himself, but at the same time his keen sense of smell can be used to detect the bomb casings.

Rats have been trained in Africa to hunt for land mines but Kofi is the first such rat to be trained in Britain. His handler Wendy Winstanley plans to inform the army and the police anti-terror units about her pet’s capabilities. She says that rats have a more heightened sense of smell than dogs and their biggest advantage is that they are much lighter. Kofi’s training process began when he was five weeks old like all other rats that undergo such training. Thirty such sniffer rats are already in use in Mozambique, Africa where they have already proved their worth. I guess Kofi is nothing less.

Little Elke finds mothers

2009-03-30T10:31:00.003+05:30

Elke with her 'adoptive mothers' - Image from LA Times

A lot of babies are rejected by parents as soon as they are born, which leads to them ending up in adoption centers. Apparently, this happens in the animal world too. But here the reason is just plain distress. Elke was born to two francois langur monkeys, a rare species, which was brought to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney in an effort to increase the numbers of the endangered species. Saigon and Hanoi, the mother and father respectively, got petrified after the birth of their baby and left it on the ground as soon as it was born. According to senior primate keeper in the zoo, Mandy McLellan, this is quite a common occurrence among primates. She says it, “just comes down to lack of experience; the first one's a bit of a shock.” Elke is now being cared for by the primate keepers who give her a bottle of formula milk every three hours.

Elke is quite a hit in the zoo with her flame-colored fur typical of infants in her species. Although francois langur monkeys are jet black, like Saigon and Hanoi, their infants typically have orange fur. Hopefully Elke will endear herself soon, ironically, to her parents too.

Watch Elke

A little more about Francois Langur monkeys

New Species: 50 newbies discovered in Papua New Guinea

2009-03-25T11:23:00.004+05:30

The jumping spider - Image from Conservation International

It sounds like a different world altogether, filled with jumping spiders, striped geckos and chirping frogs. But these are just some of the 50 different species that have been discovered by the environmental group Conservation International in the forests of Papua New Guinea.

"It never ceases to amaze me the spectacular things that are turning up from that island,” says Steve Richards the expedition leader. And it is quite amazing, considering that some of the spider species and the frogs have never been mentioned in science ever before.

Some of the species found have really quirky features. For instance, one of the jumping spiders (Tabuina Varirata) can jump to a height of at least six inches using the blood pressure in their legs! Wish I could see these creatures!

Read more on Conservation International's website

Willie the hero gets the Red Cross medal

2009-03-25T11:04:00.003+05:30

Willie the hero - Image from SkyNews

I guess a lot of us would have forgotten about Willie the parrot. I had written about him last year, about his very brave attempt at saving a toddler’s life. Willie, the Quaker parrot, now has been awarded the local Red Cross chapter’s Animal Lifesaver Award in Denver, Colorado.

Willie’s owner Megan Howard was babysitting little Hannah last year in November. She left the toddler alone for a moment and at the precise point she started choking on her breakfast. Willie’s shrill cries of “Mama, baby,” alerted Howard and she came running to do the needful.

Samantha Kuusk, Hannah’s mother, says that recounting the episode even now brings tears to her eyes. Willie, it seems, will not be forgotten for sometime, at least by her.

Pandora's boxed up

2009-03-24T10:53:00.006+05:30

Pandora gallops happily in her high-tech attire - Image from Dailymail

Hi readers! Just a note here to check out the brand new collage header for the Animalands blog! I made it with some of the animal images that I have shot (one of them was shot by my friend) so far. The blog looks a bit more colorful now! And now to go on to our story for today.

Pandora is allergic to grass. Now that’s ok if you are a dog but being a horse it’s a bit difficult. The five-year old horse is encased in a specially designed coverall, which prevents her from having any contact with grass and at the same time allows her to roam free in the outdoors. Pandora’s owner Emily Pearce first discovered the horse’s problem when she noticed an itchy lump on the horse’s stomach. When ointments didn’t work, Pearce took her to the vet and got some tests done. By now Pandora was in constant distress with the lumps spreading everywhere.

Today, after Pandora’s diagnosis she is much at peace. She is fed on a special diet of sugar beet chaff and soya oil and is made to swallow about 15 anti-histamine tablets in a day. She cannot be ridden at all times and if it’s a really bad day for her she has to stay indoors the full time. But for now Pandora is happy.

Read more on Pandora

Spot of Understanding - Insects self-medicate

2009-03-23T11:50:00.004+05:30

Woolly Bear Caterpillar - Image from National Geographic

If y’all thought we superior humans are the only ones who can medicate ourselves when we suffer injuries, then banish the thought. A team of scientists, led by Michael Singer in the University of Wesleyen, Connecticut, and in the University of Arizona have discovered that the woolly bear caterpillar is the first among insects to self-medicate when sick. These crawlies are prone to falling sick when parasitic flies lay their eggs inside them. And when they do, they simply munch on alkaloid laden plants like the Arizona popcorn flower. They were found to impede the caterpillars’ growth but also improve their overall survival.

Among animals, chimpanzees are known to cure an attack of worms by swallowing rough leaves to unhook the worms from the insides of their stomach. So for insects, who have a ‘less developed central nervous system,’ this is huge.

Read more in NatGeo

The scientifically inclined can read Michael Singer's thesis

Book of the Week - The Face on Your Plate

2009-03-19T11:44:00.005+05:30

Image from jeffreymasson

Here’s some solid material for vegetarians to finally make a stronger case for their green inclination. “The Face on Your Plate” by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson is an appeal to meat eaters to take a closer look at the food they eat. It is probably difficult to make a non-vegetarian do a double take through a book. But Masson manages it in this book, according to the Los Angeles Times review. After reading the review, I feel I must pick it up more out of curiosity to see how well he defends us vegetarians.

Read more reviews on Jeffrey's website

Celebrities from the Past - Predator X

2009-03-18T11:02:00.002+05:30

A recreation of Predator X's jaws - Image from NY Times

I keep reading so many news items about discoveries of fossils that tell a lot about the evolution of animals today that I thought I must begin a new feature that tells these tales. Am not particularly a science freak so I won’t be giving the geeky specs. I will only be giving the news from an interesting angle and keep it short, just enough for us to know that something interesting has been found! Here is the first post of the section.

Can you imagine something with jaws big enough to make snack of a 4x4? Well, scientists have unearthed the fossil of a creature currently named as “Predator X”, in Svalbard, a remote Arctic archipelago. The marine reptile measures a scary 15 meters (50 ft) and roamed the oceans around 145 million years ago according to the team of Norwegian scientists who discovered it. They are thought to belong to group of large, short-necked reptiles known as pliosaurs, which lived during the time of dinosaurs. Expedition leader Jorn Harald Hurum, from the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum has said that the Predator X could easily have chomped up a Hummer. Wow, now that is a huge lunch.

Read more about Predator X

Special Feature: The importance of others from Paulo Coelho's blog

2009-03-18T09:34:00.004+05:30

Image from mifamily

The Mousetrap

Very worried, the mouse saw that the farmer had bought a mousetrap: he was out to kill him! He began to warn all the other animals: “Careful with the mousetrap! Careful with the mousetrap!” The hen, hearing his shouts, asked him to be quiet: “My dear mouse, I know that this a problem for you, but it’s not going to have the last effect on me, so stop making such a fuss!”

The mouse went to talk to the pig, which was annoyed because his nap had been interrupted. “There is a mousetrap in the house!” “I appreciate your concern and I sympathize with you,” answered the pig. “So rest assured you will be in my prayers tonight, but that’s the most I can do.”

Lonelier than ever, the mouse went to the cow for help. “My dear mouse, what’s that got to do with me? Have you ever seen a cow killed in a mousetrap?” Seeing that no-one was offering any solidarity, the mouse returned to the farmer’s house, hid in his hole and spent the whole night wide awake, afraid that some tragedy was about to happen.

During the early hours he heard a noise: the mousetrap had caught something! The farmer’s wife went downstairs to see if the mouse had been killed. In the dark she did not notice that the trap had only caught the tail of a poisonous snake; when she drew near, she was bitten. The farmer, hearing his wife screaming, woke up and raced her to the hospital. She was given the proper treatment and then sent home. But she still had a fever. Knowing that there is no better remedy for the sick than a good broth, the farmer killed the hen.

His wife started to recover. As the couple was much loved in the region, all the neighbors came to visit them. Grateful for such a show of affection, the farmer killed the pig to serve his friends a hearty meal.

