Category Archives: Animals

Finding fangs: new film exposes illicit trade killing off Bolivia’s iconic jaguar

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Undercover documentary investigates the trafficking of Latin America’s big cat to meet demand in China

Elizabeth Unger was a 25-year-old biology graduate working as a PhD research assistant for big cat and climate projects in Latin America when she heard about the Bolivian authorities intercepting dozens of packages containing jaguar fangs sent by Chinese citizens to addresses in China.

“I was really blown away as [the story] was completely under the radar,” she says. Six years later, she is making her directorial debut with a film about the trade, which is contributing to a decline in the population of Latin America’s iconic big cat.

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Hello possum: the New Zealanders keeping invasive marsupials as pets

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The animals have a bad reputation in Aotearoa, where they are regarded as pests – but some say they are scapegoated for human failures

Maurice likes to stay up all night. When he finally settles down at 5am, he makes sure everyone knows he’s there – then he curls up and sleeps all day.

“When he’s ready to go to bed, he gives us a good face wash to say ‘hi,’” Jo Little* says, laughing. “He’s got really, really cold feet, and he puts them all over your head. He licks every area of your face!”

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Australian researchers discover why only two of echidna’s four penis heads become erect at one time

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The major blood vessel of the penis splits into two main branches which each supply two of the four penile heads

The penis of an echidna has four heads but only two become erect at any one time. Now, Australian researchers have uncovered why.

Scientists discovered the marsupial has unusual reproductive anatomy that causes male echidnas to ejaculate from only two of their four penile heads at one time.

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There’s a bear in there: animal gets stuck up Arizona power pole – video

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A bear in southern Arizona caused a brief power outage after it climbed up a power pole and became stuck. The utility company in the city of Willcox was notified a bear had become tangled in power lines, and workers quickly disabled the power. The linemen then climbed into a bucket lift to coax the animal down with a fibreglass stick, before the bear eventually went down on its own and retreated to the desert. It is the second time in a month a bear in the state has climbed a power pole

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‘I fell in the water, but it was worth it!’: Guardian readers on their most extraordinary bird photographs

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From friendly Antarctic penguins to the rainbow plumage of a Colombian hummingbird, our readers on their favourite images – and the lengths they went to to capture them.

I took this photo at the end of January in Balloch, Scotland. I have always wanted to take a picture of a male mandarin duck. It is the bird that made me want to start taking photographs. They are beautiful, with so many stunning colours. At the end of January, I had heard via Facebook that there was a pair of them up the road from me. I got up early and drove to Balloch. I had all but given up hope, when all of a sudden I saw the bright orange tail feathers of the duck in between some bushes on the river’s edge. I had to lean on a tree that was in the water to take the pictures. I then fell into the water and tore my trousers, but it was worth it. Paul Fraser, 36, freshwater biologist, Callander, Scotland

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British woman in coma after twin fights off crocodile in Mexico

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Sister punched crocodile in head after it attacked in a lagoon where they had been swimming

A British woman is in a medically induced coma in Mexico after she was attacked by a crocodile in a lagoon where she and her twin sister had been taken by a tour guide.

Melissa and Georgia Laurie, 28, from Berkshire, had been swimming in the lagoon, about 10 miles from Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, on the south-east coast of the country, when Melissa was attacked.

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‘Birds are here for everyone’: how Black birdwatchers are finding a community

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In a 2011 study by the Fish and Wildlife Service, 93% of birders surveyed were white while just 4% were Black

“This is my form of therapy,” says Mariana Winnik, a third-grade teacher and avid birdwatcher from Brooklyn. Wearing a T-shirt with illustrations of birds and wielding a pair of binoculars and a trusty bird identification app, Winnik makes her way through north Central Park, on a mid-morning Saturday walk led by Christian Cooper.

Cooper says he doesn’t usually lead bird walks because of the responsibility that comes with it. “I feel awful if we go out and we don’t see a lot of good birds,” he says.

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Herd of elephants trekking through China take a nap – video

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One of nine drones tracking a herd of elephants crossing through China’s south-western Yunnan province has filmed them taking a rest. All but one baby elephant can be seen lying flat out on the ground asleep. Last week, images of the herd of 15 Asian elephants walking through a residential area appeared on social media and sparked intense media interest. Chinese authorities dispatched a taskforce to track them. State TV has spent days following their every footstep

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We are running out of time to reach deal to save natural world, says UN talks chair

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Warning comes amid fears of further delays to Kunming summit, which aims to agree on curbing destruction of ecosystems

The world is running out of time to reach an ambitious deal to stem the destruction of the natural world, the co-chair of negotiations for a crucial UN wildlife summit has warned, amid fears of a third delay to the talks.

