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All in Animal Welfare
This week Live Science asks, “Is it safe to give cats milk?” The answer is unequivocal: nope. Kittens start their lives on mother’s milk but most lose the ability to digest lactose as they age. Milk has limited nutritive value, is fatty, and contains phosphates, which are especially hard on cats with kidney issues.
Pine Island, Florida, took a massive hit from Hurricane Ian. The overseers of the Malamu Manu Sanctuary, Will Peratino and partner Lauren Stepp, refused to abandon their island compound, choosing instead to save some 275 parrots (and two lemurs) from a horrible fate.
Bonobos, like humans and other great apes, spend a long time in childhood dependent on their parents. And like humans, when a baby brother or sister bonobo arrives on the scene, there can be friction.
This week Sinogene Biotechnology of Beijing showed off its latest creation, a clone of a Canadian Arctic wolf born to a surrogate beagle mom. The cub, named Maya, was born (if that’s the right term) on June 10. The surrogate mom remains nameless. (Why?)
It’s that time of year when residents of Iceland’s Westman Islands gather thousands of baby puffins and heave them off a cliff. The chicks not only survive the strange annual intervention, it’s crucial to their survival.
Alameda County has banned the rodeo spectacle of “wild cow milking,” in which lactating beef cows are separated from their calves, chased around an arena until roped and tackled into submission, then forcibly milked. The Mercury News calls this barbarism “one of the sport’s more popular local events.”
A grey seal emerged from the sea off the Massachusetts coast and flopped into the seaside town of Beverly. The seal took up residence in the inland Shoe Pond where local authorities failed repeatedly to capture the wayward mammal.
The world’s largest pelicans have survived many threats, but in Albania a planned airport construction could finally do them in. The Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) is listed as ‘near threatened’ by the IUCN.
Prime minister Narendra Modi himself opened the gate to release the new arrivals into their quarantined pen. “Cheetahs have returned to India after decades. There is new energy in India’s wildlife lovers,” the prime minister said. “I am sure that these cheetahs will teach us about our values.”
Three bottlenose dolphins swam to freedom last week after years of confinement and degradation for the amusement of tourists. The three males – Johnny, Rocky and Rambo – were released off the island of Bali in Indonesia.
The rise of the lithium-ion battery has been essential to the tech revolution, as it is a crucial component of smartphones, electrical vehicles, and every electronic gizmo in between. But lithium exacts a harsh price on the environment, from cradle to grave: mining trashes local environments at the point of extraction, a
An enduring and endearing staple of nature shows is the monogamous penguin. The idea that these tuxedo-clad flightless birds mate for life without the occasional affaire de coeur is adorable, but is it true?
Scientists at the far reaches of South America have identified a new bird species, the subantarctic rayadito. The little bird inhabits the Diego Ramírez Archipelago, 62 miles from southern Cape Horn and the southernmost point of the Americas. The discovery is reported in the journal Nature.
Conservationists in Zimbabwe are attempting to be Noah but without the ark. An effort to move thousands of animals – elephants, impalas, giraffes, buffaloes, wildebeest, zebras, elands, lions, and wild dogs – is underway as severe drought threatens this menagerie.
Last week 300 homeless pets from Puerto Rico were flown to a second chance at life in New York and Maine. The Sato Project and Wings of Rescue spirited 165 dogs and 135 cats from the island's overcrowded animal shelters, with a boost from an unlikely source – Tito's Handmade Vodka.
A pair of giant pandas were born this week at the Qinling Panda Research Center in Shaanxi province, southwestern China. The male and female twins are reportedly healthy and definitely adorable.
Why are killer whales attacking sailboats off the European coastline? Scientists pondering this question have no answer, but they do have some wacky theories. This week NPR reported the harrowing tale of a sailing trip off the French coast, in which a father-daughter crew was surrounded and hounded by an unknown number of orcas, ramming their 37-foot boat for a solid 15 minutes.
Japanese researchers have observed a phenomenon that we thought was impossible: a nonhuman animal crying tears of joy. A new study reported in Current Biology this week demonstrated that our canine friends will well up with tears under certain circumstances, and it probably happens more often than we think.
A brown bear got into some hallucinogenic honey in Turkey’s northwestern Duzce province this week. It didn’t go well. The Guardian reported that the female brown bear was found wobbling and whining in the forest, where some good Samaritans rescued her. She had got into some mad honey, or “deli bal” in Turkish, produced by beekeepers who feed their honeymakers a kind of rhododendron nectar that packs a potent neurotoxin.
Scientists from Oregon State University have a (really) big idea. What if we dedicated nearly half a million square kilometers across 11 states to gray wolves and North American beavers? In a paper published in the journal BioScience, the researchers outline a plan to use portions of federal lands to create a contiguous network of wolf and beaver habitats. The plan is about two species, but the knock-on effects would positively affect perhaps hundreds of others.