His wife finally recovered, but the treatment was very expensive, so the farmer sent the cow to the slaughterhouse and used the money from the meat to pay all the medical bills. The mouse saw all this and thought to himself: “I warned them well. Wouldn’t it have been better if the hen, the pig and the cow had understood that one’s problem puts everyone else in danger?”

Paulo Coelho's blog

Mother hen and the puppies

2009-03-17T16:52:00.002+05:30

The hen watches over protectively - Image from Ananova

Apparently mother hen is capable of mothering anyone. A hen in Majiaqiao village, Jiashan in Anhui province, China, has adopted two puppies after their mother died of poisoning. What is more heartwarming is that the hen was the mother’s best friend.

Cao Fengying, the owner of the animals, said that the hen and the dog had been very close for two years, always playing together. Sadly, the dog was poisoned just ten days after the puppies were born and now her best friend has taken over the responsibility of bringing up her kids. The hen is very protective of her friend’s children, standing guard and letting them eat first during meal times. Ah if only all friends were like the hen!

Farasi, Swiss of the Year 2008

2009-03-16T12:54:00.002+05:30

Farasi with his mom - Image from CBC

Here is the first post after a long time. Ever heard of a hippopotamus being nominated as a person of the year? I guess not. Well, it has happened with Farasi, a hugely popular hippo in Switzerland. He is Basel Zoo’s biggest attraction and was named “Swiss of the Year” in 2008, outdoing Roger Federer even! But Farasi, born on November 6th, is now an excess in the zoo and is in danger of losing his life. If the zoo cannot find a home for Farasi he will become food for the lions. Swiss newspapers have pounced on the cruel intention and have splashed headlines appealing for Farasi’s life.

The problem lies in zoo policies in Europe. While American zoos believe in birth control for their animal populations, European zoos believe that they should be free to do what is natural to them. But the downside is that zoos typically end up killing animals if there is no place for them anywhere. Sad but true.

Probably the press agitation helped. Farasi, whose name means “horse” in Swahili, will continue to live with his mother for another year as he is dependent on her milk. The zoo officials will then look for a home for him, probably another zoo, and I pray that he gets one.

Greetings

2009-03-16T12:52:00.000+05:30

My long absence can again be explained by the absence of the computer in my house, which goes on vacation from time to time according to its whim and fancy. I have strong reasons to hope for the arrival of my own personal little notebook, which I know will serve me more ably than the traitor of a machine that lord over all of us at home. I will announce the joyful occasion here as soon as it takes place. Till then, fingers crossed for the stability of that evil machine.

Yours Truly

Spot of Understanding - Songbirds have songs wired in

2008-11-13T19:36:00.002+05:30

Zebra finch - Image from Wikipedia

New research findings on the singing of zebra finches could enlighten us more about how humans learn to speak. Michale Fee a researcher with MIT and his colleagues have fresh findings that show how songbirds like the zebra finch know how they ought to sing. They even have a separate region that enables these birds to identify mistakes in their songs. By monitoring the electrical activity of cells in the zebra finches while they sang the researchers found that some cells became active when they made a mistake allowing them to correct themselves, according to lead author of the report, Professor Richard Hahnloser, of the University of Zurich.

Read more here and listen too here

Parroting guardian

2008-11-13T19:28:00.003+05:30

Willie the saviour - Image from CBS4Denver

We have heard of brave dogs and even cats so far. But a parrot? Well Willie the Quaker parrot saved the life of a two year old girl by alerting others to her choking. Willie belongs to Meagan who was babysitting Hannah, in Denver, Colorado. Meagan had gone to the restroom when she heard Willie screeching and flapping his wings furiously. He started saying "mama baby" repeatedly until Meagan reached the scene, where she saw Hannah blue in the face choking on her tart. Immediately, Meagan performed the Heimlich maneuver on Hannah and recued her. She said that if Willie hadn't created such a ruckus she wouldn't have come out sooner from the bathroom and it would have been fatal for Hannah. Her mom, Samantha Kuusk, was very grateful towards both Willie and Meagan for being there in time to save Hannah's life.

Watch Willie

Master cat

2008-11-09T19:08:00.005+05:30

Tama with her jaunty cap - Image from CNN

Some animals do have exalted jobs. Like Tama the nine year old cat. Tama was born on 29th April 1999 and she had a pretty simple life near her home in a grocery store near the Kishi train station in Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan until a couple of years ago. The small town with a few thousand people was the last stop in what had been a falling train line. In 2006 the Wakayama Electric Railway converted all stations on the Kishigawa Line from manned to unmanned to save costs and station masters were selected from employees of local businesses near each station. For the Kinokawa station, Toshiko Koyama, the grocer was selected as the station master. Koyama had adopted Tama among other stray cats and would regularly feed them at the station.

Tama's life changed in 2007 when railway officials decided to make her the official station master in which her primary duty would be to greet passengers. They gave her a station master's hat and free cat food as her salary. Amused passengers began to enjoy Tama's presence and ridership grew by 17% in one month. Tama's star status was elevated when this year she was given the title of "super station master" complete with a new office - a converted ticket booth furnished with a litter box.

Watch a couple of videos of Tama

EndangeRed - Mexican Axolotl

2008-11-06T18:37:00.006+05:30

The Mexican Axolotl resembles a slimy, squishy thing. Also known as the "water monster" and the Mexican walking fish", the axolotl held pride of place among the ancient Aztecs. Against all odds, it survived until now in Mexico city's polluted canals of Lake Xochimilco, now a tourist hotspot. Scientists are desperate to save this salamander from extinction its life endangered by the draining of its habitat and deteriorating water quality. To add to its woes, foreign fish introduced to the waters are eating baby axolotls stopping its expansion.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN) has included it in its annual Red List of threatened species. Some researchers estimate that it could disappear in a matter of five years. The disappearance of the axolotl, which is iconic of the Mexican culture, will prove to be disastrous. Its population has dropped from roughly 1,500 per square mile in 1998 to a mere 25 per square mile this year. Legend has it that Xolotl, the dog-headed Aztec god of death and lightning, feared he was about to be banished or killed by other gods and thus changed himself into an axolotl to flee into Lake Xochimilco. But it looks like he is not safe anymore.

Read more about the axolotl

Some more

Special Feature: If only they could talk

2008-11-03T20:09:00.004+05:30

One of my friends/readers sent me an article about the anguish that some animals go through while serving the role of a pet. I am posting it here as a Special Feature and if any of you have similar stories feel free to send it across to me and you too will see it here as one :)

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From my window on the second floor, I witness a ritual thrice everyday, which makes me want to scream blue murder. I wonder why people keep Cocker Spaniels, Dalmatians, German Shepherds and the like, as pets in the closed confines of their apartments already crowded with furniture and crystal, which demands absolute immobility.

All these dogs have been lovingly christened with the sweetest of names from Polka, Judy, Mischief to the obviously whimsical choice of Armour, Travel, and Brandy. They look well fed. But care to look into their eyes. More agony than you can imagine wells up in the twin pools of sadness.

Never have I once seen these adorable creatures in the company of their owners, who every morning slam the doors of their imported cars very hard, perhaps to seal off the anguished whimpers of their dogs stranded for the rest of the day to the care of the most soul less dog walkers.

Their bodies stiffen visibly, as fear ridges these canines from nose tip to tail tip at the approach of these born sadists. Once the walkers take rough charge, the dogs have little choice, except to submit to the perverse ways of this abusive lot.

Armed with restless sticks whose utility they have honed to fear psychosis inspiring perfection, the walkers thrill to the sight of these dogs, flinching away in terror, or darting dread- filled, sidelong looks towards them. To the dog walkers delight most dogs have a choke chain. These they fling with savage regularity on the flanks of the dogs. Otherwise they yank them with such severity that the dog’s head snaps back, causing them to writhe as they choke helplessly.

On these walks, the dogs are held on a short leash, forcing them to move in a sullen shuffle. Sometimes they are yoked in the most terrible partnerships, such as a long legged retriever and a stubby little daschund. Their pace is mismatched enough, to make the dog walker have a schizophrenic seizure. A Bull Terrier and a Cocker Spaniel face a dilemma of another kind. The spaniel is deliberately pampered to slight the boxer, who judging from its stiff dodgy trot, ears flattened to the sides of its head, eyes distended with fear and body tensed up, clearly remembers from the past vicious kicks on it ribs.

Once they are out of the gates of the colony, the lordly walkers, basking in the reflected glory of their pedigreed charges, tie up these poor creatures to the nearest lamp post, while they gather with evil intent to laugh their heads off at the idiosyncrasies of their elitist owners.