Negotiators are scheduled to meet in Kunming, China, in October for Cop15, the biggest biodiversity summit in a decade, to reach a hoped-for Paris-style agreement on preventing wildlife extinctions and the human-driven destruction of the planet’s ecosystems.

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The pig whisperer: the Dutch farmer who wants to end factory farming

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A unique ‘pig toilet’ and a diet of organic leftovers are part of former vet Kees Scheepens’ plans to put animal welfare and sustainability first

“Oma, hoi! Hier! Hallooo,” Dr Kees Scheepens, a Dutch farmer known as the “pig whisperer”, is calling his two oldest pigs for some apricot snacks.

Oma or “granny”, a seven-year-old sow, lives with a Berkshire boar called Borough, who’s nine, off a quiet lane in the town of Oirschot, in the south of the Netherlands, on a farm called Hemelrijken – Dutch for “the realms of heaven”.

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‘Alice the rat was so special’: readers on their brilliant, beloved pet tattoos

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During the pandemic, every pet became an emotional support animal – and many people decided they wanted to commemorate them indelibly and incredibly

Alice was a double rex rat we adopted from the local RSPCA. She was such a special girl and we had a great bond, so she was the natural choice for my first tattoo. Sadly, Alice died earlier this year, so I’m getting a second tattoo in tribute in a couple of weeks, on the spot where she loved to sit.
Sarah, student, Greater Manchester

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Excited, pursuing bear: Florida officials seek unusual urban visitor

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Sightings of black bear continue but state wildlife officials unsuccessful in attempts to trap and relocate it

In a summer’s tale to enthrall inhabitants of the south-western Florida city of Naples, a black bear seen wandering around downtown eluded wildlife officials – even as sightings of the animal continued.

Police said the bear was first spotted in the city on Friday, near 12th Avenue South and 6th Street South. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to trap the bear in hopes of relocating it, the Naples Daily News reported.

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Magawa the mine-sniffing rat in Cambodia retires – video

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Magawa, an African giant pouched rat is retiring from his job sniffing out landmines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia after five years. 'Although still in good health, he has reached a retirement age and is clearly starting to slow down. It is time,' said Apopo, the Belgian nonprofit that trained him

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Frightened terns abandon 3,000 eggs after drone illegally crashes on beach

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Departure marks one of the largest-scale abandonments of eggs ever at coastal site north of San Diego

About 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds, a newspaper reported Friday.

Two drones were flown illegally over the Bolsa Chica ecological reserve in Huntington Beach in May and one of them went down in the wetlands, the Orange County Register said.

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Escaped elephants wreak havoc in south-west China – video report

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A herd of 15 elephants have caused destruction in south-west China, including eating fields of corn and smashing up barns, after escaping from Xishuangbanna nature reserve in Yunnan province. On Tuesday, Yunnan authorities said the herd was 12 miles from the provincial capital of Kunming, home to millions of people

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Hundreds of fishing fleets that go ‘dark’ suspected of illegal hunting, study finds

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Vessels primarily from China switch off their tracking beacons to evade detection while they engage in possible illegal fishing

Giant distant-water fishing fleets, primarily from China, are switching off their tracking beacons to evade detection while they engage in a possibly illegal hunt for squid and other lucrative species on the very edge of Argentina’s extensive fishing grounds, according to a new study by Oceana, an international NGO dedicated to ocean conservation.

Every year, vessels crowd together along the limits of Argentina’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to take advantage of the lucrative fishing grounds.

Related: Cat and mouse on the high seas: on the trail of China's vast squid fleet

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Escaped elephants leave 500km trail of destruction in China

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Wild herd has wrecked barns and munched its way through fields of crops after absconding from nature reserve in April

A herd of 15 elephants have caused destruction in south-western China, including eating whole fields of corn and smashing up barns, after escaping from a nature reserve in April.

Measures taken to keep migrating #elephants away from residential zones in #Yunnan.
#云南 #野象“旅行团”近日一路北迁，有关部门采取措施全力防范象群迁徙带来的公共安全隐患，确保人象安全。
by 吴歌 via CGTN pic.twitter.com/DDfH26nY2b

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‘A kind of rat with thorns’: the comic book busting myths about the Madras hedgehog

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The elusive nocturnal creature is rarely seen in Tamil Nadu. One ecologist has made it his mission to spread the word through colourful adventures

The brightly coloured panels of Brawin Kumar’s comic book tell the story of how two children rescue a hedgehog from an unlicensed medicine man. The mother hedgehog is delighted to be reunited with her little one, as she has lost most of her offspring to road traffic.

Kumar, an Indian researcher and ecologist, came up with the idea of writing the book in Tamil to create awareness among children who live in and around the Madras hedgehog’s habitat. Many of those children will never have seen the nocturnal creature, which, unlike the British hedgehog, aestivates (lies in a state of torpor or dormancy) in the summer instead of hibernating in the winter.

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