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All in Animal Welfare
A rancher in Montana illegally used tissue and testicles from wild sheep to breed “giant” hybrids, which he planned to sell to private hunting grounds in Texas and Minnesota, where they would have been slaughtered by trophy hunters.
Researchers have found that female gibbons sometimes move in ways that look for all the world like dancing. Zoologist Kai Caspar and colleagues have analyzed these stylized movements in a study to be published in the journal Primates (a preprint is available here).
Just a few years ago the population of the Florida grasshopper sparrow, a “critically imperiled” species and the most endangered bird on the continent, was hanging by the thread.
In July, senators from the nation’s largest and smallest states introduced legislation to ban commercial octopus farming in the US and prohibit the import of farmed octopus from elsewhere.
If the pair of hurricanes that just stormed through Florida and environs wasn’t biblical enough, now comes the wildlife – especially alligators. In the storms’ aftermath, humans are coming face to face with displaced gators in the debris and floodwaters.
More than 1000 animals reside in Florida’s ZooTampa at Lowry Park, which happens to be just ten miles from the waterfront. When Hurricane Milton blew through town this week, a dozen brave zoo staff hunkered down with their charges, even as other humans had hightailed it out of the mandatory evacuation zone.
Animal-rescue organizations, big and small, are working overtime in the Southeast as hurricanes disrupt the lives of both humans and their pets. The damage wrought by Hurricane Helene, which tore through inland areas not usually susceptible to big-storm paths, is still being assessed while stranded animals await rescue.
Flash floods in northern Thailand forced more than 100 elephants to evacuate to higher ground, while at least two animals were swept away presumed lost. Dramatic videos and photos released by Elephant Nature Park near Chiang Mai showed panic-stricken elephants wading through flood waters as their human handlers struggled to lead them to safety.
A beaver in Massachusetts has been granted a stay – at a comfy animal shelter – by Governor Maura Healy, who intervened when a court was about to decide whether to exile the little mammal to the wild. The 2-year-old “Nibi” has been in the care of the Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford since it was just a few days old, when it was found alone by a roadside.
There are believed to be only 532 capercaillie – the world’s largest grouse – remaining in the wild in the UK, all of them in Scotland. With the iconic bird on the brink of extinction, conservationists have come up with an “emergency” plan to bolster the population.
New York City is about to try a new approach to tackle its persistent rat problem: using birth control on the prolific rodents instead of poison. Last week the City Council passed a bill to dole out birth-control pills to rats in a pilot program covering 10 city blocks in two neighborhoods.
A guiding principle of the Bird Photographer of the Year contest is “celebrating bird life from around the world,” but this year’s overall winner instead focuses on avian death. Patricia Homonylo’s “When Worlds Collide” depicts thousands of dead birds, victims of building collisions, arranged in concentric circles.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden administration, the Department of the Interior, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service – all because of a lizard barely two inches long.
When the population of vultures in India collapsed in the early 2000s, their absence led to the deaths of some 500,000 people, according to new research published in the American Economic Review.
In places where bat populations have collapsed in the US, infant mortality has gone up. A new study by economist Eyal Frank, appearing in the journal Science, explains the connection.
Hvaldimir, the friendly beluga whale outfitted with a mysterious Russian harness was found dead this week in the harbor of Stavanger, a city in southwestern Norway. Advocacy groups OneWhale and NOAH believe the beloved whale was shot dead, and the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries says it will conduct an autopsy.
The northern bald ibis had been extinct in Central Europe for four centuries, but a dedicated conservation and research group has reintroduced a small population into the wild. The only problem: the birds have no clue how or where to migrate when seasons change, so the humans are teaching them.
Sphen the gentoo penguin has died in Australia, aged 11. He is mourned by his partner, Magic, along with much of the rest of the world, which had celebrated the unusual union since 2018, when the pair met and fell in love at the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium.
The last elephant in South Africa’s national zoo – a 42-year-old named Charley – has been released in the wild after spending 40 years of his life in captivity.
French cinema icon Alain Delon died last week at 88, and he almost brought his beloved dog, Loubo, with him. Delon had wanted the 10-year-old Belgian malinois to be euthanized and buried with him, but fortunately Delon’s surviving family kiboshed the idea.