Even as these dogs stand motionless, resigned , defeated, a slow whimper of yearning, barely audible, builds up and sneaks out. From the corners of their eyes, the only part of them which can move without arousing paranoid suspicion, they see Missy a sleek black Labrador, going every morning and evening with her master to a wooded hillock. There she bounds freely for two hours in search of doggy mischief. Guggloo a lucky German Shepherd is allowed the indulgence of endlessly nosing around boulders and bushes, and relieving himself on every available culvert or tree stump. Cuddles and Pepsi call out to their fan following of strays and generously share their doggy biscuits, before they find dust bowls and have a proper mud bath. Every muscle in their body is relaxed with the happy assurance that they are deeply cared for. In return they have a friendly ‘woof woof’ to every passer by.

In marked contrast, the dogs with the caretakers stand to rigid attention. Any change in stance invites unspeakable harshness. Out comes the stick brought down on them with merciless repetition. The walkers wisely choose an area of heavy traffic, which helpfully muffles the soul searing cries of these dumb animals.

These dogs, distinctly under stress imposed by assault over extended periods, are a far cry of their former pedigreed selves, for which they were prized. Their inherent traits have been assiduously kicked out of their system. Their lives have been so programmed, that they have no control over their destinies. Happy is the mongrel which enjoys boundless freedom. I wonder who is more cruel the dog walker or the owner? Why, you may ask am I a mute witness to this unforgivable cruelty? Because I have tried to get the message across to one or two owners, to be met with the elaborate cultivated shrug of the shoulders, that says it all!

By Radha Nair

Leo the brave

2008-11-03T19:26:00.004+05:30

Leo licking one of the kittens

There are reasons why dogs make best friends. Here's one reason why. A terrier cross named Leo claimed news front lines last week after he risked his own life to save a litter of newborn kittens from a burning house in Melbourne, Australia. After his brave rescue Leo had to be revived with oxygen and a heart massage. Fire broke out due to unknown reasons in the house where Leo was entrusted with the safety of the four week old kittens. When firefighters arrived at the scene they found that the inhabitants had managed to escape but Leo was standing immovable and unshaken next to his wards engulfed by thick smoke.

Watch Leo

Another video

Book of the Week - Dewey:The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

2008-10-30T20:03:00.008+05:30

Image from MSNBC

This just might be an interesting book to read. The story of "Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World" by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter is gaining more popularity.

Dewey Readmore Books with librarian and author Vicki Myron

Dewey was the well loved feline who was abandoned as a kitten in the Spencer Public Library's book-return box one January night in 1988 in Spencer, Iowa. Dewey was adopted promptly by the librarians and his name was chosen by the town in a contest. He had a gala time in the library jumping between shelves, hitching a ride on a passing book cart and sitting on the laps of visitors to the library. Dewey breathed his last after 19 years of rollicking fun in 2006 and his obituary appeared in hundreds of papers. He was buried near the door of the library with a plaque that reads, "In Loving Memory of Dewey Readmore Books: World Famous Library Cat."

A little more

And some

Horsing around

2008-10-30T19:47:00.004+05:30

Harschbarger took Gracie's photo before freeing her - Image from DailyMail

If you are too curious you might get tied up. Thats what happened to Gracie the mare. Nobody knows the cause for sure but it might have been curiosity for lack of a better explanation. Gracie was found with her head wedged in between two sections of a tree trunk. The horse was unable to free itself and hearing its frenzied whinnying Jason Harschbarger a neighbour in the town of Pullman, West Virginia, US, came to the rescue. He had to use a chainsaw to slowly cut the wood around Gracie's neck but she escaped with minor injuries and a dislocated jaw. But she is well on the road to recovery.

Woofing down the aisle

2008-10-29T20:23:00.005+05:30

Ed in his special tuxedo - Image from Ananova

Sorry for the long gap readers. Thanks to my mom my internet was down for the past one week and I just got it back up and running. She hired someone to hack away portions of intrusive tree branches outside our house and the man happily hacked away the wire too. A few frantic calls to the telephone board and internet provider set things right, albeit at their own pace.

Also, I have added a new badge to the site named "Everywun," where a simple click from you will result in a donation to needy animals and saving the environment. So click away!

Ok, now let me get to the story for today. I guess this is one of the weirdest I have read in a long time. Ed the dog had one of the best times in his life when his owners Harriet and Andew Athay got married. He not just had the best time but also played the part of best man along with the couple's two other female dogs, Humbug and Goulash. The couple felt it was only right that they be there filling these roles since they were the ones who brought them together in the first place. Harriet and Andrew met when they were walking their respective dogs in Mudeford Beach, Dorset, England in August 2007. As their dogs capered around Andrew and Harriet chatted. He admired Ed's shiny collar and found out that Harriet ran a pet accessories company. The next day Harriet got a parcel with a pink diamante dog collar with a note from Andrew asking her out for a drink. That set their relationship rolling and in January Andrew proposed to her.

Spot of Understanding - Wasps pack a sting in memory

2008-10-22T19:37:00.005+05:30

A paper wasp nest - Image from Science Daily

Maybe for a good memory your brain needs to be less than a millionth the size of a normal human brain. Atleast its the case for paper wasps. New research from the University of Michigan shows that these tiny insects can remember individuals for about a week even though they would be interacting with lots of other wasps in the meantime. The research, by graduate student Michael Sheehan and assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Elizabeth Tibbetts, impressively proves that these wasps have a long term memory based on their social interactions. Carrying out various tests, Tibbetts showed that these wasps recognize individuals by variations in their facial markings and that they behave more aggressively toward wasps with unfamiliar faces. Aah one must think twice before offending these creatures!

Read more on the findings

Honeybees have a great memory too but in a different way

Ratchet

2008-10-22T19:14:00.003+05:30

Beberg and Ratchet - Image from AP

Ratchet the puppy has hit headlines in pretty much all self-respecting newspapers. But for those of you who haven't yet clued in on Ratchet's sweet story here it is. Ratchet was adopted by Sgt. Gwen Beberg in Iraq after some soldiers rescued him from a pile of burning trash in May this year. Beberg wanted to have Ratchet with her when she flew back to her home in Minnesota after her deployment ends in November. But the military prohibits soldiers from adopting pets abroad and bringing them back to the U.S. and Ratchet was confiscated from a convoy bound for Baghdad airport. The SPCA took special interest and thousands of people across the globe signed online petitions on their site pleading the U.S. military to allow Ratchet into the country. Now finally, an animal rescue group called Operation Baghdad Pups (OBP), have succeeded in reuniting Ratchet with her friend Beburg ending her long struggle. The OBP's first attempt was foiled by the military on 1 October but on 19th Ratchet finally landed in the U.S. with military clearance. The entire effort will cost about $5000 according to the SPCA but then to Beberg, Ratchet is priceless as she says that she couldn't have got through her 13 month deployment without him.

EndangeRed - The Caspian Seal

2008-10-20T20:17:00.003+05:30

The Caspian Seal - Image from Science Daily

The future looks bleak for one of the world's smallest species of seal - the Caspian. Recent reports of one in four mammals being in danger of extinction includes the Caspian. Scientists from the University of Leeds along with international partners have studied the species, which is found only in Caspian Sea. A series of surveys have shown that their numbers have sharply fallen by 90% in the last 100 years. These findings have prompted the Internation Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to shift the status of the Caspian from Vulnerable to Endangered on its official IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008. What has caused these sweet looking cuddly beings to disappear? Commercial hunting, habitat degradation, disease, pollution and drowning in fishing nets are a few of the reasons, which have caused their numbers to decline from more than one million at the beginning of the 20th century to just a meagre 100,000 today.

What is the Caspian Seal?

The Caspian Seal Project

Punch drunk horse

2008-10-20T19:55:00.003+05:30

Fat Boy struggles to get out - Image from Dailymail

If you are drunk and you go by the name of Fat Boy then its surely not a healthy combo. Poor Fat Boy the horse paid the price for it. The 12 year old Moorland pony, who lives in a riding school in Newquay, England, suddenly had the urge to eat apples. So he broke away from his stables, slunk into his neighbor Sarah Penhaligon's backyard and began gorging on a heap of rotting apples on the ground. The fruit had started fermenting and Fat Boy was soon seeing stars from a high. A drunken Fat Boy lost his footing and lurched with a big splash into Sarah's swimming pool. Hearing the noise Sarah came out to investigate and saw Fat Boy desperately trying to make his way out. Finally, she dialled Emergency and firefighters hoisted him out of the pool with several harnesses after they built a set of hay steps. The entire process took two hours during which, Sarah fed him more apples to keep him calm. He is reportedly dealing with his "morning after."

