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All in Animals
Scooter is a 7-year-old hairless Chinese Crested dog with some issues: a shock of unruly gray hair (the “crest”), a tongue that’s always hanging out his little maw, and a pair of hind legs facing the wrong way. Because of all that, Scooter has been crowned this year’s World’s Ugliest Dog. Congrats.
The Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has announced that their red-wolf pair, brought together only last October, have whelped a litter – four boys and two girls.
Orcas – killer whales – are attacking small boats off the Iberian coast in Europe. There's been at least three apparently coordinated (!) attacks in recent weeks, and scientists believe the aggressive behavior is being taught to, or at least copied by, other pods.
Researchers studying chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park have discovered that, as with humans, the meanest chimps enjoy the most success in life. Primate specialists from the University Edinburgh and Duke observed 28 male chimpanzees in the park and found that the greediest, most irascible bullies among them were the most likely to rise in the ranks of social hierarchy
Following in the flight path of Flaco the owl, a peacock escaped from the Bronx Zoo this week and spent the night hanging out in the city, then (unlike Flaco) returned to its confines the following day. As the New York Times reported, rather ominously, “the Fire Department did not confirm reports it had bitten someone.”
The Chester Zoo in England announced the birth of a giant anteater pup this week. The mom, 13-year-old Bliss, and the dad Oso (nine) are first-time parents.
Ya Ya the giant Panda, after twenty years in the Memphis Zoo, is going back to China. This week marked the end of a 20-year loan agreement with the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens, which had loaned Ya Ya to the Tennessee zoo.
Zoe, a new-mom orangutan at the Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia, didn’t know how to breastfeed her newborn. A lactating human zookeeper showed her how. The zookeepers knew Zoe was not was not up to this basic task in 2021 when her first child was born, a baby boy that Zoe would hold at arm’s length, not close enough to feed or bond with. Because Zoe’s own mother had died unexpectedly when she was just nine months old, she never learned these essential skill sets.
Researchers from the University of Western Australia and Japan have plumbed the depths – five miles of depth – to spot and film the deepest fish ever seen. Using a remotely operated submersible in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench not far from Japan, the scientists spied a snailfish at a record-breaking 27,349 feet deep. The species is unknown, but it likely belongs to the genus Pseudoliparis.
Its scientific name (Felis margarita margarita) sounds like a Cinco de Mayo happy-hour special. Its mating cry sounds like a barking dog. Other than that, we don’t know much about the African sand cat, even though it was first described more than 150 years ago.
This week Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo announced the arrival of its newest resident, a five-foot-seven, 108-pound female giraffe. Her mother is 8-year-old Zola, the father is Jawara, 14.
Researchers in the UK have spent hours watching great apes – gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and chimps – spinning on ropes and vines, apparently internationally inducing dizziness. Of course this inspired a study, “Great Apes Reach Momentary Altered Mental States By Spinning,” published in the journal Primates.
It’s a girl. The Metro Richmond Zoo in Moseley, Virginia received a delightful early Christmas present this year: 16 pounds of pygmy hippopotamus. That’s what she weighed at her first neonatal exam, three days after she came into the world on December 6, to Iris and Corwin. The zoo issued the birth announcement on the 22nd and has yet to name the baby girl.
Winners of this year’s Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are in and we think they are in fact funny. The comic possibilities of wildlife tend to fall into set categories. There are the photos of slapstick in progress – a 3-month-old lion cub falling out of a tree, for example, which happens to be this year’s overall winner. “It was probably his first time in a tree and his descent didn't go so well,” said photographer Jennifer Hadley.
Animals that organize in social groups occasionally experience friction, as when competing for food, living space, mates. When conflicts arise between two group members, a third-party intervention can smooth things over to the benefit of all. Pigs appear to be pretty good at conflict mediation.
We’ve known for some time that the Toxoplasma gondii parasite can infect the brains of rodents, forcing them via mind control into fatal encounters with predators. Now scientists have observed that wolves infected with T. gondii are also altering their behavior, in their case by taking more risks.
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, England has introduced a new giraffe to the world, six-foot-tall Wilfred, born on Remembrance Day (Veterans’ Day, across the pond). The new arrival is named after World War I poet Wilfred Owen.
Turns out humans aren’t the only animals who like to bop to a beat. Researchers in Japan played some jams for rats and found that they too like to groove when the song is right. “Rats displayed innate — that is, without any training or prior exposure to music — beat synchronization most distinctly within 120-140 bpm (beats per minute), to which humans also exhibit the clearest beat synchronization,” explained Hirokazu Takahashi from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology.
Ornithorhynchus anatinus is one odd duck. With a tail like a beaver’s, webbed feet, nostrils that can clamp shut for underwater foraging, this egg-laying mammal seeks prey by detecting electrical fields using receptors on their bills. Having no nipples doesn’t stop them from nursing their young, which feed through pores in mama’s skin.
A barred owl in Hansville, Washington has a territorial feud ongoing with a local woman. The aggressive bird has attacked her twice – silent swoops from above that result in painful smacks to the back of her head – and biologists say such avian sorties will become more common.