Book of the Week - The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

2008-10-18T12:02:00.004+05:30

A book that I have been waiting with bated breath to read. And still waiting. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is about a mute boy Edgar who has an uncanny ability to communicate with his best friend - a dog. Set in rural Wisconsin, home of the author David Wroblewski, the tale is set in a farm in the early half of the 20th century, where the Sawtelle family raises a fictional breed of dogs. Various reviews have gone so far as to compare Edgar's dog to Shakespearean dimensions or the chorus from a Greek tragedy. Whatever it maybe, ultimately its the story of a boy and a dog. And these simple stories fascinate me more.

Edgar Sawtelle's homepage - This also doubles up as David Wroblewski's site

Review1 and Review2

A touching friendship

2008-10-18T11:38:00.002+05:30

Tiger Cup guards his little ward - Image from The Metro

Another story of a touching friendship. Jiaozuo city in Henan Province is home to the People's Park Monkey Mountain, where a baby monkey was left defenseless after its parents died. Tired of saving the tiny one from being bullied by other bigger monkeys, Xiaohou, one of the monkey breeders brought in a dog named Tiger Cup to act as its guardian. Tiger Cup instantly took to the baby monkey and they became inseparable. Unfortunately I couldn't get more information on these two so this has to be a small post.

Blue and Black

2008-10-15T18:19:00.003+05:30

Image from Wiki

Today as I was sitting in the park after lunch, I was witness to a very sweet exchange between two crows. One of them, whom I will name as Blue for convenience, was foraging on the ground for tidbits and scratching in the dust. After a while it appeared like Blue had caught something in its mouth. A second later another crow, whom I will name Black, came and gently took the morsel out. Blue continued its ferreting and went behind some bushes. A while later Black came from somewhere with its mouth open. Now it was Blue's turn to eat. After a few exchanges in similar fashion the inseparable couple flew to a tree nearby, to pass the gentle afternoon away after a very companiably shared lunch. Ah, if only we were more amiable and got along with each other like them!

Dog to God

2008-10-13T19:26:00.004+05:30

Conan sits next to priest Yoshikuni - Image from Telegraph

This news is a bit old but I thought I must really write it here! Praying is a good meditative practise. It may also get your wishes granted sometimes. Maybe thats why Conan prays. At a Zen Buddhist temple in the Jigenin temple in Okinawa, Japan, Conan the one and half year old pet chihuahua joins the monks in their daily prayers. The dog takes his position next to the priest, Joei Yoshikuni, sits on his hind legs, raises his paws and joins them together at the tip of his nose. Yoshikuni estimates that the number of visitors, especially younger ones, has increased by nearly 30%. He says Conan might be expressing his gratitude for his treats and walks.

Spot of Understanding

2008-10-09T19:39:00.004+05:30

Male zebra finch sings to its mate - Image from Science Daily

Singing has always been one of the time tested ways to attract someone you love. For birds this is a way of life. Researchers at the Riken Brain Science Institute in Saitama, Japan have found that when a male zebra finch crooned to a potential mate certain neurons in the brain got activated. In the human equivalent parts of the brain, these areas are activated when an individual takes drugs and obtains a high, following the release of dopamine. In the finch's brains, singing triggered a feeling of reward. According to Neal Hessler, "It's the clearest evidence so far that singing to a female is rewarding for male birds."

Read more on the findings and watch the video

How birds hold singing contests to obtain mates

EndangeRed - The Bluefin Tuna

2008-10-08T20:03:00.005+05:30

Image from National Geographic

My very first post in Red would be about the Bluefin Tuna. Sushi and sashimi maybe exotic and very interesting to eat but most of the consumers are unaware that they are eating away a species, which is on the brink of extinction and is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) after decades of overfishing. This magnificent creature not just graces the ocean but also haute Japanese restaurant tables and they sell for about $100 a pound in Japanese markets. The bluefin tuna population has gone down since the mid-1990s after it captured gastronomic imagination in Japan and the world over.

Now restaurants are slowly waking up to the grim reality of its disappearance. The Michelin star adorned restaurant Nobu, owned partly by Robert de Niro, boasts a clientele that includes Madonna and Kate Winslet. They have now agreed to highlight dishes that include bluefin tuna giving customers a pretty obvious choice to decide between ordering a bluefin tuna dish anyway or save the guilt and go for a greener alternative. Wouldn't it be better if they take if off the menu altogether? Yes, but in Japan bluefin tuna is considered the most delicious of all tuna species.

What is the bluefin tuna?

Ted Danson talks about what happened to the bluefin tuna

How the Greenpeace urged Nobu to point out bluefin tuna dishes on their menu

A helpful list of what you can do to help

Watch a bluefin tuna fish farm

Introduction to EndangeRed

2008-10-08T19:57:00.004+05:30

Seeing the news about endangered species everyday I thought I must start a new section on them. Animals are what sustain our planet and by encroaching on their habitats and killing them for food, we are slowly narrowing our own chances of survival in the coming years. The future looks bleak and cold unless our environment is preserved and nurtured. Its all in our hands, each one of us. If each one does his/her bit, it will make a HUGE difference. Else we might one day have to take our children to a plant museum or resort to videos of lush forests to show that these things once existed...

Strange but beautiful

2008-10-08T19:40:00.003+05:30

Etheridge with Snowy and Gladys - Image from All-Creatures

Unusual friendships are not a rarity in the animal world. This one is between Gladys the chicken and Snowy the cat who live in Middleton, England. The story begins when Jane Etheridge's bantam hen hatched a batch of 14 chickens about two and half months back. Sadly, that number was reduced to just three chickens after a fox marauded the coop leaving only feathers behind. Two of the survivors died soon and only Gladys was left. Etheridge brought a shaken and traumatised Gladys into the house to help her get her bearings. Thats when Snowy took over. For 10 year old Snowy, Gladys was like a little sibling to be taken care of. He cleaned and washed her and made her comfortable. Now Gladys is two and half months old and is inseparable from Snowy. Etheridge says that they are, "the best of friends, very much so, and when she first started going out she would not go unless they went together."

Spicy adventure

2008-10-07T20:59:00.005+05:30

Simon Carter with Pepper - Image from Tampa Bay

I know I am repeating the animal from yesterday but I JUST had to write this story. If your dog goes missing for months together, then don't worry, for there still is hope as Pepper proved. Pepper the golden retriever went missing from his home in Atlanta, Georgia, a little before Christmas, from the home of Elizabeth Carter. The seven year old dog disappeared when Elizabeth and her family went on a vacation to Mexico leaving Pepper with a dog sitter. When someone lit firecrackers he got startled and ran away and never returned. After long enquiries and searches they gave up hope of finding him.

But nine months later, almost like a rebirth, Elizabeth got a call from St.Petersburg, Floria, 400 miles from Atlanta. Jay Getman who works at a travel agency found Pepper outside the door of the shop, soaking wet, filthy and flea infested. His heart melted at the sight of Pepper and he soon took him home. Pepper was given a nice bath and food and after a couple of days Jay took him to a vet, who found a microchip with Pepper's ownership details embedded. He made the call to Atlanta with some sadness since he had already become attached to the dog and informed Elizabeth. The very next day a still disbelieving Elizabeth hopped into her car and drove all the way to Florida and was soon reunited with her beloved Pepper. But the mystery still remains as to how Pepper traversed 400 miles and landed up so far away.

Sniffing bee

2008-10-06T18:40:00.004+05:30

Toby's sniffing capabilities are invaluable - Image from Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Toby is an ordinary looking springer spaniel but what he does is extremely special. He is a trained sniffer dog but not in the conventional sense where he has to go rushing behind criminal scents. He has to sniff something more mundane - bumblebees. Toby is the latest tool in locating the disappearing presence of bumblebees in Britain. He is not the only one of his kind, since Quinn the springer spaniel was there before him. Toby has been trained in the army and is in the employ of Stirling University where researchers have received a grant of $1,96,678 (£112,000) to study bumblebee decline. Bumblebee nests are smaller than a hive and are often located underground. This is where Toby's skills come in. Toby who had been rescued from an animal pound in the Midlands now stays on a farm with his handler, PhD student Steph O' Connor.

Read more about Quinn

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Readers write for World Animals Day

2008-10-04T19:12:00.009+05:30

I invited some of my readers to write stories that they found amusing or interesting on the occasion of World Animals Day and here are a couple of them. I will publish any more stories that anyone else wishes to send as and when I receive them :)

Image from Wikipedia

Mocha told me that today is World Animals Day, and asked me to contribute. It didn't take me long to think what I could contribute. Much as I love animals, I loved one in particular the most - my soulmate.You know, just like how we humans go around searching for that elusive soulmate. Well, some don't search, some just assume that it is a concept mired in illusion. But I know - it is real. And unlike those who sadly restrict the concept of soulmates to just the two-legged walking upright hairy kind who also happen to be incredibly dumb (nah, I am not talking of those poor apes - they are not dumb, not they. Ever take a look at our planet? See the frightful mess we have made? Think we can call ourselves intelligent?)

But then, I digress. I wanted to write about one of my soulmates - my dog, Bambi. She came into my life late, I was all of 24, shy of the world, and bound by thoughts of the future. A kind professor who was moving to the US could not take her with them. "I am looking for a house for my dog," she announced one day in class. "She is a Labrador, old but we are just looking for a good home for her, " she said. I must have been out of mind, but then the best decisions in life are those we take when we are out of our mind. I volunteered to take her. What was I thinking? At that time we were staying in my sister's mother-in-law's house - on probation while our house was being built elsewhere. The we implies my mother, my father and I. We had never had a pet before - the only one that arrived some ten years back as a pup had left still a pup. We WERE animal lovers, but preferred them at a distance - NOT animal caregivers. "Well, why don't you come and see the dog then, " my professor said. And so I did. Bambi came wagging her tail as soon as we came to her house. I was with my friend - she was at ease with dogs, and soon had Bambi on her back, giggling with delight as my friend tickled her tummy. I stood nervously. How does one behave around dogs? I had not the faintest idea, considering I was not all that good around humans either. But then Bambi took care of that herself in her own way.

At home it wasn't easy. My father put his foot down. "We don't need a dog," he growled. I was almost in tears...well, I amend that, I was in tears - in private I cried night after night into my pillow. It took my sister's gentle intervention. "She has never asked for anything. Agree this once," she pleaded. My father was never happy. But he could never say no to my sister. So Bambi came home. I took her in an autorickshaw, and the maid in the house fawned over her. My mother loved her, patting her fondly. My Dad didn't. In the evening, I sat, wearied, on the steps in front of the house. And Bambi came over. I was down, I was tired, and I hated life at that moment. She crept closer and kept her head on my knee. I felt understood then. For the first time in my life. There were no questions, no expectations - my dog was just with me, and just be-ing. Since then, every time I felt dragged down, she was there. There was nothing more Bambi loved than scrambling into my lap. So I would get up on a Sunday, wear my worst clothes, go down, sit cross-legged, beckon. And she would, heave her big self on to my lap. Did I tell you she was a yellow labrador? Well-toned, not fat, and with what I still think were the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. We would then lie there, I would stroke her head, and she would give her warmth. At other times I would lie down, and she would put one dirty paw over me in an embrace. Never had I felt so loved. And that I didn't have to do anything to obtain that love. Bambi loved. My sister, who had never been near a dog in her life, would come over just to spend hours with Bambi. She was not an angelic dog - not she. She scratched the house door down - wanting to be let in. She bit my nephew when he was patting her a bit excessively. And she once bolted inside one of the bedroom, went under the bed, and growled at anyone who dare enter the room. Morning saw her on the bed - and we had to forcibly get another dog inside so that she would jump out and defend her territory. She hid under the drain. She was a mad hatter. And she drove my father mad.

And that madness made me treat her badly. I beat her. Not once. But many times for her transgessions. I have mentally beaten a lot of humans too. But unlike them, she came back each time, woofing with pleasure when I extended my hand out for a good rub. She knew no revenge. No grudges. I left her a lot - I went to work in a school far away from home, and used to come home once a month. Each time, the best welcome was from Bambi. She would reproach me for leaving her for so long, and then I would know what love truly was. But she was old - 11 years old - and there came a time when she developed a uterus problem. I was away at school, but took her to the vet each time as soon as I could - he suggested surgery. And no, he couldn't guarantee her survival. But the surgery never happened. One night, Bambi, who was locked in the garage by my father as she would scratch the door (a move that I hated) just died. Just like that. My sister was there. Sick and vomiting on my sister's lap, my dog, my soulmate just left. The what ifs are many but I only know one thing - Bambi was with me for eight months - but love can't be measured in time. I treated her bad, I know. But I hope she knows I loved her. So much so that I cry even as I write this. I hope she will forgive me for those beatings. I hope she knows that she was truly my original soulmate. One day I hope we will meet in a world that makes more sense than the one I inhabit right now. Bambi, my love.

- Thank you Tipsy Tea for sharing that beautiful story

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Image from Daily Camera

The Possessive Cow

I really loved this hilarious story about a cow named Apple chasing off a bear that had climbed into her favourite apple tree. An eye-witness to the incident says that the two animals touched noses for a while before Apple chased the bear off. Apple was upset to see her favourite apple tree being usurped by the bear. She loved to eat apples from there and that’s how she got her weird name too

- From Wistful Vandy

World Animals Day Special

2008-10-04T18:24:00.009+05:30

Sam with his mother Antonia - Image from The Brampton Guardian

On the occasion of World Animals Day I have chosen a story that proves animals to be not just the ultimate compassionate companions but also the best sources of healing. Animals are always thought to be savage and wild while humans more cultured and perceptive. But one wonders sometimes if this definition is true. I have found that more often than not its always the other way round. Case in point. Three year old Sam Spiteri who lives in Caledon, Brampton, Ontario will agree with me too. He has been struggling with cerebral palsy, which limits his physical capabilities to a great extent. Three years ago, Sam's parents purchased Emily, a retired pony to give company to Sam and also as a therapeutic measure. Therapeutic horseriding is now beginning to be a popular diversion for children and adults with handicaps, which prevents them from participating in normal muscle building activities. For Sam, Emily was invaluable because his diagnosis as a Spastic Quadrapalegic Cerebral Palsy patient meant that maintaining his balance and gait was an extremely tough job. The most difficult areas to build his developing muscles were the core areas of the body - the torso, the back and the abdomen, which can be developed through riding. Emily is maintained on their one-acre land and the issue now is that the family has received a complaint from a neighbor asking them to remove Emily from the premises. According to Antonia Spiteri, Sam's mother, the town of Caledon informed her that barnyard animals are not allowed to be kept within city limits. She has been given the option of following up with the Town's committee of adjustment, and as long as the family does follow up with the committee, there won't be any action taken as of yet. Readers of my blog will recall and similar incident with Scott and his horse in Hickman, Nebraska. Sometimes animals are not only the best companions but also the most sensible of all too.

Read more about Sam and Emily

What is Therapeutic Horseback Riding?

Information about North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, Inc. (NARHA)

Animal Book of the Week - Two Bobbies

2008-10-04T18:03:00.003+05:30

Image from Amazon

This is a book that I haven't personally read but I am really looking forward to. "Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival," written by Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery", has got lovely reviews as a heartwarming story of a cat and a dog who survives Hurrican Katrina. Both the animals got their names from people in the rescue shelter, because both were missing their tails. The dog Bobbi was left chained on the porch when the hurricane struck and Bob Cat apparently stayed with her. Both were rescued after several months and were housed in Celebration Station in Metairie. Being a true story, the survivors have touched more than a chord with young as well as adult readers. I can't wait to get my hands on it!

Home page of the Bobbies

Review1 and Review2

Parroting swears

2008-10-02T18:55:00.003+05:30

Max-imum curses - Image from The Sun

What do you say when a parrot curses? More often than not you are speechless. Thats pretty much the reaction that Max the African Grey parrot gets when he hurls filthy words at visitors to the zoo where he stays. Max was donated to the zoo by his previous owner after getting thoroughly tired with his vocabulary. The five year old parrot has also learnt to mimic car alarms and mobile phone ringtones. Peter Hansom, the keeper at the zoo in Darlington, Durham, UK, says that the local schoolchildren are the ones who taught Max all the words. Hansom says he has to "hold my breath" when parents with small children in tow come and admire Max. Many times its just an innocent "hello" or "bye" but more often than not its nastier, punctuated with a lot of f*** offs. Max's favorite trick is to stick his head in tin cup in his cage and swear, probably knowing that it makes a louder sound.

That sinking feeling

2008-10-01T20:20:00.005+05:30

Chalupa will not take a bath easily again - Image from Digitriad

I couldn't write this week because of this bizarre new system in our workplace, where all the sites that we visit are tracked and sent to the big boss. Ugh. So from now I have to write my posts in the evening :( Anyway here goes today's.

Bathing can become a trauma as Chalupa the chihuahua discovered. What should have been a leisurely bath turned into a troublesome irritation when one of her rear paws got stuck in the kitchen sink drain when her owner was bathing her. Ruth Gallagher who lives in Homer City, Philadelphia, said her daughter was bathing Chalupa when the dog got wedged. Everything from ice to cooking oil to liquid soap was poured down the drain in a rescue efforts but to no avail. Finally they had to turn to the fire department for help, who had to dismantle the entire plumbing system beneath the sink to un-stick Chalupa's paw. It took 30 minutes to dismantle and Gallagher is grateful for their efforts but it may take hours to put the sink back together and Gallagher is on the lookout for a good plumber.

Fashionable chick

2008-09-25T08:52:00.003+05:30

Emma Phillips with her adopted ward - Image from Metro

This must be one of the most well-dressed hens we have ever seen. Buffy the hen lost all her feathers at a cramped battery farm in Brent Knoll, Somerset, England and when the RSPCA found her three weeks back she was all bald and shivering and was 2lbs underweight. Now, one year old Buffy has been given a blue and white striped knitted sweater to keep herself warm and has almost fully recovered. Deputy manager Emma Phillips has become Buffy's caretaker and she keeps the hen in nestbox in a chicken shed at the centre. She says that it is common enough to find hens in Buffy's condition, because hens like Buffy are kept in a cage about 50cm by 55cm and between three and six chickens are usually kept in this space. Thanks to the RSPCA's care Buffy has recovered enough to, "peck and scratch about." She joins the other hens in sunbathing albeit wearing her little sweater. Once she grows back all her feathers she will be re-homed in the next few months.

Watch Buffy move and shake

Buffy's "foster mom" has some things to say

Sleeping with the enemy

2008-09-24T11:35:00.004+05:30

Pigs and tigers are not a new combination. Here a tiger plays with a pig in a zoo in Sriracha, Chonburi Province in Thailand where tiger cubs are encouraged to take milk from pigs to speed up their growth - Image from Reuters

Usually pigs would be food for tigers. But in Ukraine a very close bond has developed between the hunter and the hunted. Three tiger cubs are being taken care of by a pig on a farm in Dnipropetrovsk, southern Ukraine, after being abandoned by their mother. Farm worker Maria Mandjeli says that the piglets are not too happy on these foreign visitors sharing their mother. They try to push the tigers away and when she puts her hand to shield the tiger cubs the piglets bite her. So she holds the tiger cubs and assists them to have their milk without being trampled by the piglets. The cubs' mother live at a private zoo but the zookeepers had to take the cubs to the farm next door because the mother refused to care for them. The zoo director Yuriy Aksenych, however, defends her saying that she was born in a zoo and hence "has no experience of nature."

Watch the video

Hot seal

2008-09-23T10:37:00.003+05:30

Sahara needs a new enclosure to accommodate his grown up size of 310 lb - Image from The Telegraph

This news may be slightly old but I felt I had to include it in my blog. So here it is for those who have not read it yet. Have you heard of an Arctic hooded seal who is scared of the cold? Well, there's Sahara for one, aptly named too. Sahara was washed up on a beach in Morocco when he was just nine months old. When he was found he was barely alive and had shed all his fur. He was treated in Cornwall and then released in the Orkney Islands with the belief that he would find his way back to his real home. But seemingly liking the warm waters, he headed back south, and this time was found in San Sebastian in Spain. Today he is two years old and happily lives in the warmth of the National Seal Sanctuary in Cornwall. The sanctuary is studying his aversion to ice and is trying to get him to like the environs of his natural habitat. With the help of an ice producing machine, the staff shovelled ice into Sahara's enclosure and the first day he ran to the other side. Tamara Cooper, Sahara's carer says, “The problem is Sahara is an Arctic seal who is afraid of the cold. It's a bit like being a bird which is scared of heights." But now he is getting used to it and the staff thinks that pretty soon he will be a normal Arctic ice loving seal again.

Gentle giant

2008-09-22T09:48:00.002+05:30

Roo the giant rabbit - Image from The Mirror

If you are too big you might get thrown out of your house. That's what happened to Roo, a European giant rabbit, which was bought for $236 by a couple in Elgin, Moray, Scotland. Roo had such a voracious appetite that after a point she started munching on the furniture. Exasperated, the couple returned poor Roo to the Pets at Home shop from where they had bought her. Tracy Simpson, staff at the shop says that because Roo's teeth never stop growing, she likes to munch on things at all times. Roo polishes off a kilo of kale and huge amounts of hay and rabbit nuggets every week. Apart from this she also nibbles her way through cauliflower, carrots and broccoli. But Roo is too cute to be abandoned and a shop worker has given Roo a new home.

Unlikely friends

2008-09-19T11:45:00.010+05:30

Inseparable pair - Image from Reuters

Another poignant story was brought to my attention today. That of Boonlua the long-tailed macaque and Toby the rabbit who live together in the Thailand province of Ayutthaya. The then six year old Boonlua lost an arm and both his legs when he was attacked ferociously by a pack of dogs three years ago. He managed to drag himself to a temple nearby where the monks called a vet to treat him. The monks then took him to a centre where retired elephants live and an ex-zookeeper there designed a special enclosure for Boonlua to accommodate his handicap. Boonlua happily spent his days in this new found safety but he soon the zookeepers felt he needed a friend. In came Toby the rabbit who till today remains his constant companion. Boonlua shares his bounty of fruits, nuts, eggs and the occasional Mentos mints, which he loves, with Toby.

Animal Book of the Week - The Schoolmouse

2008-09-19T11:45:00.009+05:30

Image from Fantasticfiction

This is one of the sweetest books I have read in a long time. The Schoolmouse by Dick King-Smith relates the story of Flora, a mouse with an insatiable curiosity. Her thirst for learning makes her the first self-educated mouse in the world when she teaches herself human language. The book narrates her adventures and provides a mouse-eye view of the world. Humorous and funny with tiny twists and turns in the story, the book is ideal for a one hour curl up in bed with hot coffee. Please buy a copy asap!

Reviews

Spot of Understanding

2008-09-18T11:52:00.005+05:30

Crafty crows - Image from Telegraph, UK

So who is smarter, crows or apes? According to new research its crows. Numerous studies have investigated the abilities of the Einsteins of the avian world as crows are known. Now a team from Auckland University, led by Prof Russell Gray, has found that crows are incredibly smarter than apes and are able to solve problems using reason and understanding. Previous studies from New Caledonia had proved that they could make tools from leaves and use them to reach grub and caterpillars.

Read the full article

Watch photos and videos

The rainbow angel

2008-09-18T11:30:00.003+05:30

Radish has learnt to ring the bell each time he wants food or water - Image from birds.about.com

My story today is about a bird who is beautiful inside out. Meet Radish, the two year old Scarlet Chested Parakeet, who was rotting away at the back of a dingy pet shop, until his current owner found him. He grew so depressed that he began plucking out his feathers causing bald spots to appear on his chest. But he was rescued just in time by Jamie who took him with her to the hospital where she worked, where she put him on a job. Radish was designated as pet and mascot of the hospital and his job was to bring a smile on the faces of terminally ill children. Jamie says, "My supervisors had taken note of the positive affects that animals can have on the sick and elderly and had been thinking about getting a bird to live in the children's ward. When I walked in that shop and saw Radish, I knew that he was the one!" Touchingly, the children have responded, to the mild mannered parrot who hates loud noises. Seeing him everyday gives them something to look forward to. There was a five year old patient who referred to him as the "rainbow angel" and Jamie says, to her he really was one.

Scott and the City

2008-09-17T12:17:00.005+05:30

Peter Rabbit and Scott, happy together - Image from The Horse

The most famous rabbit in the news currently is a horse. Peter Rabbit the 32 year old horse made headlines when his owner refused to remove him from his home following a ban on keeping livestock within city limits. Harley Scott, Peter Rabbit's 76 year old owner, has raised the horse from the time he was born in his pasture in 1976, in the city of Hickman, Nebraska. Thirty days back the city council members notified Scott that the horse was being kept within city limits against municipal code and that he had to go. But he remains grazing stolidly in his pasture oblivious of the controversy he has created around the world. The city of Hickman is overwhelmed with emails and phone calls from horse lovers asking the officials to allow Peter Rabbit to be in his home. But the city refuses to budge. It has been an ongoing battle between Scott and the city officials since the past couple of years and the latest deadline they had given him is September 15th. Since Peter Rabbit is very much at home even today, the officials have decided to send citations to Scott where he will have to pay $100 everyday, which he has promised. My email in poor Peter's support is on its way!

Watch the news!

Lucky Treacle

2008-09-16T12:00:00.004+05:30

Treacle aka Lucky managed to escape from his owners' house and go for a road trip - Image from News & Star

Now who would think to watch out for vehicles which are about the size of a globe? Well, if Lucky the hamster is out on the roads, then you better watch out. Lucky was happily trundling along the road in heavy traffic, along the roads of Carlisle, Cumbria, UK, when Nick Smith happened to see her. Smith was riding in his car along with his son Ben, when he saw a plastic ball trundling along at top speed and actually overtaking the car. A closer look revealed the hamster inside, which made him stop the car. Smith made some enquiries to see if anyone had lost a hamster and when he didn't receive a concrete reply, he took Lucky home with him. Smith lives in the small village of Wreay, where he houses other pets that include a Dalmatian, two cats and lots of fish. But a few days later, Smith received a worried phone call from Lucky's original owners looking for Treacle, Lucky's real name. Now the brown and white little hamster is all set to be reunited with her owners and go back to her old home. Smith muses, "How she survived is a miracle. She must be the luckiest hamster in the world."

Buddy to the rescue

2008-09-15T10:53:00.004+05:30

Buddy the Savior - Image from ABC News

Next time you want an ambulance ask your dog. That is if he is trained like Buddy, the German Shepherd. Buddy's owner Joe Stalnaker, who lives in Arizona, was suffering from one of his regular seizures and his cries for help were heard by Buddy. He is specially trained to watch out for his owner during his troubled times and as soon as he sensed Joe in trouble the 18 month old Buddy dialled 911. Over the phone, Chris Trott, a veteran police operator, heard whimpering and barking and a little while later the police arrived at Stalmaker's home. Stalmaker suffered a brain injury ten years ago when he was in the military, which left him prone to severe seizure attacks. Stalmaker got Buddy with the help of Paws With a Cause, an assistance animal adoption service. Usually Buddy recognises when his owner is in trouble and responds by bringing the phone to him or presses the 911 button with his teeth. Well, not everyone has the best Buddy.

Watch Buddy

Animal Book of the Week - Marley & Me

2008-09-12T15:29:00.005+05:30

A most lovable book - Image from Wiki

This is a feature I thought I must add to my blog, since there are so many animal lovers who are also book lovers out there. Let me begin with "Marley & Me" by John Grogan, which by now would be pretty well-known to most of you. But its my favorite animal book so far and I really cracked up laughing! Its really worth adding to your book collection and an absolute must buy.

All about:

Official Site

The Movie

Review

Blonde bombshell

2008-09-12T12:42:00.006+05:30

Rare blondes are much preferred - Image from The Sun

Who doesn't like blondes. Apparently even foxes, badgers, dogs and other bullies love blondes too, which is why a rare blonde baby hedgehog was mauled and left struggling to live. The hedgehog, which is not an albino, was found in Gobowen, Shropshire, England and immediately taken to the RSPCA at Stapeley Grange Centre in Cheshire. When she was handed in, in July, she was just a few months old and weighed a meagre 110g. Dr Andrew Kelly, manager of the Cheshire RSPCA, said, "We receive around 600 hedgehogs a year at Stapeley Grange, often orphaned juveniles, but we've never had a blonde hedgehog before." He said she has now tripled her weight and is ready to be released into a special private garden where she can be fed and monitored before she is completely let free into the wild. She doesn't have a name yet because the staff never name wild animals. Blonde hedgehogs are extremely rare and are found mostly on the Channel Island of Alderney where they have become common since a pair were released in the 1960s. Their attractive blondeness is actually caused by a rare recessive gene, which makes them handicapped to survive in the wild because their all too apparent appearance makes them an easy target for predators.

Read more about the rare residents of Alderney Island

The Alderney Spike Girls

Woof of guilt

2008-09-11T10:21:00.004+05:30

Scooby's name was taken from the famous cartoon character - Image from Wiki

How would a dog testify? Will it bark or wag its tail? Well that is the main question that will come into your mind when you know that Scooby the dog has become the first ever animal to testify in a court. The dog is believed to have been with its 59 year old owner when she was found hanging in her Paris apartment. Although the police believe it was a suicide her family has demanded an investigation because they believe its murder. So in comes Scooby to provide proof. During the hearing Scooby was led into the witness box by a vet to see how it reacted to a suspect. Apparently he barked "furiously". The aim was to decide if there was sufficient evidence to launch a full murder enquiry and Scooby seems to have helped quite a bit judging from Judge Thomas Cassuto's remarks that Scooby's assistance was "invaluable."

Killer Killarney

2008-09-10T10:59:00.005+05:30

Killarney the koala has a mind of her own - Image from AP

She is a firebrand and she gives you a date only after you pass her tests. She is registered on online dating sites and is the personification of cool. Killarney the koala has had a lot of suitors but she has made her distaste clear in many ways - a potential man once got smacked on his face for being too eager to get close and gave another one a very disinterested and perfunctory glance even as they were being introduced to each other. Killarney's residence is the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, South Carolina, where her loving keepers maintain her internet profile from time to time. More than 200 zoos across the US use online databases to find mates for their animals and Killarney's friends don't lose hope of finding her knight. That is one independent woman.

Spot of Understanding

2008-09-08T15:11:00.005+05:30

Flies possess an internal map to warn them of approaching danger - Image from the Los Angeles Times

For all of us who have torn our hair apart in pursuit of a fly and wondered why its so damn difficult to catch hold of it, here are some answers. The brains of a fly are hardwired to escape us swatters. The insects cleverly flee in the opposite direction as soon as they see the swat team descending. According to researchers these moves are made with lightning speed - within 200 milliseconds. Michael Dickinson's team in the California Institute of Technology studied flies with the help of high-speed digital imaging equipment and a fancy fly swatter. His advice? Best not to swat a fly from the starting position, aim for the escape route.

Read the full article

Kinds of flies

Happy trip

2008-09-08T14:35:00.003+05:30

The Asian elephant is listed as "endangered" since 1977 - Image from Wikipedia

Xiguang saw bright lights and remained inexpressibly and abnormally happy for a long time. And then his trip ended abruptly in rehab. We are talking of a four year old Asian elephant who was illegally captured along the Chinese-Burmese border in 2oo5 and given bananas laced with heroin, probably to control and pacify him. When the police arrested the traders and found the elephant it was suffering from withdrawal symptoms. With tears streaming down his face he continuously made his agony known to the people around him. Xiguang was taken to a rehab centre in the island of Hainan, where he was treated with methadone injections, five times the human dosage, for a year. Now pretty much fit, he will be housed in a wildlife park in Kunming, Yunnan. Xiguang would definitely miss his happy days.

Why is the Asian elephant endangered?

Christian the Lion

2008-09-05T16:36:00.005+05:30

Christian loved the television - Image from Dailymail.co.uk

Probably the story of Christian the Lion is known to most of you. But I chanced upon it today and it has touched a chord. Christian was one of the "exotic" animals caged and kept on display in Harrod's back in 1969. When a friend reported this exciting fact to Australians Anthony "Ace" Bourke and John Rendall, they went to check it out, out of curiosity. They spotted the 35 pound three month old lion cub and immediately felt sorry for it and bought it. Christian was brought up as a member of the household, spending his childhood playing in the living room and playing soccer in the garden. Finally when he got too big for the house the two friends realized that he had to be released back into his real home. So they took him to Kenya and released him in the wilderness with the help of George Adamson in 1971. They visited him periodically and then stopped. Several months later they were told he had adapted to his new environment, and the two returned to say goodbye. The video is a must watch. Such a heartwarming moment.

'Tyring' day

2008-09-04T09:00:00.004+05:30

Bella the cat couldn't bear parting - Image from AOL News

There's nothing new about the cat who went on a two and half hour trip in her owner's truck. But with Bella the difference is that she was perched on the spare tyre under the truck. Gil Smith who lives in Arizona drove 70 miles to attend a meeting in Kearny. When he reached his destination he heard the distressed cries of a cat and discovered Bella, shaken and stirred. Smith said that the cat was smart enough to know not to jump off the truck as soon at stopped even though she was hyper with fright. Smith and his wife have three cats, three goats and three chickens, but Bella holds a special place in the family, especially for his wife. So much so that he cancelled his meeting and drove all the way back home to get Bella back to his wife. I thought that was even better than Bella's adventure.

Gone to the dogs

2008-09-02T12:05:00.005+05:30

Buses, a dog's best friend - Image from Spiegel

What is the limit of luxury? For a dog it can be having its own bus. Dog lovers in Berlin can now happily go to work without being worried about who will care for their pet during the day. A newly launched bus service will shuttle dogs to a day care centre where they can eat, sleep and play. Each ticket is 15 euros ($22) and for this the dogs get to sit in cabins fitted with air-conditioning, central-heating, blankets and music. Their destination is Beelitz, a town 31 miles southwest of Berlin, where they they can play, eat or relax in special hotel rooms before embarking on their trip home. The bus can take up to 20 dogs and runs 5 days a week. Ah, now if only we had someone do that for us everyday.

Spot of Understanding

2008-09-02T10:42:00.005+05:30

Magnetism defined - Image from Wikipedia

It has now been found that both deer and cattle always tend to face the magnetic South or North at all times. The theory before was that they face this direction to avoid the winds or the sun's rays. But Sabine Begall of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and her colleagues pored through thousands of Google Earth images from all over the world and found that whether resting or grazing these animals face either the south or the north.

Read the entire article

More about animal magnetism

Spider and the dog

2008-08-29T08:40:00.005+05:30

Camel spiders give a painful bite - image from The Sun

A terrorized Lorraine Griffiths recounts her horrifying experience of being driven out of home. By a spider. She says it even killed the family dog, Bella, after the dog tried to confront it. It all started with her husband Rodney coming home from war in Afghanistan to their home in Essex, England. She surmises that the creature, thought to be a camel spider, arrived with him in his bag. She said the family has now moved in with her mother and they are trying to catch the spider by laying traps. What a tangled web ...

What are camel spiders?

Watch a camel spider

Coming back to life

2008-08-28T10:31:00.007+05:30

Cats have an amazing kidney that gives them survival longevity - Image from Wikipedia

That a cat has seven lives has been proved by Bonny. Her owner Monika Hoppert, a 60 year old widow living in the town of Stadthagen, Germany, is convinced that its a miracle. The black cat with big green eyes disappeared on 19 June while construction workers replaced pipes in the block of flats where Hoppert lives. Just before the bathtub was sealed back into place Bonny must have crept in underneath. By the time the neighbour noticed Bonny's desperate but weak cries on 8 August the cat's weight had dropped from 13 pounds to a mere four pounds. After the rescue she was just a bag of bones and the vet suggested she be put down since she will not live much longer. But Hoppert was determined to have her back and nursed her to good health. Am sure Hoppert would have played "Coming back to life" for the next few days.

How long can cats survive without food and water?

Spot of Understanding

2008-08-27T20:49:00.004+05:30

The New York Times carried an article, which states that crows never forget a face. Not just crows, but also their relatives, which include magpies, ravens and jays. They thrive in human dominated environments and are known for being street smart. John M. Marzluff, a wildlife biologist at the University of Washington has studied crows and ravens for more than 20 years now and after a lot of experiments with crows on the campus he discovered that they do have the ability to recognize human faces. Next time I shoo a crow I will be more careful to hide my face.

Read the entire article

More about crows and ravens

Dirty dumping

2008-08-27T09:50:00.005+05:30

Fred emerges from half eaten potato chips and other waste - Image from The Telegraph

30 year old Fred was dumped in the dirtiest way possible. In a trash can. The tortoise crawled into the bin looking for a deep, dark place to hibernate. His owner 55 year old Jane Deslandes, didn't see him and handed over the rubbish sack to the garbage collectors. When she realised Fred was gone along with it she was absolutely terrified. She went in search of Fred to the landfill site, 20 miles away, and trawled through the waste for three hours. She came home disappointed and heartbroken. But the landfill site bosses continued her search and finally found him hidden underneath 50 tons of garbage, minutes before the day's garbage was about to be buried. Now Fred is back home in his garden, happily munching on his favorite food - lettuce leaves, tomatoes and other vegetables. Jane says through a tear stained smile that she would have never been able to forgive herself if he hadn't been found. Shellshocking story that.

Tortoises and hibernation

Ear ear!

2008-08-26T10:04:00.006+05:30

The Star Wars Yoda and the four-eared Yoda - Image from FOX News

As if two weren't enough. Yoda the cat has probably had enough of sounds what with four ears popping on his head. Yes you heard it right. Yoda's owners, Ted and Valerie Rock has been inundated with various offers from television, ever since their son posted Yoda's photo on the web. The Rocks, who live in Downers Grove, Illinois, found him in 2006 while watching a Chicago Bears game at a Blue Island bar. Some patrons were passing the eight week old kitten around making fun of its ears calling him "Beelzebub" and Devil's Cat." The Rocks felt sorry and and offered to adopt the kitten from the bar's owner who in fact had caged the kitten for his customers' amusement. The Rocks had lost their cat of 20 years just six months before and they saw something special in Yoda, who is named after a character in Star Wars. I think Yoda the cat is much better looking!

Despair and loss

2008-08-25T14:34:00.007+05:30

Image from AOL news

Displays of mourning by animals are rare. This is one such case, as close to humans as possible. Gana, a gorilla in the Allwetter Zoo in Muenster, Germany, refused to let go of the dead body of her baby, which died of unknown circumstances. The three month old baby named Claudio died on Saturday 16th, but the 11 year old mother continued to walk around holding him until she finally gave him up to be disposed last week. I found this so poignant, especially this particular image, especially in a world where people hardly have the time to feel.

Do animals have emotions?

What about grief?

Tortoise on wheels

2008-08-22T12:09:00.008+05:30

Arava on her new set of wheels - Image from wkrg

Arava the tortoise is cruising around on brand new wheels. Literally. Arava, an African spurred tortoise, landed at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo in Israel, with both her hind legs paralysed. So what did the zoo do? They fitted her with a pair of wheels fixed to a metallic cart for her to move around. Now that the ten year old has a new set of wheels, she has steered her life around to find love. The 55 pound tortoise may never walk again but she has found what most of us are searching for...

Hardworking snails

2008-08-21T10:20:00.009+05:30

Image from The Telegraph, UK

Life has been tough. Travelling for 110 years and just covering around 88 feet or 27 painstaking metres. But this is what a snail recently discovered in Britain did. Papillifera papillaris, a type of Italian snail, arrived in England towards the end of the 19th century. They were brought in on a stone balustrade imported from Rome to the Cliveden Estate in Buckinghamshire, England. It crawled its way through to the fountain in the gardens where it was found by people who were cleaning statues in the garden of the mansion, which today is a hotel. Named the "Cliveden snail", it now lives in a colony of its own. Jane Ridout Sharpe, a snail expert, helped to identify the tiny creature, several 100 of which roost in the fountain's cracks and carved details. It first came here in 1896 and is commonly found in the Mediterranean often found snoozing in old buildings.

New Species: Brand new bird

2008-08-20T15:30:00.011+05:30

Image from Reuters

A Smithsonian Institution team of researchers have found a new bird species by accident in the jungles of Gabon, a small country in Africa. The team visited the forests as part of a biodiversity project and finding undiscovered birds was definitely not part of it. They have named the little bird, the Olive Backed Forest Robin, and specify that the males have a fiery orange throat and breast, a yellow belly and an olive back with black feathers on his head. Vibrant would be an understatement for him!As the Smithsonian ornithologist Brian Schmidt said, it is a reminder "that the world still holds surprises for us."

Henry the tuatara

2008-08-20T15:24:00.010+05:30

Image from Wikipedia

Have you heard of a tuatara? Well I hadn’t. It is apparently a lizard like creature, which has descended from dinosaurs and currently only a handful of them live in some of New Zealand’s islands. The word “tuatara” is derived from the Maori word meaning “spiny back” and in Maori legend they are messengers of Whiro the god of death and disaster. Henry the tuatara is in the news for a sudden shoot in his libido after showing absolutely no interest in females for the past 100 years! But at 110 Henry is just reaching middle age and has got another century ahead of him to expand his population, which will be vital to their numbers.

Baby sea turtles

2008-08-20T15:16:00.009+05:30

Image from Wikipedia

I found this damn cute - About 60 baby turtles on a beach in Calabria, Italy lost their way and marched straight into a restaurant! They ended up startling patrons and raising the curiosity of many by crawling under tables until they were released back into the sea. Baby sea turtles complete a ritual passage of going to the sea upon being born. Female sea turtles nest on beaches and their offspring follow their instincts and crawl off to the sea after being hatched. These wandering turtles were finally rounded by rescue personnel from WWF and re-routed back to sea.